You have probably heard the terms Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. Web 2.0 has been a hot topic of discussion with the emergence of social media. But what exactly does it mean?

You may remember the Internet in the mid-1990s. It was awful. Most companies had no understanding of how to use the Internet for their business, so they simply posted the same broadcast-style messaging found on brochure ware. That’s what we refer to as Web 1.0.

image from telegraph.co.uk

image from telegraph.co.uk

The term Web 2.0 emerged in 1999 when engineer Darcy DiNucci described an imminent shift in Internet history from static “screenfuls” to two-way communication portals. During the Web 2.0 era, web sites became much more interactive, soliciting input from the user and granting her the ability to publish her own writing, pictures, videos and more. Today, Web 2.0 is often synonymous with “social media.”

Now, we’re on the brink of Web 3.0. It’s a new chapter in the history of the Internet brought on by three distinct characteristics:

1. App-based Computing

Odds are you may hardly ever visit your favorite websites. Instead you probably access the content from those sties through an application or independent program. These applications can be mobile (for the 250 million people accessing Facebook on their phones), desktop-based (for the 20+ million people using Tweetdeck to access Twitter) or both (for the 10 million Evernote users who access their notes on multiple platforms). The web still has its time and place. However, custom computer programs often provide a better user experience. Read Chris Anderson and Michael Wolff’s famous Wired Magazine article on the death of the “web.”

2. Internet Everywhere

Smartphones will be in the hands of the majority of American mobile subscribers by the end of this year, and almost all of those phones will have 3G or 4G access. That means they will carry the Internet with them in their pockets. Having Internet everywhere means the way we use the Internet will change. A mobile device doesn’t lend itself to full web browsing very well. Many companies are designing watered down versions of their websites formatted for mobile devices. People use mobile web more to “check” their digital lives than to live them.

3. Open Source Technology

You might have noticed alternative login methods popping up all over the web asking you to log in with Facebook, Twitter, Google, foursquare or Yahoo. If you dare to click one of those buttons, you’ll find the website your on has the ability to pull in information you’ve entered into another service. This development is made possible through application programming interfaces (APIs), which allow one piece of software to communicate openly with another piece of software. Many software companies now offer APIs so that third party developers can innovate on top of their existing technology. Right now, I feel there are serious conversation fragmenting problems in consumer technology. I can’t even begin to attempt to count the number of places I send and receive messages. My hope is that APIs help to solve that problem.

Eventually the future of the web will take us toward augmented reality, but we’re far from that now. What other indicators do you look for to imply we’re moving into the next era of the web?

IMAGE VIA Wolf Gang

A few weeks ago, I was at SXSW (also known as Spring Break for Nerds) with three colleagues. We all had completely different schedules planned and completely different agendas, but had to come together once each day to film our daily episode of TechInterruption. If you’ve ever been to SXSW, you know that trying to attend panels and trying to meet up with people are mutually exclusive activities.

At the beginning of my stay in Austin, I was on the hunt for the hot breakout technology of 2011. But most of the hallway chatter was about transmedia (old news), the location-based services wars (which don’t actually exist) and gamification (which many folks were not high on).

The only redeeming “new tech” factor at SXSW this year was Group Messaging. Group Messaging essentially takes the online chartrooms of our AOL days and brings them to a streamlined mobile experience. Popular Group Messaging apps include GroupMe, Kik, Beluga and Fast Society, many of which integrate with SMS (which is just fancy talk for regular old texting).

The messages sent over these applications generally reach their destinations faster than texts. They also further indicate a shift to data plan-dependent mobile ecosystems. In other words, soon you’ll only need a mobile device (or table) and a data plan (with no voice or text plan from your wireless provider) to make calls over the web and to send text-based messages.

So my colleagues and I saved hours of texting and calling each other individually to coordinate meeting times by using Group Messaging technology. Collaboration 2.0 for the win. No, the technology is not sexy. It’s not ground-breaking. It’s old, proven and time-tested technology playing out in a new forum on mobile devices. What made it remarkable at SXSW and what will continue to make it remarkable moving forward is how people innovate by using the technology.

From a workplace perspective, Group Messaging will forever change remote collaboration on time-sensitive projects that require quick answers. Communities will use it to quickly connect people with local interests, thereby assisting serendipitous meet-ups. Students will use it in the classroom to provide backchannel commentary during lectures…and probably collaboratively cheat.

Group Messaging is here to stay in one form or another. As always, feel free to share thoughts and ideas.

Image VIA Andy Mihail

A Definition: What’s a Twitter chat?

