Persona-comments-Jeff Vander Clute community platform technologist
Source: Email received April 19, 1011
ITA comprehensive proposal to evolving entire journalism system
Very comprehensive--exhaustive even. This is outstanding work.
Densmore argues effectively that the shift from the Information Economy to the Attention Economy is an inversion so fundamental that the entire system of journalism from publisher to user is being reinvented. The challenge for journalistic organizations is that the overwhelming abundance of both information and entities (as well as types of entities) that have relationships with the user means less value per unit of content or traditional advertising and less pricing power. The opportunity for these organizations must therefore be very, very different from past business models, and in practically every way. The proposed Information Trust Association, rooted in what must now be seen as a pressing need for whole-systems collaboration, is the first comprehensive proposal for evolving the entire system of journalism, and as such it deserves our serious attention.
The key aha moment for me is the hourglass vs. the cylinder. There are no gates or choke points now. How does one run a toll bridge when there are 100 ways to efficiently get from one side to the other, including teleportation?
A possible flow for the presentation:
- The whole system of news and information creation, distribution, and consumption is changing radically. To ride this wave of change, we need to understand the dynamics of the wave (the system) and think at the level of the system "in motion."
- Define systems thinking (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_thinking). How many people identify themselves as systems thinkers? (Show of hands)
- We can learn from people like Donella Meadows et al.
- The media ecology can really be seen as a living system, which implies we should be looking for organic solutions that are "messy," in which entities join into new temporary forms to meet a specific need and then often dissolve after a short time.
- There are great risks if we can't think this way because the old "clean" and "durable" structures are maladaptive.
- We won't figure it all out here (living systems are emergent!), but when we attempt to see the whole set of interrelated structures and dynamics, the next steps can emerge more easily.
- That's the intention of Infovalet / Information Trust Association.
- This project takes the view that a shared user network that enables an open information ecology IS adapted, and that there are business opportunities for those who would work in media with a living-systems attitude and perspective.
Here are the types of businesses that COULD thrive under these conditions...
Jeff Vander Clute Bay Area / Seattle Area jvanderclute@gmail.com
