Umair Haque, whose work I admire and link to with some frequency (his blog), has written a very good piece (unsigned) on media innovation for the UK-based Innovaro consulting firm. He writes:
... Consider more generally the three key dimensions along which today’s media is beginning to differ radically from yesterdays. First, most obvious, today’s media is more and more interactive, where yesterday’s was inert. Consumers can rate, rank, comment on, review, and respond to the new world of media. Though the media industry is fond of an ugly and deceptively simplistic term – “user generated content” – it’s more accurate to say that the distinctions between amateur and professional media are fading fast. Second, today’s media is pulled by consumers, not pushed at them. At iTunes and Last.fm, for example, it is connected consumers who decide – individually or collectively – what music to pull into their iPods and hard drives. Third, today’s media is microchunked, rather than monolithic. At blogs, consumers read posts; at YouTube, consumers watch microchunked videos. All of these are functions of the new production and consumption possibilities markets, networks, and communities open up. In turn, these three new characteristics of media point to the fact that markets, networks, and communities aren’t simple product or service innovations; rather, they are equal parts strategic and management innovation – equal parts rethinking how the firm manages interactions, especially with consumers, and rethinking how value can be created and captured. ...
Link: Innovaro. Highly recommended. --Dennis
