Tonight’s speaker, Colleen Young, founded and sustains the #hcsmca Health Care Social Media Canada weekly twitter chat. And she knows how to develop a successful online community of interest. I first became aware of the #hcsmca Twitter chats a couple years ago when doing a social media audit for a health care client. As I looked around at the various discussions, I discovered that media professionals, policy makers, at least one provincial Minister of Health along with health care communicators were all gravitating to #hcsmca to exchange their views on issues relating to the provision of health care in Canada.
So, I’m very much looking forward to tonight’s session.
N.B. When I checked this morning, there were still eleven open spots for this evening’s Third Tuesday. So, if you’d like to participate, click over to the Third Tuesday meetup site and register to attend tonight’s event. I’ll be hopping on a mid day plane to Toronto so that I can be there in time. And if you see me there, I hope you’ll say hello.
Thank you to our sponsors
I can’t close this post without thanking Third Tuesday’s sponsors - Cision Canada andRogers Communications - who believe in our community and help us to bring speakers not just to Toronto but to Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver as well. Without the sponsors we couldn’t make Third Tuesday a truly Canadian affair. So, thank you to the sponsors of the Third Tuesday 2012-13 season: Cision Canada and Rogers Communications.
We want students to be able to attend
One more thing: Third Tuesday is a great opportunity to hear about the latest developments in social media and to network with business and thought leaders. And we don’t want students to miss out on this opportunity. So, if you are a student and would like to attend, don’t let the admission fee stop you. Simply present your student ID card at the time you sign into Third Tuesday and we’ll refund your admission fee, courtesy of Thornley Fallis.
Rob is a serial entrepreneur. And he will share with us the lessons he has gained from founding two social companies – MyMusic.com and, before that, Overlay.tv. What he has learned about creating something real from the germ of an idea. About building and sustaining community with the people who care about you. About creating a social business – one that listens to what people are saying about it and adjusts its actions and structure to act upon what it hears. About building a team that can create something extraordinary. And about marketing what you’ve created through both social and traditional channels.
In a nutshell, Rob Lane is a smart entrepreneur who has a lot to share and will do that with the Third Tuesday community. If you’re in or near either Ottawa or Toronto, click over to the Third Tuesday Toronto and Third Tuesday Ottawa Meetup sites to get your ticket to hear from and meet Rob Lane.
About MyMusic.com
If you’re like me, music is a constant in your life. We listen actively and passively. It surrounds us. Reflects our experiences, environment and friends. And it’s also all over the place. In books we’ve read. On entertainment Web sites. On an MP3 player. Or a Facebook page. The radio. In magazines. Our contact with music is spread everywhere and we have to go looking in many places to pull it all together.
“MyMusic was founded by three guys who love music but hate mindlessly scouring the web to unearth the best content available. We want all the great music content that we know is out there to come to us. We want it sifted, sorted and filtered so that we get exactly and only the stuff we are interested in. We also want a beautiful way to access all that content, anytime we want, anywhere we are. We couldn’t find anything like that online, so we built MyMusic.
“MyMusic.coms’ mission is “to be a single place where you can go to find, discover and share everything that makes your online music experience fresh, exciting, and uniquely you.”
You can use MyMusic to can save images, videos, music, articles, etc. in “magazines” that reflect your interests. Specific artists. Genres of music. Places where music is played. Your collection of music. Whatever you want. And the site watches what you post so that it can suggest content that matches your interests. The more you post the smarter it gets.
If you’re interested, check out the Thelonious Monk page I made on MyMusic.com. This took me all of 10 minutes from the time I found my first clip to the time I published it. Very user friendly.
Social Media Breakfasts too
One more thing. Rob also gives back to the social media community in another way. He’s the co-founder or Social Media Breakfast Ottawa. Rob and his co-organizers, Ryan Anderson and Simon Chen, have given Ottawa’s social media community an opportunity to meet and hear from smart speakers for the past four years.
