Social + Media: What We Need Next

The Media Revolution launched with NCSA Mosaic has been underway for 16 years and I have been a front line advocate for the web and social computing throughout. I believe that "the great restructuring" underway requires us to think more holistically about how to think about how people and organizations are using Drupal. We need to bring a new perspective to Drupal development in order that it can serve the greatest good. I also believe the answer really is "42" so perhaps I am living in a bit of fantasy.

I will talk about my vision for the future of the web (hint: its not Web Squared nor Web 3.0 or Web 2.3). I will share my own personal insights from my struggles to launch a Drupal site for Social Media Club (hopefully including a new success story). From these experiences and my perspective from the middle of the social media tornado, I will also share my recommendations for how the Drupal community can best participate in and perhaps even lead the next wave of computing.

I will also provide insights on the most important aspects of social media, explaining what I call The Four C's: Context, Communications, Collaboration and Connections. I will discuss the social media principles. demonstrating how they apply as much to your professional success as it does to that of any organization. Basically, it really boils down to mutual respect and the golden rule.

The heart of my talk will focus on my belief that all organizations need to think like media companies in serving the interests of their market. This is a complex statement I will unpack with you for deeper discussion. More importantly, this is where I will challenge the Drupal community to think differently, to think about what it means to really enable market conversations, to really connect people with common concerns for collective action.

Oh, and come prepared with tough questions to try to stump me. :-)