The new E-books, especially those for the I-Pad, have the added dimensions of embedded video. For that reason some retailers are calling the books enriched books.
And as far as the future, Katy bar the door. E-books should be able to show you video, link between parts forward and backward in the book to create new "connections", perhaps introduce audio parts -- you name it.
Read more at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/29/books/29ebook.html?ref=media
Or read it all:
By JULIE BOSMAN
Published: July 29, 2010
Preview: ‘The Pillars of the Earth’
In the spring Hachette Book Group called its version, by David Baldacci, an “enriched” book. Penguin Group released an “amplified” version of a novel by Ken Follett last week. And on Thursday Simon & Schuster will come out with one of its own, an “enhanced” e-book version of “Nixonland” by Rick Perlstein.
All of them go beyond the simple black-and-white e-book that digitally mirrors its ink-and-paper predecessor. The new multimedia books use video that is integrated with text, and they are best read — and watched — on an iPad, the tablet device that has created vast possibilities for book publishers.
The start-up company Vook pioneered the concept as a mobile application and for the Web in 2009, but with the iPad, traditional publishers are taking the multimedia book much more seriously.
“It’s a wide-open world,” said Molly Barton, the director of business development for Penguin. “You can show readers the world around the books that they’re reading.”
Simon & Schuster has taken the best-selling “Nixonland,” first published in hardcover in 2008 in a whopping 896 pages, and scattered 27 videos throughout the e-book. One video is a new interview with Mr. Perlstein, conducted by Bob Schieffer, the chief Washington correspondent for CBS News. Most are news clips from events described in the book, including the Nixon-Kennedy debates in 1960 and public reaction to the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Simon & Schuster is a division of the CBS Corporation.)
Each video clip, embedded in the page, starts to play with a simple tap of the iPad screen. After pausing to watch a video, the user can go back to reading the book.
Ellie Hirschhorn, the chief digital officer for Simon & Schuster, said the intent was to use the video sparingly, at points that seemed natural to the story, so that it wouldn’t overwhelm readers.
“We set out to tell stories in a multimedia way, and to take advantage of the new technical features that allow great stories to be told,” Ms. Hirschhorn said. “It is still a reading experience.”
Grand Central Publishing, part of Hachette, released an “enriched” e-book version of Mr. Baldacci’s latest novel, “Deliver Us From Evil,” in April to coincide with the hardcover release. The e-book producers borrowed from the film industry and included “research photos taken by the author, deleted scenes from the manuscript, an alternate ending and other special features,” Hachette announced in March. Penguin’s edition of Mr. Follett’s “Pillars of the Earth” comes with video clips from an eight-part television series based on the book.
The early versions of these books are experimental, and, because they were developed quickly to compete with other publishers, some of the technology is new and unpolished. But eventually the books could regularly feature full-length movies and photo slideshows. For authors who are open to the concept, new books could be written with multimedia in mind.
Some publishers said that before long e-books with video, photos and other media could be widely available to readers as another option alongside hardcover, paperback, audiobooks and standard e-books.
Brad Inman, chief executive of Vook, said his company is working with 25 publishers to create multimedia books. “The iPad brought this to life,” he said. “Everyone knows now that they’ve got to put their toe in this water.”
Books with multimedia also allow publishers to charge a higher price. The “enhanced” “Nixonland” costs $15.99 in Apple’s iBookstore and through the Amazon Kindle store (though it cannot be read on the Kindle e-reader), an increase from a black-and-white e-book, which generally tend to be less than $14.99.
Ms. Hirschhorn said Simon & Schuster was actively developing other books to follow “Nixonland.”
“We’ll see how the readers evaluate it,” she said. “It’s not appropriate for every book, but it certainly was for this one.”
A version of this article appeared in print on July 29, 2010, on page C1 of the New York edition.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Curator of truth
Some call it curation; I call it personalization.
Both are far beyond RSS, which was keyword based and that's all. Now when you give yourself over today to say an ICurrent.com you get stories that are about a subject, that the curator or personalizer (ICurrent.com) understands has multiple characteristics and thus is related to multiple sources that may not include keyword matches.
It's the semantic web, early in its development, and it's wonderful to see.
My example is Bob Dylan, who I have had as an alert with MyYahoo since 2003. But for the most part I get stories that have "The Times They are a-Changin' " in the lede. In other words I've gotten stories about the new trash pickup contract in New Orleans (the times they are a-changin) to the newest fashion tips out of the Paris show (the times they are a-changin) to the expectation that the Democrats will throw out the Republicans and vice versa (the times they are a-changin.)
Obviously none of those stories have anything to do with Bob Dylan except that the ledes invoked his famous song.
That's why my MyYahoo alert became something I never looked at. Once I discovered ICurrent.com and began to get stories everyday that were serious music stories that included reference to Bob Dylan I have been a happy camper, and a day doesn't go by that I don't open that email from ICurrent.com to check out the story.
More and more publishers are appreciating the semantic web
Here's a good tutorial of where we are today.
Here's the address: http://emediavitals.com/article/1005/how-publishers-curate-world-content
And the full story:
It's nothing new that many news websites augment their own content with repackaged content from around the Web, but the applications have evolved along with the technology. Content providers are experimenting with all sort of ways for editors and technology to push outside content to readers, whether through aggregation or curation (for a lengthy discussion about the difference, check out the Nieman Journalism Lab).
Curation platforms, which have moved beyond the RSS feed, provide varying levels of automation, functions and technology to suit a media company's needs. News organizations are even investing in curation platforms; the New York Daily News holds a stake in LOUD3R and The Washington Post recently acquired the personalized news aggregator iCurrent.
While publishers choose to utilize aggregation and curation platforms in a variety of ways, the main point is clear: Many media companies see benefits in collecting content from around the Web. Publishers find curation can attract and retain readers by offering the best of all content, rather than the best of just their own content. Here are a few ways publishers are deploying these platforms to add to their site's content:
Topic hubs
Topical pages have gone beyond story lists, pulling in interactive content both inside and outside of news organizations. Events such as the World Cup often inspire topic pages, as seen with the The Washington Post's interactive map powered by the curation platform Daylife.
