Three Important Ideas from Real Time CrunchUp

by Nathaniel Whittemore · 2009-11-20 10:37:00 UTC
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I'm at the TechCrunch sponsored Real Time CrunchUp. The event is all about the real time stream of information and sharing that is increasingly what the internet is about. There are a few key conversations.

1. Determining What's Important. Facebook product bro Chris Cox was just sharing some background on how FB is thinking about the difference between Live Feed and News Feed. Basically, they want to be able to use better information about context to help figure out which parts of the stream of information and friend updates you might actually care about. Angel Investor supreme-o Ron Conway suggested that 2010 will be all about filtering.

2. Social Context (or Not). The speakers today have spent a lot of time discussing the social context of information, or to put it less wonkily, being able to see what your friends care about as you're interacting with news, music, or social causes. The former CEO of FriendFeed (who is now at Facebook) and Seesmic CEO Loic Le Meur suggested that the "private" context - being able to see what specifically your "offline relationships" think about different things is going to be supremely important. Others pointed out that only being able to see what your friends like and care about can be a constraint - particularly if you care about something niche - like hardcore metal like me - that not that many of your "offline" friends know about. I think this is important, because who you've been around physically is only one sort of context. One of the great powers I've seen in social media is the ability to discover peers who I wouldn't have met otherwise.

3. Location Based Services. One of the areas of real time information that is poised for growth is location-based services like FourSquare and Google Latitude, which will increasingly be pushing notifications about where our friends and contacts are. They haven't talked about this much yet, but it looks like it will appear this afternoon.

So why might this matter for social entrepreneurs?

First, people care deeply about their causes. As services get smarter about adding filters and social context to the stream, it's going to be easier for your people to discover how much you care about the issues you care about. All social innovators and nonprofits need to build networks of support, so this matters.

Second, being able to discover new people who you don't know yet is immensely powerful for social entrepreneurs. Rather than just having to convince people that your issue is the best, you can start by finding the people who already agree, discover what they offer, and build strength from there.

Third, the geographic location creates new ability to connect people who care with interesting opportunities.

(Photo: webtreats)

Nathaniel Whittemore is the founder of Assetmap. Previously he was the founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement.
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