Today, four of my classmates and I decided to drive over to Adobe's Convention Center in San Jose to hear Amazon's former Chief Scientist Officer speak about the growth and utilization of "social data." As we waited for the talk to begin, we helped ourselves to some pizza and wine in the reception area along with the some other 40 to 50 attendees. I saw a tall man walk towards my friends and I, immediately greeting us with a smile. At the time, I had no idea who he was but instinctively smiled back, welcomed him into our conversation asking, "where are you from?" and introduced him to my friends: Jeff, Stefan, Hilla and Abdul. Eventually, I realized that he was actually the keynote speaker, Dr. Andreas Weigend, because he whimsically leaned over to me and asked, "Hmm, what should I talk about?"
During the presentation, Andreas clearly outlined "8 Rules for Revolutionaries."
1.) Stop segmenting your customers:
2.) Become part of your customers' digital identities:
3.) Liberate your data:
4.) Don't worry, be messy:
5.) Focus on metrics that matter, your customers - not your accountants:
6.) Embrace information symmetry:
7.) Build your product for the social FAA era:
a. Does it help people make better decisions
b. Make it easy for people to contribute
c. Does it help people collaborate
d. Does it help people get attention
8.) Internalize the changed social norms of your costumers:
After the talk, a crowd of people were trying to speak with Adreas while my friends and I quietly socialized with the other attendees there, meeting employees from such companies like Yahoo and Microsoft. Shortly after, Stefan came tapping our shoulders to inform us that Andreas had invited us to have dinner with him that night.
Rare personality of utter kindness, social vibrance and inspiring intellect.
The significant change in comparison to the past.
Kept telling me that he was glad I came because he believed the psychology field of discipline held many of the keys to solving society's problems - bridging the technological advances with humans, understanding how people think in pursuit of improving human rights, political turmoil and cultural tolerance.
Invited my friends to dinner, then went out for a drink. "Drink before you drive" he would joke. (Notes continued...)
