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Information overload: are you affected by it? How can you better manage it? Are big companies giving us more and better information? How can you determine which information is worthwhile looking at? How to you decrease the noise created by the huge volume of info coming at you everyday?

Photo credit: Mikkel

Information overload is a two-sided problem:

1. The sender does not communicate her message efficiently
2. The receiver is unable to filter the information and evaluate which is the one she really needs

In this brilliant paper Mikkel explains very clearly what information overload is and how it is silently affecting our life.

It does not matter where you were born, which type of religion you belong to or the color of your skin. Mikkel suggests that individuals are just information-driven, they don’t belong to any sociological category when dealing with communication. They should be treated and communicated to only by being highly aware of what specific information they are are looking for.

Here all the details:

Information Overload

In our everyday life we are bombarded with information: advertisements in the mail box, fast paced TV, interviews never lasting more than three minutes, signs and symbols everywhere we go, internet pages, chat sessions, offers to buy this or to do that, and lots of other stuff.

We are overloaded with information: the more input, the more we shut off and become cynical. But ad-people, designers and producers respond by feeding us MORE information!

The reason is that we / they rest in a 300 year old mindset, established and maintained by newspapers: that as much information as possible should be conveyed in as little space as possible. The Latin word omnibus means “everything for everybody” and that old newspaper doctrine shows as a desire to impress through a diversity of features mixed in a big bowl of confusion.

The intention is to show the most products and information, so that each one has a ”scatter-gun”-ish opportunity to reach a target audience: ”Look how exciting I am, here you won’t be bored”. The focusing on features results in everything being emphasized - and therefore that nothing really is!

I call it featureism.

• Featureism is a statement of what the transmitter wants to sell. It’s not a guide for the recipient to find what she wants.
• Featureism is not information. It’s desperation.
• Featureism is to go against our nature. It is to go against the way humans naturally interprets our surroundings.
• Featureism is bad communication and the result is information overload.

But there is another way…

Focused Information

All communication is basically about saying the right thing to the right one at the right time in the right way. The easiest thing in this equation is the external part, finding the target audience, while the hard thing is to handle the internal part: the transmitter:

• ”me”
• ”myself”
• ”I”
• ”we”
• ”us”

The hard part is to shut up. The result, however, is transmitter focus, instead of recipient focus, the result is lost attention and lost market shares.

I know how hard it is, as a transmitter, to focus on the recipient and how easy it is to think of oneself. Besides philosophizing on media, communication and technology, I also (once in a while) design websites. I know the feeling of wanting to sell websites but ALSO sell my ideas (you’re reading some of them now) - because I love both so much and would hate to prioritize between them.

My brain knows that it’s best to split the two areas, but my heart would rather not let go - and the result is that I send mixed signals of who I am and what I do. My customers also know how hard it is to limit oneself - when I create their sites, the hard part isn’t to convince them to try a radical design-idea of mine, but rather to convince them to limit themselves in terms of content. They respond in a slightly desperate tone: ”…but Mikkel, I also do this and that - those things must be included!”

But the customer is NOT always right - and the brochures and websites of even big and famous companies cannot be used as an ideal of well designed communication - to the contrary! The bigger the company is, the worse it’s communication usually is - simply because it isn’t capable of administering and conveying all the information.

Information Tunnels

Focused information often use what I call information tunnels. Communication is focused when it’s precisely adjusted to a certain group of recipients. When a transmitter adjusts a certain message to several groups of recipients, and allow the individual recipient to choose which group she belongs to, the transmitter has created an information tunnel.

Using information tunnels effectively, means that one can divide all recipients in groups - but these doesn’t have to be socio- or demographically based. I believe that dividing people by age or income, or voting pattern, is less important. It’s why they interact with you, their intention, that counts!

To illustrate: all recipients of this very article can be divided into three categories:

1. Those that has found it by curiosity - they are interested in an easy-understandable and entertaining communication.
2. Those that were looking for information on marketing - they want a practical guideline in using the theories.
3. And those recipients that are media- and communication theorists - they desire a scientifically valid communication.

In this case, the recipient’s age or daily-life is of no or little importance, only their intention for reading this: whether they are belonging to 1, 2 or 3.

My claim is that whatever we do, we are not sociologically founded, we are intentionally founded. Key to reaching a recipient is not knowing her age, but what she wants to do. As you see, this article is not an example of information tunnels or focused information (rather it is one of featureism) but this article would have been so, if I had made three of them, each catering to the desires of each of the recipient groups.

For instance, take this example of how to effectively create an information tunnel: On the front page of “www.tag-eksperten.dk” there’s a large picture of a craftsman on a roof, and the explicit text:

”we lay new tile roofs for home owners on Sealand) - specific offer, thorough consultation, a new roof in a league of it’s own, delivered in only four weeks”.

In this way the company’s business, mission, geographic reach and terms of trade are all precisely defined in words and pictures.

At the bottom there are three boxes which might seem like features, but in reality are information tunnels:

• ”Choose tiles”
• ”Calculate price of a new roof”
• ”8 tips on roof renovating”

Thus exists an entrance for those most interested in the looks of their new roof, one for those worried about the price, and one for those with a do-it-yourself attitude. On the other hand, it must be said that the language is the same throughout the website, so in this way it doesn’t abide the principle of information tunnels.

An accepted idea in business communication is integrated communication:

• That all parts of a company ”speaks the same language”
• That communication is stream-lined

Besides this principle being de facto impossible - maybe even undesirable - to realize, it doesn’t influence focused information: integrated communication deals with the company’s communication with, and in relation to, it’s surroundings: what’s to be said. Focused information deals with how it’s to be said.

Focused information is therefore not to change the message, but to vary the delivery and expression, depending on whom the recipient is.

The Trend In Society

Another way to view information overload, is as trend in society. The problem today isn’t obtaining information - the problem is to organize it.

• The history of media started with the invention of writing, which made it possible to convey knowledge across time and space.

• The printing press, with its efficiency and cheapness, made the written knowledge accessible to many.
• The telegraph contributed with a previously impossible speed, resulting in an even greater availability of information.
• The original internet was merely a new form, a technological reincarnation, of the principle.
• Today’s internet, by some called Web 2.0, gives an even greater amount of information, through easy tools for creating, publishing and sharing - this article is an example.

The history of media is thus a single continuous expansion of access to information, now available in enormous quantities - the key word here is quantity. The new is the opposing movement that is awakening: de-selecting quantity and passive reception, to the advantage of quality and active selection. We see it in avoidance of advertisements, traditional media loses readers/viewers, growing numbers even stop watching TV, internet technologies allows customized information channels, etc.

