Digital Think In Artificts

For those who were unable to attend the NPR Think In, I’m including some of the artifacts that were produced during the event here.

Here is the presentation we built to provide background on NPR, define the five focus areas of the workshop, and structure the day:

The a video player below will allow you to play the presentations from the beginning of the day as well as the final presentation. In order to access this content, click on the “On Demand” button and then select either the “morning live broadcast” or the “afternoon live broadcast”

Press Coverage

NPR Builds a Brain Trust – Columbia Journalism Review

NPR Goes to San Francisco – BayNewser

NPR’s Honchos Talk Digital at “Think In” in San Francisco (Also, Scoble!) – Kara Swisher

NPR to Meet With Thinkers – Radio World

NPR hosts unique Digital Think-In with Silicon Valley thought leaders – CNET

Digital Think In harnesses high-tech brainpower – Computerworld

Visualizing The NPR Ecosystem

This is a repost of a contribution that I wrote for the NPR Digital Think In Blog:

To understand NPR and it’s member stations, you have to understand the ecosystem they live in. The unique opportunities and challenges that NPR faces are very much embedded in this space which includes the NPR Foundation, the NPR board, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), underwriters, independent producers, Public Radio International, American Public Media, and others. It’s a complex environment that is difficult to parse, which makes innovation challenging.

At the NPR Digital Think In, we’re trying to pull apart how the elements of the ecosystem work together as part of the process of envisioning the future. To this end, we’ve brought in an talented illustrator and creative director named Kevin White to help us understand the ecosystem better through images. The drawings below came out of a three step process that started with Kinsey Wilson and Vivian Schiller giving me an overview of the key relationships. I translated this information into a technical diagram to show the flows of money and programming content through the system. From there, Kevin came in to convert my technical diagram into a digestible illustration.

Here’s the technical drawing that we worked off of:

NPR ecosystem

From here Kevin created two illustrations, one that was focused on the flow of programming content through the ecosystem, and one that was focused on how money moves through the system. The former shows how NPR produces seven main programming offerings and combines those with another 26 programs which it makes available for distribution to NPR member stations and their affiliates. It also shows how some of the member stations direct their own content back into the NPR system. Finally, it includes other content producers who add their content to the NPR member station mix.

NPR Final

The second illustration shows how money flows through the NPR system. Part of what we were trying to convey is the connection between finance and control. In this case, NPR is guided by a board whose majority is made of member station representatives (10 member station representatives, five citizens, and the CEO). Coincidentally, member stations provide the lion’s share of NPR funding, 46%.

NPR Model 1

The financial relationships that are in place create both constraints and opportunities for NPR and member stations. Perhaps the most obvious issue arises with the increase of digitally distributed content. Traditionally, NPR member stations displace content to solicit support. In a digital context, however, this is no longer feasible. Thus innovation, with respect to digital distribution, requires significant systemic change to preserve a revenue model that will sustain member stations. Obviously, until this can be achieved the member station representatives will not be motivated to bring NPR content towards a future of digital distribution. Thus the importance of understanding the complex relationships within the ecosystem.

We sincerely hope these illustrations help untangle the complexity and provide an opening for innovation.

The NPR Digital Think In,Exploring The Future of NPR’sDigital Media Distribution

Back in April, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Kinsey Wilson and Jennifer Dunworth from the NPR Foundation to discuss the role that digital media plays at NPR. They were on the west coast for an annual NPR retreat that I’d participated in the previous year. I was especially interested in reconnecting with the NPR team because there had been some significant leadership changes in the last year including the addition of Kinsey as the VP of Digital Media and Vivian Schiller as CEO.

To be completely candid, I found the vision for digital media that I’d been presented with a year earlier to be somewhat lackluster. So, when I spoke with Kinsey I was excited to hear a fresh approach, which I’ll outline below. My issue with the previous vision was that it didn’t seem to start with NPR listeners. The broad stokes suggested that NPR had to compete directly with CNN and required the production multi-media content on that scale. The vision was so big that it was hard to connect with an actual strategy. Plus, the innovation I was seeing on the small scale didn’t connect either. For example, NPR’s early mobile distribution foray included setting up phone numbers with dialing menus that mobile users could use to access content. It offered a poor user experience, inconsistent with the use case (try to use it while driving!), and costly (my minutes!). At the end of the day though, my real concern was that such a vision would take NPR away from it’s core competence, producing great audio content, rather than building on it and extending it.

The new team’s approach is completely different and starts from the understanding that NPR needs to not only listen to it’s community for cues about how and where to innovate, but also to the thought leaders at the intersection of media and technology. It just so happens that the latter are concentrated in the Bay Area, so I suggested creating an event at which we could explore NPR’s digital future with this community. This was the beginning of the NPR Digital Think In, which is now scheduled to take place at frog design in San Francisco on October 9th.

NPR site header

NPR is a unique news organization that really doesn’t have many direct comps in the marketplace. And, even if there were comps, they wouldn’t have the kind of listenership that NPR offers. Just to put things in perspective, consider that Morning Edition has more listeners than most of the leading commercial options in that slot. So, NPR has LOTS of listeners and is a mass market service provide. Part of what makes NPR unique, however, is their organizational structure, which includes the NPR Foundation and member stations. The way it works is that stations raise money with on air fundraisers and use some of that revenue to pay for NPR membership station status. The NPR Foundation uses that income to coordinate the stations and syndicate content across the network. The board of the foundation includes people from the member stations, which means that any innovation that the foundation supports cannot come into conflict with the memnber stations’ revenue source. Herein lies one of the key barriers to innovation. And, here’ an overview of the event:

Historic changes in technology and the rapid growth in digital media have had a profoundly disruptive effect on journalism, calling into question the news media’s ability to fulfill its time-honored function as civic watchdog. Hardly a week goes by that we don’t hear of yet another major news organization cutting staff, curtailing coverage or closing its doors. As traditional news organizations struggle to adapt, new, non-traditional outlets are beginning to take their place.

