Tactical Transparency

My Cinch Podcasts - My committment to trying to post more often

If you're unfamiliar with Cinch, it's a great tool from BlogTalkRadio that lets you create quick podcasts on the fly.  You sign up (takes maybe two minutes) and then essentially record voicemails that can be posted as part of your podcast feed.  Great for SEO, and great for recording your thoughts when you don't have time for a full written post.  I've also used the tool to record interviews with Scott Monty, Joe Jaffee, and Guy Kawasaki (if you feel like digging through my Cinches on my page/feed). 

My Cinch today is a re-introduction to who I am as I'm now working at Porter Novelli, a global communications firm versus BlogTalkRadio (where I used to be VP, Business Development).  I'm going to try to get back to posting more often (3-5 times a week) and Cinch is a great tool to do that if I don't always have time to write a full post which is often the case at a busy PR/Comms firm (those pesky clients and all).  Cheers and thanks for listening.

Virtual Air Rights (VAR's)

In a recent article on ReadWriteWeb, Google Plans to Upgrade Old Billboards in Street View, author Frederic Lardinois describes how Google has filed a patent to try and put up their own ads in place of billboards or other real-word advertisements when viewed through Street View. You can read the specifics in the article, but the potential of this happening hearkens to an idea I've been talking/writing about for a while now called Virtual Air Rights, or VAR's.

Long story short, this is the notion of Air Rights but in the virtual arena. Standard air rights have established business practices surrounding how many feet above and around an advertisment or building that a person owns. In Times Square, air rights of this nature can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But what about the virtual arena? As noted in the RWB article, Google feels they have a claim to older billboards that are represented virtually within their program. As you can tell from the comments in the article, readers/commenters are about 50/50 in terms of whether they think Google has the right to charge for antiquated ads or not. A few comments are very heated at the idea, stating that if they owned the real-world billboards, they'd be miffed if Google swapped them out in the virtual arena.

But VAR's go beyond Google (although they'll likely bring the subject to a head in 2010). Right now I could walk into a supermarket and geo-tag ads for my product in the middle of a real-world aisle where I'm not paying a manager or the chain any money. That tag would remain there for folks utilizing Augmented Reality indefintely.

When AR browsers become standard (or at least there are one or two that are pervasive for the general population) it seems as if first movers (or first taggers) could get a virtual land grab for ads. Will they benefit or be seen as spam? And will they been seen as cyber-thieves or clever guerilla marketers? Whatever the case, VAR's will likely need to be standardized soon or we're going to see techno-turf battles raging for a number of years to come.

Note: This article was initially posted at the OuternetGuidelinesInitiative.com wiki.

The Outernet and Web2Open Panels

 

Jack Mason from IBM

In reference to my post below, I wanted to thank all the folks who came to Porter Novelli for a party at our offices last week with the good folks from the New York Semantic Web Meetup Group and who spoke at Web2Open the next day.  I have some observations below as well as links from folks who participated. 

First I want to thank my friend, Jack Mason (toon avatar pictured here) who has been kind enough to indulge my high-geekiness at a local pub in Maplewood where we have Guinness and talk about Augmented Reality, the Internet of Things, The Semantic Web, and whatever else we can think of until our brains hurt (at least mine) and I say something prescient like, "do you think that foam will look like a shamrock for a long time?" But seriously, he's been very helpful in helping me expand my mind towards all things digital and helping me think of what I might focus on in the panels we had last week.

Secondly I need to thank my dear friend Whitney Hoffman who gave me the two slots to speak at Web2Open.  She is beyond a trooper in terms of her dedication to the Unconference movement and the Podcamp Foundation in particular.  I have the utmost respect for her as her help in organizing these events is why they continue to happen (and when people like her actually do the work of organizing instead of just pontificating).  In terms of Podcamp, I also got to see Chris Brogan, C.C. Chapman, Mitch Joel, and Julien Smith there which was great. 

The Panels

First off, if you don't have a full picture of what Augmented Reality is, I'll give you a brief definition--it's essentially the overlaying of digital data on the screen of your mobile camera or computer.  I've written about it a lot below so you can get more specifics, or you can also watch Jack Mason's talk on AR and The Internet of Things to get a sense of the power and repercussions of the tech on culture at large.

You can also check out the PowerPoint the folks from GE presented in terms of their Plug Into the SmartGrid Augmented Reality Campaign. Erik (Manley) and Michael (Eisenreich) also did an amazing job noting how the AR portion of the campaign drew attention after using some paid media, but the real ROI happened when earned media kicked in and they got such a MASSIVE response.  A quote from them (and the video they showed about the campaign) says it well, "you know you're successful when people make videos using the technology you created for a campaign."  Really amazing stuff.

