The important thing to think about though is that is 5% of web users who are already well settled in to accessing news for free. I dont think the paid for debate is a web debate and it doesn’t center around these users, as previously mentioned I think it is more of a device debate and centers around the sort of technology users will be accessing news and other content through.

As soon as the Apple tablet is launched the game will change and a new generation on super mobile computing will be born.

With new devices come new expectations from end users as to what they expect from the technology they have invested in.

As we have already seen people will pay for applications and content on their iPhones as it brings value to the device. I believe this new sort of device bridges the gap between you iPhone and your desktop which will change the way we think about paying for content.

1. Jay-Z is a genius.

2. The direct revenue potential of media brands, in this case Jay-Z, are becoming increasingly limited in relation to the money that can be made by activities surrounding the brand.

The clothing line Jay-Z set up, Rocawear, makes $350m at wholesale and $900m at retail. This is as a direct result of the brand Jay-Z has created through his music.

Of course he is still going to make money directly from his music through album sales but the revenue now made through his other business ventures dwarfs this, but only because of the brand he has created through the music he makes.

The incredibly powerful brand he has created and the other businessess he has set up work together because they draw on the values and lifestyle he tries to represent through his music, this translates through to his fashion business perfectly and he already has an engaged audience who are waiting for oportuities to invest furether in the brand values he has created.

Other media brands traditional output may in the future just act to support their enterprise business and in themselves not drive direct revenue.

This is nothing new but it just brings into focus how media brands, if they find the right opportunity can make real money from innovative enterprise opportunities.

I think the issue revolves around which platform or device people are consuming the paid for content on.

It’s going to be hard work to get people subscribing or making micro payments to view news on their home PC, but take news out of the home and it could be much easier.

People are getting very used to making payments online for other forms of digital content. These include gaming content through Xbox Live, iPhone applications and of course music.

When doing this most of the time people are making payment through a proprietary device or piece of software, which users have had to specifically download or invest in for the purpose of performing a paid for download. Because of this their readiness to invest further time and money is a more logical step and one they are more ready to take.

If for example I have an iPhone and download a paid for application it brings value to my initial investment in the iPhone, I planned and knew when purchasing the device that I would pay for downloads. The Application is also tangible by the virtue that you can hold the devise through which you have downloaded it in your hand. The same works with Xbox Live, through which you can download games and video content on to your hard drive and own. This is a rather unique situation because Xbox Live is the only place you can get most of this content and the Xbox is the only device on which you can use it.

Because of its topical up-to-date nature and need for virtually instant delivery news is a very different form of media to those mentioned above and so the mechanism through which it is consumed digitally with the possibility for subscription must also be different.

On existing devices it could be very difficult to get people either paying a subscription or making article-by-article micro payments for news content because, perhaps with the exception of iPhone, people have not purchased any of their devices with this in mind.

I believe that with the growth, development and standardisation of eReaders people will be more ready to pay for content. This will be through subscription-based services to weekly or monthly periodicals or for a live news service, which could be charged for using a subscription or based on usage and charged for per article.

When people invest in a piece of technology like an eReader they will want to get value from their investment and an audience for digital subscriptions will grow. Depending on who releases ‘the’ device that changes the way people think about eReaders this could take 5 – 10 years. If Apple release one things could change overnight!

- Let’s get as many video views as possible.
- Let’s get as much content as possible.
- Let’s run a preroll advert in front of every video on our site.
- Let’s auto play videos so we get even more views.

No, no, no, no.

YouTube have had phenomenal success in terms of generating traffic and video views because they are purely publishers, they are in the business of content delivery, and they know it. They don’t try and put in the mix their own original content. Users return to them again and again because they understand YouTube and know what they are doing.

Content originators who publish video through their own websites seem to be a bit confused about what they have to deliver, what their objective for delivery is and how they should deliver it. This confuses users and means they are less likely to return to the site and form a lasting relationship with it.

Some original content producers want to be editorialised versions of YouTube and are fixated with having as many video views as possible, while ignoring the fact that the content being shoved down people’s throats is not relevant to the brand or of any value to a user, if the site’s brand is based on the original content that is.

If your brand is based on publishing original content then that should be your main objective with video.

- Put your brand values, creativity and ideas on video.
- Put in place sensible, engaging, scalable commercial opportunities.
- Put in place a reliable, high quality delivery mechanic.

