designShrine » Trend Forcasting http://designshrine.net Your Source for Interior, Web & Style Design Via RSS Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:15:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Media Literacy: Making Sense Of New Technologies And Media by George Siemens http://designshrine.net/2009/07/10/media-literacy-making-sense-of-new-technologies-and-media-by-george-siemens-july-4-09/ http://designshrine.net/2009/07/10/media-literacy-making-sense-of-new-technologies-and-media-by-george-siemens-july-4-09/#comments Sat, 11 Jul 2009 03:32:34 +0000 Ty Wenzel http://designshrine.net/2009/07/10/media-literacy-making-sense-of-new-technologies-and-media-by-george-siemens-july-4-09/ Media_literacy_digest_georgesiemens_3655369013_28b7f527ee_size485.jpgVisit Robin Good! Media literacy is about asking pertinent questions about what's there, and noticing what's not there. And it's the instinct to question what lies behind media productions - the motives, the money, the values and the ownership - and to be aware of how these factors influence content (Source: TeacherInfo) Photo credit: Alan Levine Inside this [...]]]> Visit Robin Good!

Media literacy is about asking pertinent questions about what's there, and noticing what's not there. And it's the instinct to question what lies behind media productions - the motives, the money, the values and the ownership - and to be aware of how these factors influence content (Source: TeacherInfo)

Media_literacy_digest_georgesiemens_3655369013_28b7f527ee_size485.jpg

Photo credit: Alan Levine

Inside this Media Literacy digest:

  • The Edgeless University - ...while university enrollment continues to increase, universities are in an increasingly “fragile state”.
  • Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning - ...is focused on the K-12 market and states that some online learning (blended) is actually superior to only face-to-face learning.
  • Beyond Management: Personal Learning Environments - Stephen Downes’ presentation at ED-MEDIA 2009 is available: Beyond Management: Personal Learning Environments.
  • Learning Institutions In a Digital Age - This “reframing” of research builds on the intellectual work of others but fails to provide appropriate recognition as the message is shaped for a traditional audience.
  • Learning Leaders Fieldbook - ...offers a diverse-perspective overview of leading learning in an organization
  • Why Free Web Services Aren’t Really Free - The idealism of early 2000 around open source and free software has given way (within education) to “wow, cool tool” syndrome of today.
  • A Global Reset For Advertising - ...within 10 years all traditional content will be digital and yet, Google aside, publishers are failing to generate serious digital revenues.”

George Siemens' Media Literacy digest helps you uncover interesting trends, new technologies and approaches as well as guiding you to ask the difficult questions needed to make better sense of the fast changing times we live in.

Here all the details:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

The Edgeless University

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The Edgeless University (.pdf) argues, that while university enrollment continues to increase, universities are in an increasingly “fragile state”.

Growing competition, heavy reliance on public funding (which is made even more insecure in today’s economy), technology growth, open content, and social media / networks are forcing universities to adapt.

The author states that technology is the core of the change (p. 8). This isn’t entirely accurate. Technology is one of many change pressures.

The real change pressure is found on points along the longer time lime of change: how we interact with information and with each other. Today’s technology is only one point on the timeline. Language, Gutenberg, and the scientific method all occupy a role in increasing the ability for individuals and society to create / access / validate information.

This report, while focused on UK, provides a good overview of technological and policy concerns universities face. To increase relevance, universities need to become “edgeless”, extending current roles to include informal, collaborative, and participatory learning.

Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning

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This report will get a fair bit of attention: Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning (.pdf).

It joins a long list of meta-analysis by researchers like Abrami, Bernard et al. (.pdf), Tallent-Runnells et al., Zhao et al., and of course the original “no significant difference” site.

The current report - by US Department of Education - is focused on the K-12 market and states that some online learning (blended) is actually superior to only face-to-face learning. Conclusions of this type likely won’t convince anyone who is antagonistic to technology use in classrooms.

At minimum, the report provides a sweeping overview of how various researchers have tackled the effectiveness of technology in schools over the last decade.

The questions we ask in research are sometimes more interesting than the findings…

Beyond Management: Personal Learning Environments

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Stephen Downes’ presentation at ED-MEDIA 2009 is available: Beyond Management: Personal Learning Environments.

The talk is an advancement (integration) of Stephen’s ideas over the last several years and looks like a precursor to his large PLE research project at NRC.

During the talk, he makes a distinction between complicated and complex that resonates with my own work around learning theory (and Dave Snowden’s Cynefin framework, Ronald Barnett’s work on super complexity). In this distinction we find the driving motivation for reform of education.

Web 2.0 is an instantiation of change. It is not the core change. The shift from settled and stable information (complicated - like a jigsaw puzzle where every piece has a place in our curriculum) to adaptive and emerging (complex - like a weather system where numerous combinations of factors will produce outcomes that cannot be fully predicted) is the core change. New education models must be built on this change. Any system that is out of synch with the market it intends to serve risks irrelevance.

Learning Institutions In a Digital Age

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I encourage you to read this report from the MacArthur foundation, published by MIT Press The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age (.pdf).

If you’ve followed elearnspace blog - and many others with a similar educational technology focus over the last seven years - you won’t find much new in it. And that’s the problem.

I like the report. It offers many insightful statements that I hope will be considered by leaders who don’t follow edublogs. Statements such as:

“We contend that the future of learning institutions demands a deep, epistemological appreciation of the profundity of what the Internet offers humanity as a model of a learning institution”... and

“participatory learning is about a process and not always a final product”... and

“We advocate institutional change because we believe our current formal educational institutions are not taking enough advantage of the modes of digital and participatory learning available to students today”... and

“Networked learning, however, goes beyond these conversational rules to include correcting others, being open to being corrected oneself, and working together to fashion workarounds when straightforward solutions to problems or learning challenges are not forthcoming”

I could offer many other similar statements. All of which have been discussed at great length on many sites and by many authors that I frequently reference.

One of the first steps in publishing on a subject is to do a literature review.

Type in “networked learning” into Google or Google scholar and you’ll see many individuals that have written at length on the subject: Chris Jones, Stephen Downes, Leigh Blackall, Martin de Laat... as well as entire conferences devoted to the theme. Or, when considering educational change and OERs, where is David Wiley? The list goes on.

The report irritates me because I’ve seen this happen several times: an existing field, and major thinkers within the field, is completely ignored as open, online conversations are squeezed into existing publication processes. This “reframing” of research builds on the intellectual work of others but fails to provide appropriate recognition as the message is shaped for a traditional audience.

Learning Leaders Fieldbook

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Masie Center’s Learning Leaders Fieldbook offers a diverse-perspective overview of leading learning in an organization.

Topics include talent management, role of CLO (including lifecycle, basics of success, team structure), and role of technology.

In all, it’s a good handbook. But, its strength is also a weakness: each chapter is only a few pages. After a few chapters you get the impression that you’re reading a series of blog posts.

This reflects a trend I’ve noticed over the last several years: when did leading thinkers in corporate learning conclude that their audience can not handle complex subjects? Why this push for shallowness?

I presented at a large corporate learning event about five months ago. After the presentation, a VP (in charge of training and development) approached me and stated that simple messages are preferable. I assumed this to mean that I had delivered a presentation that was too complex (I was talking about restructuring training departments to take advantage of existing organizational connections between people and using decentralized methods to achieve adaptive corporate strategies - yes, the topic was a bit complex, but because it was complex, it required a complex treatment).

I responded that a good presentation, in my eyes, should do two things: clarify simple issues and present a complex constellation of important issues.

The organization then faces the challenge of working through complex issues in a manner that reflects organizational and external contexts. If it were simple, we could just write a blog post about it or deliver a one-slide powerpoint presentation.

Corporate learners aren’t dumb. We don’t need to reduce significant training to pablum-like consistency.

Why Free Web Services Aren't Really Free

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There are many reasons to love emerging technologies - ease of use, features, ability to connect with family / friends. But for most people “free” is a prominent reason. Unfortunately, it’s not the right kind of free.

The idealism of early 2000 around open source and free software has given way (within education) to “wow, cool tool” syndrome of today.

Mark Pilgrim posted on this in 2005 in Freedom 0 where he discusses the dangers of “free enough”.

I don’t mind paying for software, even content, when I actually own it, rather than rent it under the terms provided by a software user’s license.

This short article raises the important concerns about control again: Why free web services aren’t really free: “Trading one closed-source app for another gets us nowhere, even if the new app happens to come from Google”.

A Global Reset For Advertising

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Advertising revenue for newspapers, TV, magazines, and other mainstream media will rebound once the current economic situation improves, right? Not according to Ballmer: “I don’t think we are in a recession, I think we have reset,” he said.

“A recession implies recovery [to pre-recession levels] and for planning purposes I don’t think we will. We have reset and won’t rebound and re-grow... within 10 years all traditional content will be digital and yet, Google aside, publishers are failing to generate serious digital revenues.”

The very simple (and obvious) lesson here is this: when a system no longer reflects the external context it serves, it is doomed. Examples are numerous - car manufacturers, mainframe computers, and subscription internet models of the early 90’s (AOL).

The question for educational leaders is how well does our system match the activities of our learners and society as a whole - are the approaches to research, learning, and teaching within education synchronized to the dominant long term trends around information creation, sharing, and personal interactions?.

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on July 3rd, 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About the author

George-Siemens.jpg

To learn more about George Siemens and to access extensive information and resources on elearning check out www.elearnspace.org. Explore also George Siemens connectivism site for resources on the changing nature of learning and check out his new book "Knowing Knowledge".

Photo credits:

The Edgeless University - tonob

Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning - M.G. Mooij

Beyond Management: Personal Learning Environments - Ana Blazic

Learning Leaders Fieldbook - Ilin Sergey

Why Free Web Services Aren’t Really Free - kmitu

A Global Reset For Advertising - Sebastian Kaulitzki

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]]> http://designshrine.net/2009/07/10/media-literacy-making-sense-of-new-technologies-and-media-by-george-siemens-july-4-09/feed/ 0 Bomba Energy http://designshrine.net/2009/01/03/bomba-energy/ http://designshrine.net/2009/01/03/bomba-energy/#comments Sat, 03 Jan 2009 07:38:58 +0000 Ty Wenzel http://designshrine.net/2009/01/03/bomba-energy/ Visit SubStudio! Nice packaging for Bomba Energy by Valentine Associates. From the website: New Austrian energy drink Bomba needed a unique packaging solution to launch in Australia’s competitive marketplace. The packaging needed to attract a young, fashion conscious market while conveying the product’s natural energetic qualities. Via Dieline. Share, E-Mail or Print the Style: ]]> Visit SubStudio!

Nice packaging for Bomba Energy by Valentine Associates. From the website:

New Austrian energy drink Bomba needed a unique packaging solution to launch in Australia’s competitive marketplace. The packaging needed to attract a young, fashion conscious market while conveying the product’s natural energetic qualities.

Via Dieline.

Share, E-Mail or Print the Style: email Print PDF Twitter RSS Facebook Digg StumbleUpon Google Bookmarks Yahoo! Buzz del.icio.us Technorati Reddit MySpace Mixx LinkedIn Live Design Float Tumblr MSN Reporter Wists ThisNext SphereIt

]]> http://designshrine.net/2009/01/03/bomba-energy/feed/ 0 How To Keep Yourself Updated And Why The Role Of The Newsmaster Is So Important – Video http://designshrine.net/2008/10/14/how-to-keep-yourself-updated-and-why-the-role-of-the-newsmaster-is-so-important-video/ http://designshrine.net/2008/10/14/how-to-keep-yourself-updated-and-why-the-role-of-the-newsmaster-is-so-important-video/#comments Tue, 14 Oct 2008 07:58:09 +0000 Ty Wenzel http://designshrine.net/2008/10/14/how-to-keep-yourself-updated-and-why-the-role-of-the-newsmaster-is-so-important-video/ how_to_keep_yourself_updated_video_interview_robingood_size485-2b.jpgVisit Robin Good! How can you keep yourself updated with everything new and relevant that gets published on the Web? What is the best to find always fresh, new content for your blog to write about? Photo credit: Robin Good In this short video Robin Good explains one of the key elements everyone wanting to become an online [...]]]> Visit Robin Good!

