One of my newspaper clients recently added the Facebook “Like” button to their site and saw large increases in traffic. I was thinking of doing the same thing for Content Here but then I started to wonder “would I Like Content Here?” Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE writing this blog and [...]
Fifteen years ago, in his best-selling book, “How to Drive Your Competition Crazy: Creating Disruption For Fun and Profit”, business strategy guru Guy Kawasaki provided some excellent guidance for companies in competitive markets looking to differentiate themselves from their competition. His advice: When battling it out, make sure you choose the right enemy.
Oh sure, there were many more bits of wisdom offered up by Kawasaki in his 234-page business strategy book, but the big message is something many companies have yet to understand: Don’t act stupid!
One example of a major player that is both acting stupid and aiming their efforts at an enemy they may regret targeting is Oracle. The company, whose primary offerings are relational database management software systems, is apparently feeling a little threatened by MarkLogic, a much smaller, privately held, software company that has developed a different — read: potentially better — way of managing data and making it actionable by those who need to gain knowledge and insight from large sets of information.
The MarkLogic Server aims to solve an important problem faced by almost every content-heavy organization today: How to manage and act upon (in meaningful ways) the large pool of structured, semi-structured and unstructured content of importance to the organization. MarkLogic Server has gained increasing acceptance in the content industry — and lots of big customers in the vertical markets they target (government, publishing, and entertainment) — by helping organizations see business critical patterns in their content. These patterns are difficult (if not impossible) to detect and visualize from the typical output delivered from a relational database.
Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler
At the recent MarkLogic User Conference 2010 in San Francisco, several major customers said their goal was to move all of the content they currently store in their relational databases into MarkLogic Server. Each customer shared their stories in the form of a case study presentation. One-by-one, they each made the case for why MarkLogic’s game-changing approach was better for their needs than solutions built upon relational database systems.
Oracle apparently is fearful that MarkLogic is poised to take business away from them. How much business Oracle stands to lose isn’t clear. Certainly not enough to kill off the software giant, but, you’d never know that based on their recent white paper aimed at making MarkLogic look less-than-attractive. This is the stupid part of Oracle’s marketing plan.
According to Kawasaki, “A bad enemy is usually an upstart — aggressive and hungry and willing to fight viciously. Trying to defeat a small company is risky. If you are successful, the victory is insignificant. If you fail, the embarrassment is huge. There’s more downside than upside in this kind of contest.”
Kawasaki also warns big companies like Oracle that defeating a small firm like MarkLogic may be more difficult because smaller firms can usually “mobilize quickly, change directions on short notice, and fight in a guerrilla war as well as you can.” Losing to MarkLogic, according to Kawasaki’s line-of-thinking, would be “catastrophic” to Oracle.
For MarkLogic this is an excellent opportunity. Big, bad, old-school Oracle is seen picking on a smaller, yet innovative start-up whose ideas are paradigm-shifting. One only has to look to Apple, Kawasaki’s former employer, to see the changes a smaller company can introduce that cause market disruption and change user expectations. This about it: iPod, iTunes, iPhone, iPad. Small names, big paradigm-shifting, market-disrupting change. These changes have caused consumers to expect more from all vendors, including Apple’s competitors.
Oracle must see MarkLogic as a threat since they are putting so much time, energy and money into combating the much smaller, but more agile and innovative, company.
MarkLogic benefits from all the attention that Oracle draws to the debate between relational databases and those powered by MarkLogic Server, which takes advantage of XQuery. For MarkLogic, Oracle is the perfect enemy because, as Kawasaki pointed out about Apple identifying IBM as their enemy early in the company history, a good enemy is “fundamentally opposed” to your business vision.
MarkLogic is quick to address Oracle’s claims and to take advantage of the spotlight Oracle shined on MarkLogic and its products.
Kawasaki says start-ups like MarkLogic (which he calls upstarts) are companies striving to join the leaders. They are active, opportunistic aggressors who fight a zero-sum game with the leaders: that is, their gain is the leaders’ loss, and their loss is the leaders’ gain. So, for MarkLogic, disrupting the marketplace is to their advantage. They make a very bad enemy for Oracle because they have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Kawasaki says these types of marketing tactics just lead to “tit-for-tat” combat and that instead, companies like Oracle should focus on serving their customers, instead of focusing on the competition.
McDonald’s founder, Ray Kroc, used to say focusing on the customer, not the competition is the way to succeed in the marketplace.
“My way of fighting the competition is the positive approach,” Kroc said. “Stress your own strengths, emphasize quality, service, cleanliness, and value, and the competition will wear itself out trying to keep up.”
In this day and age, I think Kroc’s advice — and Kawasaki’s strategic guidance — is solid advice that many information technology software and service providers would be wise to heed it.
As many of our readers know, I’m a big fan of personalized content delivered on-demand: the right content, to the right people, at the right time, in the right format and language, and on the device of their choosing. Although my interests have been focused on instructional, text-based content augmented with graphics, and increasingly, multimedia, today I find myself more-and-more interested in social networking, rich media, and interactive content. What’s piquing my interest? Several things, actually. The NoSQL movement, the huge growth of social networks like Facebook, the advent of interactivity-enabling mobile touch-screen devices (think: iPad), the move to digital-first content strategies by publishing companies, the tremendous amount of user-generated content finding its way into technical documentation and other customer-facing content, and the popularity of video a la YouTube.
Interview Magazine: Interactive Digital Version For iPad
As content technologies converge and consumers begin expecting rich, mobile, interactive experiences on whatever device they happen to be using at the time, big changes will occur in our choices as content consumers. Today, this convergence is making possible new opportunities in the entertainment industry, where the most popular television shows are reality-based (although, l use that term loosely) and interactive (think: American Idol). When you add a social networking component (think: Facebook for cable tv), things start to get really interesting. This is why I thought my interview with Ryan Gordon, Founder of BLU, an interactive, internet-based television show would be of interest to many of our readers. Gordon understands precision entertainment targeting, interaction design, human psychology, global audience development, and reality television. And, he knows what’s sexy and how to sell it. Read the interview below and leave a comment below to share your feedback with The Content Wrangler readers.
