Anyone toiling in the fields of new media, must come to grips with their own sense of fair play (or to use the legal term: fair use) in order to keep toiling.
That's why in all my blogs I always site the actual URL and copy and paste the full story I'm referencing. In my world, I'm just commenting on work someone else has done. I'm not co-opting. And I want to give them full credit and full disclosure, so the point they obviously were trying to make is clear (and separate from mine) so my interpretation or spin becomes icing on the cake.
If YOU want some guidance in fashioning your own sense of fair play, here it is, an annotated study of digital law.
(The url is: http://www.citmedialaw.org/blog/2010/whos-afraid-news-aggregators)
The full story:
Who's Afraid of the News Aggregators?
Posted August 30th, 2010 by Kimberley Isbell
in Aggregation CMLP Fair Use Hot News Misappropriation Journalism
As anyone who has been following the debate regarding the "future of journalism" knows, there have been a lot of ink (and bytes) spilled arguing over the role news aggregators are playing in the "decline" of traditional journalistic models. Rupert Murdoch has labeled the practice of news aggregation by entities like Google News "theft," and a professor from the Wharton Business School recently called on lawmakers to amend the copyright laws to prevent aggregators from posting any portion of news stories for a full 24 hours after their initial publication. Even the FTC has gotten in on the act, listing "Additional Intellectual Property Rights to Support Claims against News Aggregators" as the first policy proposal in the Staff Discussion Draft recently released in connection with its workshop series on "How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?" (To which Google had a thoughtful reply.)
But for all of the heated rhetoric blaming news aggregators for the decline of journalism, the fall of civilization and male pattern baldness, many are still left asking the question: are news aggregators violating current law?
Today, CMLP releases a white paper entitled "The Rise of the News Aggregator: Legal Implications and Best Practices" that attempts to answer that question by examining the hot news misappropriation and copyright infringement claims that are often asserted against aggregators, and to provide news aggregators with some "best practices" for making use of third-party content.
A hearty thanks goes out to the people that helped make this paper possible: Justin Silverman, for invaluable research assistance; David Ardia and Sam Bayard, for reading and critiquing numerous drafts; and the speakers from the "Saving Journalism from Itself? Hot News, Copyright Fair Use and News Aggregation" panel at our spring conference, for helping to frame and crystalize many of the issues.
You can download the report here.
(The URL for that report link is: http://www.citmedialaw.org/sites/citmedialaw.org/files/news%20aggregation%20white%20paper.pdf)
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Painting vs. photography
More than 150 years ago photography threatened to displace art as the locus of visual reality. But geniuses such as the French Impressionists and later the Cubists and Futurists and Dadaists in Europe and then the abstract expressionists in America propelled painting from the mundane representational world into the universe of ontology.
And painting has never looked back. So with media and the internet.
The internet is a much better medium for news and information and opinion and rumor and innuendo and discussion. Media will have to become more of the ontological record of humankind. Media will have to embrace all of the instincts and practices and contexts of the web, but remain a record, not a network. An expression, not a notation.
And painting has never looked back. So with media and the internet.
The internet is a much better medium for news and information and opinion and rumor and innuendo and discussion. Media will have to become more of the ontological record of humankind. Media will have to embrace all of the instincts and practices and contexts of the web, but remain a record, not a network. An expression, not a notation.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
YouData newspaper
A.H.Belo has signed on with YouData to give readers in East Los Angeles the ability to get paid for clicking on ads on the Riverside, CA-based Press-Enterprise's website PE.com.
This new advertising model maybe moving out of the virtual world into the physical world.
(Vist http://blog.youdata.com/)
YouData and The Press-Enterprise Launch A New Permission-Based Advertising Model On PE.com.
A brand new ad model that delivers the ultimate in permission-based, opt-in advertising by allowing readers to determine the type of ads they want to see.
(PRWEB) May 4, 2010 -- Houston-based YouData, Inc. (YouData.com (http://www.youdata.com)), a new kind of ad network that bills itself as "the world's first attention payment system", has partnered with Riverside, CA-based The Press-Enterprise (PE.com (http://www.pe.com)), an A. H. Belo (http://www.belo.com) publication, to bring Press-Enterprise online readers an innovative new way of interacting with advertising.
Advertisers and consumers get matched up based on compatible traits in private opt-in consumer profiles called "MeFiles". Advertisers then bid to buy ultra-targeted attention directly from the source; the consumers themselves, who get paid for engaging with the ads.
According to Trae Nickelson, President of YouData, "Our model provides consumers with incentive to define the type of ads that interest them and to give high quality attention to those ads that do. By putting all the right incentives in place, advertising just works better, and everybody's happy - consumers, advertisers, and publishers."
Anita Davis, Director of National & Major Accounts at The Press-Enterprise, says that YouData's product "offers what our advertisers have been asking for - a way to pay for and deliver ads to the right audience. YouData is giving a lot of control to the advertiser and removing a lot of the risk. We expect it to be a great addition to our portfolio of advertising solutions."
YouData's CEO Jim Prather says, "We are proud and excited to count PE.com as our first major newspaper partner. When we first met the PE team, it was immediately apparent how genuinely committed they are to serving their readership and community. So when they decided that our advertising solution was worthy to present to their readers and advertisers, we considered it real validation of what YouData is doing."
"We think our readers are going to enjoy this”, says Ron Redfern, Publisher and CEO of The Press-Enterprise. “It will be interesting to see how the test of this new ad model plays out."
