I think I’ve just been handed a whole new image, thanks to Lee Hopkins and his creative genius.

To return the favour after his flattering post following our yarn over Skype today and hand out a bit of link love, check out Lee and Trevor Cook‘s latest Social Media whitepaper.

These guys are contributing to an important global discussion in a meaningful way, so they deserve all the kudos (and speaking fees!) that come their way.

So here are a couple of interesting social media sites I stumbled across in recent days.

I’ve been reading a truckload of nominations lately for IT Journo’s annual Lizzie Awards Best New Journalist category (tech industry awards given out by Media Connect). And as a quick aside, it’s really encouraging to read the work of new IT journalists who’ve dived into the industry fresh from Uni or made the career switch. There’s a whole bunch of really talented people out there, but I digress.

The first site I came across while reading these nominationed was Laurel Papworth’s Bloggerati.  Don’t ask me how I’ve managed to miss this site to date, but it’s worth a look, and worth supporting. Think of it as an Aussie version of Digg.

The second is more controversial. RateMyTeachers is a global site that, as the name suggests, lets students rate the performance of their teachers. Follow the links to your country (Australia is included), select your state, enter the name of your local school and bingo! – there’s a good chance you’ll find some candid feedback from anonymous students or parents on individual teachers.

Personally, if I was a teacher this would freak me right out. I can understand why people in the US are trying to get it wiped off the Internet.  But if you’re a good teacher and love your work, then you shouldn’t have anything to worry about. The only problem I have with the site is that it doesn’t seem to give teachers an official right of reply, or a way of appealing your rating without simply writing a comment in response.

But the bottom line is that’s its a really innovative approach. As a Dad who’s faced with choosing a school for our daughter next year, all of a sudden services like this have an immediate appeal.

Gotta love social media that breaks the mould.

My colleagues at the AFR were on hand when Eric Schmidt dropped into Sydney today for a quick visit – watch the video here. There were a bunch of minor announcements which the SMH reported here. And you can read new AFR IT Editor Ben Woodhead’s report on misaustralia.com.

My favourite quote: “The brand is in very good shape, and it’s wonderful, especially given the company is run by engineers.”

Another observation: I think Google stole a leaf from Apple’s “how to surprise the media and spark lots of coverage” PR book this time. We media types were issued with an invitation to come to a Google press event today.The only clue that it was a potentially significant event (at least from a special guest perspective) was the location – they’d rented space at the Sydney Opera House.

Facebook VP media sales Mike Murphy keynoted Ad:Tech in Sydney this morning. It’s apparently the first notable first visit to Sydney by a senior exec from Facebook. And it’s interesting the difference an older guy in a suit can make to a brand (contrast him against Zuckerberg in jeans and t-shirt). Mike’s been in the media and Internet game for years, and is responsible for facebook’s revenues.

In the afternoon, Mike joined me on stage for a social media panel with a real calling card of social media execs: MySpace VP Australia and NZ Rebekah Horne (a late re-entry to the panel), Bebo general manager Australia and NZ Franisco Cordero, and Adrian Toy, APAC regional interactive director for Universal McCann. It was also apparently one of the first times we’ve had big guns from each of the big social networks on one panel in this country. There was audio, video and pics recorded by the organisers, so when that’s available I’ll update this page.

Our charge was to talk about the value of social media and consumer generated content. If I was to boil down the conversation, I’d say that each of these companies don’t see their growth ending and they believe that social media sites as the “new portals” will keep growing thanks to the boom in CGC. They all want to partner with advertising agencies to develop social media savvy campaigns, but really, when pushed, they’d still much rather deal directly with clients.

Oh, and they were quite happy to point out that Microsoft, Google and Yahoo! were not on the panel because they don’t have big social media sites. I pushed them on what would happen if the internet’s search giants decided they wanted to be in the social media, or social networking game (as I’ve previously suggested will happen). Mike’s response was that those other guys have built their businesses on the basis of anonymity – people hide behind random email names etc. Social networking, on the other hand, is all about real people and real connections. The culture shift from anonymity to publicity was too great for them to overcome, he argued. I’m not so sure about that.

Anyway, below are my notes from Mike’s keynote, hastily bashed out on my “WozBook“. Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s “duh, who knew?!” newsflash comes to us from this yarn in the NYT which reminds us that Internet companies like Yahoo!, Google, Facebook, MySpace etc collect copious amounts of personal data.

This idea has of course already surfaced before in the form of different ideas, such as the attention economy and the attention trust. The point is that all of us implicitly or explicitly make an exchange when we use the Internet. We get access to oceans of content and data, and some of the service providers collect tolls along the way – in this case the search engines and digital media companies that store, mix and exploit personal data. And that data is valuable. There’s no great socialist conspiracy here (to the best of my knowledge) – it’s simply the way the ‘net works.

