Really enjoyed the article— you presented some disruptive ideas about web content that I never considered, it made for a great read.
Things got very interesting for me when you starting talking about the issues of content attribution, ownership, and compensation. I am the co-founder of “TipTheWeb”:http://tiptheweb.org/ which is addressing those exact things! Your article inspired me to reply on our blog: “Orbital Content — The Missing Pieces”:http://blog.tiptheweb.org/post/4767694224/orbital-content-the-missing-pieces
It would be excellent to keep this discussion going, and I’m curious if you also think TipTheWeb has a place to help fill-in the attribution and compensation side of your orbital content ideas?
As expected, a very interesting article and discussion… I’m always happy when I see new stuff from ALA.
Thus far most of the comments here are discussing the attribution issue (which I find a fascinating and difficult problem), but I’d like to see a bit more chatter about the first part which terminates with proposing an “API of You” to mediate the communication between services and the orbital data that falls under individual purview.
As lovely as the term is, however, the technical details of such a thing are far from obvious to me, and I’m curious to get some expansion on what this might look like. First, I’ll note that the term content as used here seems to be encompassing what I see as really 3 types of data, namely
1. Personal information – name, email, date of birth, physical location, etc.
2. Personally authored content – blog posts, emails, tweets, status updates
3. Personally aggregated content – collected articles, links, text or code snippets and so forth.
There’s likely some overlap here in the sense that tweets and other Facebook-type updates could blend into both 1 and 3, but I think it’s useful to think about them distinctly. Also, it seems to me there’s actually a fourth category that I neglected to include because while it’s currently separate, the article argues for it being included into the third segment, I think. That is, data that is (or could be) generated as a byproduct of using the rest… play counts for your music library, statistics about site visitation, how long you spend using various apps, who you most frequently retweet, and so on.
These are data that are generated by many of the apps we use, but as stated, are locked away in the database for that specific application. Freeing this, and giving individuals the ability to share or not share it as they see fit and perhaps more critically, consolidating it — merging my listening data from last.fm, pandora, my iPhone, iTunes at home, … — is a noble goal, certainly, but devilishly complex.
First you must also have common data formats for any and all content that you’re storing, and get everyone to use them which is never a trivial matter, and multiplied by the vast number of different data types you could conceive of. Some of these we have and some are relatively trivial technically, but adoption becomes a stumbling block.
And so, finally, what is this API of You, exactly? Since I’m not a computer (nor a gadget), there must be an application that stores, classifies (or allows me to classify) and mediates these disparate bits of data, and provide the common interface for sharing it around to other applications that want to make use of the information and collecting it from applications that generate new stuff.
Beyond what’s been mentioned already, I think the folks at Diaspora are working towards a practical solution for some of this, at least for some subset of the relevant data, so maybe that’s our starting point?
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LibertyBasil
My understanding of distilled content is just the article. How do you reconcile sending ads along with the liberated content if I as a user just want the pared down text? Do you envisage text only ads?
And here I was wondering, “Is anyone out there thinking about how content strategy should apply to mobile? If so, who?” Meanwhile, you’re writing this article, which is several steps ahead of the concept of “mobile” in positing what relevant, targeted content might look like in the future.
Thanks for the article. Pretty sweet. I like the idea of an API of me. ITSALLABOUT ME. ☺ Seriously though, it is about the user.
I love to think about this in the context of social graphs and how I think this can really refine them. Most services make the assumption that people are nodes, and “friendships”, “follows”, “content” etc. are the link between them. I disagree with this notion. I see content and products as nodes, and users as the link between them.
Content is created to draw our attention. Products are made for us to buy. Once either one is created, its identity is cemented. The next step involves users deciding whether or not to consume the content or buy the product. But we all know as users, we are mercurial by nature in choosing the content we consume and the products we buy. Content Creators and product manufacturers act, then users and consumers react.
I see the concept of orbital content as the first step to finally streamlining the cluttered and noisy social graph experience. How do I finally share certain types of content with the people I deem relevant in that topic sphere? By choosing the content I want to orbit around me, and then finding the people (friends, taste makers) I share that content with as a common variable.
