Blueprint-content

Notes: The content breakout, Thurs., Dec. 4, 2008 at "Blueprinting the Information Valet Economy"

(thanks to Emily Sussman, scribe)

What is the IVP?

• PROPOSAL: A consumer has relationship with a home base. you move about the web, when you encounter resources you need to buy, activities with third-party are monitored, aggregated, reported back to the valet to improve it. What would that entity look like?

hope the Info Valet would present you with an easy and effective way to get to the information you need

• Groups will make a list of 5 bullet points what they think the Information Valet is

also, next steps

GROUPS

• bus models/legal/corp/marketing
• content/syndication
• advertising/privacy/demographics/ID

CONTENT GROUP

How would info valet be successful?

• Content can be served up in the same way behavioral advertising has been
• Googlenews vs. yahoo news

What's the problem we're trying to solve?

• Journalism can't pay for itself, people would like to have easier way to get information, customized
• A also need way to deliver that infromation to people who want it... better than google alerts could infromation be the currency?

Something to look at: http://www.bazaarvoice.com is intermediary between home depot and customers

• finding information you didn't know existed, also ease of use concept

• hard to separate advertising, business model from a conversation about content
  • different strata of infromation, which you would or would not be willing to pay for
  • more information is not the solution; targeted information is

• my question: ARE SEARCH/GATHER FUNCTIONS TAKING AWAY THE GATEKEEPING FUNCTION OF NEWS ORGANIZATIONS? To what effect?

Group Thoughts

• you might be willing to pay for the aggregate but not the individual article
• news moving away from product to process (west seattle blog)- they've engaged the community re: content
• where does the journalist come up in all of this in the role of community manager?
• who pays for the jorunalism that isn't commerically desirable, in a context where each piece of information can be monetized?
• something to be said for journalists hooking up with the consumer
• community becomes the ENGINE for the news organization
• journalists make sure that the concerns of the community are being addressed

if the community is the engine to journalism and democracy, how does that work with the context? Maybe journalists need to invent a self-correcting mechanism--role of valet?

*Role of SERENDIPITY in newsgathering

• THE "NICHEING" OF NEWS
  • are we heading towards the old model?
  • news outlets sprouting up as needs arise, advertisers regarded as part of the community
• need to retain value, relationship, reputation

Next step: define content, standardize value of content

• Defining less-tangible things like readers' values
• Does the IV already exist in the form of the AP?