Thank you to Third Tuesday’s sponsors
Third Tuesday is supported by great sponsors - Cision Canada and Rogers Communications - who believe in our community and help us to bring speakers not just to Toronto but to Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver as well. Without the sponsors we couldn’t make Third Tuesday a truly Canadian affair. So, thank you to the sponsors of the Third Tuesday 2012-13 season: Cision Canada and Rogers Communications.
You’ve had a busy day at the office, using your mobile phone or tablet pretty much constantly. Then it’s time to rush out the door to your favourite event, like Third Tuesday Toronto. You arrive and you want to check in and begin Tweeting and what do you discover? Your battery is almost dead. So you start searching for an electric outlet and asking your friends if they have the connector you need for your phone or tablet.
Well, that almost happened to me last night at Third Tuesday Toronto#3TYYZ with Julien Smith. But not quite. Because our Third Tuesday sponsor, Rogers Communications was on hand with their charging station to enable me and anyone else at the event to recharge our mobile devices enough to get us through the evening.
So, thank you to Rogers Communications for being a generous sponsor of Third Tuesday and then going even farther and offering us the extra benefit of two staff and equipment to keep us charged and connected.
(Disclosure: Rogers did not ask for this post. And yes, they are a sponsor of Third Tuesday and a sometime client of my firm. And yes, I am a happy Rogers customer – cellphone, tablet, home Internet, home phone, cable TV. Disclosure complete. )
When social media was shiny and new, we talked about it constantly. Every new tool, every new publishing platform, every new social network fascinated by enabling us to reach out, to be heard, to connect with others in a new way, in a way that we couldn’t previously.
Social media gave the people formerly known as the audience a voice. Social media gave us all a means to publish what we thought. Social media gave us all a means to connect 24 hours a day seven days a week, regardless of where we were, with our friends, our family, others who held our interest.
But a few short years later, social media is no longer the new thing. It is a fixture in our lives.
That doesn’t mean that social media has lost its relevance. It’s just that our attention has moved away from the shiny new objects, the new tools, to what they can help us do and how that affects the way that we relate to others and to society.
Julien Smith and Chris Brogan are two smart guys who’ve spent a lot of time considering the interplay of social media and people, communities and organizations. And as they’ve done that they’ve gained insight into how people connect and form meaningful online relationships. They’ve tested their theories through podcasting, blogging, speaking, real-world events, by trying out virtually every means of connecting with others and then examining the effect that they had. Through them, we see that each and every one of us can be heard, can find community, can form relationships, can have impact.
In addition to their online efforts, Julien and Chris shared their insights through their book, Trust Agents, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-seller. In Trust Agents, they examined the interplay of trust, reputation and influence in social media. And Julien travelled to Third Tuesdays across Canada to meet and talk to the community of communicators, marketers, public servants, business people and students who wanted to know more about how to build online community.
A lot has happened in two years. No longer is social media a shiny new thing for techies. Now, it’s mainstream. We’re all creating, sharing and connecting on it. But are we making being as effective as we’d like to be? Are we having the impact we want to have?
Julien and Chris believe that we can have the impact we want to have. And they’ve charted out a formula – the Impact Equation – to guide us in this.
“We’re not writing about Twitter and Facebook and Google plus and interest and path, because who cares? Those things are temporary and they aren’t the things that matter. The people are what matters,” Julien and Chris write. The real focus of The Impact Equation is “about getting a larger audience to see and act upon your ideas and learning how to build a community around that experience to take it all to an even higher level.”
The Impact Equation is something that everyone who participates in social networks or creates and shares content can use. And Julien Smith has tested what he writes about and personally demonstrated that we can have an impact on the world around us.
The Impact Equation could make a real difference in how you approach online community and publishing.
BONUS: Every attendee will receive a copy of The Impact Equation when you check in at the event. So, you not only can hear and meet Julien, you can get your copy of the book personally signed by the author.
