Internet Trends: Dispatches from Laguna, the Land of Conferences

I've spent the early part of this week attending a pair of terrific conferences in Laguna Niguel, California: the Most Powerful Women Summit sponsored by Fortune and the first ever WebbyConnect conference put together by the people who brought us the Webby Awards.

I had two big conference takeaways -- one covered matters of spirit, the other matters of commerce.

Let's start with the spirit, and the Fortune conference, attended by hundreds of highly accomplished women. I was moderating a panel with Beth Comstock of NBC, Sheryl Sandberg of Google, and Jane Thompson of Wal-Mart Financial Services on "Mavericks: Leaders Who Shake up Businesses and Industries," but the discussion ended up focusing on whether you can be an over-achieving maverick and still have balance in your life.

Arianna moderating the panel with Beth Comstock, Jane Thompson and Sheryl Sandberg.

Over the course of the conversation, in the Q & A period that followed, and throughout the conference when we were approached by other women sharing their juggling acts with us, it became clear to me that we are entering an era of growing questioning of the quality of our always connected lives.

Jibing with the themes we are exploring on our newly revamped Living Now page was my realization that the next big thing on the Internet will be a paradox: connecting in order to learn how to better disconnect from our always connected lives and reconnect with ourselves -- which is, after all, the ultimate connection.

And it wasn't just the older ones among us who felt this urge. Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr, holding her 4-month old baby in her arms, told me that she's been thinking about these issues and about what she wanted to teach her baby about life, ever since she became pregnant.

I, of course, asked her to blog about it.

For me, it was reconfirmation of my own rude awakening earlier this year when I was pushing myself too hard and ended up passing out and breaking my cheekbone! The path to rebalancing my life began with cutting back from having three BlackBerrys with me at all times to only having two. But, as I told the conference, disconnecting/reconnecting is all about the process.

Over at WebbyConnect, the talk was about a trend that is already happening: the realization by a growing number of major media companies that the best way to succeed -- and make money -- in the Brave New Media World is to give away your content. Forward thinking companies are now adopting long-term growth strategies, and moving away from short-term profit-seeking.

"Make as much as you can, any way you can" was the approach many big companies had taken to monetizing the web. The New York Times stuck some of its most popular content behind a pay wall, and Microsoft stuck 30-second pre-roll ads on its MSN Video videos.

Neither of these strategies paid off: online readership of the Times' columnists dropped, and users at MSN complained of a negative user experience.

So now TimesSelect is dead. MSN is cutting way back on pre-roll ads. And, elsewhere, CBS has made a major u-turn away from the notion of hording its content on its own site, instead letting its material be available all over the web. Quincy Smith, the new president of CBS Interactive put it this way: "CBS is all about open, nonexclusive, multiple partnerships."

The conclusion is inescapable: online, promiscuity can be profitable. And not just when it comes to porn!

To its credit, CBS and other major players are finally realizing that the key to online success is community, community, community.

And you can't build community without showing your users that you are in the relationship for the long-haul, and not just a quick buck -- the online equivalent of a one-night stand.

Follow Arianna Huffington on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ariannahuff

Comments

[AstralTechnician]

I've recently become involved in coordinating an online community and the best way to do this is the model began in Howard Dean's ongoing campaign.

It's the idea of "One person making a difference­." Treat each member as an integral part of the whole while allowing for maximum autonomy of each individual's creative potential.

All you have to add to that is the natural ability to watch out for each other, providing space for idears to germinate and flourish.

Gore/Dean 08

[curiousasheck]

Turn off the Television
Turn off the Internet
Turn off the Cell Phone
Turnoff the Blackberry

A proven solution for your mental pollution.

It's that SIMPLE.

[Elias Maxwell]

How did YOU mange to read and post?

[RaisingAwareness]

IF WE WANT TO CHANGE THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF PEOPLE THAN I DON'T THINK THERE'S ANY BETTER WAY THAN EDUCATING THEM ABOUT THEMSELVES.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EWwzFwUOxA

[Marlyn]

MSM crap!

[jeskiley]

I liked the balance in that piece, and could see the elements of your soul shining through. You are standing amid the choices to live a balanced, centered life...and facing your inner prostitute (we all have one) where it comes to commerce. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. The best thing I can tell you, is that the more centered you are, the clearer and more resonant your voice. Your message can get out with less time and effort, the connections routed through your blackberry will find their way to you in new, innovative ways. Be open to the new paradigm, and don't forget to say your Hail Mary's.

[SharonWantsToTalk]

Re-connecting is hard to do with even one blackberry. Re-connecting means drowning out all the distractions so you can once again hear that inner voice. Some folks even insist caffeine can hinder the process. Sorry Arianna, but your present status wouldn't seem likely to support the disconnect needed. Maybe though, through small steps like learning to meditate you can make some head way. Good luck. We sure would hate to lose you completely. :)

[daddysboy]

They were curious as heck.

[webweaver]

My comment just got eaten again... I must be doing something wrong...

Thank you Arianna for the excellent post.

I face the same dilemma with development costs for my radio show's website, personalandpolitical.net. Should show archives be free or available through subscription?

(Check it out if you have a minute. I bet you would enjoy my show.)

I was wondering if the conferences you attended discussed creative revenue streams?

Will there be a final conferenence summary from the WebbyConnect conference?

(There was more in the original post, but computers embody the ether... "poof" .... one wrong keystroke and the words are gone ... into the wind.)

Kudos to your site, too.

[Nezua]

little cheer over here for the Disconnect.

[Hattie]

My rule is simple: no internet on the weekends.

[Desiderata]

Just like television provided free content through ads, so will be the future of the internet.

As major corporations buy more and more websites (one will buy Huffingtonpost eventually) stationary ads will be replaced by video commercials.

We may not even be able to comment here without watching a commercial before we click "post"

[sedalia066]

Some days the quiet disconnect is a fine thing. For various reasons I have reduced my online time in the past several weeks. Life is just too full to keep up with the information flood available today. I am back to taking sips and savoring the moments instead of trying to capture all I can manage in a short time. Life is improving these days.

[kasjuh]

Where once the path to knowing self lay in what was drawn from folklore and assorted mystic offerings (rapture, heaven, hell, gods, etc.), now the understanding of self clearly lies in recorded history. It's all there for the taking. The internet is still like bees buzzing around us. We don't yet understand its long term effects, but it's a sure thing that it is speeding everything up. Maybe we need that. But maybe it will drive us all to madness.
Still, I delight in being able to respond to these thoughtful blogs.