A Twitter chat is a scheduled group orchestrated around a hashtag. Chats usually last about an hour and can capture any size audience. Typically, Twitter users are drawn to chats because chats offer a forum to air out ideas and opinions about a specific topic.

Goals

A Twitter chat should exist to accomplish a set of goals. The goals can be specific and measurable or qualitative in nature. Some examples of Twitter chat goals are as follows:

• To grow thought leadership for the chat founders
• To create an open forum for discussion around a previously under-explored topic
• To fuel content for a blog, book, ebook or wiki

Determining a need

There are already a ton of Twitter chats today. So determining whether or not enough demand exists is crucial to the success of a chat. Chat founders need to aim to create an experience participants can’t get elsewhere. Before jumping in head first, ask yourself a few questions:

• Are the existing conversations about my topic burgeoning, but disjointed? In other words, is there a need for organization around the conversations about this topic?
• Are there enough sub topics to fuel this chat for more than a few sessions?
• What influencers would be interested in this chat? Can I convince them to participate?
• How many people would be ideal for a conversation about my topic?

Organization/Moderation

Moderation Structure

Establishing an official Twitter persona for your chat has several benefits:

• The profile bio can be used to give a description of the chat.
• The profile URL can link to a chat blog, group, category RSS feed, etc.
• The account can be used to ask questions during the chat.
• The account can build thought leadership in a niche vertical.

Some chats do not have an official Twitter persona behind them. They are run by the individuals who founded them. This format can work too, especially if the individual organizing the chat wants individual credibility.

Density

One of the most difficult issues to work out during a chat is how closely you want to control it. The number of questions in your chat can steer a conversation into very niche discussions or an open-mic style chat puts the chat direction entirely in the hands of the participants.

For many chats, 5-10 questions work well. Some chats will change format from time to time by hosting an occasional open forum or bringing in a special guest to do a Q&A.

Frequency

Most Twitter chats are weekly. Others are monthly. Still others are scheduled sporadically. Finding the right frequency for your audience will be largely based on how engaged they are and by how consistently compelling the content is.

It may take a few months to figure out an appropriate frequency. You will get a sense of how often a chat needs to take place based on the volume of participation.

Touchpoints

It’s helpful to think of your Twitter chat like a community. Figure out where and how your chat community will reach its members. Some examples of touchpoint models are:

• Email newsletters
• Twitter reminders (public @replies or Direct Messages)
• LinkedIn group messages
• Facebook Group notifications

Growing an audience

Momentum is crucial to a successful chat. In an ideal world, your chat would gather more participants each week. Unfortunately, your Twitter chat is just a Twitter chat. It will not be a high priority item for your community members. So some of your chats will be smaller than others. However, there are best practices for growing a community between chats:

• Encourage community members to spread the word about the chat.
• Create recap blog posts for anyone who cannot participate in the live chat.
• Thank and highlight chat participants regularly.
• Establish a paper.li for your chat hashtag and tweet it during each update.
• Keep engagement on the hashtag going even when the chat is not live.

Capitalizing on a Chat

Sponsored Twitter chats are becoming increasingly common. Some options you have for monetizing a chat are:

• Charging per tweet
• Charging per chat
• Selling a sponsorship package for a set number of chats
• Charging per click on a sponsored link

Resources

Some chats you may want to look at:

Blog Chat

LBSchat

Tchat

PR2.0 Chat

EntryPR

Some technology you may want to test into:

• Tweetchat
• Paper.li
• Facebook Groups
• WTHashtag

1. Users open a location-based mobile application like Whrrl, Foursquare or SCVNGR and find recommendations from other users for how to experience different places near them.
2. Within the applications, users bookmark recommendations that they want to do.
3. Users then use their virtual to-do lists to explore the world around them.

Here’s a use case: I’m waiting in line at the ticket booth of the San Diego Zoo. To kill time, I open my Whrrl application. I view a few recommendations from other users who have been to the zoo. One recommendation from a friend of mine says, “Get to the back of the zoo right when it opens. You’ll get to see the lions eating their breakfast.” I think to myself, “I don’t want to miss that!” and I dog-ear that recommendation. Forty minutes later, I’m watching the lions chow down with a few other spectators who were wise enough to download Whrrl. The rest of the park is waiting for the sloth exhibit in the front of the zoo to open. I click the “I did this” button on Whrrl and my friend who made the recommendation about the lions receives a reward within Whrrl.

That reality is evolving quickly, and with it, affiliate marketing is about to change forever.

