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November 14, 2007
Social Media is changing the Face of Communications
“Communications as we know it is over” was the message I shared during my recent keynote at Fall 2007 VON in Boston. This was the conclusion I reached after thinking about the recent impact of social media on my life. While I may not have provided enough of a transitional bridge to help all of the Telecom executives in the Fall VON audience to connect-the-dots as to what my meta-message really was, I do hope that some of the people attending VON heard what I was saying.
Back in 1995, Internet Telephony was social. In 1995, the way I used Internet Phone was very similar to the way I would have used my ham radio, except that instead of being dependent on things like antennas, propagation and a ham radio, all I needed was connectivity, software and a computer. Just about all of my conversations took place with random people, in random locations. Back in 1995, it was the “fear, greed and disruption” of what it meant to empower an entire generation of people with the ability to communicate without the need of a service provider which brought a number of new faces to Davos in January, 1996.
It wasn’t until sometime during 1996 that many of the companies involved in the early days of Internet Telephony decided to focus on establishing themselves as players in what would become the trillion dollar telecom industry. Gone was the vision of empowering people to communicate without the need of traditional service providers. Instead their focus shifted to becoming the suppliers of gateways and other products used to interconnect between the Internet and the PSTN. This was later followed by the development of the Softswitch and other products which emulated with IP the functionality of a class 4 and class 5 switch.
And for years, as startups used IP Communications as a technology platform to build better IP based voicemail systems and IP based call forwarding systems, at VON and other place I spoke about the possibilities of using IP based technologies to build platforms to deliver things which were never before practical or possible before the advent of the Internet. This in turn lead me to introducing the concept of “purple minutes” as a way to differentiate from the “Black and White” minutes being created by Softswitches. “Black and White” minutes are minutes who share very similar attributes to the TDM minutes the softswitch technology was replacing.
Fast forward 12 years and with no thanks to the telecom industry, social media happened anyway. And with advent of social networks, we are now at a moment in time where it is only because of the Internet that an entire new generation of applications-driven communication networks have evolved and are starting to become on their own a much more efficient way to communicate shared common life experiences than a regular phone call can possibly offer. It is the underlying metadata social networks carry and the context and vantage points into our lives which they offer access to which is special. In fact, these networks are now offering a second chance for the people who pioneered Internet Telephony to once again embrace a world were people can communicate with people without the need for traditional service providers. And get much more out of the experience than ever before.
While our existing communication devices and telecommunications services are great for both synchronous and asynchronous communications, service providers today do not offer anything which can create the same feeling of being connected with someone as is now possible when one spends their time inside of their own social media living room. The fact remains that after 14+ years of being on the internet, my summer of social media has changed both the way I approach the Internet and expectations from my everyday internet experiences.
On days when I’m in Facebook for eight hours or more, it is not as I was once picking up a phone and speaking to someone for eight hours at a time or more. A phone call is not a substitute or replacement for: sending a video message to a friend, tagging someone’s photo or catching up with the Facebook groups that matter to me. Social media has helped me better appreciate “real-enough time” communications. Something in between real-time and non real-time. Status Messages on Facebook represent a good example of “real-enough time” communication. Readers of my blog who are also experiencing Facebook and finding themselves embedded in the lives of the people who are part of their social network know what I’m talking about. And for those of you about to experience this, being embedded in a social communications platform like Facebook provides an opportunity to experience the feeling of being connected with the lives of your “friends.” And if some of your friends were actually strangers when you started your Facebook journey, you will not remain strangers after spending some time in the world of Facebook.
Telecom companies which ignore the long-term impact of social media are at risk for being disrupted by those communication companies which choose to embrace it. This is as true for their approach to with dealing with customers as much as for the underlying future services they consider offering.
When I look to the future, I see one where the impact of Social Media provides a huge opportunity for the people who have been involved in the VoIP industry to establish another parallel line of business. We are moving to a time of people calling people and away from a time where people call a number and hope the person they are looking to reach is at that number.
Social media is changing the face of communications.
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Readers of my blog are invited to join me on both twitter and Facebook.
Tags: twitter, telecom, facebook, Social Communications, Social Media, Social Media Living Room, Jeff Pulver
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Posted by jeff on November 14, 2007 06:31 AM | Permalink
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Comments
Today, living a bit remote from many of my friends and travelling quite a bit, I find that my interaction on Facebook connects me with frIends near and far and I am feeling more connected than ever with many of my friends.
Posted by: 迷你倉 at March 30, 2008 10:59 PM
I don't feel free at all. We have given the worst element of censorship in human nature a leg up. It isn't the technology that is the problem here...
A funny thing happened yesterday. After the tragic loss of "Trembles" the wonder cat to an automobile we got inspired and spent a few grand for an electronic invisible fence for our animals. They all now have to wear these stupid torturing collars that beep and electrocute. Poor "Thisbie" the dog is up in the attic tonight just trembling in fear of going outside. The idea of her freedom being taken away freaked her out. It wasn't my idea... it was my mother's, but I don't want to see another beloved house hold pet looking like road kill... so I went along like a apprehensive Republican with Speedy Gonzalez. Oh what the hell right? I sat back and let my mother chop our cat's balls off so I should stop it with the Libertarianism. At any rate "Thisbie" slept in my bed last night. Every half hour or so she would wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat jumping in fear of an arbitrary electric shock. Do you think ZuckerTurd of facebook would let me back on if I installed one to myself that could be used online?
I prefer the cold money oriented Telecom industry to the collective "Leftism" of these social network companies. I have empathy for my dog.
Posted by: Noah David Simon at November 16, 2007 08:39 AM
Great post and spot on as usual Jeff. As I sit here I discover that my clients now comminicate with me via. SMS, Email, Facebook, Skype, Blog Comments, Twitter, Seesmic and a few differnt WebApps.
They are dropping the conversations into the medium which delivers the context of their message and focussing the topic to the channel as they create.
Outlook and Thunderbird are for me rapidly becoming collectors of automated notifications. Which in turn Google mail is archiving and dropping for me on a weekly basis.
The Channels to talk are getting wider and its getting easier to create , end and pick up conversations and pass data across those channels.
Life in 10 years time will be different , SPam is being defeated by people taking part in the network and drowning out the noise !
Thanks for making me think .. hmmmmmmm ... Again Jeff.
Nik ( Loudmouthman ) Butler
Posted by: Nicholas Butler at November 14, 2007 03:19 PM
maybe we are re-inventing the art of the conversation and don't know it _ again - "The invention of Gutenberg's printing press depended primarily upon a .... The Gutenberg press was much more efficient than manual copying ... (editors note - plagarized the above quotez) but what is it behind books, art, poetry, painting, social media, social scuptures but another extension of the conversation we have with ourselves and each other in our constant attempt to give birth to ourselves - the internet and its children like facebook nation is a conversation that we who are you who use it are having within and with ourselves - food for thought - geo
Posted by: geo at November 14, 2007 12:54 PM
Nice call to action for the players who may be turning a deaf ear, but I'm not so sure that it's changing the face of communication, more "changing the place of communication".
Reduction in resources required to do things we've always done opens up the playing field to people who are otherwise challenged to make connections.
I've written a few notes on the subject here: http://www.joe10.com/2007/11/14/social-messaging-old-and-new/
Posted by: Joe 10 at November 14, 2007 10:38 AM
Great blog entry. Word to all of that. Social media really is us actually connecting again fullstop - we all started to get a bit, this is mine and that is yours. and, really that can never had a good resolution can it?
So roll on social media. If your social, your in!
Posted by: Phil Campbell at November 14, 2007 08:02 AM