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What if?

My brain is still rattling even a week later after hearing the story. Like all life or death stories, this one forces you to ask…

What if…?

What if she didn’t check Facebook at 4 in the morning?

What if the police didn’t arrive on time?

What if social media didn’t exist?

What is she was too afraid to reach out?

Like I said, the story is still reverberating in my head and it’s fitting that my sister, someone trained as a professional nurse, is playing the role of “healthcare provider” but only in a much different capacity than I would have anticipated.

So it begins..

It’s 4 am. My sister just got back from a night out in NYC. Like most nights out in the city, you can expect that there were a few drinks involved. Anyone that’s been out in the city until 4am can understand the way these nights work. By the time you get home, your brain and body are operating on fumes and you can only handle the important tasks. Ordering late night food and checking Facebook.

So you hit the couch, the phone comes out and Facebook opens.

The newsfeed scroll begins…

The first post in the feed is a group picture of some friends from their night out. Five girls, arms wrapped around each other, big smiles and camera poses (3 minutes ago).

The next is a status update. An update that makes you question why you’re on Facebook in the first place because it says something like, “just got home” or “lower east side.” The content of this post doesn’t really matter because it’s a completely useless post. On to the next update (4 minutes ago).

It’s from an old high school acquaintance. I say “acquaintance” because growing up my sister and this girl were “the other girls” to each other. They ran in different groups and said hi to one another on occasion.

The status update.. (I’m using a fake name here.)

“Remember the happy Jane, remember the good times we have shared. I cannot handle the pain any longer. Goodbye. I love you all. Pray for me please. Until we meet again.” (5 minutes ago)

(pause..)

“What the…”

In sheer disbelief and confusion, my sister ran over to her roommate and showed her the update.

“Is this a joke?”

Her roommate, “I don’t know but this is crazy.”

And in that moment my sister went through a series of questions that I think any reasonable person would ask in that situation.

Should I text her? Should I call her? What if something really is wrong? I haven’t seen this girl since high school. Am I overthinking this? It’s a Facebook post, it can’t be serious…can it?

“Fuck it, i’m texting her.”

“Hey Jane, this is Nicole. I just saw your Facebook update. Is everything ok?”

Within a minute, Jane shoots back a text: “Hi Nicole, I’m so glad you reached out to me but it’s too late..”

The events that followed were sudden and decisive…

Nicole and her roommate made one phone call each.

One to Jane and one to 911.

Jane had overdosed on pain killers and left a goodbye note to her friends and family. She also prepared a farewell video and left it on her computer. The police and paramedics made it to her apartment just as she faded out into darkness and became unconscious. When she made it to the ER she was hooked up to a ventilator because she could no longer breathe. Her organs stopped working and she was now fighting for her life.

Sunrise…

It’s hard to know what anyone would do in a situation unless they are faced head on with that choice. In this case, it might have been easy for Nicole and her roommate to go to sleep and brush off the update as a joke, but they made a choice. The text, the phone call, the will to act even at 4am despite having fear of over reacting and being too dramatic because of a little Facebook post.

But overreact they did…

And it helped the paramedics get there on time.

From today’s news:

Facebook Switches Default Setting to Private to Prevent Oversharing

What if…?

What if Facebook made this switch just one week ago and Jane didn’t “over share” her message?

What if Nicole didn’t see the update or take action, or “overreaction” when she saw the message?

According to the doctors and paramedics, Jane’s Facebook wall would have looked something like this upon sunrise.

“R.I.P. Jane”

Instead, Jane has a second chance at life and a newfound appreciation for the kindness and caring of human beings.

Her Facebook header now reads:

“You never know when one kind act or one word of encouragement will change a life forever.”

What if…?

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Facebook F8 Changes Solidifies Social Infrastructure for the Web

This post originally appeared on Forbes.com.

The recent changes announced at Facebook’s F8 conference solidifies their place as the first real social infrastructure for the web and this is very important for a number of reasons. At a high level, it’s important to understand that technology innovations alone are meaningless. What matters is how new technology advances or enhances previously existing technology. People refer to this as a “technology stack.” Consider the time when Benjamin Franklin unveiled electricity. Only until wires were installed across the country were we able to first leverage his invention in new ways. Once we had electricity, people were able to build up the stack and create new devices and technologies on top of one another.

