På seks hurtige minutter, havde jeg fornøjelsen af at debattere nogen af de emner, jeg beskriver i min bog Homo Digitalis, i Deadline på DR2.

Jeg kunne have fortsat i meget længere tid, men forhåbentlig er det nok til at give en lille smagsprøve på bogens indhold.

Læs mere på homodigitalis.org.

Menneskets adfærd fra forskning til digital praksis

For over 2 år siden fik jeg ideen til at skrive en bog der kobler cases og erfaring fra den praktiske verden med den videnskabelige. For at forstå menneskets digitale adfærd, er årsagen til vores behov vigtige at forstå, før man ser på den digitale virkning, [...]]]>

Menneskets adfærd fra forskning til digital praksis

For over 2 år siden fik jeg ideen til at skrive en bog der kobler cases og erfaring fra den praktiske verden med den videnskabelige. For at forstå menneskets digitale adfærd, er årsagen til vores behov vigtige at forstå, før man ser på den digitale virkning, i.e. den online adfærd vi alle er vidner til. Det var samtidig vigtigt for mig at undersøge svarene på tværs af videnskabelige områder, for at give et bredt billede af seneste forskning, fra neurovidenskab over til diskussionen om vores eksistens i filosofiens verden.

Personerne bag interviewene

Jeg interviewede en række forskere herunder, professor i urban sociologi  Linda J. Waite, hvis forskningsfokus bevæger sig inden for social demografi, familien, alderdom, helbred og arbejdende familier. Derudover er Waite optaget af linket mellem biologi, psykologi og den sociale verden. Professor i psykologi Deborah Prentice, som forsker i sociale relationer og påvirkninger mellem grupper. Prentice har desuden forsket i de måder, hvorpå sociale normer og systemer inden for tro og værdier påvirker menneskers opfattelse og adfærd i en social kontekst. Magister i psykologi Allan Holmgren, er primært fokuseret på den narrative psykologi. Den narrative psykologi fokuser på de fortællinger, vi ser vores liv gennem, hvilket har en relevant kobling når vi ser på de fortællinger vi deler online.
Faderen til social og kognitiv neurovidenskab – John Cacioppo, som var intet mindre en fantastisk at interviewe, han var ekstremt vidende og passioneret, og havde samtidig forståelse for at koblingen mellem videnskab og praksis kan være vanskeligt, men vigtigt hvis man skal udbrede viden til almene mennesker. Den ligeså imponerende assisterende professor i psykologi og adjungeret professor i neurologi Stephanie Ortigue. Ortigue stod bag det banebrydende studie The Neuroimaging of Love fra 2010, som hun lavede sammen med kollegaer fra Syracuse University. Sidst men ikke mindst havde jeg æren af at interviewe Michael Hardt, professor i litteratur ved Duke University, litterær teoretiker og politisk filosof. Hardt har skrevet de betydningsfulde værker Empire (2000), Multitude (2004) og Common Wealth (2009), sammen med Antonio Negri. I sit arbejde inspireres han blandt andet af tænkere som Thomas Jefferson og Michel Foucault.
Derudover har jeg talt med entrepreneurer i USA og Egypten under det Arabiske Forår, samt andre forskere og eksperter, som alle har bidraget til at skabe nuance, perspektiv og indsigt. Min rolle har været at koble disse input med den digitale verden, og ikke mindst bygge bro mellem forskning og praksis. Disse to verdener er meget forskellige, da man i forskingens verden stiller spørgsmål og undersøger, hvor vi i praktikkens verden gerne vil konkludere, så der kan handles.

Målgruppen og formålet med bogen

Den primære målgruppe er den brede befolkning, som til daglig er brugere på sociale netværk, men som også har en faglig interesse i, at forstå og udnytte det digitale potentiale i virksomheden – internt som eksternt.

Bogens første del – Det digitale landskab er en kort introduktion til dem der gerne vil forstå de teknologier og termer der anvendes i den digitale verden, og som gerne vil forstå det kommercielle og organisatoriske potentiale i forhold til deres faglige virke. Herfra bevæger bogen sig ind på den menneskelige adfærd, herunder individets behov og adfærd, den sociale adfærd og digitale mediers påvirkning på samfund. 3. del handler om organisationers sociale transformation samt digital entrepreneurship, som i den grad har påvirket organisationers måde at agere på. Ikke mindst fordi vi som brugere på sociale netværk, træder ind i vores organisationer og tænker at noget kan gøres anderledes. Sidst beskriver jeg nogen af de digitale tendenser der tegner sig for fremtiden.

