Archive for the 'Observations' Category

Why local newsmedia should host a marketplace

Friday, February 6th, 2015

Steve Yelvington says it best: The retail revolution is nothing short of an arms race to accumulate as much information about individual customers as possible. Local media companies can be major winners in the revolution by developing delightful products that help merchants to capture and leverage customer data. If they fail to act, however, they […]

18 Useful Tips for Doing Business with a Welcome Platform

Thursday, April 12th, 2012

The four parameters of the Welcome System (Proximity, Origin, Equality, Memory) apply everywhere on the Internet. They have consequences for every kind of platform. Any business on the Web can use features from the Welcome System. And most do, a little here, a little there, without necessarily thinking about it that way: we can recognize, […]

The Business Model Is Not a Mystery

Thursday, April 12th, 2012

Update: Please note that, following a few questions, a precision has been added: the word “marketplace” has been replaced with “peer to peer marketplace”. Media is the connective tissue of society. Clay Shirky Cognitive Surplus An alternative business model for news is not a mystery. I have been looking for it for fifteen years and […]

The Welcome System and the Distance System

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

I 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 […]

12 | Groundwork | Four Observations: Recapitulation

Saturday, December 31st, 2011

Note: The five posts entitled “Groundwork” were originally written in 2009. See here. . Be a platform. Join a network. For newspapers, that may mean soliciting the public’s assistance in finishing stories. It may mean recruiting and mobilizing the public to report. It may mean setting them up in business. Jeff Jarvis What Would Google […]

11 | Groundwork | Four Observations: Memory

Friday, December 30th, 2011

Note: The five posts entitled “Groundwork” were originally written in 2009. See here. . We hear a lot about Moore’s Law and the doubling of processing capacity, but storage-density’s growth makes the pace of processor improvements look glacial. Cory Doctorow Tracking the astounding pace of digital storage figure 23: Memory of exchanges in a traditional […]

10 | Groundwork | Four Observations: Equality

Thursday, December 29th, 2011

Note: The five posts entitled “Groundwork” were originally written in 2009. See here. . TV is unbalanced – if I own a TV station, and you own a television, I can speak to you, but you can’t speak to me. Phones, by contrast, are balanced; if you buy the means of consumption, you automatically own […]

09 | Groundwork | Four Observations: Origin

Wednesday, December 28th, 2011

Note: The five posts entitled “Groundwork” were originally written in 2009. See here. . Push models treat people as passive consumers whose needs can be anticipated and shaped by centralized decision-makers. Pull models treat people as networked creators who are uniquely positioned to transform uncertainty from a problem into an opportunity. John Hagel and John […]

08 | Groundwork | Four Observations: Proximity

Tuesday, December 27th, 2011

Note: The five posts entitled “Groundwork” were originally written in 2009. See here. . The Internet is a place. It is a weird place in which proximity is determined by interest, rather than a space in which interests are kept apart by distances. It is a place in which nearness defeats distance. David Weinberger The […]

07 | Groundwork | The Web as a Medium: Four Observations

Monday, December 26th, 2011

Note: The five posts entitled “Groundwork” were originally written in 2009. See here. . The relationship of the customer to the business will likely be redefined, not by social media but by a broader set of tools and new contexts for relationship. Jon Lebkowsky Thinking about the future of online marketing Take a truck made […]