Morphing Media - Signposts of Media 2.0

Meredith Obendorfer writes a post called 'Investigating the Case of the Morphing Media' over on 'Echo Base' where she predicts the rise of Media 2.0.

She explains a set of recent circumstances that are signposts of a failing Media 1.0 world and the rise of... something else.

At the end of the post she suggests that perhaps it's time to call it Media 2.0.

At a time when VC investment in new media is surging, the question remains, will traditional media be able to keep up? And at what cost will it learn that it needs to morph with the rest of ‘em? Overused dot-oh or not, it’s clearly time for media 2.0.

I have been talking about Media 2.0 for quite some time and as I explained, I think that Attention and Aggregation will play a key part.

Watch this space Meredith!

Greg Cohn wants Touchstone

It always amuses me when someone who has not yet found Touchstone writes a post describing the need it fills perfectly. Reminds me why we started this project/company in the first place.

I will quote Greg word-for-word because he is spot on. Hope he does not mind! Check out the full, more detailed post.

This leads to a three-fold problem: As a user, I want to aggregate the things I consume effectively and across all of my consumption devices and venues. I may want to publish my aggregation in various ways in various media, like a blogroll on my blog, bookmarks on del.icio.us, or an OPML file or attention stream in a conference panel bio. (Thus, “distributed aggregation”.) Also, as I chime in with my comments and ratings and other UGC submissions, this becomes part of the publishing side of the problem as well.

As a publisher, I want to streamline my production across many points of access while providing a good, unified experience to some members of my audience. I may want to be able to control my profile pages at Flickr and other places - both to reflect my self-expression goals and to capture data that lets me know how I’m doing - but I don’t want to be responsible for maintaining 13 websites. I want the principle of “write once / publish many” to apply not only to my blog posts, but also to my preferences as a publisher. Thus, aggregated distribution.

Finally, from the point of view of efficiency and value-creation, there is a lot of interesting attention that could be harnessed (and fat in the system that could be eliminated) for the benefit of advertisers, knowledge-aggregation companies like Yahoo! and Google, and, more generally, anyone who wants to communicate with like audiences either in niches or en masse (i.e., media) efficiently. Again, aggregated distribution.

I'm a big RSS user - 20 feeds or so

I just found this comment on a post about free desktop readers and it made me chuckle.

bardicknowledge Says:
December 11th, 2006 at 11:34 pm
Hey, I’m a big RSS user, with 20 or so feeds that I keep an eye on regularly and there are two others options (the two I use ) that I would like to point out.

I guess I should not tell him about the 170 I'm subscribed to. And I know others with many more than that :)

FYI: I currently have about 12,000 unread items in my feed reader.

Channel ME

Mark Sigal's recently posted about Channel Me and the Rules of New Media.

He talks about concepts that we have long discussed here such as:

1. If content was king, then aggregation is now the master of the universe
   He writes: Unlike "old media," where content was the star, in new media, it is about the users and giving them control of what they digest, how they digest it and with whom. This article attempts to provide a framework for thinking about the rules of new media and how to work them to your benefit.
   
2. The audience has left the building
   He writes: Once upon a time, content was content, an ad was an ad and the audience was a passive consumer. No more. Increasingly, the lines between consumer and producer are getting blurry.
   
3. Personal Relevancy is more important than What's Popular
   He writes: These tools will have built in recognition systems (like deep profiles) to systematically connect like minds together, and filters that provide transparency that highlights what’s new, popular, recently viewed, talked about or related content.

And he finishes with:

The evolution of the Web from text, pictures and links to video-powered social nets is as profound as the evolution of broadcast media from radio to television, and it is destined to be no less exciting.

I wholeheartedly agree Mark.

Thanks for pointing this post out Randal

Touchstone/Attention Coverage Grows

It seems like 2007 really is the year of Attention. Everyone's talking about it. And I am very gratified that they think to mention us when they do.

Ian Forrester over at Cubic Garden wrote a wonderful review of the Alpha and APML (not wonderful in that it was all positive, but wonderful in that it was constructive, thoughtful and has helped us identify his personal rough spots). I am very interested in Ian's Pipelines idea as well. As he suggests, Touchstone's architecture could actually be considered a pipeline. We have always thought about it (from the earliest diagrams on napkins) as 'Inputs, Processing, Outputs'.

John Tropea has also posted a review about Touchstone. In typical John fashion he has gone into great depth about the applications and comparisons for the technology. He has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the RSS/Tools landscape.

