MEDIACI
open innovation for transmedia businesses
(Food for thought)
As our information ecosystem evolves, we will see some radical changes take place.
Information spaces will get more niche. We will see this in situations where people direct their attention, but we will also see this in terms of the success of new enterprises. Successful businesses will not be everything to everyone. That's the broadcast mentality. Instead, they will play a meaningful role to a cohort of committed consumers who give their attention because of relevancy.
Topic won't be a given.
To be relevant today requires understanding context, popularity, and reputation. In a broadcast era, we assume that the disseminator organised information because they were a destination. In a networked era, there will be no destination, but rather a network of content and people. So, topic won't be a given. We're already seeing this in streams-based media consumption. When consuming information through social media tools, people consume social gossip alongside productive content, news alongside status updates. Right now, it's one big mess. The key is not going to be to create distinct destinations organised around topics, but to find ways in which content can be surfaced in context, regardless of where it resides.
Consuming to understand, producing to be relevant.
Making content work in a networked era is going to be about living in the streams, consuming and producing alongside "customers". Content creators are not going to get to dictate the cultural norms just because they can make their content available; they are still accountable to those who are trafficking content.
We still need technological innovations.
For example, tools that allow people to more easily contextualise relevant content regardless of where they are and what they are doing, and tools that allow people to slice and dice content so as to not reach information overload. This is not just about aggregating or curating content to create personalised destination sites —this will not work at all-. Instead, the tools that consumers need are those that allow them to get into flow, that allow them to live inside information structures wherever they are, whatever they're doing. The tools that allow them to easily grab what they need and stay peripherally aware without feeling overwhelmed.
Finally, we need to rethink our business plans.
It's quite doubtful that this cultural shift will be paid for by better advertising models. Advertising is based on capturing attention, typically by interrupting the broadcast message or by being inserted into the content itself. Trying to reach information flow is not at all about being interrupted. Advertising does work when it's part of the flow itself. Ads are great when they provide a desirable answer to a search query or when they appear at the moment of purchase. But when the information being shared is social in nature, advertising is fundamentally a disruption.
Figuring out how to monetise sociality is a problem
—but not one new to the Internet.
Think about how we monetise sociality in physical spaces. Typically, it involves second-order consumption of calories. Venues provide a space for social interaction to occur and we are expected to consume to pay rent. Restaurants, bars, cafes… they all survive on this model. But we have yet to find the digital equivalent of alcohol.
Redesigning the information landscape.
As we continue to move from a broadcast model of information to a networked one, we will continue to see redesigns of the information landscape. Some of what is unfolding is exciting, some is terrifying. The key is not be all utopian or dystopian about it, but to recognise what changes and what stays the same. The information age of the 21st century is all about information flow. We-all are setting the tone of the future of information. We-all are looking for this renaissance of media. We are all MEDIACI, working on open innovation for transmedia businesses.
So: Stay hungry. Stay Foolish.
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Peter Mechels