Upendra Shardanand, CEO of Daylife, said publishers commonly use the platform to create microsites, sections and photo galleries, which can be both curated and auto-generated from sources the editor selects ― blending original authoring with real-time updates. “If you go to bed and something happens, it will be on the page,” he said.
On the continuum of editorial control versus automation, Daylife focuses more on editorial oversight to help the editor “discover and curate content to make a great page about anything,” Shardanand said. The platform also powers Forbes' Billionaires page.
Both are far beyond RSS, which was keyword based and that's all. Now when you give yourself over today to say an ICurrent.com you get stories that are about a subject, that the curator or personalizer (ICurrent.com) understands has multiple characteristics and thus is related to multiple sources that may not include keyword matches.
It's the semantic web, early in its development, and it's wonderful to see.
My example is Bob Dylan, who I have had as an alert with MyYahoo since 2003. But for the most part I get stories that have "The Times They are a-Changin' " in the lede. In other words I've gotten stories about the new trash pickup contract in New Orleans (the times they are a-changin) to the newest fashion tips out of the Paris show (the times they are a-changin) to the expectation that the Democrats will throw out the Republicans and vice versa (the times they are a-changin.)
Obviously none of those stories have anything to do with Bob Dylan except that the ledes invoked his famous song.
That's why my MyYahoo alert became something I never looked at. Once I discovered ICurrent.com and began to get stories everyday that were serious music stories that included reference to Bob Dylan I have been a happy camper, and a day doesn't go by that I don't open that email from ICurrent.com to check out the story.
More and more publishers are appreciating the semantic web
Here's a good tutorial of where we are today.
Here's the address: http://emediavitals.com/article/1005/how-publishers-curate-world-content
And the full story:
It's nothing new that many news websites augment their own content with repackaged content from around the Web, but the applications have evolved along with the technology. Content providers are experimenting with all sort of ways for editors and technology to push outside content to readers, whether through aggregation or curation (for a lengthy discussion about the difference, check out the Nieman Journalism Lab).
Curation platforms, which have moved beyond the RSS feed, provide varying levels of automation, functions and technology to suit a media company's needs. News organizations are even investing in curation platforms; the New York Daily News holds a stake in LOUD3R and The Washington Post recently acquired the personalized news aggregator iCurrent.
While publishers choose to utilize aggregation and curation platforms in a variety of ways, the main point is clear: Many media companies see benefits in collecting content from around the Web. Publishers find curation can attract and retain readers by offering the best of all content, rather than the best of just their own content. Here are a few ways publishers are deploying these platforms to add to their site's content:
Topic hubs
Topical pages have gone beyond story lists, pulling in interactive content both inside and outside of news organizations. Events such as the World Cup often inspire topic pages, as seen with the The Washington Post's interactive map powered by the curation platform Daylife.
Upendra Shardanand, CEO of Daylife, said publishers commonly use the platform to create microsites, sections and photo galleries, which can be both curated and auto-generated from sources the editor selects ― blending original authoring with real-time updates. “If you go to bed and something happens, it will be on the page,” he said.
On the continuum of editorial control versus automation, Daylife focuses more on editorial oversight to help the editor “discover and curate content to make a great page about anything,” Shardanand said. The platform also powers Forbes' Billionaires page.
Street CRED
Joining ICurrent.com and Kibboko,com and DailyMe.com and the original CRAYON and others is now CRED, which advertises "Create your own
newspaper". After you click through to the homepage you will see on the banner at the top in yellow CREATE YOUR OWN NEWSPAPER.
Have a go, it's easy to use. It presents you everyday with a website homepage of stories related to your interests. You can change at will. If you click through any of the stories on your home page you are asked to register -- promising 10 stories altogether before you have to pay.
(The address is http://www.newscred.com/)
newspaper". After you click through to the homepage you will see on the banner at the top in yellow CREATE YOUR OWN NEWSPAPER.
Have a go, it's easy to use. It presents you everyday with a website homepage of stories related to your interests. You can change at will. If you click through any of the stories on your home page you are asked to register -- promising 10 stories altogether before you have to pay.
(The address is http://www.newscred.com/)
Monday, July 26, 2010
Exhaustion
A Guardian writer is wondering if all the social networks have not worn us all out and that an exhaustion has set in similar to the post-2004 dot-com bust.
This is a nuanced but, I believe, compelling column.
Read its entirety at http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2010/jul/26/social-networking-exhaustion-charles-arthur
Here are some interesting excerpts.
So we're back at the original questions: where are all the new social networks? I think they're gone. Done, dusted, over. I don't think anyone is going to build a social network from scratch whose only purpose is to connect people. We've got Facebook (personal), LinkedIn (business) and Twitter (SMS-length for mobile). . . .
. . . The next big sites won't be social networks. Of course they'll have social networking built into them; they'll come with an understanding of their importance, just as Facebook and Twitter know that search (an idea Google refined) and breaking news (Yahoo's remaining specialist metier) are de rigueur. Nor will they be existing sites retrofitted to do social networking, despite the efforts of Digg and Spotify.
So what will they be? No idea, I'm afraid. If I knew that, would I be here writing? Hell, no – I'd be off making elevator pitches and vacuuming up venture capital. Which brings us to business models. Facebook makes its money not just by sucking up ad impressions from the rest of the internet, using its remarkably detailed targeting ability; it also gets a cut from virtual transactions using its own virtual currency. LinkedIn, similarly, can precisely target its executive base. Twitter is different again, selling its user-generated content for big money to Google and Microsoft's Bing, as well as experimenting with direct payment for its EarlyBird sales system and "promoted tweets".
The point being that "ad-supported" isn't the only game for startup revenue. The big sites of the future won't necessarily be about ads as a way to make money, and they won't be about social networks. Now, hunker down and wait. Or get out there and build it.
Of course, I would argue that personalization of some stripe will be the next iteration. And it can be argued that personalization is a form of social media. Not necessarily. If someone chooses "friends" as there primary source of personalized content, then I suppose it is a social media. But if you choose some artificial intelligence, semantic search mechanism for your personalization, that is definitely NOT social media.
This is a nuanced but, I believe, compelling column.
Read its entirety at http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2010/jul/26/social-networking-exhaustion-charles-arthur
Here are some interesting excerpts.
