The Evidence Locker

Jason Fried of 37signals explains what is wrong with offices. Could not agree more. This is why you have to work the evenings and the weekends to get anything done. We probably got where we are today because there are people who will not do anything unless constantly being micromanaged.

I am currently finishing off a new extension to the local media marketing platform that will allow more interaction from the readers and helps them find the products and services they want. At the same time, I am expanding the platform to allow readers share events. Fruits of this project may hit the daylight in a few months.

Currently I am also evaluating the benefits of integrating redis for temporary data storage and inter process communications. This is definitely useful for any applications that need to scale. Most web applications are dragged down by the data storage requirements. Databases are just great for storing things, but there seems to be a lot of temporary information that seems to make up most of the traffic to the database.

More nerdy stuff later.

Lily Allen used to have a blog where she fought the evil-doing music sharers. Evidently even for her the copyright law is just too draconian. Drama unfolded and she deleted her blog after a fit on how she will never make another record. Luckily though she is still an inspiration for other musicians:

Here’s something that needs to be discussed in every country. If public funding creates content, shouldn’t that content be available to the public and essentially be in the public domain? There are enormous heaps of content that got created this way and for the most part it is never going to become available again. While not every piece of content is extremely significant the vast quantities of what made our culture today should not be forgotten.

I finally gave in and returned to writing updates. I decided to continue from where I left off and see if any of the issues I set to fix a couple years ago have improved. I have imported the old content from the Red Tail Media blog. The Red Tail Media blog has been only available in finnish for a while now. It took a few years to try come up with solutions to a few challenging problems but it seems that the decline of local news media can indeed be turned around. The pilot customer for my applied local media concept both puts the local print media back on their traditional business, the small business owners are extremely satisfied and at least to some extent the people are getting interesting and more organic content.

An article published on the The Regional Organization of Enterprises in South Ostrobothnia web site interviews a business owner at Ilkka’s new business media. Sorry, the article is in finnish.

I predict the concept will be rolled out to several other newspapers.

Here is a good essay written by a daily newspaper reader who recently canceled her subscription of 37 years. In her life the value of the newspaper has declined to a point where it no longer has a useful role. It is a great example of how a stale media became a victim of cultural change.

I have no time to read in the morning anyway. I have to get to work. I have to load the dishwasher, feed the cats, get the bills together to mail. The Today Show can chatter away in the background while I’m running around and let me know if there’s a terrorist attack before I get on the interstate.

There is one definite outcome from the YouTube acquisition: The collision of modern consumer media consumption and the content business models of the past century quickens. YouTube was a startup who would never been able to go to court for copyright infringements but Google could. Every media company has been rather waiting to see what happens with YouTube than sue and bankrupt them. We can expect several media companies who have difficulties of understanding where the new media consumer behaviour is headed to or is looking into creating profit content regardless of destructive nature of such actions.

Media companies should take advantage and embrace the changing culture and recreate business for the content they have created over the years. The alternative is to let that content slip into obscurity with no revenues. If content is the King then the discussion about the content must be the God. Consumers will find new ways to dig and be a fan or they will find new content. It is best be loved and shared than being unwanted.

UPDATE: It has started here and here.

As social interaction is becoming more commonly accepted through online activities by more people there it has also become more urgent for individuals to find appropriate tools that can define their personal identity. In the physical world we have numerous choices for building up identity through appearance, behaviour and how we show support to popular art or seek bond with brand icons that tell a great deal to strangers about our life style. The similar tools are sorely lacking when interacting online. Examples of identity use is promoting a personal blog address or a Myspace page with correspondence on message boards or chat profiles.

For marketers and the media the lack of a social media strategy is a lost opportunity as the brand association will either be limited or take place online without interaction with the customers. Both the brands and the media are in a position to create spaces for the customers to engage the public with unique value when compared to generic social media sites. The only reason why the enthusiastic customers gather on generic sites is the lack of space that creates value in context.

The generic sites typically host fan communities but they exist mostly to support digital identity of users. By joining these community groups individuals communicate their preferences within popular culture. You are bound to find the same communities register on multiple sites simply because the same people associate their digital identity across the online space. But how loyal are these people to these sites that act as a facilitator only? What if the methods of refining identity would converge by adopting new social conventions? Myspace pages are becoming the standard choice for digital identity. If media wants to take part in the online they need to act before such conventions are adopted in their specific local markets.

The entertainment industry is taking steps towards understanding the value of the online digital media and communities. Recently ABC (owned by Disney) announced the availability of free viewing of their hit shows ‘Lost’ and ‘Desperate Housewives’ starting May 1st. They clearly understand the value of creating media viruses and allowing people to freely express their love for the content online in numerous fan blogs and discussion forums.

It did not take long before Fox followed by announcing a similar move. Apparently such popular shows as 24 and American Idol become available for free viewing.

BBC made announcements for total revamping of their online presence to accommodate Social Media on their web site. As a part of the revamp they are also making content available online and welcoming their viewers and listeners to participate with the content and the brands by rolling out what seems like a BBC flavored MySpace.

On top of this, you can read what Disney executives think of the online culture at the Milken Institute’s Ninth Annual Global Conference.

“I think anyone who loses is anyone who tries to protect their traditional business. I think you’ve got a bad 10 to 15 years ahead of you if you try to do that,” Chernin told conference-goers.