That’s precisely the problem: the sheer volume of words has overwhelmed a business model that was once based on scarcity and limited choice.
andrew does a great job of breaking down the business predicament surrounding digital journalism. the greater publishing industry of yesterday didn’t understand the value of their content in relation to the new technology driving advertising’s evolution. so, set that aside for a minute.
his piece goes on to imply that tomorrow will look just like we think it will look. sites like gawker essentially playing “red rover” with revenue and profit until something shakes out and sticks. the issue i have with all of this is that everyone, both traditional publishing & mr. denton, are showing their hand. the majority of the revenue might sit within a common denominator of audience but what happens when we reach the point of scraping the bottom of a big barrel for 1/80th of a cent? i don’t even want to imagine what kind of stuff you’ll be reading then.
denton is right, the delivery mechanism (“blog posts”) are a commodity - the money is made in building empires based on attention. oh man, wait a minute, attention? that - to me - is the golden ticket. it’s the end game and is best captured not by vague click-through traps, rapid-fire posts within a 24hr period but by the stuff that sticks to the wall long after you’ve walked away from it.
the stuff that gets you to read the entire article, entice a desire to share publicly and even offer my own point of view on. think about where you find stuff like that and who is producing it (more so, who is capable). at the end of the day, you have to eat the food that is going to satisfy you the most and focusing on delivery mechanisms might keep you afloat for now, but what happens when someone does it better?
sustainability in our society’s intellectual culture isn’t built on the traps we set but instead the meals we make. i’m convinced the day will come when people turn and walk back towards whence they came - the thirst not for “scarcity” or “limited choice” but a thirst for quality and concise editorial.
Delivering immediate effect might not be the best business model for designing long-term valuable marketing initiatives.
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There is a need for long term marketing initiatives; digital concepts and ideas need to carry the longevity of product relationships. Which also implies a different way of measuring value. (What are the metrics identifying the value of a relationship? Are they the same as used for our ability to traffic people back and forth from, and around in, cyberspace?)
I would love it very much if we stopped talking about the content we provide and begin talking about the value we provide. What I mean by this is that the pieces of content that compose our media – our articles, our broadcasts, our images – have never been what we got paid for. What that content delivered over time – understanding, expertise, perspective, entertainment, and yes, eyeballs – these things are what have been the foundation of the media’s support.
if you read this here web site, you’ve surely realized that i’m a broken record when it comes to the content & value sentiment. also, linking to matt in general.
anyway, click-through to read the whole post. it’s his transcript from a keynote. moreover, it’s a great case study documenting collapse via gluttony and restoration via focused curation.
in other words, stop the mindless churn and start giving a shit. FOCUS people. focus on what you’re doing, what you’re consuming, how you’re thinking about it (you are doing that aren’t you?) and why it might matter to someone else. most importantly, why it won’t.
“Time is a material.”
Matt Jones of Berg’s presentation, “All the time in the world” is a springboard into so many interesting avenues regarding time, space and design. Seen here is Michel Gondry’s lo-fi “making of” video for the Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar video.
this can be some pretty heavy stuff if you let it be. matt is one of the guys who works on dopplr. at the heart of all this: as humans, we create context. signals, data, physical things, non-physical things. items that define our existence and and help us function. ”time” is one of those things. pulling from the (great) presentation, at some point in the 17th century, we separated “time” from our existence with the belief that we weren’t connected. it existed on a wholly seperate plane almost dictating existence. when, arguably, it’s the opposite. how do we keep track of “time?”
a clock. a clock that a human created. hopefully, this analogy rings true.
furthermore, matt from february of this year:
I’m still convinced that hereish-and-soonish/thereish-and-thenish are the grain we need to be exploring rather than just connecting a network of the pulsing ‘blue-dot’.
accuracy is a tenant of context. you need something to be mathematically accurate (longitude & latitude) in order to build on top of it but so what if i’m on a street corner somewhere? what am i doing? what have i done? will i be back? what have i done there in the past? will it be happening again?
it happens in the sub-conscious, but we (humans) learn from our interactions with each other. learned behavior. if i’m hanging out with friends, i might expect to do it again in a location and want to include others and at the same time - i’ll tailor what we do based on what we’ve done.
think of networks as vehicles (maybe platforms). am i twittering? no. i’m giving you context.
pile:
Sponsored links rendering search useless
GOOG not thinking about intrinsic value. sometimes, you can make more money by staying away from the lowest common denominator. i’d much rather see strong applications of the maps software that uses verefied, accurate, non-cluttered info (and maybe pay for it) then seeing this crap.
But time will tell if people are willing to pay to be stalked. Personally I’d rather let folks know where I am when I choose to do so.
Location Without Context is Dead « Gowalla
i’m actively trying to find a connection between this and this. sure, it’s important to be transient and there is value in that but we haven’t created the world we live in now (remember the past was once the future) without knowing why.
what good does something do me? keep asking, keep trying.
also, props to tb for pointing me towards gowalla. i’m actually beta testing something for them at the moment which is quite cool.
…Looking at life like this has changed my perspective. I’ve been able to make different decisions based on a more clear mind. I’ve been able to set goals for myself and take my time away from the superfluous and focus on finding things that work with what i want to do. First of all, change comes from within. That being said, you must believe in yourself that you have the answer to your dreams. Having a lack of confidence won’t help here for you’ll realize that you are trying to find who you are through other people, things, and ideas. Look inside yourself and realize you create your own life. Never give yourself up.
broseph talks about value judgements.
For me, experimentation is not about the technology. In an ever-changing technological landscape, where today’s platforms are not tomorrow’s platforms, the key seems to be that any one of these spaces can use a dose of humanity and art and culture.
