Web 2.0 and the built environment

More from the AOP conference that I attended on Wednesday, this time on new trends in the web. Interesting to see how the general principles discussed could be piggy-backed for construction and development. So all useful topics for next Friday’s Be2camp event. A few trends that were brought up by speakers and ideas as to how these could work (or not) in our industry:

• Hyper local – Mega-publisher Trinity Mirror is now creating hyper local sites – these will get close to the community than local newspaper and content will come directly from residents. Surely this could work for projects/developments, either from clients or from project team members? Opportunity for blog platforms to cover projects.
• The consumer as creator – Some bloke called Fred who puts up videos on YouTube gets 8.5m views, as much as the viewing figures for X-Factor, Eastenders etc. We are in an age of amateurism and user-generated content. Can this apply for the professional? Or does the nature of what they do leave them less open to sharing and collaborating online? I know from talking to jobbing bloggers in construction that it’s tough to keep the two up – how much can you divulge about what you’re doing? or do you go anonymous, which rather undermines the opportunity that’s out there.
• Linkedin – This site is flying. According to their head of Europe they are adding one new member per second and 18,000 new groups formed in the last month. is it worth competing with this with niche networking for industries or teaming up with them?
• Perfect information – We live in a new age of perfect information, apparently. So said the digital marketing guru with a hoodie, anyway. What he meant by this was that the cream in terms of information and content was rising to the top. I have many problems with this term but you get his point partially – searching, tagging and rating of stories leads to the best moving to the top. The hope is that the best advice, data and direction on our industry can follow suit and travel around the globe.
• Hyper collaboration – everything online is hyper, apparently. But especially, according to one speaker, is video. You need to get your content in as many places as possible. But it’s true for all online content. To start with for my company it’s about completely switching mentality in embracing online – from gating content to opening it up to all and sundry. That means freeing up content for people to view, and making it free for people to respond to what you are putting out, whether that’s with praise or rotten tomatoes. We’re starting to embrace this but have a long way before truly achieving it. I wonder whether construction is up for such a culture change? To open itself up to debating its designs, construction and the performance of its products.

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