My friend (she also wrote the foreword for my book), Lynne d Johnson (she's SVP of Social Media at the Advertising Research Foundation) sent on some links I've included here below:

• ARF's Social Media Council
• Her Android Meetup Group
• Highlights from the Esquire magazine Augmented Reality issue
• Top Ten Augmented Reality Advertising Campaigns

I'll update in a future post with other materials sent by panelists.

The Outernet Guidelines Initiative

One outcome of the panels was that Jack and I created The Outernet Guidelines Initiative which is a wiki I'd love for any readers/whoever to edit/contribute to.  The Outernet contains ideas about technology like Augmented Reality, the Semantic Web, The Internet of Things, and so on.  And Jack and I feel it's a good idea to talk about some of the issues that will arise around technologies rapid progression.  I never lionize or demonize technology in and of itself, but it's important to see how things affect culture at large.  Privacy issues, issues around commerce, etc mean that, as Jack puts it, "we're not going from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 but Web 20.0."  I'll do my best to update it on a regular basis, and I'm hoping to speak more on the subject moving forward.

Emerge - Augmented Reality Panel at Web 2Open

I'll be moderating a panel on Augmented Reality (AR) at Web 2Open, the unconference portion of the Web 2.0 Expo happening in New York City.  It's a two-part panel taking place on Wednesday, November 18th 2009, with the 9-9:50 portion being an introduction to AR and the 10:05-10:55 portion being a deeper look into the implications and future of AR as well as a Q&A as time allows.  Folks on the panel and details on event and how to register are below.

The Panel

• Robert Rice: CEO of Neogence, Chairman of the Augmented Reality Consortium
• Ori Inbar: Co-founder and CEO of Ogmento
• Jack Mason: Global Business Services, Strategic Programs and Social Media at IBM
• Lynne d Johnson: SVP Social Media at the Advertising Research Foundation and host of the NYC Android Developer's Meetup
• Erik Manley: Manager, Digital Media at GE
• Michael Eisenreich: Technology Leader for GE's company-wide Internet presence
• Matt Szymczyk: CEO of Zugara
• Marco Neumann: CEO and Founder of KONA, Lead Organizer for New York Semantic Web Meetup Group

WHERE: The Expo and our panel will take place at the Javits Center in New York City.  Specifically, we'll be in room 2D10. 

WHEN: Two part panel starts at 9AM EST on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009.

FREE REGISTRATION: Click on the "Register as an Attendee online" link here and enter "EXPOPASS"

Web2Open details can be found in this handy PDF that organizer Whitney Hoffman put together.  She organized the event with the Web 2.0 Expo folks and The Podcamp Foundation.

PRE-PANEL PARTY: My company Porter Novelli will be sponsoring an event with the speakers of the panel and the New York Semantic Web Meetup Group on Tuesday evening, November 17th.  Details to follow but go to the New York Semantic Web Meetup Group page to register and for full details.

Any other questions?  Feel free to email me at: john DOT havens AT porternovelli DOT com.

I'm now VP, Social Media at Porter Novelli

I'm very excited to announce I'm going to be joining Porter Novelli as their VP, Social Media at PN's flagship office in New York City. I had a fantastic run at BlogTalkRadio and am happy I left at a time when things are going so well for BTR (Barack O'Bama was recently on the network, for instance) and wish all of my friends and colleagues there continued success.

There are numerous reasons I'm yea and verily pumped to join Porter, not the least of which is my new boss, Stephanie Agresta.  Although I haven't had a ton of personal contact with her over the years, I certainly know of her work as InternetGeekGirl and her events/work with TechSet and Brian Solis.  She's got an amazing reputation amongst geeks and clients alike, and I'm honored to join her team.  I owe her a big ol' shout out for introducing me to the folks at Porter and for providing me the chance to come onboard. (You can read how Stephanie joined Porter here).

I also have to mention PN's CFO, Anthony Viceroy in regards to why I'm excited about my new role. In my interview with Anthony, I was actually inspired (a word I use sparingly) by his combination of pragmatism and inspiration (you can read some of his articles on PN's site here).  It's refreshing to meet someone who is a straight shooter about goals but just as articulate regarding vision.  I'm a big GE fan and Anthony quoted Jeff Immelt a few times when we met.  He's also a big Sopranos fan, and having auditioned for the show a number of times in my acting days it was fun to chat about the mock Mafia in an interview. 

Shout outs as well to Lisa, Julie, Brad and Alexa at Porter.  Really enjoyed my meetings with them and look forward to hitting the ground running on Monday when I start.