For instance, I share cycling content with my cycling buddies, Brooklyn eateries with fellow Brooklyn folks, and very esoteric topics like horsehide leather jackets made from horses that died of natural causes with people who like leather jackets. And there might even be some overlap with some of these interests. My point is, these tools give users the power to surround themselves with the content and users they want. Awesome.
@KBenton – Those are some really great insights into data types, especially the “fourth” type you mentioned. I think in terms of the implementation of an API of you, it won’t actually be the individual users implementing this tech. Someone will come along and offer to do the “API of you” work. The important thing, in my mind, would be ensuring that the content was backed up to something like Dropbox or Amazon cloud storage so that if you want to switch API of you providers, you can do so easily.
@LibertyBasil – I really don’t know the layout of ads in specific contexts. I’m more hoping for some give and take between content creators and consumers. Creators will bring more relevant ads and get on board with a more liberal use of their content. Content consumers will be willing to take on ads
@Al Dente – Thanks you, sir.
@Melanie – Thank you so much. Very nice of you to say.
@krluna – Social graphs are ripe for this sort of relationship. Excellent comment. I don’t have much to add other than that I think Diaspora is trying for this.
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Olivier Compagne
Thanks Cameron, what a good read. I’ve been thinking about the evolution of handling content in a very similar way as you describe and envision, and I’m quite surprised to read that the shift is already started. It’s fascinating, and huge!
The problematic my thinking revolves around is mostly about filtering content. How to filter user-tailored content before it is assessed by the user? Social network oriented solutions are unsatisfactory: I share some interests and opinions with my friends and networks, but only partially; and most importantly, I want to tap into the entire web, not just my networks – it’s the power of the web!
Linear voted content a la Reddit is not much better. As Paul Graham explains, it strongly favors easy-to-read content that get more votes.
Do you or anyone have ay insight into this issue? Or do you guys know anybody who has tackled this question with some success?
I really enjoyed your article, and am enthusiastic about what is beginning to take shape around content right now: a focus on preserving reader attention, portability, and responsiveness to context, especially as these ideas have been handled by you, Mandy Brown, Jeffrey Zeldman, and others. It’s important that those who enthusiastically and prolifically produce content lead the way.
I’m curious about something you mentioned early on in this piece: “Flexibility at this macro level of the site is important, but the real breakthroughs will come when we enable the same flexibility at the micro level with individual pieces of content.” I’m with you, for sure, in terms of how web design needs to adapt to be flexible (i.e. device agnostic). But I wonder about the design implications of apps like Readability and Instapaper, etc. I love these tools, again, because they provide a courtesy to readers like me—enabling me to focus my attention in a quiet space free of visual distractions and other promotional intrusions—but also can anticipate the anxiety they might create for designers.
I just sent off my next column to the Print magazine editors—it’s going to be about what I called “Post-Desk Content” (we’ll see if that title makes it)—and was following a similar line of questioning: If content is not its container (i.e. a book, article, movie, etc. has a substance that is something other than it’s form) then does it have an inherent design? If content has no inherent design, what then, for designers? I ended up talking more about the anachronistic design metaphors we tend toward when designing modern content containers (interfaces, mostly)—the jukeboxes, shelves, etc., but I’d love to hear what people are thinking about how content liberation and design interact.
“The key would be to make liberated content impossible to edit.”
Not impossible to edit as that is probably impossible but what about something like the checksum that is used to check errors in transmitted data.
Would it be possible to realise something of that effect in html5 so that the liberated content itself could indicate it was the authentic and true original? Like a self checking digital signature.
I’ve noticed that there is a push in the forums I visit to try and credit the original of any item. That is, to take the trouble not to link to sites that repeat all, or parts of the original but to track the original down and link directly to that instead.
I’d hope that the same would come to apply to liberated content. The only trick then is to implement methods of payment as quoted above from Jaron Lanier where authors of original creative content could gain a reasonable return over the long term.
Really interesting article, very excited about the progression of the web, and can’t wait to try this out.
There is nothing worse than saving a link, or following one, only to find that it has been shut down and lost forever.
