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Table of Contents
Varieties of content (spontaneous, crafted, and engineered) and how to turn content to value on the Internet by Richard Seltzer
Search engines and directories: when to use which by Richard Seltzer
New electronic texts -- from Gutenberg
Investors evaluating the prospects of Internet startups often presume that the value of content is the advertising revenue that could be generated. That approach simply translates to the Web business models from television, radio, and magazines, with different equations for calculating the ad revenue you should expect with a given size of audience. It's easy to understand how that has become common practice -- providing an element of predictability in a realm where very little can be predicted with any degree of certainty.
But that model presumes that content on the Web is similar to TV, radio, and magazine content. And that may not be the case.
Yes, some Web content is lifted straight from other media -- typically magazines and books. And some content is generated based on old publishing models. I call that "crafted" content, to emphasize that it is carefully made and shaped, involving the efforts not just of an author, but of also of one or more editors.
But the Internet also opens the possibility of generating and preserving "spontaneous" content and turning that to value. This is content that is written once and probably not edited, and the creator is probably not a professional communicator. The mode of creation might be email or chat or forums. The flavor of the discussion might sometimes resemble talk radio, but the material can be saved and found by search engines, which opens the door to new and different business models.
Because of full-text search engines (like AltaVista), the static saved content from dynamic online interaction, no matter how impromptu and raw, can draw traffic to a Web site. The more the better.
Basically, spontaneous content brings new visitors, and crafted content brings them back -- because it's clearly written, carefully shaped to meet the needs of the target audience and makes valid and useful points efficiently. And spontaneous content can be used as raw material for generating crafted content. For instance, the raw transcript of a chat session would be spontaneous. An edited chat transcript would be one step closer to crafted. And articles based on that transcript would be crafted.
Also, keep in mind that crafted content is expensive to generate (writers and editors are not cheap), which limits the volume of content available, which in turn limits the number of new visitors that will find that content by way of search engines. So sites that have only crafted content depend heavily on paid advertising to draw new visitors. It's an expensive and risky business model -- trying to create a Web experience so useful and enjoyable and sticky that people will come back again and again, justifying their ad expenditures, because so many of their new visitors become a regular part of their audience, raising the revenue they get from the advertising they sell.
Spontaneous content is very low cost and can be generated in high volume. It is an inexpensive way to draw traffic, and by serving as raw material, it could also help reduce the cost of crafted content.
Examples are hard to come by because, today, most content-based Web businesses don't take advantage of the traffic-generating opportunities of search engines. They typically lock their content up in databases or behind registration procedures that prevent search engine crawlers from ever getting to it.
But the potential is there for businesses based around the generation of large volumes of spontaneous content -- for instance, expert sites that match people with questions to people with answers, like ExpertCentral -- to present that content in indexable form and use it to attract search-engine-driven traffic; reducing their cost of building their audience, and fundamentally changing their business model.
Also, keep in mind, that just as spontaneous content can serve as raw material for new crafted content, crafted content can serve as raw material for "engineered content." In this case, crafted elements are assembled to build large and complex structures that serve new functions -- like bricks assembled into a building. For example, Learnlots.com takes screen-size chunks of content -- that can be quickly read by busy cyber-visitors -- and assembles them into tutorials, and commissions tutorials on target topics to thoroughly cover target subject areas. As a result the material at their site doesn't just inform, it teaches. Also, at a much higher level of complexity, Compaq has assembled many thousands of separate content elements (from technical specs to white papers to decision-support tools) to create ActiveAnswers www.compaq.com/activeanswers which acts as a total system to help partners and customers select, deploy, and manage solutions for complex business challenges.
Basically, with "engineered content," numerous separate elements are constructed, planned, and linked to produce a significant result, where the whole is far more valuable then the sum of the parts. The difference between crafted content and engineered content is like the difference between a course and a curriculum/degree program, or between a single book conceived by an author, and a series of books, like Dummies, covering an entire field and written to a fixed template so the efforts of many different authors or teachers and many different editors or administrators can combine to fill a single business purpose, where independent pieces come together to form a single system which produces predictable valuable results.