Beyond the fact that PR Week recently cited Porter as an "agency to watch" for 2009, I've been a fan of Porter for years because of my good friend, Matt Snodgrass.  I covered the first Podcamp as the About.com Guide to Podcasting as I'd been following Chris Brogan's work and it was a transformative experience that eventually led me to organize two Podcamps in NYC. 

Matt's presentation on how podcasters should organize their content to be more reachable to advertisers still stands out in my mind as one of the best talks of the event.  He outlined how people could focus their content to be more accessible/attractive to advertisers if they wanted to make money doing what they loved.  His would be the first of about seven trillion talks I've heard on how to monetize social media, but waaaay early on Matt demonstrated that he and Porter looked ahead to emerging trends/technologies versus being focused solely on one or two methodologies for delivering a message.

Finally, in my work at BTR and in general I've come to firmly believe that it is in the realm of PR that some of the most exciting work in social media is being done.  Where it seems in the past that PR came into play after strategy had already taken place, now PR gets a seat at the table up front with budgets to boot.  Since media these days tends to focus on the social side of things this makes sense, as PR folks should be the experts at dealing with influentials on a personal and relevant basis. 

But who knows how PR will evolve?  And who even knows if the term "PR" will stick?  I'm not married to any sacred cows if they don't provide value for clients and resonate for real.  Essentially, it seems to me that the work of any solid PR firm involves four primary steps:

• Create relevant, real and captivating campaigns for clients.
• Execute the snot out of those campaigns while providing solid metrics to determine actual ROI.
• Provide over the top client services so people literally could not do without you.
• Repeat.

If I've left something out it likely falls somewhere in that mix. 

Along with Porter's amazing list of current clients we'll be adding more soon and I'll get to focus on emerging trends like augmented reality and focus on subjects I hold dear to my heart like transparency as well.

In summation, I'm pumped. 

Feel free to reach me at my personal email (johnchavens AT gmail DOT com) until I have my Porter contact info, or you can find me on twitter at johnchavens.

Geoff Livingston Interview

Had a killer interview with Geoff Livingston on my Tactical Transparency show last week (listen below).  I found this picture of him and thought it was excellent, although I promised Geoff I wouldn't tease him about the glowing red orb he's got erupting from his right eyebrow (I believe it's a gland thing).

Seriously, however, I'm a huge fan of Geoff's and there are a number of reasons why:

1. He's really freaking smart.
2. He's humble, even though he's a very popular media guru type (but don't call him that).
3. He's freaking hi-larious.
4. He's willing to say things others won't (check out his Social Media Really is Dead Post).
5. He liked my book (that's manly a value add for me).
6. His focus (per our interview) is growing CRT/tanaka (where he works) over and above building his personal brand. 

Let's focus on that last point.  I'm paraphrasing what Geoff said, but basically he pointed out that he feels his job is to always focus on clients first and make sure that if he ever leaves CRT/tanaka that the equity he's built in his tenure there stays versus leaving with him because he's tried to focus attention mainly on his personal brand.

Clients what now?  At the expense of eschewing the all important brand of ME?  Shocking.  But oh so liberating and refreshing to hear.

We talked about augmented reality for a while and Geoff and I commiserated that the convergence of mobile and GPS technology along with the semantic web basically is the next big thing.  Or the next three big things in a mashup that we're all still trying to figure out but will still have about three to five years where we'll get to explain to clients / brands what the hell augmented reality means. 

Those conversations will be fun.  Instead of dealing with folks saying, "Why should I get on Twitter?  I don't care what someone ate" we'll get to hear: "Do I really need to geo-tag my brand's products via an internationally recognized semantic taxonomy?  Can't I just buy a banner ad?"

We also discussed how "good" PR firms/agencies are working to integrate various departments for the overall good of the client.  Sacrifice silos for (insert good farm analogy here) and combine talents to work around one central strategy that everyone gets excited about.  And if a client has one AOR but uses others for PR, etc, their will be friendly or other competition to create the best ideas to keep clients happy.  There's a really good article in PR week (you need a subscription to read the whole thing) on this topic, by the way, called: Brands Get Creative with Integrated Marketing. It's an interesting read.

So thanks again to Geoff for a hootenanny good time of an interview and I look forward to more.

And, for link baiting's sake, SOCIAL MEDIA IS DEAD.

Just kidding.  It's actually been beaten into a soapy froth on the cheese grated hide of a long-expired ex-horse.

David Alston / Radian6 Interview

As I mentioned in the post below, I had the chance to interview David Alston and Geoff Livingston on Thursday.  I wanted to start with a short post and say thanks to David of Radian6 for his insights.

