Content Decoded

Ideabox is a new feature on ContentDecoded. Every IdeaBox author is charged with coming up with an idea that solves for a current challenge in the business of content.

Rick Liebling is the Global Director of Client Management at  Taylor, a marketing communications agency. In this column, he talks about how crowdsourcing has the potential to bring out the best in journalism. Read on!

It’s a pretty safe bet that ‘crowdsourcing’ will go down as the marketing buzzword of 2009. Agencies are now built on it and marketing types talk about it extensively. As with any buzzword, the meaning starts to become malleable and soon it starts to become a catch-all, twisted to suit whatever purpose the user is trying to support. But when we strip crowdsourcing down and really examine its potential, I think there are some intriguing possibilities for those who create, curate and distribute content. But first we have to understand how crowdsourcing can be used.

I think a real opportunity exists for content producers with a highly passionate and educated audience. A magazine like The Atlantic or Harper’s would be ideal. They have readerships with diverse knowledge and interests who are both passionate and inquisitive. Rather than throwing out a typical, generic ‘crowdsourcing’ challenge, the editors’ of these magazines could tackle complex, global issues and would no doubt receive content for Ph.D.s, rocket scientists, brain surgeons and poet laureates. Imagine what issues a ‘crowd’ like that could tackle. It would be as simple as having the magazine’s editors publish a list of story ideas on the website and having people pitch their ideas and offer their credentials.

Or you could do a fascinating themed issue, say on the industrial food complex. Crowdsourcing writers all the way along the journey, from farm to processing plant, truck drivers to grocery store all the way to consumer. Having the reports done by actual participants as opposed to journalists would provide an added visceral element simply not possible otherwise.

Another intriguing use of crowdsourcing would be to take advantage of the diverse geographic base of the readership. This would be ideal for a publication that caters to enthusiasts / hobbyist, where a traditional editorial staff simply couldn’t cover all the stories. For instance, a skateboard magazine written by skateboarders. They’d be able to tell unique, human stories from areas outside the typical spots like Southern California or New York City. Ideally you’d uncover the next burgeoning skateboard scene or discover the next Christian Hosoi.

Regardless, the key is to rethink the true benefits of crowdsourcing and how to use it to your advantage. Doing so could bring out the best of citizen-journalism.

Ideabox is a new feature on ContentDecoded. Every IdeaBox author is charged with coming up with an idea that solves for a current challenge in the business of content. Our first Ideabox column is authord by Rick Liebling.

Liebling is the Global Director of Client Management at  Taylor, a marketing communications agency. In this column, he talks about the possibility of a Pandora for Content. Read on!

I think one of the bigger trends of the last few years has been increasing ability for consumers to customize the content they receive. At first blush, this seems like a good thing. Being able to pull only the relevant content you want sounds great when there is an overwhelming amount of content out there.  This sort of filtering can work on both qualitative and quantitative levels. But what is often overlooked is what is lost with this sort of filtering, the serendipitous discovery of content.

When I flip through a magazine or newspaper invariably my eye will come across an article that piques my interest. Not something that I’m necessarily a huge fan of, but something close enough that my curiosity has now gotten the best of me. Let me give you an example. I remember seeing a review or interview or some sort of mention of the novel Netherland when it was first published. While critically acclaimed, this wasn’t the type of book that was going to generate Dan Brown-type hype. If I don’t flip by this story in the paper, I’m probably never going to know of its existence. I’ll come back to Netherland in a moment.

This idea of serendipity is important, especially to people working in creative industries. We need a wide base of knowledge and experiences, yet by subscribing to certain feeds, email alerts and newsletters we tend to shrink our knowledge base. But what if, rather than narrow our sources, technology could be used to widen them?

Pandora is a fantastic application for music lovers that helps them discover new music. Not completely alien music, but rather music that is somehow similar to music users already like. So, if say you are a fan of Belle & Sebastian, Pandora will recommend Kruder & Dorfmeister or perhaps Stereo MC’s. That’s cool, I like both of those groups too. But it will also give me Sofa Surfers, a group I’ve never heard of. But I feel comfortable checking them out because there’s a pretty good chance they’ll be in the same ballpark.

Now, let’s take this same concept and apply it to content, revisiting my Netherland example.

Imagine a web-based application that pulls in content from all over the Internet. Blogs, news sites, user-generated content, you name it. As long as it meets certain parameters (length, Fry Readability Formula, proper grammar, etc.) it goes into the system. Now, as you start to pick and choose content, the system starts to learn your preferences. Not only the subject matter, but also the type of content – interviews rather than mere profiles; hard news rather than opinion.

After a little while, the system learns that I like book reviews. It also knows that I read articles about Dutch culture team and that I have some interest in cricket. From there it starts making suggestions based on these preferences until I see a recommendation for a novel about a Dutch guy who plays cricket on Staten Island.

Sure, there will be some ‘false positives’ but even that won’t be a bad thing as the point is almost to create ‘false positives.’  Ideally you’d click on one of these ‘false positives’ and that would go into your database, ever so slightly broadening your content pool. There would be real benefits to content providers buying in to this system, especially those that produce unique, original content but have small user bases.

I would imagine there would be easy advertising opportunities for this as well. Again looking at the Pandora model where little modules slight from right to left, wedged in between the songs. Contextually relevant brands (or media properties) could have small, clickable ads worked directly into the interface.

I’m not a backend development guy, but this seems like a pretty doable application. I’d love to here opinions on both the UX viability as well as the development challenges.