data availability | The Fourth Revolution Blog

What a New Model for Effective Journalism Entails

There is a new news broadcasting outlet that becomes ever more successful lately (and I am hooked to their daily emails I receive through subscription): Quartz (qz.com).

The development of this brand and the associated business model is explained in detail in these two excellent blog posts by Frederic Filloux (link to post 1 and link to post 2). What I retain from this detailed explanation is that

Journalists are professional journalists drawn from established newsrooms
Yet, journalists are asked to provide the full content including all the links and pictures, exactly like if they were independent bloggers (and the website works on the basis of a blogging tool)
Revenue is provided by a specific advertisement strategy with few high value ads, which makes it free and profitable at the same time
the platform is designed for sharing and spreading the word

This is clearly the future of information business: high value content with specific angles on the current news that can’t be found anywhere else and a deep socialization of interaction with readers.

Traditional news outlets must be scared to death!

How the Subscription Economy is Spreading, Killing Ownership Further

Further to our successful blog post on The End of Ownership, John Warrillow proposes an interesting alternate view on the development of the Subscription Economy.

Increasingly, successful companies propose to clients to pay a subscription instead of buying individual items. John identifies 5 main business types associated with a subscription business model:

flat fee to access an unlimited library of content,
sampling boxes,
automatic replenishment of consumables,
monitoring (e.g. antivirus etc),
reporting – access to information.

The most interesting evolution lies in the first type. Unlimited libraries of content have only been made possible through the Fourth Revolution. It looks increasingly like subscription is the model of the future for access to cultural and artistic products, leveraged by powerful algorithms that suggest further products based on what you have been using. It is the typical model of Netflix for video, and it seems that Amazon and online music broadcasters increasingly tend towards this model.

For example, Amazon Kindle proposes a program where customers can borrow titles and authors get compensated from an Amazon pot, proportionally to the popularity of their books.

Hence, not only do we own less and rent more, but the rent increasingly looks like a flat fee for a service, relatively independent of the usage intensity. A great business model that will further reinforce our dependence on rental.

Why 3D objects’ piracy debate just starts!

In the last months there has been an increased attention and writing about piracy for 3D objects, following the continuous success and spread of 3D scanners and printers. A good summary of the 3D piracy issue is available in this Quartz post. A good summary of the development of 3D printing and the associated issues is available on the Economist here (although it dates back Sept’ 2012 it is still a good paper).

Authorities start to get worried (see this link on the US Copyright enforcer’s concerns). Because the issue is about sharing the files that describe the 3D objects freely, it would be possible to enforce the same type of measures than the ones currently enforced by the music and video industries regarding copyrighted material. However it will certainly prove more challenging to decide whether the file is really an infringement. It is probably more difficult to figure out what the object really looks like compared to a music or video stream!

Anyway, once again we observe that the Fourth Revolution is challenging traditional, established industries and institutions in a new way. There will be a struggle, there will be a debate, and finally we’ll see emerge a new balance between the needs to the creator and the industry that supports it. Let’s watch how other institutions will change!

How the music industry transforms through the Fourth Revolution

I would like to share this excellent summary of the economics and of the transformations of the music industry in the last few years: Who killed the industry – an interactive explainer. It is a brilliant example of the transformation and of the questions raised by the Fourth Revolution.

music industry revenue per year — The music industry total revenue per year, by type of support

The interesting point is that from the point of view of the artists, it was pretty tough to earn any money in the previous setup. All the money was flowing to the industry.(“[in 2000, she estimated that if a band made an album, sold a million copies, went on tour, and made two music videos, the band might break even, but the record label would take home $6.6 million”!.., [and the band owns none of the work])

It seems there are more opportunities now to be heard, to connect with fans, and to make a living. However, the new forms of music streaming seem once again to forget to compensate the musicians!

In any case, if you thought you’d become rich by becoming a well known musician or singer, that will make you think twice!

Hat tip to Mitch Joel/Alistair Croll in their fantastic weekly “Six links worthy of your attention” on Mitch’s blog

Witness the change on our planet. How will it change our view on our Environment?

