Videos from the Web 2.0 Summit 09 (Day2)

At the center of both the destruction and creation of new business models is the World Wide Web. At the Web 2.0 Summit, held in San Francisco October 20-22, some of the leading companies share their views on business models and what is next on the horizon. The Summit is arranged by O'Reilly Media and TechWeb, and moderated by John Battelle and Tim O'Reilly.

Videos from Day 1

Videos from Day 3

A Conversation with Qi Lu Qi Lu (Microsoft Online Services Division), Tim O'Reilly (O'Reilly Media, Inc.)


A Conversation with Aneesh Chopra Aneesh Chopra (Federal Office of Science and Technology Policy), Tim O'Reilly (O'Reilly Media, Inc.)


HOB: Changing the Energy Equation Shane Robison (HP)


HOB: The Infrastructure of Facebook Mike Schroepfer (Facebook)

HOB: Scaling Humans and Social Nets to Answer Questions Max Ventilla (Aardvark)

A Conversation with Sheryl Sandberg Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook), John Battelle (Federated Media Publishing)


Discussion: Whither Journalism? John Battelle (Federated Media Publishing), Marissa Mayer (Google), Eric Hippeau (The Huffington Post), Robert Thomson (The Wall Street Journal), Martin Nisenholtz (The New York Times Company)

Discussion: The Future of Content Richard Rosenblatt (Demand Media Inc. ), Dan Rosensweig (Guitar Hero), Peter Guber (Mandalay Entertainment)

A Conversation with Owen Van Natta Owen Van Natta (MySpace)


HOB: A Vision for Digital Art in San Francisco: The Launch of GAFFTA Aaron Koblin (Gray Area Foundation for the Arts)


HOB: When Can We Scale in The Mobile Web? Mary McDowell (Nokia)


Discussion: Humans As Sensors Brady Forrest (O'Reilly Media, Inc.), Markus Tripp (Mobilizy), Deborah Estrin (Computer Science Department, UCLA), Sharon Biggar (Path Intelligence), Di-Ann Eisnor (Waze)


A Conversation with Brooke Burke and Mark Cuban, Introduced by Richard Rosenblatt Richard Rosenblatt (Demand Media Inc. ), Brooke Burke (Modern Mom), Mark Cuban (HDNet, Landmark Theaters, Magnolia Pictures, Dallas Mavericks, FilesAnywhere, Radical Buy)


Relating videos:

• Videos from the Web 2.0 Summit 09 (Day1)
• Videos from the Web 2.0 Summit 09 (Day3)
• Videos from New Business Models For News Summit 2008
• The Future of Content & Telecoms: Flat Rate Content Bundles and Social Media (Gerd Leonhard @ eComm 2009)
• Did you know 4.0 - The changing media landscape
• Interview with Marissa Mayer on The future of Google, on Charlie Rose

Alas, Math.

In the case of the paperless math resources, I thought it was interesting that by-and-large in terms of integrating tech into math teaching (at least at the secondary level) the math folks seem so far behind the folks in the humanities. And that's hardly the fault of math teachers; rather, as many folks have pointed out, it's a problem with hardware and the ways by which we think about physically using a computer.

In a serious way, if you don't have a Tablet, you don't have the full applicability of tech integration to learning math.

Whereas in the humanities, typing itself is hardly a detriment. And the keyboards we use today are really no different than the typewriters of our past. Therefore, tech in the humanities was quickly and easily able to get into the business of creating hyperlinked text databases, encyclopedias, and online books whereas math teachers were left to struggle with the question of how to 'show work' via a keyboard.

And I think it's especially pertinent to note this advantage that the humanities have had whereas so often it is suggested to us that math and science lead the technological revolution.

Certainly math and science have been the developmental foreground for digital technology, but what are the most popular uses of that tech? A cursory look suggests that it's all about reading the news, sharing photos, and listening to music.

Journalism, Photography, and Music.

Hmm. I wonder how many folks would consider that triumvirate at the top of the tech revolution?

And (I know it's a loaded question, but what the heck) why then don't we give the same elevated position in education to journalism, photography, and music that we do to math?

Could you imagine what high schools would look (and sound) like if journalism, photography, and music were four-year requirements?

Here's to hoping the technicians designing computers actually catch up to the digital needs of math teachers and their students. And here's to the folks in the humanities and arts who are using tech in authentic ways everyday.

Outlook for Newspaper publishing: Moving into multiple business models

The newspaper industry has seen a long-term decline in circulation volume and advertisers have been moving from newspapers to online channels and into new formats to reach its target groups. At the same time several newspaper publishers that have started online TV-like experiences in relation to their online news sites, thus finding new audiences beyond their traditional print readers. The global economic downturn has accelerated the need for many newspaper publishers to adjust their business models to survive and as this 56 page report concludes "there will be some casualties and losses of well-known papers along the way."

The report On the outlook for newspapers in the digital age: Moving into multiple business models, is an interesting read from PricewaterhouseCoopers. Based on interviews with industry actors and 4900 consumers, it focuses on two key issues: the change of consumer behavior with respect to their consumption of news content, and the response of newspaper publishers, advertisers, advertising agencies and media buyers to these changes.