The key word here is quality. For on the one hand, technology increased the availability, but at the same time it has lowered the ”cost of access / entry” and increased individuality. ”Ordinary people” have regained control, in a form of technological democratization. The individual can avoid information overload and increase the amount of relevance in her life.

The New Way Of Living

In everyday life, this reaction to information overload, is seen in a general return to origins, to a lower pace. It shows in an mild increasing interest in spartan ways of living, nudism, and a general “turning inwards”, among other things towards philosophy, religion and emotional health.

The opposite of information overload - silence, emptiness and thoughtfulness - is trendy already: monasteries experience great interest, pilgrimages have returned. The most successful publications are niche-oriented and deals with a narrow subject, or they are dealing with any kind of emotional issue. A symbol of this movement could be Eckhart Tolle: a secretive author that sells millions of books about spirituality.

In the last 20 years, the most talked about, has been that which didn’t strive for being talked about:

• The café that is only discovered though word of mouth
• A membership only obtained through fulfilling secret criteria
• a musician that appears incognito
• A product in limited editions, etc.

All this is a a different kind of quality.

Another result of information overload, is the way we relate to each other. Because a greater part of our time is used on a computer, and as being single, an increasingly greater part of our role models and friendships are found in, and through, the new media. The common theme of almost all currently successful companies and technologies, is the fact that they connect people:

• Auction houses
• File-sharing
• Services
• Chat services
• Dating- and meeting services
• Mobile- and internet services
• MMO-computer games, and so on.

The success of a product or service depends on how many connections it opens. The two major themes that has to be considered in any project, is thus that which is immaterial, and that which connects. The third major theme which I’ll write about in another IDmag, is that which I call The CoCreating Consumer.

You’ve now reached the end of my introduction to information overload, and a couple of my tools and advice on how to avoid it. The rest merely requires you to use your critical sense, a little imagination and some courage.

Good luck!

Mikkel

Photo credits:
All images by Mikkel

Originally written by Mikkel for Design Af Mikkel and first published as “Information Overload: What It Is And You Can Avoid It” on September 18th 2008

About the author

Mikkel is a market expert and web-designer. He focuses his attention on communication techniques and how information should be provided to be as efficient as possible. On his own site Design Af Mikkel he writes: “My philosophy is about balance, about holism. About reaching each other in the best way, about doing it honestly and about having fun along the way.” Mikkel has written some valuable papers about information design and “Information Overload” is one of them.

A new class of powerful, inclusive, popular and engaging events liberated from the straitjacket of space-time by the convergence of usable new media technologies is ushering at your door: X-events are next.

Photo credit: XLucas

But let me explain myself better: Online (and offline) events should not be confined anymore by physical the space-time boundaries of when and where the event actually occurs.

The convergence of new media communication and collaboration technologies like RSS, wikis, blogs, podcasts, discussion forums, as well as social media outlets with more traditional information delivery channels like newsletters or mailing lists offers an opportunity for extremely rich, engaged and dynamic communities to be built around the core track topics and themes of any conference or event.

The best way to explain X-events is to start simple.

Consider for example a physical conference for which a community site is built beforehand and in which participants, lecturers and sponsors start interacting and actively engaging with each other way before the physical event starts.

Think also of an event that while takes place in physical space it is also re-broadcast and made accessible in multiple ways, providing access and different levels of interaction to those attending live as well as to those at a distance.

Imagine the breadth and richness of content options that can be skillfully created out of the many interactions the virtual event communities have been able to generate.

Or the many possible compilations, playlists, and collections of user filtered and edited multimedia content that could be created after the event was over.

It is in the ability to merge and synergize the tremendous potential of new media communication, collaboration and community creation technologies with the attraction and interest generated by a live event guests and key issues that revolutionary communication and marketing potential of X-events really lies.

Here more details:

X-Events Overview

Live events are a great opportunity to market, showcase, demo, present and introduce new ideas, as well as products. But, if you have ever been behind one, you will have realized how complex is the organization of the logistics, and how swift, skilled and prompt the team running the show must be.

Given all this investment in organization, and stuff, how significant would be the additional cost of extending the event fully into virtual space by leveraging, in a synergistic, organic and well planned out fashion all of the most relevant new media technologies to enable a community and an extended conversation to form online around the event.

Consider the infinite number of revenue options that can be born out of commoditizing the conference and creating a hot passionate and lively community that generates all kinds of relevant content around any given theme.

Imagine how fantastic it would be if you could engage your favorite speakers before the actual conference and with your questions and contributions shape the topic and discussions for the live event.

I have played with this idea for the first time back in January 2005, when I wrote this article, “Events Break Out Of The Physical Space-Time Prison. Time-Extended Conversations Are Coming: X-Events“.

Some years have passed but my feelings have not changed.

Actually, I am much more convinced now than I was then of the tremendous benefits and advantages that extended-events could bring to all parties involved.

What are X-Events?

X-events or “extended events” are a yet-to-be-realized form of conference that extends well beyond the physical event boundaries, into time (before, during and after th event) and through multiple media formats.

X-Events are events which are planned and carried out in a continuous experience that merges offline physical events and online conversations.

In other words: x-events are typical conferences, social events or physical gatherings of some kind that extend their lifetime, reach and value by extending their active engagement potential with their participants by intelligently integrating community tools, content delivery and distribution channels, social media marketing, live and asynchronous collaboration tools much before, during and long after the actual event has taken place.

Say you have an international event focusing on “web publishing” taking place a few months from now. Say you have a large international audience of interested participants that will come to the event and a good selected group of speakers who will showcase their know-how at the event.

How could you transform your traditional 2-day conference in an “extended-event” that provides greater engagement and value to participants and presenters as well as providing you with broader and longer visibility, extra opportunities for sponsorship and sales as well as greater opportunities for quality business networking among all stakeholders?

How can a physical conference take best advantage of all the new media communication, collaboration and social media tools to extend its lifespan and engagement reach well beyond the physical event itself while generating an engaged and passionate community around itself?

