Really, what I mostly do today is stream management. And I suspect this is true for the vast majority of people. I don’t deal with writing documents, but with changes to documents. I put comments onto things. I slap patches onto things. I tweak the states of things. Once in a rare while I may author a completely new thingee, but even there I usually end up working with it as a stream of changes that I build up over time (and usually in collaboration with a few other people who stream changes to me).

It is this paradigm shift that helped coin the new phrase of “bacn”. Sites like Lifehacker have become successful with their lists of ways to combat bacn. But even with all this outrage against bacn is it a necessarily evil or another stream of communication that is in the infancy of evolving?

Email you receive that isn’t spam… And isn’t personal mail. It’s the middle class of email. It’s notifications of a new post to your Facebook wall or a new follower on Twitter. It’s the Google alert for your name and the newsletter from your favorite company.

The first question I ask every social media expert I encounter is: “How do you filter?” Generally, I am asking how does one filter the content that is being requested – but I think it has grown to mean more of how to you handle information overload. I know some folks who have to respond to every little interuption to file away that notice or alert that comes through. But this leads to interruption overload. Thankfully there are plenty of solutions to help with information overload – the largest being “Protective Organization”.

Be protective of your time – Time is a valuable resource. A watch list of items that tend to be time wasters: meetings, phone calls, junk mail/email, social messaging, television (yes this should be in the watch list) etc. All these items have the potential of taking up valuable time. It all boils down to time and priorities – if you have that goal – reach it but be aware of the pitfalls of spending time on things that do not help you reach it.

So what is the best way to cure bacn? (bad pun alert) Well any good messaging system worth its salt… will have ways to diminish the amount of alerts to the really important ones. And when that doesn’t work what ever system you use to receive this alerts should have a rock solid filtering feature. Filtering is the life blood of a successful bacn routine. Since most of bacn are sent via some logic in the machine triggering the message to send it only makes sense to use the machine to filter these messages into managible silos for digestion.

In closing the Common Sense PR blog has a great piece addressing just this very angle from a content pusher’s point of view – make your information worth paying attention to, or be a spammer. While it has become a big fad in the self help social media gurus to announce they are cutting back on their number of feeds etc – I think it helps expose a weakness to feel the urgency of the message. It is a good thing to make sure the list of sources you listen to is very specific to your need or you will feel information fatigue – but you won’t be overwhelmed unless you bring it on yourself. It’s all about the priorities – loose sight and risk becoming swamped in bacn.

Known as the guy who took black humor and beat the crap out of it, then introduced it to drugs and porn, and then took it around the country for a series of unbelievably insulting stand up shows, Carlin also left a footprint on the media. Having ridiculed television for the seven dirty words you can’t hear on TV (and getting arrested for obscenity several times), he reached unprecedented fandom on the Internet, where thousands of kids were delighted to hear the dirty old man telling it like it is.

Here’s a short selection of George Carlin’s best YouTube YouTube flicks. If you’re a fan, I know you’ll enjoy them; if you’re one of the uninitiated, well, better late than never.

“Many members of the Web 2.0 generation of internet companies have so far produced little in the way of revenue, despite bringing about some significant changes in online behaviour, according to some of the entrepreneurs and financiers behind the movement.”

I find it interesting that the focus is on the money and technology. This is only the tip of the iceberg of the noise about how W2.0 has failed to bring in the cash. So this triggered the thought to question what makes the difference between the successful and failed web app conversion – aside from a little luck.

Here’s what I’ve found to be the magic keys to successful conversion:

You can’t suck at it. There is no magic fix for your Idea 2.0 to take off like wildfire if it doesn’t work. Copycatting an existing player means you will have to bring the A-Team, A-Game and A-Idea (thanks to Plurk for the inspiration). Fortunately, if your idea is revolutionary there is some leeway for struggling at first – but if you can’t get the traction at first it will be an uphill battle to bring the people back.

You can’t be fake. Social media is unforgiving when the information hits the fan. Likewise – even bad news can be beneficial if sculpted (addressed) in time. There are plenty of examples of good and bad transparency between companies and their customers and how that affected the bottom line. Amazon is a great example of how they cleverly handled a customer and turned it into a win for the brand.

You can’t be lazy. The biggest misconception of any money making scheme is that easy = lazy. For some reason web app success seems to be plagued with this thought process – that once I build it the money will flow in. This is a business, in business (taking a note from outside the web) you have to work to stay on top. With that being said – yes the web can make technology easier to deliver your dream but you still have to put the work in to make it a success.

You can’t be cheap. The deathblow of any project is to be concerned with cutting corners and doing it cheap. The bottom line is to set your priorities and definition of success and do everything in your power to make it happen – even if it means going over a little budget. If you are successful that budgeting session will have been just a blip on the radar. This doesn’t mean blow the budget on a crazy design staff and throw change at your underlying architecture. Sites like Craigslist and Del.icio.us don’t have ground breaking layouts – but their service works and it works really well – mostly due in part to their development staff and designers who understand the brand and purpose of the site. Even when looking to fill staff positions 37signals makes the point to understand the basics – which I take to mean – understand the purpose and vision.

So this has been a list of “can’t” do – so what is the make or break “can” do?

BE ORIGINIAL. That doesn’t mean that you have to go invent a way to harness underwater volcano energy (although that might be a good way to get the world’s first underwater volcano energy powered car). Being original means – taking the core idea and converting it to be a usable, viable – DESIRED item that causes intrigue. Whether it be a service or a product – unless there is a desire – conversion is darn near impossible.

Finally, this whole bit means nothing if you maintain your old ways of looking at the numbers. Social apps and media experiences are more about marketing than advertising. The age of “social” doesn’t mean just using new technology to push a message, rather it means using new technology to enhance, increase and outreach in people-to-people relationships.