Formålet med bogen er at skabe et dybere indblik i hvad der driver os som mennesker, vores basale behov og hvordan det kan spores i vores adfærd – offline som online. Med dette indblik håber jeg at læseren kan blive inspireret til at skabe mere værdi i sin digitale færden og blandt sine relationer på sociale netværk, med fokus på ens egen deltagelse, herunder prioritering af formål, værdi og mennesker.

Mission completed

Efter 2 års research, interviews, skriveri, redigering og optimering, kommer bog-barn nr. 2 endelig på gaden. Jeg glæder mig til at høre feedback fra dem der har læst bogen, og jeg håber at mine 256 sider, kan skabe en forandring i den måde vi agerer på digitale medier – som mennesker og organisationer.

God læselyst!

“Der er to kilder, der motiverer os til at konformere socialt. Den ene er anerkendelse og det andet er et ønske om at gøre det rigtige i forhold til gruppens normer” -Deborah Pretice

Køb bogen her.
Bogens hjemmeside
Homo Digitalis på Radio24syv – Elektronista

Vi er nået et modenhedsstadie [...]]]>

Det er altid en fornøjelse at komme ind i Koncerthuset i DR Byen, og den 20. november stod jeg der igen, ikke for at høre musik så englene synger, men for at tale om Digital Deltagelse på KomDag’12, Kommunikationsforeningens årlige konference for mennesker der arbejder med kommunikation.

Vi er nået et modenhedsstadie indenfor digitale medier, som betyder at vi ikke længere (i samme grad) behøver at fortælle om hvordan Twitter og Facebook m.fl. kan anvendes kommercielt, nu er det nogen helt andre spørgsmål der stilles. 66% af danske virksomheder anvender i dag sociale medier til at styrke deres forretning, men når man har oprettet en kommerciel profil på Facebook, LinkedIn eller Twitter, så kommer det næste spørgsmål – hvordan skaber vi så deltagelse? Alt for mange virksomheder glemmer at de befinder sig på en social platform hvor relationer og samtaler er i centrum. I stedet for at understøtte den kultur og det sprog der anvendes på det enkelte medie, kopierer de alt for ofte deres marketingskampagne ud på deres sociale profiler – uden den store effekt.

KomDag’12 har skrevet et indlæg fra min præsentation, så her kan du læse meget mere om mine erfaringer og anbefalinger til at skabe deltagelse på virksomhedens digitale platforme. Jeg har desuden delt min præsentation på Slideshare.

Hvis du kender andre gode anbefalinger eller cases til digital deltagelse, må du meget gerne dele dem!

I was invited to talk about the future of museums by the Danish Customs and Tax Museum on the occasion of their 100 year anniversary, and because they had decided to replace their physical museum with a digital experience, and to take the old museum and objects on tour in Denmark. This might seem [...]]]>

I was invited to talk about the future of museums by the Danish Customs and Tax Museum on the occasion of their 100 year anniversary, and because they had decided to replace their physical museum with a digital experience, and to take the old museum and objects on tour in Denmark. This might seem like a very bold move, because can there be a museum without a physical space? I believe so, and as a matter of fact, making the museum digital and collaborative opens up a wide set of new opportunities to expand, scale and engage the audience in creating and sharing the entire experience. But before going in front of the camera, I researched the state of the museums around the world, to see how they approached the digital sphere, and to spot any signs of a trend or the future within this space. I did not find anything radical innovative, in terms of giving audiences a new museum experience using different media elements. There were incremental add-ons to the physical exhibitions, like MOMA‘s Century Of The Child or their Google Art Project, digital – yes, social and engaging – not really.

My take on The Future Of Museums (in Danish).