Thank you to our sponsors
Third Tuesday is supported by great sponsors - Cision Canada and Rogers Communications - who believe in our community and help us to bring speakers not just to Toronto but to Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver as well. Without the sponsors we couldn’t make Third Tuesday a truly Canadian affair. So, thank you to the sponsors of the Third Tuesday 2012-13 season: Cision Canada and Rogers Communications.
Nora Young is an astute observer of the impact of technology on our lives and relationships. This year, she turned her attention to our penchant to record our actions, feelings and thoughts through social media and connected devices. The result is The Virtual Self, her report on self reporting and its implications.
There was much in Nora’s presentation that caught my attention.
A Watershed moment
“We’re at a watershed moment – a moment when data and information are no longer scarce and created top down, but is becoming ubiquitous and generated bottom up,” she posited. “Our new tools for gathering and sharing data are changing how we see ourselves and the world around us.”
We’re headed to a future where we track more and more about ourelves. Where we are. What we’re doing. How we spend out time. “The statistical minutiae of everyday life.” Nora Young labels this habit “self tracking.” Others term it “self monitoring,” “personal metrics,” “quantified self,” or “personal infomatics.” By whatever name, the trend is exploding as we consciously record data about our actions and state and as other data is captured simply because we are using connected digital devices. The information can be “in the everyday, the banal, the ordinary.” But increasingly, more and more of us are leaving more and more digital tracks that reveal something about ourselves.
Consider, she suggests, that most of us “online are on Facebook. A short few years ago, people talked about this as odd. Why would you want to share the minutiae of your everyday lives, like what you had for lunch. And now, this is normal behaviour for most people who are on the Internet. Not because they are obsessives. Not because they are narcissistic, but because there is a social utility in gathering that information and sharing it.”
And because we are increasingly using digital devices that are “always on, always connected” to the Internet, we do not need to expend much effort or energy to capture this information. It may even be automatically captured without any overt gesture on our part.
Four trends create a digital doppelganger of our world
Nora sees the convergence and interaction of four trends to create a unique moment:
Self-tracking, the data about our actions, preferences, feelings, etc. that we deliberately or passively record
The ability to aggregate the data through applications and search
The introduction of sensors in the environment, the Internet of things; and
Continual access to data via mobile devices.
Together, these trends create a digital doppelganger of the real world around us.
“The digital data that we are generating about our every day lives can and will be used to change the real flesh and blood, bricks and mortar world around us,” she suggests. ”This is both good – thrilling even. But it’s also potentially scary, with some worrisome aspects to it as well.”
“What we are seeing now in embryonic form in our use of apps and social networking is really just the beginning of a bottom up data revolution that will change the next twenty years.”
“Be a data activist.”
“In order for us to get the future that we want, people like us – citizens – need to get involved. We need to claim our power to use our data for good, for positive ends. We need to be ‘data activitists,’ much in the way that we would talk about people being political activists or environmental activists. We need to be activists with respect to this new world of booming data.”
“What we as a society decide are the rules of the game for handling the data that we create will shape the future in profound ways. It will shape whether and how we can use the data in our own lives, how we can use the information that we create to benefit not just ourselves but also our communities.”
Why now? Because huge changes are occurring. And, according to Nora, “it’s precisely when a new communications technology is created that the culture and the social norms of that technology are open to being shaped. It’s at that beginning period that we can our consciousness and our skill to how we consider new technologies and improve what they are used for. Because down the road, there will be a point where it will seem inevitable, where what’s up for grabs now gets shot down. Now is the point at which we need to start talking about these things.”
At the first level, the information can be useful when we capture and share information with people who share our interests. Whether it’s a pointer to the latest book we’ve selected to read or the restaurant we frequent most often, this information can be used as a guide by the people who know and follow us.