So we're back at the original questions: where are all the new social networks? I think they're gone. Done, dusted, over. I don't think anyone is going to build a social network from scratch whose only purpose is to connect people. We've got Facebook (personal), LinkedIn (business) and Twitter (SMS-length for mobile). . . .
. . . The next big sites won't be social networks. Of course they'll have social networking built into them; they'll come with an understanding of their importance, just as Facebook and Twitter know that search (an idea Google refined) and breaking news (Yahoo's remaining specialist metier) are de rigueur. Nor will they be existing sites retrofitted to do social networking, despite the efforts of Digg and Spotify.
So what will they be? No idea, I'm afraid. If I knew that, would I be here writing? Hell, no – I'd be off making elevator pitches and vacuuming up venture capital. Which brings us to business models. Facebook makes its money not just by sucking up ad impressions from the rest of the internet, using its remarkably detailed targeting ability; it also gets a cut from virtual transactions using its own virtual currency. LinkedIn, similarly, can precisely target its executive base. Twitter is different again, selling its user-generated content for big money to Google and Microsoft's Bing, as well as experimenting with direct payment for its EarlyBird sales system and "promoted tweets".
The point being that "ad-supported" isn't the only game for startup revenue. The big sites of the future won't necessarily be about ads as a way to make money, and they won't be about social networks. Now, hunker down and wait. Or get out there and build it.
Of course, I would argue that personalization of some stripe will be the next iteration. And it can be argued that personalization is a form of social media. Not necessarily. If someone chooses "friends" as there primary source of personalized content, then I suppose it is a social media. But if you choose some artificial intelligence, semantic search mechanism for your personalization, that is definitely NOT social media.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Video: YouData
Advertising can be annoying if it is always trying to sell us something we don't need or want. But what would happen if the only advertising we saw was advertising we wanted? Or even better, what would happen if advertisers paid us for our attention rather than a third party broker?
Well that model is here, practiced by YouData. And here is the video that explains the paradigm shift: youdata.com.
Not only can you watch the video, but you can then sign up and immdiately start being paid for advertisements that you say you would be interested in seeing.
(You can also put this in your browser to see the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZXiouF-Ins)
Well that model is here, practiced by YouData. And here is the video that explains the paradigm shift: youdata.com.
Not only can you watch the video, but you can then sign up and immdiately start being paid for advertisements that you say you would be interested in seeing.
(You can also put this in your browser to see the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZXiouF-Ins)
2000 ah-ha
The Hindenberg and the Titanic, come to mind but what about the Concorde 10 years ago. Another ah-ha moment for mankind that technology is fallible.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynewspoint/20100723/ts_ynewspoint/ynewspoint_ts3218;_ylt=AoXavE1j.XssIsFwu.IRbI0N97QF;_ylu=X3oDMTFjbTQzOXI1BHBvcwMyBHNlYwN5bl9wcm9tb3NfdG9wX2JhcgRzbGsDdGhlc3RhcnRpbmdw
How did it happen?
Or watch at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uibb2Q5umI
Where were you?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynewspoint/20100723/ts_ynewspoint/ynewspoint_ts3218;_ylt=AoXavE1j.XssIsFwu.IRbI0N97QF;_ylu=X3oDMTFjbTQzOXI1BHBvcwMyBHNlYwN5bl9wcm9tb3NfdG9wX2JhcgRzbGsDdGhlc3RhcnRpbmdw
How did it happen?
Or watch at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uibb2Q5umI
Where were you?
Video: Sixth Sense
Do you sometimes wish you wouldn't have to be tethered to a PC or a mobile phone or an I-Pad to see the media you want. Or do the calculations you need. Or take and crop pictures. Like magic, don't you wish you could just point your fingers at an object to get a picture? Or do the math computations on the fingers of your hand?
Sixth sense makes those wishes possible. Fundamentally sixth sense technology is pulling the virtual world out of a device (like a PC or mobile phone or I-pad) by putting it in our real, physical world.
Believeit or not, here's a video that explains sixth sense technology.
(or watch at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUdDhWfpqxg)
Sixth sense makes those wishes possible. Fundamentally sixth sense technology is pulling the virtual world out of a device (like a PC or mobile phone or I-pad) by putting it in our real, physical world.
Believeit or not, here's a video that explains sixth sense technology.
(or watch at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUdDhWfpqxg)
Video: Semantic Web
How is it that with internet searches, the web doesn't know the difference between a "tarp" to cover over something during a rain and "TARP" the govvernment funding that entitty has been America's bank. Here is a video that explains the Semantic Web:
(Or watch this at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJfrNo3Z-DU)
(Or watch this at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJfrNo3Z-DU)
Video: LuminAR
The new lamp may become the light of the world.
Here is a video that describes a very practical new device for Personalizing MEdia, in particular, liberating the internet: the
LuminAR.
(Watch it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b45BpeVDx9w)
Here is a video that describes a very practical new device for Personalizing MEdia, in particular, liberating the internet: the
LuminAR.
(Watch it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b45BpeVDx9w)
Every day
Part of personalizing my media is a very simple formula that is so close to Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert's that I'll just quote her from the July/August issue of WEBmd.
The question is: What is your healthy-living philosophy?
I have a list of 10 things I try to do every day, which I have found kep me happy and healthy. I can't say it's a prescription for everyone, but this is what works for my particular organism: mind, body and soul. When I take care of these things, everything else takes care of itself. Here is the list: 1. Take a walk. 2. Write something. 3. Read something. 4.Don't eat too much. 5. Spend some time in silence. 6. Stretch. 7. Send a mess of love to somebody. 8.Drink water. 9.Mess around in the garden and 10. Floss.
I guess I would substitue "search" for "stretch" and leave out "floss."
The question is: What is your healthy-living philosophy?
I have a list of 10 things I try to do every day, which I have found kep me happy and healthy. I can't say it's a prescription for everyone, but this is what works for my particular organism: mind, body and soul. When I take care of these things, everything else takes care of itself. Here is the list: 1. Take a walk. 2. Write something. 3. Read something. 4.Don't eat too much. 5. Spend some time in silence. 6. Stretch. 7. Send a mess of love to somebody. 8.Drink water. 9.Mess around in the garden and 10. Floss.
I guess I would substitue "search" for "stretch" and leave out "floss."