Richard, I think there's one more form of content, a step beyond engineering, let's call it "analyzed content", e.g.
www.twurled-world.com/Chinagate/Indictment/cover.htm
Regards, enjoy your column,
susan gerhart, Research Outlet and Integration, 281-486-8480 www.twurl.com
by Richard Seltzer, seltzer@samizdat.com
"Business chat" sounds like an oxymoron. But when done right, chat can draw active and involved users repeatedly to your Web site and help you build an archive of high-quality, low-cost content that will attract more users.
Actually, there are two related classes of software, both of which can be used for holding online discussions: chat and forum.
Web-based chat software allows numerous people to exchange text messages simultaneously in the same "session." It is often used for quick, casual, anonymous one-liner conversation. As soon as you type your message, it's available for others in the same session to read. When a dozen or more people actively participate at the same time, it gets very difficult to read what is said and even more difficult to follow the multiple threads of conversation. You need to read fast and type fast, but if you do, and if the topic is up your alley, the experience can be exhilarating and stimulating -- whether you are flirting or flaming or brainstorming.
Web-based forum software, like notes and bulletin board, allows people to leave messages which will be read later. In this case, writers have the time to reflect -- there is no time limit. They also can give their messages titles and indicate if these are answers to previous messages or new threads of thought. Typically, readers can view the list of all messages available or just the ones they haven't read before, with their threaded relationships shown. And the messages can be saved indefinitely and can be searched. Here it is possible to carry on an extended, thoughtful, multi-person correspondence.
The only problem with forums is a matter of human nature -- we tend to procrastinate. We know that we can post and read there anytime that we want, so there is no urgency. If a conversation really gets going, then the momentum can carry it along. But it is often difficult to get that kind of interactivity going. The discussion needs to reach some critical mass before it becomes compelling. Yes, we intend to participate, just like we intend to follow through on New Year's resolutions; but more often than not, it just doesn't happen.
Chat on the other hand has immediacy. And when a chat topic is scheduled for a particular time, you either connect or you miss it. Chat also can generate energy and enthusiasm and stimulate useful ideas because of the element of live interaction.
The best discussion software combines the immediacy/urgency of chat with the ability to save the discussions in threaded form, so those who participated can catch up on what they missed and what they need to reflect on further, and others who weren't able to connect at that time can see what was said; and all can add their followup thoughts and continue the discussion in a more leisurely and reasoned environment.
Varieties of chat experience
Chat is like a hammer -- its value depends on what you do with it. You can create many different kinds of events and experiences, and build many different kinds of business models based on chat-related software.
For example, you can set up:
I started doing "business chat" in the spring of 1996, when the Boston Computer Society asked me to host a regular session at the Boston Globe's Web site. The Boston Computer Society has since dissolved, but my weekly chat sessions about "Business on the World Wide Web" continue at http://www.web-net.org. For a volunteer activity, it's been a lot of work, but I've learned a lot in the process. The following suggestions are based on that experience:
Basically, any Web site that has rich text content and depends on that content to draw much of its traffic, should carefully consider adding scheduled chat programs (with edited transcript) and/or related distance education programs that use chat.
By the way, if you run a business chat session at your site, you might want to set it up so participants, when joining, acknowledge that they are granting you the non-exclusive right to republish material from that session in other media, without having to get further approval from the participants. (Check with a lawyer, but avoid using legal jargon -- you don't want to scare people away or confuse them.) That blanket permission would allow you to include excerpts in CD ROMs or printed books, or in other media, etc. Remember, the future of the Internet is "content".
Software wish list
I must admit that I am prejudiced in favor of SiteScape Forum, formerly known as AltaVista Forum, and before that as Workgroup Web Forum. It was developed at Digital, by people with whom I worked in the Internet Business Group, back in the early days of the Web. Now in version four, it is a very robust and rich piece of software, now owned and being further developed by SiteScape www.sitescape.com I love it not just because I am familiar with it, but also because many of its features reflect suggestions that I expressed to the developers along the way. It is the practical fulfillment of the most important items on my discussion-software wishlist.
What are those items?
If you are interested in making your site more interactive and perhaps building an online community, keep in mind that the discussion software is only one small piece of the solution. Thousands of Web sites have set up chat rooms that are typically empty or filled only with noise. It's as if you were given a time slot on a public access cable channel, and instead of planning, developing, and promoting programming, you just set up a video camera in a mall so people who walk by can make funny faces or obscene gestures and generally fool around.