At a higher level, however, the data that we create can be aggregated and mined for insight into the total community of which we are part. And at this level, the data can be used to reshape communities. We see an early example of this in the use of real time traffic data by commuters to navigate around congested areas. This tool shapes decisions in real time, decisions that are then immediately recorded and displayed in real time in the resulting changes in traffic flow. It creates a dynamic feedback loop. Imagine this across a complete range of activities and think about the potential for the construction of a digital layer of data on top of our real life activities that enables others to incorporate aggregate patterns, likes, dislikes, behaviour, etc. in reshaping our environment and experience in real time. That’s an awesome vision. And it’s not some far distant science fiction future. It’s something that is being explored right now.
But we need to be digital activists to ensure that the data is used for good and in the way we intend. As digital activists, we must understand and speak out about the privacy implications of these developments. We must insist that the data is used for something beyond corporate ends, for public good (Think Ushahidi.) Are we choosing the tools that reflect our values? (Think Twitter’s assymetrical following vs. Facebook’s forced mutual friending.) And if we’re creating the tools, are we creating something that offers some real value to people and enables people to create meaning in their lives?
Where do you stand?
There is potential for us to shape how the data gathering tools are created and how the data is used. But to do this, we must become data activists.
Think about it. Do you simply go with the flow? Click yes to share your location data? Consciously check your privacy settings on Facebook? Turn off automatic checkins? Are you a data activist?
Over the past two years, she has built a large online following at her blog, Spin Sucks, on Twitter and on Facebook. She is building Spin Sucks Pro as a platform for marketing expertise tailored to the needs of senior executives. She has become a sought-after speaker. She finds time to co-host the Inside PR podcast with Martin Waxman and me. And she manages to hold down a day job as CEO of Arment Dietrich. (Disclosure: Arment Dietrich and Thornley Fallis are business partners.)
With all this on the go, Gini found the time to co-author with Geoff Livingston a book that every contemporary marketer should read: Marketing in the Round, a practical guide to integrating the traditional and new tools of marketing into a coherent, effective whole.
And now, Gini is making the time to be our next speaker at Third Tuesday. She’ll join us on July 24 (Ottawa) and July 25 (Toronto.) Gini offers great insight into marketing in the connected era. Register online to attend Third Tuesday Ottawa or Third Tuesday Toronto to hear and meet her.
Attendees will receive a copy of Marketing in the Round
That’s right. Your admission fee pays for a copy of the book. All attendees will receive a copy of Marketing in the Round. That gives you not just the opportunity to hear Gini speak, but also to meet her and have her personally dedicate and sign your copy of the book.
Thank you to the Sponsors who support Third Tuesday
As you know, Third Tuesday is a community-oriented, volunteer-driven event. And we wouldn’t be able to bring great speakers like Gini Dietrich to Third Tuesdays across the country without the support of some like-minded sponsors. We’ve been lucky to have some great companies step up over the past several years to help us make Third Tuesday happen. Big thanks are due to CNW Group, Rogers Communications, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, Radian6 and Cision Canada for making the 2011/12 Third Tuesday season possible.
Interested in learning more about Gini Dietrich and Marketing in the Round?
Jeremiah Owyang is a true thought leader on social media and its impact on the relationship between corporations and their employees and customers. And Jeremiah Owyang will be the speaker at the next Third Tuesday Toronto.
Jeremiah is an Analyst at the Altimeter Group, whose other principals include founder Charlene Li and Brian Solis. You won’t find a smarter, more social media-savvy group of people anywhere. Altimeter undertakes and publishes open research – they make their research freely available to the world and then count on being engaged by corporations and others interested in taking advantage of their understanding and insight. That’s a bold business model. A model that Altimeter appears to be making work well.
Altimeter’s research is widely read and frequently cited as a source of actionable insight into how social media is being integrated into the enterprise and the best practices that are emerging. Jeremiah regularly posts about the research on his Web Strategy blog, speaks at conferences and publishes his presentations on SlideShare. A sample of his writing and presentations gives a sense of the range and depth of Jeremiah’s thinking:
That’s deep knowledge – shared generously with others who share Jeremiah’s interests.