TCW: Ryan, thanks for speaking with me today. For my readers who don’t know who you are or what you do, tell us a little about yourself.
RG: Hello Scott!! We are embarking on a revolutionary journey and I am excited and honored to be able to give your readers a first look at what we are doing before we begin an aggressive media campaign.
About me: Prior to designing BLU, I worked as a fashion photographer for many of the largest modeling agencies in the world. My work has been used by Ford Modeling Agency, Wilhelmina, LA Models, Elite & IMG. My work has been published in quite a few different magazines and publications including work I’m very proud of that was included by Bruno Gmuender in the publication “Visions: Contemporary Male Photography“, which highlighted some of the most talented photographers in the world. Photography was a great introduction to the entertainment world for me, and along that route, I met many veterans in the industry.
Photo by Ryan Gordon, RG Photography.
In the first quarter of 2009, I wanted to take my life on a different path. I was looking for a big change. I have always had a very entrepreneurial mind and found myself looking for new ways to impact the world. At a very young age, I had completed what many took decades to accomplish (my photographic accomplishments) and I felt very fortunate to be at the place I was in, at a mere 31-years-old. I decided that I wanted to branch out into video and film, and using the resources and contacts I made along the way, create BLU.
On a more personal level, I was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and lived there for the majority of my life. I was brought up in a Mormon family with a younger brother and sister. Being raised Mormon and also discovering I was gay took a huge impact on my life, as well as my family. The trials I faced during that time definitely shaped who I am today – someone who has been through quite a bit and has come out on top. I want that message to be a part of BLU – that even though you may face obstacles (or in some cases 100 foot brick walls) — that anything you can imagine is achievable, even when it seems like you are living in the clouds.
TCW: You’ve described BLU, but only touched on it in this interview. What is BLU, exactly?
RG:BLU is the world’s first subscription-based gay and lesbian reality series. Our show is based entirely online, catering to an international audience. BLU launches with an amazing staff of Emmy and Academy award winners, and with film crews that have worked in network reality TV for many years.
BLU: The worlds’s first interactive, online gay and lesbian-themed, subscription-based reality show
At launch, our show will have already signed on 14 different high-end and very recognizable celebrities to interact with our cast and subscribers at our Miami Beach studio house. Every week, one celebrity will issue a dare / challenge to our cast. This is going to be really exciting to see what they come up with and how their ideas will play into the series. Our subscribers will have the opportunity to vote one cast member off per week, to eventually have a grand prize winner taking home $150,000.00 cash.
TCW: What drove you to create BLU?
RG: Coming “out” for me and many of my friends was a very difficult time in life. Speaking for myself, I was always in search of something to cling on to, someone to talk to about my feelings and offer me some sort of support. I searched all over the Internet for support and had a hard time finding anything beneficial. One of the many goals of BLU is to be a source of security for the crowd that is in the space I was in many years ago. By the same token, I feel that our community is viewed in a light that is extremely untrue for the majority. BLU will showcase the more typical side of the average gay person: their lives, their fears and hopes and dreams. We are no different from anyone else, and its time for the world at large to understand that.
Watching the speech by Dustin Lance Black at the Academy Awards is what really did it for me. He and I were raised in a very similar family and shared many of the same fears about our sexuality. He showed so much love, confidence and compassion for our community that I felt I wanted to take part in that same movement. It was the very next day that I sat down at the computer and started to write ideas about my next step in life.
TCW: How do you think will BLU change the way others look at the gay and lesbian community?
RG: “Show not tell” is the motto that has been used quite frequently between the staff and myself. As part of our casting process we have uniformly agreed the best way to convey that message is to use very strong cast and have significant celebrity involvement though guest appearances.
TCW: What type of cast will you have to make that change?
The Crew of BLu is comprised of entertainment industry veterans, including Emmy- and Academy Award Winners
RG: BLU is very fortunate to have staff that comes from years of working in entertainment. I am very pleased to have contracts with Emmy- and Academy Award-winning staff as part of our crew. Our casting director has worked in network TV prior to the launch of the Internet, and has earned multiple awards for assembling casts for other shows that maintained a very large audience. Our cast will come from different facets of life and will have the looks and wit to be able to strike attention on an international level. Our cast will range from ages 22-35 and will be the type of people that you would love to hang out with. I am keeping this one more secretive, but I can assure you that you will not be let down!
Drama is unavoidable in most life situations, especially when you incorporate contestants competing against each other for prize money
TCW: How will you avoid the show becoming just another reality show about dramatic queens? After all, programs without drama and excitement are boring. How will you use the everyday aspects of regular gay men and women to create an interesting story line?
RG: Drama is unavoidable in most life situations, especially when you incorporate contestants competing against each other for prize money. However, one of the ideals for BLU is that it will appeal not only to the gay and lesbian audience, but we hope to develop a strong straight audience following as well.
The cast you will see on BLU will have the same look-and-feel of those that just walked off the pages of a magazine. Not only will these people have the looks, they will also have the brains. The casting director and I have an extremely detailed list of the type of cast we will be going after, to ensure a variety of lifestyles are represented. An example of this would be a very wholesome, down-home country cowboy, a surfer from Hawaii, a club kid from NYC, and an Ivy League medical student. They will all have very different backgrounds, but will share their sexuality in common.
Through a mix of sex appeal, drama, emotion, envy, lust, beneficial content and showing the true normalcy of the gay and lesbian community – our writers and directors will keep our viewers wishing that our show had an episode every night.
