The Internet puts ubiquity at our fingertips

This week, I am attending the Webby Connect conference in Dana Point, California until Friday, October 24. Why is .ORG interested in this type of conference? The team behind .ORG continues looking to bridge the gap between a person or company with a domain name to an online presence and identity.

Today started with a session titled “A Hard Reset for Hollywood”, moderated by Virginia Heffernan of The NYTimes Magazine, and panelists Amy B. Harris (Writer/Producer – and “Sex in the City” fame); Jason Hirschhorn (President of Sling Media Entertainment Group); and finally Scott Roesch (General Manager of Atom.com). There, we discussed the leap that Hollywood has been taking over their walled garden to embrace the Internet and its “ubiquity”, and Amy Harris shared that “there is no such thing as an ‘opening day’ on the Internet.” I also found it interesting that she produces web TV with L Studio called “Puppy Love” in a grassroots campaign with donations going to .ORG Community member, ASPCA.org. We also discussed the topic near and dear to many .ORGers hearts – how to get eyeballs to your content. Grassroots production, keywords as distribution channels, and using social media were among the top discussed avenues. I also found it heartening that many of the production companies were using their favorite causes (i.e. .ORG Community members) to help promote advocacy efforts and get their content distributed - a great partnership for all. Next we had a keynote address by Publisher and Chairman of The NY Times, Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., where he spoke of many of the areas that The NY Times has focused to become the 11th most visited site with over 50 million unique visitors in September. Wow! He told us that to be “of the Internet” and not merely “on the Internet”. For media and news content, he summed it up very well with “the era of the walled garden is over.” The last two sessions centered on what companies can do with the Green Marketing wave and also some learnings from overnight web “all-stars”. Roy Sekoff, Founding Editor of Huffington Post, moderated the “Web-Grown Green Market”. The panelists included Adam Lowry, Co-Founder, Method Products, Inc.; Graham Hill, Founder of TreeHugger.com; and Arlene Fairfield, Principal for Global Change Network and Founder of DDB BIG. Arlene shared that to be successful in green marketing (and I think many .ORG initiatives in general) you must be: real, transparent, collaborative, humble, courageous, visionary, willing, and confident. Finally, our session ended with overnight web “all-stars” Mint.com, Tumblr.com, and Muxtape and moderated by Xeni Jardin, Co-Editor of BoingBoing, and Host and EP of BoingBoing TV.  Aaron Patzer (Founder and CEO of Mint.com) shared some key fundamentals in building great content. “Simplicity in design is paramount.” He urged creating websites with user centric designs and focus and that “your name counts”. We at .ORG feel the same, not only to the left of the dot matters, but also what you have to the right of the dot when creating your web presence. The .ORG domain is a trusted source of content and a recognized domain globally. And my favorite of the day…David Karp (Founder of Tumblr.com) shared that he has always wanted his own “domain where people can find me online.” Hear, Hear! More and more, I think people want to find places online to “live”. Just like they buy land to live physically, they want to buy virtual real estate to live online, and that is in the form of a domain name. So, I found a lot of valuable discussion from getting eyeballs to your content and understanding the interest of your crowd to being real and that your web name matters that is great for the .ORG Community and those looking to build an online presence.