In this month's Boston Magazine, Greg Lalas writes about recommendation software company ChoiceStream which seems to have the technology to make online recommendations almost perfect even to the point where preferences can be anticipated due to past behavior. Sounds great, uh?
Actually it makes me shiver. Think about it for a minute. You only get what you're interested in. You never stumble upon content that wasn't meant for you.
The article raises the same concern: "Also lost in a world of recommenders is one of life's beautiful quirks: serendipity. The element of surprise. How often have you been surprised by the opening band at a concert, or a book your friend left at your apartment, or a TV show you stumble across while gazing through your 500 channels?" Add to that the many articles you read while flipping through the newspaper or a magazine or the NPR report you listen to just because it talks about something you know nothing about.
We get bombarded with loads of content every day and recommendations make it easier for us to cope with it. They make it easier for us to find the right product, the right job, the right leisure activity. So let's take the time (online and offline) recommenders save us to indulge in the element of surprise!
I've taken a bit of a break over the long weekend from my social media RSS feeds and Google Alerts. Oh my - when I wanted to catch up I was inundated with of posts, discussions and conversations about "social media" and what's right and wrong about it.
At the Communications 2.0 workshop which I held for the lively Connecticut chapter of IABC last week, the audience was less concerned about which terms I used to describe the new tools and technologies. As one participant put it: "Social media really means a paradigm shift for us communicators." He hit the nail on the head! Marianne Richmond also put this very eloquently in her post on "something different is happening."
The workshop participants were all ready to explore and participate in the opportunities social media provides for communicators. Some were a bit sceptic and there were lots of questions, of course. Some already had experience implementing certain social media tools and shared their stories freely with the rest.
What struck me was that there was no one among the attendees who refused to see the shift that is taking place. That is definitely a change from a year ago or maybe even six months ago. Social media will become mainstream - not tomorrow, but the day after.