How can you keep yourself updated with everything new and relevant that gets published on the Web? What is the best to find always fresh, new content for your blog to write about?

how_to_keep_yourself_updated_video_interview_robingood_size485-2b.jpg
Photo credit: Robin Good

In this short video Robin Good explains one of the key elements everyone wanting to become an online publisher has to confront with: how do you stay updated on the specific news that are relevant to your focus of interest without wasting hours to visit tens of sites or hundreds of RSS feeds?

Managing all the sources the Internet provides is not a simple task if you don't find an efficient way to filter all of these information and focus only on the ones that seem relevant to you.

This is why, Robin introduces to you his own approach to gathering, reading and picking up the most relevant daily news from hundreds of different sources, a task (newsmastering) and a new emerging professional role (the newsmaster), that according to him will be increasingly in demand.

In fact, Robin argues, it is next to impossible nowadays to have enough time to scour and scan all of the possible relevant news sources in a certain industry, and unless you start relying on intermediary human filters, what he calls "newsmasters", to aggregate, filter and hand-select the very best and most relevant news for your specific industry niche, you may as well give up on the idea of being on top of the news that are relevant to you.

Here's Robin own advice:

Intro by Daniele Bazzano

How To Keep Yourself Updated

Full English Text Transcription

Hi guys, this is Robin Good indeed!

More questions coming into my e-mail inbox from you asking about more stuff on video web publishing and everything it takes to become an effective online publisher.

This time you write me, or I have selected among your very many many questions: How do I keep myself updated on the topics I'm interested the most?

Great question indeed!

Today this is one of the challenges for anyone out there on the information frontier: how do you keep yourself updated? There's no lack of information sources out there, the problem is: how do you manage all that information without going crazy or being overwhelmed by this tsunami of news coming at you every minute?

Most of you already have identified some web sites, some sources, that are ideal for providing the news you're looking for. The best next step you can do after that is to subscribe to the RSS feed of those sites and collect all of those feeds inside an RSS reader.

What does that all mean?

It's very simple. You will notice, if you pay attention, that most web sites now have somewhere written in their navigation information. On the side, of the top right, or at the bottom: RSS feed. You can also see often a little icon that is an orange rectangle with some waves inside. It looks like kind of a speaker sending sounds, waves out.

That orange button stands for the URL, the address of the feed of that site. If you can copy, by right-clicking or ctrl-clicking if you're on a Mac, that logo you would get a URL that is behind that logo. Even if you click and you go to a page where you see a lot of code, grab the URL above. Don't worry about the code you see. Get the URL above and put it inside your RSS reader. One of those would be for example, Google Reader, free to use. You add your RSS feeds inside of it and you start reading in one place all of the many different sites that you're interested into.

But, maybe, I'm getting out of your specific question: how do I get myself updated?

I do all of that, but I do also something more. I feel that when I am looking at the news, I can do something valuable also for the others at the same time.

Because anytime I look at the news, there are some news that are very relevant for me. And since I've decided to help out, to communicate, to create a community of people that wants basically to do exactly what I'm doing everyday, that is finding out how to become a more effective online communicator, publisher, entrepreneur, I just share with my own readers, the contents and the news that I think are most valuable.

I call this activity newsmastering.

By selecting as many sources I think are relevant (I have about one hundred and ten of these), and everyday reading all of these sources and selecting out of them which are the most interesting for me and sharing them on my breaking news, on my homepage, the most valuable ones, allows me to do two great things:

  1. Keep myself very update on what is happening.
  2. Share absolutely for free with my readers, the very best news that I think they should be reading if they want to be as updated as I am.

Then, when you add your team, your newsroom doing this together with you, and you learning from them and them learning from you, that becomes a tremendously valuable approach to keeping yourself updated while creating valuable content for others.

I hope that answers your question! Look forward to more questions, send them in at Robin.Good[at]masternewmedia.org. Ciao!

Originally shot and recorded by Robin Good for MasterNewMedia and first published on October 14th 2008 as "How To Keep Yourself Updated And Why The Role Of The Newsmaster Is So Important - Video".

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]]> http://designshrine.net/2008/10/14/how-to-keep-yourself-updated-and-why-the-role-of-the-newsmaster-is-so-important-video/feed/ 0 Convert Web Pages Content Into RSS Feeds: Web Page To RSS Converters – Sharewood Guide http://designshrine.net/2008/10/14/convert-web-pages-content-into-rss-feeds-web-page-to-rss-converters-sharewood-guide/ http://designshrine.net/2008/10/14/convert-web-pages-content-into-rss-feeds-web-page-to-rss-converters-sharewood-guide/#comments Tue, 14 Oct 2008 07:57:50 +0000 Ty Wenzel http://designshrine.net/2008/10/14/convert-web-pages-content-into-rss-feeds-web-page-to-rss-converters-sharewood-guide/ convert_web_pages_to_rss_id11322961_size485.jpgVisit Robin Good! How can you convert the contents of a web page into RSS? How do you generate a RSS feed for a website, search result page or news source that doesn't have one? Can you do this without spending any money and without having any technical HTML skill? Photo credit: Mipan In this new Sharewood Guide [...]]]> Visit Robin Good!

How can you convert the contents of a web page into RSS? How do you generate a RSS feed for a website, search result page or news source that doesn't have one? Can you do this without spending any money and without having any technical HTML skill?

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Photo credit: Mipan

In this new Sharewood Guide I have collected the best free tools to convert any web page to RSS.

Web page to RSS converters are free tools, usually web-based, that anyone can use to keep changes of any site which doesn't offer a RSS feed for its readers.

RSS feeds are very intuitive and easy-to-use: to create a feed just grab the desired page's URL, paste it into the box, and click generate. Some of these tools, will also offer advanced options to let you refine which of the items present on a specific web page need to be included in your newly generated RSS feed.

Here the best web page to RSS converters I have found out there (if you know of other ones, please help me out by adding them in the comment area at the end):

Convert Web Pages Contents Into RSS Tool List

  1. Dapper

    Dapper is a free service that lets you convert any web page content (from YouTube search results to blog posts) into a RSS feed in seconds. Just provide a URL (ore more), select and divide in multiple fields the content that you want to be included in your feed (e.g. titles, descriptions, images...), decide the output format and save your feed. You will need to be registered to create as many feeds as you want. Free.
    http://www.dapper.net/
  2. Yahoo! Pipes

    Yahoo! Pipes is a RSS feed mixer that mashes content from the web together into new interactive creations. It lets you drag and drop different information feeds, such as the latest news items from your favorite news sources, or search queries, or anything else you want, and combine them through a series of filters into "pipes".The service is completely free to use; a Yahoo! account is required.
    http://pipes.yahoo.com/
  3. Feed43

    Feed43 is an online service that converts standard web pages or XML documents to RSS feeds. In order to create a new feed, simply identify the web page from which to generate a RSS feed, define the search patterns to help the system locate the news source, and generate the feed. The service is free to use, no registration is needed.
    http://www.feed43.com/
  4. RSSxl

    RSSxl is an easy-to-use web page to RSS converter, that allows you to convert any page to a normal RSS feed. After you provide the URL of the site, you just have to identify the news items' start and end points by pointing to them with some HTML or string keywords. Then you can click generate, and get your new RSS news feed to keep updated with that page's changes. Free.
    http://www.wotzwot.com/rssxl.php
  5. Web2RSS

    Web2RSS is a web-based app that automatically turns any website into a RSS news feed. Pasting the site's URL is enough to let Web2RSS convert the content and export it in RSS format, without doing anything. If you want to make it even more precise, you can either match or exclude parts of the page using HTML or string expressions present on the page. Free to use, no registration is needed.
    http://www.baekdal.com/web2rss/
  6. RSS Wizard

    RSS Wizard is a software for Windows machines than can generate the RSS feed out of any web page without having to edit it first. To create a feed, you have to start the program, paste a URL, provide a start and end string to make the software recognize where the news begin and end, and click OK to create the feed. Free to try, $29.05 to buy.
    http://www.extralabs.net/rss-wizard.htm
  7. Feedity

    Feedity is an only feed builder that creates a RSS feed out of any website. Feedity is very easy-to-use and lets you get your feed in two steps: enter the URL of the desired website, help the service identify the news source on the page by pointing to some reference points (in simple or advanced mode), and click generate to retrieve your feed. Free to use, doesn't require any registration.
    http://feedity.com/
  8. Feedmarklet

    Feedmarklet gives you the ability to create your own RSS feed instantly through a browser bookmarklet, with no sign up required. After you insert a name for your feed, you can start adding content to it easily: find a link you want to keep an eye on and click on the bookmarklet button in your browser to immediately add the page you are on to your feed. By doing this, you can mix multiple sources into a single feed with one click. Free.
    http://www.feedmarklet.com/
  9. FeedFire

    FeedFire is an HTML-to-RSS service allowing anyone to automatically create a RSS news feed for any website that does not have one. You simply register at FeedFire, input the URL of the page and it'll do the rest for you in a matter of seconds. The service offers both free and paid feeds, which you can discover by signing up to the service.
    http://www.feedfire.com/
  10. FeedYes

    FeedYes is a completely automatic tool for creating RSS feeds out of HTML web pages. Three steps are involved in the process: provide the URL of the page out of which you want to create a feed; indicate among the dynamic links found by FeedYes, which one is the first that refers to the news section; select the last item that closes the news section. Then, after a preview is shown, you can proceed and save your feed, or further refine it. Free.
    http://www.feedyes.com/
  11. PonyFish

    Ponyfish is a web-based tool that allows you to create your own RSS feeds from almost any web page. All you have to do is point Ponyfish to the web page you want to create a feed from, then select at least two links that you will want to see in your feed (this indicates to the system which links are news sources) and finally copy your new RSS feed URL. Free to use, no registration needed.
    http://www.ponyfish.com/
  12. Page2RSS

    Page2RSS is a completely web-based and automatic service which converts web pages to RSS feeds. You can just paste a page URL, and Page2RSS will instantly give you back a preview of the new RSS feed you just created, with the possibility of subscribing to it with the major RSS readers available. You can also use a toolbar button to create feeds for all the pages that you are currently viewing. Free to use, doesn't require any registration.
    http://page2rss.com/
  13. RSSpect

    RSSpect is a service that lets you add RSS feeds to any web page. RSSpect offers three kinds of feeds, so you can add a RSS feed to literally anything you find online: “AnySite feeds” allows you to create update feeds from any website or any document online, even those that you don't control; “MySite feeds” allows you to generate advanced RSS feeds from your own website content, automatically. “Podcast feeds” are specially-designed RSS feeds to be used with iTunes. Free to use.
    http://www.rsspect.com/
  14. CaRP

    CaRP is a PHP script that lets you generate RSS feeds for your web page. CaRP comes in two different versions: LE (basic) and Evolution (enhanced). The LE version allows no control on the appearance of your feeds, while the Evolution version comes with sixteen free bonus plugins to let you customize your RSS-generating experience: auto-update feeds, add images, embed videos, select which part of the text you want to show, sort your feeds, and much more. CaRP LE is free and CaRP Evolution is priced at $47. Registration required for both.
    http://www.geckotribe.com/rss/carp/

Originally written by Nico Canali De Rossi for MasterNewMedia and first published on October 13th 2008 as "Convert Web Pages Content Into RSS Feeds: Web Page To RSS Converters - Sharewood Guide"

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]]> http://designshrine.net/2008/10/14/convert-web-pages-content-into-rss-feeds-web-page-to-rss-converters-sharewood-guide/feed/ 0 Is Web 2.0 Really Democratic? http://designshrine.net/2008/10/14/is-web-20-really-democratic/ http://designshrine.net/2008/10/14/is-web-20-really-democratic/#comments Tue, 14 Oct 2008 07:55:15 +0000 Ty Wenzel http://designshrine.net/2008/10/14/is-web-20-really-democratic/ web-2-and-democracy-080222_Tech_WikiEX-485.jpgVisit Robin Good! Web 2.0 has revolutionized the panorama of the information society: users have become information producers and the new web platforms have become relationship venues where new knowledge and ideas emerge. Also the new tools of social networking, social tagging, wikis and blogs enable new forms of social interaction, participation and cooperation. But... Photo [...]]]> Visit Robin Good!