Fast forward a bit to the computer age. Computers came out and made math computations a simple task. Then software came along and made the hardware that much easier to use. Again, building up the stack. Then came the internet which connected computers with one another across the world. Another layer called Google made it even easier to navigate information through this complex network and this changed everything. For the first time people were able to go to a little box and tell a machine exactly what they were looking for and the machine, would in turn, give us the results we were seeking.

And now we have Facebook and their recent changes. This is a company that built its core assets by having people tell them exactly who they are. And yesterday, Facebook made these assets open for the world to leverage – a true social infrastructure on top of the web. This could be equally as important, if not more important than Google. This is also why Google is publicly concerned about Facebook’s growth. Consider the widely popular phrase, “it’s not what you know but who you know.” At a physical level, this saying could be transposed to “It’s not Google, but it’s Facebook.” And there are very real implications here that extend to all facets of our society from news and entertainment to e-commerce and travel. We are at place where third party apps and companies can leverage an already existing infrastructure to build businesses and efficiencies in new ways. This is a new part of the technology stack.

Spotify, the new music service, is the quintessential example of this and it’s probably why Facebook included them as a partner during their F8 event. If you think about how you listen to music you’d realize that you are inherently interested in what your friends are listening to. I’d say 90% of all music I listen to today is a direct result of advice or suggestions I’d be given once upon a time by friends.

These social implications extend to commerce as well. Let’s say you are in the market to buy a new bicycle. And let’s say you read all of the consumer reviews and after compiling thousands of reviews you decide that you are going to buy the Cozmo bike. But now let’s say the night before you make a purchase  you have dinner with friends. And at dinner, you tell them you are going to buy a bike the next morning and your best friend interrupts and says, “I just bought a Rocket bike and it’s awesome. Way better than my crappy Cozmo bike.” In about one second your entire data set gets thrown out the window. Your friend just influenced your buying decision. Today however, these friends are online. And so are bicycle stores. So you can see that real-time purchasing decisions no longer happen in a vacuum as they are influenced by your social network.

This is where the world is going. Spotify and the Cozmo bike story are just two examples of how social connectivity can reshape traditional processes and establishments. We are just at the tip of the iceberg. Real businesses with real societal implications can leverage this social infrastructure in new and meaningful ways. If you are an entrepreneur, this is a very exciting time to be thinking about what the world could look like with a truly connected social ecosystem that has building blocks for you to use.

Game on.

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Value of Engineering to the Entrepreneur

This post originally appeared on Badger Engineers.

My company Spinback was recently acquired by Buddy Media, the largest Facebook Management Company in the world. It’s clear that my four years studying in the Wisconsin College of Engineering has played a role in that acquisition.

At the core, I’d argue that an engineering, math, or science related degree is the single best degree or use of four years in an undergraduate program, especially a program at UW – Madison. In my years in the COE, I obtained a certain skill set that has helped me succeed during and after school, and in the various businesses I was involved with including Spinback. I’m not talking about skills like designing a circuit or solving for a system of equations. I’m talking about the cliché skills we always hear about but disregard as obvious and too abstract for our own benefit.

The skills I’m talking about are teamwork, problem solving, hard work and creativity. In every single class and project that I worked on while at school, each one of these skills was required.  I remember spending many hours with my friends like Steve Weisman (ECE ’08) and David Nosbusch (ECE ’08) poring over class notes and textbooks (and also starting two businesses together while at school). No matter what the content and material, the routine was the same. We studied together, relentlessly discussed the problems together, and used creativity to help solve a solution when we couldn’t find one. In the COE, this is what we were all taught to do. In the real world, these are the skills that have helped me succeed and they are also the same skills that have given me confidence to venture out as an entrepreneur.

Before we were acquired, we were the typical startup. We had raised very little money and had a billion and one things to do. We had to build a product, sell the product to clients, create marketing materials, manage finances, create processes and business workflows, deal with attorneys, and on and on. The reality is I never learned about any one particular topic in school that was applicable to our business. Its not like I took a class called “how to prioritize features” or “how to get a terms sheet from a VC.” I did however learn how to think in a certain way. An analytical thought process that allowed me to break down each component of our business and understand how each component affected the other.  And this is what engineering is all about. It’s about understanding how things work, in order to identify a problem and ultimately solve for that problem.

