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Month: March 2010

Data, data, data, and more data…

For those of you that missed it, the February 27th-March 5th edition of The Economist featured a special report on the over abundance of data, and where we’re heading with it. This may seem like a boring topic at first, but if you start reading , you’ll quickly realize why I continue to be so interested in social media, especially the broader social-cultural and global implications of  all the content/data that we are feeding into “the cloud“.

Rather than providing you with a summary of the article (which hopefully you will read in full), I am providing some excerpts which I highlighted myself while reading:

  • There are 4.6 billion mobile-phone subscriptions worldwide (though many people have more than one)
  • By 2012 the amount of traffic flowing over the Internet annually will reach 667 exabytes
  • Farecast can advise customers whether to buy an airline ticket now or wait for the price to come down by examining 225 billion flight and price records.

Time to ask Stephen Harper some questions!

Here’s your chance Canada. In less than one hour you will have the opportunity to use YouTube to submit a question directly to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The Prime Minister’s response to the Speech from the Throne will be broadcasted live onto YouTube at approx. 11am on Thursday, March 11th. From March 11th until Sunday March 14th, you will have the opportunity to submit questions (text or video) on YouTube and also vote on which questions should be asked directly to the Prime Minister in a live interview on Tuesday, March 16th conducted by Google CFO Patrick Pichette, which will also be posted to YouTube.

Social Media Experts, Gurus, Consultants & Strategists

Here’s my take on the brief history of demand for social media expertise:

  • Back in late 2007, proactive organizations started frantically searching for someone to help them with all this social media “stuff”. They searched for the first thing that came to their mind, “social media expert“. “Surely, there must be an expert out there” , they though.
  • Then in early 2008, the real rush came in as the field became more legitimate and the term “social media consultant” emerged.
  • Mid-2009 saw a sharp rise in search for the term “social media guru” as certain powerful personal brands emerged that apparently knew everything at an almost enlightening level.
  • Late 2009 witnessed a demand in search for “social media strategist” , as certain people realized that the preceding three terms were often being used (with a few exceptions) by hobbyists capitalizing on this trend.