But food for thought raised here is that there’s been a shift in the balance of power away from traditional media. In times past, media companies drew their strength from understanding and knowing reader behaviour. An editor is at his or her best when decisions about editorial and the media business are heavily influenced by reader behaviour.

Now, that situation hasn’t changed. Editors still understand their readers and publications. But the vast computing power being deployed by Internet giants continues to change the game regardless. Here’s a quote from the NYT piece:

The rich troves of data at the fingertips of the biggest Internet companies are also creating a new kind of digital divide within the industry. Traditional media companies, which collect far less data about visitors to their sites, are increasingly at a disadvantage when they compete for ad dollars.

The major television networks and magazine and newspaper companies “aren’t even in the same league,” said Linda Abraham, an executive vice president at comScore. “They can’t really play in this sandbox.”

During the Internet’s short life, most people have used a yardstick from traditional media to measure success: audience size. Like magazines and newspapers, Web sites are most often ranked based on how many people visit them and how long they are there.

But on the Internet, advertisers are increasingly choosing where to place their ads based on how much sites know about Web surfers.

So where does this leave big media? Do you rush out and buy sophisticated web analytics services or software? Wait for the consumer privacy outrage to swing the pendulum back in your favour? It would be foolish and simplistic to say there was one easy answer.

But for me, an interesting subtext to this piece is that what counts more than ever is the opinion of advertisers and marketers when it comes to online spending expectations. In Australia, we’ve got some really savvy online marketers, and plenty of others who sadly think digital media still equals a flashing web banner.

Reminds me of a video that I helped Foad Fadaghi produce for BRW (bottom right side of the page) for his Digital Generation report. If advertisers want accountability and metrics, and you’re in the media game, then now would be a really good time to evaluate or re-evaluate online measurement tools.

So I’m getting ready for the ad:tech panel on social media that I’ll be moderating this Wednesday. Just checked out the conference site, and I see that they’ve updated the program.
Joining me will be Adrian Toy, Regional Director Digital, Universal McCann, Australia and New Zealand’s Bebo GM Francisco Cordero, and Mike Murphy, VP, Media Sales, Facebook. Mike’s actually the conference’s main keynote, so together with the other guys we’ve got quite a crew.

The conference organisers have given us the task of deciding whether a value proposition has emerged for social media and consumer generated content. Given the companies in question, I can hardly imagine it will be “no”…. but it’s interesting that we should even be faced with the question.

So, what should I ask these guys?

Update: Fox Interactive Media (MySpace) business development director Nick Love is also on the panel.  So that’s Facebook, Bebo and MySpace all on one panel. You don’t get that every day.

Updated below

Y’know, it’s not everyday that you get to interview someone like woz. I mean, he’s a geek’s geek. A deadset legend in developer ranks. He basically invented the PC, for crying out loud. And for me, he was the guy who designed the Apple IIe, the very first computer I ever used. Kinda bizzare, that.

So anyway, 30+ years after he and Steve Jobs co-founded Apple Computer, I find myself interviewing him in the corner of a funky cafe in Sydney’s Shangri La hotel during the Broadband and Beyond conference. A video interview for afr.com and misaustralia.com, that is, recorded by my multimedia partner in crime, Fairfax Business Media’s multimedia producer Marc Tewksbury. Expect to see it online later this week. I also recorded the audio on my Zoom H4 for potential podcast material, and knocked out an old skool print yarn for Tuesday’s AFR – so go buy a copy!

You probably won’t believe me, but I didn’t feel “star struck” as such. Yes, he’s an amazing guy. But I guess a better way to describe it is that I had great fun – one of those “I get to do this as a job?” moments, where everything just seems to click. I had questions, and guess what, he had great controversial answers.

But that said, I did succumb to the temptation that faces people in such situations – get stuff signed.

As it happens, I use an old PowerBook G4 perched on my knee to display my interview questions. Thanks to some marvellous foresight on the part of yours truly, I brought a permanent marker with me. Here’s the result… (and I wonder what the 5 yr old machine is worth now?..

Woz also gave me a signed *metal* business card, which I’ll do him the respect of not showing here since it contains his home address and mobile number…

But one of the AFR’s snappers, Peter Braig, was on hand to capture the moment for the paper… and (below) caught Woz signing a card for a very clearly chuffed Mr Tewksbury while I fumbled for a business card of my own.

Say cheese… Marc, Woz, Mark…

Finally, thanks to Jeff Bird, Rachel Slattery and Telstra’s Martin Barr for making it happen.

UPDATE:

The video has gone live on afr.com and misaustralia.com

You can find it on AFR.com down the bottom right hand corner of the home page (here’s a screenshot for reference, and the image links to the video on MISaustralia):

And finally, if you missed the story in Tuesday’s AFR, the online version is here.