And now Jeremiah is coming to Toronto share his most recent insights with the Third Tuesday community. And that can include you. If you’re interested in hearing and talking with Jeremiah Owyang, register online to attend the next Third Tuesday Toronto. I hope to see you there.
A taste of Jeremiah: Le Web 2011
Jeremiah is a great speaker. His 2011 Le Web presentation will give you a sense of what to expect when he joins us at Third Tuesday.
Thank you to our sponsors
As you know, Third Tuesday is a community-oriented, volunteer-driven event. And we wouldn’t be able to bring great speakers like Jeremiah Owyang to Third Tuesdays across the country without the support of some like-minded sponsors. We’ve been lucky to have some great companies step up over the past several years to help us make Third Tuesday happen. Big thanks are due to CNW Group, Rogers Communications, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, Radian6 and Cision Canada for making the 2011/12 Third Tuesday season possible.
We want students to be able to attend
Third Tuesday is a great opportunity to hear about the latest developments in social media and to network with business and thought leaders. And we don’t want students to miss out on this opportunity. So, if you are a student and would like to attend, don’t let the admission fee stop you. Simply present your student ID card at the time you sign into Third Tuesday and we’ll refund your admission fee, courtesy of Thornley Fallis.
Social media has changed the way that we connect with our friends, with news and with organizations. It has opened up possibilities that we hadn’t even dreamed of 10 years ago.
Social media has also proven fertile ground for entrepreneurs with ideas. Canada has spawned some great social media companies – Radian6, HootSuite, PostRank,StumbleUpon, Tungle, and more.
Behind every one of these success stories is an entrepreneur who had an idea and the persistence, energy and sheer determination to make it happen.
William Mougayar is the entrepreneur behind not just one, but two social media startups:Eqentia and Engagio. The first of these two startups, Eqentia, is billed as a “vertical news environment.” It enables you to curate the content you care about from a variety of sources across the social Web. The newer company, Engagio, enables you to draw together all of your conversations from different social media into one place.
Less than two months after launch, Engagio has earned positive word of mouth and prominent backers such as Fred Wilson thanks to its simple but compelling proposition.
Developing a successful startup isn’t easy. If it were, we’d all be heading up successful companies. It takes a lot of luck and some smart decisions. But in the era of social, we see more and more of the people around us pursuing their dream, trying their hand at starting up a new business, at making their idea become reality.
So how did William Mougayar do it? You can find out at the next Third Tuesday Toronto #3TYYZ and Third Tuesday Ottawa #3TYOW meetups. William will share his personal journey from idea to beta to seed funding. He’ll tell us about the dark nights of doubt, the highs of the Eureka moments and the grinding work that goes into that success.
This Third Tuesday will be for you whether you are a budding entrepreneur yourself, know some people involved in startups or just wonder as you use your favourite social app, “How did they do that?”
I hope you be able to join us that evening to hear from one of Canada’s true social media entrepreneurs, William Mougayar.
As you know, Third Tuesday is a community-oriented, volunteer-driven event. And we wouldn’t be able to bring great speakers like William Mougayar to Third Tuesdays across the country without the support of some like-minded sponsors. We’ve been lucky to have some great companies step up over the past several years to help us make Third Tuesday happen. Big thanks are due to CNW Group, Rogers Communications, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, Radian6 and Cision Canada for making the 2011/12 Third Tuesday season possible.
Want to know more about William Mougayar and Engagio?
I’ve posted video of Tony Clement‘s Feb. 17 presentation at Third Tuesday Toronto about open government and the use of social media by employees of the Government of Canada. You can see the full video of the substantive part of his presentation below. I’ll post the highlights of the questions and answers separately when I have the time to process and edit the video.
In the meantime, here are the main body of the Minister’s remarks. Enjoy.
Jeff Jarvis launched his new book, Public Parts, in Canada last week at Third Tuesday Toronto #3TYYZ and Third Tuesday Ottawa #3TYOW. Judging from the participant reviews on the third Tuesday websites, Jeff presentation was one of the most popular and well-received presentations in six seasons of third Tuesday.
