New Media- STAND UP

Anymore I’d say run it like a business, or don’t even get into the scene.

Passion is one thing, but then again, we’re ALL passionate about something or another.

No one defines their goals in this space.

No one defines what success means for them.

No one outlines what’s important to them.

Thus, it’s a giant swirl of “let’s get together and see what happens.” Occasionally, great ideas come from that approach. More often, people are left feeling unsatisfied. Especially “professionals” who look into the space, see a bunch of people either half-assedly taking part or rushing to market with substandard content and bemoaning the lack of attention / investors, and they tune the entire medium out as the playground of the mediocre.

Be a business.

Be an artist.

Be both.

Be neither.

Those are everyone’s options.

Not defining yourself? That’s not a viable option if you want to move forward.

I think that the “industry” is still relatively in it’s infant stage. Blogging has been around for several years now and is just today starting to get some of the recognition that it deserves.

When it comes to podcasting and video on the net, these concepts are literally brand new babies! Well, at least the widespread ability and and reasonable cost at which one one can now push massive amounts of bandwidth through the “series of tubes.” ;)

Two years ago, it seemed as though a majority of all podcasters that I listened two thought you were a part of an evil empire if you even considered the thought of making money with your podcast. Today, it seems like sessions devoted on how to do just that are among the most popular today.

Even Social Networking is only just going mainstream.

What am I getting at? I believe the “industry” still has a high percentage of people in this space only as a “hobby.”

Before six months ago, I could name only a handful of people were approaching “new media” as a career path. Today, I am proud to be among a growing number of people who are not only passionate about the “New Media Industry” but are putting a lot on the line as we COMMIT ourselves to it.

What do we need? I personally would love to participate in some solid networks of new media thinking individuals. A place where only where I can find others who are DEVOTED to this space and are willing to share thoughts and ideas on how to effectively market the abilities.

Podcamps and conferences are great, but I would like to see some large scale communities pop up around the industry where anyone who is a professional in this field could go and get some great insight and answers into some of the pressing questions on how to strategically use the ever changing New Media technologies to best serve our clients.

I’m still researching it, but perhaps ADM is the one of the first steps in this direction.

We’re all cubbied. Just because you’re a pro blogger and I’m a podcaster, it doesn’t mean we don’t have things in common and we’re not both working towards the same goal. Gaining audience.

We’re not embracing “New Media” as much as our sub-categories. Everyone has the same goal, but we don’t talk about it.

I have my own gripe against new media and new media based conferences. The new media is supposed to go beyond traditional media and also work in the long tail of content generation. However, it is going in the same path of traditional media with its “hits based approach”. Thatz why we are seeing ego boosting stuff like Techmeme Leadership board and going behind A-Listers as conference speakers. In fact, many Z-listers offer content of very high quality compared to the hyped up A-Listers. If new media is to truly succeed in the long term, they have to change their hits based mindset.

Chris….

we seem to have come into blogging in the same year–and I don’t know about you, but in all the conferences I’ve been going to in the past, oh, two years now, I’ve noticed a real shift in the mindset of who’s blogging, why they blog, etc…

My first conference, BlogHer ’05, was about friendship and community–there was very little mention of monetization, and lots of mention of getting women on panels, as speakers, and how women were going to get into those important conversations about how the medium would evolve.

But I’m not hearing these messages–the messages of community, cammeraderie, and influencing the the way This World will evolve–all that much any more in blogging conferences. Now it’s “how do I make money from this blogging thing.”

I hear no desire to know what came before, of “paying dues,” or linklove, or why the A-list is the A-list, or of knowing that this blogging thing is bigger than just how much one can get for oneself in ad revenue.

I hear a lot of entitlement. and among people who haven’t even launched their first blog post.

We need more serious thought and serious discussion on how new media-all of it, from blogging to social networks–is changing our world and our culture (has anyone notice the Amanda Knox thing going on? and how she was booted off Facebook and her MySpace writings may be used as incriminating evidence in a murder investigation?)
We need far less emphasis on making money and becoming blogging superstars. Otherwise, all we’re creating is some strange funhouse reflection of mass media all over again. and perhaps with some very bad side effects.

This is a great example of selfish bloggers. They are both so short sighted not to support the ecosystem that makes them both money. Shame on you OM and Mike. Om isn’t sick and Mike doesn’t give a hoot. That is unless he can make money.

