'Media companies are in the service business, not the content business'

From O'Reilly:

"... what you're selling as an artist (or an author, or a publisher for that matter) is not content. What you sell is providing something that the customer/reader/fan wants. That may be entertainment, it may be information, it may be a souvenir of an event or of who they were at a particular moment in their life (Kelly describes something similar as his eight 'qualities that can't be copied': Immediacy, Personalization, Interpretation, Authenticity, Accessibility, Embodiment, Patronage, and Findability). Note that that list doesn't include 'content.' The thing that most publishers (and authors) spend most of their time fretting about (making it, selling it, distributing it, 'protecting' it) isn't the thing that their customers are actually buying."

User data is the currency of the web

In a recent PC World article analyzing the potential effects of Google Chrome OS, Keir Thomas states:

Money isn't the currency of the Internet. Data is. Micropayments aren't made in cents or pennies, but in details about your shopping habits, or where you plan to go on vacation.

Content and information are no longer scarce, and therefore have little value. Scarcity now exists in the data produced by users in the form of demographics, geo-location and personal interests, all of which are time-sensitive.

Collecting and analyzing this data will provide value to businesses who wish to provide services at the right time in the right place.

A quick example: You need to leave work at 5 pm, but have a meeting at another location at 6 pm. Where can you get a quick yet nutritious dinner between the two without being late? What routes have both a meal and light traffic? Oh, and you're a vegetarian. Your apartment is on the way to the next appointment, do have have some leftovers in the fridge?

This example may seem trivial but play the idea out across multiple situations and time-frames. To anyone who understands the nature of data and the potentials inherit in it's analysis, the possibilities are endless.

The hurdle is our culture. Few are willing to provide enough detail about their personal lives to allow data-oriented services to suggest such information. Or are they? "What are you doing?" asks Twitter. "What's on your mind?" asks Facebook.

Future generations, who will have grown up in a world where information scarcity no longer exists, will create a culture that strengthens the value of data analysis.

How Much Does It Cost to Support Web Journalism?

CoPress had an excellent discussion on the costs and equipment required to maintain web journalism: Investing in Online & the Future of Journalism

Data Mining Rescues Investigative Journalism

Re-posting slashdot's link to Deep Throat Meets Data Mining:

Now, though, the digital revolution that has been undermining in-depth reportage may be ready to give something back, through a new academic and professional discipline known in some quarters as "computational journalism." James Hamilton is director of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy at Duke University and one of the leaders in the emergent field; just now, he's in the process of filling an endowed chair with a professor who will develop sophisticated computing tools that enhance the capabilities — and, perhaps more important in this economic climate, the efficiency — of journalists and other citizens who are trying to hold public officials and institutions accountable.

College Radio Stations Must Comply with FCC Rules

A post from Warren Kozireski, General Manager of WBSU 89.1 FM at SUNY College at Brockport, to the Collegiate Broadcasters, Inc. listerv, mentions the following article:

Utica College's WPNR Paying $10K to Settle FCC Violations

"Students at Utica College’s WPNR are learning a lesson they’ll probably never forget: the importance of maintaining a complete and up-to-date Public File for the FCC."

Three ideas about online media and journalism

I just had an excellent discussion with Tyler Dukes about online media and journalism. Here are a few significant points that we discussed:

• The most important value that can be added to online publishing is credibility. This especially applies in social networking. Whether or not people follow your website, blog or tweets depends how much they trust you. If you are publishing junk people will pay not attention. So how do we improve our online credibility? One way is to understand our readers. What is relevant to the students, faculty and staff? The web, more than any other medium, provides a way to interact with our audience so we know what is important to them.


• Journalists need to be as tech-savvy as their audience. You will be a better journalist if you are familiar with web/technology trends (and listen to your IT guy's ramblings :p ). Where is our audience going online? We as journalists can't be expected to create social networking sites or online communities, but we need to be aware of where our users are already going online. They are on Facebook, Twitter, iPhones and who knows what else in the future. Go there to deliver news and solicit their input. This also implies that our systems of delivering news must as technologically open as possible. It must be possible to pull content from our site, blogs, etc. to be re-published elsewhere. The places where people are going online changes constantly, and we can't meet this moving benchmark without keeping our systems open.


• There is still no concrete way to monetize online news. At this point, anyone can create content with practically no cost. The media is competing with it's audience and has no control over the technology used to deliver or receive news. Readers are empowered and can receive information piece-by-piece based on their personal interests and contacts. The definition of "mass media" is evolving. It remains to be seen what business model arises from this evolution, but Tyler and I toyed with the idea that the value of news is in its readers. The profiles and personal habits of your readers provides a way to target ads very specifically. The more information you provide in your personal profiles, the more information collected about your browsing and shopping habits, the more valuable you are, and the more coupons you could receive according to your interests (think MVP card at Food Lion). Sound scary? Yes, but it will be much less scary, perhaps natural, to our children and grandchildren.

Why prohibit social networking in the workplace?

A colleague recently pointed out that some workplaces are prohibiting the use of social networking tools such as twitter and facebook, and made reference to an article entitled Millenials will Route Around IT departments. She asks:

What should we implement, how far should we go to get buy-in from the higher-ups, and what happens if we don't? Are we better off that way?

I completely agree that we should be embracing technology that increases the quantity and improves the quality of communication. Of course, there will always be non-work-related communication, but that doesn't occur because of technology. Take walk around the office to rest your eyes, or even while you're working someone will come up and you'll have a personal conversation. These conversations increase the quality of our relationships and, in turn, the quality of our communication. Besides, how can you understand how someone thinks and works without talking to them? In addition, I hope our bosses hired us because they have faith in our ability to adjust our personal communication when it interferes with work.

In relation to students, I think it is extremely important that we are familiar with what technologies they are currently comfortable with, rather than expecting them to adhere to a "foreign" user interface with a steep learning curve. As an advisor, my students can take my advice, or leave it. Listen to or ignore me. So that forces me to ask myself, "What can I do to earn their respect and trust?" One way is to participate in their social networks. Not only do I begin to understand how they communicate and what technologies they are comfortable with, but I begin to earn their trust. "He is like us! He is on our side!" This is invaluable and immeasurable. Plus it helps me forget that I'll turn 30 soon :o

There is no way I can keep up with technology and trends by myself, so I have to rely on the experts in my social network to keep me informed. If managers and admins feel they can't trust our participation in these social networks then we have to openly question their judgment while making our case with solid evidence. They should recognize our need for flexibility in a tech world that is constantly in flux. If they don't trust our decisions or respect our passion, then why were we hired in the first place?