Live-Blogging Disruptathon Media

[9:21 PM] Every One of These Companies Is A Company to Follow:

Pete ends the night by saying, “This was the best Disruptathon event we’ve ever done.”

Huge congratulations to all the presenters, and especially the big winners of the night: Socialize and ProConIt.

Thanks, everyone. We’ll see you at the next show.

 

[9:17 PM] The Results Are In:

Presentation:

Runner-up — STRY

Winner — Socialize

Uniqueness:

Runner-up — Socialize

Winner –ProConIt

Design:

Runner-up — Socialize

Winner — ProConIt

Most Disruptive:

Runner-up: WatchParty

Winner: ProConIt

Likes:

Runner-up — Socialize

Winner — ProConIt

Overall:

3rd Runner-up — WatchParty

2nd Runner-up — Yowie

Runner-up — ProConIt

Winner — Socialize

 

[8:38 PM] Disruption Accomplished:

Whoa. That went quickly! All eight presenters were enthusiastically received by the audience here inside the hall, and now the results tabulation begins.

This should be a tight contest.

 

[8:25 PM] Disruptor #7 — Publish2:

Scott Carp: “Our big idea is to enable the news industry to benefit from the power of networks, rather than be disrupted by them.”

There’s no easy way for news organizations to connect with all their partners and manage those relationships, he says. “Publishing systems don’t connect. Print publishing systems aren’t even connected to the Internet. Meanwhile most news websites weren’t designed to import content. And building an API takes resources they don’t have.”

“Publish2 lets all these disparate publishing systems connect in the Cloud. All the content flows seamlessly. Ultimately, we enable the newsroom to build their networks and distribute their content in highly efficient ways. We’re disrupting the wire system and replacing it with a network that directly connects news organizations.”

 

[8:16 PM] Disruptor #7 — Yowie:

Jamie Snyder: “Over the millenia, the point of view of media did not change. But over the past few years it did. The authority of the expert was compromised by the wisdom of crowds and social media. But Twitter has a shortcoming: very few leaders and authority figures ever answer back to Tweets in real-time. So Yowie is going to finish what Twitter started.”

On Yowie, users video chat collectively with a live host. The audience rates which questions they like best, and the most popular question askers go live with the host.

 

[8:10 PM] Disruptor #6 — Socialize:

Dan Odeo begins by talking about the Interest Graph. How do we define it, and how can it benefit media companies? “How do we know if we share interests with each other?” he asks.

“We are analog beings, but there are digital representations of us on our phones–our apps. The apps on our mobile devices are the fingerprint of our interest graphs.”

“With Socialize, if you put our little bundle of code into your app, we’re going to expose the interest graph inside your app. We’re going to improve the way you do social and unlock the community within your app.”

 

[8:01 PM] Disruptor #5 — WatchParty:

Richard Fawal: “WatchParty is all about democratizing television. There are three components to truly social TV: audience, setting, communication.”

But WatchParty is so much more than a chatroom for TV, Richard says, and points out the ridiculousness of the Nielson Box system (25,000 households determining all TV decisions).

“But what if television executives could see what everyone is thinking about shows and commercials? What if television execs could see how viewers react to every moment in time during the course of a show? WatchParty can create a live studio audience for every show on TV.”

 

[7:52 PM] Disruptor #4 — OneNews:

David D’Ambrosio: “The demand for more and more content is on the rise. In the past, news organizations depended on clumsy, slow satellite vans. The future must be mobile. The future is you.”

David contends that Joe Q. Public armed with their mobile devices are already capturing the news as it happens. But it’s passive.

“What’s missing is a way to actively communicate with citizen journalists, and dispatch them in real-time to a specific event.”

One more thing: an infrastructure to incentavise (money, points, concert tickets, etc.) OneNews lets a news organization decide exactly how it wants to encourage its public participants.

 

[7:43 PM] Disruptor #3 — ProConIt:

Matt Hills: “We have a better format for how to capture subjective information. Engagement is not enough. It implies basic interaction. People want more. They want to discuss and analyze. So we realized media companies need to go beyond engagement, but the tools didn’t exist.”

Hills shows a comment thread from the Huffington Post and demonstrates how disorganized it is. Next, an online poll from the Washington Times and how shallow it is.

“Comment threads and polls are one-dimensional tools. Users demand better ways to evaluate content and information. ProCons are 100% free and can travel anywhere on the Internet.”

 

[7:36 PM] Disruptor #2 — STRY:

Dan Oshinsky: “Newspapers aren’t looking for wire stories these days. So we’re a ‘hypertopical’ news agency–delivering the little stories that readers care about. We want to re-wire the wire service with efficiency in mind”

“Now is the time to define our greatness. We need to be singleminded in our pursuit of storytelling. That’s the disruptive thought.”

 

[7:27 PM] Disruptor #1 — NearSay:

Trevor Sumner is up first: “Local publishers are dying. Traditional advertising is dying. But overall advertising is doubling. And every major media company is investing in local. NearSay.com has 125,000 monthly readers. We curate news and information from hundreds of thousands of sources. We’re the largest neighborhood publisher in every neighborhood we go to.”

