Notes from “The Future of Online Content”

This was, for me, the most heated and engaging panel thus far at Gnomedex. Here are my notes:

40% of the room is using server-based aggregators, 50% of the room is using client-based aggregators

Jason Calacanis: “There ought to be limits to freedom”. Many points of views about a single subject or incident.

Greg Reinacker: We have a server-based service that nobody knows about. They distribute content to a variety of devices, including your Web browser.

Scott Johnson: Weblogs keep stuff alive longer. Weblogs make memes.

Dan Gillmor: Wants tools that go deeper–make it easier to track conversations and memes across blogs and mainstream news sites. For example, permalinks on every comment and every mainstream news organization offering RSS feeds.

Dan Gillmor: Placing his hopes in adoption of Wifi adoption.Ohmynews.com – online Korean newspaper, and is 80% written by its readers.

Dan Gillmor: The future lies with 15 years olds–they’re going to invent the future.

Steve Gillmor: Virulently disagrees. This isn’t for the young–it’s for the passionate.

Calacanis: The bloggers I talk to spend 30-70% of their time deailng with bullshit–non-content generation issues.

Calacanis: 30% of our readership comes through RSS, and that means $0. It’s a conundrum that we have to solve.

Reinacker: Publishers are worried about owning the distribution channel. See also CBC’s RSS-less world.

Scott Johnson: Technology always seems to give users more freedom. Contents going to continue to get microsliced. Advertising always comes in at some point–you’ll see ads in feeds.

Calacanis: The major media don’t like the concept of one person talking directly to the audience. They’ve earmarked part of their budget for their first lawsuit.

Dan Gillmor: Draws connection between the fact that, in the 1800s, people played their own music and how today we’re all becoming creators again. The business model for blogging is the same way as for community theatre–that’s a great point. There’s huge value, just not the kind we put in the GDP.

Steve Gillmor: Every major player has a problem between crossing the chasm between the current business model and a future one. RSS threatens the portal guys–Microsoft and Yahoo–too.

Dan Gillmor: Legally speaking, bloggers have everything to lose.

Calacanis: Bring on the lawsuits.

Steve Gillmor: We’re seeing the death of the home page, routing away from home pages to the web services channel.

Calacanis: Big companies have got to get used to the truth. If MS Internet Explorer sucks, fucking fix it. Don’t sue us.

Peter Kaminski: Microsoft’s policy for their bloggers: Don’t do something stupid.

Dan Gillmor: On the INDUCE Act, Hollywood’s going to lose on sneakernet before they win on the Internet.

Steve Gillmor: He used to be a record producer, and he can’t buy the records he used to produce–he has to steal them via the file-sharing networks.

Steve Gillmor: We are the media. This isn’t about us vs. them. We are becoming them, and the revolution is happening faster than we think.

Calacanis: Engadget has spent a lot of time evaluating ads in RSS. They’ll be interesting to watch, to see how they implement it.

Calacanis: What advertiser would want to be associated with being a douche?