Toy? Fad? Time and circumstances will tell.

I was sparked to throw this together after getting a short message from Tom Altman about a tweet he spotted from @mattyoungblut.  Here is the text of the message:

Never really used Twitter for my news until today. Been following the Parkersburg tragedy. Awful.

In case you are not locally tuned in to Iowa news, a storied football coach, mentor and community pillar, Ed Thomas, was murdered this morning in the high school weight room.  Let’s just say it has left the collective community of those who knew him or knew of him utterly stunned.  So, it is basically big news around here today.  Everyone media outlet from here to about a 300 miles radius has descended on the story and, in many cases, the town of Parkersburg, leaving no shortage of coverage outlets.  It is interesting that a relatively new user to Twitter is using it to follow what will probably be one of the dominant stories for the week.  Roll back just a few weeks and remember how Twitter was employed as a information tool inside and outside of Iran.  All the way from the international stage to regional/local news, it seems Twitter has overcome some nay-saying “experts” and their dismissal of it as just a toy or a fad.  It appears possible it might not have been Twitter that needed to grow up, but us as a community of users.

It is eerily similar to the debate that existed in the early 90’s about that silly “www” stuff and commentary about home computers.  Yeah, remember how that stuff has turned out so far?

“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.”
- Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp

“But what… is it good for?”
- IBM executive Robert Lloyd, speaking in 1968 about the microprocessor

“I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won’t last out the year.”
- Editor in charge of business books, Prentice Hall, 1957

iWhatever: Mobile H/W doesn’t matter

 

Image by KhE 龙 via Flickr

We’ve all been through the mobile phone hysteria.  Car phones, DynaTACs (if you don’t remember them, be glad), flip phones, color screens, cameras, keyboards, and on it goes.

 

I read an article by Mike Elgan in CIO.com with some joy and relief.  To say he drags the iPhone through a bit of muck would be appropriate, but the iPhone hardware hype isn’t his real target.  His premise is concise, simple and inarguably true:

What’s important now is software. And networks.

 

Image by marcopako  via Flickr

If the clarity of his message doesn’t ring true, perhaps knowing that even Apple seems squarely in agreement might sway your opinion.  We have all been subjected to that phrase so closely associated with the iPhone, “there’s an app for that.”  That’s Apple’s own words…see the connection?  Even they get it.

 

I’m not saying Mike is a seer or he is heralding a new age of mobile computing enlightenment, but his message effectively parallels the maturation of the consumer-level market.  If you’ve been around the block long enough, you easily remember the days of hardware obssession (yes, I was once king of the world because I had a whoppingly massive 20 MB of disk storage, a 2.4 modem and enough RAM to host a Wildcat BBS site).  Computer hardware is still important, but the consumer has matured to see PC hardware as an enablement feature, not as the end game.  Eventually we will stop seeing our mobile devices as phones that can do other things and see them just as part of a converged network of services (voice, video and data).

Geek turned publisher explains crowdsearch success

 

Image by *bene* via Flickr

I bumped into a nice article about Tim O’Reilly, the man behind the series of  zoo-ish themed books on technology topics.  These are generally familiar to the  die-hard geeks or terminally techno-deficient folks and have been one of favorite sources for comprehensive studies into very discrete aspects of computing.  They are definitely NOT competitors for the “Dummies” crowd…you really want to read, learn and apply your knowledge if you are picking up an O’Reilly publication, as opposed to being spoon-fed.  Okay, so I like their books – I’ll cease my accolades for them.  (for now)

 

Pulling back to the article, I keyed in on several items.  O’Reilly noted that being successful in new media is about serving a community first and making money second.  I know everyone here at Gazette Communications can related to that (although making money is vital to the health of the company).  Steve Buttry, our C3 Coach, lays out a detailed blueprint for community connection.  O’Reilly also notes some interesting observations on Twitter and what I see as his maturation in use of the capability:

“On Twitter, I’m an aggregator and a distribution conduit. I’m trying to built a community.  I cannot cover every topic I’m interested in.  Now I use a text file to write the tweet and then decide later whether I’m going to tweet it.”

I find that interesting because this is a person who has a more than normal amount of experience doing crowdsearch (research by way of collaboration with a loosely defined crowd).  He is mapping his successful tactics in compiling extremely useful technology publications by way of crowdsearch to new tools and new participants in the arena.  I can only take it as an unintended endorsement of the C3 concept for news.

ViewPass just another paywall

Still tracking the trail of paywalls and other schemes for charging for content (mostly out of curiousity…sort of like watching a demolition derby), this explanation came to my attention from Chuck Peters. 

The falacy of print news believing any form of a paywall (and, yes, ViewPass is just another form of a paywall) would provide long-term encouragment to consumers to fork over their money is so apparent.  I won’t repeat myself here, but I will make the prediction that the average consumer will care no more or less about ViewPass as they would if newspaper made the collective decision to erect their own individual paywalls. Ladies and gentlemen, it is the exact same effect on the consumer – that being money out of their pocket for something that was free and, GASP!, will still be free on plenty of other non-newspaper sites.  Call it what you want, band together like a bunch of dodo birds, but it is still a pay wall and it is short-sighted.  Face it, the consumers have allies in this situation and they take the form of all the television news sites, the independent news sites (including some newspapers), and a host of new aggregation services.  Your flanks are exposed and, no matter what you call your defensive tactics, your are already in enfilade.  Doubt me?  Ask the telephone companies about the measurable bit broadband telephone has taken out of their revenue pies and then ask yourself why the consumers have taken that path.  Hint: believing your hold an audience hostage when you do not.