Have you heard about Google Earth Engine Timelapse? The Google team has layered satellite imagery of earth over several decades (generally back to the early 1980’s). This shows how landscapes have been changed over the time.

You can for example look at how the Dubai coast has changed, or how the Columbia Glacier has retreated over three decades.

You can even look at your hometown change by scrolling on the world map and zooming on your favorite place!

Simply awesome – remember that the first TV image of earth dates back only to 1960!

I strongly believe that our environmental mind has significantly changed the day we’ve seen pictures of our blue planet floating in a dark void in the 1960’s. Will this initiative further create a small revolution in our perception of our environment?

How anonymous mobile data redraws bus routes in Africa

A research project has demonstrated that bus routes could be mapped in Abidjan by just following anonymously the signal from the users’ handphones. Bus routes in third world countries are notoriously not centrally managed and operated by a large number of autonomous parties.

Abidjan bus route map inferred from mobile phone position data

This mapping allows city planners to get an up-to-date picture of the situation and take action to improve the current situation or take other actions related to improving the traffic condition.

According to this research done by IBM, actions could be taken to slash commute time by more than 10%! (more on this in this BBC post).

Using available data that way, through the unaware collaboration of millions of commuters, is an effective way to create value for the community. How much of this would have been possible even 5 years ago?

Are You Ready for the Impact of Government Open Data?

“Information is a valuable national asset whose value is multiplied when it is made easily accessible to the public“.

Early May, President Obama released historical new rules for US government Open Data: from now on, data generated by the US government is to be made available in open, machine-readable formats. A new portal is setup to make the data available to those that want to use it to enhance its use.

To clarify the impact of that decision and how it will change things for the citizen, this excellent paper by the Canadian David Eaves, an eager supporter of Open Data, gives further insights: ‘Thoughts on the White House Executive Order on Open Data‘

No doubt that this US initiative will span similar initiatives in a number of other countries. Crowdsourcing the usage of government data to create meaningful information is in its infancy. Watch as incredible usage will be made of this data and how it will change public policies for the better!

What happens when we are submitted to information overload

When submitted to information overload, “We focus on those signals that tell a story about the world as we would like it to be, not how it really is.” – Nate Silver (in his excellent book ‘The Signal and the Noise‘). Nate is an expert statistician, successful at forecasting various things from baseball to other sports to elections (he is the founder of a famous think tank called Five-Thirty-Eight which specializes in elections prediction (apparently it gave the best prediction of the last US presidential elections)).

Nate Silver explains that information overload might foster extremism and people retreating to their communities, hence sectarianism and possibly, fights between partisans. It is his interpretation of what happened when printing released information in the 15th century – great fights happened around Protestantism and numerous communities formed that tended to avoid contact with this new information coming rushing at them.

Following this thought, it might very well be a risk of modern life that the excess of available information would only create stronger beliefs in ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ and that we would be psychologically tempted to reject the bulk of it as a natural, defensive reflex. That could explain the increasing defensive communities that can be observed across the world.

We need to limit the amount of information we submit ourselves to – and at the same time find a way to keep an open mind. Be wary that many strange things we observe today might be due to information overload – and people picking and choosing only what aligns with their beliefs. That might be the key to understanding many behaviors.

How the fight against Patent Trolls continues: The White House in action!

The issue of Patent Trolls is now tackled at the highest level with, early June 2013, a White House communication on how it expects to address the issue of impediments to technology due to these nefarious actors: ” The White House issued five executive actions and seven legislative recommendations designed to protect innovators from frivolous litigation and ensure the highest-quality patents in our system“.

This comes in the general action to try to phase-out patent trolls (see our previous post on How Intellectual Property is Changing – Too Slowly but in the Right Direction). Now a number of comments on these executive orders from the White House imply that they are too weak and will not be efficient to curb the patent troll development. See for example this post on Quartz: “Why patent trolls will laugh in the face of the US government’s weak attempts to fight them“.

