The few days I have been asking people "what major trends do you see?" The responses have been some good and some bad. They include the list below. The list is from listening and the links are from after-the-fact googling of the concepts. And this is in no way scientific. Here is the beginning of the list:
- The importance of self expression. Advertising and technology that encourages self expression will succeed. So it isn’t user-generated-content. Rather it is helping people express themselves. Myspace is a good example of this. (this was from the IABC luncheon today)
- The decline in classified advertising revenue for newspapers. First craigs list and now khou offering free ads. The tv station won’t matter long term, but craig’s list is the real deal.
- The spoiled youth will hit reality. When? How? We don’t know.
- Games and gaming. Kids love video games. Will they ever readjust to earning a living? Unknown.
- Newspapers standardizing on the new format like the Chronicle did a long time ago. And like the WSJ did in January.
- Citizen Journalist Corruption. And Citizen Journalist Entrepreneurship.
- Second life and virtual worlds. This one is saturated, but it must be on the list. Still, I am already getting sick of hearing about it.
And two on politics:
- Everyone loves Obama. Republicans too. This will be interesting (and volatile).
- Health care. Hillary Clinton, a democrat, proposed changes and got pilloried. Meanwhile Schwarzenegger, a republican, proposes state funded health care? I’m confused.
There are certainly more. I’ll add those as I recall and review notes.
Good trends — and they certainly are that. They are all in action now.
I’ve been thinking about a new one — the return of the editor.
A part of the self-expression/RSS/information/broader access however-it-is-you-want-to-describe-it revolution has been about the ability of people to get a story out and others to find it. Which has led, predictably and documentedly enough, to an information glut (what’s new?). I think that is going to result in a return to the editor with the difference being that their choices are transparent. If you want to dig into the pile of media that they choose from — you can — if you want to ask why they made the choices — you can — and if you don’t like it, it’s easy enough to find a new editor.
Posted on January 30, 2007 at 10:37 pm.
Marnie – I definitely agree that the “return of the editor” is a good thing. I do however question if they ever left?
Example – we programmed in personalization. It was what was “hot right now” back then. NOBODY, ok two geeks, used it. Huge overhead / little actual use.
My point is that I do not want to personalize CNN – I want THEM to have a human editor figure it out. Which is why I like OhMyNews so much as a concept.
In other words, we all subscribe to content with good editors. Like BoingBoing.
Yet I definitely would be interested in the return/reintroduction of editors to my personalized content. Can I hire you to review my bloglines feeds and cull/add/edit them for me? Now that would be interesting.
Posted on January 31, 2007 at 6:08 am.