At Spinback, the problem we were solving was how to help online retailers leverage social media to drive and track new sales. In a short period of time, our solutions called EasyShare and EasyTrack helped us secure over 15 clients in less than two months. We were able to sign up some of the largest online retailers in the world, convince investors to give us money to scale our business, and secure our position as a thought leader in the social commerce space. As a result, we were lucky and fortunate enough to be acquired by one of the fastest growing technology companies of all time.

Looking back, I can recall one very late night in our Union Square office. As we were trying to solidify a sales and marketing strategy one of my partners said, “this is one giant equation that we are solving.”  In that moment I thought about the four years at UW-Engineering and said, “Yes, yes it is.”

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My Company Spinback Is Being Acquired

As the news says, today my partners and I over at Spinback are pleased to announce that we’ve been acquired by Buddy Media, the Facebook management system of choice for eight out of the ten top global advertisers.

When we started Spinback the goal was to build the most cutting edge technology that would facilitate conversations and sharing of products. More importantly, we wanted this technology to also track how word of mouth marketing affects new sales and new customer acquisition.

Now as a part of Buddy Media, we will have  all the tools and infrastructure necessary to accelerate our collective mission which is ultimately about leveraging this new social web in new and interesting ways for leading companies around the world.

We are really excited to begin the next chapter and I’ll leave the rest of the details to Buddy Media.

On to the next one…

UPDATE – Here are a few press releases:

UPDATE – June 14, 2012 – Buddy Media was acquired by Salesforce

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HOW TO: Use twitter to help your organization

Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun...
Image via CrunchBase

People have recently asked me:

“How can I use Twitter to help my organization? I know I need to be on there, but how do I use it? What do I do?”

Answer (3-parts):

  1. Define your organization’s objective
  2. Establish your voice
  3. Build an audience

DEFINE YOUR ORGANIZATION’S OBJECTIVE:

Before you do anything, you first need to define what it is exactly you are trying to accomplish. Are you selling something? A product or service? Are you recruiting or building a team? Are you entertaining for the sake of amusement? Are you informing and educating on a specific topic? Is it a mix or variation of the previously mentioned?

Once you figure out what your ultimate goal is, you can than establish a voice within twitter (or any social networking or media property for that matter) in order to communicate your goals.

ESTABLISH YOUR VOICE:

Now that you have figured out what you want to convey, you need to figure out how you will say it. People use twitter in many different ways, but 3 key examples are:

1. The “What I’m Doing” Method (Real and Random Examples):

  • Tonight…I am going to hit the treadmill. YIKES.
  • Taking a fun, random drive on a warm spring evening.
  • Just had the world famous Bongo Burger Aka Persian Burger. Ohhh yeaaah!
  • Eating with @—– at pf changs
  • At meeting, Fed to weigh options to revive economy (AP) http://cli.gs/PVX3HG #Finance

Unless I personally know who you are, I’m probably going to unfollow you if you tell the world Tonight…I am going to hit the treadmill. YIKES.” I mean, I really could care less if you are going to work off that cheeseburger you just ate for dinner. However, if you for example are someone big in the finance community and tell me “At meeting, Fed to weigh options to revive economy (AP) http://cli.gs/PVX3HG #Finance”, than I probably do care a bit about what you are doing.

Point is, when being personal and communicating in the first person, make sure what you are saying coincides with your goal as an organization.

2. The “Check This Out” Method (Real and Random Examples):

Look at the Twitter name. Look at the update. Very purposeful, very informative, and most importantly, the message ties back to the goal of that organization.

3. The “Conversation” Method (Real and Random Examples):

If I’m going to consider your organization legitimate and beneficial, I’d like to see that you are involved with some other people or organizations that are influential in your space. Demonstrate that you are engaged in your own community or niche market. This method, in conjunction with other twittering tactics, is how you are going to build an audience.

BUILD AN AUDIENCE

Now that you’ve identified what you want to say and how you are going to say it, you need to get together a group of people that will listen to you and hopefully pass along whatever it is you may be saying. You need followers.

If you are starting from ground zero and no followers on twitter:

  1. Head over to Summize.com or http://search.twitter.com/ (same thing).
  2. Type in some keywords that coincide with your organization’s objectives.
  3. Follow the people that are speaking your language and talking about the things you will be talking about. Reach out to them and tell them about your organization.

If you already happen to be on Facebook and want to leverage your existing FB network:

  1. Log in to Facebook and download the Facebook- Twitter application: http://apps.facebook.com/twitter/
  2. Now everyone in your Facebook network will get your Twitter updates.

