The Welcome System and the Distance System
February 7th, 2012 by bruno boutotI tried to say things that were true, useful, elegant and memorable.
Jay Rosen #
Summary
The original objective was to research why traditional media haven’t found obvious revenue models on the Web. #
The relationship with readers seemed to be different on the Web, but how?
When analyzing how other successful businesses on the Web do it, patterns emerged. Then, patterns of patterns. #
Four new parameters stand out, which are unique to the Web. #
When observed as a group, these parameters structure social interactions on the Web, whether they are content interactions or business interactions. #
We call this new system (for now) the Welcome System. #
Its content model is simply how people interact whenever these four parameters are present.
Its business model is simply how commerce works whenever these four parameters are present. #
The existence of this new system infers that Media and Marketing form a distinct system of their own. We can observe the parameters of this system, like we have done with the Welcome System. #
The parameters of those two systems are so different that the social mechanisms of each system are also radically different. Each system must be operated separately. #
News media wanting to benefit from both systems would have to set up two different operations. #
The Welcome System and the Media and Marketing System currently intermingle on the Web. To clarify how the new Welcome System works, we analyze it by examining its parameters. #
The Four Parameters
We call the four parameters Origin, Proximity, Equality, and Memory. #These parameters are intrinsic to the medium. They are all equally important. #
Origin defines the origin of the action of communication between a media and its users. #
Traditional media consists of packages sent out to consumers. The media are the starting point— the origin of all communication with consumers. On a website, however, mass media aren’t sent out anywhere. The creators just drop the content on a server. And wait. #
On the Web, media websites don’t move. Users go to the media. Websites and their contents are stationary. #
On the Web, in the relationship between a media website and a user, the origin of communication is the user, and only the user. #
Note: News media can reach users via email or social sites, but here we are first analyzing the website-user system. #
Proximity defines the distance between a user and a media. #
Traditional media travel long distances in space and in time to reach users. #
When on the Web, users are but a click away. #
For our purposes, we have established one second as the standard for high-speed connection, knowing that it may be faster or slower. In the physical realm, in one second, we can reach out and touch the person in front of us. Thus, when we “click,” the distance, as we perceive it, is only an arm’s length away. #
That’s what Proximity means. When on the Web, users perceive whatever appears on their screen as being an arm’s length away. #
Note that the reverse is not true. Web media are stationary; they cannot cover the distance between website and users. Proximity exists only when a user decides to go to a website. #
Equality defines the level of exchange between a media and a user. #
Traditional media have a fundamentally unequal relationship with each user: on the one hand, a huge news media, on the other, a single user. #
When on the Web, a user has exactly the same means of communication as any mass-media outlet: whether that media uses text, images, sounds or video, any user has the same tools and the same power. #
This is not new. We are very familiar with other symmetrical media such as the telegraph, the fax machine and the telephone: both parties use exactly the same tools, with the same range of expression when sending and receiving information. #
Equality can also be called Media Equivalence or Communication Symmetry: the user always feels on an equal basis with whatever appears on the computer screen. #
When on the Web, users perceive any exchange via the interface as a one-to-one exchange. #
Memory defines the space and expands the time available to the media. #
Memory Space: For traditional media, space is at a premium; print media has a limited number of pages, radio and television shows have a limited number of seconds. That’s why advertising is so expensive; space is a commodity. #
On the Web, memory space is almost free and almost infinite. Media have as much memory space as they can use. #
On the Web, a media has as much space as it wants. #
Memory Time: Traditional media exist in linear time. They deliver discrete packages, sent out at regular intervals. #
On the Web, memory space gives us infinite time to display the past and the present without interruption; time frames are individually controlled by the user. #
On the Web, a media flows continuously, past and present content merge seamlessly. #
On the Web, all our content is available as long as we want. #
A Tale of Two Systems
These four parameters, or conditions, have been observed—in online communities and marketplaces especially—by several authors. #When only individuals are involved, these four conditions are sufficient to describe all the processes taking places in fledgling communities and marketplaces: individuals going to a place where their one-to-one exchanges are being recorded and searchable. #
