MAD Perspectives Blog

I'm off to the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) Show in Las Vegas this week.  This is a nod to the past 10 years of my business life which centered around IT based solutions to simplify digital media creation, management and distribution.  The media industry is ALL about workflows.  There is barely a vendor that doesn't use the term workflow as they describe the functionality of their solution.  Workflow is about integration of various people, resources and tools.  Workflow is about collaboration.  Collaboration requires communication or conversation.

As I head out to NAB I am very interested to see how many of these very traditional media vendors are incorporating social media into their products, workflows and businesses.  I've been able to identify a few vendors who have openly incorporated social media into their marketing efforts.  I'm interested to understand how they might have integrated social media into their workflows. 

My gut instincts tell me that incorporating activity streams within workflow communication can create greater interactivity between workflow personnel who are often in different geographic locations.  I believe that private communities (private due to the proprietary nature of content creation) can spark the creative process. As I speak to vendors at NAB, I'm curious to get their impressions of how social media may change how these workflows function.  Can social media create greater efficiencies and cost savings?  Or is it best left to the marketing gurus?  Stay tuned, I'll let you know what I find out when I'm back from Las Vegas!

What's your perspective?

There is a lot of buzz in social media circles this week since it became known that Forrester Research, Inc. has established a policy prohibiting their analysts from having personally branded blogs that discuss Forrester research.  Forrester CEO, George Colony, has recognized the ability for analysts to build a personal brand (i.e., Jeremiah Owyang) based on their expertise in their market segments.  I don’t want to debate whether this decision is good or bad for analysts or whether this policy is a result of Jeremiah’s departure from Forrester as their leading social media analyst.

What’s more interesting is Forrester’s implementation of a social media policy.  They are not the first, nor should they be the last firm recognizing the power of social media, yet focused on protecting their intellectual property.  The value of any company, be they an analyst firm, services business or product company, lies in their “secret sauce”.  This can be their knowledge, their processes, their technology or their innovation.  It’s not surprising that they want their revenue generating value to remain inside company walls.  So, how do companies become more accessible, more human, and more open while protecting their IP and their brand?

One step they can take is to establish a social media policy.  This should be a core component of your overall social media strategy.  Policy, "a definite course of action adopted for the sake of expediency, facility, etc.”, allows companies to establish guidelines for its employees as to how they will behave or communicate.  Several companies have been very public about their social media policies.  They include:  HP, IBM, Intel, Wells Fargo, Wal-Mart, Mayo Clinic, International Olympic Committee (IOC), and many more.  For visibility into these policies click here.  In many cases, these policies are an extension of existing statements regarding employee conduct.

Many social media pundits have shared their thoughts on the ‘must haves’ for a social media policy.  The primary goal for most social media policies is to remind employees that when they blog or chat on behalf of the company, they are an extension of the company.  They should be transparent about the fact that they are an employee and should remain as professional online as they would be in person when communicating with customers, business partners or competitors. Would you share product roadmaps without a non-disclosure agreement in place?  Would you discuss company financials while online at the supermarket?  A social media policy services as a reminder that while social media can provide great benefits to companies in terms of visibility, transparency, accesibility and marketing, it is a forum with open access by and for anyone.

The social media policy helps the company articulate its goals for using social media.  It provides business units and employees with the guidelines that enable them to take advantage of social media for the benefit of the company. Is your company utilizing social media?  If so, do you have a social media policy?

What’s your perspective?

I feel compelled today to write about the New York Times newspaper.  My thoughts are prompted by announcements from Conde Nast regarding the “death” of Gourmet magazine and People Magazine’s celebration of its 35^th anniversary.  They made me think about what’s happening in the publishing industry. 

The New York Times is a venerated publication that has had a few stumbles in recent years and is part what we generally accept as a dying industry.  The New York Times Company is conglomerate of various daily newspapers (e.g., NY Times, Boston Glob, and International Herald Tribute), related websites (e.g., www.nytimes.com, www.boston.com ) and informational websites (i.e., About.com).  However when we think of the New York Times, I think that most of us think of the newspaper itself.