To see this experiment in advertising in action, visit www.pe.com (http://www.pe.com).
To learn more about YouData, visit www.youdata.com.
----------------------------------
About the Press-Enterprise Company
The Press-Enterprise Company, a Riverside-based subsidiary of A. H. Belo Corporation, is a multimedia company serving Inland Southern California. The company publishes news and information in print and online via The Press-Enterprise, the region’s largest daily newspaper and PE.com, the region’s largest local online Web site reaching a combined total of nearly 900,000 readers. Through other print and online products including The Business Press, a weekly business journal; La Prensa, weekly Spanish-language newspapers serving the region's diverse Hispanic community; and InlandSoCal.com, the Press-Enterprise Company products reach nearly 1.5 million people each month in the Inland Southern California region.
About A. H. Belo Corporation
A. H. Belo Corporation (NYSE: AHC), headquartered in Dallas, Texas, is a distinguished newspaper publishing and local news and information company that owns and operates four daily newspapers and a diverse group of Web sites. A. H. Belo publishes The Dallas Morning News, Texas’ leading newspaper and winner of eight Pulitzer Prizes since 1986; The Providence Journal, the oldest continuously-published daily newspaper in the U.S. and winner of four Pulitzer Prizes; The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA), serving southern California’s Inland Empire region and winner of one Pulitzer Prize; and the Denton Record-Chronicle. The Company publishes various specialty publications targeting niche audiences, and its partnerships and/or investments include the Yahoo! Newspaper Consortium and Classified Ventures, owner of cars.com. A. H. Belo also owns direct mail and commercial printing businesses. Additional information is available at www.ahbelo.com or by contacting David A. Gross, vice president/Investor Relations and Strategic Analysis, at 214-977-4810.
About YouData, Inc.
YouData, Inc., a brand new ad network headquartered in Houston, Texas, bills itself as the world's first "attention payment system". YouData allows consumers to package and sell their own attention directly to interested advertisers. Consumers build MeFile™ accounts in which they voluntarily describe key consumer characteristics and interests. Advertisers use the same traits to define precise target audiences and have their advertisements matched to exactly the targeted consumer every time. Ad irrelevancy is virtually eliminated, and a high value engagement between consumer and ad is delivered every time. Publishers hosting this high-value exchange gain an effective additional revenue source, while providing a new level of value to both reader and advertiser.
This new advertising model maybe moving out of the virtual world into the physical world.
(Vist http://blog.youdata.com/)
YouData and The Press-Enterprise Launch A New Permission-Based Advertising Model On PE.com.
A brand new ad model that delivers the ultimate in permission-based, opt-in advertising by allowing readers to determine the type of ads they want to see.
(PRWEB) May 4, 2010 -- Houston-based YouData, Inc. (YouData.com (http://www.youdata.com)), a new kind of ad network that bills itself as "the world's first attention payment system", has partnered with Riverside, CA-based The Press-Enterprise (PE.com (http://www.pe.com)), an A. H. Belo (http://www.belo.com) publication, to bring Press-Enterprise online readers an innovative new way of interacting with advertising.
Advertisers and consumers get matched up based on compatible traits in private opt-in consumer profiles called "MeFiles". Advertisers then bid to buy ultra-targeted attention directly from the source; the consumers themselves, who get paid for engaging with the ads.
According to Trae Nickelson, President of YouData, "Our model provides consumers with incentive to define the type of ads that interest them and to give high quality attention to those ads that do. By putting all the right incentives in place, advertising just works better, and everybody's happy - consumers, advertisers, and publishers."
Anita Davis, Director of National & Major Accounts at The Press-Enterprise, says that YouData's product "offers what our advertisers have been asking for - a way to pay for and deliver ads to the right audience. YouData is giving a lot of control to the advertiser and removing a lot of the risk. We expect it to be a great addition to our portfolio of advertising solutions."
YouData's CEO Jim Prather says, "We are proud and excited to count PE.com as our first major newspaper partner. When we first met the PE team, it was immediately apparent how genuinely committed they are to serving their readership and community. So when they decided that our advertising solution was worthy to present to their readers and advertisers, we considered it real validation of what YouData is doing."
"We think our readers are going to enjoy this”, says Ron Redfern, Publisher and CEO of The Press-Enterprise. “It will be interesting to see how the test of this new ad model plays out."
To see this experiment in advertising in action, visit www.pe.com (http://www.pe.com).
To learn more about YouData, visit www.youdata.com.
----------------------------------
About the Press-Enterprise Company
The Press-Enterprise Company, a Riverside-based subsidiary of A. H. Belo Corporation, is a multimedia company serving Inland Southern California. The company publishes news and information in print and online via The Press-Enterprise, the region’s largest daily newspaper and PE.com, the region’s largest local online Web site reaching a combined total of nearly 900,000 readers. Through other print and online products including The Business Press, a weekly business journal; La Prensa, weekly Spanish-language newspapers serving the region's diverse Hispanic community; and InlandSoCal.com, the Press-Enterprise Company products reach nearly 1.5 million people each month in the Inland Southern California region.