The change of consumer behavior
PwC concludes that print will remain the largest source of revenue generation for some time but will have to coexist with other media in new ways. Consumers see breaking news and general interest news as commodities, something that is more difficult to charge for online than offline. Instead they place a high value on deep insights and analysis provided by journalists, and a growing segment is increasingly demanding specialized information.

Consumers increasingly expect to be part of the debate and to be able to contribute to their newspaper, both in terms of commenting and in providing content. Perhaps surprising is that the rapid adoption of mobile technology and devices, has not yet resulted in high preference to use mobile devices for accessing information due to the difficulty of reading content and thus the overall willingness to pay for news on e-paper and mobile devices is low. Perhaps new business models around Amazon Kindle or perhaps a future e-reader from Apple? will do the trick?

Advertisers' perspective
The authors conclude that the shift of advertising revenue from print to online is expected to continue over the next few years even though TV appears to remain the most attractive medium for advertisers. However, advertisers can, and choose to, use multi-platform approaches, combining newspapers, magazines, mobile, the Internet, TV, cinema, radio, sponsorship and outdoor advertising. Main focus in the economic downturn is to use reliable and measurable media types to achieve the best return on investment. Another interesting conclusion is that advertisers are still reluctant to invest in user-generated content and social networking sites due to the difficulty of controlling the environment.

Publishers' perspective
The authors conclude that traditional newspapers have a relatively loyal reader base even though younger readers increasingly prefer to read news online. And although there is a huge potential for growth online and many younger readers prefer to read news online, the conclusion is that print will remain the largest source of revenue generation for some time. At the same time newspaper publishers are reassessing the role of the aggregator and are starting to introduce new subscription models combining multiple platforms and new technologies as new channels for distributing content.

PwC concludes that there is a shift in the organizational structure of newspaper publishing operations from a structure based on channel distribution to one based on content production. As actors in adjacent industries such as telecom providers are becoming media participants, newspapers can leverage their advantages of being a trusted source of information and having content creation as a core competence.

What about business models around APIs?
Something I miss in the report is the concept of a newspaper as an open platform. Newspapers such as the Guardian and the New York Times, and news organizations such as BBC and NPR have started to provide API (application programming interface) which allow third-party developers to access and reuse content databases in their own applications. This is something that the content owners can chose to charge for, enabling very interesting business models.

How will news be experienced online?
In the early days of the television, news was presented as if being in a newspaper. The Internet is only in its very early days and companies are exploring new ways to use algorithms analyzing twitter conversations to identify breaking news and combine videos, links, blogs, comments and communities to explore ways to provide deep insights and analysis. I believe the consumers answering these questions have a clear perception of how online news is and will be presented, and as Henry Ford allegedly once said "If I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have said a faster horse."

This is a great report to dive into and contains much more than what I have covered above. For those of you interested to read more download the full report and watch a short video here.

Related posts:
The Freemium Business Model
Subscription-based business models

Related videos:
Eric Schmidt on news, newspapers and real time content
Tim O'Reilly on NYTimes.com as a news and information platform
Tim O'Reilly on Open Publishing

Mad Avenue Blues - The year the media died

Other recent reports:
Pharma 2020: Challenging New Business Models

Newspapers -- School and Otherwise -- in the Digital Age

According to Ars Technica, a new company called Journalism Online now wants to sell you what you already get for free.

Namely: online newspapers.

Money quote (pun intended):

"My experience with The Wall Street Journal taught me that people will pay a reasonable price to access exclusive, differentiated and essential journalism, whether delivered in print or online," said Gordon Crovitz, announcing the new venture.

With the Wall Street Journal. That's kinda like saying, "My experience editing the Journal of Plankton Biology has shown me that people will really pay for good articles about plankton". I doubt all that many readers of the WSJ mind shelling out for the paper (well... actually in this economy they might!). But if you are going to charge, then at least get rid of or tone down the ads; I mean, really: the NY Times looks like Times Square on any given Sunday.

The debate about the future of journalism is beyond me. In some respect I can see the urge to charge a subscription fee, though perhaps in exchange any paper going to a subscription-based model should offer free access via public libraries and schools. Otherwise, we're in a situation where only the folks who can afford the paper and/or access can read it. Or maybe subscribers could get the news on release, and then it would be free to the public twelve hours later. I don't know... just brainstorming; come to think of it, that would kinda stink. How about free access to front-page and local/metro news and subscription access to sports, business, real estate, etc.?

Jeez, the Digital Age is tougher to poke holes in than a Mencken column.

By the same token, I like how blogging is changing the approach towards news reporting and I see an interactive future much more geared to independent journalism as the materials of reporting -- cameras, recorders, mobile computing (and perhaps holographic transportation? [Just hoping]) -- become more accessible.

Which all means that a whole lot is resting on the doorsteps of the high school and college journalism programs across this country. In the debate over 21st Century Skills, I could certainly see the school newspaper being ground zero for innovation and argument.