Daniella Barbosa from Factiva/Dow Jones is always insightful - from her commentary on enterprise information tools through to great videos about unwrapping presents for Michael Arrington - she always brings a smile to my day.

Her latest post "Standing for Attention in the Enterprise" is no exception. She mentions that in the past year, enterprise users have gone from asking 'What is RSS' to 'How can we handle all this RSS we need to read'.

She goes on to post:

So something that i know i will be talking about in 2007 is... Attention

And i won't be the only one paying attention to 'Attention'i had already started this post on Attention and i remembered that in my inbox was a note from Greg Narian with the subject title 'Continuous Partial Postponement?' that i had seen coming in this morning but had not clicked through before i left for my appointments. It is an interesting look at two sides of the attention theme. The first one Continuous Partial Attention - constantly needing to be connected so we don't miss anything, the second is what we lose when as we constantly postpone one thing to get to the next. Kathy Sierra also has a good post on the problem of continuous partial attention from early December that links to multiple posts she has made about user behavior due to attention issues.

She also kindly mentions Touchstone and APML as key examples of emerging tools to help with the deluge.

Of course there are many others as well... we really appreciate the feedback guys - it keeps us all motivated and focused on making Touchstone as great as possible.

Congratulations to Google - Attention Data Matters

I have said a few negative things about Google recently - it seems like they have had a run of bad luck. But this post has made me happy - Mihai and Google have caught onto the idea of Attention Data (although he never quite calls it Attention Data) - and has created a 'Reader Trends' page for us all.






FeedDemon has actually been doing something along these lines for a little while though. I'd like to think that Mihai and the rest of the Google Reader team knew this? Why not give them credit?

In any case, seems like 2007 really will be the year of Attention Data. Lucky we at Touchstone are one step ahead of Attention Data and have moved onto Attention Profiling and Attention Management.

Via Micro Persuasion - Thanks to Marianne for pointing this out for me.

Welcome to 2007

Welcome to 2007. Happy new year!

Let's get straight into it.

Last year (Dec 19 to be exact) the clever people over at Read/Write Web published a list of their Web Predictions for 2007. Here is a very cut down summary with my annotations added in italics. Please note the full version from ReadWrite Web is far richer so make sure you click through and check it out.

RSS, Structured Data

• RSS will go mainstream in a big way next year
  Touchstone will provide a way for the mainstream to more easily understand and consume the value proposition of RSS. Particularly those who don't understand why RSS differs so much from email untill they see it scrolling across their desktop like a ticker or urgent/important headlines SMSed to their phone. Taking the 'RSS' out of the RSS experience will be pivitol.
  
• Structured data will be a big trend next year
  RSS is the most common form of semi-structured data out there. Microformats, however, will begin playing a very important role. A reader that can apply actions based on attached or embedded microformat data will be very useful.
  
• Widgets exploded in 2006 but will continue rising in 2007
  Web widgets are cool. They help create a loosely coupled web experience with functionality exposed all over the place. Desktop widgets, on the other hand, can just be a mess on your desktop. How many widgets can you look at while you work?

Enterprise

• Web Office continues to ramp up
  Touchstone will play a pivotal role in helping knowledge workers get alerts when their web-based office apps have new events/actions that need taking care of. The overflowing enterprise email inbox will not surive the influx of email if web-based office apps send an email for each of their alerts and updates.
  
• The consumerization of the enterprise trend will start to infiltrate corporate IT, in the form of web-based office apps and more collaborative systems.
  The participant (read: user/employee) is the most important part of any system. The fact that the web and web-based sofware is starting to realize this reality is a welcome change. As enterprises begin to catch up, tools that help individuals manage their own attention will become mission critical.

Web Development

• Rich Internet Apps will be a major force in 2007. The general trend going on here is that platforms that leverage both the desktop and the Web will be compelling next year, in terms of offering rich functionality that usually can't be found on purely browser-based apps.
  Exactly right. Ajax is great, but it still can't reach beyond the browser sandbox. Client-side applications will, for the foreseeable future, play a very important role in the mix.
  
• On the other hand, Google in particular will continue to push the boundaries of browser-based apps.
  And yet they continue to build client-side applications as well. Google's only real successes however have been in services that use search/maths as the main value proposition (e.g. web search and email with search). Google has yet to have a real success at anything else including their web-based office apps or their fabled emerging GoogleOS.
  