The blog industry will fall apart due to no integrity from emerging leaders like Mike and Om. Arrington has all but killed his linking or sharing. He is only linking to his internal posts with the mandatory one link per post.

This is very telling and speaks volumes about Mike and OM. This will come back and hurt them both in the community.

I totally agree with Justin Kownack–Not defining yourself? That’s not a viable option if you want to move forward.

In my work I have found that no one is defining themselves, their positions, etc.

Traditional standards in HR do not apply here.

Every successful industry needs to answer one very simple question: “What business problem(s) are we solving?” Perhaps, taking a page from Mitch Joel’s talk at PodCamp Boston, we could start with some sort of “elevator speech” that goes something like this:

“You know when your business is trying to_____________? Well, our industry helps companies ____________ by_______________.”

To address a previous comment. Defining your own role in new media is fine and expected. Trying to force others into your definition of new media is wrong, rude and repulsive.

I am seeing way too much focus on the “business” side of the coin. People are entirely missing that face the new media is a sea change in the way we think about entertainment, education and communication in the world. They are trying to “get their share” without ever realizing that there is plenty “share” for everyone, no matter how big it gets.

They are failing to understand the difference between enough and ALL. We are trying to break a hit-based mindset that has haunted us for decades and it will take some time before it finally falls.

Unconferences meet my needs because I don’t want to hear from the same people again and again and again. I want unique viewpoints, non-traditional projects and people who are not trying to turn new media into old. New media is about sharing. New media is about democratization of a (previously) scarce resource. New media is about doing things differently. I heard someone at PodCampAZ explaining how to produce spots for radio and all I could think was “rearranging desk chairs on the Titantic!”

People seem pre-wired to be gatekeepers and try to wield whatever power they can. Again and again, I hear the phrase, “I’m helping to sort out the gold from the garbage.” No your not! Your trying to control, to manipulate and make money for yourself based on someone else’s work. Your trying to develop “hits” when hits don’t matter anymore.

If we simply continue to try and apply a traditional media mindset to the new media world, it will turn into something that resembles traditional media with all the inherent problems we face today.

Mmm, the industry of talking and asking lots of questions.

Ron — YES!!

If we want out of the Fishbowl, we should talk about BECOMING the speakers at conferences all over industry, not just lining up conferences where we all talk to one another. Both kinds are needed. But one mainly revitalizes/reconnects us with each other, while the others grow our ecosystem itself.

We operate in a market economy, so to thrive, professionally, we need to connect with markets. There are millions of insurance agents and realtors and mid-level executives out there who need to get what we are in the process of figuring out.

And those who would rail against the A-list miss the point altogether. There is so dramatically much more audience outside the fishbowl than inside it. Who cares how popular Om, Mike, Scoble, etc. are. They’re not “between you and your ambition.” Wanna exceed the TechCrunch 50,000? Go teach just a small midwestern city about blogs and feed readers and you could get your own 50k right there.

I’ve been having the interesting experience of speaking at LOTS of conferences lately – all financial aid ones, almost always about new media.

People out there – organizations, businesses, individuals – are STARVED for this information. Absolutely starved, so much so that at the most recent conference I was at, the general session keynote speaker singled me out by name as the herald of things to come.

Fishbowl events like Blog World, New Media Expo, and even PodCamp, are terrific and have their place, to reinforce our beliefs in the medium and in each other. I wholeheartedly encourage people to go to those.

But if you want to see the power – or lack thereof – of new media, go to conferences in your industry or business, and see how aware they are of new media. I’ve been podcasting about financial aid for two and a half years, and it’s only in the last six months that I suddenly found my knowledge in demand. Now that it is, it’s going to the other extreme.

PS – insurers, execs, realtors – obviously – are just the start.

I think that new media is perceived as taking away approachability in real-life and granting it in “second life.” That is more of the corporate point of view.

I think that many of these new media conferences are trying to be bigger than they need to be. I get bunches of invites to attend events, all touting to be THE event, and most of them quite expensive. Most have days and days of morning and afternoon sessions.

When I take a step back to decide whether to attend, most of the time I decide not to go. Our industry can’t afford all these events.

Here’s what I’d like. Shorter events with fewer industry celebrities, and less hype about the events.

