The internet can be characterized very simply. Billions of people are looking for interesting and useful information, and millions of companies are trying to make money by people finding their content, through search engines and increasingly on social media.
This has led to the rise of companies such as Demand Media, which last week listed on New York Stock Exchange to be valued at $1.5 billion, more than the New York Times. Demand Media and its peers such as Associated Content, now owned by Yahoo!, use low-cost writers and sophisticated algorithms to create massive amounts of content tailored to generate revenue from search traffic.
There are also many writing brokers such as TextBroker and The Content Authority that help smaller companies that need web content to improve their search rankings to get copy written, at rates as low as 1.2 cents a word.
I have written about the proliferation of crap content and how search is evolving to deal with the rise of low-quality content. The latest iteration in Google’s search algorithms explicitly address duplicate content. The quest for original content to feed the search engines continues.
The obvious next step is to automate copywriting, further improving the cost-revenue equation for those seeking to attract search traffic.
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It is the structure of social networks that shapes influence… and the structure is changing
By Ross DawsonNew York Times today examines the interesting question of Why Some Twitter Posts Catch On, and Some Don’t, starting from the fact that frivolous hashtags such as #worstpickuplines get far more attention than commentary on current affairs such as ‘Mubarak’, and going on to look at a range of research on influence.
The article quotes research which implies what I and a handful of others have been saying for quite a years now.
My Influence Landscape from 2009 shows the key elements of influence, including a section on ‘Influence Networks’ showing the elements of social network structure that drive the dissemination of influence.
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Context is king: what it means for brands
By Ross DawsonI have always been wary of the phrase ‘content is king’ and the kinds of people who say that, usually in self-aggrandisement.
The rise of Apple iTunes has, with all the grace and elegance of a sledgehammer, amply demonstrated that it ain’t necessarily so.
In an article on CNBC titled The New King: Context!, Nicholas Scibetta of Ketchum has reviewed the shift from the dominance of content to the prominence of context, including a reference to my recent article on the rise of contextual search.
Scibetta’s focus is the impact on brands. He writes:
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What is possible: how the social enterprise drives differentiation
By Ross DawsonI recently gave a presentation to an internal team tasked with re-envisaging the intranet for a large corporation. I was impressed that they had brought together around 40 managers and executives from across the company to spend two days thinking in a very open format about what internal communication could and should be like, and how to create that.
I was brought in at the start of their workshop to provide a compelling vision, being given the title of “The Art of the Possible”. As such I gave a big picture view of how our increasingly networked world is changing organizations, spent some time on the vision of what a better-connected company can be and can achieve, and wrapped up with some of the realities to recognize in achieving the grand vision.
While there are many perspectives on the specific benefits possible from building the social enterprise (see for example my chapter on Key Benefits and Risks in Implementing Enterprise 2.0), at the highest level this is about the ability to differentiate your organization.
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Review of Tibbr social enterprise platform – keynote at Sydney launch on February 8
By Ross DawsonThe launch last week in San Francisco of Tibbr, the social enterprise computing platform from TIBCO, attracted an immense amount of attention from the leading commentators in the space. The offering is not directly comparable to any existing enterprise social software suites, and draws on TIBCO’s strong integration heritage to create an offering that works fully across an organization’s activities.
Tibbr global launch events follow in London (yesterday) and in Sydney on February 8 at the Opera House, where I will give the opening keynote on Why social computing will drive organisational success. Here are registration details for the Sydney launch of Tibbr next week.
I hope to offer some personal thoughts on the Tibbr platform after the launch event. For now I thought it would be most appropriate simply to review some of the more interesting comments on Tibbr since the launch.
To start, here is an interview by Dennis Howlett of TIBCO’s CEO, Vivek Ranadive. Vivek begins by saying that Tibbr is an extension of the vision he had since he started TIBCO (in 1985).
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What is the future of the IT department?
By Ross DawsonThe future of enterprise technology is a massively important theme, which impacts organizations, vendors, governments, and indeed society at large. Taking each of these perspectives provides a different view on how the space is evolving.
