AMSTERDAM -- It feels like I live here now.  I am back in Amsterdam to chair a conference on social media and internal communications.

We're in the Amsterdam Hilton where John & Yoko had a bed-in only 37 years ago.  I think they've changed the linen since.

1. Social media is a state of mind

A very clever and quietly funny guy named Lee who runs a company called Headshift reminded us that social media (or Web 2.0) is not about programmes and websites.  It's about a willingness to participate.

I followed that up with a drink tonight with Kris Hoet from Microsoft.  He's an active blogger and said many smart things.  Amongst them: if these people want to get started in social media, they don't have to set up an internal Facebook clone, they should start by going onto a blog and commenting.  Get involved.

2. Social media is not mobile

Also a very cool guy from Nokia, named Stephen, who writes this blog, talked about the lack of truly mobile Web 2.0 platforms.

I would try to argue that things like Twitter are actually built for mobile devices, and Facebook does a good mobile interface.  But he'd still win the argument.

You can't wiki on a cell phone.  You can't do YouTube on a Blackberry.

3. 3D web-malls in 3 years

Maybe the IBM fellow didn't say exactly that.  But I asked him if it was true the are working on a system to allow Avatars to move from one 3D world (Second Life, World of Warcraft, for example) to another.

I invented the "mall" stuff.  But to me that is what it would feel like.  Taking your virtual-self from one world to another.  Like changing shopping malls.

Interestingly Stephen made a point on this that makes me go 'hmm?'  He proposed that all this should go mobile and move into 5D (yes, five-D).  2D is web.  3D is Second Life et al.  4D is actually knowing and showing where you actually are in the world... The shops and people around you.  And 5D is also allowing you to compare that to what has happened in that environment... To those surroundings... Over historical time.

Right.  Yea, I'm not sure I got it either.

But if you think that Google is looking at creating a virtual world through Google Earth... So you can walk down a satellite image of your street, online....

Well...

My brain shuts down.

Too bad that not every day at the office is this interesting.

/df