Do not try and get as many views as possible from as much content as possible. Aim to publish reliable, sustainable original content with which users can form a lasting relationship. If it’s good enough users will return to view it again and again. Your audience with compound, snowball and you will be successful.

As an original content-based brand it is of the utmost importance to own the content you are distributing.

Become Street Fighter allows users to very easily include a picture of their own face on the character in the video. You can then embed the video that is created on a variety of different sites including Facebook and Myspace.

This is a brilliant example of how making commercial media an intimate experience for users and allowing viral distribution through social networks can have a positive impact on the way people form a relationship with a product or brand.

Creating a video like this takes no longer than 1 minute if you already have the pictures. No registration pages or forms to fill out, just upload your pics, get your video and that’s it.

The system is built using technology made by 15secondtv, which renders the face from an uploaded picture on to the video a user has selected to create the final video.

This is an overwhelmingly positive commercial experience, which is infinitely more memorable than a normal game trailer and should therefore have much more of an impact in driving sales of the game.

When watching the new Lilly Allen music video for The Fear on YouTube I was presented with a pop up link across he bottom of the video. I hadn’t seen an ad like this pop up in YouTube before and have to say I really quite liked it.

It’s not too intrusive, doesn’t spoil the video and is of genuine use to users who are watching and enjoying the content. As soon as you click ‘Buy Song’ the video is paused and you are taken directly to the page on iTunes. When you there, if you have an iTunes account, you are only 2 clicks away from completing a transaction for 79 pence which will mean you now own a copy of the single.

It is micropayment transactions like these that will become an increasingly important part of networked business’s revenue stream.

Because of the short form nature of most of the videos on YouTube users won’t react well to preroll because they think of YouTube as providing exactly what they want to watch as soon as they click play.

In-play contextual overlays are a form of advertising that give engaged users a valid opportunity to make a cash transaction with a product related to he content being viewed without having any negative impact on the act of consuming the content.

This is a positive commercial experience.

The Internet is a medium that allows for users to instantly switch between consuming media to a transactional interface. This is a perfect example of the opportunity the Internet offers to utilize that capability to drive a cash transaction, which is of value to the user and publisher.

The recent announcement of Google Latitude doesn’t really come as much if a surprise. It’s a fairly obvious if not slightly scary development for them to make.

Yesterday when I was downloading some new applications for my iPhone I came across a GPS tracker app. I’ve yet to test it out but it sounds like a really interesting application if you want to track a journey and then display the route later on.

In the top review, below the application on the iTunes App Store, this was left.

I sent this tweet about it at the time. Here’s a grab of the full screen.

Although it is amusing and quite possibly a joke, it does bring home the level to which tracking our location can limit our freedoms, even if those freedoms are not completely ethical sometimes.

A couple of weeks ago when Stephen Fry was on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross he mentioned that he had recently sent a tweet detailing which flight he was on and as a result was met by pap photographers when he landed. Some celebs might seek that sort of attention, for them letting everybody know where they are might he a good thing, for the vast majority it isn’t. However Google’s Latitude system is strictly an opt in service which doesn’t have an open API so you just share your location on a closed network with close friends and family you select.

Individually tracking where everybody is, is not the objective of this system. It is to allow there to be a more accessible interface between the physical and digital worlds we live in; one that will aid the sense that the digital social networks we build are grounded in reality.

Motivation as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary is the reason behind one’s actions or behaviour and secondly as enthusiasm.

In order to fuel that enthusiasm and give users the reasons they need to be motivated enough to return to use digital products again, tell others about them and form a lasting bond with them they must always be put first and treated as a publishers number one priority. Be this though presenting them with fresh new content or providing an easy to use product.

Far too often we forget or are forced to forget about what is best for the user. Without their motivation to engage with and love the media products we deliver them we are nothing.

Disqus is an interesting system because it also removes the barriers put up by different websites and allows commenting on a central hub. It provides users with a very flexible platform on which they can follow multiple threads of discussion in the same place without having multiple sign ins on different sites.

Disqus makes it easier for people to comment and track their contributions on a single profile which they can display as a comment blog. After all, there is no difference between a great comment and a great published article.”

disqus.com

A shared space like this is great because it makes the process of engagement easier and facilitates debate though commenting, which adds value to the content being debated and to the comments themselves.

