Categories: Articles

Ever Heard Of Digilanti Or Social Operating System? You Should…

I am on my flight from Phuket to Bangkok and I finally had a chance to crack open the latest issue of Wired Magazine (August 2007 – with Martha Stewart on the cover). I came across two new and interesting words I had not seen/heard of before in their Jargon Watch column (which always puts a smile on my face).
Digilanti happens when, “combining digerati expertise with vigilante initiative, the digilanti anonymously police the Internet, exposing scams and fighting spam in the interest of making the Web safe without government intervention.”
And this one:
Social Operating System – “a social networking site like Facebook or MySpace that seamlessly integrates activities, including entertainment and shopping, to become a platform for online living.”
It makes you pause and wonder. If there are people who are passionate about making sure that entries into Wikipedia are accurate, then it makes total sense that there is a subculture of people like the Digilanti of the world, out there protecting us from Nigerian Bankers who are trying to free millions of dollars worth of gold. I wonder how /if they work together or is it truly individuals doing their Batman-like thing online, on their own?
Anyone know any Digilanti? It does sound cool (in a geeky kind of way).
I also loved reading about the Social Operating System. What did you think of when you read that definition? Facebook immediately sprung to my mind, and nothing came in a close second – which speaks to the power of how Facebook is morphing beyond the next hot online social network after Friendster and MySpace into something much bigger.
Is it just me or does it seem like Facebook is doing anything (and everything) to become the next generation portal? I’m doing my best not to get caught up in the “online social network of the moment” syndrome, and I know better than to place my bet on one platform at this moment in time, but Facebook really seems to be doing everything within its power to own your full online experience.
Just this week, when I was presenting my “tools of the trade” on day two at PodCamp Singapore, I realized that some of the core tools I use (namely Google Reader, del.icio.us, Twitter, etc_) all have applications built for Facebook, and are all completely visible to my friends via my profile page. If you’re interested in seeing which items I am sharing via Google Reader, my latest Twitter tweets or even the content I’ve tagged in del.icio.us, all of this is available via my Facebook profile page (I really wish we had the ability to create a unique URL for our Facebook profile page – hook me up with a www.facebook.com/mitchjoel – please).
As e-commerce invades social networks (and it’s starting to happen now), Marketers are going to have to be well aware of the new online social network (now known as Social Operating Systems) and do our best to understand (and analyze) how marketing messages translate when individuals are driving the response to (and from) their collected connections.
The big marketing challenge will be in not crossing the line. None of us would want to be on the receiving end of punishment doled out by the Digilanti.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.