As a not-for-profit with a distinct business model, National Public Radio has benefited from the disruption and seen its audience grow. Americans now spend more time with NPR than any other news source. But it’s hardly immune from the technological challenges of the era. And it’s clear that the rise of digital media will ultimately disrupt NPR’s business model as well. NPR has responded by recruiting digital leaders to serve the top of the organization, embarking on an unprecedented staff training program and overhauling its digital media strategy. It is poised to take further steps to ensure it remains a vital source of news on every platform.

With the Digital Think In, NPR is inviting thought leaders across a variety of disciplines to help public media envision the next stage of a digital media strategy. Hosted and facilitated by frog design, this one-day interactive workshop will explore alternative business models, news gathering opportunities and distribution outlets, as well as develop scenarios for NPR’s digital future.

If you’re interested in learning more about the event feel free to visit the social network for the event online. On the day of the event, this network will be abuzz with ideas and we’ll be watching closely for your input. You can also create an account right now and start the conversation!

Working With Sprout Builder

In the last few weeks things have been fairly quiet here on the blog mostly because I’ve been doing some traveling and because I’ve been working with Sprout Inc. the company that makes Sprout Builder. Sprout Builder is a tool that allows designers to build rich, and engaging online experiences without writing a single line of code. This is made possible through a drag and drop interface that makes Builder perfect for building widgets, but it’s also great for anything  from building micro-sites to rapid prototyping.

Sprout Builder is a toolkit that sits on an extensible platform such that Sprout will ultimately offer several levels of service. The Sprout Builder is the simplest level to use, but don’t be fooled by the word “simple” because it’s quite powerful. The next level up is called Sprout Engage and we use this internally to create our own widgets and widgets for our clients. This level is not yet available directly to the public, but will be before too long. The good news is that you can sign up for a free 30-day trial of first tier of Sprout Builder and there’s also a limited free version.

Here’s a simple Widget that Pepsi created with the tool:

One of the most popular applications of Sprout is to create highly customized Facebook Fan pages. One of the criticisms of Facebook is that it’s hard to personalize your page so that it doesn’t feel like a generic Facebook page. Sprout’s solve this problem by letting you create completely customized pages with everything from rss feeds, to slide shows, videos and more. Go here to learn learn more about customizing your Facebook page with Sprout Builder.

Finally, if you’re in the Bay Area, we’re holding a cocktail party this coming Tuesday Sept. 22nd, after Ad Week at Bin 38. If you’re interested in joining us for that event get in touch with me through the contact page of the blog!

Is it a Widget, App or Gadget?

I think a lot about how we experience the web and recently I’ve been trying to understand how to make choices about the means by which we deliver online experiences. Part of the backdrop for this exploration is an ongoing debate about whether the future of online experience will be mediated by operating systems or browsers. If that’s of interest, you might check out the Aurora Concept Browser that I helped launch for Adaptive Path. In this post, I’ll be sharing a collection of thoughts about how widgets, apps, and gadgets fit into this debate.

Context

Here’s 3 ideas that underlie my thinking:

  • BRING IT TO ME: In the past almost all our interactions online involved going out to get stuff. Today, online experience is increasingly about having the stuff we want come to us. In order to make this happen we usually need to start by going somewhere online, but this initial investment allows the majority of interactions to then come to us.
  • LESS MOVEMENT EQUALS MORE EFFICIENCY: Interaction pattern libraries are full of best practices to quickly get people with full shopping carts checked out, but there are also opportunities to increase conversion by simply bringing transactions to customers rather than making the customer go where the transaction is. This builds on the idea above, and underlying it is the fact that proximity increases the speed of interactions and thereby efficiency. Psychologically, I sense that part of what drives this is a sense of urgency created by proximity.
  • LITTLE WINDOW EATS BIG WINDOW: The metaphor of the window is a powerful one when it comes to online experience. With the rise of AJAX and Flash widgets we’ve seen how windows can open up within a web-page (a window itself) that enables an interaction to take place without leaving that page. Widgets and gadgets can take this even further by bringing fully immersive experiences to the old picture-in-picture experience. Today the balance between the small window and the big window is less stable and the small windows seem to have the potential to take over the bigger ones. I sometimes think of this as the rise of the dashboard.

Definitions & Unique Value Propositions

Here’s a quick look at what widgets, apps, and gadgets are with an eye towards identifying their respective unique value propositions:

  • WIDGETS: These  started as windows within an webpage experience that allowed users to see into the web while staying where we are (the picture in picture metaphor). They started in the single-service model, but are increasingly complex, interactive, and immersive.
  • GADGETS: These are usually working as single-service widgets but they only work in defined contexts. In a way they are half way between widgets and apps that are located within the browser.
  • APPS: These are typically stand alone experiences that exist outside the browser, and thus benefit from less (or, different) competition. While it’s hard to get on the desktop, there’s less competition once you’re there.

Getting Social

Despite differences between Widgets, Gadgets and Apps, they are all evolving to become more social. Following this, they will increasingly tap into your networks through OpenID, Facebook Connect, and other systems. This will allow such tools to serve up more relevant content. Finally, the same technology that underlies widgets will enable increasingly social online advertisements. I’ll discuss this last point in more detail soon.