Web 2.0 has revolutionized the panorama of the information society: users have become information producers and the new web platforms have become relationship venues where new knowledge and ideas emerge. Also the new tools of social networking, social tagging, wikis and blogs enable new forms of social interaction, participation and cooperation. But...

web-2-and-democracy-080222_Tech_WikiEX-485.jpg
Photo credit: Slate magazine

  • Is this participation really democratic?
  • Or is this a democracy paradox, where everyone can interact but the decision making places are all outside the net?
  • Is the horizontal leveling of internet communications really an instrument of democracy?
  • How would it be possible to transform these emotional and communication-oriented extensions in a real space connected with the physical world of true participation to decision-making?

I have gone out and asked to four people whose intellectual integrity and life vision the above questions: Howard Rheingold, John Blossom, Michel Bauwens, Sepp Hasslberger answer the above questions from four diverse individual viewpoints:

Howard Rheingold of Smartmobs.com

Howard-Rheingold-by-oso-on-Flickr-2258401195_2a9d8dfde7-300.jpg

  1. Is this participation really democratic?"Democratizing" means making access (to information, tools, policy-making discussions, elections, etc.) widely available. This, however, does not guarantee a healthy democracy.

    What if more people vote, but their picture of political candidates and their policies are distorted by sophisticated public relations tools and strategies?

    What if their educations are so poor that voters are unable to think critically about partisan claims?

    I am wary of projecting hopes onto the tools you mention -- which truly have the potential to inform and involve more people in democratic decision-making -- without paying attention to the less visible parts of the system I mention.

  2. Or is this a democracy paradox, where everyone can interact but the decision making places are all outside the net?I am also wary of governance by instant voting. This is known as the "plebiscite" and can be very dangerous: a demagogue or a government can propagandize people into starting a war or adopting a policy without a process of deliberation.That's why modern democracies are generally republics -- citizens elect representatives who are expected to deliberate openly and transparently.
  3. Is the horizontal leveling of internet communications really an instrument of democracy?It CAN be. But more than the technology is required. A healthy public sphere is essential -- most people need to have sufficient education, freedom to criticize, well-trained critical faculties, and ample sources of accurate information.
  4. How would it be possible to transform these emotional and communication-oriented extensions in a real space connected with the physical world of true participation to decision-making?Education!

Michel Bauwens of P2P Foundation

Michel-Bauwens-by-Gullig-on-Flickr-1552514539_e51e93ccbb-271.jpg

The first level is expression, and it is clear that in this context, the Web 2.0 is a resounding success.

And it's importance should not be underestimated since historically, we can see that people with power have always tried to limit and control expression, so we should not be cynical about it.

I think that Web 2.0 generally goes beyond expression, and has also become an efficient tool for mobilization and collective action

But expression is not deliberation. Most Web 2.0 platforms are not very well suited for the kind of complex deliberation that would be needed to create a context for decision-making. I think these kinds of tools, which can integrate complexity, adequately filter for quality, and have a value conscious design approach that insure that a diversity of views are taking into account, are still too far between, but quite a few groups are working on it

The key in politics is not expression, nor expressing discontent or resistance, but actually transforming things. Collective action can change things, but still implies a separation between the 'people' and 'representative institutions'. It implies 'we' are asking 'them', to change their ways.

So I think the real revolution of peer to peer technologies is that it allows people not just expression, but actually a redesign of social processes.

For example, free software communities successfully embed their values in software, and so do the emerging open design communities that are now starting to tackle physical production itself. This is the next great frontier of peer production communities.

But equally crucial, and this is why I believe Lessig made the right decision in moving from Creative Commons to Open Politics, is that we actually start redesigning politics itself.

If you see sites like worldchanging.org, or p2pfoundation.net for that matter, it is rather easy to come to the conclusion that most solutions for contemporary problems already exist, but they are scattered in marginal groups.

At the same time, the current political and economic system seems almost completely oblivious to it, and so these crucial solutions do not seem to be able to scale. This is a sign of a profound disease and insufficiency of current democratic and representative regimes, that are in the hands of privileged elites, who hide their power through a lack of openness.

The big fight now is openness and transparency.

And as we create our own P2P alternatives, we still have to tackle the mainstream system, and since a direct approach seems impossible (simply changing one party by another with very similar standard policies), what we need is to redesign, reprogram the political process itself.

That's the crucial task right now, and Web 2.0 is not sufficient for this, it's merely a first step.

John Blossom of Shore.com

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  1. Is this participation really democratic?While not all social media tools are available to everyone in the world, by its nature people who have access to social media are participating in the most democratic form of political human expression.

    In the past the power of a political voice was determined by a person's connection to powerful people, by their access to the media or a bullhorn or whatever other device amplified one voice over that of an electorate's voice. In social media the opportunity for all voices to express themselves begins to become a reality.

    However, just because social media tools are being used for political expression doesn't mean that the content being generated by social media is always "the voice of the people."

    Oftentimes powerful individuals and organizations will hire surrogates to spread their opinions using social media tools, creating "astroturf" - content that's supposed to look like "grass roots" opinion but which is in fact sponsored by a controlling interest.

    What I am noticing in this year's U.S. election is that people are far more aware of the potential for astroturf content and challenging it more quickly and vocally.

    It's also important to note the growth of media outlets that use social media tools but which have editorial staffs that enable them to operate much as any other media publication would. Just because you're using the tools of social media doesn't necessarily mean that you're actually trying to be just one voice in the crowd.

    This is not to say that the powerful should not have a voice as well in social media. In a true democracy all people of all walks of life should have a voice in political discussions.

    But if democracy is a system which says that each person has one voice as well as one vote, then all of the people who have that right should have an equal opportunity to influence their peers through social media.

    Within that framework influential figures arise, leadership forms and actions are taken based on that influence, but the influence, endorsement and leadership is not presumed. Social media is a key venue in which such influence, endorsement and leadership is formed.

  2. Or is this a democracy paradox, where everyone can interact but the decision making places are all outside the net?In my book Content Nation I am highlighting the importance of the coffee houses and the taverns of the American colonies in which influential political pamphlets such as Thomas Paine's Common Sense were discussed.The discussions in those gathering places and the passing of these pamphlets from one person to another was in effect the social media of that era. Without those influential discussions and the local thought leadership that emerged from them there would not have arisen the widespread convictions that led to the actions outside of the rooms in which these discussions took place.

    Democracy is a form of self-organizing government: one cannot form it until people have organized their thoughts as to how they would like to be represented.

    So while oftentimes the discussions in social media forums may appear to be as boistrous as any that one may encounter in a pub or a cafe, that boisterousness leads to the convictions to express oneself through democratic institutions.

    Social media can enable actual decision making - many services provide polling capabilities - but its primary value is to enable people to have the intellectual and emotional interchange necessary to make informed decisions in the democratic process or to inform our representatives of the true opinions of the electorate more efficiently.

    A simple analogy can be found in and about my home town. In the New England region of the U.S. many small towns still govern themselves via direct representation: the citizens of a town gather at appointed times to vote on town budgets and regulations and to discuss and to vote upon important issues. However, as some of these towns grew this form of government gave way to representative town meetings, in which citizens are called upon oftentimes to speak out on issues of public importance at town meetings but in which the elected representatives then are called upon to vote. Both are democratic functions, but in the representative town meeting the voice of the citizens is separate from the actual political action.

    It's feasible over time that social media will enable us to return to more of a direct representation in democratic institutions, but for now I think that it is mostly about enabling people to influence the actions of elected officials and influencing how they are chosen.

  3. Is the horizontal leveling of internet communications really an instrument of democracyThe horizontal leveling of the internet can enable democratic views of the world and is without a doubt the most revolutionary invention for human communication since the spoken word.Once voice can decide to speak out and can gain a global audience virtually overnight, influencing political decision making both on a national and global level as well as at a local level, based solely on the influence and endorsement of their peers.

    The ability of any voice anywhere to influence the course of decision-making that impacts society is the foundation of democratic action. The corollary of that freedom, however, is that it takes democratic organization of all of the content generated by social media for people to become aware of such opinions.

    If millions of voices shout out but we hear from the same media-selected opinion-makers again and again then social media has done little good. This is where the traditional media outlets fail us oftentimes.

    It is good to have high-quality traditional media outlets, but social media outlets enable a far broader array of opinions and insights to surface by enabling a far broader array of influencers and leaders to arise through the combined endorsements of individuals. This allows the combing intellect and insight of countless people to factor in to democratic decision making.

  4. How would it be possible to transform these emotional and communication-oriented extensions in a real space connected with the physical world of true partecipation to decision-making?

    5. To bring it back to my discussion of New England town government, there is the long-term possibility that social media becomes a more direct instrument of governmental decision-making.

    But even today social media is being extended into the political process directly. If you look at Barack Obama's presidential campaign social media tools were an essential factor in organizing his campaign workers: enthusiasm for a political candidate was transformed into political action directly through social media. Obama's record online campaign donations were another example of how social media breaks through into the real space.

    People are using social media tools to organize people rapidly in local areas as well: weblogs were a crucial factor in our local elections in 2006 and social media tools have helped to change the course of several local political debates.

    Our town's First Selectman, a mayor by most people's understanding, is a blogger! Finally I think that we're seeing more and more use of venues such as Facebook to make people aware of political causes and to be organized to take real-world action. Hundreds of thousands of people who are passionate about a cause can be organized in a matter of a few days. That's highly scalable political activism that just wasn't there a few years ago.

    We need the tools of social media to help us form our decision making, but it's up to us to take action based on those experiences.

    I trust and expect that the power of social media to enable such transformation of discussions in to action will catch the world by surprise in the months and years ahead.

    I doubt that the discussions in coffee houses and taverns in colonial American were taken very seriously by those who were not a part of them. But then people decided to act upon those discussions.

    So it will be with social media. People have no idea yet as to just how powerful a tool that it will become.

    The courage of convictions is all that's required to make that clear to the world. This happens again and again already in ways large and small, but some day soon the world will be aware that they are a nation of publishers, united in their ability to communicate to the world and to influence one another as citizens of the same.

Sepp Hasslberger of Health Supreme / Hasslberger.com

Sepp-Hasslberger-portrait-101_0142-5-180.jpg

  1. Is this participation really democratic?If democracy means participation, then web 2.0 is really democratic.

    Actually it can be even considered more democratic than what we are used to calling our "democratic society", where participation is not invited. We are supposed to vote once every four-five years, and let the politicians get on with leading us wherever they wish. Not much of the original idea of democracy left there.

  2. Or is this a democracy paradox, where everyone can interact but the decision making places are all outside the net?You could call it a paradox. Everyone can interact on the web, but for now, the decisions are made in other places. Just as I said, we elect politicians and are expected to let them do the leading.It would be much better if there were some connection between what the people want and what the politicians are doing. I could imagine that the web might be used to discuss and decide on actual things in politics, and the politicians take the message that has been "filtered out" and act in accordance with it.

    But this is only a phase of transition. Sooner or later, the web will gain an important role in politics, even to the extent where we no longer need politicians.

