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(Monthly Archives) July 2005

Battelle on Disintermediation in AdAge… and My Comments

Here are the self-explanatory title and subtitle: “ARE YOU BECOMING IRRELEVANT TO YOUR CUSTOMERS? Why Marketers, Agencies and Media Execs Need to Understand Disintermediation“. Here is a link to the full article (AdAge requires registration). Here is a link to John’s posting on his own SearchBlog.

Among the many good points by John or as he calls them “ground rules for media in a Web-dominated world“:

  • join the ‘point-to’ economy,
  • make your living in the long tail,
  • creative no longer driver,
  • writers go directly to readers,
  • rise of the new middlemen – meaning Yahoo, Google, IAC, etc.

I would like to comment though on something John says:

    “Publishers are born connectors, they bring like-minded people together. They are also conversationalists of the first order. They foster the interaction between the three key parties in commercial media: the audience, the author/creator and the marketer. This facilitation is still very much needed. And as much as the folks at Google would beg to differ, when it comes to true value, nothing beats human communication. Figure out a way to be part of the conversation, and you will always prosper.”

I would question a basic assumption underlying the discussion – the “author-audience” relationship – as a given… as something that still needs facilitation by marketers – even in a conversational framework.

I would argue that – on a deeper cultural level – we live through (for quite some time already) a crisis of the idea of “creation” itself as a mode sustaining its terms: “author” and “audience“. Our culture is steadily re-telling the hierarchical “one-to-many” structures through “many-to-many” network models. In a conversation, we don’t really have a “teller” and an “audience.” Everybody is both “talking” and “listening” in a peer to peer environment.

So, what kind of mediation such a conversation needs. “Moderating” comes to mind… which may be as good as Ted Koppel’s televised town square meetings, but is that the conversation John is having in mind? Ted will be retiring soon.

Then, there is the “creative” in the “mediation” business itself. Once you are “creative”, you stop being “part of the conversation” – you try to take “the center” of it. And this, again, reminds me somewhat of Ted sitting pretty on a high chair.

My point being… I am not sure that “authorship” and “mediation” are sustainable values in the context of a real non-moderated conversation.

July 13, 2005 architecture
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Comments on Stephen Baker’s "How to appeal to non-bloggers? Think virus wikis"

In a recent blog post, Stephen Baker writes:

    I’ve tried to interest my wife, for example, in our local Montclair, NJ, blog, baristanet. She’ll use it for movie schedules but has no interest in reading or writing comments (and has trouble understanding why anyone would).

So true… Yes, most people seemingly are not inclined to be active media producers or actors. Most of us prefer the “one-click” media engagement. Click – your TV is on; click – look at your new picture; click – go from this web page to that web page.

Most people will not learn the “blog speak”. How about “trackbacks”… Oh, yes… these are links to somewhere on the Web where somebody already said something about what you read here. And this is supposedly happening automatically. For example, I am writing this post hoping for a “trackback” to appear on Stephen Baker’s blog linking back to this post right here – automatically – because I’m linking my post here – back to his original post there. How about easy to imagine… Not to mention “rss”, “pings”, “tagging”, and other similar nerd niceties. Not enticing for most normal people.

And what’s all the fuss about “blog this”, “blog that”… I still cannot get it. How in the world bloggers see each other on the web. It’s not obvious at all. There are the links in the side bar… and in the text itself… true. But how do you easily put these links there. As obscure as any old-fashioned DHTML/Javascript coding. My guess is – bloggers see each other on CNN, may be on Google, locally everywhere in SF, and on Web 2.0 conferences.

And… where is the information? As Stephen Baker points out:

    …it will take new types of blogs to broaden the appeal. They’ll function as tools, and will feed less from comments to other types of input. One example is this new virus wiki (from Ross Mayfield). Here users create the value by contributing data. It’s promises clear value, even for the comment averse.

Yes, most blog posts are comments about other blog posts that are comments on something already produced on old fashioned web sites, TV, or newspapers. There is no much hard data on blogs. But this is to be expected from a publishing format that thrives on quick “real time” typing done by people with other day-time jobs.

And yet… and yet… people can be surprisingly prolific in writing and reacting when faced with serious issues – like personal physical or financial survival, choosing between Kerry and Bush, or more recently – the incredible wave of Internet activity for the tsunami disaster. So, here is a point I want to emphasize – the issues. And then again… the large amounts of useful information.

And here comes the plug – AidPage. How is AidPage relevant? Read my recent posts about AidPage.

Update (July 8, 2005): Turns out Blogger does not support trackbacking yet. No hope for an automatic trackback appearing on Steve Baker’s original post. I did an old fashioned comment there referring back to here… :)

July 7, 2005 aidpage
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What is AidPage?

You are a tourist on a city street… trying to find your way. How do you get help?

Help Yourself
You use a map or a booklet with information about the city. That’s ok… although… feels a bit like work… and is somewhat lonely.

People Helping People
You ask a passer-by for directions… Or simply, a passer-by recognizes your “tourist” behavior, stops on his/her own will and spends 30 seconds (often much more) helping you. You feel good. The passer-by feels even better. Witnessing onlookers feel good too. What happens is an easy, almost instinctive “give and take”… so natural that we don’t even think about who “gives”, who “takes”, or why is this happening. This is not “giving”. People just help each other.

So… what is AidPage?
E-Bay enables the simple, direct “people buy from people” over the Internet. AidPage enables the simple, direct “people aid people” over the Internet.

July 3, 2005 aidpage
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AidPage – My New Company, My New Endeavour

AidPage is a new free public space on the Web where you can speak out about (1) your needs, and (2) your desire to help others.

Once you make a posting (automatically published on a new AidPage), you instantly become an AidMate. Nothing technical about the process – no setup, nothing. This gives you (1) immediate visibility to the thousands of AidPage visitors – including your own editable home page, (2) the ability to communicate privately with all other AidMates without giving up the privacy of your email address, (3) the ability to make unlimited number of new AidPages if needed – including with pictures, (4) the ability to easily relate pages by keywords. All of this – as simple as typing in a normal text editing program.

But most importantly… being an AidMate makes you part in something larger… a new global public place… where people see each other… and help each other… with no fuss… and no need to be part of organizations with all their rules, bureaucracy, and political agendas.

Organizations though are absolutely welcome to use AidPage – but within the spirit of informal immediacy that is the hallmark of AidPage. Organizations, we believe, will want to publish large amounts of useful data on AidPage for three reasons – (1) as part of their own web visibility strategy, (2) for a fair share in the advertising revenue generated on their AidPages, and (3) because this will be extremely easy technically and organizationally.

And yes… let’s say it again… it’s all free. AidPage is a highly sophisticated system created and maintained by a micro-staff of selected few – expenses partly covered by content related advertising and mostly by pure enthusiasm.

You too have the chance now – to be able to tell one day to your grandchildren: “I was one of the first AidMates.”

More on this subject… coming really soon. Thanks for visiting!
But don’t just visit… Make an AidPage… Make a difference!

July 2, 2005 aidpage
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