Category Archives: Culture

On Saturday, I had the fortune of attending and being back stage at the Bridge School Benefit Concert in Mountain View, CA. Before jumping into the concert, I want to share a bit more about the Bridge School and the impact that this benefit has on the students.

The annual concert, now in it’s 23rd year, is the primary source of funding for the Bridge School. The school was founded in 1986 and opened to students in 1987 and my brother, Peter Schlegel, was a member of the inaugural class. Founded by Pegi Young and Jim Forderer, the school was created to meet the needs of kids with severe speech and physical impairments. A group that is marginalized more often than not, the focus on these kids prepares them to lead fulfilling lives.

The concert itself was an amazing musical experience. This year, the show featured Neil Young, No Doubt, Chris Martin (of Coldplay), Jimmy Buffet, Sheryl Crow, Monsters of Folk, Fleet Foxes, Wolfmother and Gavin Rossdale. Adam Sandler is scheduled to perform in place of Jimmy Buffet during the Sunday show. What’s unique about this benefit is that the artists all perform acoustic sets.

No Doubt was by far my favorite performer of the day. Students from the school are seated on the stage behind the artists, which presents a challenge for the musicians, performing for both the kids and the audience at Shoreline Amphitheater. Gwen Stefani and her band were the most successful with that by singing to both the kids and the audience throughout the set. Chris Martin was also amazing. As a solo performer, singing Coldplay songs, he had the unique challenge of using just his voice and a piano to woo the 20,000 or so people in the audience. He did it beautifully and was joined by a violin-playing friend of his after the first song. He was funny, making jokes about his bad choice in hat (which had a “where’s Waldo?” feel) and sharing an incredible musical performance.

Earlier in the evening, Jimmy Buffet took the stage with his happy island music and all had a good time dancing to songs like “Margaritaville”. Sheryl Crow shared an emotional set featuring a lullaby she composed for her son. Monsters of Folk and Fleet Foxes were new bands to me but both impressed the crowd, making the most of the acoustic sets. I was a little late so I missed Wolfmother and Gavin Rossdale but I heard good reviews from the people around me.

This is the one show I look forward to every year. The tickets seem a little pricey but you always get your money worth and it’s all for a good cause. I realize that this post has absolutely nothing to do with social media but is an event that I want to share with the community, especially bay area based people who may be interested in attending next year.

To learn more about the Bridge School, please visit: http://www.bridgeschool.org/

To check out the videos I recorded at the concert head over to my YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/schlegelsteph

At the Web 2.0 Summit earlier this week Morgan Stanley Internet analyst Mary Meeker presented on several aspects of Internet growth across various devices and services. While Meeker covered the growth of Netscape and AOL, she also covered game consoles and the combined growth of the iPhone and the iPod Touch.

It was an interesting comparison of Internet-related devices and services, yet the data on game consoles and the combined affect of the iPhone and iPod Touch highlighted the importance of social gaming. Even more notable is the fact that the iPhone and the iPod Touch together supersede the growth of popular gaming consoles including the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP.

The iPhone has already been deemed an up and coming force when it comes to social gaming, with several game developers looking to create mobile versions of their game consoles. On the flip side, gaming consoles have increased their social capabilities over the years by supporting Internet connectivity, introducing an entire sub-economy for the monetization and enjoyment of games.

Granted, many of the games available on the iPhone are simpler than what we see on game consoles, with fewer options for graphics, effects and other aspects of game play. Yet the socialability of both the iPhone and gaming consoles create a common ground for the devices. There’s a great deal of potential for social gaming because of the platforms being built around mobile and established game consoles, and that goes for mobile gaming devices as well.

Apple is particularly at the forefront of this trend, as it was among the first to offer a comprehensive platform for third parties to develop and sell applications on its mobile device. The cult-following of Apple products helped the cause, especially when it came to the seemingly limiting factors of purchasing and using an iPhone (AT&T).

Nevertheless, one must wonder at future trends, and how social gaming will play out across all of these devices. From accessibility and downloadability to price structure and “word-of-mouth” marketing via social media outlets, there is a great deal that the mobile and gaming industry can learn from each other.

Current trends suggest a continued merging of the concepts representing both ends of the social gaming spectrum, with developers helping to drive the economy around this industry. Monetization as such has ushered in a series of new options for advertising and direct sales to consumers, as accessibility of game-related content increases.

The Internet is a powerful thing, and it can bring about connections in places we once never imagined. Providing an oddly tangible way of interacting with someone on the other side of the world has presented a wealth of business opportunities, largely democratizing a large portion of our corporate and small business culture on a global scale.

Samasource is a company that utilizes the Internet to bring job opportunities to marginalized individuals, including refugees. Its new Refugee Work Program, created in conjunction with CrowdFlower, aims to bring these opportunities to people through its new iPhone application.

The new iPhone app is called Give Work, and it leverages its crowdsourcing technology to connect users with refugees in search of a job. Give Work is designed specifically for refugees at one of the world’s largest refugee sites, at the Dadaab, Kenya data center.

The idea behind Samasource’s company is to aid in computer training and helping refugees land technology-based work. Job skills plus opportunities can enable an individual to better sustain their own livelihood, which can be difficult to maintain at times when you are a refugee.

In matching the two aspects of the job world, Samasource’s new iPhone app allows clients to list a host of quick and easy tasks from CrowdFlower customers, which are completed by the end users of the application. The tasks translate into real work for the company, and real pay for the refugees. Tasks could be the creation of keywords for images or video clips, or classifying text.

These are aspects of web data organization that have typically been reserved for users of a given site. However, not all companies seeking this type of information has the desire or resources to create their own application or website in order to render such massive amounts of user activity.