Recently, Foursquare released its “Add to Foursquare” button, which allows anyone to tag places (and eventually recommendations) into the Foursquare network from anywhere on the web. Here’s where the fun begins. Remember that old  pay-per-click model affiliate marketers used to base their income on? It’s about to be taken to the real world. Here’s how these location-based exploration apps are going to work after a couple of more years of innovation:

1. An affiliate marketer or influencer will be given designated links to specific recommendations and will plant those links using technology like the Foursquare button.
2. Users will add those recommendations to their virtual to-do lists, and the marketer or influencer who planted the recommendation will be compensated for the real world “click.”
3. If a user acts on the recommendation on his/her to-do list, the marketer will be paid even more.

When this world becomes a reality, my friend who made that recommendation at the San Diego Zoo will be compensated with a real world reward (monetary or otherwise). That new incentive may be enough motivation for mass adoption of mobile applications that guide real world experiences.

This is how technology will drive real world action. This is how social influence online can translate to the real world. So what does it mean for your social community? It means that with every new innovation in location-based technology, we are closer than ever to breaking down the boundaries between online and offline experiences.

Twitter chats and LinkedIn groups are on the verge of becoming experience-based, not just interest-based. Niche social networks on Ning will provide digital incentives for real world experiences. Facebook groups will be married to verticals of exploration and activity. As community managers, we no longer need to limit our thinking to what our communities can talk about on discussion boards, chats and blogs. We can now start to strategize about enriching our community members’ lives while they aren’t sitting at their desks pounding away on their laptops.

If you haven’t tried out a location-based app like Whrrl or Foursquare, I highly recommend it. Understanding the dynamics those applications use will be key to running a successful community in the very near future.

Here’s how crowdsourcing works:

1) You discover a problem or a need.
2) You broadcast that need online and call for solutions.
3) An online crowd discovers that call and collectively contributes solutions.
4) You use the crowd’s suggestions to choose a way to fix your problem and reward the individuals who developed that suggestion.
5) In the end, you’ve fixed your problem and the passionate crowd gets that feel-good reward of helping someone out. Everybody wins.

Examples from the video:

NotchUp
Cambrian House

Here’s another example of crowdsourcing at work:

Waze is a turn-by-turn navigation system that has been mapped and tagged entirely by its users. It’s a mobile application that aims to make driving a smoother and more social experience by giving users the power to inform other drives of speed traps, traffic delays, accidents and more all while their phones send geo-data to the waze network. Check it out at waze.com.

Now, that once playfully competitive scene is a battle taking place over a new landscape we call social media. Who owns it? Who controls it? Who deserves it? You’ll get a different answer from every industry you ask. After majoring in public relations, studying some marketing, and landing a job with an advertising firm, I’ve gained some insight on this issue.

PR’s role in social media

PR professionals are the mavens of conversation. And conversation is a huge component of social media. Daily monitoring and damage control on social media should fall into the hands of the PR firm or department. Brands without a human element are just slogans, and PR professionals are the best for the job when it comes to humanizing brands in the social space. Some brands are using social media for customer relationship management and customer service. I would argue that those practices, in the social space, are operating under a PR umbrella.

Advertisers’ role in social media

Yeah, yeah, conversation is great, but the best social media case studies are showing that brands need to create something remarkable to justify conversation. No traditional PR firm or marketing guru could have pulled off what advertising firm Wieden+Kennedy did with the Old Spice YouTube responses. That’s because advertising agencies, unlike PR or marketing firms, have the necessary resources to create professional video content on a personalized level, which is what is needed to fuel conversation and record view-counts. Many ad firms are equipped with the physical resources that take social media beyond conversation and metrics. If a brand wants to build something with the foursquare API for example, they will likely turn to their advertising firm of record for the job. Traditionally, PR firms and marketers simply did not have the interactive design or software engineer resources for that kind of endeavor.

Marketers’ role in social media

The most beautiful thing about social media for brands is that it’s very measurable. Facebook pages provide statistics. Google Analytics can show how many site visitors are coming from social media sites. There are a lot of online tools that help measure Twitter activity and, if you haven’t yet, check out Awareness Inc’s foursquare Perpectives tool. In B2C businesses, these tools are extremely valuable for marketers. I would also say that the practice of branding takes place in the marketing department. Advertising helps to actualize a brand, and PR maintains that brand with conversation, but the creation and discovery of what makes a brand lies with marketers.

The reality

The fact is that these three practices are converging like never before. These industries will move forward in the digital space and continue to battle over control of social media. However, that is not because any one practice owns social media. It’s because the skills that go along with these practices are breaking through old borders. Marketing tactics are happening in advertising firms. Conversation skills normally reserved for PR departments are being used by marketers. PR departments are reporting charts and graphs on social media now!

