State of the web: of apps, devices, and breakpoints – Jeffrey Zeldman Presents The Daily Report

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State of the web: of apps, devices, and breakpoints – Jeffrey Zeldman Presents The Daily Report

When I see fragmentation, I remind myself that it is unsustainable by its very nature, and that standards always emerge, whether through community action, market struggle, or some combination of the two. This is a frustrating time to be a web designer, but it’s also the most exciting time in ten years. We are on the edge of something very new. Some of us will get there via all new thinking, and others through a combination of new and classic approaches. Happy New Year, web designers!

Occupy Geeks Are Building a Facebook for the 99% | Threat Level | Wired.com

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A move away from mainstream social networks is already happening on several levels within the Occupy movements — from the local networks already set up for each occupation to an in-progress, overarching, international network project called Global Square, that Knutson is helping to build. Those networks are likely to be key to Occupy’s future, since nearly all of the largest encampments in the United States have been evicted — taking with them the physical spaces where activists communicated via the radically democratic General Assemblies.

via Occupy Geeks Are Building a Facebook for the 99% | Threat Level | Wired.com.

Forget destinations. Your brand is everywhere and nowhere.

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Forget destinations. Your brand is everywhere and nowhere.

This means that marketers will need to rethink how they approach content creation and distribution. They will need to understand how content will be broken down from the source and aggregated elsewhere across the web. This means that brands will be everywhere. And they will be nowhere. They will be surfacing on potentially any website, and they will no longer exist as a whole in any place with meaningful traffic – that does not also have aggregated content from elsewhere. As a concrete example, this means that marketers will need to stop thinking about their Facebook page as a destination – a place to drive traffic to, and instead start thinking about it as a platform for publishing – a place to create content that will surface in many places.

I’ve been saying something similar for a short while in a briefing here and there. Paul Adams says it better and more clearly.

Social Proof Is The New Marketing | TechCrunch

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Social Proof Is The New Marketing | TechCrunch via Alex Outwater

One challenge, which isn’t new, is the battle for consumer attention.  If you’re looking to grow your user base, is there a best way to cost-effectively attract valuable users?  I’m increasingly convinced the best way is by harnessing a concept called social proof, a relatively untapped gold mine in the age of the social web. 

What is social proof?  Put simply, it’s the positive influence created when someone finds out that others are doing something.  It’s also known as informational social influence.