The direction that we are headed on the web is towards more and more live interaction. On this Overflow Podcast we discuss some recent applications of the live technologies and review the perceived pros and cons of this evolution of the web.

Jim Kukral is an example of an internet marketing practitioner who has embraced the live web, and uses his Ustream Channel as a way of inviting real time interaction.  Recently, Jim was speaking to a group in Cleveland and streamed the presentation.  He posted a tweet inviting others to join in, and participants could interact with his presentation via the chat functionality on Ustream.  (Note, I’ve noticed they have added a simple Twitter capability on the show pages as an alternative to the chat.)

A major application of live web technologies will piggyback on location based tools such as GPS or Google Latitudes, which will distribute content based upon where you are at any given point in time.  This will be of particular interest to local business such as restaurants and service companies.

We talk on the podcast about a music festival that decided this year not to offer a live stream of the annual event.  Rumors circulated about funding situations and conflicts with selling recordings … but a common consensus stated that the festival was concerned that live streaming was a hinderance to tickets sales!  We want to make sure to turn that perception around and state wholeheartedly that distributing the content to a worldwide audience can only capture a wider community and grow the ticket base.

And for those that absolutely cannot attend or will not become a ticket buyer, you have new content to build a monetization strategy around.  Look for ways to attract some form of conversion.

Sporting events have become a great place to participate in the live web by participating on Twitter.  Watching a baseball game with an entire community of Red Sox fan conversing on the Twitter stream has become an extremely enjoyable element added to broadcast.

It has gotten to the point where NOT having that interaction during a live sporting event is a negative.  In order to preserve the final results of the Nascar race from Talladega before watching a Tivo’d version, avoidance of Twitter was required at all costs. Watching the event later that night was lacking because there were no more conversations taking place live and in real time, because I was the one who had time shifted my viewing.

From a business perspective there are certainly live web applications. One is encouraging live tweeting of conferences and meetings via the use of a hashtag, to promote and expand delivery of the content that is being presented to the audience.

We are also about to see an explosion of Virtual Trade Shows as a way to eliminate exorbitant travel costs, booth design and development, and costs in terms of time.  Having a real time interaction with vendors and partners through a well designed, immersive, online experience might just be complete enough to supplement the face to face events.

We are looking for any input that listeners might have regarding good retail or consumer goods virtual trade shows.  Please share with us in the comments if it has worked for you.

Does the downturn in the economy propel the expansion of live web technologies?

NOTE: After recording this podcast this morning, good friend Desiree Scales , co-host of The Bella Buzz podcast, appeared on a live streaming video show http://startuplucky.com/live/.  Way to go Desiree! Great use of the Live web …

Throughout my adult life, I have been thinking up various applications for technology.  I can remember sitting in a bar called Peabody’s in Binghamton NY discussing the possibility of inventing vending machines that would be placed in college dorms to dispense soft-serve ice cream cones.

That concept never really took off, but that kind of thought process has remained a constant for me.

Most of the ideas lose some steam and fade away, but some developments actually take root and turn into something functional.  Presently, I’m not considering turning my attention to bringing something else to life, it’s more like I am making a wish list and expecting today’s great innovators to come along and meet my demands.

I am thinking about my IPhone and the amazing applications that are being developed.  There is a great two part series rundown of IPhone applications at Todd Crawford’s blog called Todd Talks.  I recommend looking over his advice and choosing the most appropriate applications for your needs.

The application that I want to see developed for my IPhone corresponds with my growing frustration whenever visiting medical treatment facilities.  There is great debate about letting a company like Google store your personal medical records, prescriptions, allergies and all pertinent information in their vast databases for access via ubiquitous web applications.  This certainly raises serious concerns over patient privacy and many health care industry regulations would have to be amended to prevent unlawful searches.

However, I am a big proponent of cloud computing and my ability to access my work files from any internet connection has had a tremendous impact on my daily productivity.   I believe that this same concept of secure data storage can be successfully applied to the medical records industry.   As I sit with my wife or daughters trying to “remember” various procedures or treatment scenarios, always thinking that it has been over ten years since my last tetanus shot, reminding the doctor what our next scheduled visit might entail … I want that information at my fingertips!  It drives me crazy to see them scribbling on a form document that gets turned over to some office admin to manually key into our precious life records.  I’ll concede that I have been fortunate not to have had any major medical issues and maybe the procedures are better at the higher levels of treatment, but technology should allow me to maintain and access my own personal records no matter where I am seeking care.

Searching the ITunes Store there are certainly some manual entry, record keeping applications, that apply more towards simple fitness regimes.  There is even a physicians “chart” application that may lead in some interesting data portability directions.

But there is one application that piques my interest …. It’s from a company called Life Records Inc. and the application is called My Life Record. They may be on the right track.  For $49.99 the application allows me to store and access my entire family’s records.

Data entry is still a problem … a fax number and a code given to the Doctor to submit the records to the company doesn’t compel me to sign up, and it relies on HIPAA regulations that require the doctor to transmit the information to the company.  I want to use the IPhone’s extraordinary synching & imaging capabilities to get the records on the spot with a plug in and download at the end of my visit, while it simultaneously synchs with the cloud for data storage.

I also need a much better assurance and comfort level with the service provider to rely on this technology, which is why I believe it is going to take a major company initiative from the giants such as Google, Microsoft, Oracle or some other major data warehousing company to meet the needs of the entire transaction .. from doctor’s office, to application to patient.

Now get to work!

I was sitting in the rocking chair during the Labor Day holiday contemplating the future for my young daughters … no, not the rocking chair in the grandpa kind of way, but the rocking chair as the only thing that is helping soothe little Lily at the moment!