TCW: You mentioned that you have quite a bit of celebrity involvement. What will the celebrities be doing, exactly?
RG: BLU will have one high-end celebrity fly to our Miami Beach studio house once a week and will be a major part of our production. Each celebrity will issue a dare / challenge to our cast members that each of them has chosen on their own. This will definitely be a lot of fun!! Their role is crucial to the success of the show. Leveraging celebrities will not only bring a much larger audience, but their support for the show also demonstrates their support for the gay and lesbian community.
The Cast of BLU will compete for $150,000 cash
TCW: So BLU is a contest like American Idol and other prize-based shows?
TCW: Absolutely!! We know our viewers will love following their favorite cast members compete in the celebrity dares / challenges. Not only will our viewers be able to watch all of the drama unfold, but also they will have the ability to vote one person off the show each week. The grand prize for our winning cast member is $150,000 cash. The winner is determined by our viewers.
TCW: How were you able to get Emmy- and Academy Award-winning staff to be a part of your production?
RG: Working in entertainment, fashion and modeling prior to designing BLU opened a lot of doors for me. I attended many different “Red Carpet” events where I was fortunate to meet with and befriend people who had been working in entertainment for years. When I started putting BLU together, I consulted with my friends and associates and told them what I had thought up. Every one of them not only contributed to the show, but also asked to be a part of it.
BLU is taking on a market that rarely receives attention, and is being launched in a revolutionary way that has never been done. To ensure the easiest delivery, we will use the exact type of staff from a network and segway it into an internet based production. Coming into a new project with the caliber of staff that we have is amazing. “Look out Network TV!!”
RG Photography
TCW: Do I understand correctly that RG Enterprises is not only a production company, but also will be directing and doing everything that a network would do? In effect, you are the network. Right?
RG: That is correct!! Not only will we be writing and directing the show, we will also produce and edit the content in-house. We have taken the crucial parts of a production crew that a network would use and hired them as our staff. The benefit of doing this is we are able to produce the same high quality content a network would be able to, at a fraction of the cost.
TCW: My readers know that I believe the future of communication is online. But, why did you choose to have the show on the Internet as opposed to a traditional cable television network?
RG: There are so many benefits of having our show on the Internet, the most important being able to attract an international audience. Reality TV is very popular in the US, but still fairly new to those who live in other countries. The Internet reaches all corners of the world, so it is definitely the best way to make sure everyone has the ability to watch our show.
Adam Lambert kisses band member at the American Music Awards
The second benefit is that we are able to decide what our content will be without having to have a board of directors involved that doesn’t have the slightest clue about the gay and lesbian community. History shows us that network TV has always made a spectacle of our community, perhaps because they think that is the only thing that will sell. We firmly disagree! We know the world is very ready to see the true normalcy of the gay and lesbian community.
On that same note, we are able to control our content. I still remember when Adam Lambert performed at the American Music Awards and people threw a fit over his “acts on stage”. Personally, I don’t believe that Adam did anything different from many other artists that cater to the straight community. The decision and uproar after that event was very hypocritical and frustrating.
TCW: So your show will be able to be viewed internationally, will you have subtitles for the episodes for non-English speaking subscribers?
RG: The short answer to this question is YES! We will ensure that our content will be able to be viewed by anyone and will not let a language barrier stand in the way.
TCW: What is “live interaction” in your vision for BLU?
RG: Imagine watching your favorite reality show and after that episode was over, being able to voice your thoughts and suggestions to the actual cast member in real time. Maybe you’d like to compliment them on what they did, or let them know that you think they are a complete douche-bag! Currently this breakthrough is not available to any network show on a real time basis, however BLU will be the very first reality series that will give the viewers this opportunity. Our episodes will be “live” Monday, Wednesday and Friday of each week. Tuesday and Thursday will be our “live interaction” segments where our subscribers will be able to chat, face-to-face (virtually speaking), with our cast. We’re confident our subscribers will enjoy this type of interaction.
TCW: What will your show be most similar to?
RG: Without naming names, our show will be most similar to one of the oldest network reality shows in existence. Our 12 cast will all live together in the same house along with our video crew. The dares / challenges of BLU will be a lot of fun to watch, but maybe not as much as the inner workings of everyone’s lives under the same roof
TCW: How do you think the average person will respond to paying a subscription to watch your show?
The price point for BLU will start at $12.95 USD per month
RG: Subscription-based services have been around for quite a while and the majority of our subscribers will be accustom to this type of purchase. The price point for our show will start at $12.95 USD per month, which we have set far below any other online-based service. Our subscribers will be given members-only access to a breathtaking group of cast and their favorite celebrities, so we are confident that they will be excited to be a part of BLU and not see a subscription as an obstacle.
Many other companies are also making a transition into a similar business model. Google and Hulu are great examples, as this year they will be offering new services on a subscription base to watch streaming episodes of network programming. We are taking this one step above and offering HD content as well as downloadable episodes secured by digital rights management (DRM) access protection. This gives our subscribers much higher quality and viewing experience than the previously mentioned companies.
TCW: Will BLU be considered obscene or include soft porn?
RG: Absolutely not!! It is this question in particular that is most bothersome when it comes to the LGBT community. Whenever anyone that is not in our community thinks of a gay or lesbian series, they immediately think it will be about sex.
TCW: Will those who wish to view and interact with BLU be able to do so on any other device besides a computer?
