You’ll Want It Once You See It
October 15, 2008
Nobody wanted to carry 1,000 songs in their pocket…until they did.
Nobody wanted a camera in a phone…until they did.
Nobody wanted to chronicle their status in 140 characters…until they did.
Nobody wants to understand an article or topic from every possible angle…but they will, if we show them how.
Our task at e-Me is not just to have a vision for a Semantic Content Utility, but to show how a Semantic Content Utility makes content pop. Sure, we get excited about the deep technology breakthroughs happening in semantics. Just as much as the fine people who engineer tiny hard drives for music, squeeze optics into a Nokia, and fight Fail Whales daily. But the excitement spreads once people figure out they can have Radiohead’s entire catalog with them at all times, take spontaneous pics of friends acting silly, and update the world on their latest quip about Indecision ’08.
Here’s what is going to make content pop for me:
- Reading an article and then getting an instant summary timeline of all related things that happened before and after it.
- Quickly checking what all of my trusted sources (friends, columnists, politicians, humorists) have to say about a topic that I just found at my fav news source.
- Getting a quick summary from the 358 (time-cosuming to read) comments Maureen Dowd got today.
- Finding, mashing up, and sharing what I believe to be the most salient points on a topic into “Nicky P’s Truncated Almanac on the Issues that Matter when You Pull that Lever. Wanna Fight About It?” (because users get to put quirky titles on their stuff while publishers don’t).
- Seeing my comments, mash-ups, and insights make it back into the journalistic cycle.
The Big Switch
June 3, 2008
Image via Wikipedia
Great couple ‘o weeks under our belts here at e-Me. Sure, we drove 30 hours in a 48 hour time-frame. Yup, we saw how hot semantic content can be at Nstein. No doubt, we built tables out of doors. Yes siree, we’re gaining Wedia clarity. Can’t deny it, we’re all over Google Sites to contain our project management needs.
And now, in a serendipitous pulling-together of some of our thoughts, I read about The Big Switch. No, I did not actually read the book (thanks to my utter lack of a Kindle). But, I’ll trust MIT to outline the main points for me.
- Cloud computing is coming at you fast
- Businesses are created on top of utilities
- And guess what, computing is a utility
- Differentiate yourself on something else besides computing
This affects Wedia in two ways
- You best be building Wedia on a robust utility instead of a DIY/homegrown one-off that doesn’t differentiate the business
- Watch out. After computing, content is the next thing to become a utility (go ahead, debate me on this one)
Related articles
- How Cloud & Utility Computing Are Different [via Zemanta]
- Prototype: Cloud Computing: So You Don’t Have to Stand Still [via Zemanta]
- GigaOM Interview: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos [via Zemanta]
- Google Sites now open to everyone [via Zemanta]
Small is the New Big
May 15, 2008
Who is making money on online CPMs these days? Glancing at the graph above, made by PubMatic, I assumed that the highest price went to Large Web Sites. Unh-Uh. It’s small sites. Niche sites. Sites that advertisers know what demographic they’re getting. Not only do small sites get the best CPM, their CPMs are growing and are 4 times that of big sites.
If you’re questioning the value of niche… If you’re unsure of the longtail… this info should start to shift your brain rift.
Now we’ve just got to figure out how to make a whole bunch of quality niche sites. After all, small is the new big, but we’ve got to ride the scale whale.
Digital Object Identifier for Media
May 13, 2008
Image by steelmonkey via Flickr
Our heads are in a new space. Literally: we have a new office that’s conducive to rolling around while thinking. Figuratively: We’re rolling around hot ideas in our heads.
Here’s what’s been wheeling around: All digital content needs a unique identifier that shows who made it, when, on what equipment, and what it’s about. How else are we supposed to find relevant content no matter the venue? How else is the original author going to get props/cents?
Currently, there is a standard called DOI (not to be confused with DOA or DWI). Digital Object Identifier. Seems like it’s mostly used for academic papers so that they can be found even if the location (website) changes. But are lomediaco’s using it? Is there a way to embrace and expand the standard to include the myriad UGC and Pro content out there? Make it all relevant?
If you know about this kinda stuff, we’d love to hear from you. We think it’s a necessary piece of the relevant web.
It’s not just about Zemanta (but z-ta is cool)
May 6, 2008
Image via Wikipedia
This is not another wediaup post about Zemanta, but the concept they are pushing. I posted earlier today at tomaltman.com about how Zemanta is cool because of the way they operate. They updated their software today and released the news via twitter. Which is very cool, plus the fact it took me 0 (zero) seconds to install. Why? It’s Saas – software as a service.