Friday, July 23, 2010
RWW can
Let me try to put things in context of the history of the web the past few years.
And if I can't, this blog can: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/beyond_social_web_internet_of_things.php
After social media like Youtube and Facebook and Twitter made it obvious to all us that we can't keep up with what is happening, we realized that our simple prejudices and biases and predilections for content were the only way out. In other words if we could prioritize all the content that was suddenly available by categorizing for ourselves what we ourselves like, then we might survive. That meant personalization.
And I love the "internet of things" phrase because that begins to hit at our next ah-ha: why not liberate the virtual world from its device prison and project it into the physical world?
Thus we have the semantic web meeting sixth sense technology.
Both of them are very physical, visceral, intuitive reactions to social media overkill. Together they are awesome.
And now for the full ReadWriteWeb blog by Richard McManus:
This blog was founded in 2003 on the philosophy of a read/write Web - a Web in which people can create content as easily as they consume it. This trend eventually came to be known as Web 2.0 - although others preferred Social Web - and was popularized by activities like blogging and social networking.
It would be easy to say that the 'social' element is still the primary part of today's Web, since the popular products of this era enable you to say what's on your mind (Facebook), what's happening (Twitter), or where you are (Foursquare). All of these are mostly social activities. But more significantly, these and other products output data that will increasingly be used to build personalized services for you.
The more data there is, the better Web services will be at delivering personal value to you. While part of this increase in data is coming from social data from the likes of Facebook and Twitter, much of it is coming from the Internet of Things and data uploaded by governments and organizations. In short: the read/write Web is now much more than the Social Web.
How We Went Beyond Social
So how did we arrive at a Web that is less about social and more about you?
It's not how much content you consume that is important, it's about what you do with data.
After the peak of Web 2.0, we (meaning all of us) began to get overwhelmed with the choice of content available. We thought we had to actually 'read' as much of that content as possible. So we watched YouTube, chatted on MySpace and Facebook, read blogs, followed lots of people on this new thing called Twitter, and so on. By the end of 2008, we were exhausted by all of this CONTENT. How could we possibly keep up?!
In 2010, we're still struggling to digest all of what social media throws at us. However, a shift has been happening since 2009 which alleviates the problem. We've begun to realize that it's not how much content we consume that is important: it's what we do with all of the social and other data available to us. The social is still important, but the resulting data is - slowly - becoming more important because it can be analyzed, filtered, mashed up and personalized.
Structured Data & Internet of Things
Two relatively new trends are driving this change.
If I was an entrepreneur or developer, I wouldn't be thinking about social anymore. I'd be thinking: How can I use all of this data and build on top of it?
The first is the increasing amount of data being uploaded to the Web by governments, organizations and people. Much of this data is being structured using Semantic Web technologies like RDFa or microformats. In other words, it is categorized and encoded with meaning that machines can process. Recent examples include U.S. and U.K. government data, Best Buy's store and product data and Facebook's Open Graph.
And then we have the Internet of Things: an evolving trend where real-world objects and 'things' are connected to the Internet via technologies such as sensors and RFID tags - everything from cars to houses to roads and more. The upshot is that the Web is about to experience a data explosion, as billions of sensors and other data input and output devices upload exabytes of new data to the Web.
How do We Use This Data?
If we add together social data from the likes of Facebook and Twitter, data from governments and businesses, and data from sensors and RFID, this is a huge amount of data. Most of it isn't for "consuming." Rather, the value of all of this new Web data will be in how it's filtered, mixed together ("mashed up") and personalized in new Web services - most of which haven't yet been built.
Adam Greenfield is one of the leading thinkers of the Internet of Things; I interviewed him earlier this year about his book called Everyware. Greenfield recently wrote a post describing a near future scenario for non-technical people using the Web. He posited a use case where his mother would be able to plan a train trip to see her son, by creating an "ad-hoc service" that tapped into the Web and utilized real-time data sources.
In 2010, his mother would have to find and "read" several different applications in order to plot her travel schedule, and some of that information isn't even currently on the Web. Greenfield envisions a near future where his mother can essentially "write" her requirements into her mobile or other device, and the Web will deliver a personalized schedule to "read." You can view a diagram of Adam's concept here (PDF).
Don't Think Social, Think Data
Successful products in the Web 2.0 era had a strong social element: YouTube, MySpace and Flickr were a few relatively early examples. In the current era of the Web, which began to form in early 2009, the focus has shifted from social to data-driven software. Successful products of this era of the Web will be ones that filter, structure and personalize this vast amount of data coming onto the Web.
So if I was an entrepreneur or developer wondering what to build for this era of the Web, I wouldn't be thinking social. I'd be thinking: How can I use all of this data and build on top of it? There are incredible opportunities out there for you.
This current era of the Web doesn't have a name, which is probably a good sign! One thing is for sure though: It's still a read/write Web - only now you're reading and writing data from much more than just social services. You're increasingly interacting with "things," organizations, governments - virtually anything that can connect to the Web.
And if I can't, this blog can: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/beyond_social_web_internet_of_things.php
After social media like Youtube and Facebook and Twitter made it obvious to all us that we can't keep up with what is happening, we realized that our simple prejudices and biases and predilections for content were the only way out. In other words if we could prioritize all the content that was suddenly available by categorizing for ourselves what we ourselves like, then we might survive. That meant personalization.
And I love the "internet of things" phrase because that begins to hit at our next ah-ha: why not liberate the virtual world from its device prison and project it into the physical world?
Thus we have the semantic web meeting sixth sense technology.
Both of them are very physical, visceral, intuitive reactions to social media overkill. Together they are awesome.
And now for the full ReadWriteWeb blog by Richard McManus:
This blog was founded in 2003 on the philosophy of a read/write Web - a Web in which people can create content as easily as they consume it. This trend eventually came to be known as Web 2.0 - although others preferred Social Web - and was popularized by activities like blogging and social networking.
It would be easy to say that the 'social' element is still the primary part of today's Web, since the popular products of this era enable you to say what's on your mind (Facebook), what's happening (Twitter), or where you are (Foursquare). All of these are mostly social activities. But more significantly, these and other products output data that will increasingly be used to build personalized services for you.
