Online Social Networking & Business Collaboration World – Rebekah Horne

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I’m at Day One of Online Social Networking & Business Collaboration World, where I’m chairing the plenary sessions and enterprise streams.

Other posts:

RIchard Kimber, CEO of Friendster, presentation

Francisco Cordero, GM Australa, Bebo, presentation

CEO panel

Paul Slakey, Google

Enterprise stream – Part 1

Enterprise stream – Part 2

Ross Ackland, Deputy Director, World Wide Web Consortium

Laurel Papworth, Director and Social Networks Strategist, World Communities

Paul Marshall, CEO, Lassoo.com.au

Government stream – part 1

Government stream – Part 2

The Law meets Web 2.0

Conference Twitter stream

Partner event: Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum on 24 February 2009

Rebekah Horne, Fox Interactive Media

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The steady shift to an RSS-based universe

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The Guardian is now providing full-text RSS feeds.

Let’s dig into why this is important, and an indicator of one of the broadest shifts happening in the information landscape.

Over the last few years RSS has shifted from a geek-thing that required explanation, to the point where most people have an RSS reader of some type on their desktops. As people go to more and more information sources, it becomes highly inefficient to visit to them separately, while an RSS readers allows all of your selected information sources to be found in the one place.

Currently virtually every professional publisher provides partial feeds, meaning that if you subscribe to their news feeds in an RSS reader you only get an excerpt or the beginning of the article, and you have to click through to the publishers’ website to read the article. For some years there has been a vigorous debate on whether publishers should provide full or partial feeds. Professional publishers have almost always chosen to direct readers back to their sites, where they can ply them with advertising and make money.

The Guardian is in fact the first major newspaper in the world to provide full-text feeds, according to the Google Reader team.

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ABC Radio: Peer-to-peer file sharing and the future of the media

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Today’s ABC Media Report featured a special report on peer-to-peer file sharing and its impact on media. The program provided an overview of the history of peer-to-peer content sharing, starting from Napster and its legal travails, moving on to Kazaa, BitTorrent, online video distribution and the situation today, and how it is impacting the music, video and media industries. The report can be downloaded as a podcast (note that the peer-to-peer piece is only on the download, not the stream).

In between various industry lobbyists, lawyers and musicians, I was interviewed as a “futurist,” describing how video content is increasingly being distributed over the Internet and digital channels, and how content providers now have a choice on whether they distribute through traditional broadcast and cable television, or directly to their audience.

I was also quoted on some of the ideas that were contained in the Future of Media Report 2008, on how the media and entertainment industry is likely to quadruple in size over the next 20-25 years, and on the continuing drive to fragmentation that is challenging the industry. I continue to believe that there are major opportunities for those content providers that position themselves effectively in the current extraordinary transformation in content distribution.

Living Networks – Chapter 8: Next Generation Content Distribution – Creating Value When Digital Products Flow Freely

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Download Chapter 8 of Living Networks on Next Generation Content Distribution

Every chapter of Living Networks is being released on this blog as a free download, together with commentary and updated perspectives since its original publication in 2002.

For the full Table of Contents and free chapter downloads see the Living Networks website or the Book Launch/ Preface to the Anniversary Edition.

Living Networks – Chapter 8: Next Generation Content Distribution

Creating Value When Digital Products Flow Freely

OVERVIEW: In a hyper-connected world digital products flow freely, unless safeguards are put in place. Providers of content – including entertainment and high-value information – must balance protection and promotion to maximize value. All content industries are in a state of massive flux, and evolutionary strategies are required to succeed in this time of transition.

Chapter 8 of Living Networks – Commentary and updated perspectives

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Peak of Australian Twitter use was at Future of Media Summit 2008

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Hitwise has just released statistics on Twitter usage in Australia, showing that Twitter usage is up over 500% over the last year. More interestingly, Australia’s share of Twittering globally has more than tripled in that time. It should also be noted that people increasingly use mobiles and Twitter clients such as Twhirl, so Hitwise would not be seeing this traffic, suggesting that the increase in usage is probably significantly greater than the figures they’re reporting.

Of particular interest is that Twitter’s peak of usage in Australia was at the time of the Future of Media Summit 2008, on July 15. This isn’t that surprising given the very strong use of Twitter at and beyond the Summit (see Twitter posts tagged #fom08), and the many people who commenced Twittering at the event.

