Social Media Talk

Participatory Media: The view from inside June 07, 2008

about: self
Who: Shyam Somanadh (aka codelust)
What: Erratic writer/blogger since 1999 and a platform junkie
Why: Economics grad, trained in journalism, fascinated by technology
Where: With Network18 since 2005; job profile: principal enabler
WWW: http:// fatalerror.in http:// twitter.com/codelust

about: scope
What: Participatory media
How: Our experience in participating in it
Where: On http://www.ibnlive.com
A bit about the product
Our learning
Problems we faced
End-user perspective
Your questions

But…
We thought this event was about Social Media?

But…
AND

But…
AND
What on earth is this participatory media?

I CAN HAS MY SOCIAL MEDIA PLZ?

First A fair warning * * Do not attempt this stunt at your Web 2.0 household

Because. This. Could. Hurt.

Brace for impact Ready?

Here we go There is nothing called social media

Once more, louder & clearer There is nothing called social media

WTF? BUT..

WTF? BUT…. WHY??

Social Media does not exist because
The converse would then have to hold true

That rest of the media is asocial or antisocial

Any media, by nature, is social

You write about people/events, which are consumed by more people

You write about people/events, which are consumed by more people
Ergo , something that is not social, is not media

Going Further…
There really is no ______ Media

Going Further…
There is only Media

Going Further…
There is only Media
Which delivers content created by someone - about someone or something

Going Further…
There is only Media
That is finally consumed by an individual, group or groups

Going Further…
There is only Media
That is finally consumed by an individual, group or groups
______ Media is the classic Bollywood ' zara-hat-ke ' (it is different) approach to product differentiation

What is Participatory Media?
It is about people being a part of the conversation

It is something that widens the entry point for creation (blogger, wordpress, livejournal, tumblr) of content

It is something that allows everyone to participate than the select few (comments, forums, blogs)

It is something that allows everyone to participate than the select few (comments, forums, blogs)
It is something that amplifies your participation, mixes and mashes it up to create new contexts

Our Story: the bulleted version
IBNLive.com started in December 2005 as the online presence of CNN-IBN
We wanted it to be different: based both on belief and business necessities
The traditional television establishment did not 'grok' the Internet
But they realized it was the future and backed us fully and wholeheartedly
We have done a fair bit, but we still have a long way to go

Our Story: the product
Pushed user comments as a must-have, than as an optional extra
Introduced blogging (internal and external) from day one
Introduced podcasts
Your Voice: The news in your voice
Introduced topic/theme-based blogging
Flagship initiative: Citizen Journalism
Public Ka Kaptaan for cricket

Our Story: the learning
Uptake has been good, but not spectacular

If you are in it for the traffic, then get out and stick to the usual suspects

20% contribute, 80% consume, 5% stinks up the whole place for the 100%

Brands matter a lot: Established names get excellent recall/repeat traffic

People matter a lot: Consuming news is a habit; switching that is hard to pull off

People matter a lot: Consuming news is a habit; switching that is hard to pull off
Expect the unexpected:
In what will be said (good and bad)
In how much will be said (average comment length, regulars )
In how it will be said (local language comments)

The users’ story
Remuneration: should we not get paid?

The users’ story
Copyright: should we not 'own' our content?

The users’ story
Copyright: should we not 'own' our content?
Liability: sites indemnify themselves, liability rests with the commenter

The Challenges
It is hard to scale participatory media (resource and time intensive)

The Challenges
Advertisers don't like it too much (content can be very unpredictable)

The Challenges
Legal hassles: comments have generated legal notices and much ire at times

The Challenges
Inconsistency: Both in terms of quality and quantity

The Challenges
Inconsistency: Both in terms of quality and quantity
Next steps: Where do we go from here?

The greatest challenge for both ______ Media proponents and the non-believers is this:

The greatest challenge for both ______ Media proponents and the non-believers is this: How do you – as an established media entity or otherwise – compete with funny speaking dogs and cats for prominence in the same space?

Questions?
Thank you

Social Media Talk

by Shyam Somanadh

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