In general he discusses a change in the traditional media divide which is based geographically. The new real divide, as Scott notes, is between content creators and content distributors.
The real divide now emerging is between companies that create original content and companies that create platforms for aggregating and distributing that content. Newspapers embody the old media world where content creation, aggregation, and distribution were inextricably linked. But the digital media revolution has made it possible to separate these functions.
That’s true and it’s also good to note that with new media the overhead of being a media company has dwindled to zero. It can cost nothing to create content. Likewise it can cost nothing to distribute / aggregate content.
We hope to take advantage of this model. By trimming the fat that is inherent in traditionl media operations it is possible to disintermediate them altogether. If readers provide the content, the distributor becomes the disintermediary. Not only is that good business but it creates a more valuable experience for the consumer – and that’s what matters most.
I stumbled upon this graph when looking for an image to use in the post. It’s the ‘Emerging Media Ecosystem’. Click the image below to enlarge.
My friend and fellow Iowa blogger Zane Safrit today points out two articles about Microsoft’s recent move into the healthcare arena.
First off Steve Ballmer (CEO of M$) announced the acquisition of Medstory, Inc. – a California startup that built an ‘intelligent search engine for health & medicine’.
These are guidelines developed by Microsoft for a foundation of ‘knowledge-driven health’. From their site:
The Healthcare industry’s broad scale and information-intensive nature make information technology (IT) in this area an important issue for the public and private sector alike. “E-Health”—technology-enabled healthcare—has the potential to improve health services delivery at all levels.
To see that potential fulfilled, Microsoft developed a guideline for e-Health software solutions called “The Connected Health Framework Architecture and Design Blueprint.” A system implemented according to Microsoft’s guidelines would employ a common architecture—based on industry best practices and modern design techniques—to link patients, healthcare professionals, application developers, independent software providers (ISVs), and government agencies.
Microsoft obviously recognizes a significant market in the healthcare industry and they are the best positioned software company to take the industry. Good Morning Silicon Valley noted an interesting fact that Microsoft employed six health care focused staff members in 2000 and now its Health Solutions group has more than 600 employees.
Back on November 1st, 2006 I wrote a post called ‘The State of Politics on the Web’. Essentially it was about how the web is changing politics and how campaigns are run using new media (social media) tactics and viral marketing.
Now if you take my analysis to the next step you get a web application that tracks this phenomenon. In comes techPresident – a way to track “how the candidates are using the web, and how the web is using them”. It is, “a new group blog that covers how the 2008 presidential candidates are using the web, and vice versa, how content generated by voters is affecting the campaign.”
Blogging and podcasting boomed in the last election with citizen journalists tracking the campaign with as much passion as traditional journalists. But this time around with the popularity of social networks and WOMM (Word of Mouth Marketing) the web will become an essential tool.
From techPresident:
“The 2008 election will be the first where the Internet will play a central role, not only in terms of how the campaigns use technology, but also in how voter-generated content affects its course. TechPresident.com plans to track all these changes in real-time, covering everything from campaign websites, online advertising and email lists to the postings on YouTube and who’s got the fastest growing group of friends on MySpace.”
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