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September 8th, 2008 at 11:37 am

People often speak of old and new media as a dichotomy, with stodgy network television channels and traditional newspapers on the one hand, and hip, technologically sophisticated youth on the other. But recently, old media –- in particular, large television outlets -– have been catching on. A recent post on Mashable noted that CNN is using Twitter to interact with viewers. I commented that Fox News Channel is also using Twitter and Facebook. Many traditional newspapers, national and local, are also using Twitter and other social software to various degrees.

Because I use my Comcast Cable DVR to watch shows on delay about 75% of the time, I found myself this morning viewing a national news show and realizing that I couldn’t interact with the hosts via Twitter, because I was an hour too late. Show hosts asking viewers to “Twitter your comments” is clearly the modern version of “calling in with your questions for our guest.” The key question I asked myself was, as more television media master their new media brands, will we find ourselves more likely to tune into their shows in real time?

The financial consequence of not using DVRs, or downloading the shows from a third-party website, or other new options, is that more people watching the real-time version means more viewer share, which in turn means more advertising revenue. People are more likely to engage the show in real time and therefore more likely to see traditional commercials. I don’t know if the gurus at television networks or advertising firms they work with are thinking about it this way yet, but it seems like a truism to me.

So what might be a strategy going forward? As an avid watcher of television, particularly political news, complex dramas, and reality shows, I could imagine many scenarios in which incentives are created to watch shows in real time – viewers pose questions for the guest, guide alternative dramatic scenes, or decide what challenge the players have to perform. How cool would it be to watch Donald Trump, Sr. using Twitter on a BlackBerry in the middle of the live Apprentice finale? And the advertising underbelly is that you are statistically more likely to purchase paper towels, basketball sneakers, or a dream vacation cruise.

With the increasingly “long tail” of niche television channels, magazines, and similar outlets only becoming more prevalent, it might behoove the “blockbuster” organizations like NBC to become the leaders in “old new media” to win some of that viewer share back. This summer, the startup social network and search site Searchles inked a deal with the venerable Washington Post to create social networks among people with common reading interests. Why not similarly network all the people who voted for Clay Aiken, are fans of Gossip Girl, or hate The View?

Mark Drapeau is an Associate Research Fellow at the Center for Technology and National Security Policy in Washington, DC. These views are his own and not the official policy or position of any part of the U.S. Federal Government.

(Image via Flickr/ dailyinvention)

Source:Mashable!

One of many companies launching at DEMO this week is Say Where from DialDirections. Say Where hopes to make its mark by offering voice input locations and directions generated by speaking an address or city into an iPhone 3G. By doing this Say Where brings basic pre-programmed GPS destination functionality to the iPhone 3G.

If you have used any basic GPS system, you know that pre-programmed destinations are par for the course. There is a selection included in any GPS worth its salt of nearby gas stations, movie theaters, restaurants and other points of interest. The drawback to these is that they don’t change dynamically as businesses succeed or fail. They could be outdated at any moment without real time data feedback.

If you have an iPhone, you already have all of the real time Web-based destination information you could want. Coupled with the ability to get directions and mark your place with drop pin and bookmark, iPhone users already have more flexibility than this program appears to offer at first blush. If I had to choose between getting more reliable and up to date information from the iPhone Web interface, or possibly outdated pre-programmed information from Say Where, I’m going to have to choose the Internet until Say Where includes real data.

One of Say Where’s pitch points is voice capability. It’s nice to speak into the iPhone and get results, especially if you have trouble with the touch screen keyboarding. in the end, what good is convenience or cool software if it gives you potentially useless data? This is a good idea, but it needs more.

Perhaps I am judging this application too quickly and should be more excited about having access to data like nearby destinations, points of interest, recommendations and reviews with simple voice commands. Unfortunately, I just can’t seem to get excited about it. If it offered a way to get real time data and merge it with true GPS functionality, I’d be more excited. however, with the availability of the DASH GPS, I’m not seeing a need for Say Where right now, since DASH already does pretty much everything that I want in a real time, Internet connected GPS interface.

However, if the most you can say about your new iPhone App is that it uses voice commands and won’t cost users a phone call when retrieving the data they request, I’d recommend adding more features to really make it noteworthy. As it stands, when I want unbiased data on the iPhone 3G from voice commands I’ll just dial 1-800-GOOG-411 and either get the answer on the phone or have them SMS me. If I want similar functionality I can use programs like Nearby or Infospace. Meanwhile, if Say Where were to introduce real data instead of canned data, it would become ten times more useful.

Source:Mashable!

The objective for TurnTo, a New York-based startup introduced at DEMOfall 08 this week, is to enable your personalized Web browsing experience to supersede website borders. TurnTo’s intention is to spread itself to an ever-expanding set of partner sites. And that’s important to emphasize. Because anything short of something of popular or viral design will sweep TurnTo into irrelevance.

The concept is interesting. It’s been done before in various other forms; social shopping is something that has been around for many months already. Yet, Turnto’s implementation is light. Very light. The widget is quite nondescript. Nothing to install whatsoever. You just sign up, connect with your friends, and start browsing.

That second step, though, is a major one. The biggest hurdle of all. This goes as much for end users as for websites, too. Users need to engage people they know through invitations, which is rarely a fun process to trudge though. (The company lists LinkedIn, AOL Mail, Gmail, MSN/Hotmail, Yahoo Mail/Rocketmail, and .Mac as import options.) Oppositely, TurnTo lists sites such as Angara, Compsource, Teavana, and EarthWatch as participants in the launch. As you will immediately recognize, the starter group is infinitesimally small when sized up against the full spectrum of destinations it might inhabit in widget form. It will have to grow. A lot. (TurnTo tells Mashable that four more are under implementation, including three Internet retail 500 sites.)

Leaving aside the obstacles for adoption for a moment, once you do establish connections, it’s very simple to operate. Say you’re really into tea. Maybe you’re an artisan with herbs and leaves and spices and things. And your friends are, too. In that case, if you were to trek over to Teavana, you could share recommendations or learn from others about things they found appealing. This at once gives you a social element to your shopping experience in a particular spot on the Web. And it allows websites to provide that service without having to expend much effort in shaping their pages to cater to such demand, if it indeed exists amongst friends.

Again, TurnTo has a phenomenal task ahead if it is to make any sort of lasting impact - aside from very particular shoppers who aren’t eager to browse dozens, or even hundreds of websites in a given period of time. There’s no downplaying the significance of the scale of what TurnTo must achieve. Sure, if you’re a fan of Teavana, for instance, there you have it. You’re set. Mission complete. Realistically though, in order that TurnTo make its business a viable one (revenue is dependent on a purchase performance model), its grand dream needs to be substantiated to at least partial degree. It couldn’t sensibly have it all, of course. But it might gather enough steam. It’s a possibility.