I read once that as literacy increased in Europe 100s of years ago, the personal diary usurped the role of the priest in the church. People began to confess their souls to themselves, which undermined Church authority.

Now it’s easier than ever to confess all, and to do so as an an imaginary person – fake name, fake identity and with several email addresses matching your intention. I wonder now that it is so easy to revent ourselves, to turn private communication into public spectacle, are we undermining ourselves by performing for so many constantly available others.

Now, the main attraction. Web 2.0:

Have you ever wondered what exactly web 2.0 is? O’Reilly write clearly on the subject. Here’s a taste in which the concept is illustrated by example.

Clear here for the complete document:

Web 1.0 Web 2.0
DoubleClick –> Google AdSense
Ofoto –> Flickr
Akamai –> BitTorrent
mp3.com –> Napster
Britannica Online –> Wikipedia
personal websites –> blogging
evite –> upcoming.org and EVDB
domain name speculation –> search engine optimization
page views –> cost per click
screen scraping –> web services
publishing –> participation
content management systems –> wikis directories
(taxonomy) –> tagging (“folksonomy”)
stickiness –> syndication

Additional resources: The Overview

la queue du chat !
Originally uploaded by couleurs gm.

I just came across the Long Tail blog, and in a matter of days, noticed several people using the terms to describe trends. I decided to read up on it, and here’s what I found.

Longtail is an economic theory with social implications. It was coined by Christopher Anderson in a Wired Magazine article in 2004. And you should care because it describes a new economic model where fragmentation and niche markets are more important than blockbusters and major power players.

Long Tail suggests that “low demand or have low sales volume can collectively make up a market share that rivals or exceeds the relatively few current bestsellers and blockbusters, if the store or distribution channel is large enough.” Take music for example, since Itunes can easily store and distribute songs, it is no longer limited to stocking its inventory with blockbuster artists. In fact, a niche community’s collective demand for less known artists may exceed sales for blockbuster artists.

The same applies with movies in a Blockbuster vs. Netflix scenario. Considering low storing and distribution costs, Netflix is able to house its shelves with movies in lower demand, like documentaries, which may collectively exceed the requests for blockbuster hits, which fill Blockbuster. As Anderson notes in his article, “Now, with online distribution and retail, we are entering a world of abundance. And the differences are profound.”

Long Tail explains how new distribution methods rival main stream channels. I think this is especially true with consumer generated media. Podcasts, blogs and online communities, for example, provide millions of new channels to receive news and share information, which may collectively account for more influence than mainstream paths. Three case points: At a recent Marketing Sherpa conference, marketers stated that the top 100 bloggers are collectively more read than the Washington Post and New York Times combined; Myspace just launched its record label; and the creation of the Media-Citizen and blogosphere provided new avenues to participate in the political process.

This leaves me with one question. What happens when large media player participate in these new economic models by aggregating fragmented content? If traditional media owns these new channels, will the Long Tail phenomena still take effect? For example, Rubert Murdock commented:

“We discuss that: What does a portal mean? In a sense, we say we’ve got 30 million portals: In MySpace, everyone has their own portal. All of our sites will be tightly interlinked technologically, so you can click from one to another.”

What does this mean in the context of Long Tail? While there are many niche communities that comprise Myspace, they entire platform is being monetize in the same way as traditional media.

Open to your comments.

I found these quotes helpful to my understanding of this concept:
“The key factor that determines whether a sales distribution has a Long Tail is the cost of inventory storage and distribution. Where inventory storage and distribution costs are insignificant, it becomes economically viable to sell relatively unpopular products; however when storage and distribution costs are high only the most popular products can be sold.” Wikipedia

“The Long Tail is the myriad of niche products whose collective market share can rival the blockbusters.”

“What’s really amazing about the Long Tail is the sheer size of it… Take books: The average Barnes & Noble carries 130,000 titles. Yet more than half of Amazon’s book sales come from outside its top 130,000 titles. Consider the implication: If the Amazon statistics are any guide, the market for books that are not even sold in the average bookstore is larger than the market for those that are… Venture capitalist and former music industry consultant Kevin Laws puts it this way: “The biggest money is in the smallest sales.” – Wired

p.s. photo from flickr, click for link.

Blog: Starbucks streaches product placement to the max

Friend: A good friend of mine gave me permission to publish his notes from the digital living room conference. He notes the future of technology and advertising in 6 concise points shared below:

Thought I would outline some of the salient points of the Digital Living Room conference.

1. The convergence of digital media in the living room will end up in the set-top box.

a) It will be IP based.

b) It will have multiple sources of content.

c) It will be likely controlled by a device that operates as a remote within the home environment

but becomes the portable media player, cell phone, voip phone once it leaves the house.

2. The technology for content and implementation is already shipping. The primary gating factors to the widespread adoption are Digital Rights Management. The impeding issue now, particularly in the US is that content providers are not agreeing on DRM standards. This is keeping what should be an organized deployment in chaos.

3. This climate does not exist outside the U.S. For this reason, Europe, Asia, even southeast Asia are alreadyahead of the U.S. in deployment, and will continue to surpass the U.S. in adoption of IPTV and digital entertainment convergence.

4. Advertising revenue models will be emerging to fit with these new modalities. Many iterations of “permission-based” advertising solutions were represented at the show, from “skins” that incorporate banner/hyperlink served according

to content, to discussions of imbedded advertising in videos, branded middleware layers for content delivery. Lots of discussion is occurring regarding revenue models in general, to advertising revenue in particular.

