Do you feel like you and your business model are being pulled from all directions? Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, iPhones, Google Wave, Opera Unite, the list of new platforms and rapidly spreading technologies just keeps growing. Your customers, staff and competitors are all using these tools. What about you?
Even Australian Governments are experiencing this first hand. On Monday 22 June I spent a day locked in Parliament House with over 150 other people at the #publicsphere 2 event. This was a BarCamp style un-conference that was strongly promoted and supported by Pia Waugh and Senator Kate Lundy. The goal of the event was to discuss how Government 2.0 is evolving and it’s very clear that services like Twitter and OpenAustralia.org are exerting pressure on many people inside our governments to open up and embrace change.
During the event there were literally thousands of tweets posted with the #publicsphere tag, from people at the conference and from all around the world. This tweetstream was projected live in real-time on one of the screens behind the presenters. Mobile phones, laptops and streaming video from the event completely re-defined the normal conference model of interaction. Quite simply, #publicsphere has set a new benchmark for engagement.
The Federal Government responded to this groundswell by announcing a new “Government 2.0 Taskforce” at the event, but it was clear in the few days after the event that this Taskforce was also feeling the pressure of all these new technologies and public comments. Yesterday, the Taskforce setup a twitter account (@gov2taskforce) and a hashtag (#gov2au) in response to online pressure to use the very technologies they are tasked with evaluating. Now they really are a “Gov2.0” Taskforce.
These steps show a clear example of how you can use these technologies to start to build an integrated mobile and online business model for yourself. Your staff and your customers are engaging in discussions – it’s your choice if you make it “about you” or “with you”. If you take some simple steps to focus and channel these discussions, if you let people use their technologies of choice, then you’ll find that you feel a little less “torn apart” and a lot more “connected”.
This is not the answer, but you will find that the “experience” of doing this will help you find the answer. And if you think you’re too busy to “play with these tools”, then you can console yourself that you’ll have a lot more time on your hands soon – when you and your existing business model are made irrelevant.
Rob Manson is Managing Director of MOB. He’s built innovative and integrated business models for all types of organisations, from start-ups, through to multi-national ‘Telco & Media Group’ joint ventures and NASDAQ-listed public companies.
Photo: PDR (Flickr)
