Howard Rheingold talks about the coming world of collaboration, participatory media and collective action — and how Wikipedia is really an outgrowth of our natural human instinct to work as a group. As he points out, humans have been banding together to work collectively since our days of hunting mastodons.

About Howard Rheingold

Writer, artist and designer, theorist and community builder, Howard Rheingold is one of the driving minds behind our net-enabled, open, collaborative life. Read full bio »

As Howard Rheingold himself puts it, “I fell into the computer realm from the typewriter dimension, then plugged my computer into my telephone and got sucked into the net.” A writer and designer, he was among the first wave of creative thinkers who saw, in computers and then in the Internet, a way to form powerful new communities.

His 2002 book Smart Mobs, which presaged Web 2.0 in predicting collaborative ventures like Wikipedia, was the outgrowth of decades spent studying and living life online. An early and active member of the Well (he wrote about it in The Virtual Community), he went on to cofound HotWired and Electric Minds, two groundbreaking web communities, in the mid-1990s. Now active in Second Life, he teaches, writes and consults on social networking. His latest passion: teaching and workshopping participatory media literacy, to make sure we all know how to read and make the new media that we’re all creating together.

“With his last book, Smart Mobs, the longtime observer of technology trends made a persuasive case that pervasive mobile communications, combined with always-on Internet connections, will produce new kinds of ad-hoc social groups. Now, he’s starting to take the leap beyond smart mobs, trying to weave some threads out of such seemingly disparate developments as Web logs, open-source software development, and Google.”

BusinessWeek

LESS Silos = MORE Relevance

Our interactive lives started with random behavior thru surfing the web.The random disconnected web then led us to the second major behavioral change which allowed us to search the organized web. We are now entering the third behavioral shift in our interactive behavior pattern, which breaks down the silos of the internet and connects the thread of relevance to us and everything that we do. Now that we have searched and found. We now want our interests to find us thru more relevance and less clutter. Silobreaker is a new tool that follows these foot steps heading into the new dawn of the age of relevance.

From the mouths of SiloBreaker:

“Silobreaker is one of next generation of online search services for news and current events that delivers meaning and relevance beyond traditional search and aggregation engines. Its relational analysis and explanatory graphics provide users with unparalleled contextual insight into the news stories of the day.More than a news aggregator, Silobreaker provides relevance by looking at the data it finds like a person does. It recognises people, companies, topics, places and keywords; understands how they relate to each other in the news flow, and puts them in context for the user. The graphical search results enables users to quickly and easily understand connections, trends and topics or navigate deeper into the most relevant stories for them. No other news search service provides such an extensive suite of contextual tools in the industry today.Silobreaker pulls content on global issues, science, technology and business from approximately 10,000 news, blog, research and multimedia sources. With the engine’s focus on finding and connecting related data in the information flow, Silobreaker’s user tools and visualisations are ideal for bringing meaning to content from either today’s Web or the evolving Semantic Web, or both.”

This is an interesting tool to use and a great example of the silo “less” interactive world we are heading into. A world of open, modular and interconnected platforms. Let us know what you think of Silobreaker. 

I think it is important to find visual tools that help us connect concept and reality. In this talk by Hans Rosling organized by TED we see the importance of understanding our data and the power of data visualization in our ever increasingly complex world. Rosling’s use of data shows us how a picture says a thousand words and explains to us how important it is for information to be shared, accessible, identified and visualized because information on the internet is cumulatively growing. As we move into the semantic thinking web there will be a need for info graphic visual tools to explain the web’s complex data.

I am always thinking about what drives and makes our company and its culture unique, fresh and contemporary, as well as what drives us to grow and flourish. As the CEO of MediaTrust, it is important to me that our organizational culture and technology stay in sync and drive each other as we move forward. Many times visual tools that communicate this concept become important influencers of our companies heart and soul. I think this video from the TED “ideas worth spreading” web site says it all. Inspiring innovation that demonstrates not only the fine line between art and engineering, but the synergy between them as well. This type of work makes me feel passionate and inspired! Innovative work such as this is illustrates how we can approach our industry, our partnerships and our relationships

TEDTalks star Theo Jansen’s talk inspired me to think about the infinite realm of possibilities. I encourage you to watch his presentation us to think about what is possible.

Photosynth is a truly innovative technology that will drive the semantic web (web 3.0). Its architect, Blaise Aguera y Arcas, shows it off in a standing-ovation demo. Using photos of often snapped subjects (like Notre Dame) scraped from around the Web, Photosynth (based on Seadragon technology) creates breathtaking multidimensional spaces with zoom and navigation features that outstrip all expectation. We look forward to seeing how bright minds leverage this amazing technology to provide connections among user generated data sets.