    If we can discuss and decide, all we need to implement decisions are administrators - local, regional, national, international - administrators to carry out the will of the people.

  3. The horizontal leveling of internet communications is really an instrument of democracy?It should be and it could be, but right now, I think it isn't.
  4. How would it be possible to transform these emotional and communication-oriented extensions in real space connected with the physical world of true participation to decision-making?There are several efforts that attempt to bring electronic voting and discussions into the political reality, so far with very limited success.

    To bring true participatory decision making, first of all, we'll have to learn to take our share of responsibility. When there are decisions to be made, and this will be practically constantly, we must be willing to take time out from other efforts to get into the issues that are of interest to us, and participate in the process of maturing a consensus.

    At the same time, we need to link these decisions into the actual administration of things.

    It appears a huge step to take from where we are now, but things are in motion.

Originally written and prepared by Robin Good for Master New Media and first published on October 10th 2008 as "Is Web 2.0 Really Democratic?"

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]]> http://designshrine.net/2008/10/14/is-web-20-really-democratic/feed/ 0 Ebooks Usage Trends And Statistics – The Springer Report 2008 http://designshrine.net/2008/10/14/ebooks-usage-trends-and-statistics-the-springer-report-2008/ http://designshrine.net/2008/10/14/ebooks-usage-trends-and-statistics-the-springer-report-2008/#comments Tue, 14 Oct 2008 07:53:24 +0000 Ty Wenzel http://designshrine.net/2008/10/14/ebooks-usage-trends-and-statistics-the-springer-report-2008/ ebooks_the_end_user_perspective_springer.jpgVisit Robin Good! Are eBooks being adopted? Is eBook usage increasing? Is the Amazon Kindle a total flop? Is the eBooks long promised revolution a rapidly disappearing fad or is this a new industry that is gradually finding its proper niche? What future awaits eBooks hardware and software producers and what should you expect in the [...]]]> Visit Robin Good!

Are eBooks being adopted? Is eBook usage increasing? Is the Amazon Kindle a total flop? Is the eBooks long promised revolution a rapidly disappearing fad or is this a new industry that is gradually finding its proper niche? What future awaits eBooks hardware and software producers and what should you expect in the near future from eBooks content providers?

ebooks_the_end_user_perspective_springer.jpg

Photo credit: Springer

In the report that follows, Springer has gathered data suggesting that despite its newness, the eBook does not suffer from obscurity. Accessed either through the library (at academic institutions) or via sources like Google Scholar or Google Book Search, the eBook, with its unique advantages over printed literature, has definitely found its place among our literature collections.

But this is not to say that eBooks will be taking the place of your hard-cover favourite novels anytime soon. In fact, this may actually be quite unlikely. If you have ever tried to read from a computer screen for an extended period of time, I am sure you will have no problem understanding why: reading straight from eBooks isn't as enjoyable as reading the same stuff from a traditionally printed book. And this is where printed literature has a definitive advantage.

However, the eBook has begun to make strong progress into the areas of research and work. When individuals use eBooks, they are usually engaged in "horizontal information seeking" and "power browsing" - in other words, they skim quickly through the reading material and bounce from source to source.

eBooks are particularly effective when doing research because they are "convenient, easily accessible" and they offer "enhanced functions" when compared with traditional printed literature. In addition to the fact that no storage space is required, the eBook (because it is electronic) it is easily searchable and for research this fact is key.

Here all the details:

eBooks – The End User Perspective

Executive Summary

ebook_the_end_user_perspective_executive_summary_733879_size0.jpg

eBooks form a growing part of the collections at research and academic libraries. Although still in the early stages of adoption, eBooks have demonstrated advantages in the areas of accessibility, functionality, and cost-effectiveness. End users are just beginning to incorporate eBooks into their information experience and research habits. Libraries are eager to learn more about the rate of eBook adoption among their end users and the ways in which users are interacting with eBooks. In 2007, Springer surveyed librarians at six institu­tions to understand their views on eBook adoption and benefits. In 2008, Springer followed up that study with a survey of end users at five institutions to gauge their usage of and attitudes toward eBooks.

The survey uncovered some encouraging results regarding eBook adoption. Most users were aware of eBooks and had accessed them at least once. Respondents also overwhelmingly said that eBooks are useful and that they would like to incorporate eBooks into their information experience more frequently. These positive findings are supported by additional Springer usage research and studies from independent organi­zations that have found a surprising level of uptake for eBooks given their relative newness.

In terms of user behavior, the 2008 Springer survey found that users mostly access eBooks for research and study purposes and that the types of eBooks most frequently used are reference works and textbooks. A separate Springer study of usage metrics within its own eBooks program found that content age appears to have less of an impact on the usage of eBooks than on the usage of online journals. eBook usage is also less concentrated than online journal usage, with a greater array of titles driving downloads. eBook users appear to find value in a wide variety of titles and content. Finally, the 2008 Springer user survey found that users most frequently locate eBooks through general search engines like Google as well as through online library catalogs.

Users regard convenience, accessibility, and enhanced functionality as the primary benefits of eBooks. Print books are perceived to have an advantage in ease and enjoyability of reading, and users do not expect them to disappear in the near future. However, users anticipate that in five years time, they will prefer the elec­tronic versions of some books and expect that their transition to eBooks will be fastest for research-related activities and for reference works.

Overall, the survey results indicate that eBooks are best suited for research purposes or in a search environ­ment where the user needs to locate specific information. Users are not reading eBooks cover-to-cover in the traditional sense but instead approach them as a resource for finding answers to research questions. eBooks have the potential to stimulate new forms of book content usage and will require libraries to think differently about how to accommodate the needs of users as their eBook collections grow. Viewing eBooks through the lens of traditional print book usage might cause libraries to miss important opportunities for enhancing the user research experience.

An End User Perspective on eBooks

ebook_the_end_user_perspective_sony_reader.jpg

After years of development efforts and high expectations, eBooks have begun to cement their place as a central part of the information experience. Research and academic libraries are gradually building their eBook collections into a valuable resource for their users. A 2007 Springer survey of librarians at six institu­tions found that many libraries recognize eBooks as an ideal opportunity to expand collections while enhancing users’ research experiences. And in a recent Publishers Communication Group study, 43 percent of the librarians surveyed said that their budget for eBooks would likely increase in 2008. While most librar­ians acknowledge that eBook programs are in their early stages, they also clearly recognize the significant impact that eBooks will have on the future of research and information retrieval.

No picture of eBooks’ current status and future potential can be considered complete without including the end user perspective. User experiences with the Internet have created an expectation of instantaneous access to information, both whenever and wherever needed. Given these high expectations for digital information resources, libraries, publishers, and other organizations have sought to better understand how end users perceive and interact with eBooks.

In order to gain insight into the end user perspective on eBooks, Springer conducted a 2008 survey of users at four of the institutions that took part in the 2007 study, plus one additional institution. The following institutions participated in the 2008 study:

The purpose of the study was to understand users’ adoption of eBooks, their eBook usage behavior, and their perceptions of eBook advantages and disadvantages. This paper summarizes the findings of the user survey and describes the implications for libraries.

End User Awareness and Usage of eBooks

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Despite the relative newness of eBooks as a resource, most of the users surveyed were aware of their exis­tence and had used them at least once, whether through their libraries or through another source. The study found that between 52 percent and 84 percent of respondents at each institution were aware of the avail­ability of eBooks through their libraries. Moreover, between 58 percent and 80 percent of respondents at each institution had used eBooks at least once, whether through their library or other sources. For example, at University of Turku, 84 percent of users said they were aware that they had access to a large number of eBooks through their library, and 73 percent said they had used eBooks at least once.

Springer’s findings on the prevalence of eBook usage are consistent with a recent Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) study in the UK, which found that 60 percent of users surveyed had used eBooks. The JISC study also found that while 46 percent of users obtained the last eBook they used through their library, nearly the same number (43 percent) obtained their last eBook via the Internet. Clearly, even if users do not realize their library contains eBook offerings, they are encountering eBooks in their online research through sources like Google Book Search. Libraries have the opportunity to position themselves as a central, convenient source of extensive eBook content for users who would otherwise turn to the Internet for their eBook searches.

ebooks_the_end_user_perspective_awareness_2.gif

A 2007 study of usage metrics within Springer’s own eBooks program confirms the promising trend in user adoption of eBooks. The study found that for institutions that were early adopters of eBooks, users accessed eBooks with 50 to 100 percent of the frequency with which they accessed online journals. And in the first year of Springer’s eBooks program, eBook usage accounted for roughly a fourth of total usage on the Spring­erLink website with approximately 25 million chapter downloads. Given the relatively recent introduction of eBooks, these usage statistics demonstrate significant promise.

In the 2008 user survey, respondents described the primary obstacle to eBook usage as a lack of awareness of eBook resources available through their libraries. Fortunately, libraries have the power to remove this obstacle by improving the ease of finding eBooks and educating library users about the availability of eBooks as part of library collections.

Trends in eBook User Behavior

ebooks_the_end_user_perspective_purpose.gif

Frequency of eBook usage varied by institution, with most users indicating they access eBooks on a weekly or monthly basis. Users also said that they primarily use eBooks for research or study purposes, rather than for leisure or teaching purposes. For example, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 78 percent of users said they use eBooks for research while 56 percent reported using eBooks for study, but only 10 percent mentioned teaching or leisure. Given most users’ existing experience with seeking information on the Internet, research is a natural entry point for eBook usage.

When users were asked what types of eBooks they had used so far, the most frequently given answers varied by institution:

These results are somewhat consistent with the 2007 Springer study of usage metrics within its own eBooks program, which found that reference books, textbooks, and research monographs had the highest average download rate.

The 2007 Springer usage study also found that unlike journal content, the age of eBook content does not appear to have a significant impact on usage. eBooks published in 2005 were used as frequently as eBooks published in 2006 and 2007. Moreover, the Springer usage study found that eBook usage is less concentrated than electronic journal usage. The study points to a “long tail” of eBook usage, wherein many book titles that sell only a few copies in print are now findable and frequently used online.

In terms of locating eBook content, the 2008 Springer user survey found that users begin their search for eBooks at different places depending on the institution. At the University of Muenster and CWI Amsterdam, users said they find eBooks mostly through general search engines like Google. But at University of Turku and the University of Illinois, online library catalogs served as the starting point for most users’ eBook searches. The graph below illustrates the detailed response of University of Muenster users. Fifty-two percent of users said they often or very often start their eBook search with a general search engine, while 49 percent often use the library’s online catalog. Vendor-provided sites, the library web site, and regional library cata­logs trailed somewhat as starting points for searches.

ebooks_the_end_user_perspective_search.gif

These results are supported by the findings of SpringerLink usage investigations, wherein eBook usage was monitored before and after the implementation of Springer eBook MARC records in library catalogs. At Turku University, the average number of eBook chapter downloads per month more than doubled after eBook MARC records were loaded into the library catalog.

A recent study conducted by the Centre for Information Behaviour and the Evaluation of Research (CIBER) offers conclusions that complement the findings of the 2008 Springer user survey. CIBER studied patterns of user behavior in virtual libraries, finding that users often engage in non-traditional reading activities like “horizontal information seeking” and “power browsing”. Instead of spending a long time reading a particular eBook or online journal article, users skim quickly and bounce from source to source. The CIBER study found that users spent an average of only four minutes on a particular eBook site, leading CIBER to conclude that in a virtual environment, users are not reading in the traditional sense. Ultimately, CIBER said that its research

“suggests that eBooks will be the next publishing success story, although demand here could be even more spectacular, simply as a result of the enormous size of the student population, hungry for highly digested content.”

CIBER’s conclusions mesh well with Springer’s studies, which found that users primarily access eBooks for research, use a relatively wide variety of eBook titles, focus on reference works and textbooks, and often locate eBooks through general search engines. The pattern of behavior described in these results is consis­tent with CIBER’s findings that users skim quickly through a variety of digital resources looking for specific pieces of information, rather than engage in extended reading sessions.

