We’re here at the Real-Time CrunchUp, listening to the Real Time Business Panel featuring:
Porter Gale, Virgin America
Adam Pisoni, Yammer
Maynard Webb, LiveOps
Eric Marcoullier, Gnip
Ross Mayfield, SocialText
John Ham, UStream
Max Ventilla, Aardvark
Tim Young, Social Cast
Follow my live notes below (paraphrased). You can also watch the live video stream here.
Gale: We have a staff person who just looks at Tweets. We are full fleet wifi, so people are Tweeting from the sky. We have on occasion set messages up to the plane. Virgin’s perspective about social media isn’t a marketing channel but an engagement channel. We ask out community to answer questions. We love social media.
ES: SocialText is a dashboard for enterprises. Tell us about to what extend are your customers keeping track of external social data?
Mayfield: You have pr, marketing support and sales trying to find out what the right engagement model is for monitoring social media.
ES: People on organizations are used to using Twitter but the enterprise’s software needs to be impacted. Why do enterprise guys have to follow the consumer?
Webb: Consumer experience has lapped the enterprise experience on the web. Eneterprise has to catch up quickly.
ES: It seems that the enterprise is pulling in social data more so now.
Webb: Enetrprises have to catch up in a big way,
Pisani: Things are changing in how enterprises are purchasing software. Now employees go out and choose software.
Webb: It’s not enterprise vs. consumer world. The decision making process is different.
ES: How do businesses manage what communications go out to consumers?
Young: Organizations have to have employees respond in real time if the consumer is using real-time technology. You’re going to start to see enterprise platforms like SocialCast be deployed to enable real-time communications in the enterprise.
Marcouillier: Enterprise applications have always been lacking. Previously, the things you did at home have nothing to do with work. Now you can compare the things you do at home to things you do at work.
ES: To what extent are other data streams impacting businesses?
Ham: It’s definitely more prevalent and people understand the value proposition. I see it as a trend. I see some creative use cases for enterprises, mashups for conferences.
Marcoullier: In the enterprise, real-time data isn’t a new concept-look at real-time financial data. There a lot of real-time data that companies can take advantage of to sell to our customers.
ES: Aardvark is a q and a service where your friends on social networks answer your questions. There’s actionable, lead-gen opportunities in this data.
Ventilla: The main feature of real-time is that its conversational. Anyone can send out a question then Aardvark tries to match you with the person in your social graph who could best answer this. From a business perspective, you could have auto dealers, travel agents who can use this. From a broader perspective its about allowing this individual info taking place, everyone needs a human being on the other end.
ES: Porter, do you now if someone is Tweeting from a plane?
Gale: No we don’t know the plane.
Question: How do you see the role of computation in the self organization of structures?
Mayfield: Real-time sounds great but in an organization, this can be overwhelming. The businesses who do this faster will do better.
Pisoni: Real-time is a disrupter, completely changes the way businesses operate.