BLU will be available online and accessible via web browser, and via the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch using an app in the Apple App Store
RG: We believe that the majority of our subscribers will watch BLU on their computers, however I have taken things even further. Starting with our first episode, we will give viewers the opportunity to watch our content via their iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch via an app in the Apple App Store. This content will come streaming to them over a 3G or Wi-fi connection and as a result they will be able to watch BLU anywhere they’d like. We are also implementing a way for our subscribers to use their mobile devices to vote for and interact with the cast in the show’s online forums. Of course, all of this will be available on their home computer as well, we are just ensuring that BLU will take advantage of cutting-edge technology.
TCW: So, do you believe that the future of entertainment media will be web-enabled? Is this the beginning of the end of television broadcasting as we know it?
Google has partnered with Intel and Sony to create a TV platform powered by Android
RG: Most anyone that works in entertainment feels the crunch being placed upon them by the Internet. People like convenience, being able to watch whatever they’d like when they want to. People have busy lives and want to be able to do things on their time. The networks are slowly catching on and ABC as example has recently released an app to watch their programming on an iPad. Google is doing something similar with their product “Google TV”. So it’s not necessarily and end to the TV set, I’m not sure that would ever happen, its just expanding the viewing capabilities of the public. Also keep in mind that the Internet is international, so programming can be watched by people that have never before had the opportunity, or in some countries, the privilege.
TCW: What type of viewership do you anticipate?
RG: BLU has massive marketing efforts that will stretch all over the globe. We will be advertising in nearly all magazines with a readership of 75,000 and above that would be conducive to our content. We have also contracts with Clear Channel radio, so live endorsements will be played in nearly every metropolitan city across the United States and in Europe. We also have an abundance of Internet based marketing. We are making sure that everyone knows about BLU!!!
TCW: What will keep the audience watching BLU season after season?
RG: Our content of course! People love to see drama, they love to watch emotion and even more so, love to feel like they are part of the production. We are taking those three cues and incorporating them into every episode. BLU is embarking on a new and different path in the sense that we are catering to an gay and lesbian audience. This has never been done before, yet we are ambitiously excited to take on this challenge. Our goal is to entice the gay and lesbian crowd will tell their straight friends about the show, to eventually leave us with a balanced audience.
TCW: How will your show relate to the mainstream viewer, in specific a straight audience? RG: BLU’s content will be compelling to watch for everyone. Our casting director will be utilizing a very broad angle during our casting process. Its crucial to me that we have cast that anyone will be able to relate to. Once our viewers build a bond with their favorite cast member, they will watch every episode and feel like they are a part of their lives – in a virtual sense. As I mentioned before, BLU will take a “show not tell” approach to our episodes. It is not our intention to throw the gay and lesbian lifestyle in anyone’s face, but instead show them how similar we all really are!
TCW: If you could name one aspect of your show that you are most excited about, what would it be?
RG: Hmm…this is a tough question!! I would have to say watching everything progress. I am really excited to see what the world at large thinks about what we will offer, and to see changes for our community. In my head, I picture big parties with friends to watch the episodes. I remember when Queer as Folk was really popular, and my roommate and I would put on parties for everyone to come to our house and watch the show. I want this same thing for BLU, and with our plans we know this will happen!
TCW: If any of my readers were interested in being a cast member on BLU, how would they go about doing it?
RG: We will definitely keep you and your readers up to date on that. Our casting director has a game plan for this that I think is brilliant. We will be type casting from all around the US and potentially other countries. As soon as we have more solid information on that, I will let you know!
TCW: You mentioned in our earlier call that you are seeking investment funds for BLU? What are you looking for?
RG: Putting the show together has been one of the most amazing experiences in my life, but it has definitely been a roller coaster. Along this journey I have met and worked with many different types of potential investors, some more earnest than others. We are really looking forward to meeting solid investment sources in the very near future. If any of your readers are interested in learning more about BLU from an investment standpoint, they can contact me at ryan@blurealityshow.com. We have extensive amounts of information that I would love to share. The business model, celebrity involvement and high caliber of staff will set this project apart from anything currently available and is sure to get quite a bit of exposure.
TCW:Thanks, Ryan for making time to help our readers understand BLU.
RG: Thanks Scott. Your readers can keep up to date with BLU on Facebook, MySpace, and on Twitter.
Organizations working toward web content management success often struggle with a management disconnect. CxOs are too busy driving the business to care about the nuts and bolts of the web or how it’s all governed. Meanwhile, folks in the trenches – marketing, IT, brand people – are doing heroic work, but often without the upper level buy-in or support.
Positive vibes from the C-suite can establish the agenda for web success – setting the business vision, guiding cross-team cooperation, ensuring proper funding for CMS projects and mandating web governance.
Easier said than done. And it’s not getting any easier.
Social media is taking the C-suite by storm. Top level execs who can barely spell CMS can’t get enough of the strategies and tactics for leveraging Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, web video, and other parts of the social ecosystem.
It feels like a scene from the Brady Bunch, where Jan Brady always plays second fiddle to favorite daughter Marcia – she’s prettier, smarter, more popular and is always the center of attention.
Just like Jan’s frustrated whine “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!” we wouldn’t be surprised to hear a similar echo from web teams shouting “Social, social, social!”
With social now the new darling of the C-suite, CxOs are throwing themselves into the middle of it all to enhance their brand, reach new customers and service existing ones.
At a recent BIMA (Boston Interactive Media Association) event in Cambridge, a panel of social media marketers and consultants hit a consistent theme: corporate execs have ravenous appetites right now for planning and executing social media strategies.
To be fair, a CEO’s interest in social media is sort of easy to understand. Social media is tied closely to the identity of a company, to customer service and brand value. (But then again, so is a CMS-enabled website. But I digress.) CEOs are often the public face of their companies social media efforts (Zappos’ CEO set the bar here.)
