I liked the links that you sent to me, so I decided to create some commentary on them that includes some of our dialogue today. The idea has evolved into a more complex idea that I am calling Podcast-on-Demand. I have also created a category for this idea. Here is a quick summary of what we came to after our discussion today:
Creation of a mobile app platform for an existing Website (i.e. TechCruch Podcast iPhone/gPhone/Blackberry app) that a user could download to their smartphone device. Then the user could run the app and stream an audio version of their blog onto his or her phone. Of course, this would have to include the capabilities of content overview, selective playback, etc. There are several new ad placement programs for app developers now that could streamline the advertising integration to monetize this. A website could also pay us for the service of creating this product for their business.
As the future becomes the present, I find that the trend is becoming the need for information on demand. The ability to download and access the information you want, wherever you are at, anytime of the day. This holds true to not just webpages, but for audio and video content. My takeaway here is that blogging, podcasting, videocasting, etc by themselves cannot create a business model anymore. They are now just tools used to create a brand and awareness of a business. The question is, can our podcasting idea create a logical extension of a business that creates an added value or visibility for the business?
It’s an evolution towards choices. If you’re out to start a popular online show, you can’t just make an audio version – you’re going to fall by the wayside. But we’re busy people and can’t be at our computers all day, especially when we travel, so having the simple iPod audio option is essential as well. Hell, nearly every podcaster told me that a successful podcast needs a successful and consistent blog. That’s another medium of relaying information.
Being able to offer your viewers, listeners, and readers multiple options to take in your work, your opinions, your interviews, and your personality is becoming more and more apparent. You need to complement your video show with not only podcasts and blog posts, but live streams, twitter conversations, and even mobile video. Think about how many sources you have for your news – TV, blogs, newspapers, magazines, RSS feeds, and email lists just to start. Why wouldn’t podcasts and videocasts be the same?
So podcasting is far from obsolete – it’s just become an integral part of larger campaigns to reach current and new users. In the end, it’s about engaging your audience. But since users take in information from different sources and different mediums, the best podcasters and videocasters must do the same and spread their message across multiple platforms.
In the second link I liked the authors attempt to guess what Web 3.0 and 4.0 would be. It would essentially be an aggregator for lifefeeds. With blogging, micro-blogging, etc becoming more and more common, there is simply too much information being thrown at everyone, all the time. It’s hard to sort through what is relevant and what isn’t. A perfect example of this is my Facebook account. I have had one for a while but I only actually started using it the end of the summer (around August). At that point, I had around 30 friends. When I logged on, I could see what they were up to. Now, I have close to 200 friends listed, and when I log in, I get bombarded with all kinds of updates, most of which are not important or relevant. So I have to scan through and see what is of value and what is not. I can only see this getting more and more complex as time goes an and people find more stuff to share with everyone else.
So I humbly submit to you this concept: Web 4.0.
If Web 2.0 is the rounded corners and the Internet as a platform, and Web 3.0 is seamless integration of the various tools built on the platform, Web 4.0 must be algorithmic incorporation of that data into something useful.
Let me paint a picture.
I’m updating my daily activities with regularity on Twitter. I’ve got the TV going on the side, occasionally tagging bits of shows. I’m listening to podcasts. I’m making podcasts. I’m commenting on blogs. I’m writing my own blog posts. I’m sharing items in my feed reader. All of these things generate some sort of XML/RSS stream. A Tumblr/Lifestream/Mini-Feed style service combines this all into a single feed of some kind.
Then that feed gets shoved into a service that is able to sort items by topic, and aggregate them by tag, and provide those who still wish to provide substantive commentary topics and starting points to blog. Some of the article could even be partially pre-written, leaving me with the fun part, writing the analysis (instead of retracing my steps of research and info-gathering to support a point). This mythical thing has the ability to go back in my archives and analyze my writing style (in theory), so it should be able to piece these starter blog posts together using my vernacular, and pull the bits of ideas, tags, media, and such that I’ve consumed and organized for the day and group them.
This is one option. The final output doesn’t need to be blog posts. A sufficiently advanced set of routines with enough B-Roll could theoretically create video pieces, as well, montaging together the various bits of media I’ve consumed and created throughout the day.