The Future Museum Experience
How would the museum experience look like in the future, if we added these three digital elements:

1. Social
2. Global
3. Location based

If we start with social, involving the audience to participate in the creation of their exhibitions, to collect favourite pieces, an era or a specific artist, that would create a “Spotify” for museums. Because if all art is searchable and usable, the audience could make “view lists”, present and share their own exhibitions, allowing people to subscribe, and be updated if new content is added. In the same way as with music and fashion, the first movers could share their knowledge, not only to the art or museum elite, but to everybody. If people in general knows more about art and history, because they constantly expand their knowledge in a collaborative manner, there would be created more curiosity and an increased demand for the physical objects, in the same manner as music fans going to concerts, or when fashionistas purchase the must have of the week, online. Art is as scalable as any other passion – when shared by people!

The second opportunity is to make exhibitions global, thereby scaling the experience and again increasing the demand for the physical objects and the museum hosting it. In the same way as music, books and fashion is globally shared and purchased online – so should art, history and exhibitions be. Do I really need to go to New York to see MOMA or to Denmark to see Louisiana? The experience will off course not be the same, it will be different, because you can add more layers to an object if it’s digital. So if I want to se a sculpture, I can view from more angles than at the museum, I can see it from the ceiling, I can zoom in and most interesting the artist or curator can add online information. If I viewed a piece from the Pyramids, I could see a picture or video of the exact location, where it was found, watch how people looked and lived at that time. I could also see the archaeological process from locating the findings, excavation to preserving the item. If it’s just a small piece I can see the entire picture of how it used to look like, and I can browse to other object that are related, while hearing the history in my earphones.

Some of the interesting initiatives you can experience today are at Guggenheim, which are quite far with providing a digital experience. They enable people around the world to view some of their exhibitions and other information, and they are even doing some minor social moves, with their blog and live chat. With Soundwalk you can randomly walk the streets of Manhattan and get information about the building you are standing in front of. Intel has made an interesting but narcissistic exhibition with The Museum Of Me, where people can experience themselves, their Facebook content and “friends” in a virtual museum, an example that could be used in more scenarios.

Looking at the museum experience from a location based angle, we should reverse the picture. Why not turn cities and locations into a live interactive museum, by adding information, history and objects to the original location. So if I’m Vienna, I will put on my earphones and saunter through the city, when I pass a spot I find interesting I can add a visual experience, by holding my smartphone up in front of a building or square, and see which artifact’s that are connected to this spot, using augmented reality. I can also hear the shared whisper of people that passed by before me, by looking at my smartphone display I can get a social media stream showing what people wrote about this experience, artifact or piece of history, as well as I can add my perspective and pictures, to make the experience even more real-time and social.

These are just some of the opportunities, museums can use to amplify and share their exhibition in a digital world. If I cannot go to a museum or back in time – art and history should come to me. I look forward to a future where an exhibition is independent of geography and means, because art and history should be accessible to everybody, everywhere.

photo credit: Flickr/anacarina

On Deadline Talking TEDxCopenhagen - with Jakob Silas Lund, founder of Play31.

http://www.dr.dk/tv/se/deadline-17/deadline-17-86#!/18:31

Watch Jacob’s great speak from #TexCph - Using football to reconcile people torn apart by war.

And to any TED talk newbies, discover all the amazing speaks from around the world, surrounding TED’s topics: Technology, Entertainment and [...]]]>

On Deadline Talking TEDxCopenhagen - with Jakob Silas Lund, founder of Play31.

http://www.dr.dk/tv/se/deadline-17/deadline-17-86#!/18:31

Watch Jacob’s great speak from #TexCph - Using football to reconcile people torn apart by war.

And to any TED talk newbies, discover all the amazing speaks from around the world, surrounding TED’s topics: Technology, Entertainment and Design.

There is an increasing focus on peoples interest graph, and thanks to Twitter we have a relation to people, because we share an interest, and not necessarily because we have met them or are related. This is also the difference between our social graph and our interest graph. People we [...]]]>

There is an increasing focus on peoples interest graph, and thanks to Twitter we have a relation to people, because we share an interest, and not necessarily because we have met them or are related. This is also the difference between our social graph and our interest graph. People we have an interest in, or are related to, compose our social graph. Our interest graph on the other hand are things we have an interest in.

Many brands are interested in knowing their customers social graph – the people we know or have an interest in knowing. But it is actually more valuable to know your community of customers and stakeholders based on their interest graph – since the interests we share tells brands more about what we regard as value in a conversation or commercial relation.