Marketing strategist Lois Kelly of Beeline Labs described the rush by C-level execs in companies like Dell and FedEx to invest time, money and brainpower into social. They’re not just checking in every few months – they’re sitting at the head of the table, defining strategy and setting execution in motion. They’re creating (and funding and empowering) new positions like directors of social media. They’re demanding weekly status updates on how their company is performing in social media circles and delivering new services – and keeping tabs on the competition.
And it’s getting more serious. For example, Kelly is planning an April Conference Board event in New York to teach CEOs how to be leaders in social media. (So popular is the event, according to the website, they’re moving to a larger venue.)
Other trendspotting in social media that web CMS warriors can (mostly) dream about:
Companies are creating large-scale internal education programs to teach employees the value and importance of all-hands-on-deck approach to social media. It’s now in their corporate DNA.
Smart companies are hiring social media “ninjas” – marketers in their mid-20s who know a little about business but a lot about leveraging social CRM
Business process consultants are getting into the strategic social media consulting game in a big way at large corporations
The attention from CEOs is welcome news as social media becomes a more critical piece of the overall marketing mix. But we might ask: Where was all the attention when Web 1.0 and 2.0 initiatives and web CMS-driven initiatives were taking shape?
Regardless, we’d love to hear your comments on the interplay at your company among web strategy, CMS, social and where the C-suite is making its voice heard.
by Maxwell Hoffmann, Desktop Publishing, Localization, Globalization and Sales Training Veteran
Really, how long can anyone really read long chapters on that tiny screen? The answer is “for hours, and hours and hours”
A few weeks ago I got a Tweet that sent me straight to downloads-ville. A “free” Kindle Reader app for my Blackberry! As a used-book store addicted Baby Boomer who color codes all of his hard copy books with highlighter pens, might I be the perfect guinea pig for this latest content delivery platform? Could an old school guy like me get used to reading literature or technical manuals in chunks smaller than 3×5 cards?
The answer surprised even me.
So I downloaded Kindle reader for both Windows laptop and Blackberry. I was skeptical at first. Really, how long can anyone really read long chapters on that tiny screen? The answer is “for hours, and hours and hours”. Why? Kindle on Blackberry has crisp, readable screen display (with adjustable fonts), bookmarks are created with ease, navigation is fast, and everything from eBook downloads to synching with other platforms is quick and pain-free. As spell out below, I could consume a lot of virtual pages, swiftly. By the end of my first day of I thought the only limitation to this form of digital content consumption was battery power on my Blackberry. Thank heavens for those laptop draining USB cables.
And guess what kids, Amazon’s Kindle Store starts you out in thriftsville with tons of books for FREE, ranging from The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf to Miss Mapp by E.F. Benson (later serialized on PBS as “Mapp and Lucia”).
On Blackberry’s tiny screen I read the first 5 chapters in less than 90 minutes. I found myself hitting “P” a lot to reread the previous page again.
On my second day I bit the bullet and actually shelled out more than $9 for a “real” book, The Museum of Innocence by my favorite living author, Orhan Pamuk. If you’ve never been lucky enough to visit Istanbul, reading Pamuk’s sensual text is as close as you’ll ever get. On Blackberry’s tiny screen I read the first 5 chapters in less than 90 minutes. It could have been faster if it were a guide to the Darwin Information Typing Architecture. (Hey, where’s Ann Rockley’s DITA 101 on my Kindle list? Stay tuned.) Some or Pamuk’s passages were so beautiful that I found myself hitting “P” a lot to reread the previous page again.
[FYI – Istanbul by Pamuk will give you great insights into Turkish national character, a good thing to have as Turkey emerges as a global and economic power throughout the rest of this century. Read The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century by George Friedman, which I read in the paperback version purchased at my favorite brick and mortar bookstore. I work in the translation industry, and Turkish is quickly becoming the most popular “new” language for many of our clients, especially in Life Sciences.]
But, I digress. Soon, I hungered for more, and found myself frustrated with the current limitations of most eBooks. Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook and YouTube have put most of us in the habit of sharing “samples” of content with others. And PDF files reviewed in Acrobat have put us in the habit of making marginal comments in digital ways. Kindle (and most other eBooks) don’t have copy/paste functionality, there is no highlighter pen, and no way to make a simple annotation. And, if there is, it’s not easy to find and use this functionality, which is a problem. All I wanted to do was extract legally correct, small samples to upload somewhere (isn’t there a “YouRead” community yet?) … and I wanted to mark content in multiple ways. Shucks, I just wanted to “color code” text to find favorite passages based on different needs.
To gain wide acceptance, eBooks and eBook Readers will need to allow us to do things we're accustomed to doing with traditional books, but in more meaningful, interactive and community-based ways.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not expecting eBook Readers to double as a word processor, (or to become the next copy/paste Wikipedia to let college students whip out quickee term papers). I suspect that most users will also miss the ability to put their fingerprints on content like we do nearly everywhere else.
Ironically, the ability to “personalize” content is one of the things that I love the most about real, physical books. We can dog ear (upper or lower corner to code importance); we can underline, circle, or highlight sections of text we want to reference later. (In college I was nicknamed “nerdanada” for the 4 colors of highlighter pens constantly sprouting from my polyester shirt pockets). And of course, real books allow us to make marginal notes. I consider these physical highlights and doodles our “finger prints” on physical content.
My Kindle Read / eBooks Wish List
Digital versions of these old paper-based mark up methods (based on XML, or more specifically, DITA attributes, or course) should create persistent and personal “finger prints” on our personal Kindle or eBook copies that could make the world a better place in several ways:
We could quickly locate content that mattered to us personally, based on different criteria.
Amazon (or other providers: think Apple) could track our individual buying habits on an even more granular level. Instead of recommending books based on previously purchased titles, the vendor can use community driven social networks to recommend further eBooks for purchased based on the sections of the book that we related to the most.
