
Who knew? A Twitter feed, large on a flashy screen, during a live conference workshop Q&A.
While attending the recent Web 2.0 Expo software love fest in New York, what struck me, those Twitter posts came from audience members right in the same room, only steps away from a microphone and free to pose the same questions to everyone “organically”.
Rather than raising their “analog” hands and voices, they opted to type questions into a digital device.
Afforded seeing everyone’s “twittered” questions come in live, this seemed info overkill, distracting from the verbal live discussion unfolding at the same time.
Later, walking past the Web2Open area (set up for free-wheeling “anti-conference” discussions among peers), more participants seemed tied to their handhelds and laptops then actually talking to each other face-to-face.
All in, to get real people to engage in real meetings was never easy. With the advent of Web 2.0, could we have added yet another layer of complication?
No doubt, despite its relatively short existence, Web 2.0 (the trend, not its name-sake conference) has had fundamental, positive impact on consumer digital life.
But during this industry conference, the community of evangelist and software architects seemed surprisingly stuck between “old world” idiosyncrasies and “new world” paradigm. (In all fairness though, some Web2Open discussion certainly did take place).
In his most recent testimonial ad, Sprint CEO D. Hesse makes a valid point. ”Technology is only great when you know how to use it”.
Web 2.0 Expo attendees certainly know how to “use technology”.
But even to the best of us, it seems still somewhat awkward to navigate both analog and digital worlds simultaneously - especially if both are “anywhere, anytime” and “always on” to reckon with.
So, what is the right mix of “synthetic” communications and “organic” conversation at the dawn of the 21st century?
For anyone with interest in the bigger picture behind all of this, during the conference, Intel social scientist, Genevieve Bell, gave an impressive to-the-point presentation.
Wanna’ discuss this further?
Please no analog “old world” calls.
Instead, post a digital “new world” message right here.
Oh wait, why don’t we talk AND twitter ;-)