Washington Post published a short video and PR piece on the Hacking Journalism we hosted last weekend.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/pr/wp/2015/07/17/the-washington-post-hosts-hacking-journalism-event/
Uncategorized
The group devoted months to rewriting Healthcare.gov functions in full, working as a startup within the government and replacing contractor-made apps with ones costing 1/50th, or 2% of the contractor prices.
1 minute brief on Beacons
Beacon technology was named after the iBeacon API that Apple released with iOS7. The API listens for a bluetooth UDID broadcast. At the time of iOS7, the API had to be associated to an existing app. Through the app’s background location monitoring, the UDID broadcast from a beacon could be detected and used as a hyperlocal trigger.
Since then, large and small companies have explored production of Beacon devices. The devices are small bluetooth radios strapped to a battery that broadcast the Beacon UDID every few seconds. The major differences between products are battery life, security, associated cloud-platforms, and hardware design.
iOS8’s release last year allowed beacons to be triggered in the iPhone lock-screen. Before this, the Beacon’s needed an app to trigger push notifications or in-app behavior. The iOS8 lock-screen interface creates a new interface for apps to be used based on location.
The example I have seen most for Beacons is coupons. The example shows a customer, who has a store’s app, walking by a brick-and-morter shop. Based on the dependency for having an app, this seems useless. I imagine any coupon notification would be a reminder for a user to delete the app.
I’m most interested in how these Beacons would be able to change the meaning of existing physical objects. In relation to news and media, the newspaper stand seems like an object that hasn’t changed. I can imagine an opportunity to repurpose these metal objects.
redesign newspaper stands
Anyone here interested in physical computing?
Im experimenting with a project to redesign newspaper stands. Im a software engineer and interested in playing with digital beacon technology to create news briefings in coffee shops/train stations.
If you are passionate about this intersection, Id love to meet up and bounce ideas around.
email: rememberlenny [at] gmail
twitter: @rememberlenny
Long-form in a information rich ad ecosystem
I’ve been thinking a lot about the publishing of high-quality long-form content online. Long form content doesn’t perform well in the current advertisement ecosystem. Advertisers reward number of ad units served. Viewing more than 50% of an ad unit for at least 1 second defines a valid ad impression. This low bar for content producers has lead to optimizing the number of ads served per content produced.
There are now a wide range of places to spend a digital marketing budget, forcing publisher to appeal to the ad spend. Publishers are compared against one another, while the produced content is entirely different in value. The only similarities may be their ability to display ads. Short-form junk content and well thought out long-form content are valued the same to an advertiser. The only thing that matters is how many ad impressions will be served. Forcing publishers to compete in a advertiser-centric ecosystem ignores the qualities that define high quality content.
Long-form in a information rich ad ecosystem
I’ve been thinking a lot about the publishing of high-quality long-form content online. Long form content doesn’t perform well in the current advertisement ecosystem. Advertisers reward number of ad units served. Viewing more than 50% of an ad unit for at least 1 second defines a valid ad impression. This low bar for content producers has lead to optimizing the number of ads served per content produced.
There are now a wide range of places to spend a digital marketing budget, forcing publisher to appeal to the ad spend. Publishers are compared against one another, while the produced content is entirely different in value. The only similarities may be their ability to display ads. Short-form junk content and well thought out long-form content are valued the same to an advertiser. The only thing that matters is how many ad impressions will be served. Forcing publishers to compete in a advertiser-centric ecosystem ignores the qualities that define high quality content.
Producing long-form content isn’t wise when considering the time and cost. Ads served on long-form pieces aren’t as valuable in comparison to the alternative. Unless the publisher sells-out to the advertiser, the mechanics behind longform content are less profitable. (This is an entire topic of its own.) Although long-form pieces have the potential to display an number of ads, unless the article is fully read, the ads are not necessarily viewed or consumed. This makes it more profitable to publish a higher number of low-cost posts, than to publish a smaller number of high quality posts.
Long-form articles maximize for time spent and quality of user. Currently, there is no system to allow an ad to be valued longer based on its time viewed. Instead, a 1 second glance and a 5 minute stare are valued the same. As a result, the time spent on an article is not a rewarded by the existing single ad-unit.
These advertiser economics incentivize for quantity. Online content producers profit by maximizing ads served per content produced. The existing advertisement model encourages publishers to optimize for traffic rather than quality. The more ads served for dollars spent to produce content is ideal.
Short-form content is optimal for content discovery platforms. The popularity of social networks and RSS feed readers simplify circulation. Readers can jump in and out of articles to maximize the content consumed, while minimizing the time spent. The discovery platforms above simplify the process progressing a user across a feed. The number of article’s viewed is proportional to the number of ads served.
Information rich ecosystems don’t match with the time needed to consume long-form content. The exploration mind state is not ideal for settling to read. Long-form content is discovered, skimmed, then forgotten. Either a clear way for valuing ads on long-form content needs to surface, or the long-form content needs to find a way to compete in this current ecosystem. One way or another, this is an interesting topic to think about.
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Big thanks to @christianarca for revising.