Here some starting ideas to consider :

1) Before the Event

• Open a blog and a RSS feed for the event and start providing, value-rich information about the event in a periodic, consistent and systematic way.
• Create a story around the preparation for the event and around the people involved in this. Find a key character to narrate the story and keep audience on top the latest happenings.
• Open a forum or a Ning-style interactive community where discussion and relevant issues for the event can take off right now.
• Complement forum topics with a distribute video commenting platform like Seesmic which can allow a forum like experience which is not text-based but video based. Video commenting can be very good for engaging in lively, passionate discussions as well as in brainstorming sessions or analysis/focus groups.
• Inject some social media components allowing the community to contaminate and cross-fertilize itself. Let people discover each other profiles and interests, provide feedback on the most followed discussion items and provide ways for users to contribute relevant pointers and links.
• Integrate a presentation publishing platform like Slideshare for all participants to use, and promote relevant and related presentations to the topics of the event.
• Create a set of manually edited newsradars (topic specific hand-edited news channels gathering best news and stories from all sources out there), generated by moderators or community members and focusing on the very specific themes of the conference itself.
• Market the event by using a mailing list and by developing a meaningful story that builds up momentum up to the X-event launch.

2) During the Event

• Enable a live reporting platform for any qualified participant or media representative who wants to use to report about specific sessions. Tools like CoverItLive provide all of the features an in-session reporter may ever need. Consider opening up a limited number of seats for voluntary official reporters for each session and monetize the sponsorship opportunity they create.
• Support and make it easy for all participants to access live audio and video streaming tools to enable as wide and comprehensive real-time capture of all of the event happenings from as many different viewpoints as possible. From the live sessions to the informal networking in the allies.
• Let participants engage among themselves and with presenters and among themselves during live sessions by creating dedicated Twitter channels and groups for real-time discussion and feedback.
• Utilize also more traditional and well established real-time communication tools like like text chat and IRC channels. These technologies can still go a long way in providing effective real-time conversation back channels for each live presentation in the event.
• Offer the opportunity to premium (paying) participants and/or to the press to sit down and video interview, alongside other prominent news reporters and bloggers the key personalities presenting at the conference.
• Leverage Friendfeed social aggregation capabilities to provide a parallel information distribution channel for key event related personalities and events.
• Create thematic newsradars (topic specific news channels) on the specific topics the conference covers. Newsradars can provide immediate value to an extended event by providing a comprehensive digest of the most relevant news and issues on any topic.
• Provide conferencing spaces for live events to have a parallel venues available to presenters and participants before and after the live session. Also consider modelling live event sessions around the opportunity to be both live and at a distance by engaging and responding appropriately to both audiences. Allow participants to promote and deliver complementary keynotes, panels and sessions in a barcamp-like spirit on a set of virtual stages dedicated to them.
• Hire editors and moderators to create and maintain key wiki guides on every key session / track taking place at the event. Parallel events, other contributions and related sessions, live discussions, related resources and user contributed materials should all be easily reached by maintaining a well organized and always up-to-date set of wiki pages.

3) After the Event

• Keep the conversation going. Maintain open the key most active forums, discussion and conversational areas and aggregate all of the related content into highly focused content channels. Look at it this way: any event, when transformed to an X-event is an opportunity to put in movement a series of mechanisms that can create / generate a number of highly valuable content channels. These shouldn’t be seen as useless and expensive-to-maintain content marketing channels but as ultimate revenue-generating community-driven dynamic communities bonded together by one of the themes / personalities / issues the event has brought forward.
• Develop and design with your most loyal community participants your next year event, starting from the very discussions you have kept open. Let your newly developed communities design your next conference by participating in identifying topics, speakers, events and formats improvements that they want to see happen. What a great way to bond more with an event audience and to crowdsource its insight and desires to improve your offering.
• Showcase all of the event videos and key presentations. Make it easy and simple to access all of this content in a variety of formats: Streaming video, downloadable clip, MP3 audio, text transcription, premium option on DVD with special selected content. Consider utilizing more advanced presentation delivery tools like Instant Vcasmo to allow participants to create synched mashups of live video recordings with the actual slideshow presentations delivered.
• Integrate social conversational components to each content item. Make it easy for people to add comments, tags and to start new discussion threads under each show / presentation. Allow each one performance to become a smaller pivot point for social aggregation, communication and networking.
• Create visual navigable spaces by using tools like Google Maps or Microsoft Photosynth allowing the participants to enhance the discovery of the physical event physical surroundings, hotels, bar, cafes, nearby social venues.
• Facilitate the user-generated creation of image photo-albums about the event. Beyond the typical tag reference, used in these situations, allowing everyone uploading to public image sharing sites to make his pics associated with the event, reward individual participants to create multimedia photo-albums on specific themes and topics by using some of the many great visual story-telling tools like Scrapblog, Smilebox, VMix, OneTrueMedia, Mixercast, Vuvox, Flektor.
• Create user-generated video compilations of the most interesting sessions and topics by making it easy for participants to edit playlists of their video clips. From YouTube playlists to Magnify or Splashcast powerful features, there are a growing number of tools that do just this.

X-Events Key Benefits

If my vision for X-events is correct, these are going to be outstandingly capable marketing, branding and advertising channels, giving extended life to any physical event while hugely increasing its potential audience interaction and profit potential.

Here are some of the immediately apparent benefits that X-events can bring to any company managing, organizing or designing the delivery of live events like typical conferences and seminars:

a) Larger audiences: As participants don’t need to attend on a specific date/time, potential for participation is tremendously increased. Interested parties can access event recordings after the event at their leisure. For physical events this provides a significant extension of the reach and the possibility of scaling the number of participants to at least an order of magnitude.

b) Extension of communication and marketing reach. As a very significantly larger number people can attend, participate, subscribe, listen and attend asynchronously to extended events so does the reach for your message, brand, sponsorship, or product(s). All of the extended channels offer huge opportunities for highly targeted, contextual, non-intrusive marketing opportunities.

c) Greater opportunity for engagement and individual interaction: Participants both in the live event as well as in the extended post-event conversations have more opportunities to engage panelists, experts, speakers and companies/products being mentioned or showcased. Through the use of RSS newsfeeds, wikis, blogs and discussion forums, event tracks can be kept alive for an indefinite time before the event starts and long after the actual event is over. Multiple “vertical-communities” are created offering valuable high profile demographic with specific interests and characteristics.

d) Participatory design and delivery. Yes, grassroots X-event design is here. Who’s going to grab it first? Participants can now become co-creators, contributors, editors, individual re-sellers and publishing houses for any event. If only we allowed them to! Who is to say that events need to designed by a non-transparently elected group of vested-interests representatives? Couldn’t emancipated participants do a better job of it? Sure they could. Who better then them knows what they will want to buy, listen and attend to? Why take the risk of discovering all this at event time?

e) Great ROI, expanded profit, extended sales marketplace. X-events offer great opportunities to hugely increase event profit-margins by extending marketing and sales opportunities, without a need for expensive physical space and hugely expensive event-related logistical costs. The new X-event is grounded on an extended communication framework not on additional costs for physical infrastructures. The X-event enables major cost-savings matched by the potential for much higher quality output when the organizing team is able to fully realize the direct involvement of participants in the design and delivery of the X-event.