About A. H. Belo Corporation
A. H. Belo Corporation (NYSE: AHC), headquartered in Dallas, Texas, is a distinguished newspaper publishing and local news and information company that owns and operates four daily newspapers and a diverse group of Web sites. A. H. Belo publishes The Dallas Morning News, Texas’ leading newspaper and winner of eight Pulitzer Prizes since 1986; The Providence Journal, the oldest continuously-published daily newspaper in the U.S. and winner of four Pulitzer Prizes; The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA), serving southern California’s Inland Empire region and winner of one Pulitzer Prize; and the Denton Record-Chronicle. The Company publishes various specialty publications targeting niche audiences, and its partnerships and/or investments include the Yahoo! Newspaper Consortium and Classified Ventures, owner of cars.com. A. H. Belo also owns direct mail and commercial printing businesses. Additional information is available at www.ahbelo.com or by contacting David A. Gross, vice president/Investor Relations and Strategic Analysis, at 214-977-4810.
About YouData, Inc.
YouData, Inc., a brand new ad network headquartered in Houston, Texas, bills itself as the world's first "attention payment system". YouData allows consumers to package and sell their own attention directly to interested advertisers. Consumers build MeFile™ accounts in which they voluntarily describe key consumer characteristics and interests. Advertisers use the same traits to define precise target audiences and have their advertisements matched to exactly the targeted consumer every time. Ad irrelevancy is virtually eliminated, and a high value engagement between consumer and ad is delivered every time. Publishers hosting this high-value exchange gain an effective additional revenue source, while providing a new level of value to both reader and advertiser.
Personalize shoes?
In sports, this is not so weird. Remember Michael Jordan came out with his own line of shoes, but, of course, you could buy those and there were tens of thousands of them sold, so in the end, that wasn't personalized.
And from time to time you have seen athletes sharpie onto their helmet or shoes or even their faces the number or name of an inspirational person to give them more courage during competition.
Here, today, is an example of a hybrid. An unknown (not megastar like Michael Jordan) personalizing her shoe with the word "courage," but instead of using a sharpie, she is using the manufacturer, Addidas.
(Visit http://sports.yahoo.com/tennis/blog/busted_racquet/post/Melanie-Oudin-will-need-a-lot-of-what-her-U-S-O?urn=ten-264826)
Read the whole story on Yahoo Sports:
Last year, Melanie Oudin "believed" her way into the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open. This year, the 18-year-old will try to break out of her recent slump with some "courage."
Oudin will take to the court at this year's Open with personalized adidas shoes emblazoned with the word "COURAGE." Last year, her "BELIEVE" shoes became one of the major stories of the tournament, thanks to their folksy orgin, bright colors and Oudin's magical run to the quarters. This year, she and adidas opted for less mantra and more fortitude:
"The reason I chose the word COURAGE is because in order to believe you have to have the courage to do so. Courage to me means playing with no fear and going for it no matter what. You can believe in yourself so much but unless you have the courage to go on the court and put yourself on the line every time you won't make it. You need courage and belief to make it to the top."
Oudin is going to need all the courage she can get in Flushing Meadows. She's just 18-23 since last year's Open run and a first-round loss could drop her as far as No. 90 in the rankings. Barring a deep run at Flushing Meadows, Oudin's ranking will drop far enough where she'll be forced to play qualifiers at most major tourneys.
Maybe the shoe should have said "MIRACLE" instead.
And from time to time you have seen athletes sharpie onto their helmet or shoes or even their faces the number or name of an inspirational person to give them more courage during competition.
Here, today, is an example of a hybrid. An unknown (not megastar like Michael Jordan) personalizing her shoe with the word "courage," but instead of using a sharpie, she is using the manufacturer, Addidas.
(Visit http://sports.yahoo.com/tennis/blog/busted_racquet/post/Melanie-Oudin-will-need-a-lot-of-what-her-U-S-O?urn=ten-264826)
Read the whole story on Yahoo Sports:
Last year, Melanie Oudin "believed" her way into the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open. This year, the 18-year-old will try to break out of her recent slump with some "courage."
Oudin will take to the court at this year's Open with personalized adidas shoes emblazoned with the word "COURAGE." Last year, her "BELIEVE" shoes became one of the major stories of the tournament, thanks to their folksy orgin, bright colors and Oudin's magical run to the quarters. This year, she and adidas opted for less mantra and more fortitude:
"The reason I chose the word COURAGE is because in order to believe you have to have the courage to do so. Courage to me means playing with no fear and going for it no matter what. You can believe in yourself so much but unless you have the courage to go on the court and put yourself on the line every time you won't make it. You need courage and belief to make it to the top."
Oudin is going to need all the courage she can get in Flushing Meadows. She's just 18-23 since last year's Open run and a first-round loss could drop her as far as No. 90 in the rankings. Barring a deep run at Flushing Meadows, Oudin's ranking will drop far enough where she'll be forced to play qualifiers at most major tourneys.
Maybe the shoe should have said "MIRACLE" instead.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Mashable me
What's more natural then getting all your news from your friends and extended family, i. e. thought leaders in the worldspace you share. One caveat may be to make sure there is at least one traditionally minded friend about major events in the world.
(where you can find the story: http://mashable.com/2010/08/10/personalized-news-stream/)
Or read about it here:
The social network of a reader is quickly becoming their personalized news wire. That’s because in the last five years, a revolutionary shift has taken place in the way we consume news. We have gone from consuming news through traditional media and news websites to having the news broadcast to us by our social network of friends. In fact, 75% of news consumed online is through shared news from social networking sites or e-mail. Social news is finding us.