End User Evaluation of eBook Advantages and Disadvantages

ebooks_the_end_user_perspective_usability.gif

Encouragingly, users overwhelmingly indicated that eBooks are useful to them and that they would like to use more eBooks. Almost all respondents found eBooks useful, with between 85 percent and 96 percent of respondents at each institution rating them as either very or somewhat useful. Moreover, between 79 percent and 92 percent of users at each institution said that they would like to use more eBooks.

Users cited the difficulty of reading books from a screen and a preference for traditional print books as the primary reasons for not using eBooks more often. Given users’ comfort level and long history with print books, the challenge of making eBooks easier to read is a difficult one. The strides that companies like Amazon.com and Sony are making with their eBook readers might point the way toward resolving this issue in the long term.

The Springer user survey also sought to understand user perspectives on the advantages and disadvantages of eBooks. The primary advantages of eBooks for end users revolve around convenience and information access. Users said that they value the ability to access eBooks anytime and anywhere and appreciate that access is fast and easy. Full-text searching was also named as a top eBook advantage.

  • "Mostly the advantage of using eBooks would be their convenience. Instead of going through the hassle of tracking down a specific work of inquiry and checking it out, eBooks provide an easily accessible way of accessing said work at my own convenience and leisure. Also, if at any time I need to make a copy, as long as I have access to a computer and printer, I doubt eBooks could make it any easier".
    (User at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
  • "With eBooks, you can find much faster relevant content by searching for keywords. You can use them anytime and everywhere, in contrast to library-provided books, which are often not available when you need them".

    (User at University of Muenster)

  • "I can carry and read [an eBook] everywhere! I can put it on my small laptop or PDA and finish my literature research while traveling on the train".

    (User at CWI Amsterdam)

Echoing their response to the earlier question of why they do not use eBooks more frequently, users described the primary disadvantage of eBooks as the difficulty of reading content from a screen. When viewed from the standpoint of traditional print reading behavior, these recurring mentions of eBook read­ability problems might indicate ongoing challenges for eBook adoption. However, users appear to find value in using eBooks for specific research or information retrieval purposes. In these cases, users do not need to consume lengthy sections of content from a computer screen and eBook readability becomes less of an issue.

  • "eBooks are great for research. Cover to cover: print rules".
    (User at University of Turku)
  • "A large number of eBooks can be carried in a laptop, where transferring the print books is a real pain. Also if the computer screen is suitable, it doesn’t give much difference with the print book. Of course, print books have different glamour, it’s not quite right to compare them".

    (User at JRD Tata Memorial Library, Bangalore)

Users were also asked to specifically compare the advantages of eBooks and print books. As compared to print books, users said that eBooks have advantages in the areas of storage space required, 24/7 accessibility, up-to-dateness, and ease of making copies. On the other hand, print books have the advantage in terms of ease and enjoyability of reading.

  • "In general, I find eBooks more useful in instances where I ‘use’ (look up specific data) rather than ‘read’ (from cover to cover)".

    (User at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

  • "The main advantages of eBooks are their availability and searchability. They are perfectly suitable for quick references of detailed, scientifically based information".

    (User at University of Muenster)

What implications do these advantages and disadvantages have for user behavior? Overall, the users surveyed said that they prefer print books for cover-to-cover reading, but see eBooks as useful for specific research needs or as complementary to print books. In other words, eBooks are best suited for research purposes or in a search environment where the user needs to locate specific information. This finding indicates that eBooks have the potential to stimulate new forms of book content usage. Looking at eBooks through the lens of traditional print book usage might offer a skewed viewpoint of eBooks’ value to users and could cause libraries to miss important opportunities for enhancing the user research experience.

The Future of eBook Usage

ebooks_the_end_user_perspective_future_usage.gif

While users acknowledge that adoption of eBooks will continue to increase, they do not envision print books disappearing within the near future. Users expect that the transition to eBooks will happen fastest for research-related activities, rather than study, teaching, or leisure purposes. They also expect that reference works will most quickly make the transition to eBooks, followed by research monographs and textbooks. These answers further support the conclusion that eBooks are best suited to specific research and informa­tion retrieval purposes. Users recognize the potential of eBooks to support their research activities and believe that digitized reference works will help them quickly locate the specific information they seek.

  • "Access to more eBooks is always welcomed in the research world, even when print books are still preferred for heavy reading. Instant access to information is increasingly important and advantageous".
    (User at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
  • "I don’t need to wait for eBooks to be returned to the library. It’s faster to find specific infor­mation by using [the] search option instead of flip-flopping pages".

    (User at University of Turku)

Most respondents predicted that in five years time they will prefer to read print versions of some books, and electronic versions of others. For example, at the University of Muenster, 53 percent of respondents said they would read both print and eBooks, 35 percent said they would read more print, and seven percent said they would read more eBooks. In the short term, eBooks will continue to be best suited to specific research and information retrieval needs.

The CIBER study takes an even longer viewpoint, looking ahead to the state of virtual libraries in 2017. CIBER describes the “inexorable rise of the eBook”, predicting that print sales will fall sharply as electronic publishing matures and consumer demand grows. CIBER believes that by 2017, eBooks will be the default format for textbooks, scholarly books, and reference works.

Conclusion

ebook_the_end_user_perspective_conclusion_849512_size0.jpg

The emergence of eBooks as a central part of the information experience requires libraries to think differ­ently about how to meet the needs of their users. While eBooks will not replace print books in the near future, users are rapidly adopting them as complementary to print books. Users value the convenience and ease of access that eBooks provide and are engaging in new forms of book content usage to take advantage of their libraries’ growing eBook collections. Libraries can expand eBook usage to an even larger population of users by raising awareness of eBook availability and ensuring that eBook content is easy to find and use.
Institutions participating in the 2007 survey included the following: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States; University of Florida, United States; University Library of Turku, Finland; Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science Amsterdam, The Netherlands; University of Muenster, Germany; and Victoria University, Australia.
Photo credits:

Executive Summary - Didier Kobi

An End User Perspective on eBooks - Sony

End User Awareness and Usage of eBooks - Springer

Trends in eBook User Behavior - Springer

End User Evaluation of eBook Advantages and Disadvantages - Springer

The Future of eBook Usage - Springer

Conclusion - vacuum3d
Originally written by the Springer Team for Springer and first published as "eBooks – The End User Perspective" - July, 2008.
About the author

springer_logo.gif

Springer is the second-largest publisher of journals in the science, technology, and medicine (STM) sector and the largest publisher of STM books. It publishes on behalf of more than 300 academic associations and professional societies. Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media, one of the world’s leading suppliers of scientific and specialist literature. The group publishes over 1,700 journals and more than 5,500 new books a year, as well as the largest STM eBook Collection worldwide. Springer has operations in over 20 countries in Europe, the USA, and Asia, and some 5,000 employees.
References

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]]> http://designshrine.net/2008/10/14/ebooks-usage-trends-and-statistics-the-springer-report-2008/feed/ 0 MasterNewMedia Web Traffic Stats, Authority, Audience Metrics: September 2008 http://designshrine.net/2008/10/14/masternewmedia-web-traffic-stats-authority-audience-metrics-september-2008/ http://designshrine.net/2008/10/14/masternewmedia-web-traffic-stats-authority-audience-metrics-september-2008/#comments Tue, 14 Oct 2008 07:51:04 +0000 Ty Wenzel http://designshrine.net/2008/10/14/masternewmedia-web-traffic-stats-authority-audience-metrics-september-2008/ MasterNewMedia-web-traffic-trends-September-2008-Google-Trends-485b.gifVisit Robin Good! The latest MasterNewMedia traffic trends and statistics for the month of September show a slow but steady increase in volume and additional data further defining MasterNewMedia specific audience demographics and technographics (the characteristics and traits of their technical setup: browser, operating system, screen resolution, etc.). MasterNewMedia compared head to head with some of its [...]]]> Visit Robin Good!

The latest MasterNewMedia traffic trends and statistics for the month of September show a slow but steady increase in volume and additional data further defining MasterNewMedia specific audience demographics and technographics (the characteristics and traits of their technical setup: browser, operating system, screen resolution, etc.).

MasterNewMedia-web-traffic-trends-September-2008-Google-Trends-485b.gif
MasterNewMedia compared head to head with some of its many competitors: Poynter, Scobleizer, Copyblogger, Shoemoney. Source data: Google Trends

The goals of this monthly web traffic publication report are essentially two:

  • On one hand I like to provide transparent access to MasterNewMedia internal readership demographics as a way to substantiate the reach and content distribution capacity that I and my team have been able to achieve.
  • On the other I want to showcase and model how the public use of traffic data originated by tools and services normally reserved for internal review only, can actually provide greater credibility, authority and valuable information (especially to potential advertisers) to any site, independently of size.

This is data, that unless you collect and organize systematically, may serve only for providing indications of trends or issues to be addressed but remains otherwise largely untapped. My advice is instead to start considering how valuable this traffic data can be for any site if properly collected, sorted and presented publicly in a meaningful way.

What matters today in this new, fast evolving online information space, is not so much the ability to talk to a million people, but the ability to be very credible while building a small, but highly passionate following with strong specific information interests. To this end, publishing your web site traffic and demographics reports can help readers, potential customers, suppliers and advertisers see you and your site, for what they really are.

The key thing to understand here is how powerful it can be to share and make visible what most other sites keep under very closed tabs. Making all of the traffic and demographics info visible and accessible to others, can greatly help your future readers, partners and advertising customers to better understand the focus, size, identity and profile of your site audience.

N.B.: If you would like to suggest additional stats to be included, or would like to recommend a specific analytics technology to add to this web traffic analysis toolkit, feel free to utilize the comments section at the end of this monthly web traffic report. Next month we are adding Qantacast as a new source of traffic data to this list.

MasterNewMedia web traffic stats for September 2008. Here the numbers:

MasterNewMedia Web Traffic and Audience Metrics: September 2008

Unique Visitors and Page Views

  • Total Visits on MasterNewMedia: 540,822
  • Total Page Views on MasterNewMedia: 787,930

MasterNewMedia International Editions - Breakdown

  • MasterNewMedia International - English Version:
    • Unique visitors: 259,933
    • Page Views: 376,395
  • MasterNewMedia Italian Version:
    • Unique visitors: 121,986
    • Page Views: 177,757
  • MasterNewMedia Latino Version:
    • Unique visitors: 130,757
    • Page Views: 198,002
  • MasterNewMedia Brazilian Version:
    • Unique visitors: 28,146
    • Page Views: 35,776

Source data: Google Analytics
Traffic-And-Audience-Metrics-MasterNewMedia-Pageviews-Daily-Alexa-Sep2008.gif

Alexa measures the number of pages viewed by site visitors. Multiple page views of the same page made by the same user on the same day are counted only once. The page views per user numbers are the average numbers of unique pages viewed per user per day by the visitors to the site.