Reviewing the conversation during the past week with Sam Harrelson and others regarding the significance of Identi.ca and other microblogging formats, I couldn’t help but wonder about the very long term.  I can see how federated communication platforms will be applied in the near term but I started wondering about the scenario when my daughters are teenagers and will not want good ole’ Dad subscribing to their posts.

There are numerous accounts in the media demonstrating that among the current 100 million users of Facebook, friending between parents and children takes place, for good or bad depending on your point of view.  Compartmentalizing through the Privacy Controls is probably the best approach to keeping some things away from helicopter parents on Facebook.

But, that’s not really the point that I was pondering.  I’m more interested in the whole closed universe versus open platforms.  If Twitter survives as the dominant micro-blogging platform and it remains THE place to be .. how are fathers schooled in Social Media practices and daughters Twittering their friends about the best parties supposed to exist on the same platform?







It’s just not going to happen .. somewhere there will be an exodus of one these groups and my guess is that it’s the younger, more fluid group.

What happens if the parent is responsible for marketing a product with a demographic target audience that overlaps with his children, and he is compelled to use the same social networking tools for business as his daughters use for communicating?  Do both generations simply bite the bullet and accept that it’s just the new world of communications and all messages are open for public consumption?

I think we may end up with a privacy setting built into micro-blogging platforms.  Dad will be able to target the open social networks that are most likely to contain key influencers and evangelists for his product, while his daughters develop a seperate network with strict peer developed access (invitation only, etc.), without fear of an embarassing message popping up in front of Dad.

It’s a different dimension considering I would normally just add both of their names into my Track client to see messages across all open Laconica platforms, but disabling the track function from a closed, private network will allow it to flourish among a particular group hoping for exclusivity.

This can also be applied to the Enterprise community as well.

What do you think?  Will we have closed communities concurrent with the open development underway? How will micro-blogging look 10-15 years from now?

WOW, we live in an amazing time in the development of internet tools .. and communication in general. I can’t wait to implement these game changing, community systems that are right now in the early stages of development.

I’ve detailed the enormous potential of using Twitter in brand building, and was very disappointed when the Track functionality was shelved (for business or technical reasons we don’t know) earlier this summer. However, while we were all lamenting the discontinuance of service, the Gillmor Gang podcast of July 21 included guests Evan Prodromou of Identica and Loic Le Meur of Seesmic/Thwirl. I listened to the discussion led by Steve Gillmor about federated communication via microblogging services such as Identica, and it immediately peaked my interest! I set up my account that day.

They discussed many exciting aspects of Identica including the fact that tracking would be available with the platform, plus many more features that would be built by the open source community itself … however, the most powerful element they discussed was the distribution of the Laconica platform (Identica is built on it) to a wide variety of entities.  Evan can envision the ability to add micro-blogging to a community as simply as installing a WordPress blog is today.

I can envision so many businesses and organizations that would be able to take advantage of this kind of power. Evan’s objective is to get micro-blogging to the level of ubiquity as email is today. Keep in mind that email used to be a silo’d communication tool where you could only send messages to others within your same provider. Did you have a Compuserve or a Prodigy account?  We need to get away from the silo’d limitations of our current micro-blogging platforms.







But back at the end of July there wasn’t a whole lot happening at Identica. I set up my Twhirl client and subscribed to a few people .. but the conversation wasn’t that engaging since there were so many more people on Twitter.

This week things got interesting! Leo Laporte and Randal Schwartz had Evan as a guest on the FLOSS Weekly podcast and instantly determined that Leo would be setting up his own micro-blogging community at http://army.twit.tv. He has a built in community from his podcasts, live streaming and radio shows, and his Twit Army of followers has responded enthusiastically.  So I now have an account set up in that community as well.

Now here’s the REALLY cool part .. Laconica is working towards the ability to allow users to cross post & cross subscribe among other Laconica communities, so you can avoid managing multiple identities and reading multiple streams!  In essence, as an individual builds out their own social graph connecting various networks and communities, there will be a single location or application where the user can read and post among all of the communities they are interested in.  The problem with silo’d communities today is that you have to register, set up a profile, log in, check back etc etc… to use them effectively.  I’ve heard so many people say they haven’t checked their (fill in the blank), Facebook, Linkedin … account in X weeks.  With the new form of open, federated communities you won’t have to, you will always be plugged in to your network and communicating with fellow users through a single stream.

What’s a real world example?

Right now I am in the process of working with a client who is opening a motorcycle service shop.  The owners are interested in developing a strong base of local riders who trust them to perform superior service on their equipment.  The owners are also very involved in advancing a local riding chapter that organizes events, hosts charity rides and in essence builds a community with the repair shop as the center …

I see micro-blogging as a way for the entire group to communicate about upcoming rides, as a way to follow riders who might be taking a long cross country trip, or simply to connect when the weather turns against getting together for a day on the open road.

Now add in a federated system that spans across other riding communities on the web.  The riders that are traveling cross country can post and subscribe to other chapters in cities where they are visiting, allowing them to find the best bike shops, hangouts etc.

Locally the owners can post to other chapters within the state to coordinate fund raising events …. all while maintaining the same sense of a community that shares common interests.  You can’t really get that with a “fire hose” micro-blogging system like Twitter.

The service shop business will benefit as riders coming through town are able to communicate with the owners by tracking “Motorcycle repairs Atlanta” on Identica and will find a burgeoning community to tell them that they can pull off I-85 in Tyrone to take care of that repair issue.

I’ll say it again .. WOW .. we are at the cusp of an amazing new dimension of communications and community building on the web.