So, here it is – my prediction.  A pay wall will go up and it might be called ViewPass or just Bill.  It matters little because it will only go down in history as the self-chosen cyanide through which a large number of newspapers killed themselves.

 

GazComm Tech Team challenge: escape!

Maybe this isn’t the best forum, but I wanted to hang this out for the entire Tech team at Gazette Communications to ponder.  The goal: stop paying for hugely overpriced MS licenses, get out of the hardware lifecycle business and do so with an standards-based, open architecture that, ideally, is underpinned by APIs and/or open source.  This isn’t as easy as declaring we will just use GMail.  Think harder and deeper – GMail functionality might be just one possible piece.

Here’s some mental water to prime the pump:
1) Watch the Google Wave video:

2) Visit Zimbra: http://www.zimbra.com/

That’s definitely not the end of the possible futures out there. Cast your mind, be creative, be insightful and, most importantly, be expressive by commenting and sharing.

Mental image of newspaper industry

 

Image via Wikipedia

There is no real point to this post beyond relating a mental image that arose today as I was speaking with one of team members, Todd, about the need for speed and care at the same when it comes to investing in IT to support our C3 efforts. 

 

I found myself, at one point, internally chuckling at this image of a guy on an escalator.  Yeah, big deal, right?  You are thinking of a guy riding up on the escalator, perhaps leaning on the handrail in a bit of a carefree manner and enjoying the view as he steadily ascends to the next level.  Anyone getting this yet?  Anyway, the vision I had was of a guy trying to get to the next floor on an escalator going DOWN.  Oh, and he wasn’t running and he was not even walking…just standing there acting cool and showing no apparent interest in the undeniable fact he was going down.  Fast forward to the point at which he is physically scraped off his step by the bottom of the escalator and you get to the Stooges-esque conclusion of the image.  Maybe it’s not that funny the way I described it, but I would hope a few understand the message in this.

P.S. I love that photo – escalators at the DC Metro station in Rosslyn.  Yes, it is a long ride!

What’s black and white and evolving?

Image via Wikipedia

 It has been near impossible to miss the onslaught of information recently about secret newspaper meetings, strong opinions on paying for content and the undeniable pressure on the media industry, particularly newspapers.  I was honored to participate in a conversation this past weekend that likely ranks as the #1 most engaging dialogue I’ve had this year.  Of course, I’m a techno-geek by trade, but I keep my head out of the keyboard quite often enough to listen and learn about the industry.  That doesn’t make me an expert…quite the opposite.  I certainly not gifted for crafting editor-proof prose nor am I astute at the business end of newspapers.  I struggle to capture bits and pieces (notice I didn’t say “bytes”) wherever and whenever I can, often times resorting to analogies and metaphors in mind to create a lasting impression.  One such impression is apparently not complete, because it keeps resurfacing and spurring me on to learn more.  It has sent my mind off on some tangents with the hope of finding some context and perspective.  I landed on evolution.  Disclaimer: this implies no position for or against creationism or the Big Bang theory.  It’s just an analogy produced by media industry neophyte.

 

 

Our wonderful world of nature teaches us things all the time.  Notice I didn’t say we learn everything that nature could possibly teach us…just that we do learn some things from nature.  The media industry is and always has been subject to evolution.  Sometimes a meteor accelerates the process in the blink of an eye, sometimes it is the slow creep of a polar ice cap over several centuries.  Nature clearly teaches us that evolution happens by a variety of causal factors and speeds.  Newspapers have end-of-the-spectrum forces right now in play.  The slow creep factor is the generational dynamics of today’s youth and young adults being less avid readers of print products.  Deny it and you are a fool.  The blink of an eye factor is the recent economic downturn.  Deny that and I want the name of your financial advisor!  It’s important to note that nature teaches us that while evolution is most often exhibited by the examination of a species over time, it must be put into the context of an ever-changing environment.  This context is usually the key to understanding the actual changes in the species.  How else are you going to explain a horse with black and white stripes?  Just call it a zebra and be done with it?  Maybe the black and white stripes cause confusion with certain predators?  Closer.  Guess what?  Lions are color blind…it is the pattern that is the key to that characteristic, not the colors.  Don’t ask me how in blazes it happened; I don’t know.  An important point of order, though, is that the zebras didn’t have an explicit choice in the matter – it just sort of happened over time.  I submit it likely involved thousands of zebras becoming lion food and maybe we shouldn’t forget that.  This teaches me that the zebras would have been much better off if they would have rapidly prototyped some camoflague schemes, developed some new herd dynamics and tested this all out.  Minus the ability to reason, they were stuck relying on chance, luck, stray DNA mutations and time.  If you doubt the ability for a species to incorporate deliberate changes, you no further to look than America and other developed countries where the average human height has risen several inches over the past couple hundred years.  Diet, exercise, health care and other factors we have deliberately invoked all have spawned semi-localized herds of humans that just tend to grow taller.

Back to newspapers.  Somewhere, somtime down the road of evolution, print newspapers will be no more.  Oh, I fully expect a need for and an industry to gather and package content to some degree, but the economic downturn has accelerated things just a bit.  Let’s not forget that newspapers do not hold a position such that they can band together and expect to rule the content landscape.  There are already too many alternate sources out on the plains to place any long-term hope in a group decision to enforce pay walls.  What’s exciting is that we have the ability to do what the zerbras never could.  We can change ourselves, tinker around with new interaction dynamics and possibly find that right pattern that sustains the species.  Maybe, just maybe, we might be so bold as to consider figurative dental implants so we can turn the tables and start figuratively eating the lions (read: stop being prey).