What Do People Want To Talk About?
If we take a look at the relevance of a social graph, i.e. the people we have a social relation with, it is a minor percentage that share our interests, unless it covers normal life activities as food and living. But how many of the people you know on Facebook also shares your passion for vintage watches, tennis or even social media? If you compare the social graph relevancy to the people you are connected with on Twitter, Pinterest or Quora, there is a difference in our social ties, because we are connected based on our shared interests – which compose our interest graph. We don’t necessarily know each other, in other words we do not have to comment on birthdays, newborns or day to day life. The small talk is exchanged with a focused conversation, about the stuff we care about.

We are a social species, so the relations we have based on an interest, might be extended to a regular social relation, if we get to know each other online, and even better if we meet in real life. This is what we do when we meet people, we examine shared interests, our network and other ties that might create a stronger foundation for our connection. When social meets interests, and vice versa, we have a stronger relation, because it is based on more relational aspects.

For a brand or company wanting to tap into their community, the value of their stakeholders interest graph is much higher than our typical social ties such as family, high school sweethearts or past and present colleagues. This value can be cultivated to increase the viral spread surrounding a brand, their products and more important their unique expertise.

Static Versus Dynamic Relations.
Our social graph is far more static because it is based on a relation, and they tend to last longer than interests – luckily. Our interest graph is dynamic, representing changes in our lives, when we get a new professional focus, when we get children or a new hobby. This dynamic and real-time information is crucial for brands to know and understand, in order to reach their customers with relevancy rather than randomness.

Understanding peoples interests on Facebook is a challenge, because it is hard to filter the social talk from the interest talk, and Facebook knows that. Twitter is leading the race on the interest graph, but Facebook will undoubtedly do what they can to take the lead. Facebook already gave their users the option to follow or like a person or company, instead of becoming friends. Facebook still needs to qualify what we talk about, not only in order to increase their add value, but also for their users to relate based on interests. If you want a relation based on your interests, Twitter is still much more accessible when it comes to finding people or tags, that represents your themes.

Consumers Want Valuable Ads.
According to comScore, 75% of online shoppers say every retailer should offer tracking information on their purchases, which indicates that consumers want more value when receiving adds and offers. There is also a difference in how social networks collect interest data. The explicit interest data is utilized by services like Pinterest where a user manually shows their interests. Amazon on the other hand is a good example of how brands can provide implicit interest data, by showing the books other people bought, after buying yours, or if you like this book – you might also want these.

Gignal Is Based On A Brands Interest Graph.
Gignal gives brands and events the possibility to collect and present social network content produced by their audience, based on an interest, such as the brand or event name/tag, or the themes related, hereunder product names, knowledge or discussions. This has several benefits, it drives the social network traffic to the brand that now hosts the conversations, instead of handing their buzz out to the social networks, to have and to hold. Users will see the entire interest talk, and not only the narrow angle from their own social network profile, you don’t even need an account to follow the buzz, and you can see it across various social networks from Twitter, Facebook, pictures and check-ins.

Focus On The Ball Not The Man
This is why brands should focus more on their customers interest graph rather than their social graph, because it gives them the knowledge about what their audience is talking about, and what they want to talk about. Brands should examine their role as a media company towards their customer, so why not tap into the source of inspiration that can lead to a valuable social profile – giving customers signal rather than noise.

photo credit: flickr/batmoo

Search any given branded hashtag on Twitter from your favorite shoe brand, music band to your soccer team, and you will see people talking about it. Try to Google the tag or brand, and you will see videos, pictures from various social networks, posted by users, consumers and fans all over the world. Having [...]]]>

Search any given branded hashtag on Twitter from your favorite shoe brand, music band to your soccer team, and you will see people talking about it. Try to Google the tag or brand, and you will see videos, pictures from various social networks, posted by users, consumers and fans all over the world. Having conversations around your brand is what any company dreams of, but yet only few uses it for much other than support issues and marketing surveillance. Data is the currency of the web, and the more traffic you have the better. The problem is that most of the content produced by a global audience is spread across social networks, and not owned or utilized by the brands or events.

Gignal solves this in various ways. First we store the branded buzz, otherwise lost when it’s out of the social network cache. For Twitter that is a few days and Ftwo days and Foursquare 2-4 hours.?

Second we allow the brand to host audience conversations, so if you want to see what people are posting across social networks about Coca Cola, Superbowl or Radio Head, you go to their website to see the real time stream. This will also drive traffic to the brand website instead of to the social networks

Third we present the content in streams that engage and entertain, and more esthetic than the average stream. We also allow brands to use their design guidelines when setting up Gignal, to match their corporate identity.