Suffice to say I'm impressed with how well Radian6's technology helps brands, PR firms, etc truly hear, evaluate and utilize the conversations being shared about their products/services online.  However, I have to say that as a somewhat jaded (been in 'new media' since 2005) practicioner and preacher of the benefits of social platforms, it was really refreshing to head David talk about how appreciated he and Radian6 are when customers say nice things about them online.  I'm misquoting him (listen to the interview below or on my Tactical Transparency show page on BlogTalkRadio for his exact words), but essentially he said near the end of the interview that if people want to know about Radian 6 he will often tell them to Google 'Radian 6' and have potential customers/whoever make their own decision about their company from what they read on the first few pages of Google.

How well would you or your organization fare if your main opinion was formed by others with what hits came up on Google?  There's some fireworks to blow your mind.

Lastly we talked about Radian6's new interface for live events called Twebinars.  I participated in the event Radian6 did (The Rockstars of Social CRM) with Chris Brogan (who helped invent the idea) and it was pretty cool.  They used Ustream in the upper left hand corner and had a moderator tweet questions while people were requested to hastag their answers.  The effect made me feel like I was on Tweetdeck or Seesmic but the content was specific to the event at hand.  I think this will be an excellent tool for brands and for the myriad communicator-types within org's saying, "I don't get Twitter."  My answer - try a twebinar and you can calculate your ROI (at least in terms of immediate engagement) in the hour or two it takes you to run an event.

Here's David's Show:

Interviews with David Alston of Radian 6 and Geoff Livingston tomorrow

Two great interviews tomorrow if you can tune in or call during the shows:

David Alston, VP of Marketing and Community for Radian6. Radian 6 is a "Social media monitoring & engagement platform for PR, marketing and customer support professionals." They are the rage at every conference I go to as of late (like Blogwell, etc) and David was kind enough to indulge me some time to chat on how brands are using their services to make decisions on how and where to spend money for social/digital campaigns.

The interview is tomorrow at 11 AM EST on my BlogTalkRadio show on Tactical Transparency. You can call in to ask questions at: (347) 215-8467.

At 1PM EST I'll be interviewing Geoff Livingston, Senior Vice President at CRT/tanaka. I am a fan of Geoff's work (and not just because he gave Tactical Transparency a nice review a while back - a favor which I still need to return for his excellent work, Now Is Gone) and am very intrigued to pick his brain on his thoughts about mobile services like BrightKite along with social media monitoring and money questions in general. Geoff is a recognized social media guru and definitely worth a listen/call.

Tomorrow at 1PM EST on my BlogTalkRadio show on Tactical Transparency. You can call in to ask questions at: (347) 215-8467.

Look forward to having you join in and chat in the text room or listen/call in.

Interview with Blair MacIntyre of Georgia Tech on Augmented Reality

I had a great interview with Blair MacIntyre of Georgia Tech today (listen below).  Blaire is an Associate Professor in the College of Computing at GT (his full bio is here) and we chatted on the implications of Augmented Reality and how it can be used for gaming, marketing, and social networking.  You can learn more about his work by going to You Tube and checking out their video on how their Augmented Reality zombie game interacts with Skittles. 

The marketing implications here are really interesting, since a 2-D game board could easily be created for other businesses and interact with customer phones and items in said business.  Blair talked about a beer coaster they had worked to create which I think is genius as you could interact with different beers you ordered and use the coaster for a dating game or whatever in a bar environment.

Blair said he'd let me interview him again in the future as this interview focused more on marketing than the specifics of his work.  I highly urge you to check out GT's College of Computing site and special thanks to Jen Walsh of GE who told me of GT's work in this field.

Interview with Jen Walsh and Sean Gannon of GE - GE Reports and Augmented Reality

Had a great interview today (above) with Jen Walsh (Global Director of Digital Media for General Electric, where she is responsible for ge.com, inside GE, and digital advertising and brand initiatives) and her colleague Sean Gannon, Managing Editor for GE Reports.  Here's what the site's About Page says in terms of GE Reports:

GEreports.com is a simple, no-frills-way of communicating what’s happening at GE. Our goal is to be a resource for people who are interested in learning more about GE.

As you'll hear from Sean and Jen, the site provides a great way for GE to have its own voice about its brand and activities and has frequently been used/cited by journalists as a source for news about the company.  The language above - simple and no frills - also seems to embody the tone that Sean works to culture with their stories.  Avoiding hyperbole and hype, they focus on delivering stories objectively while also embracing comments from users, even if they always aren't pleasant.  This, in my humble O, is a major step forward for the blogosphere if an organization like GE lets us see how others feel.  Leaving all comments up (with the exception of racist language, slander, etc) engenders trust since we're allowed to recognize that people don't always say the nicest things about a company, even one they hold dear.

