Rating Speakers, Control, and Context

I recently read Scott Berkun’s Confessions of a Public Speaker, and it got me thinking about speaker feedback. It was a timely read, as I’m (with a number of co-organizers) in the middle of preparations for WordCamp Boston this January.

How can we be sure the speakers we’ve accepted will deliver? How can we ensure they get the feedback they deserve (positive or negative)? Would using a site like SpeakerRate improve the situation?

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Brand Control on the Assembled Web

Who controls the meaning of your brand on the internet?

Control! (Photo by Faramarz Hashemi, cc-by license)

One of the principles of the assembled web says:

Your brand is not what you say it is, but what your prospects, customers, partners, and employees say it is. In short, your brand is what the Internet says it is. You influence this not through marketing but through creating appropriate experiences and getting users exposed to those positive experiences. (Micro-interactions are ultimately assembled into and become brands).

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