Tish is onto something…

I find it one thing to create, evolve, launch applications and start ups that are inspired by and for the community-BY the community…and another when it’s someone just trying to grab a piece of the action.

I got so tired of hearing about how to write for good search results…how to utilize keywords, etc. I want to know I’m reading someone not bought and paid for. I want to read because you are engaging, exciting, and just plain GOOD at it…

I feel I have to be very careful these days with my associations, my affiliations, with my links even.

Maybe it’s like anything else in this world? Growing pains of success? The good will weed out the bad in time? Or maybe we become two totally separate entities-those involved and in love with the community and those only there to capitalize. So we adjust accordingly…the conferences and unconferences offer the money tract and the writing tips.

Don’t get me wrong, I was at BWE with a start up who offers a monetization platform, but I’m involved because I am making them give my community what it needs to survive this new wave of popularity. With it comes the threats and bad seeds affecting how my parentblogging community blogs and does it’s thing. I make my startup give that monetization platform a donation option, so our Beth Kanter’s and BlogHer’s Act survive as well.

I think the corporation side of our industry is emerging in full force and I’ve chosen to make it work FOR my community and make it work FOR the ideas many of us started out with-and FOR solutions to keep us doing what we do in as pure a form as we can muster.

I had wanted to go to Vegas, but family commitments and a speaking engagement for the Museum Conference conflicted. I spend more time in my “industry” – nonprofit land,talking about social media, etc. I’m always on the panel on the new media – and I’m still getting “what’s a blog.” Many of the things I try or read about, are so far from the reach of the average nonprofit. There is a great deal of skepticism. Yet, there is a demand to know more about it – not necessarily from the “let’s implement this right now.” but to decide whether to pay attention or not.

We need to be out there integrating into other sectors ….

I think the conferences in the market right now are very, very reflective of the culture, mindset and in a lot of cases, inexperience, of the current start up culture. It’s not in a good way.

Truthfully, in some ways, social media is about “How can I be social/network without getting up from my computer?” If you are talking about monetization, the topic may have shifted to “How can I make money without getting up from my computer?”

So you want someone to come to a conference? If you are a blogging rockstar and you *have* been able to become social/famous/monetized by sitting in front of your computer, how easy is it going to be to to get you to physically socialize with people at a conference? The whole reason to do this in the first place was to create reality without getting out of your pajamas.

The first thought that struck me when I read this post and when I read other articles relating to (un ? ) Conferences was as follows:

“this is the how to make money in blogging or podcasting conversation but with different platform”

We are all seeking a new way to make old money. This is not a bad thing since money helps with things like food and shelter and ( in my case ) medical supplies.

The Audience has woken up to the fact that it doesnt need to be spoken at or to. It has realised that within the audience are far more experts and professionals whos depth and breadth of experience outways the speaker from the front. Which is why ,Chris, you have asked the audience.

I actually dont have an answer to the whole malady but I have some observations for what is antagonising the symptoms.

Words like Fans, Followers, Leaders ,Experts are emotive and quite subjective. When they become part of the conversation leading up to or part of the conference then the Audience begins to feel discomfort.

The platform is no longer the opportunity to sell your business. The Audience values ideas and creativity now. A Speaker should not be trying to define credibility by promoting his own companies successes or assets.

Sponsorship should mean approval and validation , not an easy pass to sell at all the visitors. Having money or lots of readers, subscribers, does not equate to being an expert or having opinions that are more important than anothers. Success is very rarely linked to being a well rounded professional with great expertise.

Pedestals, the ones in our minds that we put people upon, lets truly understand what it is we are validating about an individual before we ascend someone to a higher emotive place.

So there we are I hope that helps and thanks for posting Chris , I really appreciate your ideas.

Nik

Many people in the podcast community are anxious to make the move to financial gain claiming that, among other things, it will help to legitimize podcasting and new media if there is some recognized advertisers and money behind the shows.

I believe that the way to legitimize the community is to take it more seriously. Make commitments and keep them, treat others in the community as equals deserving of respect – this applies to individuals and events. Above all, I believe that we need to mix and match the business-minded, hobby-minded and community-minded so that we can harness the energy and spirit of the different groups and make the movement that much better and that much stronger.

We also must remember that podcasting isn’t about technology; it’s about people, the ideas and passion people have, and the expression of those ideas and passion by the people. It’s a social media which means it must include social people and involved people.