Source data: Alexa

Ad Impressions and Clicks

MasterNewMedia-adsense-impressions-clicks-Sep-2008.gif

Source data: Google AdSense

Demographics and Technographics

Audience Age

Demographics-Audience-Age-Ranges-MasterNewMedia-AdPlanner-Aug2008.gif

Audience Sex

Demographics-Audience-Gender-MasterNewMedia-AdPlanner-Aug2008.gif

Audience Education

Demographics-Audience-Education-MasterNewMedia-AdPlanner-Aug2008.gif

Audience HouseHold

Demographics-Audience-HouseHold-MasterNewMedia-AdPlanner-Aug2008.gif

Source data: Google AdPlanner

Audience Languages

Demographics-Audience-Languages-MasterNewMedia-Google-Analytics-Jun2008.gif

Source data: Google Analytics

Traffic by Platform

Source data: Woopra - data relative to a smaller sample than total audience

Traffic by Browser

Source data: Woopra - data relative to a smaller sample than total audience

Traffic Sources

Traffic-Source-Overview-MasterNewMedia-Google-Analytics-Sep2008.gif

Source data: Google Analytics

Most Viewed Content

Top 10 articles MasterNewMedia.org September 2008:

  1. How To Convert .MOD Video Files To MPEG-2 On Mac And PCs
  2. Online Picture Editing: Free Web-Based Image Editing Tools
  3. Call The World For Free - From Your PC To Any Mobile Or Landline On The Planet: GizmoCall Is Here
  4. Web-Based Instant Messengers: A Mini-Guide
  5. Free Video Stock Footage Resources Online
  6. Broadcast Yourself Live On The Web: Best Tools To Create Your Own Live Web TV - A Mini-Guide
  7. RSS To HTML - How To Convert RSS Feeds Into Published Web Pages - A Mini-Guide
  8. Download Video From Popular Video Sharing Sites: A Mini-Guide
  9. How to Make Money with Your Blog Site
  10. Video Publishing Online: Where To Share Your Video Clips On The Web

Source data: Google Analytics

Authority

Google PageRank

Here below the MasterNewMedia PageRank calculated with PR Checker:

Authority-Graph-MasterNewMedia--Google-Pagerank-PrChecker-Jul-2008.gif
PageRank is a numeric value that represents how important a page is on the web. Google figures that when one page links to another page, it is effectively casting a vote for the other page. The more votes that are cast for a page, the more important the page must be.

If you want learn more about PageRank here are some relevant articles:

Alexa Rank:

MasterNewMedia-Alexa-traffic-Rank-Sep-2008-450.gif

MasterNewMedia-AlexaRank-Sep-2008.gif
The traffic rank is based on three months of aggregated historical traffic data from millions of Alexa Toolbar users and data obtained from other, diverse traffic data sources, and is a combined measure of page views and users (reach).

Source data: Alexa
Technorati Authority

MasterNewMedia-Technorati-authority-Sep-2008.gif

MasterNewMedia-Technorati-authority-Widget-Sep-2008.gif

Source data: Technorati

Link Popularity

Google Inbound Links

  • MasterNewMedia English: 2.760
  • MasterNewMedia Italian: 1.310
  • MasterNewMedia Latino: 344
  • MasterNewMedia Brazilian: 177

Source data: Google

Yahoo! Inbound Links

  • MasterNewMedia English: 3,346
  • MasterNewMedia Italian: 849
  • MasterNewMedia Latino: 59

Source data: Yahoo!

Social Popularity

Social News And Social Networks

  • Bookmarks at Delicious: 1.094
  • Pages posted on Digg: 128
  • Pages posted on Reddit: 20
  • References from Yahoo! Answers: 110
  • Comments on StumbleUpon: 8

Source data: Quarkbase

Twitter

MasterNewMedia-Twitter-Authority-Sep-2008.gif

MasterNewMedia-Twitter-Stats-Sep-2008.gif

Source data: TwitterCounter

Citations, Mentions and Trackbacks

Citazion-Mention-Trackbacks-MasterNewMedia-Trend-Results-Technorati-Sep-2008.gif

Source data: Technorati

Citazion-Mention-Trackbacks-MasterNewMedia-Trend-Results-BlogPulse-Last-Six-Months-Sep-2008.gif

Source data: BlogPulse

Master New Media RSS Feed Stats

Traffic-And-Audience-Metrics-MasterNewMedia-Feed-Stats-Feedburner-Subscribers-Hits-Views-Clicks.gif

Traffic-And-Audience-Metrics-MasterNewMedia-Feed-Stats-Feedburner-Subscribers-Per-Month.gif

Source data: FeedAnalysis

Edited and prepared by Max Badolati for MasterNewMedia and first published on October 7th 2008 as "MasterNewMedia Web Traffic and Audience Metrics: September 2008"

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]]> http://designshrine.net/2008/10/14/masternewmedia-web-traffic-stats-authority-audience-metrics-september-2008/feed/ 0 Making Sense Of New Technologies And Media: An Opinionated Digest by George Siemens – July 12 08 http://designshrine.net/2008/07/16/making-sense-of-new-technologies-and-media-an-opinionated-digest-by-george-siemens-july-12-08/ http://designshrine.net/2008/07/16/making-sense-of-new-technologies-and-media-an-opinionated-digest-by-george-siemens-july-12-08/#comments Wed, 16 Jul 2008 04:29:59 +0000 Ty Wenzel http://designshrine.net/2008/07/16/making-sense-of-new-technologies-and-media-an-opinionated-digest-by-george-siemens-july-12-08/ making-sense-of-media-and-technology_id16215651_size485.jpgIf you look at the fast changing media and at new emerging technologies you may be endlessly enchanted by the new ideas, capabilities and traits that each one integrates. At the same time, the more you closely follow such change without taking critical and analytical distance from it the more you risk of never being [...]]]> If you look at the fast changing media and at new emerging technologies you may be endlessly enchanted by the new ideas, capabilities and traits that each one integrates. At the same time, the more you closely follow such change without taking critical and analytical distance from it the more you risk of never being able to capture the essence, the wave, the overall emergent pattern shaping its direction and character.

making-sense-of-media-and-technology_id16215651_size485.jpg
Photo credit: Rudat

George Siemens, connectivism guru and respected scholar of the effective use of educational technologies and social media, takes you in this weekly digest to places, writings and people that can help you explore, chart and understand these critical grounds in a serendipitous, explorative fashion.

My personal advice is to follow George in his wanderings as the pointers and resources he shares are always of the greatest value.

Here what he has found for you this week:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

Internet Users 50+ Are Rapidly Closing the Digital Divide with Booming Online Activity

media-and-technologies_policy-and-research245.jpg

Not really surprising, but a bit of a push back to advocates who suggest a rigid age-based divide between generational use of the internet: Internet Users 50+ Are Rapidly Closing the Digital Divide with Booming Online Activity "The perception is that Americans over 50 only dabble on the Internet, but we are finding that they are increasingly spending time online becoming involved in robust Internet activities, such as online communities...

In specific areas, there is often little difference in use of online technology between older users and some of the youngest users."

The Future of Online Learning Ten Years On

media-and-technologies_stephens-web245.jpg

Stephen Downes delivered a presentation about The future of online learning ten years on. I've reviewed the slides, but haven't had time to listen to the audio (personal whining; my laptop, ipod touch, and other such devices were stolen from my car a few weeks ago...so I'm lacking my usual routine for listening to presentations while I travel).

Stephen offers an interesting look forward by looking back at predictions he made ten years ago. He was quite accurate on many accounts. He mentions (on slide 49) that personal learning environments will replace learning management systems. I hope this is the case. But I'm not sure. Education is a process with multiple stakeholders with dramatically varying needs. To date, those who are served by the existing architecture of LMS' have been dominant in getting their interested addressed (administrators, IT).

The concept of PLEs raises the profile of learners...but until PLEs are able to include the organizational and administrative needs of other stakeholders, they will continue to be marginal.

Blogging Research: Attribution and Ownership of Ideas

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Lilia Effimova appears to have completed her PhD research and is actively blogging. She provides a thoughtful and critical voice to online communication. In a recent post she tackles the key challenge of attribution and idea ownership in blogs. The fluid exchange of ideas online means good ideas can be adopted and adapted quickly.

The origin of ideas can be challenging to trace, which obviously makes attribution difficult when the idea has morphed a few times. An idea is like opening a door. Once someone walks through, it's difficult to trace their subsequent activity.

Social Media Starter Kit

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Social Media Start Kit is a useful resources intended to "build a toolkit and instructional guides about how social media strategies and tools can enable nonprofit organizations to create, compile, and distribute their stories and change the world."

Weekly modules are still in development (looks like they're up to week two), but it looks like a valuable resource.

Shifting Value Point of Content

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I've been harping on this for a while - content is no longer a value point in itself. MITs OpenCourseWare and numerous other open educational projects reflect this reality in the education market. In music, news, and other media, a trend of content as a conduit to new value points is evident. Artists are giving away music and hoping to capitalize on live performance and merchandising.

MIT has increased its appeal and reputation by giving away educational resources. Journalists, authors, and theorists share thoughts online (i.e. blog) in order to increase reputation and consulting opportunities.

Will Thalheimer discusses the trend with a focus on elearning - All media will be sold for cheap: "The new business model will involve selling ancillary services or products. This will not only produce a profound shift in how the world works, but it will affect the learning-and-performance industry as well."

Nanotechnology

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We can, with only slight abuses of history, say that the 18th century was the era of mathematics, the 19th of chemistry, and the 20th of physics. The 21st will be the age of nanotechnology (he says without bothering to qualify the statement). Nanotechnology, like technology generally, impacts and alters every field it touches. The production of pharmaceuticals, materials, and plants is significantly impacted by developments within nanotech. Applications to humanity suggest a tremendous revision of what it "means to be us".

A recent British Medical Association publication on cognitive enhancements suggests two views of brain alteration: therapeutic (for when something is wrong) and enhancement (when all is well, but we wish to extend the limitations of our mind).

In a similar sense, Visions of our Nano Future offers an intriguing (frightening?) glimpse into what we will likely be able to do with nanotech in only a few years to improve the frailties of the human mind and humanity in general.

Google Lively

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Google has announced Lively - an avatar and online room/chat combination.

I just started playing around with it, so it's a bit early to say exactly what its role will be in the world of emerging technologies.

A quick initial reaction: it's Second Life distributed. Or as one commentator suggests: "Google is looking to create a massive distributed virtual world, where every Google account can have its own avatar that can be used wherever a Lively virtual room is present – for example, on a blog, a social networking profile, or a Web page".

Second Life has the elements of a learning management system (LMS), i.e. you go to the site to do what you want to do.

Distributed technologies allow individuals to use a variety of tools and approaches, all of which can be integrated into their own environment. Consider YouTube. I watch most of my YouTube videos as embedded elements in a blog. I don't go directly to YouTube. Same with Slideshare.

The key idea these sites have grasped is that we shouldn't need to go to data/information. We should be able to experience it in our environments (such as blogs, wikis, or even LMS'). At first glance, Google seems to be trying something similar with virtual worlds - namely, have the world available where you want it, rather than forcing you to go to a certain space. Or, as Google puts it: "It’s integrated with the Internet. It’s not an alternate destination. Our intention is to add to your existing life".

Meeting the Future by Doing More of What Worked in the Past

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Times of change have an interesting impact. When foundations of tradition are threatened, we see a common response of increased conservatism from certain sectors of society.

The Roman Empire, for example, had numerous failed attempts at reform before finally sliding into obsolescence. Reformers walked a line between doing more of what worked in the past and trying to innovate to meet the reality of a changed world. Occasional glimmers can be seen - such as with Constantine - where change appears to bring back glory days. Such glimmers are fleeting.

So what is an educator to do? Do we do more of what worked or do we change the system to embrace new realities? What do we keep? What do we discard? These are the foundational questions we are facing. And for each successful innovator or conservator in history, we can see many failures of reform. The design of our systems needs to match the reality of the condition. As Kaiser Maximilian's opponents discovered, mismatching strategies for a particular age can have disastrous effects.

Determining the reality of today's system and extrapolating to future trends (while maintaining the essences of humanity - peace, dignity, equality, tolerance, etc.) is the vital starting point. Most reforms are a blend of drawing from the past and anticipating the future.

Ken Robinson recently delivered an interesting speech on models of how education can/should respond to changes (via Ewan McIntosh). I enjoyed the talk - a call to change based on the intuitive creativity of all humanity. Missing, however, was the acknowledgment of the current systemic elements that need to be preserved.

Experts and Organizations Are Losing Trust

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Trust is tied to reliability and consistency. The "big institutions" - government, religious, corporate - that were the object of trust in the past have, in the last century in particular, been revealed as flawed.