f) Greater opportunities for monetization: X-events generate lots of valuable participants attention on specific topics and issues. X-events can also generate huge quantities of valuable content which can be edited, compiled, annotated and packaged for digital delivery in an infinite number of formats. Such content can be monetized in multiple and overlapping ways by, for example:

• Selling web-based conferencing and presentation space to small companies and individuals who want to run parallel extended sessions within the conference framework and official activities
• Providing paid access to private video conferencing rooms a-la OoVoo for media and premium customers wanting to video interview your event key guests
• Providing paid access to high quality (HD) recorded / downloadable sections.
• Selling sponsorship space on all distributed content formats (RSS, wiki, social community, etc.) . This per se encompasses a wide variety of options (see list of channels available to go x after an event, here below).
• Offering paid subscription access to very-narrow content channels including user created topic-specific RSS feeds tapping on all content generated by X-event.
• Creating premium content offerings including case studies, analysis and report data by selecting, aggregating and editing most valuable content extracted from live event.
• Paid access to higher quality, full screen video of live events as well as to individual downloads and video compilations created according to key themes and topics.

Resources Required

X-events are as great an opportunity for engagement, interaction, social and business networking, user-generated content and more as they are challenging and very complex to plan, organize and maintain.

The key issue with X-events is that traditional event organizer are not too familiar with the new conversational marketing philosophy and do not have at their disposal the human resources and skills required to manage such an event.

X-events require many talented individuals with real experience in managing user-generated content, in moderating forums and in motivating communities of interest to engage with the selected issues, and in particular:

1. Having a talented X-event communication strategist. Someone who can aptly envision, plan and coordinate the unfolding of the X-event as an integrated whole.

2. Employing a skilled and experienced editorial team. Creating ongoing discussion topics, news radars, webcasts, interviews and podcasts, blogs, wikis and live chats requires skilled individuals who live and breathe the online world.

3. Selecting tools and technologies that are accessible to everyone. Having communication, presentation and collaboration tools that are both easy-to-use and accessible by all types of Internet users is a critical, essential requirement.

Yes, you read it right. A typical X-event setup is likely going to require a fully dedicated newsroom working to support this many, diverse tasks.

Also for X-events, planning from the very beginning where to go as well as defining well ahead of time they key objectives is, as in most other fields, a safe recipe for probable success.

Editor’s Comments - Conclusion

Traditional events are going to transform themselves into ongoing conversations streams, as popular and successful as the topics and people participating and moderating them, and as credible and authoritative as the depth and value of the conversations they are able to generate.

X-events are a natural, spontaneous evolution of traditional physical events and they are characterized by the effective integration of communication and collaboration media with social community technologies to create an extended and ongoing multiplicity of news as well as lively conversation channels, which can start long before the actual physical event takes place and which can go on indefinitely after it.

X-events offer great benefits in terms of community creation, content generation, engagement and interaction, social and business networking, online visibility, marketing and monetization opportunities, by extending the topics and focus of the physical event into virtual space-time with the use of social, conversational and information-distribution technologies (RSS).

X-events represent the new “engagement marketing” frontier and those who will first master how to design, manage and deliver such rich multimedia experiences will likely be the remembered as the pioneers of a whole new of creating and delivering live events.

Even though most of the tools that would be needed to set-up an effective X-event have been out there for a while now, the true challenge is not only in integrating these into a coherent whole but having individuals who can see this vision and bring it to a plan that is certainly more challenging and complex than bringing together the typical tech conference. But so would be the success and rewards, I believe.

What it takes to make x-events happen, is greater appreciation of such an approach by those who organize and finance events. X-events require organizers to first understand what it takes to start and maintain multiple conversation channels open and alive. They must appreciate the value of creating topic-focused communities that are highly engaged. These are not easy tasks but this is what I set out here for myself to do.

Whether X-events will become more of a reality in 2009 it is hard to say, but given the visibility, engagement and opportunities for monetization that this new extended conferences can bring, it should not be long before we start seeing one we are interested in.

In my next article about X-Events I will look at all of the technologies needed to enable an effective extended event.

Photo credit: Originally re-written, edited, updated and mashed up from previous writings by Robin Good for Master New Media and first published on September 16th 2008 as “Live Events Strategy: Mashing Up Physical Conferences With Online Extended Events - Live Events Become X-Events”

Sending large files is much less of an issue nowadays, thanks to a growing number of web services dedicated just to this, that we have also recently covered. But lo and behold, surprises never end for for us technology explorers: in this issue I have included a cool new service that lets you send files up to 10GB each, along new tools to share documents , hold web conferences and meetings, and more.

Photo credit: Ktsdesign

Here eight new collaboration tools that I have selected for you this week:

1. File Savr: Upload and get a sharing link for all of your files up to 10GB
2. ZohoDocs: Create, edit and share documents of any format online
3. OpenACircle: Meet other people in your private web meeting room
4. PlanZone: Organize your team, assign tasks and manage your projects
5. Zapproved: Let other people approve or deny your ideas
6. BlastGroups: Invite people in a group,start sharing media files and organize events
7. ClearWiki: Create wiki pages for your team at absolutely no cost
8. BigString: Connect to multiple IM account on different networks

Here all the details:

1. File Savr
   
   File Savr is a free and easy service that you can use to send any type of file to other people. With no sign up required, you are able to upload files of any format and up to 10GB of size, and to get a direct public link to them that you can share via IM, email, or any other way in order to allow people to download the file. The service is completely free to use and requires no registration.
   http://www.filesavr.com/
2. ZohoDocs
   
   ZohoDocs is the latest addition of the online Zoho suite, and this one lets you create, edit and share documents of any type on the web. You can create or upload files online, and invite as many people as you want to collaborate with you in real-time: all this without installing and software on your machine. ZohoDocs is completely free to use, and offers you 1GB to store all of your documents.
   http://docs.zoho.com/
3. OpenACircle
   
   OpenACircle is a beta web meeting system that allows you to create your private room where you can meet other people. After you invite people, you can share documents, have video/audio calls, give live presentation sessions, share your screen, and more. Currently in free beta, the service is completely web based.
   http://www.openacircle.com/
4. PlanZone
   
   PlanZone is a new project management solution that lets small and medium businesses organize their on-going projects. You can easily create new projects and invite people to join you in our web based space, where you can create pages, manage activities, and also share files with all the other members of the group. The free trial gives you up to 2 projects, 5 users, and 25MB for your files. Else, you can check the paid versions.
   http://www.planzone.com/
5. Zapproved
   