If you’re looking for a career in one of these industries, understand your skill set will need to include a mesh of these practices. If you’re a business looking to get into social media, look for the resources and skills, not the industry label on the company history page. There are also digital and interactive design firms setting a different standard for how these practices intertwine, but that’s a topic for another article.

Photo from Addendum

As digital workers, we spend a lot of time collaborating online. TalentCulture has previously featured several articles by the great Jeff Wilfong and Chris Jones highlighting some of the high-level processes and theories that dictate successful collaboration. Now, it’s time to get back to the basics.

This is part two of a two-part series. View Going Back to (Collaboration) Basics Part 1

1. Use descriptive file names.

The Problem: We often share documents that are stored in our own space and with out own organizational method (or lack thereof).  The trouble is your naming convention might only make sense to you. When you send that document titled “FINAL_draft” to your boss, it might not be easy for her to know what that “FINAL_draft” document in her downloads folder is. Your third grade teachers wouldn’t accept Spelling tests without your name at the top. If you’ve ever tried to figure out where a document came from and who wrote it, I’m sure you understand that need for an effective label.

The Solution: Put your name and a brief, accurate description in the document title of everything you save (if applicable, include a date as well.) If you download a file with an ambiguous name, rename it right away. It will save you and others time and effort.

2. Use Microsoft Word’s “Track Changes” feature.

The Problem: Many times, we try to collaborate by passing around multiple copies of the same document at different stages of the editing process. That usually ends with collapsing four or more versions of the same document into a final copy.

The Solution: You can of course use a collaborative document editor like those found on online collaboration services such as Bascamp, Wiggio and Google Docs. But we’re focusing on the basics here, so let’s talk about what features Microsoft Word has to offer. If you use the Track Changes feature in the Tools section of the menu, you can see which user on your team made which suggestions or comments. You can then accept or reject those changes. It’s an easy way to pass a document around and see edits before crafting a final draft.

Photo from CSL

As digital workers, we spend a lot of time collaborating online. TalentCulture has previously featured several articles by the great Jeff Wilfong and Chris Jones highlighting some of the high-level processes and theories that dictate successful collaboration. Now, it’s time to get back to the basics.

This is part one of a two-part series on the basics of online collaboration, and the everyday tools we overlook or misuse.

1. Apply Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques to email.

The Problem: Many email programs have evolved beyond simple send-and-receive features of the mid-ninties. Now, without realizing it, many of us are using our inboxes for data storage. The problems occur when we want to find information from last week, month or year. We use the search functions to rummage through old emails and attachments and spend what amounts to hours of our workweek simply searching for information we’ve already read.

The Solution: Understand the basic concepts behind search engine optimization and how those apply to the way we use email. I once received an email from my father containing an attachment with important information about eye doctors approved by our health insurance plan. The subject of the email was “here it is;” the body read “here you go,” and the attachment document title was a series of numbers. How I was supposed to find that email when I really needed it to call a doctor during business hours is beyond me. The simple solution is to fill out the subject and body of your emails with keyword-rich content. When writing an email, always ask yourself, “Does this email contain information the recipient(s) will need later? If so, how can I write this email so that it shows up when they search their inbox?”

2. Save your Microsoft Office files in the more common .DOC  and .PPT formats.

The Problem: We waste so much time and frustration dealing with the ramifications of Microsoft’s attempt to force its “customers” to buy the latest software. When Office 2007 was released for Windows, it introduced the new default file format .docx that could not be opened by previous versions of Microsoft Word. The same problems arose with .pptx formats, the new PowerPoint default and .xlsx files, the new Excel format.

The Solution: If everyone saved everything as .doc and .ppt files, the world would be a safer, happier place. Unfortunately, we don’t live in digital paradise. Just remember that since new versions of Microsoft Office are backwards compatible, saving files as .doc and .ppt is always the safest bet. However, you can’t expect your colleagues, clients, and classmates to be as tech-savvy as you are, TalentCulture reader. Download a solid file converter to save yourself the stress. (Note, however, that file conversions aren’t foolproof so if you need to share files, you still need to be mindful of this suggestion.)

3. When initiating or replying to a group email, put careful thought into who needs to be included in the to: and cc: lists.

The Problem: The single biggest flaw with email is that its cc and reply-all features are used for online collaboration. One classmate of mine was working on a group project that sparked an email chain of over 100 messages. She was not using an email client that organized that chain into a single conversation, so when we checked her email, her entire inbox was full of emails all with the same title.