The more data there is, the better Web services will be at delivering personal value to you. While part of this increase in data is coming from social data from the likes of Facebook and Twitter, much of it is coming from the Internet of Things and data uploaded by governments and organizations. In short: the read/write Web is now much more than the Social Web.
How We Went Beyond Social
So how did we arrive at a Web that is less about social and more about you?
It's not how much content you consume that is important, it's about what you do with data.
After the peak of Web 2.0, we (meaning all of us) began to get overwhelmed with the choice of content available. We thought we had to actually 'read' as much of that content as possible. So we watched YouTube, chatted on MySpace and Facebook, read blogs, followed lots of people on this new thing called Twitter, and so on. By the end of 2008, we were exhausted by all of this CONTENT. How could we possibly keep up?!
In 2010, we're still struggling to digest all of what social media throws at us. However, a shift has been happening since 2009 which alleviates the problem. We've begun to realize that it's not how much content we consume that is important: it's what we do with all of the social and other data available to us. The social is still important, but the resulting data is - slowly - becoming more important because it can be analyzed, filtered, mashed up and personalized.
Structured Data & Internet of Things
Two relatively new trends are driving this change.
If I was an entrepreneur or developer, I wouldn't be thinking about social anymore. I'd be thinking: How can I use all of this data and build on top of it?
The first is the increasing amount of data being uploaded to the Web by governments, organizations and people. Much of this data is being structured using Semantic Web technologies like RDFa or microformats. In other words, it is categorized and encoded with meaning that machines can process. Recent examples include U.S. and U.K. government data, Best Buy's store and product data and Facebook's Open Graph.
And then we have the Internet of Things: an evolving trend where real-world objects and 'things' are connected to the Internet via technologies such as sensors and RFID tags - everything from cars to houses to roads and more. The upshot is that the Web is about to experience a data explosion, as billions of sensors and other data input and output devices upload exabytes of new data to the Web.
How do We Use This Data?
If we add together social data from the likes of Facebook and Twitter, data from governments and businesses, and data from sensors and RFID, this is a huge amount of data. Most of it isn't for "consuming." Rather, the value of all of this new Web data will be in how it's filtered, mixed together ("mashed up") and personalized in new Web services - most of which haven't yet been built.
Adam Greenfield is one of the leading thinkers of the Internet of Things; I interviewed him earlier this year about his book called Everyware. Greenfield recently wrote a post describing a near future scenario for non-technical people using the Web. He posited a use case where his mother would be able to plan a train trip to see her son, by creating an "ad-hoc service" that tapped into the Web and utilized real-time data sources.
In 2010, his mother would have to find and "read" several different applications in order to plot her travel schedule, and some of that information isn't even currently on the Web. Greenfield envisions a near future where his mother can essentially "write" her requirements into her mobile or other device, and the Web will deliver a personalized schedule to "read." You can view a diagram of Adam's concept here (PDF).
Don't Think Social, Think Data
Successful products in the Web 2.0 era had a strong social element: YouTube, MySpace and Flickr were a few relatively early examples. In the current era of the Web, which began to form in early 2009, the focus has shifted from social to data-driven software. Successful products of this era of the Web will be ones that filter, structure and personalize this vast amount of data coming onto the Web.
So if I was an entrepreneur or developer wondering what to build for this era of the Web, I wouldn't be thinking social. I'd be thinking: How can I use all of this data and build on top of it? There are incredible opportunities out there for you.
This current era of the Web doesn't have a name, which is probably a good sign! One thing is for sure though: It's still a read/write Web - only now you're reading and writing data from much more than just social services. You're increasingly interacting with "things," organizations, governments - virtually anything that can connect to the Web.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Ah-ha moment
Eduguide has a wonderful definition of an ah-ha moment.
"Experiencing an 'Ah-ha' moment can be unique and special for each individual. It's a point in time when one realizes something for the first time. Perhaps solving a personal problem or finding the answer to something that has been very troubling.
"When an 'Ah-ha' moment occurs, it is usually accompanied with satisfaction, joy, or a sense of accomplishment. Look for those special moments; they are wonderful and will be remembered for a long time.
"When an 'Ah-ha' moment happens, you will know that something special is about to happen for you."
(You can check this out yourself at http://www.eduguide.org/Parents-Library/An-Ah-ha-Moment-Turning-Points-in-Learning-127.aspx.)
That's why when people ask me to describe Presonalize Media I say it is media that create ah-ha moments. That's what all media strives to do, but media is more likely if to succeed if guided by personal input.
Conversely as more and more people understand what Personalize Media is all about, hopefully I will collect ah-ha moments from more and more people.
This was MY first ah-ha moment: When I was 19 I began to plan to drop my college deferment after receiving a Draft Number of 15, which meant I would surely be drafted to the Vietnam War the minute I graduated in 1973. However, I read an article that Thanksgiving in the New York Times that said there would be no more soldiers called up that fall, so I immediately dropped the deferment, passed my physical and waited. Sure enough no one was called up that fall of 1970, and by Jan. 1 1971, my name was at the bottom of the list and I was never drafted. Reading that article in the New York Times was my ah-ha moment. And it changed my life, I'm sure.
"Experiencing an 'Ah-ha' moment can be unique and special for each individual. It's a point in time when one realizes something for the first time. Perhaps solving a personal problem or finding the answer to something that has been very troubling.
"When an 'Ah-ha' moment occurs, it is usually accompanied with satisfaction, joy, or a sense of accomplishment. Look for those special moments; they are wonderful and will be remembered for a long time.
"When an 'Ah-ha' moment happens, you will know that something special is about to happen for you."
(You can check this out yourself at http://www.eduguide.org/Parents-Library/An-Ah-ha-Moment-Turning-Points-in-Learning-127.aspx.)
That's why when people ask me to describe Presonalize Media I say it is media that create ah-ha moments. That's what all media strives to do, but media is more likely if to succeed if guided by personal input.
Conversely as more and more people understand what Personalize Media is all about, hopefully I will collect ah-ha moments from more and more people.
This was MY first ah-ha moment: When I was 19 I began to plan to drop my college deferment after receiving a Draft Number of 15, which meant I would surely be drafted to the Vietnam War the minute I graduated in 1973. However, I read an article that Thanksgiving in the New York Times that said there would be no more soldiers called up that fall, so I immediately dropped the deferment, passed my physical and waited. Sure enough no one was called up that fall of 1970, and by Jan. 1 1971, my name was at the bottom of the list and I was never drafted. Reading that article in the New York Times was my ah-ha moment. And it changed my life, I'm sure.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Community choice
When it comes to Personalize Media, there may be nothing better than community bloggers.