At the end of the day the best way to learn anything is simply by doing, so if you are looking to create value from Twitter, just head over to to www.twitter.com, create an account, and dive right in.

Some tools that I use to help with Twitter:

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Dear Ambassadors and Respected Representatives of UW-Madison and Education

In the back of my mind I’m always thinking about education and change. Below is an open letter written to some faculty members of my alma-mater about the importance in recognizing that change.

(Before reading this letter, please note that I will be making this letter publicly available on my blog. Also, kindly take note of the recipients.)
To: Chancellor Carolyn Martin – chancellor@news.wisc.edu
To: Provost Julie Underwood – junderwood@wisc.edu
To: Director of Admissions, Steve Amundson – samundson@uwmad.wisc.edu
To: Dean of Students, Lori Berquam – lberquam@odos.wisc.edu
To: Senior Policy and Planning Analyst, Hazel Wade – symonette@bascom.wisc.edu
To: Associate Dean of Students, Argyle Wade – awade@odos.wisc.edu

3/31/2009
Dear Ambassadors and Respected Representatives of UW-Madison and Education,

I am writing to you out of extreme concern for the future well being of my alma-mater and your home, UW-Madison. The admissions process, curriculum structure, and speed to iterate are overwhelmingly frustrating and alarming. The arguments and issues addressed throughout this letter only reflect my first hand experiences, but I firmly believe these issues are far-reaching and not specific to UW. Nevertheless, these issues exist and must be addressed, or at the very least, must be thoroughly considered. By way of introduction, my name is Dan Reich and I am a recent graduate (May 08’) from UW-Madison’s College of Engineering (Electrical). During my four year tenure at UW, I was able to accomplish some great things, including but not limited to:

Additionally, I have a younger brother Jeremy who is currently enrolled in UW’s school of business where he is double majoring in real estate and risk management. I also have a younger sister, who I would like to say is also a legacy, but was recently rejected by the UW admissions office. A sister who admittedly did not score as high as she could have on her SATs, but did have excellent remarks in school, as well as other critical skill sets and experiences (she also attended UW’s summer program). This is an individual who if assessed in relation to her peers, in my objective estimation, is a stronger candidate for success than most. Nevertheless, I believe the admissions process is critically flawed and this belief is not exclusively dependent upon my sister’s recent rejection.

While I believe the admissions process in general could be significantly improved, (which I’m more than happy and eager to discuss with any admissions officer at UW at any point in time), I will start my focus on the issue of networking in light of recent events.

As an individual who is currently working in a digital media and technology startup company specializing in social networks, emerging trends and technologies, I understand the importance of networks. Networks are literally changing the world. We see it happening everyday as companies like Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Etsy, Twitter and others utilize the power of what Mark Zuckerberg calls “elegant organization.” When a single node is affected on a network, those directly tied to that node, piece of information or person also feel a change. The connections are what is most important. So, how does this have any relevance to the admissions process?

UW-Madison, as well as other schools throughout our society, should know this answer better than anyone else. Since 1848, UW has been building a super network of students and alumni. Every year UW graduates about 10,000 students who go on into the working world thus strengthening the badger universe. These are people who are ambassadors to the UW brand and are lifelong members of the network, and additionally each member has numerous other networks that are additive in value to the primary group: what we call Badgers.

Now you might imagine what I was thinking when I heard that my sister was not admitted into UW. A school that had endured not only my sweat, blood and tears, but also that of my brother. A school in which I had given money, time, but most importantly, a tremendous amount of value through conversation and action. So again, when I heard that my sister did not get into UW, you might think my reaction was “Why didn’t she get in?” but instead, my reactions were:

  • Why is the school degrading the network it has worked so hard to build?
  • How do you review applications? Why do you do it that way?
  • Doesn’t the school consider an applicant’s legacy within the school, and more importantly, their track record (I had a 2.5 GPA first semester and graduated with honors)?
  • Why didn’t I get a phone call from the school saying, “Dan, we just wanted to take the time and let you know that your sister did not get into the school?” or “Dan, if you and your sister are willing, we would be more than happy to go over why she wasn’t accepted?”
  • Why would I want to continue to support an entity that I believe has poor judgment?

In one phone call, you could have showed that you still care about your network in a very personal and meaningful way. Instead of strengthening your network, you weakened it.

