Information Ecosystem Roadmap

EcoSystem for Information Co-Creation (and simple creating/consuming)

• need to add breadth later, for now focusing on the reading aspects

• see also Business Models For Information

Nov'2009 notes that could be called Content Distribution Ecosystem Roadmap or Blogging Ecosystem Roadmap

inspired by

• Dave Winer work on new writing tools to spew content into various hosts/sites: 2009-11-12-WinerWritingEcosystemRebuild

• Dave Winer ongoing annoyance with Twitter, desire for an Open Twitter

• Dave Winer's RssCloud work, and related/competing PubSubHubBub

• acquisition of FriendFeed, other Life Streaming thoughts

• general belief that RSS/etc can cover all this stuff

  • 2009-11-22-TwitterBlogClienApis (really looks at WebLog API-s)

  • see related Universal Inbox, Universal Outbox

generic reference

• the Life Cycle of a WebLog post

• the human side of the blogging EcoSystem (BlogWeb).

taxonomies

• need to support multiple/all Weblog Types

• need to support non-text content (Multimedia, Photo Sharing, Audio, Video)

tool-chain

• Fat Client

  • why bother with this, vs WebApp interface directly to host?

    • work Off-Line

    • save draft before posting online (maybe host doesn't support this)

    • post output to multiple hosts (not sure I like this idea...)

    • ping monitoring systems (host should probably do this)

    • richer UI for non-obvious interactions among Semi Structured Data elements (spitballing, not sure of good example)

    • hardware process integration

      • Mobile app, hardware driver access (e.g. GPS)

      • pulling multiple images from your Digital Camera, etc.

    • posting support comes along with reading support (see later)

• API to host

  • 2009-11-22-TwitterBlogClienApis (really looks at WebLog API-s)

• host, WebApp service

  • could be destination, could be hub

    • or both, like Posterous

• API to reader

  • RSS

  • Real Time? RssCloud, PubSubHubBub...

• reader

  • Twitter client

  • RssAggregator

  • Universal Inbox

  • why Fat Client, vs WebApp?

    • ....

Pre-2009 generic/meta notes

All info is already digital at some point

• even if rendered back to analog like Printed Book

• except unrecorded Live Event? even that has lots of digital action

Multimedia is still important, and becoming cheaper to produce/distribute.

• though most of it so far is just a shiny downgrade from Text.

But written info still crucial

• easier to auto search/scan/categorize

• easier to browse/scan and quote (MashUp)

• easier to distribute/store for Mobile

Reading moving to digital/screen (already maybe a majority?).

Mobile devices increasingly important

• communication: voice, IM, EMail

• ref info: yellow pages, maps

• reviews: products, movies, restaurants

So Mobile reading becomes more natural. And want to use converged device: small, multi-purpose, not dedicated or Lap Top.

• but want to easily read same book on multi devices (UbiComp) 2008-01-17-HarrisPerfectEbookReader

  • ideally "keep your place" in synch

    • Bk Keepr does this via Twitter, but people tweet in terms of which "page" they're on, which might be an issue if you read with different reader apps on different platforms, and they report this info in different ways. (I use FBReader on both my MacBook and my Nokia N810: they are consistent, in having some concept of page that's different from screen-number.)

• So a Book Server makes sense.

But there are still reasons for people to stick with the Printed Book

• it won't stop working when there's a format change, or your hard disk crashes, or you buy a new Mobile, or you somehow break the EULA, etc.

• some people like physical books in their environment (small % of population, but driving large % of book sales)

EBook-s will evolve to fit the resulting reading style, which is already changing during DeskTop use.

Fiction may change less

• Novel will still get written

• Annotation Systems could be increasingly important

  • Neal Stephenson (MetaWeb), James Joyce, Michael Chabon, historical fiction

• series/Franchise model will expand: HardyBoys, Star Trek, wartech guy

  • Sub Genre, Virtual Community, real Community, Real World Game, Location Based Service...

• more shorter fiction will be published

Non-Fiction will change more

• Thin Book (and Wikipedia), MetaBook: maybe as Printed Book for promo/convenience/taste/intro

• HowTo

• HyperBook, integrated into Annotation Systems

• maybe EBook-s won't really be finished/packaged/delivered objects as often, but more of a process, an anchor for a Virtual Community? Or just a more-transient Social Reading process?

  • if people will pay $20 to read The World Is Flat will they pay $20 (instead) for a year in a Virtual Community

    • do we care about this becoming Invisible Content?

      • a Metered Pay Wall can help

  • does it make sense to have a "separate" community for each book? Or organized by niche, and that's the new "publisher" model as in 2007-06-15-ShatzkinFutureBookIndustry? It probably depends a lot on what each system looks like. It's easy to just munge together Discussion Forum-s, but when you throw in a HyperBook and Annotation Systems, you might need more clear distinction between foci.

  • and how does the reader/member maintain their involvement with multiple spaces over time? And what about the risk of a space going away (like the Neal Stephenson MetaWeb)?

  • 2010-11-10-EbookLayersAndDecentralization

• Open Science/Open Notebook Science/Open Source Science (Feb'2007 update from Sept'2006 link )

Will most books start as EBook and then some will become Printed Book-s? Some will have tiny runs based on aggregated pre-orders with direct fulfillment or Print On Demand, a small number of online hits will go through standard-current distribution. (Publish Then Filter... Then Package

• and more work/value will be added during that packaging process.

  • a human editor will help massage the text. Maybe significant re-writing will happen. (Will it be re-tested via EBook before committing to print?)

  • illustrations, cover, etc. will be created/improved

  • layout/design will be worked on (to the extent that it matters)