Readers who still actively seek out the news want, and almost expect, it to be personalized and customized to their tastes and interests. News organizations, social networks and technology companies are all attempting to respond with sites and tools that address this changing shift toward a personalized social news stream.
Personalization of News and the New Social Editors
The shift toward personalization of news is in many ways a response to the problem of noise, but also a shift from trust in news organizations to the individual people you know who now often act as curators. Jay Rosen, New York University journalism professor and media critic said, with credit to Clay Shirky, that “there’s no such thing as information overload, there’s only filter failure.”
“The social stream is a means to filter success. Relying on friends and a personal network to filter the news and point out the best stuff solves that problem Shirky identified,” Rosen said.
Also, the trust that readers place in people they know isn’t the same as the trust they place in news organizations, Rosen said. But prior to the evolution of the web to its current social state, people who you know couldn’t be news sources the same way that big media companies could. But now in a sense they are able to, he said. That’s because people have an influential voice in the new and social distribution model, and are just as integrated into the conversation around the news as the news makers themselves (and many times they are the ones to make the news too).
“People can use the [Facebook] news feed and their Twitter streams as their editors,” Rosen said.
Friends as Your News Wire
News organizations that see this shift are hoping to enlist users as their “editors” by making it easier for them to engage their content on social platforms. Some companies, like National Public Radio, are starting to pay attention to their audiences in the social space and are investing resources to learn about their consumption habits.
After having a presence on Facebook for more than two years, NPR decided to take a closer look at its more than 1 million Facebook fans with a survey. Andy Carvin, senior strategist at NPR, said he had a certain hypotheses, including one that stemmed from his own reliance on his Twitter and Facebook friends for news: Do people really use their social network to get news? After more than 40,000 responses to the survey, 74.6% said that Facebook was a major way in which they received news and information from NPR, and 72.3% said they “expect” their friends to share links to interesting information and news stories with them online.
“It’s not that people have lost interest in the news, it’s that they have shifted platforms,” Carvin said.
Realizing the shifts in consumption behavior, Facebook is beginning to partner with, and provide resources for, news organizations and publishers to more effectively use the platform. Most noticeably, you can now see what your Facebook friends have “liked” or “recommended” on sites like CNN or Washington Post. Washington Post, for example, has prominently integrated Facebook’s Social Plugins into its site for a social news experience:
(where you can find the story: http://mashable.com/2010/08/10/personalized-news-stream/)
Or read about it here:
The social network of a reader is quickly becoming their personalized news wire. That’s because in the last five years, a revolutionary shift has taken place in the way we consume news. We have gone from consuming news through traditional media and news websites to having the news broadcast to us by our social network of friends. In fact, 75% of news consumed online is through shared news from social networking sites or e-mail. Social news is finding us.
Readers who still actively seek out the news want, and almost expect, it to be personalized and customized to their tastes and interests. News organizations, social networks and technology companies are all attempting to respond with sites and tools that address this changing shift toward a personalized social news stream.
Personalization of News and the New Social Editors
The shift toward personalization of news is in many ways a response to the problem of noise, but also a shift from trust in news organizations to the individual people you know who now often act as curators. Jay Rosen, New York University journalism professor and media critic said, with credit to Clay Shirky, that “there’s no such thing as information overload, there’s only filter failure.”
“The social stream is a means to filter success. Relying on friends and a personal network to filter the news and point out the best stuff solves that problem Shirky identified,” Rosen said.
Also, the trust that readers place in people they know isn’t the same as the trust they place in news organizations, Rosen said. But prior to the evolution of the web to its current social state, people who you know couldn’t be news sources the same way that big media companies could. But now in a sense they are able to, he said. That’s because people have an influential voice in the new and social distribution model, and are just as integrated into the conversation around the news as the news makers themselves (and many times they are the ones to make the news too).
“People can use the [Facebook] news feed and their Twitter streams as their editors,” Rosen said.
Friends as Your News Wire
News organizations that see this shift are hoping to enlist users as their “editors” by making it easier for them to engage their content on social platforms. Some companies, like National Public Radio, are starting to pay attention to their audiences in the social space and are investing resources to learn about their consumption habits.
After having a presence on Facebook for more than two years, NPR decided to take a closer look at its more than 1 million Facebook fans with a survey. Andy Carvin, senior strategist at NPR, said he had a certain hypotheses, including one that stemmed from his own reliance on his Twitter and Facebook friends for news: Do people really use their social network to get news? After more than 40,000 responses to the survey, 74.6% said that Facebook was a major way in which they received news and information from NPR, and 72.3% said they “expect” their friends to share links to interesting information and news stories with them online.
“It’s not that people have lost interest in the news, it’s that they have shifted platforms,” Carvin said.
Realizing the shifts in consumption behavior, Facebook is beginning to partner with, and provide resources for, news organizations and publishers to more effectively use the platform. Most noticeably, you can now see what your Facebook friends have “liked” or “recommended” on sites like CNN or Washington Post. Washington Post, for example, has prominently integrated Facebook’s Social Plugins into its site for a social news experience:
Monday, August 2, 2010
Wearing Woe
As the virtual world gets physical, what surprises me is that it shows up first in a museum. But then again, maybe that is appropriate because this movement is essentially esthetic (unnecessary except for the soul).
Clothes that reveal your mood, is the invention of the day.
Here's the URL: http://www.technewsdaily.com/smart-clothing-responds-to-wearers-emotions-0669/
‘Smart’ Clothing Responds to Wearer’s Emotions
By Michelle Bryner, TechNewsDaily Contributor
08 June 2010 11:56 AM ET
High-tech clothing with embedded biosensors and an Internet connection could respond to your mood and help you get through the day.
