ideas

There has been a lot of discussion about the Facebook announcement on Monday November 15^th. In fact there was a lot of hype leading up to the announcement. I can’t help but think it was sort of like the run up to the Google Buzz announcement and I could imagine the people at Facebook HQ saying amongst themselves:

“Oh boy, there is an awful lot of hype out there. Are we going to be able to live up to it or will we be the Google Buzz of unified communications announcements?”

I don’t think they can live up to the hype and let me explain why. I can really summarize it to a single sentence:

“Facebook is (mostly) a closed system.”

So how does a website that controls everything become a power player in something as open and free as communications? To be the key player in this space I believe there will be several important criteria:

Be a fairly open system with open standards and APIs.
Provide for connections to cutting edge, legacy and strategic systems.
Rich filtering and logic algorithms.

The importance of an open system

The swell of opportunity created through the open source movement has created great opportunity for an evolution of ideas and made many great things possible. Just look at the extreme contribution of some major open source projects from the last 10+ years (my top 10 list):

Wikipedia
Linux
MySQL
PHP
WordPress
Apache
Mozilla
Open Office
Creative Commons
Filezilla

The API issue is really a no brainer, to get a better idea of why read this article “Top 5 Reasons Why Your Startup Needs an API” while written for startups I think it is a great overview of the importance of APIs without getting too technical.

So if you’re going to make the big messaging play, you better be focused on being open and accessible already.

Being cutting edge while walking with the Dinosaurs

There are so many forms of communications that are viable and would be a part of any true unified communications system. Facebook is still a cutting edge platform in 2010 but they lack key strategic and legacy support that would be essential as the player in the next big messaging platform. Here are a few examples of the different systems:

Cutting Edge (current/bleeding edge tech)

Cloud Technologies (Google Docs, Dropbox)
Social Networking Sites (Facebook, LinkedIn)
Streams (Twitter, Buzz)
Voice over IP (Skype, VOIP carriers)

Strategic (established tech that is likely to be around for a while)

Instant/Text Messaging (AIM, SMS)
Blogs
Email
HTTPS (Encrypted Web Protocol)

Legacy (older technology that will largely fade away in the future)

Internet Relay Chat
FTP
HTTP (Web Protocol – yes, Legacy)*

*HTTP should be on its way out, this is a little bit of writer activism on my part. Many would argue it is a strategic technology.

If you review that list and ask yourself, who understands and communicates effectively with everything on that list (and more importantly all the other important resources not on the list)? I guess at this point the answer is no-one, and that is the “what” in unified communications.

The importance of curation, human or machine.

The importance of curation, narrow the stream or face information overload.

Photo by verbeeldingskr8.

If I were to combine all the communications I receive and process into one place it would be a big ugly mess. This is where the curation of the content will become essential to a unified communications platforms success. Curation will be the “how” in unified communications. The key will be to adequately search, filter and customize the data so that only the most important information is the most readily available. Allowing different ways to respond, perhaps knowing that for example a certain user prefers and responds better to Email, while another user responds more readily to Twitter, and so on. This will provide value on a number of levels. This will be a delicate balancing act because it must be easy for the end user to achieve high adoption rates, while technically pushing the envelope under the hood.

I think in 2010 many people are feeling over-whelmed by the data that they have to process. If you can cut through that mess, you will have a very satisfied customer. This is the “why” of unified communications.

This is my opinion, what do you think?

A light-bulb moment creates Web 3.0 idea

I had an idea while driving to a client after hours last night. It was one hour each way and my second trip there for the day. I often do a couple of different things while driving, one of them is make calls and the other is just think or let my mind wander. Last night I was thinking what could we use all these cumulative hours for? Then it occurred to me, the best thing would be something I am good at. During the day that would ideally be something I could get paid to do. Then I considered that others around me probably would have a similar desire and that others would equally have a desire to have access to that information at any given moment. Conceptually the idea could be considered a relative of Aardvark.

Then just imagine for a moment that there was a place I could go to register topics I am knowledgeable about. I would probably include things like:

Information technology
Social Media
Non-profits
Community

Of course those topics are a little vague, so let’s add a little more clarity in the form of tags of some areas of experience:

Information Technology

Windows XP, Windows 7, Networks, Gnatbox, Lenovo, Microsoft Office, PC Hardware

Social Media

Blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn, Amplify, Twitter, Hootsuite, Youtube, Bit.ly, Google Reader, Blogtalkradio

Non-Profits

Rotary, Volunteering, 501(c)3, Asante Africa, Danville/Sycamore Valley Rotary

Community

Leadership San Ramon Valley, Leadership Programs, City Government, Danville CA USA, San Ramon CA USA, Bonita CA USA, Yuba City CA USA

Information side

So now I’ve built a picture of things I might be able to speak about, teach, answer questions, troubleshoot, consult, coach and mentor about. I know that at any given moment when I am driving in my car, done with my calls, done thinking and ready to either help people or perhaps help people while also earning a few bucks that someone is going to have a great need for that information at that very moment. The app would put that individual in touch with me and say after a 2 minute conversation both parties could agree to continue the discussion for some pre-established fee, points, credit or nothing at all.

Information Seekers Side

On the “need” side, an individual could access the website/install the app or whatever else made the most sense. Put the information or expertise they are seeking and be connected to the resource that fits the criteria of timing, cost, experience, and other variables.

Application Summary

Overall this could be built as a purely social chat roulette meets vark to a robust commercial platform. It could easily start as one extreme and morph over time to encompass more.

Closing thoughts and Questions

This has gotten my gears spinning a bit, anyone know of an application (that wasn’t already mentioned) that does this or something similar? Am I going out on a limb here calling this a Web 3.0 idea or would you argue it falls under Web 2.0? I am curious also what people think, please share your thoughts. The most interesting responses will be featured in this post and I’ll link to your blog, so people can also check it out.