Old Media, New Media, the productisation of publishing and the tethered appliance

Old media, new media, the productisation of publishing
and the tethered appliance

Imagine there are 2 groups of people…

Creative type people…

… and consumers

Real life tends to be a bit more blurry… …but it’s easier to draw like this 

Old style media organisations… (newspapers, magazines, broadcasters, record labels…)

...acted as matchmakers

Performing 5 key roles…

… talent spotting,

commissioning,

licencing,

production,

and distribution.

This pattern continued for decades adapting to meet new media types until…

… cheap PCs

and the internet/web…

… which disrupted everything.

Cheap PCs replaced industrial scale production tools and the web replaced industrial scale…

...publishing

… and distribution

Crucially the web promised to turn…

creators to consumers

consumers to creators

The great democratisation of opinion / knowledge.

But there was still a price of entry.

Setting up and maintaining servers, installing and upgrading code…

Web 2.0

… was about many things but one of the key things was…

… the commoditisation / productisation of web publishing.

Wordpress Blogger Flickr YouTube Amazon iTunes Twitter Facebook

All lowered the barrier

… for everyone

Even old school media organisations started to use the new publishing platforms in an attempt to…

… chase the audience

But using the new publishing platforms comes at a price.

… compromising rights

To assuage the fears of content creators and owners the productised publishing platforms often…

… incorporated DRM

… in an attempt to restrict copyright ‘violation’ by users…

… whilst simultaneously claiming liberal licencing for themselves and third parties.

Many publishers chose different DRM technologies and proprietary file formats…

… locking in users to their services.

Recently we’ve seen the rise of ‘tethered appliances’…

iPod iPad iPhone Kindle IRiver Story Sony Touch Sky+ Tivo

… which provide further publisher platform…

… lock-in…

… via content stores and app stores…

… eroding competition, consumer choice and innovation.

And importantly re-establish the barriers between content creators and content consumers…

So whilst a PC can be used for… communication consumption creation

… a tethered appliance can only be used for…

The Web is designed as a universal space. Its universality is its most important facet. I spend many hours giving talks just to emphasize this point. The success of the Web stems from its universality as do most of the architectural constraints.

The locked-in, tethered appliance is not, by definition, universal .

But it’s also not without benefits

By policing the code that can be installed we’re protected from our own stupidity

Firmware updates keep things up to date by adding functionality

But what’s given can be taken away

Centralised control and firmware updates mean you don’t own functionality or content…

… you rent it

Meaning the door is left open for post-‘purchase’ censorship (Search for ‘TiVo v. Echostar’ and ‘Kindle censorship’)

… and more worryingly…

… post-‘purchase’ surveillance (Search for ‘remote eavesdropping cell phone’)

For old media companies there’s a particular problem.

If you know what your users have watched, read, bought…

… you can better predict and influence what they’ll watch, read and buy in the future. (let’s call it the Tesco Loyalty Card model)

The web (unlike print publishing or broadcast) gives easy access to real time…

… user stats / feedback

By owning the gateway to content the productised publishing platforms…

… also own the user / customer / audience relationship.

If you’re an old media company wondering how your business model adapts to the tethered appliance…

… the message is you no longer have a business model…

… because you no longer own your customer relationship

But there is a way out…

… the web browser is still universal …

… allowing you to retain control of your customer relationship…

So use the web and use web standards

In conclusion

From the old media model of talent spotting, commissioning, licencing, production and distribution…

… we run the risk of a ‘social media’ model of cheap content acquisition, proprietary lock-in and borrowed customer relationship…

… and miss the promise of web universality en route.

Or buy a book / get a library ticket 

http://blog.lefigaro.fr	380
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http://www.slideshare.net	17
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http://mentalovercoat.blogspot.com	1

Old Media, New Media, the productisation of publishing and the tethered appliance

by fantasticlife on Mar 17, 2010

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Old Media, New Media, the productisation of publishing and the tethered appliance — Presentation Transcript