I suppose it’s almost like keeping an online diary of where you have been and the interesting things you have found along the way.
@chrbutler – I am going to channel two of my design heroes, Robert Bringhurst and Ladislav Sutnar, for my response to your comment. Good design should “honor content” and “intensify comprehension.” Poor design serves as a simple “wrapper” as you put it, but I believe that design done well becomes fused with the content to such an extent that few would want to separate the two. Removing design cheapens the content. Instapaper / Readability are a reaction to the fact that much web design is garbage and most content is better off without it. If everything plays out as I hope, it will be interesting for designers to see which of their design work is actively discarded by users and which is preserved.
@A Scott – I think this is a much bigger problem than it seems at first. If two people purport to be the creators of the same piece of content, how would you determine ownership? Is there some new registry or governing body that determines a content originator and enforces the checksum for it? There don’t really seem to be practical options. The change needs to be cultural. It should be significantly looked down upon to scrub or change attribution. I believe that will cover the 80% case, which is enough to change the web.
@Stephanie93 – Thanks Stephanie. My very biased guess says that you won’t have to wait very long for products to address these ideas.
Useful insights to a complex question. It is a very disconcerting to web publishers, but it is a reality – online content is immediately sharable. Personally, my view as I experiment with online publishing is to embrace this reality. This article begins to tease out the options on how to create a viable publication in the environment. The answer however remains distant, and the only way to get closer to this, is through experimentation. Thanks for an insightful article.
I’m a big fan of Instapaper – as I dig my way through tweets with url links to articles I throw them straight into to instapaper. I find the content so much easier to read as a result of this.
In terms of using the app as a way of collecting for later use – I just use it as a temporary reading platform.
36 Reader Comments
Back to the Articleericf
Cameron,
Really enjoyed the article— you presented some disruptive ideas about web content that I never considered, it made for a great read.
Things got very interesting for me when you starting talking about the issues of content attribution, ownership, and compensation. I am the co-founder of “TipTheWeb”:http://tiptheweb.org/ which is addressing those exact things! Your article inspired me to reply on our blog: “Orbital Content — The Missing Pieces”:http://blog.tiptheweb.org/post/4767694224/orbital-content-the-missing-pieces
It would be excellent to keep this discussion going, and I’m curious if you also think TipTheWeb has a place to help fill-in the attribution and compensation side of your orbital content ideas?
KBenton
As expected, a very interesting article and discussion… I’m always happy when I see new stuff from ALA.
Thus far most of the comments here are discussing the attribution issue (which I find a fascinating and difficult problem), but I’d like to see a bit more chatter about the first part which terminates with proposing an “API of You” to mediate the communication between services and the orbital data that falls under individual purview.
As lovely as the term is, however, the technical details of such a thing are far from obvious to me, and I’m curious to get some expansion on what this might look like. First, I’ll note that the term content as used here seems to be encompassing what I see as really 3 types of data, namely
1. Personal information – name, email, date of birth, physical location, etc.
2. Personally authored content – blog posts, emails, tweets, status updates
3. Personally aggregated content – collected articles, links, text or code snippets and so forth.
There’s likely some overlap here in the sense that tweets and other Facebook-type updates could blend into both 1 and 3, but I think it’s useful to think about them distinctly. Also, it seems to me there’s actually a fourth category that I neglected to include because while it’s currently separate, the article argues for it being included into the third segment, I think. That is, data that is (or could be) generated as a byproduct of using the rest… play counts for your music library, statistics about site visitation, how long you spend using various apps, who you most frequently retweet, and so on.
These are data that are generated by many of the apps we use, but as stated, are locked away in the database for that specific application. Freeing this, and giving individuals the ability to share or not share it as they see fit and perhaps more critically, consolidating it — merging my listening data from last.fm, pandora, my iPhone, iTunes at home, … — is a noble goal, certainly, but devilishly complex.
First you must also have common data formats for any and all content that you’re storing, and get everyone to use them which is never a trivial matter, and multiplied by the vast number of different data types you could conceive of. Some of these we have and some are relatively trivial technically, but adoption becomes a stumbling block.
