My Brush with Chris Anderson

I had a fun accidental exchange with Wired Magazine editor and author of The Long Tail Chris Anderson last night.

This is how it happened:

I was watching a TED video that I decided to share over Facebook. In order to do that, I have to copy the link to the video page, sign into my Facebook account, go to my profile page, and share it through the standard link sharing functionality found there. Recently, I helped Shiv Singh and Jesse Pickard publish a deck about Facebook Connect, Facebook's newest API which will allow websites to enables websites and users to:

1. Sign into a website using their Facebook Account
   
2. Import their social graph to third party websites
   
3. Design functionality and personalization around the data contained within the social graph
   
4. Export their activity from these third party sites, back to Facebook through the newsfeed feature
   

It's the type of thing that would work beautifully with a website like TED, given TED's naturally viral nature. On a side note, I also wanted to suggest that they set up an affiliate partnership with Amazon so they could promote TED speaker's books through the website, and at the same time develop a small revenue stream to help TED grow. So, I went to go find the feedback spot, but to no avail. So I looked for someone in the NY office that could possibly make a difference: I found their editor Chris Anderson. I happen to be re-reading The Long Tail right now and it just made sense that the author of The Long Tail, and the curator of TED should be the same person. Apparently, it is only a coincidence. At the time I did not know that, so I went to go find Chris Anderson's email address, which was surprisingly easy to do. Here is the brief exchange:

Me:

Subject: Facebook Connect & TED

Message:

Hi,

I don't think I really need to say much more than the subject line of this email… it would be great. I constantly send videos I watch on TED to my friends through Facebook, and have converted quite a few to fervent followers. I wish I could broadcast to my community every video I favorite without having to manually post the link.

That, plus the benefit of SSID and the layering of my social graph onto my TED experience would give me a lot more to do on TED than simply watch videos.

On a separate note, I think you guys should also be offering TED speaker's books on the TED website. Through an Amazon affiliate program it could even be a revenue stream for TED as well as a great way to help support the speakers. My intuition tells me that the community wouldn't be offended. I recently bought a book, a piece of which should have been diverted to TED instead of Amazon!

Thanks for a great website

Daniel Stern

PS - Not that it necessarily means anything, but I work in User Experience at Razorfish and have a love for social media, and I would happy to help participate in TED in any way that would make sense for me on a volunteer basis. I am truly a fan.

PPS – Thanks for The Long Tail… it was a great read!

Chris:Wrong Chris ;-) It's my namesake that does TED.

Me:No way… That's remarkable. Funny how it automatically made sense that you could be the curator for TED (particularly ironic since the other Chris Anderson also got his start in the magazine world). Sorry for the inconvenience, but I appreciate you taking the time to let me know.

BTW: When is your next book coming out… I've been waiting ever since The Long Tail. Also, if you want to mention something to the other Chris Anderson about Facebook Connect and why it makes sense for TED, I think it would mean more coming from you.

Chris:July 6^th…

Me:Cool… looks interesting, I am looking forward to it. Funny how The Long Tail became a hit, no? Good luck on repeated success.

In the end I felt like more of a nuisance than anything else, but it was a mildly fun and interesting experience none the less. I thought it was really big of him to take the time to write me and let me know that I had the wrong guy, and really indicative of the culture that exists on the web, and in the social media space.

There is one additional coincidence though, that I find worth sharing. The other Chris Anderson, the one who curates TED, also happens to have gotten his start in the magazine business. He started a company called Future which was responsible for more than 130 magazines including PC Gamer, MacAddict, and Business 2.0.

Anyway, that was my last night.