   Zapproved is a free system that makes it easy for people to approve or deny your ideas. You can write any type of message, to which you can also attach files, and wait for the other people, who will receive an email with two buttons, to approve or deny your proposal. During the approval process, everyone involved can monitor who has read the email and how each person has responded. Free to use during beta phase.
   http://zapproved.com/
6. BlastGroups
   
   BlastGroups is a free service that you can use to create groups of people. Just enter a name and a URL for your group, and you are ready to start: you can share photos (up to 5MB each) and videos (from major sharing sites), organize events, post messages, write blog posts and more. BlastGroups is completely web based and free to use.
   http://www.blastgroups.com/
7. ClearWiki
   
   ClearWiki is a web app that lets you create wiki pages for free. You can create a new wiki for free, which will offer 10 pages, 256MB of storage and the possibility of having up to 10 users, where you can write whatever you want with other people and share files with them. Other versions can be checked here for more users and storage space.
   http://www.clearwiki.com/
8. BigString
   
   BigString is a web based multi-protocol instant messaging application that enables you to log into all of your IM accounts from one single place. You can access your IM accounts from different services (AIM, Google Talk, Yahoo and MSN) and mix your contact lists into a new single one which will include all of your buddies. The service is free to use, with no registration requires, but you can also register to make BigString save your usernames and passwords.
   http://bigstringim.com/

Originally written by Nico Canali De Rossi and Robin Good for Master New Media and first published on September 15th 2008 as “Online Collaboration Technologies - New Tools And Web Services - Sharewood Guide Sept15 08“

Online video to MP3 conversion tools are web-based services designed to easily convert any video file into an MP3 audio-only file format, without requiring you to register or to download or install any software.

Video to MP3 conversion tools generally provide the possibility of uploading your video files to be converted directly from your computer, or, in the case of video already published online, of pointing them by using their specific web address.

Some of these video to audio conversion tools also enable you to output your original selected video to a variety of other audio and video file formats. Conversion features and controls may include bitrate settings, max video file size, resolution and quality.

Here the two basic steps you need to take to convert your selected video clip into an .MP3 audio file:

1. Grab the video URL of the video you wish to convert, or upload it from your local hard drive
2. Click the convert button, and wait for your MP3 file to be processed and ready for download

If you are now convinced of the ease and effectiveness of these video to audio conversion tools, you may want to check this comparison table I have prepared where I have put side by side the differentiating characteristics of the video to audio conversion services I have found on the net.

• Max file size: Indicated in minutes or MegaBytes, the maximum dimensions of the video that will be converted
• YouTube only: Determines whether the service only supports YouTube or even other sharing services (Blip.tv, DailyMotion, Veoh…)
• Hard drive or direct URL upload: Gives you the possibility of uploading a video directly from your PC and/or by providing its direct URL
• Other available formats: Shows if other output formats, rather than MP3 only, are available

Here the comparison table and a full set of small reviews introducing the best video to audio conversion services available online:

Best Online Video To MP3 Conversion Tools and Services - Comparison Table

go to the table!

Online Video To MP3 Conversion Tool List

1. ConvertTube
   
   ConvertTube is an online video converter that you can use to download YouTube video clips in various formats. Without any registration, you just have to copy and paste the video URL, pick between the available formats (mpg, mov, 3gp, flv, mp4 or audio-only-mp3), click convert, and download the file. Completely web-based and free to use.
   http://converttube.com/
2. FLVtoMP3
   
   FLVtoMP3 is a free video conversion system that you can use to convert any FLV file to MP3 audio format. Just paste the URL of the video into the box, or upload it directly from your computer (up to 100MB), and click OK. After a matter of seconds, your new audio file will be ready for you to download. Free to use.
   http://www.flv2mp3.com/
3. Vixy
   
   Vixy is a free web video converter that lets you convert FLV videos to other formats. After you paste the URL of the video (be it YouTube URL or a link to the video file), all you need to do will be to select the output format among AVI, MOV, MP4, 3GP and MP3, click OK, and wait for the video to be converted. You can then download on your machine, without any registration. Free.
   http://www.vixy.net/
4. SoyBe
   
   SoyBe is a YouTube downloading service that lets you provide a URL and get the video converted in various video and audio formats. After you paste the URL, you can decide whether to convert the video in AVI, MOV, MP4, MPEG and MP3-audio-only format, and click the convert button to process and download your new file. Free to use.
   http://www.soybe.com/
5. ListenToYouTube
   
   ListenToYouTube is a free web application that you can use to extract an MP3 file from any YouTube video. To get your audio file, just grab the URL of the video you need, paste it into the box and click go. After a while, your MP3 will be ready for you to download. Free to use, no registration required.
   http://listentoyoutube.com/
6. MovietoMP3
   
   MovietoMP3 is an online service that enables you to get an MP3 file out of any video hosted on a sharing site. Supporting YouTube, MegaVideo, Dailymotion, Metacafe, Veoh, Myspace, Google Video, and more services, it easily lets you convert any video to an audio-only MP3 file, just by pasting its URL and clicking a button. MovietoMP3 is free to use and does not require any sign up procedure.
   http://movietomp3.com/
7. Media Converter
   
   Media Converter is a free file conversion system that you can use to convert any file to any format. You can use to convert videos from major sharing sites, URL, or even from your hard drive to any video/audio format (MP3, WMA, AVI, MOV, MP4) and more. It also lets you customize settings as codecs, quality, size, resolution and more. Free to use, no registration required for files up to 100MB.
   http://mediaconverter.org/
8. CatchVideo
   
   CatchVideo is a free service that anyone can use to download and convert YouTube videos. Just paste the URL of the video into the box, select the output format between mpg, mov, mp4, 3gp, flv, audio-only-Mp3 and wav, and click convert. The video will then be processed, and ready for you to download. Free to use, no registration needed.
   http://catchvideo.net/
9. Mux
   
   Mux is a free video conversion tool, that you can use to convert videos online. You can convert any video from video sharing sites like YouTube, or any video that has a public URL(Avi, Mov, Wmv, Mpg…), into other major formats. All you need to do is paste the URL, select the output format, and wait until your video is converted. Free to use, no registration needed.
   http://mux.am/

Originally written by Nico Canali De Rossi and Robin Good for Master New Media and first published on September 14th 2008 as “Convert Video To Audio: From Online Videos To MP3 - Sharewood Guide“

“The growing complexity of technology and tools for designing learning leaves us at an interesting point: should educators/trainers become technologists? Or should the tools of design become so easy to use that technical skills are minimal? Or do we move the technology to specialized design teams and educators remain the subject matter experts?“(Source: George Siemens)

Photo credit: Stephan Ridgway

School, in most countries I have been to, is still an indoctrination gym where there is yet very little opportunity to learn the key skills a young person may need the most today: effective communication, critical thinking, analysis, source evaluation, game design, media literacy.