For larger brands who want debate to happen on their “digital property” thus generating registrations to their system from which they can collect data a system like this could be seen as disruptive, however if Disqus allows communication to happen more productively across different sites and are able to facilitate the sharing of user data then then content providers may find this sort of solution very attractive.

Below I have tried to represent this idea through the example of UK national newspaper websites. The Collective Community which is joined by a system like Disqus can push and pull users between different debates and points of view allowing users to move between different debates easily and interact with them using the same identity. The Separate Communities on the right are more isolated and contained. They don’t allow a freedom of expression amongst them without using different identities.

Traditional content publishers (which newspapers are) may find this a difficult concept to buy into initially. The system is not exclusive, so users could be actively recruited by another content provider, who might be a direct competitor. Users might then choose to spend more time with that other content provider if their experience of the content and debate are better than that which they had before.

Content providers such as newspapers and magazines have very competitive rivalries for sales in hard-copy that now spills over into the digital world in a battle for users, this influences the relationship these brands have with their readers. Whether or not a system like this would be used by a competitor should be put to one side and the user should always be considered first.

Content providers own the content being presented, when it then takes a life on of it’s own through the comments made on it that is not their property, it belongs collectively to those who have continued the conversation.

Content creators don’t own the conversation, users do.

Having a collective community which is able to move betwen different newspaper websites means those websites can concentrate on what they are traditionally good at. Not managing a community but producing interesting, exciting content that users will love.

One of the things I learned about when first studying Communications as an A-Level student was that online platforms give people the opportunity to contact other users and view content anonymously.

Back then social networks didn’t exist as they do in their current form, where it is essential to display your true identity and communicate as yourself in order to engage and connect with other people you know.

The ability to communicate without people taking your physical demeanour and appearance into consideration is of great advantage to some people who might otherwise be treated differently because of their physical characteristics. However If people hide something though a false online identity and the communications they then make have a positive impact on the people they reach, the positive impact that could have had on the persons real identity is lost, which devalues the communication process.

If as an individual you were to come into a room and introduced yourself wearing a mask and with a false name people wouldn’t take you seriously, respect you or find you particularly easy to communicate with. Why is it any different online? If you put up a veil people cant see though it. The problem is you can’t see the mask if they are wearing one online, you can in the physical world.

I recently changed my profile picture on Twitter with the expressed intention of making that method of communication as human as possible so people can see who I am. At the time I said the following.

Changed my profile pic to an actual picture of me (before I had a little graphical avatar). Feels more direct when you see a picture of somebody’s face next to a message. 3:39 PM Jan 25th – dpwilliams

I think it makes a big difference if you can see the face of the person you are talking to, it makes it more intimate and personal, which increases the value of the message.

• I adjusted my user facing profile to one which I think is more meaningful and that represents me physically.

I think that a dehumanised online identity will have a negative impact on the way in which people communicate with each other and the understanding people have of the communications being made.

Before concluding I should mention that I believe these things are a personal preference and it’s important people do have a choice about the way in which they represent themselves online and in the physical world.

Saying that, I think…

…we can do some simple things to make our identity as clear as possible.

Different networks and situations call for people to adopt different identities if they want to communicate in different ways or engage in different narrative threads. If you are for example representing a brand then it is appropriate to display an identifiable company logo. The comments being made are on behalf of that brand so this is an appropriate way to communicate and one that people will understand and be comfortable with.

As an individual if you are using a network which is a representation of yourself as a human then it is best to be seen as one and not as a character or logo. If possible you should show a picture of yourself clearly displaying who you are. Also where possible you should use your name so that the adjacent comment is received with a meaningful human association.

The more I think about identity the more complicated it becomes!

The issue isn’t just the identity you take on in different places but also the communication partners perception of identity and the perception you have of yourself. The perception others have of your identity is also it turn governed by their own perception of themselves.

Free thinker Gregory Lent, who I follow with great interest on Twitter, mentioned to me when Tweeting about online identity that “(it is an) interesting topic .. not sufficiently understood yet, sensationalized too”. He is completely right, this is such a complicated topic, which I am not at all qualified to analyse in enough detail to give the depth to this post that is necessary to truly understand the wider issue of human identity.

When I have time I’ll try and do some reading around this subject until then I leave you with an open mind.