How do you expect to compete in a rapidly changing world using obsolete methods and practices? Students are beginning to realize getting a “degree” is less valuable than getting practical, real world work experience. They can take courses online and learn what they need to learn with companies like Phoenix, Kaplan, BigThink, Academic Earth and even YouTube. Why spend $500/semester on books when I can get the same information free online? Why would students want to pay full tuition to an accredited university when at the end of the day they are taught linear algebra by a teacher’s assistant that speaks poor English, makes continual mistakes (which were witnessed by a head of department), and has inconsistent grading (this happened to me junior year. That semester I had a 4.0 GPA until given a C by a TA)? Why implement practices that have students cramming for exams instead of using methods enabling true adoption of the material (I wrote a piece about this on my blog entitled, The University of Nothing. This post received over 60 comments from various communities and sites, and the consensus was that current education systems are in trouble. I’m also willing and eager to discuss this point further with any faculty member. In fact, I had this conversation with one of my engineering professors when he asked my opinion on “why the enrollment in engineering was decreasing.” He was giving a presentation to his peers on this very topic).

In any case, this letter is not intended to bad-mouth or criticize current practices at UW. It is however intended to act as a wake-up call. I only and respectfully ask two things:

  • Please reconsider how you value your network and remember that we among the network are all ambassadors to UW-Madison. We are your most valuable asset.
  • Please reconsider how UW-Madison can take the lead and become the most efficient and attractive educational institution of tomorrow. The world is changing and so should you.

Again, I’m happy to speak to anyone and everyone about these issues. Please feel free to leave comments on my blog or send me an email at reich.ny [at] gmail [dot] com. I most welcome a phone call and conversation.

My Very Best Regards,

Dan Reich

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Spend Smart Money with the Smartest Companies in Social Media

(Disclaimer: I currently work for Lotame Solutions).

Let’s face it, the “Social Media” buzz word has been used a bit much these days doing two things:

  1. Validating its importance and relevance in an evolving communications landscape. As the usage statistics for these social sites and platforms continue to grow, the constant referencing of the term “social media” or “social web” will only continue to rise (Warning: The web is becoming social).
  2. Making it extremely difficult for marketers to navigate through the hundreds of “Social Media” marketing solutions. It’s not that there are not too many “social media sites/platforms”, but too many social media marketing solutions. For example, Facebook is a social media site with, as of now, a relatively weak marketing solution given their decision to remain extremely focused on increasing the overall user experience. Lotame and the other companies mentioned in this list do not have social media sites (most mentioned), they have social media marketing solutions. Until the Facebooks and Twitters of the world figure out a coherent marketing solution for advertisers, marketers will continue to need help.

After being immersed in the “Social Media” industry for over a year now and speaking to a wide variety of industry professionals, I’d like to present my list of who I think are the Kings of Social Media marketing (not to be confused with social media sites or platforms). These are companies that have established a necessary product or service capable of delivering cost effective and successful marketing campaigns within “Social Media”, regardless of company size, revenue, public visibility or public relations, funding and support.

(In no particular order…after 1)

1.

Lotame‘s technology called Crowd Control gives marketers, agencies and advertisers the ability to not only reach users that fit their target profile, but also arms marketers with the ability to reach the Influencers. These are the users that are most engaged with the social media platform or website. Additionally, Crowd Control allows agencies to build their own custom audience around specific brands or products, and expose those users to a campaign based on a set amount of time (think 30 second tv commercial) instead of traditional ad serving impressions.

2.buddymedialogo

Buddy Media builds custom branded applications that can be integrated within social media platforms. Instead of trying to monetize the space around a social media site, buddy media creates an environment where users engage with the brand itself. Using their technology called BuddyBrain, Buddy Media can track usage statistics for their clients demonstrating how valuable it is to integrate a brand with a social media application.

3.

AdNectar takes the viral approach to a new level by building light, integrated social campaigns. AdNectar enables marketers with the ability to create their own e-gifts that can be inserted directly into the conversation. Once the brand becomes a part of the conversation, brand awareness increases exponentially as users spread the word by sharing the gifts among their friends.

4.

BzzAgent takes on the word-of-mouth marketing approach. Users voluntarily sign up as BzzAgents in their Frogpond and get first access to new products they demonstrate an interest in.  Since the product is meaningful and relevant to the individual, they are inclined to spread the word amongst their friends. In exchange for getting a first look at new products, the marketers get completed surveys around the product or brand.