For participating companies, they are able to give back to refugee camps with the donation of their time instead of money. It is an interesting coupling of business and community service, ultimately benefiting more than just a commercially interested entity. In extending the digital economy to members of a refugee site, an exchange of knowledge and resources becomes a socially aware byproduct of attempting to do the right thing. If you would like to learn more about Samasource and its new iPhone app with CrowdFlower, click here.

Via PR 2.0

Twitter is a phenomenon unto itself. Which is why, in the study of Social Media, Digital Anthropology and Sociology prevails.

Technology indeed facilitates interaction while also introducing us to nuances that transcend the parameters governing natural conversations and asynchronous dialogue into new forms of conversational threads and networks.

Twitter is among those networks actively studied by many (myself included) as it seemingly defies the laws of natural flow and engagement.  The foundation that makes Twitter work is also the very essence that should prevent it from working at all.

In Social Media, psychology and the study of  the mind now also plays a role in understanding the context to those affecting and affected by online behavior.

The Twitterverse and its supporting ecosystem is an anomaly that may represent as Dr. Drew Pinsky captured in our recent conversation in Los Angeles, “potentially a place where pre-existing pathologies are freed and where modalities are acted out.”

Is it fueled by narcissism and self-promotion as so many claim?

Dr. Drew believes that acquired narcissism does not exist.

In his research, he has found that the amount of time someone spends in a new medium has zero impact on their narcissistic impulses. Meaning that if they are narcissistic prior to their exposure to Twitter, they are most likely prone to egotism in their behavior on Twitter – not because of Twitter.

As Dr. Drew observed, “After a certain stage of development, our environment does very little for us.”

He did however, muse on whether or not today’s youth are living life like a reality show with social media’s magic portal serving as their stage, empowering them to “act out their narcissistic impulses into the world.”

I believe this is the case and therefore it brings the uncomfortable conversation of individual value systems to light. It’s one of the reasons why I created a Social Compass to serve as our moral compass in professional online engagement.

Dr. Drew advocates a deep understanding of the importance of relationships in the real world in order to foster and cultivate meaningful connections online.

In our discussion, I shared my theories suggesting that Twitter and other social networks are transforming and augmenting how we form and manage relationships, creating lineages that reinforce “relations” instead of relationships, and in many cases, creating hierarchies that introduce us to a new dynamic that may actually engender micro-celebrity complete with supporting fandoms.

I also proposed that in Social Media, with an emphasis on Twitter, that we are creating a new generation of digital extroverts who gain confidence in online interaction reinforced by every new update, follower, retweet, public @ (acknowledgment), and linkback. I then suggested that this may actually have a positive impact on society as, we then carry this new found courage back into the real world, supported by our invisible army of supporters who define our social graph. I call this, until I can come up with something better, the “Verizon Network” theory. We carry this unseen support framework with us wherever we go.

Dr. Drew listened, nodded his head, and with a pensive and optimistic beam responded, “I agree with that. We have to tolerate closeness and build sincere bonds through empathy.” He continued, “Yes, enjoy your Twitter, but live life through a cultural ethos that recognizes the importance of ‘real’ relationships. Ensure that you contribute to healthy families and value systems. it’s what gives life its meaning. Live by that credo.” He concluded, “It what I tweet about…”

Indeed. a vast network of socialites who publish but don’t listen, who broadcast but don’t feel what surrounds them, potentially contribute to a global epidemic of empathetic failure.

As Dr. Drew believes, we must, “create friendships and ties that contribute to social good. Aggregate emotions and intelligence and embody it in your endeavors.”

Please also read, “Make Tweet Love.”

Connect with me on:
Twitter, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Plaxo, Plurk, Identi.ca, or Facebook

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Every few months or so we see another social network pop up and entice new users with promises of payouts to users that simply join and use the site. It’s an incentive method that site owners have used for years, playing both sides by joining marketers and eyeballs. When you can’t gain immediate traction, such incentives are quite necessary, though oftentimes the end result is the same–you need a great deal of users in order to maintain site operations.

Nevertheless the public beta of Spiffbox has debuted the latest social network that has taken a familiar tactic to an age-old problem. Spiffbox will pay you to join the site, invite friends and send messages to each other. Plain and simple. Once you’ve racked up $20 worth of points, you can request your check. Cha-ching!

So will Spiffbox work? There are a few aspects of Spiffbox that caught my eye, particularly since the need to monetize one’s user base has become a growing problem for several social sites out there. Spiffbox doesn’t have display ads on its site, and has already incorporated Twitter and Facbook into its grand scheme to make money which is passed down to its users.

One of the methods for encouraging activity on the Spiffbox site may also be another way in which Spiffbox plans to make money. You can earn points quite easily on the site by requesting and offering advice from and to other users. Combine this with the Facebook and Twitter integration, and it appears that Spiffbox may b looking to create a database of user profiles that aggregate real time status updates and potential market research in the form of recommendations amongst its users.

Spiffbox also has a Facebook application, which appears to be a mini version of its actual website. I found this particularly interesting, as there are several paralells between Spiffbox and the way in which brands look to monetize (or at least create a decent return on investment for) their applications on social networks such as Facebook. To a large extent, Spiffbox could benefit moreso from its Facebook app than its standalone website.

The other reason I thought Spiffbox’s launch was noteworthy is because it speaks to the ongoing desire to more efficiently monetize a user base. Other sites such as Referralville have taken to Twitter and Facebook, along with personal recommendations of sorts, in order to provide more value to users than just a check in the mail, while gathering important consumer data and generating leads all the while. As much as we may laugh or shudder at the thought of a site promoting such an incentive method, the need to monetize a user base has not disappeared.