Certainly other more recent events in Australia (for example today’s Web Directions South #wds08) are likely to have more Twitter usage than the Future of Media Summit, however that is on the back of a significant increase in the local Twitter population since then. It’s certainly great to see that the Future of Media Summit got such great Twitter uptake, especially since the event covered the entire media landscape, not just social media, and many attendees were from traditional media and unlikely to ever Twitter.

Thanks for the reference from the blog of social media strategist and Twitterer extraordinaire Laurel Papworth!

Also see the original release from Hitwise for more interesting insights, such as the fact that Twitter delivers 10x more traffic to financial institution websites than it did a year ago, suggesting that Twitterers are saying either nice or bad things about banks.

Summary and notes from AIMIA event: Social media and user generated content

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This morning I moderated an AIMIA event on social media and user generated. It was extremely interesting. In the interests of getting this review up I’ll just post very lightly edited notes that I took during the event – you’ll have to make sense of them yourselves. Full details on the event here.

Forum agenda:

• Professional media vs. User generated content

• Social networking vs. Social Media

• The future of Social Networking

Social media and user generated content

Speakers:

Francisco Cordero, General Manager, Australia and NZ at Bebo Inc

Michela Ledwidge, Managing Director, MOD Films

Dominique Hind, General Manager, Mark.

Andrew Cordwell, Director of Sales, Fox Interactive Media

Moderated by:

Ross Dawson, Chairman, Future Exploration Network

Summary thoughts

What struck me the most was how richly the exact topic of social media and user generated content was addressed. What can be seen as buzzwords ended up being precisely about how users created and engaged with increasingly professional content, primarily video, in a social network context. In fact Bebo explicitly describes itself as social media rather than a social network, as it has shifted over the last year or so to be primarily a forum for rich video content.

I have long been deeply interested in crowdsourcing of movie-making (content and funding), having written before about the future of documentaries, A Swarm of Angels and similar topics. I found what Michela Ledwidge of MOD films had to say fantastically interesting – she is clearly on the leading edge of this. The name of her company comes from how mods are the foundation of the gaming industry, with users increasingly coming up with the latest modifications that make the games they play even more interesting. She wants to apply the same idea to films. I had already come across most of the things she mentioned, but not IndieGogo, a crowdsourcing site for independent film-making, a social network that creates extraordinary things by bringing together resources. While I know Blender, the open source 3D animation tool, and in fact spent a Saturday playing with it once, I didn’t know they’ve created completely open source films (animations) that anyone can pull apart and recreate any way they want. These are Pixar-quality films that anyone can modify or work on. I find that extraordinary.

Overall social networks are becoming places for rich content creation, and that’s a great thing. They are also absolutely where people will go to and find content. Content exists in social networks. It’s alive, or should be, and in a way social networks and content are one of the best combinations there is, tapping latent creativity among and between us.

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Media is becoming everything

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Photon Group, in their annual results presentation today (Revenue up 94% to A$376m, Net Profit up 33% to A$21.7m – go to ASX to download FY2008 Annual Results) used three quotes to support their “media neutral, consumer driven “ strategy:

“The current agency model, producing marketing programs built around 30 second television ads, is no longer relevant for today’s business environment”

Tony Palmer, Chief Marketing Officer for Kimberly Clark

“Today almost every business and social activity is a form of media. An increasing proportion of our social interactions happen across media channels”

Ross Dawson, Chairman of Future Exploration Network

“We will spend our marketing funds where the consumer will be and that is changing rapidly”

Craig Herbison, General Manager, Brand and Communication for Vodafone Australia

The quote from me is taken from the introduction to our Future of Media Report 2008, which has been getting a fantastic amount of attention globally since its launch in July.

I have spoken and written before about how media is beginning to encompass almost everything in the economy (for example in my speech on Enterprise 2.0 at KMWorld in Silicon Valley last year). I think it’s worth reviewing the first paragraph of the Future of Media Report 2008 below. I believe this view is central to how media, business, and society will unfold over coming years.

We are entering the media economy. The traditional boundaries of the media and entertainment industry have become meaningless. Today almost every business and social activity is a form of media. An increasing proportion of our social interactions happen across media channels. Every organization is now a media entity, engaged in creating and disseminating messages among its staff, customers, and partners to achieve business objectives. As the physical economy becomes marginalized and economic value becomes centered on the virtual, media encompasses almost everything.