As indicated above, you can use chat and forum for many business purposes, but the success of these ventures depends in large part on people, not software. Lots of work needs to be done in setting up, promoting, and supporting scheduled chat events.
Based on my experiences, here's a rough-cut first estimate of what it would cost in person-hours to do this on a professional (rather than amateur/volunteer) basis.
This presumes that the chat sessions are scheduled -- that a regular time slot is available each week for discussion on a broad continuing subject, and that specific focus topics typically run 3-4 sessions. For instance, my chat program about Business on the World Wide Web has covered such topics as Web access to databases, Internet telephony, and selling content on the Web. when topics continue for several weeks, the promotion effort is spread across that time and word-of-mouth and word-of keystroke have time to build audience.
If you already have your own Web server with disk space and bandwidth to space these hours would represent the incremental cost of doing one weekly one-hour scheduled chat program. If your Web site is hosted on someone else's server, keep in mind that there are sites like Xoom, Delphi, and Groupvine where you can hold chats and forums in free space. But if you want full-function discussion software, a professional look and feel, and pages that reflect your brand, expect to pay for that kind of hosting service.
Keep in mind, too, that the skills needed to do these tasks are in short supply. You can't just ask anyone on your staff to suddenly start doing this and expect the project to be successful. Also, several different kinds of skills are necessary. In fact, it might take three or four experienced, talented, and motivated people to make this work, including a host who not only can type and think fast, and can relate well to people online, but also who is passionate about the subject.
Chat for distance education and training
I just finished helping the Kennedy School of Government with a pilot distance education project, run for them by the Otter Group www.ottergroup.com, and using SiteScape Forum as the discussion platform. You can see that discussion area at www.webworkzone.com/ksg/dispatch.cgi
That project included experimenting with chat as an educational tool -- pre-course chats to familiarize the participants with what was involved in the course and get them used to the online environment and help them begin to know one another and let the professor know their backgrounds and interests; workgroup chats run simultaneously with streaming video lecture; and post-lecture office-hours chat with the professor. We just barely scratched the surface in terms of understanding the potential and coming up with procedures to optimize the experience. We still need to test chat for formal workgroup discussions with learning directors, between lectures; and for information study sessions.
With SiteScape Forum the number of simultaneous users that can be accommodated for chat depends on the hardware configuration. But this solution could usable for an entire department or school with numerous courses if you simply schedule live events so they do not conflict with another or do not add up to exceed the probable maximum for your configuration. (What matters is the number of people making demands on the server -- posting or refreshing -- at the exact same moment, which is a matter of statistical probability, and which is influenced too by the manner in which the chat is conducted.)
The Kennedy School pilot involved both a classroom/satellite-broadcast component and an online interaction component, using chat and forum.
The broadcast was a complex effort to coordinate -- a massive one-shot production. Making the audio/video available afterward over the Internet in archived form adds an interesting dimension. We now have the possibility of editing and packaging this content for other audiences -- adding new broadcast elements and more live interaction. That would fulfill the central goals of the pilot -- showing how it is possible to extend the reach of Kennedy School course content and package it for redistribution in a variety of ways -- making a tangible asset out of what had been relatively spontaneous and ephemeral teaching/learning experiences, and at the same time reaching people who otherwise would not have an opportunity to take these courses and learning from their new and diverse input.
But the online discussion started a process that could take the Kennedy School and the community of learners in new and little known directions. A core group of people who made the effort to activity participate in chats and forums, who got deeply engaged in the class content is now ready for step two: not the next course, not the availability of more of the Kennedy School curriculum from a distance (though they all seem to anxiously await that eventuality. But rather, they are ready for the opportunity to interact with one another and with Kennedy School faculty in a proto-community, continuing some of the threads of discussion to new levels of usefulness and detail, mixing theory and practice as they bring these ideas to their workplaces and come back with new questions.
While plans proceed to add new courses and/or to carry out one or more additional experiments to refine the delivery technique, I would like to see the online discussion continue and expand, with participants and learning directors self-selecting themselves into work groups focused on questions that are of great interest and importance to them (e.g., today's thread about non-profit mergers).