The new “smart” clothing contains wireless biosensors that measure heart rate and temperature (among other physiological indicators), small speakers, and other electronics that wirelessly connect to a handheld smartphone or PDA. Data from the sensors is sent to the handheld where it is converted into one of 16 emotional states, which cues a previously setup database to send the wearer some inspirational message.
These "mood memos" could be a text message, which scrolls on a display on the garment’s sleeve, a video or photograph displayed on the handheld device, or a sound that comes through the embedded speakers.
The researchers have made two prototype garments so far, a male and a female version, and plan to display them at museums over the next two years. They are also looking at medical and fashion applications.
The sounds, photos and videos sent to the wearer aren’t arbitrary. Instead, the messages are spoken by a friend or loved one.
“When you first wear the garment, you turn on the device and you tell it what person you want to channel that day,” said Barbara Layne, professor at Concordia University and co-developer of the garments. “That could be your lover who’s away, it could be your deceased parent, your best friend, whoever you want to be with that day.”
The multimedia is pre-loaded into a database for each person the wearer wants to virtually hang out with.
“[At] multiple times during the day, you can set it for as many times as you want, [the garment] will take your biometric readings, your bio-sensing data, analyze it on that emotional map and then go up to the Internet, to the database that relates that emotional state, and bring you back something that you need,” Layne said.
Layne and co-developer Janis Jefferies, professor at the University of London’s Goldsmiths, along with their team members have not yet pursued commercial applications but are seeing a lot of interest.
“The interest is really huge from all kinds of sectors,” Layne said. One example is the medical area, which could use the smart clothing “to promote well-being maybe for someone who’s ill, either house-bound or in a hospital where wearing this kind of jacket can make them feel better,” Layne said.
In the future, the researchers hope to work with a behavioral psychologist to improve the model used to convert the physical data – heart rate and temperature, for example – into an emotional state
Clothes that reveal your mood, is the invention of the day.
Here's the URL: http://www.technewsdaily.com/smart-clothing-responds-to-wearers-emotions-0669/
‘Smart’ Clothing Responds to Wearer’s Emotions
By Michelle Bryner, TechNewsDaily Contributor
08 June 2010 11:56 AM ET
High-tech clothing with embedded biosensors and an Internet connection could respond to your mood and help you get through the day.
The new “smart” clothing contains wireless biosensors that measure heart rate and temperature (among other physiological indicators), small speakers, and other electronics that wirelessly connect to a handheld smartphone or PDA. Data from the sensors is sent to the handheld where it is converted into one of 16 emotional states, which cues a previously setup database to send the wearer some inspirational message.
These "mood memos" could be a text message, which scrolls on a display on the garment’s sleeve, a video or photograph displayed on the handheld device, or a sound that comes through the embedded speakers.
The researchers have made two prototype garments so far, a male and a female version, and plan to display them at museums over the next two years. They are also looking at medical and fashion applications.
The sounds, photos and videos sent to the wearer aren’t arbitrary. Instead, the messages are spoken by a friend or loved one.
“When you first wear the garment, you turn on the device and you tell it what person you want to channel that day,” said Barbara Layne, professor at Concordia University and co-developer of the garments. “That could be your lover who’s away, it could be your deceased parent, your best friend, whoever you want to be with that day.”
The multimedia is pre-loaded into a database for each person the wearer wants to virtually hang out with.
“[At] multiple times during the day, you can set it for as many times as you want, [the garment] will take your biometric readings, your bio-sensing data, analyze it on that emotional map and then go up to the Internet, to the database that relates that emotional state, and bring you back something that you need,” Layne said.
Layne and co-developer Janis Jefferies, professor at the University of London’s Goldsmiths, along with their team members have not yet pursued commercial applications but are seeing a lot of interest.
“The interest is really huge from all kinds of sectors,” Layne said. One example is the medical area, which could use the smart clothing “to promote well-being maybe for someone who’s ill, either house-bound or in a hospital where wearing this kind of jacket can make them feel better,” Layne said.
In the future, the researchers hope to work with a behavioral psychologist to improve the model used to convert the physical data – heart rate and temperature, for example – into an emotional state
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Feeling Wanted
Liberating the internet into the physical world continues to be an adventure, probably lead by MIT's Media Lab.
This is the story of a vest that massages you at the behest of your social media friends.
That's right. So you're feeling a little punk, and you text your friends, who text back to the vest you are wearing, thus igniting the internal washers that create a massaging experience. It's the next best thing to them standing next to you and massaging your back to make you feel better. That's age-old and natural.
(Here's the URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38430916/ns/technology_and_science-innovation/)
Here's the whole story:
by Stuart Fox
LOS ANGELES — With its hugs, pokes and even vampire bites, social networking sites have always integrated the idea of physical contact into their virtual relationships. But a new project, SOS: Stress Outsourced, adds a dimension to social networking by transforming the metaphorical touching into an actual physical sensation: a massage delivered by a wired, motorized jacket.
The jacket, on display here at this year’s SIGGRAPH interactive technology and computer graphics, links to a website through a Wi-Fi chip in one of the sleeves.
When the wearer hits a button in the other sleeve to indicate he or she is feeling stressed, a social networking website notifies other network members. Communicating through a Wi-Fi-linked necktie, the other website members can decide whether to activate the jacket’s massage motors in sympathy.