But nonetheless I fully realize how bad this educational system really is, my focus is often in looking ahead, at what I am dreaming to build rather than at reforming the institutions that shaped my abilities and leased the most open-minded years of my life. And this is where I should stop to reason a bit more.

Unless you and I take some serious time to stop bitching about our schools and start DOING something that, without trying to revolutionize academia, brings in new ways for learning and sharing knowledge together, things are likely not to get much better.

Like every week, connectivism evangelist and educational technologies expert George Siemens, brings in the most interesting issues, research, and news pointers to the stories and technologies that are drastically changing the way we live, learn and work.

If you like to be a change-agent into shaping how your tomorrow is going to be, this is a good place to start.

Intro by Robin Good

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

Internet Optimists And Pessimists

The sign of a field beginning to mature, in my opinion, is that distinctions and terms become clearly demarcated. At the beginning of any discipline, the details are hardly a point of focus.

Instead, we see a “glob of stuff” as our effort is to understand what the entity is. As a discipline progresses, distinctions begin to emerge. And divisive or even polarizing discussions begin to emerge. As Sayre’s Law states: “In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the stakes at issue“.

To that end, a nice compilation of books advocating optimistic and pessimistic views of the internet.

The Future Of Search

Since about 2005, Google’s continual release of new tools has gained greater attention than its search service. While much innovation in seen in Google Earth, GMail, Google Reader, Gears, etc., searching with Google is a similar experience as it was in 2000.

What are some of the challenges that need to be addressed in web search? A few considerations:

“In the next 10 years, we will see radical advances in modes of search: mobile devices offering us easier search, Internet capabilities deployed in more devices, and different ways of entering and expressing your queries by voice, natural language, picture, or song, just to name a few. It’s clear that while keyword-based searching is incredibly powerful, it’s also incredibly limiting.“

Storytelling 101

Great example of blending presentations with storytelling: Storytelling 101 (via Workplace Learning Today). Lecturers, trainers, presenters, and anyone with a message to share, will find this as a useful guide. Alan Levine’s 50(+) ways to tell a story is another valuable resource.

Multimedia Design

The growing complexity of technology and tools for designing learning leaves us at an interesting point: should educators/trainers become technologists? Or should the tools of design become so easy to use that technical skills are minimal? Or do we move the technology to specialized design teams and educators remain the subject matter experts?

Different institutions answer these questions differently. At University of Manitoba, responsibility for developing content still rests heavily on faculty, with some options for support of complex learning activities or simulations. We’ve used Pachyderm somewhat for faculty to create multimedia learning activities.

Today I came across a fairly new tool Xerte - also open source, but installation on your own server is required. The demonstration I attended was quite informative. The tool looks exceptionally easy to use (the interface was built on a previous scripting-based version directed at programmers), with lots of potential. Creating a simple interactive flash learning activity took a matter of minutes. Looking forward to exploring this tool more.

Twitter and CERN

Today, I had the pleasure of reading about the activation of the Large Hadron Collider on CERN’s Twitter feed. Lovers of Twitter will hail this as significant. And for good reason. It is. It was a fascinating experience watching updates. I guess a bit like people hanging on international news via a telegraph a century ago. But in this case, accessible by everyone.

What If It Really Does All Change?

I have periodic moments - whether delusional or not is too soon to tell - where I’m struck by the enormous potential that many of our most foundational frameworks of society will unravel in the next several decades.

TV has fragmented in the form of YouTube. Newspapers are similarly reduced to single articles read via Google News. And why would someone write a book these days (as I’m in the process of doing)?

Do you ever get the sense that the framework that we now call a book - a cohesive structure of hopefully coherent thought - can be duplicated in a distributed manner online? For example, how is the act of writing a book different from blogging for a few years? All the content of a book is in the experience - but it’s not as coherent as a book and it’s filled with more clutter and tangents. But a book-like framework can be seen to exist.

A unified field theory of publishing in the networked era advocates a similar view:

“The emergence of the web turned this vision of the book of the future as a solid, albeit multimedia object completely upside down and inside out. Multimedia is engaging, especially in a format that encourages reflection, but locating discourse inside of a dynamic network promises even more profound changes“.

For The Brain, Remembering Is Like Reliving

Scientists have managed to record individual brain cells processing/accessing memories: For the Brain, Remembering Is Like Reliving.

Main point: remembering is very similar to doing. Similar patterns of activation exist on recall as they do during the completion of the activity that is being recorded.

Educators obviously know this in theory: want a student to remember something? Get them to do something - interact, build, create. Still, it’s intriguing to see the continual developments in understanding (and having evidence for) how our brains work. We’ll continue to see much more of this.

Do You Challenge Queue-Jumpers and Line-Cutters?

What does research on our reactions to people who cut in line have to do with online learning. Very little (unless you want to push things a bit and ask how our reactions to rude behaviour differ in online or face-to-face environments). However, it’s interesting to note that we spend about 4 years of our lives standing in line… if you travel, I’m guessing it’s much more.

The meekness of responses to cutting in line seems quite surprising - Do You Challenge Queue-Jumpers and Line-Cutters?

Social Networking In Higher Education

Social networking is still part of the hype cycle of educational technology tools. And for good reason. Involvement in a network can be a surprising waste of time… and a surprisingly effective way to learn.

Social Networking in higher education looks at various common tools like Facebook and Twitter, and concludes “We’re incredibly excited about the things we can do in online and distance education with social networking…”

As is often the case, the real story is where the action isn’t. It’s where the action will be. And I see that as the methods and approaches that we use to design curriculum, education, and our institutions. How long do we explore new tools and concepts until we are forced to consider the very spaces in which they occur?

The Dominance Of The Elite?

Gerry McGovern writes: “Web 2.0 is part of the shift away from the dominance of the elite to the innovation of the collective.”

The statement is accurate in principle but false in practice. People still like to be individuals. Sites like wearesmarter.org (remember the vision of hundreds of academics writing a textbook together? Yeah, well, that kinda bombed) indicate the value of individuality.

There is enormous value in building on the work of others, in creating together. But the experience has to preserve the individual. The collective is not a space of innovation. Individuals who are networked and building on each others idea is what drives innovation.

