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A Dialogue About The Next "Killer-App": Micro-Community-Based Iterative Content
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With Clif's kind permission, I am reposting this dialogue that started at our Facebook pages/walls, then continued as a fuzz PM [private message]. The topics addressed are varied, but they all center around how to help indie artists and passionate music fans find better ways to secure the future of music - for themselves and the magic of the creative process. Please feel free to comment 'wiki-style" on the public spaces below and in time I will summarize this thread into a more integrated "how-to create social capital" article.
TCC:
Clif, I haven't played around much with the Facebook platform and how it interfaces with other sites. It appears to have zillions of applications that are "toys" to poke and play. I would characterize these to be devices to keep the various participants engaged and in touch which is OK - as far as it goes.
Also, the main function of this Facebook network, which is to remain in contact with your "inner circle" [where you are going for dinner, busy with homework, state of mind, etc}, is better than anything else around in the social networking space. And, the obvious "key value proposition" of Facebook is the cascading layers of networks that are a click or two away from millions of participants being others who have "signed-up".
The main shortcoming to me is that the "architecture" of the Facebook site doesn't lend itself to "iterative" development of content. This, of course, raises the fascinating and never-ending quality vs. quantity discussion/debate that is ongoing at fuzz [what is spam, what is signal, what is noise, etc.]. I think this X vs. Y [quality/quantity] framing exercise is helpful but not definitive in helping to find resolution of an age-old philosophical debate whether Yin can exist without Yang [and vice versa]..
I think we need iterative [qualitative] development of spontaneous [quantitative] output to create real SocialBuxx™ [hey, alt0153 worked!]. Quality and Quantity both matter in creating social capital.
Nobody knows what the hell I am doing [or cares] writing about this stuff on a Facebook wall. The development of Iterative Content needs a better platform.
Cheers [just playing around in search of convergence of all our sites and our circle of "friends" [nodes and supernodes] on overlapping networks.]
Clif:
2:40pm Apr 5th
Yeah, there is now a pretty wide spectrum of social networking possibilities on the scale from iterative (quality) to spontaneous (quantity), as you mentioned. I would put the original Geocities 1.0 web site phenomenon at the far left (iterative) and microapps like Twitter at the far right (spontaneous). The sweet spot differs from person to person of course. The next "killer app" should enable the full spectrum of social "authoring" as well as a much better search/filtering mechanism based on a "long tail" taxonomy. For example, I like lo-fi voice and guitar music, and I also like to talk to people who like the same. Despite all the advances, it's still next to impossible to find the members of that micro-niche despite evidence that they exist.
Do check out the twitter thing if you haven't already, in order to have a good picture of the spectrum. My page is at http://twitter.com/zenjunk and I actually update it via IM (with GTalk). It is the killer "status" app, in that I can place widgets around the web like the one on the right of my tumblelog at http://zenjunk.tumblr.com/ . I've also managed to pick up a few new "followers" using the tool. And finding twitterers on other social networks helps to create an immediate bond. I put a post up on the ScriptFrenzy site looking for other Twitterers and immediately had several followers, some of whom have floated over to my other sites.
There are a few sites out there that allow you to consolidate posts from around the web via RSS and published APIs, but I've found all of them to be very crude so far, and frankly I think they miss the point in their mission. The value of social network diversification is the organic traffic, so the next killer app will work within, not without, in my opinion.
We'll talk more soon, here or elsewhere in the webverse! :)
ClifTwitter / zenjunk
http://twitter.com/zenjunk
Twitter is a free social messaging utility for staying connected in real-time
TCC:
2:57pm Apr 5th
Clif, allow me to hold off for now on Twitter. I checked it out and it exhausted me just going over that "my life every minute" stuff. I don't get it, beyond the obvious that communications is key to building up social capital.
{b]Clif:
3:04pm Apr 5th
Sure, I just wanted you to be aware of it as an example of the far end of the spectrum. I passed it up at first for the same reasons, but after forcing my way into it I think I get it now. I suppose it could be about intimacy if you were following an artist you liked, for etc. But for me, I've found it to be more about accidental encounter. Like overhearing a conversation and saying, "oh hey, I read that book and loved it too."