There have been some wonderful experiments by media companies in the U.S., connecting readers to local bloggers, or using an old term, user generated content.
One example that may lead the pack, is the Denver Post’s Your Hub that first established 19 community websites soliciting and receiving nearly 90 percent of its content from local bloggers and local people and local companies in an around Denver.
Then the Post spun off weekly, zoned, print sections using that material and five years later the “experiment” is profitable and sustainable and valuable and valued by the communities it serves.
Most recently The Sacramento Bee established Sacramento Connect. (Visit /www.knightdigitalmediacenter.org/leadership_blog/comments/20100720_with_sacramento_connect_the_bee_taps_the_power_of_partnerships)
Growing virally, the network of local bloggers seems to be adding some valuable content to the newspaper’s daily report.
As far as readers go, many people would like to hone their daily information diet to include local content. Bloggers, especially when made available through a well-known, trusted brand like the local newspaper, can offer those special reports.
There have been some wonderful experiments by media companies in the U.S., connecting readers to local bloggers, or using an old term, user generated content.
One example that may lead the pack, is the Denver Post’s Your Hub that first established 19 community websites soliciting and receiving nearly 90 percent of its content from local bloggers and local people and local companies in an around Denver.
Then the Post spun off weekly, zoned, print sections using that material and five years later the “experiment” is profitable and sustainable and valuable and valued by the communities it serves.
Most recently The Sacramento Bee established Sacramento Connect. (Visit /www.knightdigitalmediacenter.org/leadership_blog/comments/20100720_with_sacramento_connect_the_bee_taps_the_power_of_partnerships)
Growing virally, the network of local bloggers seems to be adding some valuable content to the newspaper’s daily report.
As far as readers go, many people would like to hone their daily information diet to include local content. Bloggers, especially when made available through a well-known, trusted brand like the local newspaper, can offer those special reports.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Maybe now
Ever since I first logged on to a computer, I’ve been learning what's available and what I like and don't like on the web. And yet I’m STILL spending most of my time today searching, searching, searching.
After all the time I’ve spent on the web, why doesn’t the web understand me better. Who took the ME out of Media?
How come on the web so many sites organize things according to what they think I would want? And then guess when I would want it. And How. And for what reason.
Let’s say you’re a guy who follows artificial intelligence and global politics and modern architecture and the American West. And your Blackberry.
Or you’re a gal who follows book publishing and gardening and calorie watching and family and Dobermans and the American South. And your Mac Pro.
How does one site reconcile all this?
And let’s say tomorrow you’re that same guy who suddenly discovers AroundtheWorldNews from Syntops. And you want to add that to your new I-Pad but not to your website.
Or you’re that woman who suddenly discovers Shopping.com. And you want that delivered your Mac every morning, but not to you mobile phone.
Ever since the web came along 15 years ago, people have been entertained, and frustrated.
Why do I have to keep sitting in front of a computer or staring at a mobile phone? Why can’t MEdia be everywhere. At least everywhere I am. On my shower curtain. On the ceiling in my room. On the tablecloth at the dining table. On the wall in my office.
Maybe now it can. Plan to attend the Personalize Media Conference. Visit http://www.personalizenews.com
After all the time I’ve spent on the web, why doesn’t the web understand me better. Who took the ME out of Media?
How come on the web so many sites organize things according to what they think I would want? And then guess when I would want it. And How. And for what reason.
Let’s say you’re a guy who follows artificial intelligence and global politics and modern architecture and the American West. And your Blackberry.
Or you’re a gal who follows book publishing and gardening and calorie watching and family and Dobermans and the American South. And your Mac Pro.
How does one site reconcile all this?
And let’s say tomorrow you’re that same guy who suddenly discovers AroundtheWorldNews from Syntops. And you want to add that to your new I-Pad but not to your website.
Or you’re that woman who suddenly discovers Shopping.com. And you want that delivered your Mac every morning, but not to you mobile phone.
Ever since the web came along 15 years ago, people have been entertained, and frustrated.
Why do I have to keep sitting in front of a computer or staring at a mobile phone? Why can’t MEdia be everywhere. At least everywhere I am. On my shower curtain. On the ceiling in my room. On the tablecloth at the dining table. On the wall in my office.
Maybe now it can. Plan to attend the Personalize Media Conference. Visit http://www.personalizenews.com
The promise
Personalization. It's what the web has always promised. Back in the stone age, when there was only the little Mac and the big DOS IBM, we began to think about personalizing our experience, even if it was only a chat group . . . or user group as we called ourselves then.
And every year the reality gets bigger. Now we’ve got Faebook and Twitter and Stumbleupon and you name it. We even have a term for that kind of personalization: social media.
But personalization has many new forms.
Now you can personalize your newspaper. There are two German companies that mix and match newspaper pages. Their software could be applied to magazines and books.
So imagine a professor choosing excerpts from multiple books to make his own creation. And his students picking their individual covers.
You can personalize your advertising with PrecisionAds. Let’s say you are a jeweler and want to reach only those people within 5 miles of your storefront who are over 50 and make more than $100,000 a year. Easy with PrecisionAds.
You can personalize your mobile phone. Let’s say you see an article in a newspaper or magazine and you want to read that story later. If it has the Primiro logo you can text the story to your phone.
You can personalize your website. ICurrent.com asks you your preferences to begin with and then watches you use the site to determine what future stories to give you.
You can personalize what comes out of your home printer, if it’s an internet ready Hewlett Packard device. Just touch the screen and print your Fandango tickets or your Mapquest directions.
In fact, you can personalize any printing. CGX Publishing, a global company, is testing all the new, web-fed variable data printers to get the best one to be able to personalize books and magazines and newspapers and brochures and event programs.
Imagine if you showed up at the theater and the program had your name and the location of your seat on the cover.
Or you ordered your tickets for a blacktie fundraiser online and the program you get when you arrived has your name, the sponsor of the table where you are sitting and the amount of your donation. And the names of the other people at the table – and what they do.