They could do this in asynchronous forums, supplemented by periodic chats with pre-planned topics and invited experts/guests (sometimes Kennedy School faculty; sometimes key figures from elsewhere). The quality and growth of these discussions would depend on the fecundity of the central topic and the creativity and dedication of the learning directors who run them.
Ideally, two to three learning directors would be assigned to each topic area, with one assuming leadership and turning to others for backup and support. The initial topics should come from threads that emerged during the class, in the office hours chat today, and in the forums.
The learning directors could promote their ongoing discussions and special chat events to those who enrolled in the pilot, to those who come to the discussion area later, and other constituencies that they know of and who are deeply concerned about the topics under discussion. If we started six such work groups today (each with its own special focus), perhaps two might survive for two months, and perhaps one might grow in unexpected and valuable directions -- benefiting the active participants in ways that none of them ever imagined when they signed up for the pilot, and providing the learning directors with excellent training. At the same time, such a project would give the school an opportunity to learn about less structured, less curriculum-based ways of delivering education at a distance -- community-style rather than professor--directed and continuous interaction rather than education delivered in discrete time-limited pieces.
At least that's the direction I'd like to see it go...
What next?
Already we see "voice chat" available for free at sites like Yahoo and Excite. That's kind of like a low-quality, free-form conference phone call. I can imagine occasions when that could be useful and fun. Inevitably, video, too, will be a normal part of some chat programs -- both one-way and two-way. But I hope that as we move in that direction, the base-line for business and education chat remains text -- with the voice and video as enhancements. It is good for there to be a variety of modes of expression. Different people express themselves better in different modes. It's good to give them a choice. But text has the advantage of being easily and economically saved and searched.
There are also occasions when you need to manage large numbers of participants. America Online has a setup in their larger chat rooms that allows a moderator to filter questions from the whole group, passing them on to the scheduled speaker, and allows discussion among participants in a single "row", but only the "speaker" can speak to everyone at once. America Online is great at managing chat areas -- that's probably their number one asset. I'd like that kind of capability to be more widely available. Ideally, I'd like to be able to go to a discussion-hosting Web site and rent or lease a chat/forum rooms whenever I need them.
Many business people will only need this capability for a few hours a month -- it's a natural for rental -- with "rooms" in a variety of sizes, perhaps up to the online equivalent of a convention center.
In any case, as you plan and build your chat program, don't limit what you do to what today's software makes easy. Do what makes sense. If it takes time and energy to do housekeeping chores that you wish were automatic, still don't hesitate to dive in and gain the experience necessary to make this new medium work for you. Your business needs should drive the technology, not vice versa. The more you know first-hand about the headaches and the benefits of business chat, the better you'll be able to pick what's right for you as more powerful, easier-to-use software becomes available.
Many people use both search engines and directories, but few seem to understand the difference and when it's best to use one or the other.
Directories, like Yahoo www.yahoo.com, the Open Directory dmoz.org, and LookSmart www.looksmart.com, provide categorized lists of Web sites with a brief description of each site. You can navigate by going from menu to menu, making one selection after another until you finally get to the level where sites of the kind you are interested in are listed. You can also search through the database that contains the descriptions of all of them. The categories and descriptions are based on submissions by Web site owners, scrutinized and edited by professional or volunteer editors.
If you are looking for a summer camp in Maine or a recycling facility in Alabama, a directory is probably a good place to look. You are looking for a general category of things and that's how directories are organized.
While a directory categorizes Web sites and contains very little information about them (just the description), a search engine indexes all the information on all the Web pages it finds.
Directories are crafted by human beings, based on their judgement, like files in a file cabinet. If you happen to think like the people who built a particular directory, you may find it very easy to use; if your mind is organized differently, you may find their approach awkward and difficult to follow.
Search engines don't wait for someone to submit information about a site. Rather, they send out robot programs (called "crawlers") which surf the Internet and bring back the full text of the pages they find. Search engine indexes are generated automatically, based on the words and phrases that are found on Web pages. The largest search engines, like my favorite, AltaVista www.altavista.com, cover over 250 million Web pages. There is no human judgement filtering or rearranging the information before it gets to you. If you know how to use the query language effectively, you can go straight to what you want when you want it.
Because directories and search engines are so very different from one another and complement one another's capabilities, most major search engines have partnered with one or another of the major directories. When you click on the name of a category, rather than entering words in a query box, you are using their directory capability.