TCC:
3:19pm Apr 5th
It's interesting that my first long message to you first shown above cannot be "copied and pasted" on my own Facebook wall. I tried to do this to get my other Facebook friends to think about what was being stated [if they happened to take a look at my "Wall" - whenever]. This demonstrates my point that Facebook is not set up for "iterative" content development. I think that is the "killer app" that makes wikipedia such a game-changing resource. I am hoping that in the more narrow domain of "indie music" the iterative development of content and quanitification of social capital [SocialBuxx™?] might be fuzz' killer apt.
Clif:
8:08pm Apr 6th
I still think there's some merit to my wiki-album concept in terms of iterative content development / value addition and community building around an album. Even if for most artists it starts with a "finished album" by industry standards, there is the potential for content and community growth via comments, photos, videos, bonus tracks, song insights (i.e. behind the music"), etc. I just need to flesh it out and explain it better, I guess.
The idea isn't completely solid yet, but I think the next "killer app" for indie musicians should provide micro-network sub-communities around artists and albums, facilitate artist-fan interaction even to the level of participation via remixes or design-a-tshirt functionality, and allow the artist to choose among multiple methods of monetization (free, ad-supported, subscription, paid downloads, etc). The industry is still pushing for a one-size-fits-all model, but I think if you view each artist as a business and just provide tools for small businesses that are tailored to artists without placing severe limitations on their business model - then you might be on to something.
TCC::
Clif, I will send you a reply via the fuzz PM.
TCC [via fuzz PM]:
Clif, I think your "wiki-album" concept makes a lot of sense precisely because it fits into the "wiki" modality of quick and iterative [which was the subject of the book Wiki-nomics that you may have read].
One way to look at wiki-albums is to take a page from the movie industry and the evolution of DVDs. As you may know, the revenues from DVDs are becoming more important to producers than ticket sales. Thus, producers of DVDs now add much more content on the DVDs [commentary by actors, directors, alternative endings, etc.]
What is still missing in DVDs, and this is key, is the community-based iterative development of the product. In other words, the DVDs are physical product and, thus, not on a "wiki" platform. The next "killer app" for Hollywood probably will be the "wiki-DVD", but for that to happen the industry has to make a commitment to online movies. It will take some time for the major producers to get their brains to catch up with the technology and an acceptable new business model. Of course, the music industry is already there [with the brains and balls of the major labels left behind] and so "wiki-everything" is possible. I elaborate.
The "wiki-album" should be part of the natural evolution of the music industry from (1) physical product to (2) digital downloads or "semi-permanent" streaming of individual songs to (3) online community-based "wiki-albums", "wiki-playlists", "wiki-reviews", "wiki-mixtapes", "wiki-blogs" [or even "wiki-PMs like this one :) .
As always, in business and in life "the devil is in the details" and most good ideas are still-born or die early deaths because there is no follow-through on EXECUTION.
I think the best way to get traction on the "wiki" notion [wiki-albums, wiki-whatever] is to do it on our public pages so the fuzz music community can follow this and, perhaps, we get more input and involvement. To that end, I solicit your kind permission to repost this dialogue in the public blog pages.
If we can get community traction, when and as micro-network sub-communities [great way to put it] develop, like DifferentStar and tibii's Non-muscian Supergroup, Fuzzpilers, Cookie-clockers, StrangeTraxers, Mixtape Compilers, etc., we can then get the fuzz management to work with the sub-groups to develop the "multiple methods of monetization" [another great characterization] you mentioned. :!:
TCC:
Clif, I haven't played around much with the Facebook platform and how it interfaces with other sites. It appears to have zillions of applications that are "toys" to poke and play. I would characterize these to be devices to keep the various participants engaged and in touch which is OK - as far as it goes.
Also, the main function of this Facebook network, which is to remain in contact with your "inner circle" [where you are going for dinner, busy with homework, state of mind, etc}, is better than anything else around in the social networking space. And, the obvious "key value proposition" of Facebook is the cascading layers of networks that are a click or two away from millions of participants being others who have "signed-up".