5.

LinkedIn POLLS:  LinkedIn has a feature called LinkedIn Polls. This feature is powerful as it enables marketers to ask, in real time, survey questions to a very specific type of audience either based on occupation or their social graph. Since users very specifically declare attributes about their professional life, marketers looking to reach decision makers or executives can do so in an easy interface.

6.

Spongecell takes the traditional IAB ad unit and turns it into a social asset. By integrating social components such as “add to calendar”, “email to friend”, “add to Facebook”, Spongecell helps marketers take a standard creative asset and turn it into a potentially viral element.

7.

OggifFinogi makes User Generated Content available within standard, but flashy and engaging ad units. By dynamically inserting videos into the ad unit, marketers can easily and cost effectively build rich media creatives that can be served as standard IAB ad units. Furthermore, these ad units can open up whereas the user is exposed to a marketer’s micro site or video commercial without having to leave the publishing site.

8.

Clearspring enables marketers to build and virally spread their lightweight widgets across the internet. Marketers can build their widgets through their program called WidgetMedia, and additionally spread and track distribution with their program/product called LaunchPad.

9.

Amplify provides a way for marketers to track the buzz and conversation between users across social media. Although there are many solutions out there that look at keywords and context, Amplify takes it a step further offering sentiment around a particular product or brand.

There are many other great social media marketing solutions out there. What kind of experiences have you had with social media marketing in general?

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Business Cards, Contacts and Services

My social Network on Flickr, Facebook, Twitter...
Image by luc legay via Flickr

The saying goes, “It’s not about what you know, but who you know”.

While I do not completely agree, there is some truth to this saying. Connectedness and networking matters. It matters a lot. The internet has made it easier than ever to enhance your current network of friends, colleagues, or like-minded individuals. Networking can and will increase your chances of success.

The business card, phone number, or email, just doesn’t cut it anymore. As a worker in the knowledge era, you should be leveraging the social internet to the fullest extent. Your personal brand or image is no longer reflected by just your in-person image. It now extends across the web. How are you developing your personal brand or identity?

Consider the following web services and ideas. How could they help increase your networking potential?

Of course, in-person networking matters, and will always be important. I’ll be at AdTech NY today and tomorrow doing just that.

 

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It’s amazing how far we’ve come

A Computer Generated photo of what the Earth w...
Image via Wikipedia

Think about it.

  • A black man may become president of the United States
  • Google and Apple have created devices that are mini movie theaters, maps, newspapers, cameras and so much more
  • I can have conversations with all of my friends at one time via Facebook, Twitter, and Social Media
  • We have power plants that use wind, sun, and the ocean to create energy
  • People have electronic devices installed inside their chest to control their heart rate
  • There is medicine to help people sleep, concentrate, lose weight, and lose pain
  • We can take pictures, in real time, of your brain, bones, muscles, and tissue
  • We can communicate wirelessly from anywhere in the world
  • There are planes that can take paying customers to outer space

I can go on and on.

As the economy begins to slow down, I can’t help but to think about how far we have come and how much further we are going to go.

Recession? Acceleration!

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Web mail and web identity

A few months ago I had a very interesting conversation with one of my friends, who was at the time, working for CBS. He told me that media companies are simply missing the mark when it comes to new media.

Since that time, a lot has change and it is clear that the major media outlets are starting to finally get it. More recently, I had the privilege of meeting an extremely accomplished new/media/political veteran, Greta Van Susteren, and she put forth a great topic of debate.

Facebook vs. Blogs & Email.

I have been on Facebook for the past year, and lately, I’ve found myself only using it for the status feature, birthday notifications, and news feeds. It keeps me indirectly connected to my friends. It is my stock ticker of my social life. My social graph.

And while I have this social graph, an easy way to connect to my friends, I still find myself writing on this blog and using traditional email. Why? Sure I also use Facebook messages, but why not email? How do I choose? What are the benefits?

With Facebook, Google, and MySpace, all beginning new initiatives to be social across the web, a lot of interesting things should arise relating to this idea of web identity. A type of web address and web driver’s license that will aggregate my web presence into one location, one application, or one resource.

I look forward to see who will drive this innovation. In the meantime, we can continue this discussion via Facebook, email, comments below, LinkedIn, twitter, MySpace, Meebo, AIM….and so on….

Fred Wilson has some thoughts on this idea as well…he articulates them better than I do…

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