At the other end of the spectrum, how many of us have waited for a reply to an email from someone who we (days later) realize was never cc’d on the original reply? I know I have.

The Solution: Think carefully about who needs to be cc’d on an email chain and who does not. Email is not the best tool for online collaboration, so if possible, it’s best to take longer and more complicated group-focused issues off of email and into a meeting of conference call. That saves everyone the time of clarifying what he or she means in text-only form.

*Google has made a thus far failed attempt at solving issues surrounding Reply All and CC misuse with Google Wave. You can always give that a try in your online collaboration needs since it’s open to the public now.

Keep an eye out for part two of this series next week!

TC: What is EditMe?

MM: EditMe is the easiest way to create collaborative websites online. It is a SAAS-based wiki engine that also has a Javascript API that allows you to create work flow on top of it.

TC: What sets EditMe apart from some of the other project management tools and website collaboration tools already out there?

MM: A lot of other online tools have collaborative aspects to them, but they are a little bit more focused, and they stop at a certain point. WordPress is a blog, and all blogging engines are really designed to enable you to communicate your thoughts by broadcasting them out to the world. People can interact and collaborate by commenting on your blog, but that’s where it mostly ends. A Wiki lets everyone get into the content of a site and change it. So if you’re creating an idea, and you want people to contribute to that idea, and evolve it over time, you can use a Wiki. Most of the project management tools let you collaborate by keeping everyone on track with tasks and milestones, but don’t actually let you create ideas.

So we don’t focus on milestones or tasks, to-do lists and time tracking. We’re more focused on getting people to collaborate on an idea, share their thoughts, upload documents and build something.

TC: What is a lean start-up?

MM: Lean start-ups have become popular in the last nine months to a year. Eric Reis is really a champion of that term. He’s been at many different start-ups over the years. He’s pioneered this way of not doing anything until you’re sure of the outcome: testing something, getting data back, minimizing the waste that it takes to arrive at a conclusion, and then moving forward.

In the past, people have thrown a lot of money into big dot-coms in the hopes that some problem works out. That’s what we call a fat start-up. A lean start-up–what EditMe is–is two guys who have an idea, build a product, put it out into the wild, test how many people were interested in it, and evolve the product based on customer needs

TC: Can you tell us about what you are doing to give back to the entrepreneur community?

MM: We give loans to the Kiva Organization. Kiva allows people and organizations to make interest-free loans to entrepreneurs in under-developed countries. Many of these entrepreneurs are working on ideas that are really community focused. For example, creating a baby sitting group in a small town or village, or creating a retail store to sell homemade pots or clothes. Very small, community-focused companies that need very little capital to start. Sometimes it’s only $15 or $200. We’ve made over 350 interest-free loans through the Kiva program. It’s our way of giving back to the entrepreneur community.

TC: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

MM: Everyone should use EditMe to create a website. It’s the easiest way to collaborate online. Check us out at EditMe.com for a free trial.

After some careful research on job growth, happiness, opportunity, and nightlife, I’ve pinned down the top 10 cities for fresh college graduates to live, work and play.

#10 Houston, TX

• Ranked #3 in the country for job growth
• Opportunities for graduates with science and technical degrees
• Lively nightlife

#9 Boston, MA

• Lots of public transportation means no need for a car
• Up-and-coming job market
• Long, cold winters

#8 San Francisco, CA

• Affordable housing
• Growing job market
• Nightlife and rich culture

#7 Austin, TX

• 25% of the population is in their 20s.
• Ranked one of the best upcoming areas in the country

#6 Atlanta, GA

• Home to over 24 major corporation headquarters
• Average starting salary of $40,000
• Happiest suburbs in America

#5 Denver, CO

• Affordable housing
• Home to the happiest single professionals in the country
• Ranked #4 in the U.S. for job growth

#4 Chicago, IL

• Lots of entry-level jobs
• Affordable housing
• Great deep dish pizza

#3 Washington, D.C.

• Great social scene
• Highest concentration of college graduates in the country
• Lots of government and university jobs

#2 Seattle, WA

• Greenest, most sustainable city in America
• High job growth and starting salaries
• Lots of new college graduates

#1 New York, NY

• Great nightlife
• Lots of entry-level jobs
• Possible commuting

Resources:

Best cities for college grads and young single professionals

Top 20 Cities for Entry-Level Job Seekers

America’s Favorite Cities

Best Cities For Young Professionals

The Best Cities to Live and Work In