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Monday Mar 27, 2006
Guardian Changing Media Summit
A couple of us are down at the Guardian one day event at Victoria, covering all the latest buzzwords around the internet: user generated content; social (or citizen) media; device convergence, DRM etc. I'll try and post a few times today - now that I've got my wifi sorted (for an event which is all about opening up the media, it's been hard to get online).
Martin Stiksle who founded last-fm is currently speaking, doing a show and tell, but here are a few points from the day so far:1. Chris Dobson from MSN reckons Microsoft is moving from being a tech company to a media/advertising company. MSN will be at the centre of the "Microsoft universe". He pointed to all the usual yardsticks that prove that old-media is old-hat: increase in TiVo/Sky+ (and the skipping of adverts); Print media profits down; User generated content getting massive (25m users of MSN Spaces) etc. Usual sort of stuff and nothing overly enlightening but aimed to scare the pants of the media owners and brand people here.
2. Chris claimed that the new consumers are: sceptical; connected; time pressed; ahead of curve; intelligent and have no loyalty to brands. Carolyn McCall of the Guardian questioned the last point and suggested that people trust certain brands and will follow them. I agree and this is crucial to the success or otherwise of TheSite.org.
3. Fru Hazlitt from Virgin Radio may be bonkers but she says some sensible things. Such as "we're all too old" (watch the kids for where we're going; they don't have the history of attachment to other devices) and "most people are boring" (on why social media isn't going to kill 'proper' media).
4. Ben Hammersley has a mantra which has ruffled feathers: "don't make crap products". He reckons that a simple way to get round this changing media and advertising universe is to ensure your product is good to start with. Simple, yet pretty complelling.
5. John Snow loves this new world but sees a real clash between this desire for user generated content and libel laws. It's a challenge which will grow for all of us,
6. So it's odd to hear the Guardian doesn't have community managers. Even now, with it's new Comment is Free site.
Posted by Dom Waghorn ( 11:23 AM ) Link to this post Comments[3]
Posted by DK on March 27, 2006 at 01:27 PM GMT+00:00 #
Posted by Tom Green on March 27, 2006 at 01:32 PM GMT+00:00 #
Posted by Sam Thomas on March 27, 2006 at 01:55 PM GMT+00:00 #