Seven Driving Forces Shaping Media

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I earlier posted the Seven Driving Forces Shaping Media framework below, which was one of the frameworks included in our Future of Media Report 2008. However the framework is designed to cover an A3 sheet, so while it looks great in the printed copy of the report it can be hard to read on a screen. In addition many people don’t click through to pdfs. So I’ve posted this content in a blog-friendly and more readable format below.

Seven Driving Forces Shaping Media (pdf 700KB):

7drivingforces.jpg

Since the event I’ve heard that the seven driving forces have been used in a range of presentations inside organizations and at conferences, and also in some executive strategy sessions. Before I created the visual summary of the trends I’d used them in a variety of client offsites and found they were useful in framing strategic thinking, all of which suggests it’s worth providing these again in a more accessible format.

If you like this framework, also see our Future of the Media Lifecyle Framework and Future of Media: Strategy Tools framework.

SEVEN DRIVING FORCES SHAPING MEDIA

1. Increasing Media Consumption

mediaconsumption_500w.jpg

Humans are intrinsically media animals. As we get greater access to media and content, we are discovering that our appetite for information and entertainment is virtually insatiable. It is commonplace for people of all ages to consume multiple media at the same time, with television, internet, newspaper, messaging, and other media frequently overlapping.

Implications:

Average total media consumption will exceed waking hours. Most media will be consumed with partial attention. Advertising impact will decrease.

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How smaller countries and regions can develop their film and screen industries – 5 key issues

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One of the issues that I am increasingly shifting my attention to is how smaller developed economies compete in an intensely connected global economy. For example, in different sectors Ireland, Finland, Israel, and Singapore have had significant success in shifting their economic structure. While the large economies of US, Japan, and Western Europe as well as the emerging BRIC giants face their own issues, there are a particular set of challenges for smaller countries or regions. In addition to the general drivers of economic success in a hyper-connected world, there are a range of specific issues within industries, particularly in the media and technology sectors.

The Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development in the Australian state of Victoria recently commissioned an independent review of the screen industry in the state, which goes through to a proposed vision for the future of the industry in the state. Beyond this specific initiatives will be established. The review was performed by consulting firm Nous Group, and I was an ‘Expert Advisor’ on the review. The Screen Industy value chain (as below) on page 14 of the report was developed based on some of my thinking, including my Future of Media Strategic Framework.

VSIRframework_500w.jpg

The Victorian Screen Industry Review can be downloaded, and makes for some very interesting reading.

Below is a summary of the key trends identified in the report across sectors, followed by five key issues raised by the report.

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ABC Interview: Google as an advertising aggregator

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I have said for many years that the best way to understand Google is as an advertising aggregator (I would argue that even with its diversification over the last few years). Building on its successful search engine, it has sold ads that are served both on its search results, and also on a broad array of non-Google sites, initially through its AdSense program. It has for some years also sold advertising for delivery on radio, television, and newspapers. This was described in our Future of Media Strategic Framework which appeared in the Future of Media Report 2006.

Back in March I was interviewed by the ABC’s Media Report program about Google and Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo! at the time. While some of the interview topics are a bit dated now, much of it is still relevant, including my description of Google’s role in the media landscape. I’ll expand on this in another post soon.

You can read the transcript on the ABC site and below (note that there are some errors in the transcript).

Antony Funnell: Now let’s stay with search engines for a little bit longer, and look at the business manoeuvrings of some of the big players. Google last week announced it’s beefing up its presence in Australia with a new headquarters, and it’s seeking to grow in a whole range of areas. It’s also announced that it’s successfully acquired internet advertising firm DoubleClick.

Meanwhile, in another online universe, Microsoft appears to be still actively stalking the second-tier search engine company Yahoo. What’s it all about? Well let’s ask Ross Dawson. Ross is a communication strategy consultant and chairman of the Future Exploration Network.

Ross Dawson: It’s important to understand that Google is not just a search engine, and that it is in fact, more than anything else, an aggregator of advertising. What it does is it goes to advertisers and says, ‘We can present information about you, not just on our own search engine, but also on many, many other websites’.

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