Live Blogging from iDMAa Day 1: Presentation from Peter Rivera

Peter has been with AOL for four years, and is showing off the work he has done at AOL...

He focuses on AOL programming (content).

He's got the Facebook happening and I think saw the Identity 2.0 presentation from way back when (smile). He advises that people get the Facebook -- says we can friend him...but can't poke him (grin). He doesn't recommend MySpace cause it is "messy".

Overview of projects he has worked on -- has lost track of it all he says.

This is a forward-looking presentation and he is talking a lot about AOL becoming too comfortable. It helped define the first part of the Internet, but then got too comfortable and now it is time to innovate. I'm left wondering if AOL can get it back? Certainly a challenge.

Works on "Agile" development -- small, tight, quick development cycle is important. Tighter iterations out faster and faster, listening to the customer (like marketing!!).

Two AOLs -- "you got mail" which is the old one. The "new" AOL -- is an advertising model not a subscription model.

Addressing the conflict of the old media "top down" to the "bottom up" of Web 2.0 (check out flickr for web 2.0 logos)

AOL is a content creator and pushes the content out. Content creators help to manage the course, not necessarily CONTROL it. Hmmm...sounds familiar, doesn't it?

The audience is fragmented. They come to you in many ways (see his blog entry here). In the past it was all about keeping it all controlled. He likened it to gravity and the pull of one big star to hold it all together. His future vision is that there will be micro-sites for AOL -- called something else -- but under the AOL brand.

He says that in order to win you have to have millions of micro-sites. Yep. This sounds familar too!

1. Syndication is KEY. Live Facebook Widget "Myfavoriteartists" is an example of what they are doing. Huge part of strategy is building widgets and applications.
   
2. Vertical Community. AOL is top four internet brand behind Google, Yahoo! and MSN. Niche communities. Creating a "community in a box" that can be deployed on the micro site. Then connect people together who like the same things. See AOL Music in early December for a view of what this is. You can "like" or "dislike" the item/person listed, and then you will be connected to others who feel the same way you do.
   
3. Content Widgets. How to manage page view/currency. Consumer experience requires that people keep clicking so they can show engagement. For example, Anna Nicole Smith, when she died, AOL got 200 million clicks on a small photo widget of 10 images of her. If you combine social networks, syndication and the widgets -- it's the "killer ap".