• Semantic Web products will come of age in 2007.
  Semantic just means structured - and the most important structured format is already here. RSS combined with Microformats make the semantic web an emerging reality. Yet most readers treat RSS like news. Touchstone will force a change.
  
• Expect more big things from Amazon next year, to fill in the stack and to provide the foundation for a Web/Amazon WebServices-based OS.
  

Search and Online Advertising

• Expect some shakeups in the online advertising market next year.
  Maybe engagement will get some real consideration?
  
• Also due to ongoing issues with (CPC/PPC) online advertising, there's a real need for a better, more robust online ad model - perhaps something more than CPA. So watch out for developments in 2007 along those lines.
  
• 2007 will be about Search 2.0 and the rise of the vertical search engines. However don't expect Google to lay down and do nothing - they will counter the verticals.
  Google has already launched their custom search engines which is actually a clever way to get users to tag sites with categories. They can then build vertical searches based on this massive amount of accumulated data. They are using us to build their next killer app. Has anyone else noticed? I'd love to know about posts highlighting this fact - post in comments. They once again use our 'Attention Data' for their master plans. I just wish they were more transparent about it.
  

Microsoft vs Google

• Microsoft's Windows Live services will gain real momentum next year, thanks to Vista and also Live services.
  Surprise, Surprise. Microsoft will always use its platform and tools to drive adoption of their latest round of products and services. They did it with the browser, media player and portals and they will continue to do it for whatever they do next. When you control the keys you control the rooms that people use. You'd do it too if you were in their position.
  
• WebOS /GoogleOS: To counter the Vista and Windows Live threat, Google may come out with some form of GoogleOS.
  Refer to my previous statements about the GoogleOS in this post.
  
• Open Source Desktops will continue to gain momentum in '07.
  Getting a growing number of users while maintaining a consistant share of the overall market is not really a sign of success.
  

Browsers

• Browser War II. In 2007 expect the competition between IE7 and FireFox (plus Flock, Opera and Maxthon) to be intense.
  The browser wars were declared when Microsoft realized that IE can actually be beaten by Firefox and announced their renewed focused on a more aggressive update schedule for Internet Explorer. Expect the war to rage on for the foreseeable future (long past 2007 - think of it like a console war now).
  
• Speaking of browsers, 2007 will see an increase in WebKits. Adobe's Apollo will be WebKit based, enabling developers to ensure Safari compatibility as well as other browsers.
  I am not yet convinced about WebKits and hybrid applications. The web tool vendors want us to believe that web developers can build better client-side apps using web-tools/languages than more traditional platforms like .NET and C. Maybe that's true. Maybe it's not.

Multimedia

• Internet-based TV will ramp up in 2007, thanks to products like Brightcove and whatever Google does with YouTube/Google Video.
  Online distribution of TV/Movies is long overdue. Buying DVDs has been a scam perpetrated on the unsuspecting masses for too long. HD-DVD and BluRay look like they are going to extend the rain of crap for a few years more. All content should be delivered over the Internet and on-demand.
  
• Mass adoption of IPTV technology in 2007 and Bittorrent will be an important part of the online video landscape too.
  IPTV might be dead on arrival. TV over IP (important distinction here) will always be better. It's amazing to me that Bittorrent is not already integrated into browsers and used for distribution of medium to large files. Hopefully 2007 will see that happen.
  
• Virtual worlds: SecondLife will become an important platform for marketing, promotion, and of course social networking.
  Or they will collapse as people realize that they are closed platforms and go in search of more open environments based on technologies analogues to HTML.
  

Consumer Apps

• The online real estate market will grow rapidly in '07.
  
• The search for disruptive business models will continue! :-) In other words, free consumer web apps still need to find a business model.
  Or die trying
  
• While social networks dominated 2006, we wonder if the amount of time an average user spends online will start to negatively impact on their social lives in 2007 and lead to a downturn.
  Tools that make Social networks available on the go will be critical. Messaging inside walled gardens like MySpace will have to give way to more open messaging/forum systems and alert routing technologies (I.e. Touchstone).

Blog Highlights of 2006

Hi everyone - I hope you had a great 2006. I know we certainly have. In just one year, Touchstone has gone from the back of a napkin to a funded, flying company with a number of great staff, friends, advisors and testers. We wish to thank you all very much for your efforts this year - we literally could not be doing this without you.

Here are the highlights from the blog over the last year in reverse order (most recent at the top).

