A few weeks ago, I went to my first library-related conference, the Tech Camp unConference that was held at Michigan State. I was coerced by Heidi to join her and other peeps from WSU (and beyond) for a day long conference on all things library related tech stuff and it also happened to be FREE so I was sold. Since I agreed more or less at the last minute, I was a bit at a loss as to what to bring with me, so I of course asked Heidi who clued me in. One of the things I should bring, she said, was business cards although they were not totally necessary as this was a casual ‘do. But one never knows and one should be prepared for any eventuality.
Since my lib school orientation this past August, one thing that had been drilled by then current students and alum were business cards: Many students were hitting conferences before starting school, others were working in libraries or in information organizations or just plain networking at social events and the like. On my global to-do list, getting business cards has been hovering at the top for months now as I either keep forgetting or am too lazy to order them. Now two days before the conference, I had to whip some up together and thus, at the last minute bought business card stock and color ink and spent an hour or two designing business cards to print from home the night before. Satisfied with my handy work, I printed about 30 or so cards and neatly stacked them in my wallet.
Except — I shouldn’t have bothered. Since the entire conference was Twittering, I was connected to nearly everyone at the conference within an hour. And that’s how social networking works, in a nutshell: You find X person at one social networking site and you are almost literally connected to their entire world. Thank $deity I brought my laptop with me because not only was I adding new peeps to my follower list but also adding them via various other sites as well. Who needs business cards when you have the interwebs?
A few days later, a follow librarian tweeple twittered about Poken – essentially a tiny USB flash drive that is configured to hold all of your social network info in one spot. No more hunting and pecking through various sites, Poken is essentially your business card and connector in one easy to use application.
For someone like me, who is on every major social network, this is brilliant as I may be @pnkrcklibrarian on Twitter, but I’m academichussy on LiveJournal or modgirl on Last.Fm. I have have different user names on various sites depending on what nom de plume I was using at the time I signed up. And if you just met me, you wouldn’t, obviously, know that. But with Poken, and using various privacy settings depending on whom I’m meeting, all that guesswork is taken away.
As conferencing is looking to be more likely in the future, I will eventually order Moo cards for my business card needs, but I’ll also will have a Poken with me as well. But I’m hoping, no betting, that Poken-ing (or something similiar) will become the new de facto way of
giving people information about me, because portals are so 1999.
P.S. I once did a presentation for a small group on Jane Austen and the use of tea as a social construct in Georgian times and one thing that surprised me during my research was the use of calling cards, which were in fashion during her life time (late 18th and early 19th centuries) and had been around for quite some time before that. Calling cards are also apparently making a come-back of sorts and while I don’t think the concept is ever going to go away, the new technology will definitely improve how we convey social introductions to each other. Everying old is apparently new again.
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Interesting.
If you had asked me what you need to take with you for a conference, I would have said “get your hands on a netbook.” Twitter is my best friend at conferences, so I want a portable computer with a long battery life so I can constantly update myself on what’s going on, and contribute my thoughts and ideas.
I like this Poken thing, but I think it raises a few old questions; what networks do you want to share, and which don’t you? I’m in a safer position than you, since I have permanent status, but a time may come when I’m back in the job market; jobs are few and far between; which social networks are appropriate? While I agree that the whole person comes to the job, it might be easier on your new colleagues to introduce them gently. Would you separate out your “personal” and “professional” online identities?
Additionally: what if you want to moderate which networks you give to which new people? Poken, it seems, isn’t that sophisticated (yet). I might want to share linkedin with someone, but not twitter; someone else, facebook, last.fm, twitter, the whole shebang. Does it provide blog urls as well, or just social networks?
I have a Dell Inspiron 710m (which, after 3 years, still logs 4hrs on battery) which isn’t that much bigger than a netbook but I am planning later on this fall to get a DellMini or an EEEPC and selling this faithful laptop to a friend for uber cheap. After my experiences with my first library related conference, I definitely want something even smaller and lighter to lug about. One my professors/employers is thinking about sending me on a few conferences this year in her stead and that would come in handy.
According to the video trailer for Poken (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-RElDpDIXw), you can create various Poken identities with various privacy settings in that for friends get the whole shebang while future employer might only get LinkedIn. And you can control this via the Poken device itself as well as via the web interface.
I’m still struggling with the separation of personal v business online personas. A few months ago, I wrote about this in depth on my blog and I have yet to come to any real conclusion yet. Any suggestions?
I spoke about these at a recent Enterprise social media conference – the presentation is on Slideshare, with audio – http://www.slideshare.net/andypiper/openness-and-innovation-in-a-web-20-world
The net of it is that I think Poken are a very cool, very neat idea. I came across them a couple of weeks before I physically obtained one… we talked about them on our weekly podcast Dogear Nation, and then I got on at Twestival in London. The problem is that the barriers to entry are too high – the cost is still more than most people are prepared to pay for what is essentially a small capacity but cute looking memory stick, and they are not very readily available; they are not widely distributed and therefore end up as a self-perpetuating fringe idea. The cuteness factor can also be off-putting to some people, particularly those with the disposable income to buy them. I’m left wondering how the company is really looking to make money beyond sale of the devices, which I’ve already pointed out, are arguably too expensive.
Interesting!
I was wondering about that: Poken is very cool, but is really only going to be feasible if lots of people you meet have them.
Now, if some sponsor made sure that everyone at a conference got one in their registration package, now that would be cool.
Yes. I think they need to take the leap and, although they are (as they told me at Twestival) a poor startup, they need to seed the market, and distributing widely at one tech conference or two could help. They should be seeking out the core influencers in the market.
Beyond that though, the value-add is low. The actual “business card” / “contacts” piece of all of this is done via their website. The only thing the Poken device itself appears to store is your ID, and presumably some key to who the people you’ve “poken’ed” with are – the rest is via their site. Not sure what the concrete business model can be beyond selling the things.
I realise that the grown-ups are talking and while Andy presents many excellent points, even with the cost as being a “poor barrier” — I still want one. Why do I want one?
1. It’s different.
2. The idea/concept is cool.
3. The cost, even for a poor graduate student like myself, is not really off-putting.
4. It’s way to alleviate stress of what/how to present my ‘net identities / business card issues in a snap.
5. The business model may be poor, they may not be seeding the market properly, but right now we can probably agree it’s in very alpha stage. Whose to say that things won’t necessarily improve? Or that competitors will come out with a better, cheaper product?
It may also fall like a flan in a cupboard, but nevertheless, I still want one.
Ahh I see you have to change its battery after 6 months too…too bad they couldn’t make a totally rechargeable one. :/
Joining this conversation up with another one – there’s more discussion at http://wisequeen.com/blog/2009/5/25/when-in-rome.html
The re-cap from Poken’s perspective is interesting but not to be terribly rude here, the conversation over there seems to come to a halt.
There are three online retailers via Poken’s website that sell them in the US.
I wanted a poken but didn’t think they were cute ENOUGH! (yet!) I am waiting for them to make a dog one.
Oh, and I didn’t have a netbook at the techuncamp conference, but it was easy to find the tweets the next day and add everyone.