“It’s much more relaxing because you feel a connection with people, not because the massage is so great,” said Byron Lahey, the wearable-technology coordinator at SIGGRAPH, who was not personally involved in the project.
After a response by a critical mass of users, the jacket, which has six massage motors, starts massaging the wearer. The whole process is anonymous, although the jacket does indicate from how far away the necktie wearers responded. Responses from within 10 miles of the jacket wearer trigger a spinal massage; responses from within the same country work the inner shoulder, and responses from other countries trigger an outer-shoulder massage.
Jacket wearers can log onto a website, see where everyone who responded is located and thank them.
By augmenting online relationships with real physical contact, the SOS project seeks to create tighter-knit online communities.
Designed by students from MIT’s media lab, the SOS system is still in the testing phase, and the attending website has yet to go live.
This is the story of a vest that massages you at the behest of your social media friends.
That's right. So you're feeling a little punk, and you text your friends, who text back to the vest you are wearing, thus igniting the internal washers that create a massaging experience. It's the next best thing to them standing next to you and massaging your back to make you feel better. That's age-old and natural.
(Here's the URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38430916/ns/technology_and_science-innovation/)
Here's the whole story:
by Stuart Fox
LOS ANGELES — With its hugs, pokes and even vampire bites, social networking sites have always integrated the idea of physical contact into their virtual relationships. But a new project, SOS: Stress Outsourced, adds a dimension to social networking by transforming the metaphorical touching into an actual physical sensation: a massage delivered by a wired, motorized jacket.
The jacket, on display here at this year’s SIGGRAPH interactive technology and computer graphics, links to a website through a Wi-Fi chip in one of the sleeves.
When the wearer hits a button in the other sleeve to indicate he or she is feeling stressed, a social networking website notifies other network members. Communicating through a Wi-Fi-linked necktie, the other website members can decide whether to activate the jacket’s massage motors in sympathy.
“It’s much more relaxing because you feel a connection with people, not because the massage is so great,” said Byron Lahey, the wearable-technology coordinator at SIGGRAPH, who was not personally involved in the project.
After a response by a critical mass of users, the jacket, which has six massage motors, starts massaging the wearer. The whole process is anonymous, although the jacket does indicate from how far away the necktie wearers responded. Responses from within 10 miles of the jacket wearer trigger a spinal massage; responses from within the same country work the inner shoulder, and responses from other countries trigger an outer-shoulder massage.
Jacket wearers can log onto a website, see where everyone who responded is located and thank them.
By augmenting online relationships with real physical contact, the SOS project seeks to create tighter-knit online communities.
Designed by students from MIT’s media lab, the SOS system is still in the testing phase, and the attending website has yet to go live.
What ____ means
There are many words for it: personalization, customer relationship management, social media, etc.
What ____ means is that through the powerful tools of the web an entity (person or company) creates a more interactive, supportive, engaged relationship with individual clients.
The media, although and perhaps because it's in the communication business, believe that they have some natural ability at this new instinct. In fact their arrogance has put them way behind in the development of this instinct, and the most recent foray into paywalls is just another result of that arrogance.
A very good discussion of this comes from Janet Titterton on the Journalism.co.uk website.
(Here's the URL: http://www.journalism.co.uk/6/articles/539838.php)
And probably in your own experience you've seen how retailers and non-profits who used to not even play in the communication game (they used to play only in the advertising game) have gotten very good at CRM. Whereas media companies continue to expect primarily the one-way process.
The local art museum emails me every Friday with news of the get-together that evening, including the lecturer and the food. The library emails me two days before my books are due, and then emails me thank you for returning them. My local supermarket gives me coupons online tied to the foods I have bought in the past. My dentist reminds me online of my appointments, and includes insurance forms. My favorite department stores alerts me to pre-sales. and on and on.
If you are open to these dialogues with the market, you can get them, and they are very helpful.
And what does my newspaper and tv station and radio station and city magazine offer me. More news. Can't they be more helpful than that? What would happen if I told them what I bought, and they promised to give me the insurance and warranty information I needed, as needed. Or if they put me in touch with other people who had bought the same products so I could compare my experience, and perhaps get help when I needed it. Or if they told me who was going to be at the fundraiser that I plan to attend. Customer Relationship Marketing involves truly emphathizing with someone's needs.
What happens if the media group just emailed me to ask how I thought about their service, and what could they do differently?
Would the media companies be out of their comfort zone, by doing these things? Were the retailers, who have grown the social media side of their business, originally out of their comfort zones? I don't think so. You can't be arrogant about changing.
Media brands, from magazine publishers to newspapers, are more concerned than ever about their ability to engage customers and remain profitable - and with good reason. Never before has there been so much high quality information available for so little.
With all eyes currently on the Times paywall, or rather what some commentators are referring to as "News International’s anti-social media experiment", we are witnessing a very real struggle as media owners attempt to map out the future of their industry and evaluate how they will build profitable relationships with their customer base.
A recent survey of 3,000 members of the public, carried out by OnePoll on behalf of PR Week, found that 93 per cent of people thought newspapers should use advertising rather than a paywall to make money online. Only time will tell if the paywall works or not, but it would be inaccurate to say it’s the only hope for publishers. There are other revenues streams, such as discounted reader offers and brand partnerships, and real potential in these areas.