Personalization. You can’t get enough.
And every year the reality gets bigger. Now we’ve got Faebook and Twitter and Stumbleupon and you name it. We even have a term for that kind of personalization: social media.
But personalization has many new forms.
Now you can personalize your newspaper. There are two German companies that mix and match newspaper pages. Their software could be applied to magazines and books.
So imagine a professor choosing excerpts from multiple books to make his own creation. And his students picking their individual covers.
You can personalize your advertising with PrecisionAds. Let’s say you are a jeweler and want to reach only those people within 5 miles of your storefront who are over 50 and make more than $100,000 a year. Easy with PrecisionAds.
You can personalize your mobile phone. Let’s say you see an article in a newspaper or magazine and you want to read that story later. If it has the Primiro logo you can text the story to your phone.
You can personalize your website. ICurrent.com asks you your preferences to begin with and then watches you use the site to determine what future stories to give you.
You can personalize what comes out of your home printer, if it’s an internet ready Hewlett Packard device. Just touch the screen and print your Fandango tickets or your Mapquest directions.
In fact, you can personalize any printing. CGX Publishing, a global company, is testing all the new, web-fed variable data printers to get the best one to be able to personalize books and magazines and newspapers and brochures and event programs.
Imagine if you showed up at the theater and the program had your name and the location of your seat on the cover.
Or you ordered your tickets for a blacktie fundraiser online and the program you get when you arrived has your name, the sponsor of the table where you are sitting and the amount of your donation. And the names of the other people at the table – and what they do.
Personalization. You can’t get enough.
The four c's
The internet should be more a part of our physical world.
In other words, there is no reason why digits can't be liberated from computers. Why can't I see information from the virtual world projected into my walk-around world. That's the spirit of sixth sense technology that is very much a part of the Personalize MEdia movement.
We don't want to be the slaves of computers. We want to be the partners of computers and invite them into the physical world we still spend the majority of our time in.
On top of that, we want the reception of all that metadata to be on our terms: when we want it.
Maybe I want the Boston Red Sox box scores on my shower curtain, but I want the world the Afghanistan war headlines on the wall of my room. And may be I want my emails beside my plate at the breakfast table.
Maybe I want my calendar/schedule on the refrigerator door.
And we want to choose that content carefully. Maybe only one special curated story about the latest cancer research news every day -- on my ceiling above my bed.
Choice of stories; choice of advertising; choice of platform; choice of time of delivery. (People say they worry about living in a bubble; but one of our daily choices could be "mainstream" news.)
Choice, choice, choice, choice. The four c's.
In other words, there is no reason why digits can't be liberated from computers. Why can't I see information from the virtual world projected into my walk-around world. That's the spirit of sixth sense technology that is very much a part of the Personalize MEdia movement.
We don't want to be the slaves of computers. We want to be the partners of computers and invite them into the physical world we still spend the majority of our time in.
On top of that, we want the reception of all that metadata to be on our terms: when we want it.
Maybe I want the Boston Red Sox box scores on my shower curtain, but I want the world the Afghanistan war headlines on the wall of my room. And may be I want my emails beside my plate at the breakfast table.
Maybe I want my calendar/schedule on the refrigerator door.
And we want to choose that content carefully. Maybe only one special curated story about the latest cancer research news every day -- on my ceiling above my bed.
Choice of stories; choice of advertising; choice of platform; choice of time of delivery. (People say they worry about living in a bubble; but one of our daily choices could be "mainstream" news.)
Choice, choice, choice, choice. The four c's.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
The new T.E
There may be a new Thomas Edison, and he's a graduate student at the MIT Media Lab who has invented something called the LuminAR.
This robotic camera, light bulb, internet computer can screw into your table lamp and project the virtual image of a computer screen on any surface to which you can interact with touch screen accuracy.
This is another version of sixth sense technology -- pushing the virtual world into the real world and making our real world more interesting.
Watch: http://labcast.media.mit.edu/?p=129
This robotic camera, light bulb, internet computer can screw into your table lamp and project the virtual image of a computer screen on any surface to which you can interact with touch screen accuracy.
This is another version of sixth sense technology -- pushing the virtual world into the real world and making our real world more interesting.
Watch: http://labcast.media.mit.edu/?p=129
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Embed virtuality or improve data?
I wonder if there are not two divergent approaches to the future of the internet.
There's the sixth sense approach, which says the world for the last 15 years has been creating a virtual reality that reflects physical reality, and needs to reverse and begin to build a physical reality that reflects the virtual world.
Here is a youtube video on that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUdDhWfpqxg
And the semantical approach that believes the problem is data itself. We move data beautifully, but the data is so poor the results are underwhelming. We need to take data to the level of information and even eventually knowledge and, don't feint, perhaps, vision. Here is a great youtube explanation of that point of view.
http://www.iiea.com/events/semantic-web-from-web-20-to-web-30?gclid=CPmny9_E8qICFSA5gwodhlE9kw
Why not solve for both?
There's the sixth sense approach, which says the world for the last 15 years has been creating a virtual reality that reflects physical reality, and needs to reverse and begin to build a physical reality that reflects the virtual world.
Here is a youtube video on that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUdDhWfpqxg
And the semantical approach that believes the problem is data itself. We move data beautifully, but the data is so poor the results are underwhelming. We need to take data to the level of information and even eventually knowledge and, don't feint, perhaps, vision. Here is a great youtube explanation of that point of view.
http://www.iiea.com/events/semantic-web-from-web-20-to-web-30?gclid=CPmny9_E8qICFSA5gwodhlE9kw
Why not solve for both?
Friday, July 16, 2010
Google aboard
When Google CEO Eric Schmidt speaks the world listens.
So here is the dawning of the inevitable, long-awaited new day:
In a 16 minute speech delivered at The Guardian's Activate 2010 summit, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google since 2001, was asked what he thought of the future of newspapers: "What does the newsreading experience look like many years from now? . . . The most important thing is that it will be more personalised."
Except for the fact that the British spell personalised with an "s" and I spell it with a "z" we are, and have been for a long time, in complete agreement. If you agree register to come to the Personalize Media conference next year.
Read the complete story from the Guardian, which by the way is in a direct fight with Murdoch's Times of London, that not coincidentally today went totally behind a paywall. Black and white reactions to the web.
