Piedra, Papel, TijeraThe Business of Social Technologies

Gam DiasFounder, First Retail Inc.

Social Technologies in Madrid - October 30th, 2012

From a presentation given at Universidad Pontificia Comillas in Madrid as part of BankInter’s Future Trends Forum on Social Technologies

PIEDRA

PAPEL

TIJERA

ROCK

PAPER

SCISSORSThe growth of Social Media has elevated identity, privacy and big data to become vital topics for CIOs and CMOs of online businesses. Rock – Paper – Scissors provides a good metaphor for this.

Pre-Digital

PAPER: INFORMATION

ROCKS: PHYSICAL POSSESSIONS

SCISSORS: ACTUAL TOOLS

In a Pre-Digital world, our vital information was held on paper, the rocks represented our physical possessions and the scissors were the tools we used to create material value

Post-Digital

INFORMATION CLOUD

POSSESSIONS RELATIONSHIPS

TOOLS DEVICES

Post-Digitally, any information of value will be held on the cloud, our relationships with people and businesses are the rocks and the tools are the devices to manage data and relationships

PHOTO: Fang Guo

Libraries and bookshops were essentially exchanges for printed matter - reference, fiction and non-fiction.

Within a few years, the growth of Wikipedia have replaced printed matter as the reference source of information. The crowd will maintain accuracy and integrity.

Yesterday’s printed matter is being rapidly digitized, making it widely available over the web

The appearance of tablets and e-readers has changed how we consume information – this has fundamental effects on our inventories of printed matter

PHOTO: InSapphoWeTrust

Our learning institutions used to be physical buildings. Our accreditation was formal and issued on paper.

Innovations like Coursera are changing the way we are educated. As our perceptions of qualification change, so will how we are accredited – new models of testing will appear

The music store is a thing of the past – music having been through physical, magnetic and optical media, it is now streamed from the cloud onto mobile players

Today’s music is offered online and resembles radio stations in the way content is served up, but this content is uniquely tailored to not just the individual, but also to their mood at the time

Post-Digital Challenges

PrivacyOwnershipPersistence

There are new challenges to post-digital business. Privacy. Ownership. Persistence. New businesses will need to overcome social and legal hurdles to make progress

PRIVACY: Everything published into Social Media can be shared and runs the risk of doing so despite privacy controls on the content. Google image search returns my friends’ photos first.

OWNERSHIP: Digital content is replicable in full-fidelity. For people that make a living creating digital content, how will digital businesses create models that prevent or de-value piracy

PERSISTENCE: There are many services that allow us to upload vast amounts of content. How can they help us determine what is worth keeping and will they be able to charge for this?

Post-Digital Remixes

BestBuy Open APINewsweekHP Snapfish

Here are three organizations and initiatives that are very much of the future, demonstrating how the post-digital challenges can be overcome to create new valuable business models

Best Buy spends a lot of money getting people into its physical stores. Once there, as many retailers are finding out, Amazon is able to swoop in and convert at the last minute

BestBuy Open provides an amazing example of sharing what was once considered valuable content, to allow third parties to create new value that brings a commercial advantage

Newsweek has watched print sales in decline. There is only so much you can do to keep that business afloat and it is a brave decision to totally kill off a product in decline

However, Newsweek already had a successor to its print business in operation. As of Jan 1st, 2013, the content will be entirely available online on the Daily Beast Website

HP has a strong and mature reputation for the best printer technology. Despite the upcoming 3D printing innovation, printing on paper is declining – there is no doubt.

Over 10 years ago, HP acquired Snapfish – digital photo printers. Snapfish is the platform upon HP’s future innovation lies. Is the primary service now digital persistence rather than printing?

Working with Social Technologies

Existing Social PlatformsData As ValueTrust and Relationships

As we work with Social Technologies we must remember three things: Social Platforms, Data As Value and Trust and Relationships

Maclaren Baby is a case of a manufacturer deciding that it can easily reach and sell to its consumers directly, but needed to increase the market for all channels via Social Platforms

Jetpac is a Social Media application that builds travel brochures out of your friends’ Facebook photos – its business model is based on the trust you have of your friends’ recommendations

Amazon has had tremendous success with its Ratings and Reviews system on products. This is using the crowd to create highly valuable data

Conclusions

Existing Social PlatformsData As ValueTrust and Relationships

As you work with new Social Technologies a way to overcome the new challenges is by looking back to some old values

HTTP://WWW.REALTEA.NET/ROCK_PAPER_SCISSORS

The blog post providing a more detailed discussion on these topics