Learn from other sectors
Publishers could learn from leading brands in sectors such as retail and financial services, who have been maximising both customer engagement and generating additional revenue from the mass market very successfully for years. They have achieved this by offering 'added value propositions' tailored to their customer segments, which both differentiates their brands and enhances their core product and service offering.
The retail sector is an expert at generating stronger relationships with value-added propositions that enhance the customer experience and generate incremental revenue. Take Comet for example, when you buy a flat screen television you also have the option to use their expert installation service to make sure everything works perfectly and then the annual repair service for peace of mind on all existing and future electrical purchases. This widens the Comet customer value proposition, and encourages repeat business at Comet.
In the financial sector, banks offer memberships for a monthly or annual fee, such as NatWest’s Advantage Gold that provides customers with a package of benefits that provides greater value to their everyday lives and keeps them engaged with the brand. These benefits, such as home and travel insurance, fraud protection, and vehicle breakdown cover have a high perceived value and are sold at a significantly cheaper price than if the customer bought these benefits separately.
Astoundingly though, recent research carried out by incremental revenue specialists Collinson Latitude found that one third of publishers are yet to tap into these revenue opportunities in any way and 40 per cent of publishers said that they have never considered providing customers with membership packages.
By the way here is Janet Titterton's full post:
The existing approach that media brands use for added value memberships is focused around discounts and offers. Times+ is the best current example, as it tries to differentiate its offers by theming them around the readers’ key areas of interest, such as culture, travel and food. However, Times+ will struggle to provide differentiation and exclusivity to the discount based offering. Publishers can go much further than this to build sustainable relationships by offering mass market products and services of a high perceived value bundled into a membership, including benefits serving customer preferences such as travel or leisure.
Need to understand reader lifestyles
The true opportunity for the publishing industry is to understand readers' lifestyles, personal journeys and experiences, in the context of their brand and the customers’ perspective of where they see value to develop new commercial membership propositions. So how can publishers do this in a way that will fit with the existing business model and produce sustainable results?
Use the customer insight - publishers have a huge amount of data on their readers; after all this is what is used to sell targeted advertising space. This information could be mined so publishers can understand their different customer profiles and where they are best placed to add value with relevant product and service extensions. More importantly, they need to also understand not what their core, loyal paper subscribers would buy from them, but what their wider online readership would too.
The power of partnerships - this is key to generating greater relevance to the vast online audience, who don’t necessarily associate themselves with a specific publication. Publishers can explore different partnership models that serve contemporary needs, rather than a constant stream of one off discount offers, or links to partner’s websites. Brand extensions with commercial partner propositions that are contextually relevant, targeted to their wider readership, will enable them to retain and grow a direct customer relationship and benefit from the recurring revenue.
Package the content – the publishing industry would struggle to compete with businesses selling products such as travel insurance or flights, as they will never be able to differentiate their offering on price, product quality or keep up with innovation. Where the publishing industry has a unique opportunity is to create packages of products that their customers would need for everyday or regular experiences which is not currently being provided by others. For example, newspapers have been protecting customers from unfair travel charges and scams, and providing information on how to make the most from holidays for some time – not the airlines, hotels, car hire or travel insurance providers.
What better place to start than by creating a travel membership that provides piece of mind by offering products and services consumers need whenever they travel? This would also leverage journalists’ knowledge of how to make the travel experience easier, faster and more exclusive by supplying aspirational products and services that wouldn’t normally be easily accessible. Bundling relevant products and services also provides consumers with convenience, and publishers with the opportunity to acquire more behavioral data for refined targeting, value extension, relationship building and long term revenue.
Look for innovative ways to add value – more and more publishers are realising the value of smartphone (and iPad) apps. This is a great example of how new technology offers a way to add value to existing content that the consumer is happy to pay for, and tap in to new audiences. These innovations represent new channels to build more sustainable and profitable relationships with more customers whilst finding new ways to engage with them in their every day lives.
There is no doubt that these are challenging times for publishers, with consumers that are more demanding, harder to engage, and less willing to pay for the content they receive. But incremental revenue delivered from product extensions provides a way for publishers to not only survive, but to capitalise on the shifting media landscape, and thrive.
What ____ means is that through the powerful tools of the web an entity (person or company) creates a more interactive, supportive, engaged relationship with individual clients.
The media, although and perhaps because it's in the communication business, believe that they have some natural ability at this new instinct. In fact their arrogance has put them way behind in the development of this instinct, and the most recent foray into paywalls is just another result of that arrogance.
A very good discussion of this comes from Janet Titterton on the Journalism.co.uk website.
(Here's the URL: http://www.journalism.co.uk/6/articles/539838.php)
And probably in your own experience you've seen how retailers and non-profits who used to not even play in the communication game (they used to play only in the advertising game) have gotten very good at CRM. Whereas media companies continue to expect primarily the one-way process.
The local art museum emails me every Friday with news of the get-together that evening, including the lecturer and the food. The library emails me two days before my books are due, and then emails me thank you for returning them. My local supermarket gives me coupons online tied to the foods I have bought in the past. My dentist reminds me online of my appointments, and includes insurance forms. My favorite department stores alerts me to pre-sales. and on and on.
If you are open to these dialogues with the market, you can get them, and they are very helpful.