While people still pursue religious activities and subject themselves to government, the authority of these institutions is being replaced (is augmented a better word) bys personal networks of trut (see, for example, the notion of networked, social, personal spiritual networks in contrast with organized religion).

I'm trying to find an analogy that best summarizes the shift from trust based on authority to trust based on personal relationships. The social best I can come up with is that of a food critic or restaurant reviewer. Every major newspaper has the token food expert that reviews restaurants incognito. These reviews are valuable and can significantly hamper or improve a restaurant's chance of success. But I rarely base my dining decisions on the review of an expert. I typically turn to friends or colleagues. Their opinions of "wow, that was an excellent dining experience" play a much greater role in where I dine than do reviews in a newspaper. Where authority and personal relationships differ, relationships receive greater weight and merit.

People trust people. It's not really much of a surprise that organizations whose appeal is to authority, not relationships, are experiencing some stress - Experts and organizations are losing trust: The Web is about the informed, skeptical society. There is a break developing between this skeptical society and its experts, institutions and organizations. The organization can’t just say: "Trust us. Follow us. We know best".

Originally written by George Siemens and published as weekly email digest on eLearning Resources and News. First published on July 10th 2008.

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To learn more about George Siemens and to access extensive information and resources on elearning check out www.elearnspace.org. Explore also George Siemens connectivism site for resources on the changing nature of learning and check out his new book "Knowing Knowledge".

Link to the Source
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]]> http://designshrine.net/2008/07/16/making-sense-of-new-technologies-and-media-an-opinionated-digest-by-george-siemens-july-12-08/feed/ 0 Cool Internet Marketing Tools: My Personal Toolkit For Online Marketing Tasks http://designshrine.net/2008/07/16/cool-internet-marketing-tools-my-personal-toolkit-for-online-marketing-tasks/ http://designshrine.net/2008/07/16/cool-internet-marketing-tools-my-personal-toolkit-for-online-marketing-tasks/#comments Wed, 16 Jul 2008 04:25:45 +0000 Ty Wenzel http://designshrine.net/2008/07/16/cool-internet-marketing-tools-my-personal-toolkit-for-online-marketing-tasks/ cool-internet-marketing-tools.gifLooking for some cool online marketing tools? Thanks again to my ongoing collaboration with Italian future-looking magazine 7thFloor for which I have been producing a small multi-part content section called "Yellow Pages for explorers and innovators", I am bringing to you the extended and upgraded version of a small collection of useful online marketing tools [...]]]> Looking for some cool online marketing tools? Thanks again to my ongoing collaboration with Italian future-looking magazine 7thFloor for which I have been producing a small multi-part content section called "Yellow Pages for explorers and innovators", I am bringing to you the extended and upgraded version of a small collection of useful online marketing tools I have selected for their latest issue.

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Photo credit: Leong Kin Fei

Re-edited and expanded from the original seven marketing tools collection appearing on 7thFloor n.12, the one that follows is my own, up-to-date, personal list of cool internet marketing tools that I use regularly to do my own marketing, analysis and promotion work on the net.

Here my favorites:

Cool Internet Marketing Tools

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One of the seven marketing strips appearing on the last issue of 7thFloor and showcasing my suggested tools - 7thfloor is an Italian print magazine

by Robin Good

1) Market Analysis

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Google Keyword External Tool
Identify niche relevance and advertising keywords volume and cost by using Google's own data.

2) Audience Measurement

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Photo mashup credit: SiliconValleyWatcher - Mediaspehere

Measure international and US traffic trends and compare sites against each other.

3) Web Site Evaluation

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Website Grader
Find out how effective your web site is without having to get a consultant. It's not infallible but it gives you good indications of where you need to work.

4) Ad Placement Testing and Optimization

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Google Website Optimizer
Test, measure and identify best working ad formats and optimal ad placement solutions.

5) Real-Time Web Traffic Measurement

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Woopra
Track web site visitors in real-time and interact with them live.

6) Keyword Research

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Photo credit: Chiefingredient

Wordtracker
Search, compare and identify relevant and in-demand keywords for any product or service market niche.

7) Ad Serving Optimization

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Serve automatically best paying ads on your site automatically selected from all the top international ad networks.

8) List building - Email distribution

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Aweber
List building and email newsletter distribution.

9) Technical Issues Preventing Site From Having Greater Visibility

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Google Webmaster Tools
Outstanding toolkit to analyze site issues and problems that may limit visibility on major search engines as well as excellent data about your site content and visitors preferences. Invaluable.

10) Spread Your Content Reach

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uberVU
uberVU is a web-based service that allows you to publish all of your content including text articles, audio, video and comments from one central dashboard. uberVu is for all of your content what Tubemogul and HeySpread are for your videos. (Thanks to Juan Pablo Lanteri who recommended it to me via one of the best informal marketing tools around: Twitter.)

And You?

Which one are your favorite online marketing tools? Feel free to share and highlight your own cool marketing tools and to promote your own site if you would like to, by using the comment section right below.
Originally written by Robin Good for 7thFloor - edited, revised and expanded edition for Master New Media

Link to the Source
Instant SEO: How To Become An Internet Marketing Guru Instant SEO: How To Become An Internet Marketing Guru Paypal 0 Bid US $.99 2h 13m
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Share, E-Mail or Print the Style: email Print PDF Twitter RSS Facebook Digg StumbleUpon Google Bookmarks Yahoo! Buzz del.icio.us Technorati Reddit MySpace Mixx LinkedIn Live Design Float Tumblr MSN Reporter Wists ThisNext SphereIt

]]> http://designshrine.net/2008/07/16/cool-internet-marketing-tools-my-personal-toolkit-for-online-marketing-tasks/feed/ 0 Increase Online Ad Revenue: Professional Web Publisher Guide To Online Ad Optimization http://designshrine.net/2008/07/16/increase-online-ad-revenue-professional-web-publisher-guide-to-online-ad-optimization/ http://designshrine.net/2008/07/16/increase-online-ad-revenue-professional-web-publisher-guide-to-online-ad-optimization/#comments Wed, 16 Jul 2008 04:17:29 +0000 Ty Wenzel http://designshrine.net/2008/07/16/increase-online-ad-revenue-professional-web-publisher-guide-to-online-ad-optimization/ increase-ad-revenue-10-tips-by-pubmatic-485.jpgThe vast majority of web sites today are not monetizing their advertising to their fullest potential. Here is a company, a rare one I must say, that not only has spent serious time trying to understand and match my needs with their specific services, but has had enough integrity and courage to openly recognize its strengths [...]]]> The vast majority of web sites today are not monetizing their advertising to their fullest potential.

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Here is a company, a rare one I must say, that not only has spent serious time trying to understand and match my needs with their specific services, but has had enough integrity and courage to openly recognize its strengths and weaknesses and to provide me with the very best monetization advice I have received from a supplier in a long time.

Rajeev Goel, CEO and Co-founder of Pubmatic, a company that specializes in optimizing ad network serving for web sites has just released an essential guide to ad revenue optimization, after having looked for a long time at what other the opportunity points to be leveraged in the fast-changing ad serving and optimization marketplace. He writes:

"Never before have Web site publishers like you had such an accessible opportunity to improve the performance of your advertising; ad serving costs are down and the explosion of ad networks has created an opportunity to get highest possible price for your inventory."

Here the details:

The Essential Web Site Publisher’s Guide to Ad Revenue Optimization

by Rajeev Goel

Introduction

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The vast majority of web sites today are not monetizing their advertising to their fullest potential.

In the U.S. alone that accounts for billions of dollars per year that could have been made with improved advertising performance. While there is no panacea to improve all of the underperforming parts of all the web sites with one swift fix, savvy web site publishers can take steps to improve their advertising performance, which will directly increase the ad revenue they make from their web site.

I created this guide for the same reason I started PubMatic - to help web site publishers make more money.

Web site publishers are content creators first and foremost, and creating good content takes a lot of time and energy. Improving a website's advertising revenue can also take a lot of time and energy.

PubMatic offers a solution that simultaneously saves web site publisher's time while increasing their advertising revenue. In very simple terms, PubMatic helps manage web site publisher's relationships with ad networks, and uses a sophisticated, constantly improving algorithm to ensure the best performing advertisement is shown at the highest price paid to the publisher. PubMatic's service and technology improves the ad serving decisions for web site publishers; and that is perhaps the most complex and revenue effecting part of online advertising (which of course we make simple for web site publishers!).

However, there are still many other improvements a web site publisher can handle on their own hands without the help of PubMatic.

If you are a web site publisher that wants to increase your ad revenue, following the tips in this guide will help you achieve that goal. I intend on updating this guide, so please check back often or subscribe to PubMatic's mailing list for all the latest news from us.

Optimization Tips

1) Diversify of Your Ad Networks

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What: All ad networks are not equal. In fact, most ad networks differ in seemingly subtle ways that are actually quite varied: targeting approaches, geographic focus, vertical focus, mix of advertisers, and ad campaign targets (branding, clicks, conversion) are just a few examples. Them result is that different ad networks will determine relevancy of ads relative to a publisher’s web page differently.

Take the popular Web site SeatGuru as an example. SeatGuru maintains seat maps for every major airline’s fleet of airplanes, and provides information about the comfort and amenities available in each seat. One ad network might conduct page-level contextual analysis and determine that the page is about airline travel, and therefore, show an airline ad.

Another ad network might conduct site-level demographic or behavioral targeting and determine that the site appeals to moderate to high-income business travelers, and show a life insurance ad. A third ad network might be looking at the users who views the site, rather than the site itself, and identify a given user as an in-market auto buyer and show that user a Lexus ad.

Benefits: By diversifying your mix of ad networks, you as the publisher, can determine what the most valuable aspect of your audience and content is, and therefore, determine the best mix of ad networks that can monetize your audience.

Travel ads might be a source of high-income advertisements, or alternatively the audience that is interested in travel might be high-income and therefore can be sold higher value financial products with related financial ads.

What to do next: Look at the mix of ad networks you are using, and classify them along the lines of behavioral, contextual, and demographic targeting capabilities. Depending on the
size of your site, look to get one to three ad networks in each area and identify which targeting mechanism works the best for your site.

2) Implement a Segmentation Strategy

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What: Smaller Web sites that are more targeted in content and are niche-oriented tend to have a higher eCPM than large, broad Web sites (The June 2008 PubMatic AdPrice Index reveals small Web sites had an average eCPM of $1.14 vs. 0.21 for large Web site; visit www.PubMatic.com/AdPriceIndex for definition of sizes).

The reason for this is that advertising on these smaller Web sites have a more targeted audience, and therefore, they typically perform better for advertisers than broad Web sites, and so advertisers are willing to pay a higher rate.

So what can you do if you are the owner of a large, broad Web site like WashingtonPost.com?

You can carve your large Web site into a collection of smaller Web sites. By making your large Web site appear like a bunch of small Web sites, you can get the benefit of large Web site scale along with higher advertising rates.

Doing this is easier than it might seem. For example, if you have a Web site that covers a variety of subjects, you may have a navigation bar that includes News, Politics, Opinions, Local, Sports, Arts & Living, and a City Guide. Instead of creating one 728 X 90 ad tag to go across the top of every page on the site, create six of them instead – one for each navigation area on the Web site.

Once that has been done ad networks can better target your Web site’s ad inventory. Callaway can show ads only in the Sports section of the Web site while American Express can show ads only in
the Arts & Living section of the Web site.

You can extend this strategy even further by carving up each of the six areas into smaller areas (Men’s sports vs. Women’s sports, for example).

Benefits: Smaller Web sites enjoy ad rates that are up to three times as high as large Web sites. You can significantly raise your monetization rates if you can present a more targeted advertising opportunity to the advertiser. And you can do this by limiting the scope of a single ad tag to the most relevant areas possible.