And so, finally, what is this API of You, exactly? Since I’m not a computer (nor a gadget), there must be an application that stores, classifies (or allows me to classify) and mediates these disparate bits of data, and provide the common interface for sharing it around to other applications that want to make use of the information and collecting it from applications that generate new stuff.
Beyond what’s been mentioned already, I think the folks at Diaspora are working towards a practical solution for some of this, at least for some subset of the relevant data, so maybe that’s our starting point?
LibertyBasil
My understanding of distilled content is just the article. How do you reconcile sending ads along with the liberated content if I as a user just want the pared down text? Do you envisage text only ads?
Al Dente
Great to hear (see?) thought-provoking ideas on revenue generation, as well as the social/tech advancements
Melanie
And here I was wondering, “Is anyone out there thinking about how content strategy should apply to mobile? If so, who?” Meanwhile, you’re writing this article, which is several steps ahead of the concept of “mobile” in positing what relevant, targeted content might look like in the future.
Kudos.
krluna
Thanks for the article. Pretty sweet. I like the idea of an API of me. ITS ALL ABOUT ME. ☺ Seriously though, it is about the user.
I love to think about this in the context of social graphs and how I think this can really refine them. Most services make the assumption that people are nodes, and “friendships”, “follows”, “content” etc. are the link between them. I disagree with this notion. I see content and products as nodes, and users as the link between them.
Content is created to draw our attention. Products are made for us to buy. Once either one is created, its identity is cemented. The next step involves users deciding whether or not to consume the content or buy the product. But we all know as users, we are mercurial by nature in choosing the content we consume and the products we buy. Content Creators and product manufacturers act, then users and consumers react.
I see the concept of orbital content as the first step to finally streamlining the cluttered and noisy social graph experience. How do I finally share certain types of content with the people I deem relevant in that topic sphere? By choosing the content I want to orbit around me, and then finding the people (friends, taste makers) I share that content with as a common variable.
For instance, I share cycling content with my cycling buddies, Brooklyn eateries with fellow Brooklyn folks, and very esoteric topics like horsehide leather jackets made from horses that died of natural causes with people who like leather jackets. And there might even be some overlap with some of these interests. My point is, these tools give users the power to surround themselves with the content and users they want. Awesome.
Cameron Koczon
@KBenton – Those are some really great insights into data types, especially the “fourth” type you mentioned. I think in terms of the implementation of an API of you, it won’t actually be the individual users implementing this tech. Someone will come along and offer to do the “API of you” work. The important thing, in my mind, would be ensuring that the content was backed up to something like Dropbox or Amazon cloud storage so that if you want to switch API of you providers, you can do so easily.
@LibertyBasil – I really don’t know the layout of ads in specific contexts. I’m more hoping for some give and take between content creators and consumers. Creators will bring more relevant ads and get on board with a more liberal use of their content. Content consumers will be willing to take on ads
@Al Dente – Thanks you, sir.
@Melanie – Thank you so much. Very nice of you to say.
@krluna – Social graphs are ripe for this sort of relationship. Excellent comment. I don’t have much to add other than that I think Diaspora is trying for this.
faunt
If we’re imagining worlds, why not a step further into a world where compensation for content consumption makes advertisers redundant.
Businesses need no longer monetize with ads chasing content when content could become the creative capital of our businesses.
Can someone help point out the flaws in that future?
Olivier Compagne
Thanks Cameron, what a good read. I’ve been thinking about the evolution of handling content in a very similar way as you describe and envision, and I’m quite surprised to read that the shift is already started. It’s fascinating, and huge!
The problematic my thinking revolves around is mostly about filtering content. How to filter user-tailored content before it is assessed by the user? Social network oriented solutions are unsatisfactory: I share some interests and opinions with my friends and networks, but only partially; and most importantly, I want to tap into the entire web, not just my networks – it’s the power of the web!
Linear voted content a la Reddit is not much better. As Paul Graham explains, it strongly favors easy-to-read content that get more votes.
