Friday, February 22, 2008

Notes from the Monday keynotes at O'Reilly TOC

Here are my notes on the keynotes from Monday. I kept wondering why the emphasis was on nonfiction and not fiction. I think there's something to be considered in the ease that nonfiction fits into the web and that fiction may not. Is the digital age merely the death of the reference book? Sure the encyclopedia and increasingly the travel guide have major online threats. But what about fiction? Even Fray.com prints now and again...

Stephan Abram

The novel is an invention from the 1800s

Context is king - not content

The half life of a fact is 8 years

Younger audiences scan a website with a circle and then zero in on the middle. No more of the traditional F scan.

Bill Burger

As O'Reilly points out, the threat is not piracy, it's obscurity.

Copying used to be more valuable than the content before the printing press. But Guttenberg and especially the industrial revolution changed the ratio. Now the tools of the web are valued more than the content. [Will we see the same cycle of content vs. tool once again? What happens when the tools are free and ubiquitous?]

Douglas Rushkoff

Contact is king

Mass media connects people to products not people to people

Advertising works best on lone individuals, not well on social groups

Interpersonal media allows the interaction between people

In the online world, there is social currency and real life motivation from your reputation. In the work world you are anonymous in a company with little emphasis to be passionate or to try hard.

Content is a medium. It is an excuse for interacting.

In the first renaissances, hearers became readers
In the second renaissance (the internet), readers became writers

B

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