What to do next: Check out the navigational areas of your Web site, and use that as the basis for carving up your large, broad site into a collection of smaller sites. Create one set of ad tags for each smaller area of your site, and use those ad tags with each of your ad networks to get more targeted advertising.

3) Monetize International Traffic

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What: For a typical U.S. web site, 30-40% of the web site’s traffic comes from outside of the U.S. We all know the Web is global, but on top of that, English is often times the language of the Web in foreign countries. For example, the vast majority of Web users in India are visiting English language Web sites, which means your content and services on your U.S. based Web site may be readily consumed by a Web surfer in India. The same is true in many parts of Southeast Asia, Africa, and parts of Europe.

On top of this strong foreign contingent on many U.S. Web sites, the weak U.S. economy and dollar can lead to higher monetization rates outside of the U.S. The slowdown in the U.S. economy has lead to a drop in ad rates in the U.S. (visit www.PubMatic.com/AdPriceIndex for monthly averages) and the weakness of the U.S. dollar makes it relatively cheaper for foreign advertisers to buy U.S. ad inventory.

Benefits: As a result of the significant foreign readership of a typical U.S. Web site, the drop in U.S. ad rates, and the weak US dollar, monetization rates for the 30-40% of foreign traffic on a U.S. Web site can be higher than that of U.S. traffic, resulting in up to half of a Web site’s revenues based on foreign visitors.

This foreign traffic is often overlooked as a source of revenue for U.S. Web sites. If you’re not making a
significant stream of revenue from your foreign visitors, it is time to re-evaluate your monetization strategy.

What to do next: Check your server logs or Google Analytics reports to identify your top 5-7 geographies outside of the U.S. You will likely be surprised by the amount of foreign traffic. Then determine if your current ad networks can monetize inventory in these geographies. You need an ad network that can reach advertisers in these foreign countries. A U.S. ad network will often default (show blank or empty ads) to visitors from foreign countries, and you typically have no way to know this because you’re sitting in the U.S. and won’t see the default ads! Check if your ad networks have a sales office in the foreign country. If not, do a bit of research to find an appropriate ad network in that country and start working with them right away.

4) Monetize Every Impression

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What: Nothing frustrates a publisher more than a default (empty or blank) ad. Defaults occur when an ad network does not have an ad to show to a user on your site. Web site publishers leave an estimated $1 billion on the table annually as a result of default ads.

There are two main problems that cause this:

• Problem 1: Not having an ad to show. A network runs out of ads for your site, they have reached a frequency cap, or they don’t have ads for the geography of the user. This means you get a $0.00 eCPM.

• Problem 2: When an ad network does default. That means they are not reselling that impression to the highest paying ad network. This problem is just as bad; publishers often setup static daisy chains of ad networks based on historical pricing data in case one ad network in the chain defaults. With a static chain, there is no way to ensure that the highest paying ad network will fill the impression.

How big of a problem is this?

In a study conducted by PubMatic, we found that on average ad networks default 56% of the time, and can default as much as 87% of the time. That’s over half of a publisher’s ad inventory! This is an important one to get right.

The solution is a dynamic marketplace in which default ad impressions are collected and then routed to the highest paying ad network.

Benefits: A solution that both eliminates defaults and ensures that the impression is sold to the highest possible ad buyer can add 30-50% to a publisher’s revenue base. The key to
the solution is detecting when a default happens, then re-selling that ad impression to ensure that the sale is dynamic, and not through a pre-determined or static daisy chain of ad networks.

What to do next: See how often your ad networks are defaulting. If it is more than 10% of the time, consider a dynamic default optimization solution. The only known solution is one that PubMatic provides (learn more at PubMatic.com/news).

5) Sell New Inventory

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What: Consider selling new ad units on your Web site that can be incremental to your existing ad revenues. There are numerous ad units that you may not already be selling, such as page takeovers, in text ads, or pop-ups.

Of course, you don't want to annoy your user base but at the same time most users realize that your wonderful content is paid for via advertising. As long as you stick to ad units that your users have seen
before, the annoyance factor can be minimized.

Benefits: New ad units can lead to entirely new revenue streams. For example, in text ads can pay $1 CPMs and up, as can page takeovers. This is new revenue that is almost entirely additive to your Web site. Moreover, you might find that these new ad units are so beneficial that you can remove some of your existing ad units. Best of all, trying out these new ad units won't cost you any money as you can leave your existing ad units in place.

What to do next: Take some notes for the next week as you surf around the Web. Write down any new ad units you see that you aren't currently using on your Web site. For example, I saw a page takeover on the Wall Street Journal's Web site for the first time last week (courtesy of new owner Rupert Murdoch). Once you've got a short list, find ad networks that provide these new ad units (your existing ad network partners might provide some of these) and get them up and running. And don't try them
all out at once - rotate them through one at a time, and see what performs the best for you.

Be open with your readers and let them know that you're testing new ad options to bring them more of the content they love, and they will probably help you in the process.

6) Call Your Ad Network Representative

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What: Despite all of the automation in the online ad industry, there is still a lot of manual work that is done to sell ads on a Web site. Media buyers need to know what inventory they can secure from publishers, what the characteristics of that inventory are, in terms of content and audience, and how long that inventory will be available to them.

By calling your ad network representative, you can better understand how they target ads to your site and you can better inform them about what is unique about your content and audience. When a new ad campaign comes in, you and your site will be on the top of their mind in terms of where to run that ad campaign.

Benefits: By being on the top of an ad network representative’s list of sites to work with, you can help ensure that you get first crack at new ad campaigns. This means more advertising dollars can flow to your Web site, and you will see higher monetization rates.

What to do next: Identify representative at each of the ad networks you’re working with. Call them up and spend 15 minutes getting to know them and how they work, then explain some of the differentiating aspects of your Web site content and audience. Set a regular check-in period – once per month for example – and keep in touch.

7) Experiment with CPA

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What: CPA (cost per action) offers can sometimes outperform traditional ad network advertising. CPA offers work like this: you select a relevant offer to appear on your Web site, such as a credit card offer, cell phone offer, or similar; if a user clicks on the offer and fills out a qualification form or application, you get paid a fee that can be anywhere from a few dollars to hundreds of dollars, depending on the value of the offer. Advertisers like CPA offers because they transfer risk from them to you – if the user doesn’t fill out the form, the advertiser doesn’t pay for the ad.

Benefits: Depending on your site and audience, CPA offers can often times outperform regular advertising. If you are seeing low monetization rates (10, 20, or 30 cent eCPMs), then you may want to consider adding some CPA offers to the mix on your Web site.

The key is finding relevant offers that will be attractive to your audience and will pay you a significant amount each time a user completes the required action.

What to do next: Identify the lowest paying ad spots on your Web site. Then find some appropriate offers. This might take a bit of research but there are affiliate networks out there like
Commission Junction that can provide you with a broad array of offers in one place.

Put the offers on your Web site, be open to experimentation, and see if you can raise your monetization rate.

.

8) Email Your Users More Often

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What: Many Web sites email their user base periodically – often times once per month or once per week. If you do not email your user base, you should consider it. It is an easy way to stay in front of them, it creates ad inventory in your emails, and it often brings them to your site for a new session they may not otherwise have had.

If you do email your user base already on a monthly basis or less, consider emailing them slightly more often. Emailing your users once every three weeks is not uncommon and can have many benefits for them as well if you provide worthwhile content. And instead of getting that traffic pop 12 times in a year, you will get it 16 times in a year.

Benefits: There are three major benefits to emailing your user base on a more frequent basis:

First, the email typically generates a pop in terms of traffic to your Web site. People
may read something interesting in your email and click through to your Web site,
increasing the number of ad impressions for you. Second, the email itself contains
valuable ad inventory that you can monetize. And third, it increases your mindshare
and engagement level with your readers.

What to do next: If you are already emailing your user base, see if you can make it slightly more frequent – once every three weeks instead of once every four weeks. If you’re not emailing your user base, put a subscription box on your Web site and start collecting
email addresses -- then get your email list going as soon as possible.

9) Create a Media Kit

ad-revenue-optimization-create-MediaKit-by-Pubmatic.jpg

What: The quickest and easiest way for a potential advertiser to learn about your site is if you have a readily available media kit.

A media kit describes your Web site to a potential advertiser who might buy directly from your Web site rather than going through an ad network.

Most advertisers are looking for the following information:

• What your site is about – what category does it fall into, how unique the content is

• Your site’s traffic numbers – how many people do you reach, what your Alexa or equivalent rank is, how many ad impressions per month you have

• Your site’s demographics – male vs. female ratio, income level, geographic distribution, ethnic makeup

• What ad units are available – what sizes of ads are available, what creative limitations you have

• What you charge for advertising – how you calculate what your site is worth

• Who to contact – Ad buyers want easy access to the right person

Benefits: Direct sales can be very profitable for you because they do not involve the typical ad network fee (30-50% of advertiser’s rate). Part of the reason ad networks are used is to aggregate audience, but if you have a large enough audience, it might be more cost effective to do that on your own.

Even if you do not want to sell advertising directly, having a media kit makes your Web site appear much more professional and credible. Other ad networks or ad buyers do not know that you are not selling directly.

The media kit will give your site the professional look it needs to get those first few buyers in the door.

What to do next: You can manually create a media kit by using media kits from sites you like as a guide. You can also create a media kit in just a few minutes by using PubMatic’s automated tools at www.PubMatic.com/MediaKit. PubMatic has partnered with Alexa, Quantcast, and Compete, to bring relevant data to your media kit instantly.

10) Speed Up Your Site

ad-revenue-optimization-speed-up-site_id3543981_size190.jpg

What: The faster the content loads on your Web site, the faster ads can appear on your Web site. This gives users more chances to see your ads and to click on them. By speeding up your site you can improve you site’s ad performance.

Benefits: The sooner your visitors can see and click on your ads, the more revenue you will make. A slow Web site with poorly loading ads will end up driving down the performance of ads on your Web site. Ad networks will notice and pay you less as a result. Anecdotal evidence shows that each second of increased time to download your page can reduce advertising revenue by approximately 10%.

What to do next: Measure your Web page download speed and then set yourself a goal to speed it up.

You can use measurement tools like WebSitePulse or Keynote to measure your page download speed. Next, analyze your page to see what items take the most time to load. There are several great, free tools out there like Firebug for the Firefox browser and YSlow from Yahoo. Identify and eliminate or correct those items that take the longest to load.

11) Re-examine Your Ad Server Options

ad-revenue-optimization-re-examine_id5131541_size200.jpg

What: Many publishers have an ad server that they pay for to help them manage creative, ad campaigns, flights, and even ad networks. These ad servers are typically hosted by third party companies, so Web site owners do not need to pay for the infrastructure themselves. The cost of ad serving has come down significantly in the last 10 years.

The marginal ad serving cost is estimated at a roughly 0.5 cent eCPM, down from 10 cents 10 years ago.

The decrease in ad serving cost is being driven by lower bandwidth, server, and software costs for ad serving providers. The cost of virtually every component of computing infrastructure has dropped, and therefore, so has the cost for service providers.

Benefits: While the cost of providing ad serving has dropped, uninformed publishers continue to pay the same rates for ad serving that they paid several years back. As the cost of ad serving has come down, you should consider re-negotiating your ad serving contract annually, and ensure that some, if not most, of those savings are accrued to you.

What to do next: Check your contract to see when you last negotiated your rate. You likely do not want to switch service providers, as this can be disruptive, but check with other publishers who have recently switched to your ad serving provider. Get a sense for the market rate, and then have an open discussion with your service provider. You may be able to save a few cents on your eCPM.

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Original article written by Rajeev Goel General Manager and Co-Founder of Pubmatic and first published in July 2008 as "The Essential Web Site Publisher’s Guide to Ad Revenue Optimization". Reprinted with permission from the original author.

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