Hi everyone - please find our first research note available via the link below: User Generated Context.
We discuss the mistaken strategic assumptions behind the idea of user generated content, and why it’s preventing the media industry from exploring new paths to business model reinvention.
Enjoy!!
usergeneratedcontext.pdf (176.9 KiB, 3,952 hits)
10 Comments
1 Calin Fusu wrote:
no comment
2 Kevin Toderel wrote:
Hi Umair
Really enjoyable post. I talk about context a lot in the sense of having people design customer interactions with the thought of producing certain emotions and then using those emotions to be the context for a great shopping/buying/learning experience, but ultimately this is limited to day to day execution. I think if you can get people thinking more about context from a strategic perspective they will be, by necessity, more open to totally different business models. We HAVE been way to focussed on the content as the “product” with the context as something to be manipulated with the hope of generating “buzz”. As you nicely say the real opportunity is to facilitate the creation of the context to leverage all the network effects and such that technology has enabled. Once the context is set the content just takes off and becomes exponentially more valuable. Now you have created intangible competitive advantage which protects you against 98% (if not more) of the competitors out there. Thanks for framing this issue so nicely.
3 Derrick Horner wrote:
I could not agree more with the emphasis on context over content as web experiences continue to evolve. Vizible Corporation is pioneering a new platform for “user generated context” that brings together Web media and user experiences to add a new dimension to social media. I would enjoy hearing and sharing more thoughts. Check out our alpha release at http://www.projectredtail.com.
4 gregory wrote:
the link is an example of what it is talking about … it only goes to here
5 Stephen Byrne wrote:
There’s some interesting points in here but while you might track the disruption, and possible disintermediation, of traditional business models YOUR context is still advertising and how, as you say your clients need to leverage context ” to explode the possibilities for seeding and joining discussion”. It wouldn’t be a poor guess to say that at this point Havas’ own business model is not likely to be particularly disjunctive.
So isn’t this just a case of a disrupter in sheep’s clothing?
6 david cushman wrote:
Hi,
Just read your strategy note on user generated context.
I think we may be speaking the same language.
A slidedeck I knocked up recently maybe explains this most briefly (just 10 slides).
http://fasterfuture.blogspot.com/2008/06/why-traditional-advertising-wont-work.html
It’s encapsulated in the ideas of micro human interactions and ‘marketing is something done by them not to them’.
Take a look and let me know what you think?
david cushman
7 Tiago Silveira wrote:
Aha! You mean under “PDF download”, of course.
Someone sleepy might get a little confused clicking on the link to the post over and over again.
8 Jake de Grazia wrote:
Why post pdfs and not online texts on which readers can comment? Couldn’t we consider mass pdf communication part of the old system? Sheltered soapboxing? An behavior that leads quite easily to talking without listening?
9 fred wilson wrote:
i find it ironic that you’ve chosen to publish this report (excellent as always) in pdf, a format that cannot easily facilitate the very gestures that create context.
10 Leo Rayman wrote:
I’m surprised no one commented on this. I just read the note (whilst ridding my desk of old papers) and was interested in what you had to say. We do all spend a lot of time talking UGC - perhaps its because when we see really good stuff it makes a deep impression and feels so much more real than what is often produced by agencies. But like you say, most web behaviour, even from the bloggerati, tends to be linking to and commenting on the content of others. Eith way, useful for me and helps us stay focused on the important of helping people to connect to the content our brands are putting out there.
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