The main shortcoming to me is that the "architecture" of the Facebook site doesn't lend itself to "iterative" development of content. This, of course, raises the fascinating and never-ending quality vs. quantity discussion/debate that is ongoing at fuzz [what is spam, what is signal, what is noise, etc.]. I think this X vs. Y [quality/quantity] framing exercise is helpful but not definitive in helping to find resolution of an age-old philosophical debate whether Yin can exist without Yang [and vice versa]..
I think we need iterative [qualitative] development of spontaneous [quantitative] output to create real SocialBuxx™ [hey, alt0153 worked!]. Quality and Quantity both matter in creating social capital.
Nobody knows what the hell I am doing [or cares] writing about this stuff on a Facebook wall. The development of Iterative Content needs a better platform.
Cheers [just playing around in search of convergence of all our sites and our circle of "friends" [nodes and supernodes] on overlapping networks.]
Clif:
2:40pm Apr 5th
Yeah, there is now a pretty wide spectrum of social networking possibilities on the scale from iterative (quality) to spontaneous (quantity), as you mentioned. I would put the original Geocities 1.0 web site phenomenon at the far left (iterative) and microapps like Twitter at the far right (spontaneous). The sweet spot differs from person to person of course. The next "killer app" should enable the full spectrum of social "authoring" as well as a much better search/filtering mechanism based on a "long tail" taxonomy. For example, I like lo-fi voice and guitar music, and I also like to talk to people who like the same. Despite all the advances, it's still next to impossible to find the members of that micro-niche despite evidence that they exist.
Do check out the twitter thing if you haven't already, in order to have a good picture of the spectrum. My page is at http://twitter.com/zenjunk and I actually update it via IM (with GTalk). It is the killer "status" app, in that I can place widgets around the web like the one on the right of my tumblelog at http://zenjunk.tumblr.com/ . I've also managed to pick up a few new "followers" using the tool. And finding twitterers on other social networks helps to create an immediate bond. I put a post up on the ScriptFrenzy site looking for other Twitterers and immediately had several followers, some of whom have floated over to my other sites.
There are a few sites out there that allow you to consolidate posts from around the web via RSS and published APIs, but I've found all of them to be very crude so far, and frankly I think they miss the point in their mission. The value of social network diversification is the organic traffic, so the next killer app will work within, not without, in my opinion.
We'll talk more soon, here or elsewhere in the webverse! :)
ClifTwitter / zenjunk
http://twitter.com/zenjunk
Twitter is a free social messaging utility for staying connected in real-time
TCC:
2:57pm Apr 5th
Clif, allow me to hold off for now on Twitter. I checked it out and it exhausted me just going over that "my life every minute" stuff. I don't get it, beyond the obvious that communications is key to building up social capital.
{b]Clif:
3:04pm Apr 5th
Sure, I just wanted you to be aware of it as an example of the far end of the spectrum. I passed it up at first for the same reasons, but after forcing my way into it I think I get it now. I suppose it could be about intimacy if you were following an artist you liked, for etc. But for me, I've found it to be more about accidental encounter. Like overhearing a conversation and saying, "oh hey, I read that book and loved it too."
TCC:
3:19pm Apr 5th
It's interesting that my first long message to you first shown above cannot be "copied and pasted" on my own Facebook wall. I tried to do this to get my other Facebook friends to think about what was being stated [if they happened to take a look at my "Wall" - whenever]. This demonstrates my point that Facebook is not set up for "iterative" content development. I think that is the "killer app" that makes wikipedia such a game-changing resource. I am hoping that in the more narrow domain of "indie music" the iterative development of content and quanitification of social capital [SocialBuxx™?] might be fuzz' killer apt.
Clif:
8:08pm Apr 6th
I still think there's some merit to my wiki-album concept in terms of iterative content development / value addition and community building around an album. Even if for most artists it starts with a "finished album" by industry standards, there is the potential for content and community growth via comments, photos, videos, bonus tracks, song insights (i.e. behind the music"), etc. I just need to flesh it out and explain it better, I guess.