Sumner contends that CPM advertising will not work n a local level, and local businesses need a real platform for publishing events, announcements, and deals. But unlike Groupon, NearSay lets you control the terms of your deals. So you can build real business, not just a flash mob.

 

[7:15 PM] Pete Takes the Stage:

“Innovation is incremental,” says Pete Erickson. “But disruption is about doing more with less, and it’s about finding the under-served customer.”

“Your role tonight is to play a part in the disruptive cycle,” he says, and launches a demo of the Disruptathon Innovation Discovery Platform.

“Tonight, eight companies are competing with one another to win you over!”

 

[7:13 PM] And We’re Under Way:

First up to the podium: Eric Birch from USA Today (Director of Content Systems and Operations) to talk about a disruptive new breaking news platform (with total functionality in one single app).

“The editorial team loves this,” he says, “because it saves time. “

Oh, he’s also looking for new hires.

 

[7:07 PM] The Innovators Are All Around Us:

Disruptors unite! We just caught up with Josh Konowe, CEO of message sharing start-up Uppidy, Inc, which has now processed over one million text messages, with 20,000 new messages added each day.

It’s a good reminder that it’s not just the presenters tonight who are disrupting the media (and social media) landscape. The innovators are all around us.

 

[6:34 PM] Tweet Tweet:

Live blog not enough for you hard-core fans? Get updates even faster by following Pete Erickson’s Twitter feed (@disruptathon) all throughout the night, plus join the Twitter conversation using our #disruptathon hashtag!

[6:23 PM] Audience Participation:

If you’re new to Pete’s events, you might be asking: How exactly will the audience be interacting with and grading the presenters?

With a pen and paper, you say? Oh, please. This is Disruptathon!

They’ll be using iPhones and iPod Touch devices to run a special application called “Disruptathon’s Innovation Discovery Platform.”

The whole thing happens digitally, in real-time. Pretty neat, eh?

 

[6:12 PM] The Great Eight:

Some rules of the game:

Our presenters tonight represent eight organizations from across the country that are currently disrupting the creation, publishing or consumption of media content.

In addition, each of these disruptive products or services is less than a year old, as of today.

Presenters will each have seven minutes to showcase their innovations. Then, the audience will grade each presentation on five criteria: Presentation, Uniqueness, Design, Disruptive Potential, and “Like Button.”

To determine the top finishers, we’ll take the weighted averages of each score.

 

[6:06 PM] The Innovator’s Dilemma:

Short primer on Disruptathon for the uninitiated:

Much of this event’s spirit and purpose stems from Professor Clayton Christensen’s groundbreaking research into what he terms “disruptive innovations.”

In a nutshell, success can be the enemy. Christensen noticed that when good, smart companies reach a market leadership position, they typically (and understandably) stop trying to reinvent the market, and focus instead on simply improving their existing popular products.

When rival innovations emerge, the new products can’t compete—at first. But the “Innovator’s Dilemma” is that the new technologies can be improved at a much faster rate than the legacy technologies. And before long, the disruptive innovations are better serving customer demand.

Disruptathon exists because of this reality—to help all companies, big and small, promote and celebrate continuous, disruptive innovation. And it’s not just about static technological achievements, but rather the new ways to access, experience, and appreciate technology, or ways to introduce old technologies to new people, places, and cultural contexts.

Also, there’s an open bar.

 

[6:00 PM]

Setting the Scene:

We’ve got a full house tonight (150+ in attendance). Excitement is palpable, and food/drink plentiful as Pete Erickson (founder and creator of Disruptathon) greets his guests on the figurative red carpet.

Said Pete just moments ago: “We’re thrilled to be the forum that’s bringing together future thinkers and connecting them, in a meaningful way, with their marketplace.”

Indeed, D.C.’s media VIPs are out in full force: including senior executives, tech specialists, members of the press corps, and a slim shirtless man who may or may not be former congressman Anthony Weiner.

For those placing bets on the wardrobe: skirts and slacks are beating jeans by a good 2:1 margin.

 

[5:50 PM] Welcome to the Show:

 

Evening, folks! We’re here live at USA Today headquarters in McLean, VA—the world’s only office building fashioned entirely of steel, concrete, and infographics.

We’re just an hour away from the start of “Disruptathon: Media.” Some couldn’t make it to the event tonight, while others are here but refuse to look up from their iPads. So in either case, we’ll be live-blogging the whole show.

Quick shout-out to our hosts—Cynergy, Gannett, and USA Today—and our sponsors—myDiscovery, National Geographic, O’Reilly Media, Womble Carlyle, The Washington Post Company, Deloitte, iFormBuilder, Digital Media Conference, MoDev Washington D.C., Qorvis, Tapped In, Boston University Center for Digital Imaging Arts, U.K. Trade and Investment.

We’ll be back to set the scene for you in a just a moment.

Category: Disruptathon News, Events