A Wake-Up Call About Data and Privacy

By Mark Evans in Social Media, Uncategorized 1 Comment Tags: , , , ,

In toiling away on the content for mesh ’10 over the past several months, the focus has been on coming up on great keynotes, panels and workshops, as well as attracting people to turn our ideas into reality.

It wasn’t until mesh started that I really became aware of a major theme: the realization that we have so much of our personal and professional data on the Web, and how we spend little or no time thinking about whether this information is secure and protected. I would argue that most of us have optimistic faith that all will be digitally good, which explains why protecting our personal identities and our data is an after-thought – if we think about it at all.

After sitting in on several mesh panels and workshops, I now realize how lazy and cognizant I’ve been about my digital assets, and whether they are protected properly.

During his keynote yesterday, Joseph Menn, for example, talked about how a growing number of cyber-terrorists are focused on hacking into financial and banking systems. We’re not talking about small-time digital hoods but organized crime armed with sophisticated technology.

Adele McAlear did a workshop about what happens to our digital assets (blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr accounts) when we pass away. She talked about a 32-year-old who died in this sleep but left no information about how friends or family could get into his social media accounts to keep them alive.

As well, Paypal CEO Scott Thompson provided more insight about the importance of digital security, and how Paypal has sophisticated anti-fraud and security systems to protect its 89 million members. It made me consider whether Paypal is a better way to make online transactions than using a credit card. Of course, this is based on the belief Paypal’s ant-fraud and security systems are rock-solid.

The reality is our personal and professional usage of the Web is going to grow so security is going to become even more important. For me, mesh serves as a serious wake-up call.

When Should Startups Start Charging?

By Mark Evans in Web 2.0, Web-based Services 4 Comments Tags: , ,

One of the challenges facing many online start-ups is getting people to actually pay for their services, which probably explains why so many of them offer free services. This is great for consumers but leaves start-ups scrambling for ways to generate revenue so they can transform themselves from projects into businesses.

I have come to the conclusion that this approach is untenable because there’s too much risk and uncertainty inherent in the belief that a business model will eventually emerge. As a result, I think start-ups should have a revenue-generating business model from the start, even if it’s a freemium model with a free, basic service.

Given this philosophical approach, it was interesting to hear Sean Ellis’ presentation at meshU yesterday. In a nutshell, Ellis believes many startups should launch their services without charging for them. Instead, he suggests start-ups focus on creating services that resonate with a small group of engaged users, who will provide them with insight, guidance and feedback on how to evolve a service so can have broad appeal.

This is a process Ellis describes as the “gratification engine” – something that start-ups need to spend more time focused on as opposed to trying to attract more users by adding features.

When the start-up has a better idea of the service and how it meets the needs of consumers, Ellis said it can introduce a paid service, while providing the original users with a discount as a reward for their contribution.

When I pushed back about coming out of the gate without charging for services, Ellis said making money from early or beta users is somewhat irrelevant given the more significant revenue could come, in theory, from the large amount of users who come on board afterwards.

To be honest, I’m still not completely convinced that only having a free service is the right way to go. If people want to pay for premium services, there should probably be a way to take their money.

Facebook May Be Evil But….

By Mark Evans in Social Media 9 Comments Tags: , , , ,

Since introducing the privacy-killing Graph API recently, Facebook has been under the gun. In addition to the concerns about its disdain for privacy, there’s also been growing chatter about people leaving the social networking service, as well as suggestions that MySpace or start-ups (Diaspora, anyone?) may have discovered a chink in Facebook’s armour.

But as Business Insider makes clear, the harsh reality is Facebook isn’t going anywhere. The company is too big, too aggressive and far too popular to see it pull a Friendster (and everyone remembers how Friendster was the king of the social networking world at one time, right?).

Facebook may be the elephant in the room but it’s a gigantic elephant. As much as the digital elite may be wailing away at Facebook’s hubris and that of its youthful CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, most Facebook users get far too much value and utility from Facebook to consider using something else.

It’s like shopping at Wal-Mart, and then being told you need to find another retailer because Wal-Mart buys products from Chinese factories that pay their workers $1/hour. It be unfair and wrong but consumers have a habit of ignoring the facts if it means have to change their behaviour.

At the end of the day, Facebook will probably get its act together by appeasing the privacy advocates with some policy changes. It will be a classic two steps forward, one step back strategic move. This will still let Facebook make its data more available, while allowing the privacy people to claim victory over Goliath.

If you’re concerned about Facebook but don’t want to delete your account, consider the following:

1. Spend some time looking at your privacy settings, particularly the “Applications and Web Sites” section, which includes the innocuous sounding “Instant Personalization Pilot Program”.

This program lets Web sites such as CNN.com and Yelp.com personalize their sites based on your Facebook information. If this is something you don’t want, click on “Edit Setting” and uncheck the box at the bottom of the page.

2. Be careful about the information within your profile – things like your birthday, location and interests. Facebook now has the ability to pull this data so it can be used to let advertisers target you better. As well, it’s used for the “Instant Personalization Pilot Program”.

3. Since Facebook is becoming more of a public place, think about your updates, Wall posts and the links, photos and videos being shared. More of this information is being indexed by search engines as opposed to being just for family and friends. This mean what you say on Facebook doesn’t necessarily stay on Facebook.

More: Mashable’s Ben Parr as a column “In Defense of Facebook” that suggests the flack Facebook is attracting for its privacy policies is misguided because it’s really up to users to protect their own privacy.