For the first time in history, publishers and authors would know exactly what portions of content turned readers on (or off) the most. (Today the most we can do is post a comment on Amazon, or elsewhere, and rarely do we cite individual pages, paragraphs or passages).
Imagine the power of having a constant consumer survey occurring, page by digital page, all driven with uploadable “highlighter pen” passages! And imagine the apps that could interpret smart content and metadata embedded by our highlight selections, to graphically display consumer response to specific portions of content! I visualize a sort of daily Dow Jones line chart mapped to the book which has longer lines for chapters or DITA topics that got the most “hits” or reader embedded fingerprints.
FYI – although Kindle reader offers a “book mark” feature, it is really only useful for general navigation.
The ability to track the changing hot spots of readers via “fingerprints” over time would also give sociologists and historians the ability to impact a book’s changing impact over several generations. Would it be great to see how graphical representation of reader response to The Next Hundred Years by Friedman had changed 20, 40 or 60 years from now, as we approach the end of the time that he documents?
And if there is ever a way to “will” your Amazon/whomever library to someone else, your heirs could not only thumb through static pages, they would see your fingerprints, sense your personality, and know what mattered to you at the time of your reading.
Consumers commenting and sharing digital eBooks would leave an incredible legacy.
the locked, protected content of eBooks precludes us from sharing with others.
This last point has been one my biggest misgivings about the “one-way” aspect of current digital media: the locked, protected content of eBooks precludes any way for us to share our content-specific comments, annotations, whatever, with others. If I “will” my Kindle library to some designated heir, he/she has no way of knowing what turned me on. On the other hand, I have a shelf full of carefully selected books from my grandmother’s estate that achieve that goal beautifully.
Grammie was a red pencil/underline addict (highlighter pens didn’t exist yet) and her personality is evident on every page of what mattered to her. From marginal “stars”, single/double/triple underlines, little balloons around key words, and, best of all, marginal notes like “you’ve got to be kidding!”, I can literally hear her voice as I read what mattered to her.
After death, eBooks could allow your heirs to not only thumb through static pages, but they could also learn more about you by reading your digital fingerprints, helping them to sense your personality, and know what mattered to you at the time of your reading. Artwork: Secret Diary 18: "Up to speed" (2005) by Angela Moll
She was the woman who more responsible than anyone on the planet for who I am today. (OK! So now you know who to blame!) Incidentally, you can get a glimpse into this remarkable woman through a blog I wrote about the discovery of her 100 year old journals, written last year. I have Linked In contacts from Germany who connected with me after reading about what Grammie wrote in 1912. Now that’s what I call persistent fingerprinted content! These remote Linked In contacts are really connecting with her, through me.
Will my Kindle-driven wish list ever come true?
So, is there any hope that the publishing industry (and copyright lawyers) will smell the coffee and make my wish list of interactive features come true? I attended the Intelligent Content 2010 Conference in Palm Springs, CA where a roster of the “smartest guys/gals” on the subject gave us all a realistic whiff of the future of content. (Hint: DITA DITA DITA).
Dev Ganesan of Aptara (a digital publishing and XML content conversion services firm) gave a highly dynamic presentation on “Reimagining the Book: How Intelligent Technology is Changing the Publishing World”. His depiction of the future of the book far exceeded my Kindle-driven hunger for new features. Dev is actively involved in shaping the evolving EPUB standard, a free and open eBook standard designed for reflowable content, meaning that the text display can be optimized for the particular display device. Dev demonstrated “beyond engaging” DITA-driven intelligent and interactive content that runs on anything from a laptop to a Blackberry, iPhone, or most effectively, on the iPad.
The Q&A session was lively, with much discussion about Kindle being the lone wolf on sticking to its proprietary format, which Tim O’Reilly thinks this is a bad idea. The recently launched iPad is “intelligence” ready for what’s coming down the pike. Many of the questions opened up the whole can of worms regarding how do authors, artists and publishers flexibly copyright their assets without creating an impenetrable “glass box” that drives consumers away. (Follow Scott Abel’s tweets on this issue, he is more on top of this than anyone I know and will soon be presenting to a select group of Alpha Dog investors to clue them in).
What will it take to get the ePubs world to “wake up” and create the fingerprint and sharing tools we all crave?
If a dead chocolate icon can make individual “topic level” content available for a modest purchase price, why can’t newspapers, eBooks and other media creators who are quaking over broken copyright laws?
Scott Abel (The Content Wrangler) had the answer during the Q&A session for his closing presentation Intelligent Content 2010. “When the lawyers finally realize that publishers can parse book content down to the chapter, or DITA topic level, and sell that content for pennies, and as with iTunes, do this millions and millions of times, then it will happen.” In other words, Amazon and other eBook publishers are sitting on a content gold mine. But they are trying to sell you the entire glass display of See’s Candies when you only want to buy a Marzipan Honey almond paste, a Light Chocolate Truffle and a Dark Bordeaux. (If your itchy fingers clicked on the link in the previous sentence, you will see that even old lady See has wised up and lets you do exactly that!) If a dead chocolate icon can make individual “topic level” content available for a modest purchase price, why can’t newspapers, eBooks and other media creators who are quaking over broken copyright laws?
In the closing conference session, Scott also revealed a future Trival Pursuit question. Name the most popular app on the iPhone right now? Kindle reader and other eBook readers. The future is here. All we need is the intelligently structured content to go with it. And I will think of my grandmother’s red underlines every time I highlight eBook sections and upload it to some future eBook community site. Grammie would have loved this stuff.
‘And this affects me how?’, you ask
So how does any of this affect you? If you are creating content that must be published in multiple formats (including formats that don’t exist yet), get on the DITA wagon and start structuring your content now. Find out what intelligent content is and how to embed it usefully in what you produce. Closely follow webinars, tweets and especially blogs from Ann Rockley, Scott Abel, Joe Gollner and the crew of visionaries that presented at the Intelligent Content conference.