5. Content generation will undergo many changes, including a surge in Indy media and “citizen programming” as well as mining of legacy entertainment properties that were not cost-effective to distribute in analog.

6. Content Distribution will become a bit of a tug-of-war between media companies and new distribution methods like search engines. Google Video, Yahoo and others that are gearing up vital video engines will probably be the early winners in the distribution struggle for non-licensed content. Licensed content remains to be seen.

This is still being fought over and is the major reason US TV/Film is not yet on the net.

Mr. Friendster is a male, mid-20s currently in graduate school. He is one of the only people my age I know who still uses Friendster. I wanted to take the opportunity to speak with him about why.

Zach: When did you first hear about Friendster?

Mr. Friendster: I’d guess around early 2003

Zach: How’d you hear about it?

Mr. Friendster: it was my friend Sarah who invited me, late 2003, after I moved to philly. Sarah’s a friend, very social. i joined because i had just moved to a different city and it seemed like a nice way to stay in touch with people and meet others

Zach: did you immediately find it useful?

Mr. Friendster: useful isn’t the right word. enjoyable.

Zach: how so?

Mr. Friendster: well, it didn’t really seem useful in the sense of an efficient use of time, but I liked writing testimonials and stuff.

Zach: would you say that’s the activity that you most enjoyed on the site?

Mr. Friendster: yes

Zach: at what point in your life was Friendster most important?

Mr. Friendster: I can’t think of any time when it was really important per se, but it did help fill the time whenever I had a lot of down time.

Zach: did it make you feel popular in any ways? or important?
Mr. Friendster: it’s also been useful when I want to know more about someone I met once and briefly.

Zach: how so?

Mr. Friendster: well, most recently, I meet a girl a couple of weeks ago and asked her out. We talked briefly by phone to set up a date. I checked her Friendster profile before going on it before the date

Zach: did it tell you anything helpful?

Mr. Friendster: I suppose it’s one part research one part stalking but in the past it’s been helpful to know how a person presents herself/himself on the internet. You can more quickly pick up on common interests or major points of disagreement.

Zach: Is that socially acceptable?

Mr. Friendster: it’s definitely acceptable to do and to discuss with one’s close friends, but I’ve never admitted to anyone that I’ve looked at their profile in that context

Zach: you’ve invested a lot into Friendster, will you ever leave?

Mr. Friendster: I don’t see myself leaving in the near term. I hope that there will be some mergers in the personal networking world and I’ll be able to have one account for Friendster, Myspace, Facebook, orkut, linkedin, asmallworld, etc. that would benefit everyone.

Zach: do you think there’s a need for a universal profile?

Mr. Friendster: I think there’s demand for these services and that the fragmentation of the market squanders some of that demand. If these services all got together to form a universal profile, I think they’d have huge positive externalities (yes, Mr. Friendster is a ‘grad student’). Also, my laptop battery appears to be dying.

I prepared an introduction to online marketing topics for a prospective client. This may be useful and provides an excellent overview into online marketing and internet radio as well.

+Viral marketing
Relevance: Technique used to energize listeners to share message with
their friends and family.
Implementation: Use on emails and media content to enhance cume to web site rating.
Links:
1. Seth Godin
2. Clear Channel viral piece:

http://www.radiomarketingnexus.com/2005/06/clear_channel_k.html

3. Overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_marketing

+Consumer Generated Media
Relevance: Consumer media is challenging traditional forms; how will
radio respond?
Implementation: Blogs for on-air personalities; personalization for listeners; photo exchange.
Links:
1. Metrics: http://www.intelliseek.com/cgm.asp
2. Blog: http://www.consumergeneratedmedia.com/
3. Overview: http://www.clickz.com/experts/brand/cmo/article.php/3515576

+Radio / Internet research
Relevance: Useful insight on Internet radio and traditional stations.
Implementation: Use to value sites and prospect trends.
Links:
1. See attached market overviews from Borrell Associates
2. Internet radio trends
3. Internet radio metrics:

http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=524

+Email marketing
Relevance: How to build relationships through emails benefiting listeners and advertisers.
Implementation: Lets improve email: open and conversion rates and deliverability.
Links:
1. Overview of terms:

http://www.grokdotcom.com/emailmarketingmetrics.htm

2. Benchmarks: http://www.emaillabs.com/resources.html
3. Best Email Benchmarks:

+Online Communities
Relevance: How to incorporate what makes My Space successful on your sites.
Implementation: Allow users to personalize sites and connect through your station.
Links:
1. Myspace: http://www.clickz.com/features/article.php/3565776
2. Theory behind it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking
3. Metrics: http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/7416.asp

+Online Advertising
Relevance: Better understand online marketplace to best prepare sales team
Implementation: 1 hour session to clarify and present with your team
Links:
1. News: http://www.internetadsales.com/modules/news/
2. Glossary of terms: http://www.internetadsales.com/modules/glossaire/
3. Trends:

http://www.emarketer.com/SearchBrowse.aspx?arg=online+advertising

+Online Reading
Relevance: Things worth reading daily
Implementation: Visit sites, or create Blogline account
Links:
1. Relevant online articles: www.clickz.com
2. Newsletters worth reading: www.marketingsherpa.com
3. Mediapost Commucations: www.mediapost.com