The Definitive Inspiration Engine for the Creative Community

CLIENT:WHAT CONSUMES MEPROJECT TITLE:INSPIRATION ENGINEDATE:NOVEMBER, 2011

OUR MISSION IS TO BUILD THEDEFINITIVE INSPIRATIONENGINE FOR THE CREATIVECOMMUNITY. 2

WHAT IS ANINSPIRATION ENGINE?YO U D ID N ’ T J U ST PU L L T H A T O UT O F Y OU R AS S D I D Y O U?An inspiration engine puts beauty and brilliance in formand functionality that aid work, not just distraction.An inspiration engine is full of content, but delivered in away that is highly relevant, useful, addictive, andactionable.An inspiration engine doesn’t just support reading, itsupports doing. It helps to unleash more creativity uponthe world.It isn’t your typical blog, or even content aggregator, it’ssomething more – something functional.What follows is a high-level, foolishly ambitious plan tobuild the creative community’s most insanely loved siteon the web. 3

CONTENT FUNCTIONALITYAN INSPIRATION ENGINE ISULTIMATELY AN INNOVATIVEPACKAGING OF THE TWO. 4

CONTENT STRATEGYSTOCKS AND FLOWS 5

What is Flow Content? RE T AIL AR T FANDOMA F LO O D OF B EAUT Y, INSPIRATION, AN D NO VE L TY EN TE RT AINME NT ME DIAFlow content represents your typical daily stream of novelcontent on sites like Buzzfeed or PSFK, often aggregated AUTOM OTIVE FOUND IMAGE Sfrom other sources. Flow content will be the bulk of day- FASHION AR CHITE CT UR Eto-day content on the site published by a handful ofeditors, ranging from topics far and wide. FOOD L IT ER ATURE GAM ESChallenges inherent in Flow Content: L UXUR Y W EB CULTUR E• The social currency of this content is usually short-lived JOURN ALISM STATISTICS (mostly determined by novelty among peers) and the TECHNOL OGY DATA lifespan on most sites ends once it’s fallen off the homepage W ORK PRODU CTIVITY• Sites that compete on ﬂow content typically need to BUSINE SS PL ANNING publish early and often, our challenge is to be as fast or faster than other aggregator sites and to publish often W EB COM PLE XITY on a broad range of creative topics MU SIC DES IGN STRA TE GY• We don’t want to simply amass this content and let it HAC KIN G AND M ORE languish in our archives, we have to ﬁnd ways to make it useful to readers far beyond its publish date 6

Publishing Flow Content SOCIAL FEEDSC R EA TIN G AN ADDIC TIVE READING E X PE R I E N CE AND BLOG RSS• First, we need to ﬁnd a handful of editors that will publish to the site multiple times a day, and we need to S use Percolate’s analysis of feed sources to measure O whether our initial editors have enough topical variety C to avoid homogenous sharing PERCOLATE I A USED BY EACH EDITOR L• Percolate will help our editors in making sharing more S frictionless W H O A R R• We need a way to stop duplicate content from being D I posted P N R G E• We need to preserve that content’s original categories/ S D tags so we can minimize the work we have to do to S A identify content T A• We need a design to handle that incoming content and best show off video/image content WHATCONSUMESME COMMUNITY• We need to track how shared the original content is to value it for our readers 7

BuzzFeed Does Flow • First and foremost, BuzzFeed publishes aBetter Than Most huge amount of fresh content each day, this is a must if we’re to be successful • They’ve created a category system voted on by the community, in a vernacular that’s driven by reaction, not content category (e.g. LOL, cute, win, etc.), we should explore categories like this for our ﬂow content (awe, service, wha?) • The content is presented with social context, how popular it is, how it is being spread, there’s lots of social proof to why you should pay attention • Content is an opportunity for performance, and Buzzfeed asks for reactions, responses, and contributions that are community rated • The design balances easy scanning and yet entices the user to click on stories 8