The idea isn't completely solid yet, but I think the next "killer app" for indie musicians should provide micro-network sub-communities around artists and albums, facilitate artist-fan interaction even to the level of participation via remixes or design-a-tshirt functionality, and allow the artist to choose among multiple methods of monetization (free, ad-supported, subscription, paid downloads, etc). The industry is still pushing for a one-size-fits-all model, but I think if you view each artist as a business and just provide tools for small businesses that are tailored to artists without placing severe limitations on their business model - then you might be on to something.
TCC::
Clif, I will send you a reply via the fuzz PM.
TCC [via fuzz PM]:
Clif, I think your "wiki-album" concept makes a lot of sense precisely because it fits into the "wiki" modality of quick and iterative [which was the subject of the book Wiki-nomics that you may have read].
One way to look at wiki-albums is to take a page from the movie industry and the evolution of DVDs. As you may know, the revenues from DVDs are becoming more important to producers than ticket sales. Thus, producers of DVDs now add much more content on the DVDs [commentary by actors, directors, alternative endings, etc.]
What is still missing in DVDs, and this is key, is the community-based iterative development of the product. In other words, the DVDs are physical product and, thus, not on a "wiki" platform. The next "killer app" for Hollywood probably will be the "wiki-DVD", but for that to happen the industry has to make a commitment to online movies. It will take some time for the major producers to get their brains to catch up with the technology and an acceptable new business model. Of course, the music industry is already there [with the brains and balls of the major labels left behind] and so "wiki-everything" is possible. I elaborate.
The "wiki-album" should be part of the natural evolution of the music industry from (1) physical product to (2) digital downloads or "semi-permanent" streaming of individual songs to (3) online community-based "wiki-albums", "wiki-playlists", "wiki-reviews", "wiki-mixtapes", "wiki-blogs" [or even "wiki-PMs like this one :) .
As always, in business and in life "the devil is in the details" and most good ideas are still-born or die early deaths because there is no follow-through on EXECUTION.
I think the best way to get traction on the "wiki" notion [wiki-albums, wiki-whatever] is to do it on our public pages so the fuzz music community can follow this and, perhaps, we get more input and involvement. To that end, I solicit your kind permission to repost this dialogue in the public blog pages.
If we can get community traction, when and as micro-network sub-communities [great way to put it] develop, like DifferentStar and tibii's Non-muscian Supergroup, Fuzzpilers, Cookie-clockers, StrangeTraxers, Mixtape Compilers, etc., we can then get the fuzz management to work with the sub-groups to develop the "multiple methods of monetization" [another great characterization] you mentioned. :!:
Comments
But groups are missing here and the interaction between fans needs to be improved. Almost all Fuzzies I have contact with are musicians. Loved to meet some Dream Pop and Britrock fans - to receive some real "coming from the heart" recommendations. Artists tend to recommend only themselves or their buddies.
As TCC mentioned before, our Almost Fabulous Group and your Fuzzpile are first steps. You might have noticed as well that even musicians are attracted by our Group - just for a chat and some occasionally meaningless but joyful conversation. Again - that's the nitty-gritty !!!
Re: Clif, DifferentStars, and tibii's comments at the blog about the Next "Killer-App": Micro-Community-Based Iterative Content
I think DifferentStar's 22 user-groups [count 'em] - shown on her last.fm profile and on her Sub-Community Within A Community [of which I am a member] at last.fm are instructive of the coming convergence of all of the social music networks [being only one-click away from one another] and the need to develop Iterative Content in a centralized place for ultimate monetization by individual artists and, separately, by music fans and/or dedicated intermediaries on an indie-focused music site - one of the objectives of Cottage Industries 2.0.
And, of course, as usual tibii's point about getting back to basics is a valid point as well. We'd better all get messages over to the Goat with a Poke! about the necessary "blocking and tackling" that still remains to be done on the fuzz platform about stuff like disappearing screens before a music purchase can be completed.
As for Clif, well, he and I are de facto cohorts in developing, uh - you know, SocialBuxx™ to become, in time, the new social currency exchange. :=)