Intel Junior Mints, originally uploaded by ijustine.
I got to meet iJustine last week at Research@Intel Day and again today at the first Intel Insider gathering at Intel headquarters in Santa Clara. She was among a have a half dozen social media savvy people who agreed to help Intel learn how it can become more valuable, useful to people and reasons why more of us are enjoying social media.
iJustine was a multitasking maven making it all look so easy — Twittering, video recording to Seesmic, using her new FlipVideo and sweet dream Nokia N95 video phone…one to the next.
Wow!
Here are a few places I’ll be tuning into:
Movin' Ahead 
Would love some more transparency on this. The program should tell us what the terms are (what they get, that they’re not obligated to write nice things, etc.). And I’d love to have links to all the bloggers that are participating, so I can subscribe to them, and listen to what they’re saying, and be part of the conversation.
As it is, it’s kind of a black box. “We invited a bunch of bloggers to this special event, woo’ed them with Sean Maloney, gave them a bunch of stuff with Intel processors that they may or may not write about, and by the way, we’re not going to tell you who they are, so you won’t be able to read what they’re saying.”
I WANT to be part of this conversation, but I can’t! Fercryinoutloud, I found out about this thing through the Summize search feed that I have that watches for people talking about Intel on Twitter. A bunch of people starting talking about this event, and I wondered to myself “Hmm, why am I not seeing anything about this from the usual Intel channels – the blogs, and all the people I know that probably worked on this?”
It’s a great idea (and yes, I did propose this exact program to David Vanesky in early 2006 – glad to see he/they finally got around to implementing it), but it has the potential to blow up in your/our faces, big time (Google the Microsoft/Lamborghini laptop fisaco)…
I spoke with you on the phone last week and asked if you’d like to be included as things were coming together. We definitely would like you and many others involved, and maybe IDF in SF this August might be a good place together.
You did have a great idea in 2006 — and they keep coming! This sprouted from work we’ve been doing with Ogilvy and our What’s Inside You team (www.intel.com).
The idea was to work with people like yourself and others communicating online through video, blogging, Twitter and other tools that are capturing our imagination — and so much more of our time.
This group include some long time friends like Cathy Brooks and Tom Foremski (My Global Communications Team has sponsored his http://www.siliconvalleywatcher.com site for well over a year.
Here is who joined us for the first IntelInsider gathering:
* Justine Ezarik, iJustine http://tastyblogsnack.com/ and http://www.justin.tv/ijustine
* J.D. Lasica, Darknet http://www.darknet.com/
* Sarah Meyers, Pop17 http://pop17.com/
* Frank Gruber, Somewhat Frank http://www.somewhatfrank.com/
* Cathy Brooks, OtherThanThat http://www.otherthanthat.com/
* Brian Solis http://www.briansolis.com/
There are a few others who have said they might participate, like Irene Slutsky of GreekTV http://www.geekentertainment.tv/tag/irinaslutsky/
We are asking them to help us frame and direct this on-going program. We offered to share information and an occasional prototype to test out when the opportunity arises. We asked that if they ever do talk about us that there is transparency — that they are part of the Intel Insider team advising Intel on how it can participate online in more meaningful ways. There is no obligation to write or attend anything. It is not a group of “ambassadors,” but rather they are advisers. If they do want to test out a prototype or get news under NDA, they will decide…and be disclose how they got the info or device. There is no monitory compensation. If there are any gifts, they would be disclosed.
In fact, Brian Solis and I laughed that Jeremiah Owyang took the right path of becoming a “legitimate” adviser for Forrester Research…they get paid better!
We’d like to invite this team to events like IDF and product launches, share news we think they might be interested in and ask them how we might share information that is interesting and valuable to their readers/followers. We hope this will help us communicate better, beyond press releases and podcasts.
At the same time, we’ll continue working with social media pioneers inside Intel — we can always do a better job at this! There is a lot going on inside Intel and for me it is nice that we can reach out to people who already like Intel and see how they might help us.
Like Josh and Ken, I work at Intel too and was part of the meeting.
Josh, I’ll give you another perspetive, one that Intel’ers know well. Risk taking. The idea, the people we invited, the day, the conversations, if/how we compensate people, et al, was risk-taking at its best. All of us were nervous, but I think most would say it was a great first day. A decent summary, and how we asked everyone to disclose their participation is at http://www.siliconvalleywatcher.com/mt/archives/2008/06/intel_insider_p.php As for what went on, many video taped, audio-taped and blogged about it, and we will too. We just have day jobs that are tugging at a lot of work priorities.
Ken and Bill, thanks for your perspectives. I really am glad this program is happening – i think it’s great. My criticism (which probably sounds more strident than it should!) is ONLY on how this was announced (or not) to the world. A very minor thing, in the scheme of things. Great work, and thanks for putting this together! I wish you all the success in the world.
Also, Ken, it appears that my second comment in this thread is still being held for moderation. Could you approve/publish it? It makes my position a little clearer, I think. Thanks! 🙂
Here’s part of my other comment, which explains a little bit more about why I’m posting here instead of somewhere more “official”:
This was meant as helpful criticism. A way to make a good thing better. One of the things I love about Intel’s culture is how much “constructive criticism” and “disagree and commit” are a part of it. It’s always OK to disagree – you don’t have to make sure you only say happy things that everyone agrees with. So please take my comments in the same spirit. 🙂
Josh,
Your comments and our chats helped me write this post, which I wish I had done right after our first Insider adviser meeting yesterda.
We’re learning as we go here, and trying not to have EVERYTHING so mapped out while still holding on to being clear, truthful and innovative (i.e. trying new things with calculated risk).
From idea to plan to integration of initial teams to this…I see much more passion and interest in understanding and participating more online. Working better with others by seeking their involvement and honest feedback would help us move even faster in the right directions.
http://blogs.intel.com/technology/2008/06/prolific_individuals_form_firs.php
On the same note, we can keep working together better across teams so we can model during the evolutionary time. Intel turns 40 years old next month, and I bet there are other companies — younger and older — that are feeling culture shocks. Hope we all get a little shaken down to our foundation where we can all get on the same page quicker, more efficiently.