I have been thinking about the future of our daily Online lives and the growing issue of social network fatigue. How do we best optimize our time so that we can participate in the growing universe of horizontal and vertical networks? Technology and communication innovations have allowed us to do 3x more a day than we could do 10 years ago. Now the social web allows us to connect and extend our Online lives in the way we did in our offline lives only a few years ago. The two questions on my mind are “What is the next solution to allow us to participate in multiple networks in a meaningful way?” and “Where do we as human beings hit a wall and run out of consumption bandwidth”?

Let me know what you think. 

DataPortability - Connect, Control, Share, Remix from Smashcut Media on Vimeo.

I have been waiting for this first semantic baby-step. Ever since my first glimpse of the idea of the semantic web or “the thinking web” (a much more elegant term, we need to move away from .0’s), I have believed that this is the ultimate next big step towards what is the real meaning of the “interactive intelligent web”.

Web 2.0 was just a lily-pad that we needed to hop across to accelerate the fragmentation and adoption of interactive media. Social media has pushed us to the point of no return. We now need intelligent technology and tools that enable users to be able to put it back together again in way that allows us to search, find, consume, and share in a new way… To have what we want,  when we want. Mass media is now “Me Media,” clutter free… and here it is after a long anticipated time to Beta. Our first-born semantic baby: Twine. This is a great video piece with Nova Spivack, CEO of Radar Networks demonstrating his new Twine service which intelligently goes way beyond other Web bookmarking and collecting tools. It is unlike anything in existence. It’s about time for the beginning of the next round of true innovation. 

 It’s likely that most of you have seen this already. However, it sheds a humorous light on the bubble-like behavior surrounding our industry. Its worth the look.

Next week MediaTrust will be taking on a pretty big feat at ad:tech New York - broadcasting live! Starting Monday morning we’ll be conducting interviews with thought leaders in the online advertising and marketing space and they’ll be available for anyone to see and hear in real time. How cool is that?

Just ten years ago big media controlled what we heard and saw, especially in the audio/video space. Television networks and radio conglomerates sanitized and watered down content so that it was fit for the masses. Now the technology exists for anyone with a personal computer and something to say to webcast their message online - no matter how niche it may be. Imagine, a worldwide audience could be hearing your message live, delivered to their desktops. The playing field has truly been leveled.

When I tell people about our impending broadcast spectacle, most of them have this ‘you’re-going-to-pull-a-rabbit-out-of-a-hat’ sort of look. While I do enjoy being seen as a media magician, I must confess, it’s not that difficult to do this yourself. Sure, because we have an in-house production arm we’ll be using professional hi-definition cameras and some pro audio gear, but the reality is that anyone with a cheap webcam can do this too. There are several sites that make it very easy including Ustream.tv, Kyte.tv, and Operator11.com. Simply sign up for a free account, configure your preferences and start webcasting. Some of these services will even help promote your event on their homepage if you give them some notice.

I bet that if you look around at your next tradeshow no one will be doing this. Why? If it costs almost nothing to do and has the potential to reach a larger audience, what do you have to lose? I can guarantee one thing - you will get noticed. Tradeshow attendees become numb after awhile to the rows of booths and sales pitches, but by doing something “live” and different, you’ll stand out among your peers.

This approach isn’t limited to business applications. Musicians could be reaching a global audience by performing live online. Colleges and high schools could be showing sports and drama performances on the web to out of town alumni. Towns could be showing city council meetings to interested citizens. The list goes on and on.

I challenge you to head on over to Ustream.tv right now. Sign up for an account and give it a try. I bet you’ve got something to say. If you’re still not convinced, then head over to this website on Monday, November 5th and see how we do it.

Happy webcasting!

Some previous adtech interviews:

Harrison Gevirtz interviews Joseph Matheny, the Chief Technology Officer of MediaTrust at adTech in San Francisco.

Meredith Medland, marketing director for ad:tech interviews David Yovanno, Joseph Matheny and Dana Todd.

TapeFailure is an incredible piece of technology and an indispensable tool for any modern marketer. Not only can it be installed on a website by copying-and-pasting a few lines of code, it allows me to run “usability labs” in real-time with real visitors. By watching the “tapes” it is easy to see where users are getting stuck and where they are fine. This real time feedback is essential for continuously improving the user flow and experience of a website.