Today I'll be at an all-day conference about Web communication. It began yesterday, and it's pretty interesting. Everyone in media is trying to figure out how to bring readers to our Web sites and hold them there, by providing compelling content and interactive opportunities. That's why you see more and more newspapers producing videos and allowing comments on news stories, for example, or setting up reader forums and even video and photo uploading. It's all about creating "communities" of readers.
As I heard more about these topics yesterday, I thought about Blogger and Flickr, two really obvious examples of community building on the Internet. I have friends in both places, and I've met many of them in real life after we "met" on the Web. On Flickr, much of my "community" is based on a common interest (street art and graffiti). Here on Blogger it's much more fluid - there are common interests, but blogging has more to do with like personalities, I think.
Anyway, just to show you that we're talking about Very Serious Subjects, we mentioned this as an excellent example of the "viral" power of video on the Internet. It's had millions and millions of hits. Go figure!
(Photo: Wall in the west 30s, Hell's Kitchen, Dec. 2007)
Oh yeah, internet communities are changing everything about the media. It's a wild, wide-open and so far unpredictable frontier. I love it.
ReplyDeleteLove Youtube, too. My favorite multi-million hit vid is the one of the couple at their wedding reception doing the surprise hip hop. Have you seen it?
This is the Age of Aquarius, which is all about communities, the collective and individuals. Gone are the days when we all looked to Walter Kronkite for "the" news. There's no such thing anymore.
I still love my newspapers, though. i wish the publishers of the Washington Post, New York Times, etc. could just keep publishing without worrying about competition from the internet. It's such a different animal.
Good morning Steve. Your conference sounds very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI love the new media. Not to put too dramatic a spin on things but, it seems to me that we are in the midst of a sea change, not unlike the one that brought printed material to the people.
The more readers can interact with the news, the more open our society becomes, it seems to me anyway.
By the way, I don't get the appeal of the video.
The photo looks so simple, yet there is a lot going on in it-- very curious ....
ReplyDeletethe vid. is very funny, what a weird world it is
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