The New Form of Media

The media is changing.  There’s a new kid in town that really breaks the traditional mold of how media and journalism and publication works in the world — our not-so-old-yet friend the Internet.

Newspapers, magazines, television, radio – all the traditional forms of media — primarily fit into a “one-person-broadcasts-to-many-passive-receivers” model.  Plain-ole’ static websites work this way too.  Even the first iteration of the way blogging was done was mostly one person just spouting their ideas for others to read.  Talk radio is a bit of an exception, but it’s still more of a one-man show than anything.  A slang term for it might be “the fire-and-forget media”.  It’s a lecture more than a conversation — one person is contributing, sharing or speaking, and everyone else consuming or listening.  This is the old media.

The new media is based on a whole new model — it’s interactive.  With technology being what it is today, people are demanding that journalism be more of a conversation than a lecture.  The Blogosphere is the best example yet, but an entirely new concept in the web is also emerging — called the “World Live Web”.  Here, content is no longer static.  It’s no longer one guy’s show.  It’s a conversation.  The publication of many voices on a given topic, all interacting.  In this world, a blog isn’t just me spouting my idea and everyone else reading it.  It’s me kicking off a conversation that everyone else participates in.  Here, it’s not just a static website, it’s the collective work of many voices interacting (from WikiPedia to Del.icio.us to My Yahoo!).

Even traditional forms of media, like television and radio, are trying to get into the game.  News and analysis shows now feature email segments, radio programs incorporate activity taking place on their website running simultaneously with the radio show, every “classic” static news web sites now allows you to comment on their news stories and editorials, etc.  These are all attempts to make the form of media at hand a collaborative effort, instead of a lecture circuit.

And one of the biggest components of this brave new world is the online community.  Here, a “common purpose, goal, or interest” is the gravitational center around which scores of people orbit — sharing their knowledge, experience and opinion.  The ideal community is a constant frenzy of interaction and collaboration, with loads of valuable information available to anyone, anywhere who is interested in the topic at hand.  This concept is at the center of the World Live Web — at the center of a new form of media.

Technorati tags: media, blogosphere, world live web

Social Networking, The Internet’s Future

The first time you sent an email, did you envision what the Internet is becoming today?  As more and more people got on-line, two things were just bound to happen (as they’ve been want to do all through history) …

1. People wanted to express themselves, and
2. People drew together into communities.

There was just no way around it, and now we’re seeing it happen.  In the last couple years alone, dozens of sites have sprung up that are focused on these two things.  Sites like MySpace, Technorati, Flickr, Del.icio.us, Topix and a host of others are all part of a recently-under-construction section of the information superhighway called “Social Networking”.

A social network, according to Wikipedia, is “a social structure made of nodes which are generally individuals or organizations. It indicates the ways in which they are connected through various social familiarities ranging from casual acquaintance to close familial bonds.  The term was first coined in 1954 by J. A. Barnes.”  Great technical definition, but let’s unpack that a bit…

MySpace is a pure social networking site.  I want to express myself and connect to others, so I “create a MySpace” (how long will it be before that makes it into Webster?).  I link to those I like, and those who like me link to me.  In a short amount of time, the “structure of nodes” Barnes was talking about is quickly and easily created.

But isn’t a link you put on your site simply a vote for the site you’re linking to?  Is it any less a social network if you post your votes on a social bookmarking site like Del.icio.us?  When everyone else can see your votes and use them to create a network of sites / content that interests them, that’s social networking as well.  Another step further…  If everyone tags content on sites like Google Video or Flickr, we’re also creating a social networking, because the rest of the world can use those tags to connect sites and create a web (network) of stuff that interests them.  Each of these “Web 2.0″ tools — though different mechanisms — accomplish similar purposes … to give the masses the power to express themselves in community … to surround themselves with and share with others their network of content.

This is the Internet of the (at least near-term) future.  Everyone’s voice weighing in to help you decide which content you want to check out.  Even blogging fits into this category, if you think about it.  First, we learned to create static pages.  Now, as the 21st century really gets underway, for the second time, the self-describing power of the Internet – where the users of the system create the system — is really being taken out for a spin.

Technorati tags: social networking, social network, internet, web 2.0, flickr, myspace, del.icio.us, topix

What do you want out of your Online Community?

If we agree that community is important to people and that online community is a legitimate phenomenon in the 21st century, then that begs the question, “What do we get out of online community?”  What should we get out of it?  What do you want it to provide to / for you?

For me, I want connection … to people and to their ideas.  If we’re sharing a common purpose or interest, goal or passion, then I want to be able to share it well.  I want to meet people who are “top notch” and find access to ideas and information that’s right up there with them.  If there are people who aren’t very committed to the community and to the interest we share in it, then they’re less attractive to me.  If someone’s written 10 books on the subject, then I want to meet them.  Wait … only if their books are good ones, so I’m going to need a way to figure that out — ideally without reading all 10. 

If there’s any objectivity to the information — such as how to setup a few IR repeaters in my entertainment system, when the registration deadline for that conference is, or where the nearest Chicago-style pizza parlor’s located — then I need to find that information quickly and easily.  And it needs to be correct when I find it.  Plus, I feel an obligation to share knowledge and experience here when someone is looking for it.

If it’s more subjective – such as picking a new digital television, deciding which new audio book to download, or figuring out which pizza place is the best — then I want advice and opinion from people I trust.  Of course, I might also have opinions or advise to share here too.