Hitting the Mainstream 2
Information Overload hits the mainstream media for a second time - in a big way.

Hitting the Mainstream 1
Information Overload hits the mainstream media for the first time (or there abouts)

Democracy Now!
Web 2.0 has barley hit and people are talking about Web 3.0. We discuss how absurd that is and why YouTube is NOT Web 2.0.

Show me the money (or pain!)
Some people (read:head in the sand) think there is no information overload problem. This post explains why there is.

Filtering vs. Ranking
Some people are still talking about filtering RSS. Filtering is so 5 years ago.

Aggregation is King
Content used to be king. If that's true, then Aggregation is now master of the universe.

Desktop vs. Web-based
Web 2.0 implies that stuff is on the web. Not true. This post talks about the value of desktop applications in a web world. By the way - did you know the Browser is a desktop application? Shock/Horror.

What is Attention Data?
And no - it is not just OPML or Attention.XML.

Personalized Content
Some claim that the battle for 'People Powered News' is over. Digg and others have won. I make the argument that People Powered News MIGHT be done, but Personalized Content is just getting started.

There is no more audience
Participants have killed the audience. Media outlets that treat their audience like eyeballs are doomed to fail in a Media 2.0 world. This is a short rant about the death of the Audience.

Touchstone funded by Angel
Touchstone get's funded by an Angel Investor. What more do we need to say about that!

The Long Tail of Attention
Chris Anderson describes the three factors that have made the Long Tail a viable market. I then explain why a Tool like Touchstone empowers the 'Long Tail' (that's you and me) to take advantage.

Personal Relevancy
What is Personal Relevancy exactly? It's when your interests and personality become the basis for choosing content, rather than the whims of one editor who decides what 'the mainstream' should care about.

Tune Out the Noise
Touchstone is not about alerting - it is about NOT alerting. Think about that.

Attention, Scarcity and Demand
Markets work on Supply and Demand. Price is dictated by Scarcity. So in an era of abundance, the scarcest resource is our Attention.

Power Back in your hands
Amazon Recommendations are great... for them. They help cross-sell and up-sell their customers. But what if you could use the same technology to take control of your information across all the sites you visit?

Anti-Web 2.0
Touchstone is a desktop application. Does this make it Anti-Web 2.0?

Not a Gadget Engine
Touchstone compared to the current rash of Gadget/Widget engines out there.

RSS is not just about News
Imagine using RSS for something other than News. Feed readers fail for most of those other applications. Touchstone picks up the slack.


Thanks again for sticking with us. The best is yet to come!

Chris, Ash and the whole Touchstone Crew.

The PageRank of Personal Relevancy

Ilya recently posted some great data and analysis on the current state of RSS reading habits.

He goes on to explain many of the issues I alluded to in a previous post titled "Show me the money (or the pain)".

I think the question of information overload is answered. Yes there is an overload. But RSS is not the problem. In fact blogs and user generated news are not the problem either. They are just one source of information in our lives.

There are application events, presence changes from our friends, internal memos from head office, applications on our desktop and more all clamoring for our time...

So tools that try to cluster and suggest content from blogs and mainstream news sites are only (very) useful for part of the time.

Ilya goes on to make a great suggestion in his post. He recognizes that collaborative filtering has limitations, Keyword filtering is 'so 5 years ago' and that any one 'community voting' measurement will fall short.

With Touchstone we have gone to great lengths to cover all these usage scenarios. We have built a platform that accepts 'items' not 'RSS'. This means that we can source content from places other than RSS and then cache, rank and route them in a unified way.

Our 'rank' is not based on collaborative filtering or keyword filtering or community voting or previous reading behavior. It is based on some and none of these things at the same time. As such, our technology can work in a vacuum on a personal item behind the firewall, just as it can work on a news item that the whole world can see and link (read:vote) to.

Also, there is no 'handshake' period where our application tries to track your reading behavior over time. We are on the client side which means we have access to your browser history/cache, documents and email for an instant, broad and ongoing base of 'Attention Data' in order to determine your interests.

Ilya rightly compares this to PageRank. While PageRank uses incoming links as a vote to measure authority, it relies on a broader set of factors to make a decision and produce a number.

And because the result is a number rather than a binary 'yes or no' filter or an opaque recommendation, Touchstone can make intelligent presentation decisions when displaying the alert/content/information. The bigger the number the bigger the item on the page.

My friend Adam also posted about the 'Feed Overload Problem' on his blog.