Publishing Online: A caveman could do it?

In the introductory post, I contested that the separation of "Electronic Publishing" from "Blogs" by Straubhaar and LaRose in Media Now is outdated. While it's true that blogging began on a small scale with personal journals, now the term "blog" itself is obsolete. After all, what is a blog if not a way to publish and manage content?

Of course, of the tens of millions of blogs out there, a small percentage would be objectively considered "professional", but this does not dismiss the impact this Content Management System (or CMS) has had in regards to online publishing. It would be a challenge to find a traditional media source such as a newspaper or local television affiliate that did not reference or use blogs to some degree on their own websites.

Let's examine how some of the same trends that defined online gaming have also been crucial in the explosive growth of online publishing.

1. The Death of Distance: One of the key facets to "Death of Distance" as it relates to Electronic Publishing. The first is enabling users worldwide to access localized news and information for what is basically any town on the globe. In rural areas this information may be limited, and naturally less industrialized nations will lag behind, but this does not dismiss the trend. For example, I could keep tabs on obituaries in my home town of Carlisle, PA, were I so inclined. Without much additional effort, I could also keep track of important economic news from a variety of sources localized to a town I may be interested in relocating to.
   
   Another piece of evidence towards the "Death of Distance" trend is the mobility of news publishers. Whether it be via a laptop in a coffee shop or a mobile device in the Bahamas airport, publishers can post new content without the need for close proximity to their audience at all times. For many, close proximity is never necessary.
   
2. More Minnows, more Giants: The ability of blogging websites such as this one gives any user with Internet access the ability to self-publish in mere minutes. While the New York Times and other news giants like ABC and Fox News are far from extinct, old media hardly dominates the space of online publishing. The web truly levels the playing field when it comes to the publishing of information online. As it stands, the main form of monetization for content publishers is advertising in various pricing formats. This basically links a site owner's ability to generate revenue with their ability to garner attention to their site(s).
   
   News Aggregation and Social Media sites have drawn special attention over the past few years, largely because they have low operating costs which allows for a large profit margin. Sites like Fark.com, which posts links to odd and funny stories, and DrudgeReport.com, a political news aggregator, don't even host the content on their own servers. Instead, they focus on being a hub for their chosen niche that links to other sites. Traditional thinking would advise against such behavior, but operators Drew Curtis and Matt Drudge have proven that line of thinking wrong. A Publishing 2.0 article analyzed the level of user engagement on Drudge's portal approach and theorizes his potential ad revenue, while even 2 years ago Drew Curtis reported to Business 2.0 magazine that Fark.com was receiving 40 million page views per month, a number that has since grown.
   
3. A New Trust: Near-instant publishing online has brought with it the potential for instant gain and loss of trust. Traditional media reporters are typically required to check (and double check) their stories for accuracy. As the newspaper was printed daily and the news reported at set times, the pressure to be the first to break a story was less granular than it is today. A perfect example of the failure to check facts occurred during the 2008 presidential election. Two amateur filmmakers fabricated a McCain adviser, filmed several videos and claimed the man worked for "The Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy", also fake. According to the New York Times, the hoax fooled Fox News, MSNBC and the LA Times among many others. The instantaneous nature of Electronic Publishing does not lower the expectation for information accuracy and integrity. Quite the opposite, actually.
   
4. The Proliferation of Ideas: Information publishing the very embodiment of the proliferation of ideas. Whether it be via online forums, comment threads on blog posts or how-to videos on YouTube, the ability to broadcast onesself has created the greatest store of potential ideas the world has ever seen. This is not to mention that the majority of this information is available free of cost. It is no longer only scientists, doctors and politicians making their ideas and opinions available for public consumption. A new type of user has emerged called the "prosumer". As TechCrunch notes, a prosumer is "a combination of producer and consumer that perfectly describe the millions of participants in the Web 2.0 revolution." While this does accurately describe the landscape of the Internet in the 21st century, at this point it's still up to the most popular and powerful minds on the Internet to find the signal through the feedback noise. If one wants to to see an example of noise, one only needs take the time to sift through the comment thread on a popular YouTube video. A more targeted niche like Umair Haque's blog for Harvard Business Publishing, however, is fortunate to invite less noise. A typical post contains mostly thoughtful comments from a deeply involved audience. Sometimes this is due to the nature of the information, and other times it is filtered manually for ease of use by other users.
5. A Market for Citizens: As discussed in the trend of "More Minnows, More Giants", self-publishing enables any person to determine if there is a market for virtually any niche. It also allows for more direct contact between publisher and reader via comments, discussion forums and e-mail. Prior to Electronic Publishing, a person taking issue with television or newspaper story often spent a significant time on the phone, being directed to the appropriate person to handle their complaint. Now this is as easy as putting their thoughts on "written page", so to speak. Publishing of the original content and the feedback is completely independent of the author's physical location. When all that's needed is a keyboard and an Internet connection, the most savvy users will find the most financially convenient place or places for their information publishing endeavors. Because of the location-independent nature of the industry, we will begin to see the same struggle in this country over taxation of revenue that arose over the sale of physical goods online. This could compel some to relocate to an area that is more welcoming to an independent publisher of information.