But what I always find interesting is the fact people forget you fight or have problems with the people you truly love because you want to have a relationship with them. Meaning, you know you can risk being honest because they've provided you a safe standing on which your relationship is built.  If you have an acquaintance who avoids any sign of contention at all costs, you'll have to keep things very light and insubstantial.  Which also typically can mean boring and fake.

But I wax tangential.  After we focused on GE Reports we turned to chatting about Augmented Reality which as you know is my new favorite passion.  Jen provides a great definition of Augmented Reality (a 3-D interface / hologram interacting with a special logo/symbol on a piece of paper or object held up to your computer's webcam or certain mobile phones) while also comparing it to the technology from the original Star Wars movies where we got to hear Princess Leia ask Obi-Wan for help.  GE is using AR in a number of ways, one of which is with their Smart Grid campaign that allows you to see a wind turbine in 3-D when you print a piece of paper with an appropriately tagged symbol on it and hold it up to your webcam.  You can even blow the propellors in the 3-D rendering and watch them spin.

This allows for high geekage, surely, but as Jen points out, the focus on fun is a way to visually demonstrate the value of the idea/service that GE is providing.  As it's difficult to have everyone tour a solar turbine facility, if I hold it in my hands I can viscerally start to recognize why it's important to the environment and maybe try to change how I view energy.  Pretty amazing way to embody a value proposition by using just a piece of paper.

Jen sent on a few links for me to check out, one of which was about Layar which I wrote a post on the other day.  The other was a link to a You Tube video from Georgia Tech's Augmented Environments Lab and the Savannah College of Art and Design.  (Note that I'll be interviewing Blaire MacIntyre from Georgia Tech Monday at noon on my Tactical Transparency show).  Here's a blurb about the video:

ARhrrrr is an augmented reality shooter for mobile camera-phones, created at Georgia Tech Augmented Environments Lab and the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD-Atlanta). The phone provides a window into a 3d town overrun with zombies. Point the camera at our special game map to mix virtual and real world content. Civilians are trapped in the town, and must escape before the zombies eat them! From your vantage point in a helicopter overhead, you must shoot the zombies to clear the path for the civilians to get out. Watch out though as the zombies will fight back, throwing bloody organs to bring down your copter. Move the phone quickly to dodge them. You can also use Skittles as tangible inputs to the game, placing one on the board and shooting it to trigger an explosion.

The Skittles integration is especially compelling when you think of the marketing ramifications for other brands.  Think about visiting your favorite bar or restaurant whose placemats are rendered for AR?  You get your mobile phone out and start playing an interactive dating game while you wait for your food.  Then if you get certain drinks from the bar (I'm thinking the glasses could have code or emblems or what have you on them) you put those on your placemat and they interact in different ways.  Perhaps they'd light up like a poisonous elixir from an old Warner Brothers cartoon.

Another very cool Georgia Tech project is an audio AR thingie they did in a graveyard called Voices of Oakland.  If I fully understand what they did, GT mapped gravestones and created vocal histories that played when people were in a close proximity to the sensors that started their audio tracks.  If I get it correctly, it's the equivalent of doing an audio tour at a museum and having the various messages play automatically (if I have this wrong I'm hoping Blaire can straighten me out on Monday).  What I think is or will be so powerful about this type of integation is when in the future I geo-map audio/video I create on my mobile so I can mark a spot geographically with my comments/video.  Then, instead of hearing just one voice from a grave, you could hear an array of voices who have come before.  Or, 3-D holograms of a thousand princess Leia's all vying for attention.

But with the arrival of the Semantic Web to arrange our preferences before we'd come to any geo-area, we'd only hear those choice voices we wanted to hear.  The same will apply to stores we shop in.  I think in the near future, you'll walk into Target, wave your mobile left to right, and have your friends virtually tell you (from the past or present) about the specials you should focus on since they (with their collective and communal intelligence) know your taste in clothes combined with whatever other factors you have put into your preferences (price ranges, how many kids you have, etc).

Long story short, I continue to have my mind blown by this stuff. To help you to have your mind blown, beyond Blaire I'm also going to interview folks from Metaio, a company focused on AR Wednesday July 1st at 3PM Pacific on my show, as well as a writer whose work I admire a great deal, Jamais Cascio.  

Thanks again to Jen, Sean, and their colleague Megan Parker for a great interview.  To learn more about GE Reports, you can also check out Sean and Megan's Slide Share presentation from Blogwell about their work at GE.