Headline: Google CEO: the future of newspapers is online - and mobile
Posted by Colin Heilbut on July 2, 2010 at 1:47 PM
In a 16 minute speech delivered at The Guardian's Activate 2010 summit, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google since 2001, said that the experience of reading news will move to digital devices quite rapidly - and that it will involve personalized and local news which will be alert to your interests and existing knowledge. Among the numerous trends and shifts pointed about by Schmidt during his speech, one particularly relevant note for the newspaper industry was made in regards to mobile strategy. "Mobile is the hottest area of computer technology," Schmidt said. "The smartest developers now are writing apps for mobile before they write for Windows or Apple Mac desktop operating systems. Part of that is because these devices are hugely personal to us when we use them." Schmidt also addressed paywalls, News Corp. and the future of newspapers.
Asked what he thought of the future of newspapers, Schmidt said: "What does the newsreading experience look like many years from now? I think it's delivered to a digital device, which has text, obviously, but also colour, and video, and the ability to dig very deeply into what you are supplied with. At the moment we have readers, but it's not intelligent enough; newspapers often tell me what I already know. We'll have advertising products that are much more media-centric. The most important thing is that it will be more personalised."
When asked about paywalls, Schmidt refused to issue an outright condemnation. Rather, he said that "At Google we want to offer every publisher pieces for you to do with as you see fit," he said. "Murdoch's comment [Google is a "thief and a parasite" for its indexing operation of the Times site] was really about paywalls. There's a dispute in the [news] industry about subscriptions versus advertising. We want to enable both, and let users choose. But there are many publishers with large sites which have been offered the choice to go to a paywall, but don't, because they reckon they can make it work. Others want a subscription because that's the model they're used to."
But he said that newspapers faced real challenges because "they're replacing analogue dollars with digital cents, and a lot of people are losing their jobs as a result. It's much less bad here in Britain, perhaps because of the history of newspapers here, but in the US there are unhappy people who are losing audience at a faster and faster rate."
Instead, he said, organizations should build their strategies around the internet - and especially mobile. "The corollary of 'internet first' is 'mobile first'," he said. But he said that the improved targeting of news and information, possibly with more personalized services, "opens fundamental questions: news will become more personal, because we will be reading what we know we're interested in. But is that too narrow? How does serendipity occur? Does that personalization narrow our social view? If you follow the results of studies, it turns out that can lead to all sorts of biases. I don't know the answer, but to me this is a very fundamental question."
All things considered, Schmidt's intelligent commentary and analysis did not deliver any surprises nor hints about Google's news strategies or products. The emphasis on mobile technology should not come as a shock to anyone, but Schmidt did do an excellent job of arguing for exactly why resources need to be applied to mobile as the first priority, given the disproportionate adoption and growth rates for mobile devices and the close personal relationship consumers have with them.
So here is the dawning of the inevitable, long-awaited new day:
In a 16 minute speech delivered at The Guardian's Activate 2010 summit, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google since 2001, was asked what he thought of the future of newspapers: "What does the newsreading experience look like many years from now? . . . The most important thing is that it will be more personalised."
Except for the fact that the British spell personalised with an "s" and I spell it with a "z" we are, and have been for a long time, in complete agreement. If you agree register to come to the Personalize Media conference next year.
Read the complete story from the Guardian, which by the way is in a direct fight with Murdoch's Times of London, that not coincidentally today went totally behind a paywall. Black and white reactions to the web.
Headline: Google CEO: the future of newspapers is online - and mobile
Posted by Colin Heilbut on July 2, 2010 at 1:47 PM
In a 16 minute speech delivered at The Guardian's Activate 2010 summit, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google since 2001, said that the experience of reading news will move to digital devices quite rapidly - and that it will involve personalized and local news which will be alert to your interests and existing knowledge. Among the numerous trends and shifts pointed about by Schmidt during his speech, one particularly relevant note for the newspaper industry was made in regards to mobile strategy. "Mobile is the hottest area of computer technology," Schmidt said. "The smartest developers now are writing apps for mobile before they write for Windows or Apple Mac desktop operating systems. Part of that is because these devices are hugely personal to us when we use them." Schmidt also addressed paywalls, News Corp. and the future of newspapers.
Asked what he thought of the future of newspapers, Schmidt said: "What does the newsreading experience look like many years from now? I think it's delivered to a digital device, which has text, obviously, but also colour, and video, and the ability to dig very deeply into what you are supplied with. At the moment we have readers, but it's not intelligent enough; newspapers often tell me what I already know. We'll have advertising products that are much more media-centric. The most important thing is that it will be more personalised."
When asked about paywalls, Schmidt refused to issue an outright condemnation. Rather, he said that "At Google we want to offer every publisher pieces for you to do with as you see fit," he said. "Murdoch's comment [Google is a "thief and a parasite" for its indexing operation of the Times site] was really about paywalls. There's a dispute in the [news] industry about subscriptions versus advertising. We want to enable both, and let users choose. But there are many publishers with large sites which have been offered the choice to go to a paywall, but don't, because they reckon they can make it work. Others want a subscription because that's the model they're used to."
But he said that newspapers faced real challenges because "they're replacing analogue dollars with digital cents, and a lot of people are losing their jobs as a result. It's much less bad here in Britain, perhaps because of the history of newspapers here, but in the US there are unhappy people who are losing audience at a faster and faster rate."
Instead, he said, organizations should build their strategies around the internet - and especially mobile. "The corollary of 'internet first' is 'mobile first'," he said. But he said that the improved targeting of news and information, possibly with more personalized services, "opens fundamental questions: news will become more personal, because we will be reading what we know we're interested in. But is that too narrow? How does serendipity occur? Does that personalization narrow our social view? If you follow the results of studies, it turns out that can lead to all sorts of biases. I don't know the answer, but to me this is a very fundamental question."
All things considered, Schmidt's intelligent commentary and analysis did not deliver any surprises nor hints about Google's news strategies or products. The emphasis on mobile technology should not come as a shock to anyone, but Schmidt did do an excellent job of arguing for exactly why resources need to be applied to mobile as the first priority, given the disproportionate adoption and growth rates for mobile devices and the close personal relationship consumers have with them.
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