The bottom line is, though, extensively documenting everything about our lives down to the micro-status level is great and all, but unless we’ve got something aside from a series of “stuck in traffic…” tweets and links to other’s blogs and video, it isn’t particularly useful or entertaining when it has been taken to its logical Web 3.0 conclusion.
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Sources:
http://mashable.com/2008/08/17/new-media-expo/
http://mashable.com/2007/11/06/blogging-is-dead-long-live-blogging/
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While I was reecouping (and still am) from LASIK, I have not been able to read. For some reason, I am having extreme difficulty focusing on anything upclose with my left eye, which makes me really dizzy when I try to read for more than 5 minutes at a time. Anyway, before my surgery, I got online and was looked for some podcasts, books on tape, etc that I could listen to while I was resting. I didn’t find a whole lot that interested me, granted I am not sure I looked in the right places to find good podcasts. One source that I use somewhat regularly is the audio edition of The Economist magazine. They offer a free audio edition (the entire magazine in digital audio format) to subscribers. I used to have a subscription to the magazine, but didn’t renew because of the cost, but for some reason, I can still access the audio editions. It is nice because I can listen to them on my iPhone at my convenience. The challenge is that I have to first download the audio files manually on my computer, and then transfer them over to my iPhone, which is a cumbersome process. Is there a better way?
IdeaFLITE 
The growing significance of FREE software
Posted in News & Commentary, Podcast-on-Demand, tagged open source software on November 18, 2008| Leave a Comment »
The word “free” holds more significance than ever in today’s market conditions. Users want free software and entertainment, businesses want free solutions to tech related issues. I just read an article about how free (as well as cheap) software is becoming more and more of a consideration to businesses, large and small. Here is an excerpt:
As the U.S. enters what appears likely to be a painful recession, a major shift is taking place in how businesses assess technology products. They’re under terrific pressure to cut costs. According to a newly revised forecast from market researcher IDC, growth in U.S. tech spending will decline to 0.9% in 2009, down from a previous forecast of 4.9% growth. But rather than just slice budgets across the board, many companies are switching to a handful of new technologies that save them money.
These technologies existed during the last recession, but they were immature. Now they’re established, and the downturn seems likely to hasten their adoption. Chief among them are software delivered over the Internet, known as cloud computing, such as Google Apps; so-called virtualization software, which allows companies to run multiple applications on a single server computer; and open-source software, which is created collaboratively by multiple companies and is typically less expensive than the traditional kind. “These are tools that management can use to get through a crisis,” says Michael Hickey, president of the Business Insight Div. of Pitney Bowes in Stamford, Conn., who just bought software from on-demand supplier Salesforce.com.
You may ask, well how much can this save a company? Here is a good example:
The outlook for retailing may be dicey, but Gothic Cabinet Craft, a furniture chain with 40 stores in New York and New Jersey, has one variable under tight control: tech spending. It just installed a new computer system equipped with Google (GOOG) Apps, a collection of software, including e-mail and word processing, that runs on a Google data center rather than on Gothic’s gear. The cost: just $32,000 for the new PCs and zero for Google Apps. The alternative was shelling out more than $100,000 for computers and Microsoft (MSFT) software. “We wouldn’t have been able to do anything if the Google service wasn’t available,” says Aristidis Zaharopoulos, the company’s vice-president.
The chain is among the more than 1 million companies using Google Apps. Large companies are on board, too, including Genentech (DNA), with 17,000 employees. Many customers pay nothing, while others spend $50 a year per user for advanced features. This strategic shift could alter the competitive landscape of the tech world. Among the vulnerable are leaders such as Microsoft and Germany’s SAP (SAP), a maker of software for corporations. Potential gainers include Google, Salesforce.com (CRM), and VMware (VMW), the top maker of virtualization software.
Cheap or free software solutions is becoming more and more appealing. WordPress and Google Apps allowed me to initially set up this site for next to nothing besides my time. The only cost to maintain this site is monthly hosting, which is negligible. Business are taking a good look at cheap or free software alternatives, especially when the software can increase productivity. This may be something we keep in mind as we are brainstorming new projects including the Podcast-on-Demand idea. A free or low-cost solution for providing a new media source for consumers may appeal to existing business during this economic downturn.
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Sources:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_47/b4109036621833.htm?link_position=link4
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