These observations lead to the consideration of the four parameters as structural parameters of a system that can exist on its own, one that is independent from what we have known until now. #
Any new website that would be structured by the four parameters could be described as a place that doesn’t move, which has limitless memory space, and where people have one-to-one exchanges up close. #
In short, this system hosts exchanges between individual users in one place. So we are calling it — for now —the Welcome System. #
Viewed from here, all traditional media and marketing seem to operate in another world. They all operate over distances; they all reach statistical groups of people. #
Viewed from the Welcome System, all media and marketing seem to belong to another system, whether they use print, broadcasting or the Web. #
Since all media and marketing operate over distances, we are calling this system— at least for now— the Distance System. #
Reaching anonymous people across long distances has nothing in common with hosting individuals in one place: it doesn’t operate in the same ways, it doesn’t need the same infrastructure, it doesn’t have the same social mechanisms. #
Of course, the Distance System is not necessary nor does it work when individuals communicate up close: we don’t hold content or an ad in front of people who are only an arm’s length away. We talk to them. #
There is no direct continuity between the Distance System mechanism and the mechanism of the Welcome System. #
The Welcome System is not an extension of the Distance System, therefore is not an extension of marketing nor is it an extension of traditional news media. #
Think of this limited metaphor: in the same way, a hotel is not an extension of a plane. The mechanisms for creating the two are completely different. A single company can own an airline and a hotel chain, and have them work in synergy. But the two operations are based on completely different and independent mechanisms: we don’t build planes with concrete. #
The Welcome System and the Distance System cannot be built and operated as a single operation because they are totally different processes requiring totally different mechanisms. #
The four parameters (Proximity, Origin, Equality, Memory) have consequences beyond the world of news media. But this is where we are working. So the Welcome System has consequences related to the readers’ identity, news making, the readers’ participation, relationships, freemium, trust, design, commercial transactions and local opportunities. #
We already have templates for hosting social exchanges in the Welcome System, that is, online communities for content exchanges and marketplaces for commercial exchanges. Of course, they would have to be adapted to news media operations. #
But for now, the existence of the Welcome System helps us to understand the difficulties that traditional media have on the Web in regards to their relationships with readers and their search for a new business model. #
Such a relationship and such a business model, if they are in the Welcome System (and they are), are not in continuity with the Distance System. We can’t create a welcoming place for readers as an extension of the Distance System: we can’t build a community at the end of news media. Sending a packaged product outside a newsroom is completely different from hosting exchanges inside our platform. We have to create a place specifically designed for welcoming and registering members in person. #
In the same way, we can’t create a marketplace for individuals as an extension of the marketing operations of our advertisers. They all operate in the Distance System. In the Welcome System, we have to provide an environment where our members feel welcome to build trust among each other and to have commercial exchanges. #
Communities and marketplaces are strange animals for media and marketing professionals. This is normal. We have learned and earned everything from the Distance System. But communities and marketplaces are not very complicated: we have 25 years of experience with Web communities, 15 years with Web marketplaces, and numerous tools for both. They are just different from the Distance System. #
And the Distance System will continue. It is the most advanced system for reaching statistical groups of people over distances, evolving toward greater personalization. There will be a next step for the Distance System. But the next step for harnessing the Welcome System is not a step ahead of the Distance System, it’s a step in a new world. #
The Welcome System opens clear horizons for news operations on the Web: it leads to the development of new models for making news and for generating revenue. But to take full advantage of the Welcome System, we have to first set up a specific Welcome platform. The sooner we start, the better. #
Your comments and questions are very welcome. #
Next :
– The Business Model Is Not a Mystery
– 18 Useful Tips for Doing Business with a Welcome Platform
– Outline: A Welcome Community for Making News
– Outline: A Welcome Community for Enabling Commerce #