What people said
Stephen Da Cambra: really enjoyed Jeff’s presentation. It appealed to me directly because of my own struggles with giving up my privacy on the web. Even high-profile guests can ramble on a bit – but Jeff was on point throughout, with enough short divergence to keep it interesting.
Rick Weiss: Jeff Jarvis was great. He’s an engaging speaker and presented a lot of food for thought around privacy in the digital age.
Aggie Fortier: The speaker was very engaging with interesting examples to support his position. More importantly, Jarvis opened the door to discussion on the implications of public versus private. He has raised the bar for future speakers who follow.
Martin Waxman: Jeff Jarvis speaks the way he writes and is entertaining, provocative and insightful. Really enjoyed the talk; looking forward to reading the book.
Dave Fleet: Fascinating subject and a phenomenal speaker. One of the best presentations I’ve been to in a while.
Jim Courtney: Really excellent introduction to and perspective on privacy issues. Loved the stories and historical perspective.
Nigel Newton: Jeff Jarvis is an evangelist for societal change enabled by the net. His generosity of spirit and his belief that we, the users of the net, are capable of respecting the ethics of privacy and public sharing is persuasive. If fear of technology is the primary emotion holding back the natural evolution of the net and its influence on society, then Jeff’s well-crafted perspectives will be a source of courage for the faint-hearted.
Eden Spodek: Jeff Jarvis is a fantastic speaker and I would attend a Third Tuesday anytime he’s invited here – even if he’s not launching a new book. He brings the online privacy discussion to a whole new level and I enjoyed his insights on cultural differences and privacy. I can’t wait to devour Public Parts.
Mark Blevis: Jeff is an engaging and animated speaker. I really enjoyed this event. It was of high caliber. I could have happily listened for another two hours.
Alfred Coates: I really enjoyed how Mr. Jarvis’s message of openness and sharing felt like a mix of opportunity and challenge to those in attendance. Mr. Jarvis speaks with passion and conviction and a healthy dose of humor. I will be reading public parts this weekend and working my way through Buzzmachine in the foreseeable future.
Karen Runtz: While many speakers may be entertaining at the time, what they say won’t stick with you. That’s not the case with Jeff Jarvis. I have his book for reinforcement! No, seriously, I did find his presentation memorable. It brought me in mind of the excitement I felt at a conference some 15 to 20 years ago hearing and Ithaca U prof talk about the changing nature of communications. She was encouraging us to think of our “products” as workable clay, instead of finished polished pieces sent on their way. That resonated with me, just as Jeff’s words about the Internet did last night.
Read all the reviews
That’s just a selection of the rave reviews for Jeff Jarvis’s Public Parts presentation at third Tuesday. If you want to read the full set of reviews, you can find them at the Third Tuesday Ottawa and Third Tuesday Toronto event sites.
We are hoping that Jeff will be able to come back to Canada for third Tuesday Calgary and third Tuesday Vancouver in either January or February. And if you’re in another city and are looking for a great speaker with thought-provoking content, Jeff Jarvis won’t disappoint.
ProPR is authored by Joseph Thornley, CEO of Thornley Fallis and 76design. Thornley Fallis helps companies and organizations build relationships with customers, clients and stakeholders by integrating social media with public relations, creative design and word of mouth communications.
Tonight’s speaker, Colleen Young, founded and sustains the #hcsmca Health Care Social Media Canada weekly twitter chat. And she knows how to develop a successful online community of interest. I first became aware of the #hcsmca Twitter chats a couple years ago when doing a social media audit for a health care client. As I looked around at the various discussions, I discovered that media professionals, policy makers, at least one provincial Minister of Health along with health care communicators were all gravitating to #hcsmca to exchange their views on issues relating to the provision of health care in Canada.
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Now Julien and Chris are back with a new book, 