The collective can enact the innovation, but not create it.

Web 2.0 and Emerging Learning Technologies

I was sure I had mentioned this project before - Web 2.0 and Emerging Learning Technologies. However, I can’t find record of it. So, rather than ignore this valuable resource (put together by Curt Bonk and a global group), I’ll risk linking more than once :).

The last year has brought about a tremendous surge in interest in emerging technologies. I don’t fully understand why. What’s different this year than in the previous 8? Oh well, whatever it is, resources like the one listed above will become increasingly valuable as more educators discover the opportunities of extending interaction and content creation to the network.

Photo credits:
Internet Optimists And Pessimists - Zach
The Future Of Search - Google
Multimedia Design - The University of Nottingham
What If It Really Does All Change? - Dzmitry Stankevich
For The Brain, Remembering Is Like Reliving - Marc Dietrich
Do You Challenge Queue-Jumpers and Line-Cutters? - Tom Mc Nemar
Social Networking In Higher Education - Marc Dietrich
The Dominance Of The Elite? - topalov
Web 2.0 and Emerging Learning Technologies - WELT

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on September 11th 2008 as weekly email digest on eLearning Resources and News.

About the author

To learn more about George Siemens and to access extensive information and resources on elearning check out www.elearnspace.org. Explore also George Siemens connectivism site for resources on the changing nature of learning and check out his new book “Knowing Knowledge“.

As 2008 will bring greater focus on professional online publishing for Master New Media, here is the second part of my anticipations and predictions for this new year that has just started.

In this second part:

• Online Collaboration Tools
• Mobile
• Mobile Live Video
• Online Marketing
• P2P
• Conversational Tools - Microblogging
• Widgets
• OpenID
• Off-line Web-based Applications
• X-Events

Here the details:

2008 Media Predictions - Part 2

If you haven’t seen Part 1 yet, check it out here:
New Media Predictions 2008: What Online Independent Publishers Should Expect From The Future - Part 1

Online Collaboration Tools

2007 has been in many ways a record year for online collaboration tools with literally dozens of new tools having joined these fast growing group. Screen-sharing, video-conferencing solutions based on Flash as well as new innovative solutions have been all over the news thrughout 2007. Will it stop? Absolutely not.

You are going to see more real-time and asynchronous collaboration tools entering the space as well as notable innovation from many of the existing players. Screen-sharing will become a standard integrated OS or application integrated feature in an increasing number of cases.

Adobe is one of the key companies now setting the benchmarks in this space nonetheless the broad installation base of WebEx and other enterprise conferencing systems still own the numbers. But Adobe has set a long term strategy for the development of its next line of collaboration tools and characterized by a light footprint, cross-platform compatibility, easy to use and feature-rich approach. Connect and Brio are two brilliant examples of this successful strategy. Adobe is not my sponsor, but when a company does well over and over again, one should have no shame of saying it.

What to expect? I think that if Brio and the last iterations of Connect are any indication, you are in for some serious good surprises from these guys which means easier to use and more effective collaboration tools at your disposal.

Mobile

For online independent publishers, mobile is the next frontier, as more and more people log, search and read news while on the move on their mobile phones and PDAs.

Better integration of monetization and advertising opportunities, as well as more sophisticated tools to easily convert your standard web site in one that can be accessed by any mobile device will show up during 2008.

Cooler than cool a new mobile application will allow you to post to your site or blog using your voice and the images / video you capture on the move. The great thing is that your voice is converted into text and published as written content along your mp3 downloadable podcast.

In 2008 you will also be able to access remotely all of your tools, music, data and multimedia content, while being able to play it back on any television set or computer you will find available. Thanks to tools like Mojopac, Orb, Slingbox and TakeTV you will be able to access all of your tools and music / video content from just about anyhwere.

Mobile Live Video

Yes, I have already written about web tv yesterday in my first part of new media predictions, but live video will be a technological innovation that will affect not only web television channels but a much broader set of application and uses.

While accessible and cost-free live video streaming has been here for a good year now, the ability to stream live video from anywhere you may be without having to open your whole notebook is the new video-casting frontier. Two companies (Wwigo and QIK) have already introduced tools and services that allow anyone to broadcast real-time video from their Nokia cellular phones and in 2008 you should see a breakthrough announcements in this field from some top international brand names.

Online Marketing

SEO and SEM are not enough anymore to do a good, comprehensive job of promoting your content or specific products online. The online marketing mix now requires a great deal more understanding of how Google expects you to publish and architect your content, plus it helps a great deal if you are fully active in using social media destinations and in leveraging the power of social networks.

In 2008, I expect a new wave of services and tools that can help you simplify and manage more efficiently all of these chores. From pushing your new content to the best most relevant social media destinations for your target audience (Digg, Reddit, Sphinxx, Delicious, etc.), to creating your own mini network of supporters and fans that will proactively help you give visibility to it.

It is likely that you may see also the expansion and diversification of borderline services like Subvert and Profit which have aggregated a large team of individuals to push, for a price, selected content on major social media destinations like Digg and YouTube. As you may have learned recently from Techcrunch, getting video clips to get viral is not really a matter of having a particular talent at shooting video but rather the consequence of a very well orchestrated operation borderline marketing in which ethics and rules get easily subverted to achieve phenomenal popularity in the arc of a few days.

APML is coming and with it a possible wonderful and pretty scary innovations. As advertising is here to stay on the web, wouldn’t be better if the ads you saw were tailor-made to your interests?

Think of this as the next step forward from the AdSense contextual advertising you can see appearing in this article. Contextual advertising services such as Google Adsense attempt to serve relevant advertising based on the content of the article that they appear in. As such, you have a greater chance of seeing ads that will appeal to your tastes than you might through mainstream, mass media advertising, which simply sends out the same message almost regardless of context, and hopes that some small percentage of viewers will be interested.

If the APML standard takes hold, however, content providers and advertisers will have a much better chance to serve you with relevant information, so that ads become useful rather than something that interrupts what you came to see in the first place.

P2P

2008 is going to be the year for P2P to take the front stage for publishing and sharing contents in ways that need not be underground or illegal in any way. Radio, film and video distribution, and to a large degree live television can so greatly benefit from P2P distribution approaches that further delaying the understanding of the key benefits P2P can bring must the highest priority for any commercial television.

Beyond Joost, Babelgum and Hulu there is a yet uncovered world of classic mainstream television channels which haven’t seen yet the light of the day on the Internet. Why? There is no good reason for this. Only ignorance.