This is a great model – because even if I was not on Twitter (but I am “vwtom” and so is this blog “wediaup“) as soon as i fired up my blog application it would have loaded the new version of the software.
That is why we are so pumped about Zemanta, Saas and the semantic web at wediaup. It’s just giving you what you need, when you need it. Now, let’s imagine we could do the same with content. We don;t need to go looking for content – content will find us. We just do what we do and content seeps in like a green ooze.
Pretty cool if you ask me.
Content is Meant to Be Visual
May 5, 2008
Image by livatlantis via Flickr
I posted on the importance of visual objects a couple weeks ago. And then I saw Microsoft’s Photosynth and I realized how cool visual content really could be. See it to believe it. Here’s the video from the TED conference. If you’re into traditional newspaper content, jump right to minute 1:40 to see the future.
Image via Wikipedia
Medill at Northwestern is a renowned Journalism School just an hour El ride from e-Me HQ. Seeing as we’ve got a bent towards new media and the like here at Wedia Up, we figured it’d be good to try to engage some of the students.
Lucky us, it was Medill Career Day. Unlucky us, we failed to sign-up and pay the fee to have a booth at the event. Undeterred, I packed my old-school flyers and went searching for students to bring into the Wedia Up conversation.
Asking a couple questions at the registration desk, I was quickly introduced to the Director of Career Services, Jim O’Brien. Jim understood what I was getting at and was very helpful. Not surprisingly, he noted that my old and busted flyers wouldn’t garner much attention from J-students (I knew that, but how else to turn a physical event into an online meeting?). The solution: send Jim the e-Me info so he could distribute to students via electronic-mail. Genius, Jim. Genius.
So, the Medill conversation begins. If you’re a Medill Student coming to join the conversation, welcome. I’d be interested to know if you heard about us via the flyer or email.
The Web is a Baby! Nannie-nannie, boo-boo.
April 30, 2008
Image via Wikipedia
I picked up on a post from the BBC, they interviewed Tim Berners-Lee talking about the internet and how immature it still is.
The future web will put “all the data in the world” at the fingertips of every user, Sir Tim said.
“The web has been a tremendous tool for people to do a lot of good even though you can find bad stuff out there.”
Making the web free to use had a vital role in spreading its use worldwide.
Because the web was designed and became open, wild and free – it allowed for the global view to plug-in. This lead to the rapid uptake of the idea and ultimately brought us to where we are today…a ecosystem which supports conversation, social systems and information.
Vertical Ad Network – A Way to Monetize the Long Tail
April 30, 2008
Image via Wikipedia
A Vertical Ad Network appears to be a thing of beauty. One such network, Adify, just sold to Cox for $300 million. Cheers to them, but I didn’t know what a Vertical Ad Network was until I read Andrew Chen’s explanation. An important thing for any LoMediaCo, New Media Startup, or long-tail blogger to know.
Side note: funny that Zemanta only picked up on the word “cheers” and popped up this picture.
The basic premise seems to be for websites without ad sales expertise to outsource their ad selling to a Vertical Ad Network. Seems that if a VAD can get a website a higher CPM than before, it’s a given that outsourcing is the way to go. Plus, less hassle and headache.
Any LoMediaCo’s using a VAD? Anyone willing to experiment?
Zemanta is a Friend Indeed
April 29, 2008
Image by Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten via Flickr
A topic for blogging springs to life, and then the project of managing the post weighs it down. Questions start flooding the mind faster than language can articulate them. Is this post unique enough? Am I rehashing stale ideas? Where do I find a picture? Am I stepping on copyright? Who/where should I link? What should I read before writing? Do I have the facts right? Will I ever be able to monetize this? How should I tag it? Compound the questions with a time-frame that should be more like 30 minutes and less like 2 hours for a single post, and I start looking like I need a friend.
Zemanta has been a great friend in the quest for easy and relevant blogging. I’ve been using it for a few weeks now, and would rather not imagine its absence. It places pictures, finds relevant links, and tags posts with helpful aplomb. “Friend” is a good descriptor for Zemanta; It’s always there, ready to help out in the only way it knows how. But Zemanta can’t ease all of my blogging needs, and I can’t demand too much of it. (as much as I wish a friend could be my personal assistant, employee, maid, cook, and computer, I wouldn’t have much friends if I demanded that level of commitment).
Every blogger should be friends with Zemanta today. But that friendship will surely wain when there is an Integrated Content Management Framework that solves the riddle of how to make relevant, unique, atomizable, mashable, monetizable, fully linked and tagged multi-media prepared for syndication. Then again, that’s a mighty high demand for any friend.
Wedia Up 