Looking for the Next Facebook

By Mark Evans in Social Media 10 Comments Tags: , , ,

Legend has it that Bill Gates used to say the biggest threat to Microsoft was a developer working away in his basement – a premonition that was realized with two guys named Larry Page and Sergey Brin created Google.

It’s a lesson that Facebook wunderkind Mark Zuckerberg should take to heart even as Facebook surges towards 500 million users. While not to suggest Facebook is going to disappear any time soon, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that Facebook is losing its youthful innocence, and that a small, but growing, number of people are beginning to explore alternatives.

Truth be told, Facebook has been getting into trouble for the past couple of years with things such as Beacon, a steady series of puzzling interface changes, security leaks, constant changes in its privacy policies and, most recently, a new Graph API that pretty much throws privacy out the window.

This has set the stage for new social networks to emerge. Buoyed by the growing popularity of social networks and mounting concerns about Facebook’s Goliath-like behaviour, there appears to be a window of opportunity for new players with different approaches. A good example is Diaspora*, which the New York Times wrote about today.

Diaspora is being developed as an anti-Facebook by letting “users set up their own personal servers, called seeds, create their own hubs and fully control the information they share”. At a time when more people seem to be getting more cognizant of what’s said on the Web stays on the Web, Diaspora could represent a social network that is, ironically, anti-social.

My sense is Diaspora is just the first of many new kinds of social networks that will lure people away from Facebook or keep people from joining Facebook at all. We are already seeing new kinds of players such as Blippy and Swipely (which just raised $7.5 million in venture capital), although I’m puzzled by the appeal of consumers broadcasting their purchases. In the near future, expect to see more social networks launched with financial support from Silicon Valley VCs looking for the next Facebook.

I see the social networking market evolving like the browser market. MySpace is Netscape, and Facebook is Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer killed Netscape – much like Facebook killed MySpace. In the browser market, however, the death of Netscape led to the birth of Opera, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, et al. And while IE still leads the browser market, it’s no longer the dominant or most interesting player.

Five Reasons to Attend mesh ’10

By Mark Evans in Social Media, Web 2.0 No Comments Tags: , ,

It is hard to believe that mesh ’10 – the fifth addition of mesh – is just around the corner. Every year, it comes as a surprise even though we spend months planning, talking and meeting about it. In many respects, mesh is a labor of love with the big reward coming when the music starts to kick things off on day one.

So, why should you come to mesh’10, which happens May 18 and 19 in downtown Toronto?  Here are five reasons:

1. It is the most vibrant, fun and diversified networking opportunity within Canada’s Web community. There’s really no other place that features entrepreneurs, investors, academics, government officials, marketers, public relations folks, advertisers, developers, designers, people from non-profits and those just interested in how the Web is changing how we work, live and play.

If you haven’t been to mesh before, you’ll discover the breaks between the keynotes and panels are pretty long, and people like it that way because it provides a real opportunity to meet new people and catch up with friends and colleagues.

2. The mesh keynotes. Truth be told, getting the right keynotes is one of the most challenging things about putting on mesh. Every year, we spend hours thinking about the right people who can provide insight about what’s over the online horizon.

So, we’re really excited about our keynote line-up of Chris Thorpe (The Guardian), Joseph Menn (hacker expert and author), Scott Thompson (Paypal) and Arvind Rajan (LinkedIn).

3. The swag. Once again, Right Sleeve is the official mesh partner for all things swag so you can expect Mark Graham and his swag gang to come up with something cool and creative.

4. The workshops and panels. If you could get a sneak-peek of the behind the scenes action, you would discover that we spend countless hours discussing and exploring the programming for mesh. For us, programming is paramount and a pillar.

5. The people who come to mesh. We just organize mesh, it’s the people who attend mesh who really make it happen. They come with enthusiasm, energy, curiosity and optimism. They jump-start the programming by getting engaged with the speakers (and asking lots of questions!), they network like crazy and make everyone feel welcome, and then they socialize in a major way.

So, are you coming to mesh? If you haven’t bought a ticket yet, I suggest you get one soon ’cause they’re going fast. They’re available here.

The ME Consulting “Empire”

By Mark Evans in Media, Social Media No Comments Tags: , , , ,

In the wake of my strategic partnership with Media Profile, I thought it might be interesting to provide a snapshot of the ME Consulting “empire” (as much as you want to call a one-person show an empire!)

At the top of the pile is ME Consulting, which offers two “buckets” of services: marketing, communications and messaging services to start-ups and fast-growing companies; and social media strategy and tactics.

I’m also the director of communications for Sysomos, one of the world’s leading social media monitoring and analytics companies. I handle Sysomos’ social media activities, media/blogger relations, and help create its popular social media reports.

I have a partnership with Media Profile in which I provide it with strategic social media services as part of a new division called MP Thread. I’m not a Media Profile employee but play an active role in the MP Thread business

Then, there’s the mesh conference, along with meshU and meshmarketing in which I handle a lot of behind-the-scenes activity. mesh, by the way, is happening May 18/19 and meshU is May 17.

I’m also doing a lot of writing. I have two personal blogs – Mark Evans Tech and Twitterrati – along with writing the Sysomos blog. I also write a regular column for the Globe & Mail, and occasionally contribute to MSN.ca.

Finally, I have a partnership with my friend, Seth Singer (aka Think33). We work to provide clients with a wide range of services, including social media strategy and tactics, content, Web site development, videos and marketing collateral.

If variety is the spice of life, then my professional world is very spicy! It’s also an exciting way to make a living.

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