Stock Content L ON G E R F OR M B RI L L IA N C E W OR T H B O OK MAR KI N G F OR L AT E R Stock content represents long-reads or deep dives on speciﬁc questions or topics. There is usually someSE EKI N G W R I T E R S T H A T AR E A( N): topicality, but the value in the article goes far beyond its reﬂection on current events. Our job is to court writers (likeI C O NO C L AS T W I T H A F OLLOWI NG HuffPo) that will occasionally provide valuable stockE NTE R T AI NE R A N D E D U CAT OR content, writers that represent a wide spectrum of opinions and industries.LO N G F O RM T H I N K E R T HAN C A N E NTICEE V EN T HE M O S T S H O R T FOR M R E ADE R Challenges inherent to Stock content:R A B B I T H O L E D I V E R A N D TOU R GUIDE • In a site dominated by Flow content, Stock can be easilyP U LP I T P R E A C H E R A N D C OMM UNITY overlooked, our design must break Stock content out ofO R G A NI Z ER the time-based deluge of Flow • We need to provide a valuable incentive to Stock content writers to put their content on our platform instead of their own (a larger audience is a good start) • The design of Stock content article pages must entice the reader to dive deep and break out of the short- attention span we may have rewarded with Flow content 9

Publishing Stock ContentC R E AT I N G L O N G- T E R M V AL U E , B O O KM AR KS , SH A R I N G , AN D RE - V IS IT S• Our Stock writers need their bios/photos on the site and our ﬁrst writers need to be of the caliber to attract other writers• Our article pages must be the most legible and engaging experience on the web• We need to drive the use of comments to foster a true dialog with our writers, to make their content even more valuable• We need to work with our writers to identify innovative editorial ideas (e.g. tap two writers to do an open debate on a controversial topic, give them each a day to craft their responses, make it last a week and let people vote on arguments - call it “Head to Head”)• We could give Stock writers access to our editors to pitch ideas and get immediate feedback 10

AWorkingLibrary.comOne of the Most Readable Sites on the Web 11

AtRoundtable.comCreating New Models of Conversation 12

FUNCTIONALITY STRATEGYCREATING UTILITYAND ADDICTION 13

WE NEED INNOVATIVEFUNCTIONALITY THAT WILLELEVATE THE SITE BEYOND ABLOG OR CONTENT PORTAL. 14

FUNCTIONALITY THAT PUTSOUR WEALTH OF CONTENT TOWORK, CREATING VALUEBEYOND DISTRACTION. 15

INTRODUCING:THE INSPIRATION BOARD 16

The Inspiration BoardQ U ICKLY ASSEMBLIN G AND SHARING I N SPI R ATI O N• Purpose: to make our content archive actionable and COMPFIGHT our site more valuable• Desired Outcome: The next innovative product idea facilitated by our tool, inspired by our content, and MEETS made by people in our community• Use Case: a user is working on a project developing mobile tools for health care patients, she opens our MINDMEISTER tool, searches “mobile health care” and is given a stream of content we think is related to those terms (she sorts the content by popularity and social ﬁlters), based on the content she drags into her workspace we MEETS can suggest even more accurate content. She then visually clusters content based on her needs, adding content we may be missing by giving a URL (we then add it to our content archive), and she adds notes to GOOGLE MODERATOR pieces of content. She then invites her co-workers in to her workspace and they begin asynchronously ideating based on the content in front of them and are able to vote and comment on each other’s ideas 17

IN ADDITION TO UTILITY, WESHOULD EXPERIMENT WITHSMALL MECHANISMS THATREFLECT AND REWARDPARTICIPATION. 18

WE HATE THE G WORD.BUT. IF AN ACTION CANMAKE THE USER EXPERIENCEBETTER AND OUR SITE MOREVALUABLE TO THE USER, WESHOULD MAKE THAT ACTIONADDICTIVE AND REWARDING. 19