A directory takes you to the home page of a Web site, from which point you can explore to eventually get to what you want.
A search engine takes you to the very page on which the words and phrases you are looking for appear.
Use a directory when you only have a vague idea of what you want, and when you would appreciate prompts to guide you along.
Use a search engine when your aim is to get to a particular piece of information quickly.
When you want to find a great music site or a site devoted to your favorite kind of movie, use a directory.
When you want to know what song or movie a particular phrase is from, use a search engine.
Use a directory to get a list of major newspaper sites.
Use a search engine to find a quote from a newspaper column, even when you don't know the name of the paper or the columnist.
Use a directory for the kinds of things you'd expect to find in the Yellow Pages -- for businesses of certain kinds when you may not know the names of the businesses.
Use a search engine when you are looking for information about a particular product and know the product name and model number, but may not know the manufacturer.
Use a directory when you are in the mood to surf -- to go on a fun trip around the Web with no particular destination in mind, just following your impulses.
Use a search engine when you are serious and when you have limited time to find what you want.
Use a directory when you are looking for a site devoted to a celebrity.
Use a search engine when you are searching for an ordinary person by name.
Use a directory to find cooking-related sites.
Use a search engine to find a particular recipe, looking for it by name or by its ingredients.
Use a directory to get a list of four-year colleges in Massachusetts.
Use a search engine to find a particular paper written by a professor of anthropology at the University of Massachusetts.
Use a directory to see a list of sites devoted to alternative medicine or to cancer.
Use a search engine to learn more about a medicine your doctor just prescribed for you.
Use a directory to get a list of job-related Web sites.
Use a search engine to find the resume of a job candidate with the credentials and experience you want.
Use a directory to find Web sites dedicated to discussion of great literature.
Use a search engine to find a particular passage in a particular classic work, and perhaps the complete text of that book.
Use a directory to find sites devoted to buying and selling cars.
Use a search engine to find a page that talks about how to deal with the problems you've been experiencing with your 1969 Mustang.
Use a directory to find sites that deal with Windows-based software.
Use a search engine to find out the meaning of a particular error message you've been getting.
Use a directory to find travel guides.
Use a search engine to find the schedule for special trips on steam-engine-powered trains in South Africa.
Use a directory to find Web sites devoted to legal questions related to protection of intellectual property rights.
Use a search engine to find instances of plagiarism of your writing on the Web.
Use a directory to find Web sites devoted to trademark information.
Use a search engine to find out if a particular name, with unique capitalization, which you'd like to make a trademark, is already in use on the Web.
Adding dozens of new titles every month, Gutenberg has already made over 2000 etexts available for free over the Internet. These include classic works of literature and history, as well as out-of-print and little-known works by great authors. If you can, connect by ftp, rather than the Web, to get the most recent ones. Here's a list of those recently added, alphabetized by author. The file name is useful for fetching the text from the ftp site. Many of these are also available on diskette from PLEASE COPY THIS DISK for those who cannot get them themselves. For the current catalog, check http://www.samizdat.com/catalog.html or send your email request to seltzer@samizdat.com)
Willa Cather -- One of Ours (1ours10.txt)
Erskine Childers -- Riddle of the Sands (riddl10.txt)
William Congreve -- Incognita (ncoga10.txt)
Florence Converse -- The Story of Wellesly (wlsly10.txt)
Stephen Crane -- Active Service (tvsrv10.txt)
Charles Darwin --
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle --
Anna Katherine Green -- The Filigree Ball (flgbl10.txt)
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. -- The Path of the Law (pthlw10.txt)
T. H. Huxley -- On the Brain (huxbr10.txt)
Henry James -- The Beldonald Holbein (bldhb10.txt)
J. K. Jerome --
Joseph C. Lincoln -- The Woman-Haters (wmnhr10.txt)
Jack London -- The Son of the Wolf (snwlf10.txt)
George MacDonald -- Sir Gibbie (sirgb10.txt)
Mackail -- Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology (7efgm10.txt without accents, 8efgm10.txt with accents)
Alice Freeman Palmer -- Why Go To College (y2clg10.txt)
Mary Roberts Rinehart -- The After House (ftrhs10.txt)
Booker T. Washington -- Up from Slavery (slvry10.txt)
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