Socially Speaking

Yesterday’s mention (Thanks, Mike!) officially counts as the second time we’ve been TechCrunched. Even if on somewhat a smaller scale, what to say about it? Don’t let anyone fool you — it’s a whole lot of fun.

Here’s a geographical representation of some of the people who’ve signed up to participate in Waxxi’s interactive podcast with Jimmy Wales, on April 5th:

• Perth, Australia
• Reykjavik, Iceland (!)
• London, UK
• Dublin, Ireland
• Taipei, Taiwan
• Wellington, New Zealand

Canada: Montreal, Toronto

China: Beijing, Ningbo

India: Mangalore, Nepal

US: New York, NY; San Francisco, CA; Washington, DC; Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; Seattle, WA; West Hollywood, CA; Ellington, CT; Artlington, VA; Menomonie, WI; Vista, CA; Belchertown, MA; West Lafayette, IN; Wilmington, DE; Stonemountain, FL; El Segundo, CA; Reston, VA; Potomac, MD; Greenwich, CT; University Heights, OH

If you’d like to register, go here (but we’re rapidly running out of space, so hurry!) And, thanks to everyone who signed up to be a part of the conversation. Talk to you soon.

Used to be that ‘Differentiate or Die’ was the survival catch phrase for organizations in just about any industry. Seems now, the word of the day is one that we like very much: interactive. Don’t believe us? Ask around:

“We can have the coolest content or technology, but changing human behavior is hard,” said Mitch Feinman, senior VP at Fox Mobile Entertainment. “But if you give people a reason to participate, they will.”

Eric Bader, senior VP of MediaVest Worldwide had this to say:

“Too much of what we’re seeing is for branding and awareness — it’s the easy model to graft onto digital,” he said. “But what we’re looking for from digital media is levels of interaction.”

“For us, it’s a lot less about finding ways to use mobile but the ubiquity of the phone to allow you to participate in a campaign,” Bader said. “That it’s interactive is more compelling to us.”

And, (fairly new) CBS Interactive president Quincy Smith:

“The real opportunity for media, in this day and age, is ostensibly the interactive platform, not just online, but mobile and gaming. Basically, promise a way for content companies to get closer than ever to their audience, to build community around their audience, to learn from their audience so they can put out better professional content.”

For months we’ve been preaching this: if we’re in the world of two-way (or social) media, then why are so many platforms still linear? Let people participate. And by that we mean more than commenting (although commenting is great). One of Waxxi’s mottos is: The Floor is Yours. That means, when it comes to a podcast or vidcast, it’s not all about the interviewer, or interviewees. It’s what the people (the viewers, audience, listeners, customers) bring to the table; what they bring to the conversation, experience, and content.

In short: Let Them Participate.

TechCrunch’s Mike Arrington has written a nice review of waxxi, which led to some interesting chatter and a few cool mentions.

One that made our day was making it to the top of Tech.memeorandum! It also led to about 500 additional people signing up for our first interactive podcast.

So far we have geographical participation from Japan, China, Sweden, Lebanon, Canada, Denmark, New Zealand, Australia and of course the US…and more signing up by the second. This is exactly what we envisioned: a truly global experience where people can come together and participate in rather than just observe.

It gets even more interesting after the event, when the conversation is continued, vs. the podcast coming to an end. We’re excited to watch it grow.

Frank Gruber, who authors an excellent blog focusing on Web 2.0, posted about waxxi and our event today.

So, who will be taking part in our interactive podcast on May 20th, other than Robert and Shel? Well, bloggers like Tom Raftery, Zoli Erdos, Alex King, Pete Dawson, Jeremiah Owyang (and many more) for starters.

There will also be neo and even not-yet-bloggers in the crowd –or people who want to explore the idea for themselves or their company.

It should be a lot of fun. We imagine some interesting conversations will result, both during and after the kickoff event (download the PDF here).

(disclaimer: Frank Gruber is currently acting as a strategic consultant to waxxi)