Making Reading AddictiveT O ID ENT IFY AND RE WARD O UR M OS T AC TI VE VI S I TO R S• Behaviors the site should track and reward for readers: reading pieces of content, commenting, rating other comments, sharing content in social media, we should tick up points in the corner of the site and nudge users to register to claim the points they’ve already accrued• Feedback: give the user better content, show users what topics they read most, how liked their comments are, and a leaderboard of readers and commenters per topic• Rewards: the ability to send in links to the editors, visibility on the site, specialist recognition (content or comments), the ability to be invited to be a community manager, editor, or a stock content author• Future Vision: create community blogs that users have to earn a right to use that editors can scan and decide what to elevate to homepage/category level placement 20

Making Publishing AddictiveTO I D E N T I F Y AN D R E W AR D O UR M O S T A C T IV E E D IT O R S & W RI T ER S• Behaviors the site should track for Editors/Writers: amount of content published per time period, number of saves of that content, number of shares, number of comments, overall score of comments per article• Feedback: all of the above, show which categories are being under nourished by fresh content (nudge the editor to hunt down/share more of it), chart frequency of content with frequency of visits, track comment frequency on stock content with frequency of visits (nudge writers to stay more active)• Rewards: identify favorite editors/writers per content category, elevate editors to writers based on community popularity 21

WARNING FOR THEFUTURE: POINTS ARE ALLFUN AND GAMES UNTIL THEYCREATE UNINTENDEDCONSEQUENCES ANDDISTRACT US FROM OURORIGINAL MISSION. 22

A QUICK NOD TO BUSINESS STRATEGYREINFORCINGTHE NETWORK 23

Ways to Pay for the SiteWithout Serving AdsTH OU S H AL T N OT H A RM T H E US E R ’ S E X PE R I E N CE• Kickstart each phase of the site• Charge for the Inspiration Board once it’s a viable platform, limit free access to 1-2 boards or introduce premium features, charge for the tablet experience as it’s likely to be the most effective and engaging use• Package the Stock content semi-annually and sell as eBook• Job board• Host paid meet-ups, workshops, or full bore conferences centered around unleashing creativity• Make our revenue needs transparent and create donation goals to keep the site ad-free or invite readers to suggest monetization strategies 24

We Must Respect and RewardThe Sites That Keep Us FedB EI N G GO OD W EB CITIZENS AND N OT S PA R K L Y W E B VAMPI R E S• Above all, we have an obligation to the sites that supply our Flow content to not reproduce their content in its entirety and to send our readers their way for the full story• We should also have the ability to block content from a speciﬁc source if that site owner requests it• We should create a list of the top sites we link to and make that visible and transparent, we should also think of ways to promote those site owners (on-site interviews, bios), we could even show which sites are climbing the charts• We should never be satisﬁed with how we reward our favorite sites, we can always do more or be more creative in how we show our appreciation 25

Building a Shared DestinyI N TH E W I L D , O B S CE N E EV E N T W E T U R N A PR OF I T• We believe that participation should be rewarded in kind, with that in mind, we’d like to investigate a Worker’s Co-Op business model, where everyone earns a say and a stake in the future of the business• We need to consider levels of participation, the effort required, the value created, and the stake and say that warrants• We need to reward the development partners willing to take a gamble on our vision as well, and ﬁnd a relationship model that keeps them around and interested to evolve the site based on use• We need to explore liability under this model, especially where copyright and intellectual property are concerned (success on the web usually comes with lawsuits) 26

High Level Steps ForwardT O R EALIZ E THIS CRA ZY DREAM OF O U R S• Recruit initial Editorial team and court Stock Writers• Work with Percolate to build a test environment to evaluate content, design, and ease of use• Find development partner(s) to scope/plan/phase/ attack initial site and Inspiration Board product• Investigate worker’s co-op model and explore compensation rates• Raise any necessary capital to get teams moving, lean heavily on early supporters to pass the collection plate• Focus on site mechanics, feedback mechanisms, and build processes/teams to iterate and adapt quickly to what users actually do 27

THANK YOU – BUD CADDELL –

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The Definitive Inspiration Engine for the Creative Community

by Bud Caddell on Nov 23, 2011

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