And what does my newspaper and tv station and radio station and city magazine offer me. More news. Can't they be more helpful than that? What would happen if I told them what I bought, and they promised to give me the insurance and warranty information I needed, as needed. Or if they put me in touch with other people who had bought the same products so I could compare my experience, and perhaps get help when I needed it. Or if they told me who was going to be at the fundraiser that I plan to attend. Customer Relationship Marketing involves truly emphathizing with someone's needs.
What happens if the media group just emailed me to ask how I thought about their service, and what could they do differently?
Would the media companies be out of their comfort zone, by doing these things? Were the retailers, who have grown the social media side of their business, originally out of their comfort zones? I don't think so. You can't be arrogant about changing.
Media brands, from magazine publishers to newspapers, are more concerned than ever about their ability to engage customers and remain profitable - and with good reason. Never before has there been so much high quality information available for so little.
With all eyes currently on the Times paywall, or rather what some commentators are referring to as "News International’s anti-social media experiment", we are witnessing a very real struggle as media owners attempt to map out the future of their industry and evaluate how they will build profitable relationships with their customer base.
A recent survey of 3,000 members of the public, carried out by OnePoll on behalf of PR Week, found that 93 per cent of people thought newspapers should use advertising rather than a paywall to make money online. Only time will tell if the paywall works or not, but it would be inaccurate to say it’s the only hope for publishers. There are other revenues streams, such as discounted reader offers and brand partnerships, and real potential in these areas.
Learn from other sectors
Publishers could learn from leading brands in sectors such as retail and financial services, who have been maximising both customer engagement and generating additional revenue from the mass market very successfully for years. They have achieved this by offering 'added value propositions' tailored to their customer segments, which both differentiates their brands and enhances their core product and service offering.
The retail sector is an expert at generating stronger relationships with value-added propositions that enhance the customer experience and generate incremental revenue. Take Comet for example, when you buy a flat screen television you also have the option to use their expert installation service to make sure everything works perfectly and then the annual repair service for peace of mind on all existing and future electrical purchases. This widens the Comet customer value proposition, and encourages repeat business at Comet.
In the financial sector, banks offer memberships for a monthly or annual fee, such as NatWest’s Advantage Gold that provides customers with a package of benefits that provides greater value to their everyday lives and keeps them engaged with the brand. These benefits, such as home and travel insurance, fraud protection, and vehicle breakdown cover have a high perceived value and are sold at a significantly cheaper price than if the customer bought these benefits separately.
Astoundingly though, recent research carried out by incremental revenue specialists Collinson Latitude found that one third of publishers are yet to tap into these revenue opportunities in any way and 40 per cent of publishers said that they have never considered providing customers with membership packages.
By the way here is Janet Titterton's full post:
The existing approach that media brands use for added value memberships is focused around discounts and offers. Times+ is the best current example, as it tries to differentiate its offers by theming them around the readers’ key areas of interest, such as culture, travel and food. However, Times+ will struggle to provide differentiation and exclusivity to the discount based offering. Publishers can go much further than this to build sustainable relationships by offering mass market products and services of a high perceived value bundled into a membership, including benefits serving customer preferences such as travel or leisure.
Need to understand reader lifestyles
The true opportunity for the publishing industry is to understand readers' lifestyles, personal journeys and experiences, in the context of their brand and the customers’ perspective of where they see value to develop new commercial membership propositions. So how can publishers do this in a way that will fit with the existing business model and produce sustainable results?
Use the customer insight - publishers have a huge amount of data on their readers; after all this is what is used to sell targeted advertising space. This information could be mined so publishers can understand their different customer profiles and where they are best placed to add value with relevant product and service extensions. More importantly, they need to also understand not what their core, loyal paper subscribers would buy from them, but what their wider online readership would too.
The power of partnerships - this is key to generating greater relevance to the vast online audience, who don’t necessarily associate themselves with a specific publication. Publishers can explore different partnership models that serve contemporary needs, rather than a constant stream of one off discount offers, or links to partner’s websites. Brand extensions with commercial partner propositions that are contextually relevant, targeted to their wider readership, will enable them to retain and grow a direct customer relationship and benefit from the recurring revenue.
Package the content – the publishing industry would struggle to compete with businesses selling products such as travel insurance or flights, as they will never be able to differentiate their offering on price, product quality or keep up with innovation. Where the publishing industry has a unique opportunity is to create packages of products that their customers would need for everyday or regular experiences which is not currently being provided by others. For example, newspapers have been protecting customers from unfair travel charges and scams, and providing information on how to make the most from holidays for some time – not the airlines, hotels, car hire or travel insurance providers.
What better place to start than by creating a travel membership that provides piece of mind by offering products and services consumers need whenever they travel? This would also leverage journalists’ knowledge of how to make the travel experience easier, faster and more exclusive by supplying aspirational products and services that wouldn’t normally be easily accessible. Bundling relevant products and services also provides consumers with convenience, and publishers with the opportunity to acquire more behavioral data for refined targeting, value extension, relationship building and long term revenue.
Look for innovative ways to add value – more and more publishers are realising the value of smartphone (and iPad) apps. This is a great example of how new technology offers a way to add value to existing content that the consumer is happy to pay for, and tap in to new audiences. These innovations represent new channels to build more sustainable and profitable relationships with more customers whilst finding new ways to engage with them in their every day lives.
There is no doubt that these are challenging times for publishers, with consumers that are more demanding, harder to engage, and less willing to pay for the content they receive. But incremental revenue delivered from product extensions provides a way for publishers to not only survive, but to capitalise on the shifting media landscape, and thrive.
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