The Facebook Debate October 17, 2007
London, England
There has been a great debate taking place over the past couple of months. Facebook has been discussed by just about everyone with a blog and many of the mainstream publications. BIMA (British Interactive Media Association) would now like to host a face to face debate, taking the conversation offline.
Confirmed speakers so far
- Hugh MacLeod
- Michael Nutley
- Damien Mulley
- Robert Loch
Some of the views expressed so far include:
1) It's like AOL with a 'walled garden'
2) It's a black whole because it's easy to import information from other sources, but I'm unable to get my information out
3) It flies in the face of open standards
4) It reduces employee's productivity
5) It's the next Google with lots of trusted people recommending content that's approproate for me
6) It helps me to communicate with people more easily
7) It encourages me to communicate more often, helping me to build stronger relationships with people and organisations
8) It helps me to raise awareness for my products, services, events or brand
Support by
- BT
Media Partners
- New Media Age (NMA)
- Intruders.TV
- NMK
- Blognation.com
- tbites.com
We will have a panel to kick things off, but the vast majority of the time will be allocated to Q&A to ensure we get participation from everyone. This won't be a one-way broadcast of 'experts', it will give everyone an opportunity to have their voice heard. So, in this instance, answering your own questions from the floor will be permitted, encouraged even.
Promoting the event now should help demonstrate how true point 8 is :)
Please also feel free to express your view on what the debate format should be. We're all ears.
-----
Please get in touch if you'd like to become a sponsor or media partner.
---
More about BIMA
Founded in 1985, BIMA is the longest standing industry association for the British Interactive Industry, supporting the interactive media sector as a whole, and the commercial development of its members.
Official Website: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=4063183699
Added by Paul Walsh on August 16, 2007
Comments
blognation UK
Looking forward to the debate but wondering how it can be a debate if everyone on the panel is a facebook fan?
Who on the panel is going to oppose the closed silo nature of Facebook.
Equally who on the panel is the technical expert who can discuss the issues around "social portability" and the recent Google post on social graphs.
http://therealmccrea.wordpress.com/2007/08/18/the-great-debate-open-up-the-social-graph/
Paul Walsh
The venue holds just 170 people.
On Facebook alone we've seen:
273 confirmed guests and 179 "maybe attending"
So, I recommend you sign up for this as soon as the official registration page goes live on the BIMA Web site.
Subscribe to the BIMA Blog and sign up to the Facebook group if you want to be informed as soon as the official doors open.
http://blog.bima.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=4063183699