So those are my requirements for a good community.  What about you?  What do you look for?

Technorati tags: community, connection

Houston, We Have a Problem

Too much noise.  That’s the problem.  The TV?  Too much noise.  Commercials?  Noise (except during the Superbowl).  The subway?  Noise.  Instruction manuals in 10 languages?  Noise.  Phone trees and tech support queues?  Noise.  My last web search?  Yep, lots of noise there too.

Haven’t thought about it that way before?  Well, let’s do so now.  What do you spend most of your life doing?  If I set aside critical upkeep / maintenance kinds of activities like sleeping and eating, then most of my life is broken down into two areas:  achievement and recreation.  I work and I play.  I get things accomplished and I enjoy the life that that accomplishment brings.

And in either case, as an American, I spend a lot of time sorting through my options.  If I’m trying to get the job done (whatever the job is), then I need answers.  Either I know them, or I have to find someone who does.  Okay, I’ll settle for what that guy wrote down, as long as it’s a pretty cut-and-dried deal.  Otherwise, even that won’t do, and I need the guy himself.  And recreation is the same.  Which national park should I go to?  Where’s the best vacation spot?  Which hotel should I stay in?  What restaurant will I enjoy most?  Which movie would be worth my time?  What book should I read?  Need I go on?

So, we’re looking for answers.  And the fact that more and more information is available to us every day makes it harder and harder to find them.  Let me be clear.  It’s EASY to get answers, but I submit it’s getting harder to find GOOD answers.  Everyone’s got an opinion.  There’s a blog on every subject you can name.  News runs 24 hours a day.  The TV has 4 billion channels.  According to Yahoo’s Yellow Pages, my town (28,876 people) has 503 car dealers, 413 banks, 372 hotels and 503 restaurants … and that’s just the “sponsored” lists for their “top” searches.  Forget the more obscure stuff.  Oh, and did I mention that of the 4 “top searches”, 2 of them give me sub-trees after the first click instead of search results?  I mean, that’s just crazy.  We know the information’s not accurate, but we settle for it because there’s no better alternative.  And this is just one example.

It all adds up to noise.  Everyday a new restaurant opens and it makes it harder to choose, not easier.  Pick your analogy and it works.  Good information is getting harder to come by as total information increases.

Stay tuned in.  We’ll be talking answers soon.  And I’m going to want your opinion!

Technorati tags: value, noise, world wide web, knowledge management

Some History and a Few Observations

It’s only recently that information has been easy to come by.  All through history, it’s been an obvious part of human nature to want to exchange knowledge.  Not just to write it down for future generations to remember, but also just to communicate among peers.  But it’s been relatively hard to do so, compared to the last decade or so.

Rome was thought to have the first authentic postal service, in which one citizen could send a message to another – delivered by horse and chariot across the empire.  Delivery took weeks, to say nothing of how long it would take to get a response.  An equivalent system existed in the early United States called “The Pony Express”, which I’m sure everyone’s heard of.  Ten days to get your letter 1966 miles from St. Joseph, MO to Sacramento, CA.  Now that’s latency.  Better boats, then cars, then planes, then computers and the Internet have shortened times and distances, to allow people to communicate much more rapidly.  So, in 2006, it’s a whole different (smaller) world.

And with a smaller world, and technologies like the World Wide Web, has come an explosion of information.  I recently heard a statistic that the amount of information available to the average American doubles every 6 years.  Doubles!  If that stat is even in the ballpark of reality, then wow should our heads be popping right off!

So, what’s my point?  It’s the simple observation that technology (which always seems to be touted as the universal answer to making my life easier) has thrown so much information at me that I need help navigating it.  The world may be smaller, and everything I need to know may purport to be a Google search away.  But I submit it’s more complicated than that.  The fact is that I don’t just want data, I want the right data.  And I don’t want twice the information every 6 years, I want the answers to my questions to be twice as easy to find every 6 years.  These are simply NOT the same things.

Technorati tags: information, communication, world wide web, pony express

Why are we here?

So, I guess by now you’ve heard of the World Wide Web.  Duh!  Of course you have.  But have you ever stopped to really think about it?  If you’re under the age of 30 today, you have a hard time remembering / imagining the world without it.  If you’re over the age of 50, there’s a significant chance it’s a mystery to you.  And if you’re in-between – where I and many of you are – then you’re in the phase of adjustment … still.

As the Internet has grown bigger and the world has grown smaller, our lives have changed.  Tool after glorious tool has been created to help meet the needs of our changing lives, in light of the technology that – to a large degree – is responsible for the changes.  This blog is about a new one of those tools.  But I’ll get to that.  Before I do, let’s talk background and introduction … and context (you’ll hear me use that word a lot).

If you want to dig in deep to where the Internet or the web came from, how they work, who the big players were, etc, then check out the Wikipedia.  Couple articles in particular – one on the world wide web and one on the Internet.  Both are fantastic articles, with a zillion links to more good info.  So, that’s not my focus.

Instead, let’s talk dreams of the future.  What do we need to make the Internet all it can be as we become more and more dependent on it?  What do we need from technology to continue to make our lives easier, and to keep us from getting swallowed up in the noise of more data and less world to fit the data into?  Couple hints…  Information and wisdom are not the same thing.  Terabytes and petabytes don’t create knowledge.  Sometimes less really is more.

… and hopefully I’ve peeked your curiosity enough with goofy clichés to keep you coming back for more.

Technorati tags: world wide web, internet, wikipedia, information, communication