2009 February « Upendra Shardanand

Archive for February, 2009

Every Site will be a News Publisher

February 12, 2009

Some time back I posited that every site will be a news publisher. If it’s as easy to add “news” to your site as it is to add AdSense, then every site, being about something, will add relevant news. (And think of news in the broadest sense of the term – fresh content, whether it’s hard news of the day or news about diabetes, archaeology or Sussex spaniels. For example, Purina and its Petcharts site).

Looking at our client list today (including those not yet live/announced) – only a fraction are traditional newspaper or magazine companies. Another fraction are traditional media companies, but not specifically print or news. The majority are services that purely online or non-news. Including sites as varied as financial services companies, e-commerce sites, and NGOs. And this ratio is even more true of the companies in our near-term pipeline.

While Daylife still isn’t as easy (or as free :), as AdSense – it’s getting there. We’ve seen portals of thousands of pages built using Daylife in one day (thanks to Daylife Select). Stay tuned.

(Cross posted to the Daylife Blog)

Posted in daylife, new architecture of news | 2 Comments »

The Kindle and a new Digital Book Divide

February 9, 2009

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

A lot of excitement over the Kindle 2. I’m not a Kindle user, but as an avid book reader and book buyer (more buying than reading these days), I find it hard not to be excited about the convenience and superpowers the Kindle bestows. (Not to mention access to Kindle-only books!)

However, what becomes of libraries, research, and the sharing of books? Libraries (and just simple act of being able to lend a book) did more to democratize knowledge than arguably anything in history. (I will not rush to coronate the web, it hasn’t been around for even one generation yet). Will libraries be permitted to “lend” in an era when books are digital only, and DRM’d or locked in a device? What happens to access to books for the poor and those in less developed countries? Will economically-distressed book publishers embrace enabling sharing for their electronic books, or will they go the way of the RIAA and the recording and movie industry, and use their new found digital IP powers and fight tooth and nail to keep the dissemination of their books tightly controlled? Will sharing books be “illegal?”

Thoughts? Has there been any comment by Amazon or the book industry on digital books, libraries, and person-to-person sharing?

Posted in society | 2 Comments »

Bill Gates, markets, doing the right thing

February 5, 2009

Bill Gates at TED:

The market does not drive scientists, thinkers, or governments to do the right things. Only by paying attention and making people care can we make as much progress as we need to.

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Tags: quote

Roussel: To Prepare for the Future, Skip the Present

February 2, 2009

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

I’m a bit late to come across this visionary and prescriptive piece by Edward Roussel, editor of the Telegraph online. Among his several insights:

The future of journalism is selling expertise, not content.

News organizations have to radically fix their cost structures, which clearly aren’t sustainable online. And the web is exposing a lot of inefficiencies in the industry that weren’t visible before.

News organizations sometimes get in the habit of asking “how do we get our news to readers” and sometimes forget the question should be “how can we best serve our audience’s news and information needs.” Or rather, how can I help our audience best navigate the world, whether it’s “our” content, or someone else’s.

Part of the solution for both fixing cost structures (technology, content creation, curation, deployment, trafficking) and for offering a better user experience will be in smart aggregation – but done with your own your own voice, your own hand, and your own content as king.

(Examples and shameless plug: see http://davos.wsj.com and http://obama.wsj.com, powered by Daylife)