Newspapers have been our source of insight, information, news and entertainment for over 500 years.  In fact, the advancement of print technology is credited with advancing the democratization of society by providing all classes of people with access to news and information.  It is this idea of democratization that first set off my internal thought process on the similarities between periodicals and social communities.    Let’s compare the New York Times and social networking:

As the New York Times has invested in its online presence, it has become both a destination and a community.  Readers, who have long appreciated the content provided in the newspaper edition, can find that same content online.  The nytimes.com site preserves the look and feel of the print front page, with easy access to the various special interest sections.  Additionally, they can access video interviews with thought leaders and business leaders , interact with tech columnist David Pogue and share articles, videos and opinions with their peers via a plethora of social media platforms.

In fact, this focus on their internet presence should benefit The New York Times.  Per Nielsen, newyorktimes.com attracts 20,118 unique users who spend approximately 31 minutes per use on the site.  This is more than twice the number of readers on any other newspaper site (i.e., USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, etc.).  Their attention to brand, integration of video and leverage of community should help drive incremental revenue.  While the overall revenue to the New York Times Company, from digital, was only 12% in FY08, it is clear that digital is their future.  Just look at their R&D investments.

This is an industry that is well aware of the technological shifts, but they still have a customer base that wants to read the physical product.  They may elect do so due to personal preference, distaste for reading online or lack of internet access.  The New York Times is aware of the shift and is adapting through cost reductions on the print side of the business.  Perhaps they were slow to understand the true impact, but they now walk a fine line between the physical and digital worlds. 

So, don’t write off the newspaper industry.  Perhaps the medium will change, but the information and the community will remain.   They reflect the shifts and challenges facing many enterprise businesses.  Adapt your models.  Adopt new technology.   Acknowledge your community.

What’s your perspective?

Hewlett-Packard is garnishing high praise for its new video conference software:  HP SkyRoom.  HP first announced the software in March 2009 but has demonstrated it at last week's DEMOfall'09.  The collaboration software is designed to enable dispersed teams communicate and share information and 3D images. 

This video collaboration solution incorporates features of HP's Halo telepresence solutions with its Remote Graphics Software.  This allows up to 4 users to see each other and make eye contact while viewing the prsenter's desktop with 2D or 3D igrpahics and full motion viewo.  The software also incorporates instant messaging softawre such as Microsoft Office Communicator or Jabber.

This solution acknowledges the increasing geographic dispersion of work teams and the growing concern regarding travel expenses to bring these teams togehter for face to face collaboration.  SkyRoom enables cost-effective alternative for enabling secure, online collaboration.  the software will be available on all HP Z Workstation platforms effective October 1, 2009, however it may also be purchased as an individual or floating licesne, with pricing starting at $149/single license.  For now, the software is only funtional with other HP Skyroom platforms and only within the  corporate network.

For further technical insights, Tim Wilson has written an excellent review at the Creative Cow.

It is promising to see HP leverage its Halo technology, HP Labs innovation and Workstation leadership to deliver a cost effective solution to enable spontaneous meetings with support for high-definition content which is so valuable for design engineers as well as post-production editors.  This solution takes desktop video conferencing to the next level!

What's your perspective?

I recently attended IBC as mentioned in my blog of Sep 8.  I was curious to understand how this event which focuses on the technology surrounding the broadcast and media industries, would reflect the increasing uses of social computing.  I was surprised to find only a limited presence.

As I meandered through the exhibition, I was looking for indications that vendors recognized the value of the conversation that social media enables.  These vendors clearly understand the power of video and have created, developed and enhanced their abilities to create, manage and distribute all kinds of video content.   This industry, like many others, is all about workflow.  There is a sequence of events that must occur and if that sequence is interrupted there is usually an impact on the outcome - video or storytelling in this case.

There are a variety of platforms that enable the intergration of applications for ingest, store, edit, manage or distribute of a media asset.  These platforms simplify how organizations manage their digital workflows.  There are conversations that accompany the various tasks within these workflows.  Today, most of these discussion occur on the phone or via email.  I wonder if there is an opportunity to utilize social networking tools to facilitate the conversation.

Would project teams using tools such as Adobe After Effects or Apple Final Cut Pro be interested in opening the post-production editing disucssion to the usually dispersed team via a social computing tool (with relevant security models in place)?  Would it be relevant to discuss they myriad of post-production processes?  Could it be useful to track and capture this discussion?  Social media is inclusive.  It allows all community participants to follow and engage in the discussion.  It's a perspective I plan to investigate further.

What's your perspective?