This issue of excessive patenting and undue burden on the economy will certainly remain very high on the agenda for the next few weeks and months. Let’s continue to observe how this institution will need to transform to deal with the changes of the Fourth Revolution!

How Intellectual Property is changing – too slowly but in the right direction

There are increasing calls for profound reform of intellectual property. This is a subject close to heart that we touched on in our posts Patent trolls and the end of conventional intellectual property and How patent litigation cost half a trillion dollar inefficiency in the last 20 years!.

What are the evolutions lately? This paper by Joseph Stiglitz “Lives versus profit” summarizes the incredible issue of companies that try to patent our genes, at the expense of us all. According to Joseth Stiglitz, “More broadly, there is increasing recognition that the patent system, as currently designed, not only imposes untold social costs, but also fails to maximize innovation“. And further, “unbalanced intellectual-property regimes result in inefficiencies – including monopoly profits and a failure to maximize the use of knowledge – that impede the pace of innovation“.

Things seem to be changing in the perception of lawmakers. A new proposed bill could end the worst patent troll behavior by simply getting them where are the most vulnerables – money. Read more about this initiative in the paper ‘Death to patent trolls: How a new bill could slay technology’s worst parasites‘. Patent trolls are just a nasty way of doing business by taking advantage of real innovators through old tactics such as intimidation and brutal force in front of a court. Let’s hope this bill will pass and be effective.

Reform of our intellectual property regime, one of the most important institutions of the Industrial Age, is a prerequisite for moving straight into the Collaborative Age. Those countries that will overcome the particular interests of some of their industries to reform effectively this field will have a significant competitive advantage. Why are so few doing it?

How 3D Printing Technology Shakes Consumer Protection Institutions

3-D printing is already shaking our institutions. The recent issue of a 3D printed gun – and the availability of the drawings for free on the web – has scared many. Governments are already considering how they should change the regulations around weapon acquisition and export; on the other side hackers defend the freedom of internet.

Cory Doctorow, an expert on the internet regulation (and generally, a proponent of a large freedom), fears that these events will lead to inappropriate regulations of internet content, due to the fact that judges and societies will be scared by the object.

For guns, regulations might change to address ammunition rather than guns (nobody has yet managed to 3-D print live ammunition and it will take a long time before anybody can do that), but in any case, drastic changes will necessarily happen.

Guns are a very polarizing issue. But what about more conventional liability for hurting someone with a 3D printed object, or damage to property? How liable would be the person who put the design on internet, in a 3D enthusiast forum and who lives at the other end of the planet? How would the entire sets of regulations developed to protect the consumer from defects in products need to change?

All these questions are in the air. Because the institution of manufacturing changes, so needs also the entire set of regulation, or regulatory authorities. It is just the start of a drastic revolution. Watch how it unfolds over the next few months!

The Demise of the Publisher: Content Marketing

During the Industrial Age, Publishers enjoyed a fantastic position as being the only one to be able to spread the information. Newspapers in particular, were the only way for companies to advertise until the invention of other broadcasting techniques such as radio and TV.

In the post “Content marketing is our next big revenue threat — unless we embrace it now“, Kylie Davis provides an excellent summary of the issue that publishers face today, in the particular example of newspaper publishing (however this would apply to all other broadcasting media).

In summary, those organizations that were using publishers as intermediaries are now broadcasting directly their message to the world. No need of a publisher any more! Why would you continue to believe that only publishers can get you access to some kind of captive audience that you would not be able to reach otherwise? You can, today, make your information available on the internet in a format you can better control, using all different kinds of techniques from written ads to videos.

This is what is called ‘content marketing’. Kylie’s position in her post that it is possible to make the published content evolve to make it better suited to the advertiser’s needs can be discussed – in any case it shows that the publishers cannot any more decide what’s worthy or not as when they enjoyed this fantastic monopolistic position of being the only ones able to spread information to the world.

As we move through the Fourth Revolution, organizations and individuals will increasingly publish themselves or through content aggregators. Publishers will become extinct as a profession. It is ineluctable.

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