Tuesday, April 04, 2006
A interesting piece on the implications and economics of the "new frontier". Worth reading the whole thing:
GigaOM : » SocialNets & The Power of The URL:
"...Social networks represent an innovation in the use of URLs. In any social network, URLs are mainly used as a container for self-expression, or as danah boyd would say, “identity production”. And since URLs can be linked to one another, doing so in this case creates what we all know as social networks. These consumer-generated URLs shift the power between corporations and consumers because identity production represents the simplest form of “user-generated content”. And as more content is being generated by the user, ownership of traditional media machines represents less power for the corporations in the overall media economy. The same goes for the blogosphere. This is why Rupert Murdoch’s acquisition of MySpace is now widely-recognized as such a brilliant strategic move (as I have written much about)...
...
Simply put, each and every URL should be viewed as a container for content that, in turn, can be distributed and redistributed. And the control of such distribution is increasingly in the hands of consumers, not corporations. For instance, if NBC.com puts up a video on their site and I point to the URL in a blog entry, I have exercised my influence over the distribution of that content. And if my blog post subsequently starts a huge viral redistribution of that URL to millions of other people, my control and influence over the distribution of that NBC video will have been at the expense of all other distribution outlets that are under the control of NBC. Therefore, when one is attempting to analyze the business model potential of Internet-based media, it is critical to understand the power and control any party may have over URLs. Consequently, the total share of the URLs under the control of consumers should also include all the outbound links that are included in the pages authored by users (whether they own the destination URL or not, users are controlling the traffic by posting hyperlinks and directing other users to them).
Looking out several years, it’s not too difficult to envision a media landscape where the majority of traditional media distribution outlets reliant on the benefits of natural monopoly economics have largely been replaced with a highly-fragmented layer of people-powered community-based distribution networks. As a case in point, I hardly ever go directly to the NY Times, LA Times, and the Wall Street Journal any more. Instead, I rely wholly on the authoritative blogs I rely on to filter out the articles of interest in those publications. In fact, the sites I prefer offer both an original voice as well as a consistently generous collection of outbound links to other related content, professionally produced or not. It’s just a matter time before I do the same with all my media consumption, including my audio and video needs..."
And I might add; search"
GigaOM : » SocialNets & The Power of The URL:
"...Social networks represent an innovation in the use of URLs. In any social network, URLs are mainly used as a container for self-expression, or as danah boyd would say, “identity production”. And since URLs can be linked to one another, doing so in this case creates what we all know as social networks. These consumer-generated URLs shift the power between corporations and consumers because identity production represents the simplest form of “user-generated content”. And as more content is being generated by the user, ownership of traditional media machines represents less power for the corporations in the overall media economy. The same goes for the blogosphere. This is why Rupert Murdoch’s acquisition of MySpace is now widely-recognized as such a brilliant strategic move (as I have written much about)...
...
Simply put, each and every URL should be viewed as a container for content that, in turn, can be distributed and redistributed. And the control of such distribution is increasingly in the hands of consumers, not corporations. For instance, if NBC.com puts up a video on their site and I point to the URL in a blog entry, I have exercised my influence over the distribution of that content. And if my blog post subsequently starts a huge viral redistribution of that URL to millions of other people, my control and influence over the distribution of that NBC video will have been at the expense of all other distribution outlets that are under the control of NBC. Therefore, when one is attempting to analyze the business model potential of Internet-based media, it is critical to understand the power and control any party may have over URLs. Consequently, the total share of the URLs under the control of consumers should also include all the outbound links that are included in the pages authored by users (whether they own the destination URL or not, users are controlling the traffic by posting hyperlinks and directing other users to them).
Looking out several years, it’s not too difficult to envision a media landscape where the majority of traditional media distribution outlets reliant on the benefits of natural monopoly economics have largely been replaced with a highly-fragmented layer of people-powered community-based distribution networks. As a case in point, I hardly ever go directly to the NY Times, LA Times, and the Wall Street Journal any more. Instead, I rely wholly on the authoritative blogs I rely on to filter out the articles of interest in those publications. In fact, the sites I prefer offer both an original voice as well as a consistently generous collection of outbound links to other related content, professionally produced or not. It’s just a matter time before I do the same with all my media consumption, including my audio and video needs..."
And I might add; search"
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