One of the most interesting perspectives is from the very center of the fray: the IT department itself. It needs to deal with the minutiae of technological change as well as the macrotrends shaping organizations and their shifting place in the global economy.
I’ve teamed up with the outstanding strategist Greg Rippon of NetFocus, who I first worked with back in 1999 on a broad-ranging scenario project for a major bank, to create a one-day workshop for IT departments who want to take a structured look at the future and what it implies for their current strategy.
Click on the image for the flyer for the workshop on the future of the IT department.
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Video highlights: keynote on future of global media for Ketchum in New York
By Ross DawsonLast November I gave the keynote at Ketchum’s Global Media Network meeting in New York.
Here is an edited video pulling out some of the key points I made during the keynote.
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Finally I have an answer when people ask what I do! Visualization of our group’s business model
By Ross Dawson[UPDATE May 2013] The original business model below has now been updated and separated into two visuals: New AHT Group Business Model and AHT Group Strategic Overview
For the last 15 years of my life post-employment I have struggled when people ask me what I do. More recently I have managed to crystallize a simple description of myself: Futurist and Entrepreneur. However that doesn’t explain the diversity of my companies’ activities, and how they fit together. In particular people are often confused by the relationship between our primary companies: Advanced Human Technologies, Future Exploration Network, and The Insight Exchange.
A few months ago I started designing a business model diagram to help me conceptualize the relationship between our brands and activities, our scalable and less scalable business models, and our current priorities. While it included a few personal aspirations, I ended up showing it a number of job applicants to help explain what we are doing. I soon realized I needed a public version of our business model. This is what we created.
AHT Group Business model (click on the image for full-size pdf)
Some comments on a few of the features of the business model:
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Narrative Science raises $6m to replace web copywriters with computers. How long until journalism is automated?
By Ross DawsonThe internet can be characterized very simply. Billions of people are looking for interesting and useful information, and millions of companies are trying to make money by people finding their content, through search engines and increasingly on social media.
This has led to the rise of companies such as Demand Media, which last week listed on New York Stock Exchange to be valued at $1.5 billion, more than the New York Times. Demand Media and its peers such as Associated Content, now owned by Yahoo!, use low-cost writers and sophisticated algorithms to create massive amounts of content tailored to generate revenue from search traffic.
There are also many writing brokers such as TextBroker and The Content Authority that help smaller companies that need web content to improve their search rankings to get copy written, at rates as low as 1.2 cents a word.
I have written about the proliferation of crap content and how search is evolving to deal with the rise of low-quality content. The latest iteration in Google’s search algorithms explicitly address duplicate content. The quest for original content to feed the search engines continues.
The obvious next step is to automate copywriting, further improving the cost-revenue equation for those seeking to attract search traffic.
Read more →
Tablet Opportunities for News Publishers: the transformation continues
By Ross DawsonWe see the nexus of the rise of tablets and the transformation of media as one of the most fascinating and important topics today. It continues to be a key focus for us in our client work and own projects.
This week International Newspaper Marketing Association (INMA) released its Tablet Opportunities for News Publishers report, which is free to members and $295 for others. In the report, “dozens of leading news industry executives reveal their up-to-the-minute thinking“.
I was quoted throughout the report, and they also included our iPad Media Strategy Framework, as below, to encapsulate the key themes.
Click on image for full-size pdf
Here are some of my quotes and thoughts included in the report:
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Full video of cloud computing keynote for Telstra Business – Tapping the forces of change
By Ross DawsonA few months ago I did the opening keynote for a national roadshow run by Telstra Business on cloud computing. My big picture piece on Tapping the forces of change was followed by a more detailed presentation by Telstra’s CTO Hugh Bradlow.
It’s taken a little while to get up, but here is a complete video of my 25 minute keynote speech for those who are interested.
If you’d just like to read some of what I covered in the keynote, you can read an article on Six steps to success in a world driven by cloud computing which summarizes some of my messages.