Why? Because the projected pixels displayed at the posh Parker Meridian resort in Palm Springs this week portend the world that we will all soon be living in. The old adage for college professors used to be “publish or perish”. Perhaps the new adage should be “embed intelligence in your structured content, or watch it evaporate.”
*** About the Author
Maxwell Hoffmann started his career as a graphic artist and typesetter before working for a variety of publishing software vendors. He has over 20 years of scalable desktop publishing and 15 years of localization experience. His specialties include content analysis, consulting and sales training. He currently serves as Director of Documentation Globalization for Globalization Partners International.
The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism is out with fresh survey data on how Americans consume their news.
The findings have big implications for any organization for which content management and content strategy play a role in supporting, interacting with and delivering information to customers. Read: this has tentacles that reach far beyond news organizations and news consumers, deep into the evolving behaviors of all consumers in the age of iPhone and Twitter.
First, the key findings: the Internet, according to Pew’s research, is now the third most popular news platform, behind only local and national TV news. It’s ahead of newspapers and radio – no surprise there.
But the more compelling info relates to the Three P’s of the research study’s findings. According to Pew:
‘The internet and mobile technologies are at the center of the story of how people’s relationship to news is changing. In today’s new multi-platform media environment, news is becoming portable, personalized, and participatory:
• Portable: 33% of cell phone owners now access news on their cell phones.
• Personalized: 28% of internet users have customized their home page to include news from sources and on topics that particularly interest them.
• Participatory: 37% of internet users have contributed to the creation of news, commented about it, or disseminated it via postings on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter.’
For news and non-news organizations, the Three P’s pose many questions around content (and content management) that beg answers and point to opportunities:
• Do you have an effective strategy for delivering mobile content to your diverse audiences? With the rise of the iPhone, iPad and other phone and reader devices, what is your plan, and will you get left behind as your readers/customers move their experience to these platforms? Content management platforms are part of the solution here, but require extensive planning and prioritization to prepare to roll out effective content experiences tailored to these platforms.
• Do you have an effective strategy for personalizing the online content experience? This question also goes far beyond the personalized news feeds or news content tailored to your preferences – if you’re a corporation, or a brand, or a college, or a non-profit: are you prepared for this inexorable shift to more personalized content experiences? The good news is CMS platforms are working overtime to deliver on the promise of if not personalized then (at least) lightly customized content experiences.
• Do you have an effective strategy for utilizing social networks for connecting your information to readers/customers? Implicit in Pew’s research is that social networks have fast become not just platforms for dissemination of information, but also effective filters on the river of news and information that flows toward us all. Your trusted friends (even the 1,000 people you follow on Twitter) serve as unofficial editors delivering their ‘best of’ links and news and content they think you should know about. It’s a stark wake up call to traditional publishers and communicators whose branded influence (hello, networks and newspapers) are waning perhaps even faster than they think. The opportunity if you’re a corporation or brand is to determine how best to harness social networks and turn these trusted sources of information into active distribution channels for your content.
The emergence of social media apps for business, a.k.a. Social Business Software (collaborate, chat, follow, feeds) is turning into an exercise in convergence, as in: where will your social media apps converge with your other content-centric apps?
The larger question is quickly becoming: who will (or should) eventually provide your social media tools and applications? Your existing or new web CMS vendor? ECM software vendor? CRM vendor? An upstart social media company? What about Microsoft SharePoint?
Traditional web CMS vendors are racing at breakneck speed to expand their platforms to offer intranet-focused social media apps in conjunction with traditional content management. Yet look at the upcoming Gilbane Content Management conference in Boston and you’ll see a high-tier sponsor is Jive, a solid leader in the emerging class of Social Business Software providers speedily making inroads into enterprises and department-level deployments.
And now here comes Salesforce.com with the pending 2010 launch of its Chatter social platform, which promises to meld collaboration, profiles, feeds, status updates, and more, with its widely used CRM (and marketing automation!) tools in the expanding Salesforce cloud.
Want a glimpse into what’s already a maze of confusion? Check out the recent Gartner Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace, which tries to position social app vendors into a coherent array of available choices. And there are no lack of choices – we see web CMS, enterprise CMS, social business software apps, portal vendors, large suites, standalone apps all over the grid.
Is it possible to make an educated vendor selection with these widely scattered options? Or is the diversity of providers offering up more confusion than clarity?
“Convergence Technical Communication” (CTC) is technical communication that provides information in several forms, including Web 2.0 delivery mechanisms, to improve the user experience. Most of the content is generated by technical communicators; a portion by users.
Web 2.0 makes it possible to create additional deliverables that enhance the user experience several different ways. First, it engages the different learning styles of our audience. Second, it improves user satisfaction with your product by creating communities of practice that allow users to participate in the conversation. Finally, any feedback and suggestions obtained can be used to improve the core deliverable set.
CTC Traits
Multiple Deliverables that can include:
Traditional core documentation set: online Help, manuals, quick reference materials, training
Videos
Podcasts
Blogs (including microblogs such as Twitter)
Social networking sites (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.)
Widgets/Gadgets
User Participation
Comments (to blogs, etc.)
Forums (questions/answers/suggestions)
Wikis (gathering best practices, etc.)
Continuous Publishing Model
Traditional content updates, plus social media (blogs, social networking sites, wikis) must be monitored and nurtured. New relevant material must be generated consistently.
Developing Web 2.0 deliverables provide opportunities to work with Training, Support, Marketing, and Product Management to use documentation in new and different ways. In addition to being a piece of your deliverable set, wikis, blogs, etc. can also promote your product and increase the search engine optimization (SEO) of your company — which are goals of Marketing and Product Management. Software demonstration videos and podcasts can be utilized by Training and Support to teach customers about the product.