Do you or anyone have ay insight into this issue? Or do you guys know anybody who has tackled this question with some success?
chrbutler
Cameron,
I really enjoyed your article, and am enthusiastic about what is beginning to take shape around content right now: a focus on preserving reader attention, portability, and responsiveness to context, especially as these ideas have been handled by you, Mandy Brown, Jeffrey Zeldman, and others. It’s important that those who enthusiastically and prolifically produce content lead the way.
I’m curious about something you mentioned early on in this piece: “Flexibility at this macro level of the site is important, but the real breakthroughs will come when we enable the same flexibility at the micro level with individual pieces of content.” I’m with you, for sure, in terms of how web design needs to adapt to be flexible (i.e. device agnostic). But I wonder about the design implications of apps like Readability and Instapaper, etc. I love these tools, again, because they provide a courtesy to readers like me—enabling me to focus my attention in a quiet space free of visual distractions and other promotional intrusions—but also can anticipate the anxiety they might create for designers.
I just sent off my next column to the Print magazine editors—it’s going to be about what I called “Post-Desk Content” (we’ll see if that title makes it)—and was following a similar line of questioning: If content is not its container (i.e. a book, article, movie, etc. has a substance that is something other than it’s form) then does it have an inherent design? If content has no inherent design, what then, for designers? I ended up talking more about the anachronistic design metaphors we tend toward when designing modern content containers (interfaces, mostly)—the jukeboxes, shelves, etc., but I’d love to hear what people are thinking about how content liberation and design interact.
Thanks for a thoughtful piece,
CB
A Scott
“The key would be to make liberated content impossible to edit.”
Not impossible to edit as that is probably impossible but what about something like the checksum that is used to check errors in transmitted data.
Would it be possible to realise something of that effect in html5 so that the liberated content itself could indicate it was the authentic and true original? Like a self checking digital signature.
I’ve noticed that there is a push in the forums I visit to try and credit the original of any item. That is, to take the trouble not to link to sites that repeat all, or parts of the original but to track the original down and link directly to that instead.
I’d hope that the same would come to apply to liberated content. The only trick then is to implement methods of payment as quoted above from Jaron Lanier where authors of original creative content could gain a reasonable return over the long term.
Stephanie93
Really interesting article, very excited about the progression of the web, and can’t wait to try this out.
There is nothing worse than saving a link, or following one, only to find that it has been shut down and lost forever.
I suppose it’s almost like keeping an online diary of where you have been and the interesting things you have found along the way.
Cameron Koczon
@chrbutler – I am going to channel two of my design heroes, Robert Bringhurst and Ladislav Sutnar, for my response to your comment. Good design should “honor content” and “intensify comprehension.” Poor design serves as a simple “wrapper” as you put it, but I believe that design done well becomes fused with the content to such an extent that few would want to separate the two. Removing design cheapens the content. Instapaper / Readability are a reaction to the fact that much web design is garbage and most content is better off without it. If everything plays out as I hope, it will be interesting for designers to see which of their design work is actively discarded by users and which is preserved.
@A Scott – I think this is a much bigger problem than it seems at first. If two people purport to be the creators of the same piece of content, how would you determine ownership? Is there some new registry or governing body that determines a content originator and enforces the checksum for it? There don’t really seem to be practical options. The change needs to be cultural. It should be significantly looked down upon to scrub or change attribution. I believe that will cover the 80% case, which is enough to change the web.
@Stephanie93 – Thanks Stephanie. My very biased guess says that you won’t have to wait very long for products to address these ideas.
khalil
Useful insights to a complex question. It is a very disconcerting to web publishers, but it is a reality – online content is immediately sharable. Personally, my view as I experiment with online publishing is to embrace this reality. This article begins to tease out the options on how to create a viable publication in the environment. The answer however remains distant, and the only way to get closer to this, is through experimentation. Thanks for an insightful article.
kaynaklık saç
Thanks for the great article about content. :) it’s really interestly
Karlosb
I’m a big fan of Instapaper – as I dig my way through tweets with url links to articles I throw them straight into to instapaper. I find the content so much easier to read as a result of this.
In terms of using the app as a way of collecting for later use – I just use it as a temporary reading platform.
Superb article! :-)