What’s amazing to me is, that the ICMF concept persistently permeates my new concepts, one way or another. From the point of view of the life cycle of content – from acquisition to connection to sharing and packaging – this life cycle idea has, at least in my mind, stood the test of time: the WHAT (a life cycle for maximizing content value/chain) hasn’t changed much; the WHY (connecting communities, sharing, multiple channels, monetizing the atoms etc.) has morphed a bit as an articulation, but not as a business objective. But the HOW – now that’s where much of the action seems to be.

In the last year alone, the “smart content” space (e.g. using semantic technologies to mine relevance and maximize connection/value)is where all the slideware is emerging. We’re even starting to see some value emerge as well. And while we are seeing progress in he “user engagement and experience layer” (e.g. iPhone interface, minimalist/visually rich designs, embedded navigable video, etc.)we still are a long way from (and I’m really starting to tire of this phrase) “monetizing the engagement”. It seems that what we are lacking – still – is business innovation.

So what? We have new technologies! How do we make life better for our users and how can we make a living doing it?

Despite all the advances, It seems the end results is still web sites that splash stories, link videos, place search and puke ads. The “new monetizable value” is still not apparent, and consequently, media maintains a posture of skepticism. Media is as media does, I guess!

After several years of consulting for you at the Gazette on these big changes, I feel like rubber is just starting to hit the road – on the systems/design and implementation side, mostly. Once we get this prototype off the ground at the Gazette, e-Me will be focused on packaging the experience, technical content, processes and methodologies and related knowledge assets into an engagement service to both help other similarly risk-willing media companies walk this path.

To be fair, e-Me needs to advance its own work, We need to figure out creative ways (in this investment-narrow market) to get to the capital and people needed to complete the work we started, and to develop new applications to sit on top of this growing heap of semantic piece-parts. In the meantime, our community experiment over at The Daily Blank is gaining traction, writers and a following.

I believe that this experiment between Gazette Company and e-Me will have mutual benefit and help us both survive the times.

Thanks again for the opportunity!!

Abe
abe.abreu@e-meventures.com

I look forward to working with my core team of Audrey, Becky, & Mike to get to a baseline. From there, lots of work internally to “seat” people in front of the new semantic content tool kit.

Progress!!