And finally we measure, when people are posting content, what they are posting and how much content they produce on every social network.

This gives a brand or event the opportunity to amplify their buzz, by claiming it, hosting it and presenting it. People trust other people more than brands, so by letting customers tell other customers whats so great about your brand, or let them share their defining moments – trust is build, especially when it’s the brand that proud enough to buzz out loud!

More posts on sharing: To Share Or Not To Share!

Photo credit: flickr/biccc

Imagine sitting at a stadium experiencing the atmosphere that has [...]]]>

The sport industry is still reluctant to utilize social media to amplify their events and to share the social experience at stadiums with the rest of the world. The potential is notable, and aligned to the core purpose of sport – engaging communities of passion.

Imagine sitting at a stadium experiencing the atmosphere that has drawn people to arenas since the time of the gladiators. What we experience is a collective relation with the people we share that moment and passion with offline and online. And collective relations are as powerful for people as intimate relations with our spouses and relational relationships with friends. It is that collective experience we want to support with Gignal, engaging audiences at physical locations and around the world.

So with 2012 in front of us, what can sport teams and venues do to amplify the collective experience and engage their audience? From Gignal’s perspective a lot can be done, with or without our stream – here is five low hanging fruits just waiting to be picked.

1. Micro-reporting
It is no longer only the television- and radio stations that report live from a game, the most active reporters are the audience, with thousands of mobile phones they are standing in the front line eager to report the atmosphere, emotions and defining moments to their network. They share their experience trough pictures, videos and status updates, viewed by friends and fans outside the venue that did not have a ticket. To engage the audience as pitchside reporters, interaction with the team, the players, the coach and the venue is key. We already see sport stars on Twitter and Facebook, but much more can be done to make the audience share their experience.

Through the social media stream on physical screens at the stadium, the audience can monitor the collective participation, which makes them aware of their role as a micro-reporter. And the audience watching from home, can follow the social media buzz online, as if they were standing in the front line them selves.

2. Cross media experience
The audience are multitasking even when they are at the stadium watching the game. They follow the action on the ground, on the billboard, on their phones and on screens at the tribune. At home the TV or radio is on, and so is the laptop where the fans can search for further information and interact on social networks.

The social media stream is not competing with TV or radio, on the contrary it presents the audience experience rather than a reporters, making it an ideal supplement for a cross media experience.

3. Engage communities of passion
Football teams describe the 12th. player as the audience. If the audience is engaged and cheering for their team, they empower the players. Through the stream on stadium screens, the coach can send a message to the audience – to make them roar their support to the players in crucial moments. The team players can send messages before and after the game, to create buzz and to thank the audience directly.

There lies an incredible power in audience engagement, because in the end it is all about stimulating communities of passion, to create a memorable social experience.



4. Social media stream – before, during and after the game.
During games we are often able to watch a live video stream, but sport teams tend to forget that fans talk constantly about their team, upcoming games and their expectations. It would be easy and obvious for sport teams to have a “Live” area on their website, so fans can click and see the real-time buzz, produced by fans and the team across social networks.

Gignal provides a widget, making it easy for clubs to host and present all the social media buzz from a geo tag and hashtags on their own website. Not only will it be easier for people to find the buzz, it also brings the traffic back to the clubs, instead of keeping it on the social networks.

5. Real-time marketing
When a fan checks-in to a stadium, writes a tweet or takes a picture, we know where they are based on the geo tag. This is also the ideal time to market and sell merchandise, tickets and other location based goods, to a passionate and captive audience. During the heat of the moment it us much easier to sell tickets for the game next week, merchandise and beer at the pub after the game. Some clubs are seeing this potential, one of them are Real Madrid, that has been working with mobile marketing for a while.

With Gignal, sport clubs can present these time limited offers on the stadium screens, reaching a captive audience, that are much more willing to press buy while they experience the atmosphere in that given moment.

Every brand is media company
Every organization and brand is a media company. But since this is not their core business or skill, utilizing the new media opportunities can be difficult for the people involved. We want to make it easy for sport teams to gather, host and present all the buzz that surrounds their brand, so they can be in charge of audience involvement.