Citations:

Publishing 2.0. (September 15, 2008) Drudge Report: News Site That Sends Readers Away With Links Has Highest Engagement. Retrieved February 5, 2009 from: http://publishing2.com/2008/09/15/drudge-report-news-site-that-sends-readers-away-with-links-has-highest-engagement/

Business 2.0 Magazine. (October 2, 2006) Blogging for Dollars. Retrieved February 4, 2009 from: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2006/09/01/8384325/index.htm

CFO Magazine Online. (January 26, 2009) Out-of-State Amazon Must Pay New York Taxes. Retrieved February 5, 2009 from: http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/12971807/c_13005784?f=home_todayinfinance

The New York Times. (November 12, 2008) A Senior Fellow at the Institute of Nonexistence. Retrieved February 2, 2009 from: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/arts/television/13hoax.html?_r=1&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/P/Palin,%20Sarah

TechCrunch. (June 15, 2007) The Rise of the Prosumer. Retrieved February 1, 2009 from: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/06/15/the-rise-of-the-prosumer/

Online Gaming: More Than a Trend

In my previous post, I contested that online gaming has hit the mainstream and done so in a big way. During my freshman year in college in 2000, broadband Internet access was a luxury typically afforded only to those in more urban areas and university dorms. The increased access in broadband connections, however, has allowed game developers and publishers to offer sophisticated gaming experiences that match or surpass offline alternatives. This post will identify some of the trends that Frances Cairncross believes associate themselves with the gaming industry.

1. The Death of Distance: This is the most obvious trend in online gaming, mostly because it is the defining characteristic of the industry and what has created a highly lucrative marketplace. According to a September 2007 press release from Strategy Analytics, online gaming is a $4 billion industry with the potential to constitute 1/3 of all game revenues by 2011. A TeamXbox post tells us that Bungie, the creators of popular console series Halo, sold $300 million in copies of Halo 3 worldwide during the first week after release. 2.7 million of the (at the time) 7 million Xbox Live members worldwide played the game online during the release week, resulting in what was truly a global phenomenon. To this day, one can visit the Bungie Online website and be greeted with a worldwide map of users currently playing the game online.
2. More Minnows, More Giants: While big name publishers such as EA, Activision and Blizzard still rake in millions in gaming revenue, barriers to entry have been lifted for independent publishers. A Macworld post references the top 10 paid App Downloads in Apples iTunes store for 2008, including game publishers like Acceleroto, Freeverse and Pangea. These virtual unknowns have found a place in the market alongside the behemoths that have dominated in years past.
3. A New Trust: Gamers, whether casual or hardcore, are amongst the toughest customers to please. If an online gaming experience is laggy or devoid of customization, they will not hesitate to abandon a game and sometimes even an entire development house. With the constant sharing of information on the Internet (via Electronic Publishing), it sometimes only takes a spark to ignite a revolt.
4. The Proliferation of Ideas: Gamers are also a creative bunch and, when given the opportunity, can create entire worlds with the tools they are given by game publishers. Halo 3 is also a great example as an "enabler of ideas". Generally thought of as a simple First Person Shooting franchise, Halo 3 offered "The Forge", a feature that allowed users to modify maps online as they saw fit. This resulted in some of the most entertaining creativity console gamers have seen. Using weapons only, two gamers were even able to play a modified game of Home Run Derby as seen in this video.
5. A Market for Citizens: Using both online and offline games, dedicated gamers have been able to create entirely new markets in selling customized game content. In the game Second Life, there is a currency called "Linden Dollars" that is directly bought in US currency. Popular website GAMEWAR enables the buying and selling of online characters that gamers have built over time. This actually enables them to monetize what before was a considered a pointless hobby for children.

There is no doubt that the online gaming world has the potential to grow even further in the future. With the popularity of casual consoles like Nintendo's Wii and DS systems, both with online capabilities, we may find that the more common question in the future will not be "Do you play?" but rather "Why not?".

Citations

Strategy Analytics. (September 10, 2007) Games Industry Transformed As One-Third of Games Software Revenues will be Generated Online by 2011. Retrieved January 31, 2009 from: http://www.strategyanalytics.com/default.aspx?mod=PressReleaseViewer&a0=3569

TeamXbox.com. (October 4, 2007) Halo 3 Does $300 Million First-Week Sales. Retrieved January 31, 2009 from: http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/14720/Halo-3-Does-300-Million-FirstWeek-Sales/

Macworld. (December 2, 2008) Apple reveals top iTunes App Store downloads for 2008. Retrieved February 2, 2009 from: http://www.macworld.co.uk/ipod-itunes/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=23765

YouTube. (September 23, 2007) Halo 3 Baseball. Retrieved February 3, 2009 from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu7pkXNJ1qw

The Trendspotter's Guide to New Communications

In her book The Death of Distance: How the Communications Revolution Will Change Our Lives, Frances Cairncross identified 30 distinct yet related trends that describe and, sometimes, define advances in technology as they relate to communication. In the posts that follow, I will verify their application to communicative technology through the use of 5 of these trends. These examples will be described as they apply to two major forms of technology which in many cases are strongly intertwined with one another.

The two forms will be:

• Electronic Publishing/Blogs: I have chosen to combine these two genres identified by Straubhaar and LaRose due to the fact that the gap is quickly closing between the two. The online offerings of most major big media companies are dominated by "blogs", and the concept of a blog, once used predominantly for personal journals, has flourished into the feature-laden Content Management Systems found today.
• Online Games: Once a niche market for the nerdy, the online games industry is now accessible to the casual user. Whether it be on a PC, game console or mobile device, cooperative and head-to-head gaming is now the rule rather than the exception.

What are your thoughts on these industries? Is there still a significant divide between blogs and standard online publications? Is online gaming in its current form here to stay?