by Gary Welz
New Paradigms of Publishing: Part I
What is Content?
The Web is now a vital but somewhat confused medium. It's not like the other media--we don't really know why yet, and we don't know what is going to work. We have not determined the new forms and formats that will allow us to define the new medium in relation to print, radio and TV.Carol Moore, who runs the IBM corporate home page says, "The definition of content is undergoing a fundamental change. . . . We're just beginning to distinguish between what gets noticed, what gets read and what gets really read. . . . For the past few years we've been so wrapped up in technology that we didn't notice what was happening to content. . . . The real talent that Web site developers need to cultivate is that for arranging information, not writing."
Joan Feeney, editor of Epicurious, the Condé Nast Web 'zine "for people who eat," says, "The worst thing about the Web is also the best thing about it, i.e., that creators of content can't control the user's experience of it." She goes on to say, "The Web is an editor's medium--not a place for writers or reporters. The challenge is to make a visitor's experience of a site satisfying, even though it's completely unique."
Is written text what people want? Not much. Instead they seem to prefer:
The Hot100 Websites lists the top 100 sites on the Web by traffic. The current list shows:
- Tools for finding information: Search engines and directories
- Chat and discussion (aka communities)
- Games (also communities)
- Automated info resources: Newswires, feeds, weather, scores
- And more and more services
Netscape's home page is first, probably because it's the default home page of all Netscape browsers and few people bother to change it. Netscape exploits this fully and is one of the leading sellers of banners on its site. The second and third sites are Yahoo and Excite, then Microsoft and AOL's home page. The first real publication is Pathfinder--which is really a magazine rack full of Time publications. Geocities is a vast virtual community that invites individuals and organizations to create their own home pages. Playboy is well, Playboy. XMission is a Salt Lake City-based Internet access provider that features lots of multiplayer games and number 10 is Concentric another access provider.
- Netscape
- Yahoo
- Excite
- Microsoft
- America Online
- Pathfinder
- Geocities
- Playboy
- XMission
- Concentric Network
It's not a fluke, really, that so many of the top 10 provide access to the Net or information about what's on it. Beyond that, they let you create a place of your own in cyberspace. Microsoft and Netscape both allow you to create customized home pages at their sites. AOL, Geocities, XMission and Concentric also allow you to create your own pages--this is what seems to be the trend--bringing information to your own pages, rather than going out to find it.
This makes us view cyberspace as the intersection of all your own personal interests, not the vast uncharted frontier that has been portrayed in popular culture. My personal home page is where I spend most of my time online, it's my favorite table in the restaurant of information; everything that I habitually want is on hand.
Feeney asserts that in Web publishing, "It's not enough just to have content, you have to be useful, too." She describes a plan that will allow visitors to Epicurious who find an appealing recipe database to generate a shopping list of groceries and then have them delivered to their home on the same day.
One of the most familiar sites offering a valuable service is FedX, which let's you check on the progress of a package. Another dazzling Web service is the recently announced Yahoo map site, which shows you the location of any address in the U.S. on a local street map.
On the Web, some of the most sucessful sites are simply pointers. To create a cool 'zine, don't write articles and hire designers, surf the Net and find ten cool things. Write a table of contents that points to them. Consider: Cool Site of the Day, What's New With NCSA Mosaic, along with everybody else's "What's New" and "What's Hot."
There's already enough information on the Net that people want meta-information--information about the information. Publications must harvest and filter it. Information is now like an overabundant natural resource that must be mined and refined. But refined by what criteria? Not by quality, but by the need of the user or seeker.
So where will this lead us? Stay tuned.