Zattoo and Livestation seem among the few ones so far to have sniffed the meal asvia what should be called P2PTV major broadcasters and TV networks can not only reach a much broader public without needing extra expensive broadcasting hardware and without needing to give up any of their advertising or sponsorship components, but they can also track and monitor with much greater accuracy what viewers are really watching.

P2P has many things going in its favour, but more than other innovative new media technologies it may best represent the tip of iceberg of a deep paradigm change we are not ready to dive into just yet. I invite you to look at the fascinating ideas of P2P as a way of living that Michel Bauwens and his network have been bringing forward. This is the stuff we should be looking into, and if you want to be really innovative while helping others tangibly to create a vision for the future Michel Bauwens may be the best lecturer to invite at your next media related conference.

Conversational Tools - Microblogging

If you haven’t yet given yourself the treat of using a microblogging tool, now is the time. Tumblr, Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku and many others offers the simplest interface and command set for any online publishing tool you may have encountered so far, while providing you with a truly effective way of shooting out rapid fire news, information, call for action, updates and even personal stuff for your friends, if that’s all you care about communicating.

In 2008, some microblogging tools will start to integrate audio and video functionalities using an approach similar to Seesmic, the new still in Beta service which allows individuals to shoot out short video messages while forming their own personalized social network.

On this front there is still a lot to go, but it appears evident to me that these tools are absolutely powerful and hugely powerful radars to allow you to stay in touch with hundreds of unique sources at once as well as providing a great publishing assets for any serious online blogger, trainer or independent reporter.

Microblogging tools have moved the online conversation paradigm a step further beyond blog comments. They are still a bit rough around the corners, offering little control over “grading” the incoming sources and news in different ways, while being able to better categorize and group them according to your needs. The conversational aspect will also need to be refined a lot more before we can gain a true conversational experience even when using these asynchronous tools.

But the above should likely be the innovative areas in which these tools will be making their next steps during 2008.

Widgets

This is the dream of any online publisher. Write once and publish your content to multiple media outlets at once. And thanks to RSS, the steady growth of widget use, the recent introduction of Open Social and of cross-media publishing tools the original dream has been actually surpassed by the reality we have been able to create so far.

Publishing all of your content via one or multiple RSS feeds is one of the strategic keys that allows you to get highly enhanced distribution. But widgets, who are built on RSS, are increasingly a more effective strategy to get extra exposure, visibility and traction while possibly being able also to extract some monetization opportunities from them.

In 2008, look for further innovation and new content publishing tools that allow you and your readers to package and distribute your content in multiple ways. If you want then to make the best of such opportunities, follow these great recommendations from Fred Wilson:

“1 - Microchunk it - Reduce the content to its simplest form.

2 - Free it - Put it out there without walls around it or strings on it.

3 - Syndicate it - Let anyone take it and run with it.

4 - Monetize it - Put the monetization and tracking systems into the microchunk.

Widgets are a syndication tool and a tracking tool. And hopefully they’ll become a monetization tool as well.”

Open ID

How do you love having a tens of different usernames and credentials to log into the different services you have signed up to? OpenID comes to the rescue and in 2008 you should see larger adoption of this new identification standard which is free, non-proprietary and which can be integrated in most any web-based service out there.

While OpenID is largely still in the adoption phase it is becoming increasingly more popular, as big organizations like Microsoft, AOL, Sun and Novell are starting to adopt and support the use of OpenIDs on their web-based services.

This is why if you are an online publisher looking to expand your membership-only services you may want to consider learning more about OpenID and the unique benefits it may bring to your customers and readers

“For businesses, this means a lower cost of password and account management, while drawing new web traffic. OpenID lowers user frustration by letting users have control of their login.

OpenID takes advantage of already existing internet technology and realizes that people are already creating identities for themselves whether it be at their blog, photostream, profile page, etc. With OpenID you can easily transform one of these existing URIs into an account which can be used at sites which support OpenID logins.

As Brad Fitzpatrick (the father of OpenID) said, “Nobody should own this. Nobody’s planning on making any money from this. The goal is to release every part of this under the most liberal licenses possible, so there’s no money or licensing or registering required to play. It benefits the community as a whole if something like this exists, and we’re all a part of the community.”

(Source: OpenID)

Off-line Web-based Applications

Offline web-based applications were in my new media predictions for 2007 as well, but nonetheless the interesting progress made by Socialtext, Zoho and Google Gears on this front, major advances that would allow mainstream adoption of this functionality are yet to come.

Offline web apps represent a new capability for traditional online-only web services which now allow you to go offline and be able keep working until you re-connect next.

In 2008 you will see off-line web apps going mainstream and leveraging this unique feature as a critical competitive selling point to significantly increase their user base.

X-Events

This is an idea whose time may not have come yet but it remains firmly on my radar for what you should start preparing for.

X-Events are events which are planned and carried out in a continuous experience that merges offline physical events and online activities.

The best way to explain this is a physical conference for which a community site is built before hand and in which participants, lecturers and sponsors start interacting and actively engaging with each other way before the physical event starts. Nonetheless the core event takes place in physical space it is also re-broadcast and made accessible in multiple ways, while numerous forums and post event showcases are set-up after the physical event is over.

A truly eXtended event in these terms would guarantee much greater success to the physical venue, extended exposure and visibility for all commercial partners, much greater opportunities for engagement and social networking for participants as well as an infinitely more capable platform for including presentations and shows from a greater number of people.

Even though most of the tools that would be needed to set-up an effective X-event have been out there for a while now, the true challenge is not only in integrating these into a coherent whole but having individuals who can see this vision and bring it to a plan that is certainly more challenging and complex than the typical tech conference. But so would be the success and rewards, I believe.

Whether X-events will become more of a reality in 2008 it is hard to say, but given the popularity and revenue streams that these conferences can carry I think it is only a matter of time before we see someone starting to properly ride this valuable horse.

end of Part 2

Part 1 : New Media Predictions 2008: What Online Independent Publishers Should Expect From The Future - Part 1

Originally written by Robin Good for Master New Media and first published on January 1st 2008 as New Media Predictions 2008: What Online Independent Publishers Should Expect From The Future - Part 1

""Crowdsourcing" is a neologism for a business model in which a company or institution takes a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsources it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call over the Internet. …In almost every case crowdsourcing relies on amateurs or volunteers working in their spare time to create content, solve problems, or even do corporate R&D." The scoop: One month ago tomorrow, Italy\’s government launched a new tourism web portal for which huge resources and a budget of 45 million euros had been allocated. The site came online under a barrage of heavy fire from many technologists, independents, bloggers and professionals as the site …