Web 2.0 deliverables can also be used internally to manage projects and knowledge. Wikis are a great way to store information, gather feedback, and plan projects. Blogs can be used to distribute information throughout your company in an informal and compelling manner. Web 2.0 doesn’t always have to be customer facing.
Traditional vs. Web 2.0
The core deliverables set (which includes online Help, manuals, quick reference materials, etc.) is a very important piece of your documentation library, but there are some distinctions between these traditional deliverables and Web 2.0 efforts.
Characteristics of traditional deliverables:
Comprehensive
Controlled
Defined Organization/Structure
Taxonomy
Content has one author – One to Many
Characteristics of Web 2.0 deliverables:
Not Comprehensive
Not Controlled
Organic Organization/Structure
Folksonomy (user-generated taxonomy)
Content has many authors ― Many to Many ― “Crowdsourcing”
Some myths about Web 2.0
Myth 1: Users want to edit documentation.
Truth 1: Users want to join the conversation.
Myth 2: You must participate in all social media, or none of them.
Truth 2: You can’t deliver everything, nor is it necessary.
Myth 3: Social media grows organically.
Truth 3: Social media requires a plan, and constant nurturing.
Myth 4: A successful social networking effort will have 100% of users contributing content.
Truth 4: Everyone participates differently. Some write, some comment, some read – all contributions are valid. See the Social Profile tool on the Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies website for more information.
Wikis versus Blogs versus…
Since there are many different Web 2.0 deliverables (and most can be combined), it is important to choose the options that are right for your product. The important thing is to find out the best way to get your users involved in the community and participating in the conversation (whether posting ideas, commenting, or reading). A strategy is important, and you don’t have to do everything at once. Set a goal and then develop the right strategy to achieve it. For example, if you’d like to gather “best practices” for using your product, a wiki may be the ideal format. Wikis are easy to set up and easy for users to edit. However, you need to have a realistic scope — while a wiki is a great way to gather information, it is probably a bad idea to post your entire documentation set to a wiki and expect the user community to edit it for you. That is unlikely because you are expecting users to take on a large project, rather than a small task. (The exception to this is documentation for open source products, but those communities work and grow differently than those for proprietary software products. See the FLOSS Manuals website for an example of open source documentation.)
Delivering information via podcast or video may be the ideal learning medium for some audiences. If so, gather the appropriate talent and produce the podcasts/videos. If you decide to do a product blog, create links to the podcasts and videos (also create links to these resources from your Help files).
If you decide to do a blog (they are a great place to discuss features informally), make sure to link “feature” posts to more detailed documentation. Also ensure that comments are enabled and that any good ideas are acknowledged. (Useful information should be incorporated into your core deliverables.) Of course, opening the door for comments and contribution also opens the door for criticism and abuse. Your strategy also needs to address how you plan to handle this when it happens. It is possible to close comments, but keep in mind that the idea is to encourage conversation, so it is best to only do so in extreme cases. If you decide to screen forum posts and other forms of commenting before they go live (which is a good idea to keep spam posts off your site) you may not want to filter something out simply because it is negative. On the other hand, wikis have “soft security” — offensive material is easy to delete after the fact — so you can’t prescreen information. You can lock pages to prevent edits, but that violates the spirit of a wiki.
Creating and distributing widgets (sometimes called gadgets) that users can embed on their desktop, web page, or mobile device can be a great way to broadcast updates. Adoption is an issue — the widget must be compelling enough that the majority of users will want to install it. For certain applications, a widget may be an ideal solution for internal use. For example, you could broadcast updates to sales and service people in the field using a widget. If you don’t have the resources to develop a widget, you may want to broadcast updates via the microblog site Twitter.
Ways to Leverage Web 2.0
Often, proprietary concerns can limit your full participation in Web 2.0. If that is not an issue, you can use some websites to simplify distributing and serving up content.
You can then embed any of these on your website, blog, etc. with the code provided by the website. Of course, if you have proprietary issues, you can still provide these deliverables, but need to host them locally and authenticate users. The system should be as user-friendly as possible.
Best Practices
There are four best practices for Convergence Technical Communication:
Analyze often
Know your audience
Keep up with trends
Tie Traditional/Web 2.0 efforts together
For core, traditional deliverables, leverage:
Single Sourcing
Continuous Publishing
For Web 2.0:
Encourage Communities of Practice
Explore non-documentation goals, such as SEO
Gather champions/product evangelists
Your ultimate goal is to give customers what they need, balance customer needs and company needs, and steer deliverables appropriately and continuously.
Technical Communicators have core deliverables – online Help, manuals, quick reference materials, training. Not all are always necessary for every project. Adding Web 2.0 to the mix adds to the list of possible deliverables, but the same principle applies – all are not necessary for every project. Analysis is key – know your product, your audience, and what the possibilities are. Then deliver.
Nicky is a Senior Information Developer at ComponentOne. She has been a technical communicator for more than twelve years. She started her career writing books and producing them in hardcopy format, but she has since embraced online help and user assistance, Web design, single-sourcing, usability, e-learning, and knowledge management. She has experience writing for software products in a variety of industries; including media sales, industrial automation, simulation, and pharmacy.
She has given talks at the STC international, local, and regional levels, and has presented at other conferences (WritersUA and LavaCon) and local meetings as well. Topics have included various tools and technologies, user assistance design, single sourcing, and wikis for knowledge management. She has been published in conference proceedings and on the Web, as well as in STC’s Tieline and STC Pittsburgh’s Blue Pencil.
“Convergence Technical Communication” (CTC) is technical communication that provides information in several forms, including Web 2.0 delivery mechanisms, to improve the user experience. Most of the content is generated by technical communicators; a portion by users.
