Over the years, I have watched author, speaker, advisor and host Andrew Keen’s position on the social web, he continues to challenge the status quo of the crowd, bringing balance. Andrew serves a very important role in the industry by curbing the exuberance of social by thinking about the short term and long term ramifications to business, society, and personal lives, in fact, his next book Digital Vertigo is out, discussing the topic of how today’s online social revolution is dividing, diminishing, and disorienting us.
Topics we covered in this short 15 min clip:
- What’s the next phase of the internet and social web? What are the up and downsides?
- The battle between Google vs Facebook, who’s got the upper hand, and why?
- Why is it like 1:40am on the dance floor and software players are selling vs IPO?
Andrew invited me to join him in the hip Techcrunch studios in SOMA SF, to discuss the future of the Internet and social. We discussed the industry at large, and how I think the next phase of social is data driven, performance based, and to some degree …automated. Join us in this short 15 minute video clip of rapid fire questions and my semi-coherant answers, in this fireside interview with Andrew Keen. I look forward to your comments below.
It’s a really nice chat full with valuable information around hot topics. I watched it yesterday on TC and really enjoyed it.Â
Thanks Dimitar
Great interview, Jeremiah. At one point you brought up the potential for a revolt if and when hyper-targeting goes too far. I expect you’re speaking for most people when you say that you like ads to be targeted to you, but also want a balance where part of your life remains private. Is there any data that could help us figure out what degree of targeting is acceptable to consumers, and at what point it will become a turnoff? Where is the red line for you as a social user? I’m curious.
I’m trying to understand how “engineering serendipity” is possible, but keep getting hung up on the contradiction in terms that this involves. In practice, I’m guessing this will entail choreographing encounters or discoveries so that feel spontaneous and accidental, even when they are actually the result of intense individual targeting. That’s not necessarily bad in itself, but not a substitute for the real thing either.
Marlon there’s a social contract we have with these providers. Â They give us free global communication tools, and in exchange we give them data they can monetize. Â Once the balance gets out of whack on either, things fall apart.
Great insights Jeremiah, thank you for sharing. I’m interested in your thoughts around how companies will enable the private / hyper targeted split that you’ve described.