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What's
the difference between a user contributed online
encyclopedia and a user-generated, moderated, online news site? Ask Wikipedia,
the user-contributed online encyclopedia, which recently completed 6 years.
Not
unknown for breaking news, Wikipedia did just it once again recently. This happened
on Feb. 8, 2007 - within minutes of the demise of model Anna Nicole Smith. Here's
a quick analysis of the almost informal modus operandi. Could this possibly be
one future route of news organisations?
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Typical
Modus Operandi of Wikipedia
On
the day Smith was hospitalized, there was an forewarning on Wiki Defcom*
urging members to keep an eye on her Wiki page. This ensured that a number of
editors were engaged in trying to fix & protect the page !
After
the first user added a post of the event (Anna Nicole Smith's death), a second
user added the recent death template (at the top) to let readers know of the situation.
And so on.
Soon, a message was seen
on the site, warning users of vandalism & scurrilous commentary. What
went behind the scenes, was as follows: As Wikipedia editors were routinely
editing the text, checking for errors, adding information, some anti-social users
vandalized
the post. Wikipedia editors responded
swiftly by undoing these edits and even banning these users. (For good measure,
only those who had registered at least 4 days ago were permitted to edit.)
In
this manner, the page dedicated to the late Anna Nicole Smith was (inadvertently?)
converted into a veritable breaking news flash, complete with obituary-like links! *
Wiki
Defcom is a "collective"
which Wiki editors check for alerts, when a major vandalism assault is underway
on a Wiki post.
| | Another
One Bites The Dust
After over a year of negotiations with Hollywood, one
of the biggest names in piracy is going "legitimate".
BitTorrent
is the latest to (finally?) launch its digital content store for movies, TV programs
& games . So what's new? Nothing, except that BitTorrent created a P2P protocol
(called BitTorrent), used by millions around the world to copy digital files -
mainly pirated - over the Internet.
In a now-familiar scenario, BitTorrent
(like
its more famous predecessor Napster) declared its intention of going legal
almost a year ago. And has finally launched its online store in partnership with
studios like Fox, Lionsgate, Paramount, MGM & MTV. Along with a number of independent
producers & distributors.
While BitTorrent may be one more online store
in a crowded market*, this development certainly confirms of that we're in the
age of online video.
* Dominated by giants like Apple, Microsoft,
Amazon.com & recently, the world's largest retailer Wal-Mart.
Liberty,
Equality & Free TelephonyMeanwhile,
Nokia is rapidly working on adapting its models to VoIP. As per reports, Nokia
is not far away from offering cellphones
models which will work smoothly with any VoIP application like Skype or
GoogleTalk. Ditto, for email services with any push-mail server.
This
may signal the first step towards "ISPization" of mobile operators -
because
this effectively means that subscribers will pay a flat rate for Web access -
for any service including voice calls.
Now
it just remains to be seen how long the cellphone operators continue to block
VoIP !
History
Repeats Itself ?
It happened in the past with Event
Management. Around a decade ago, traditional "full-service" agencies ignored
their clients' needs for managing events, perhaps because the requirements were
small, even miniscule. With the growing importance of event management, marketers
soon started looking at small creatve companies for strategy & creativity
in addition to event management. Today, event management agencies are rocking.
And advertising has split vertically into creative & media. So much so that "full
service" agencies are acquiring or even setting up event management divisions
!
Now history has repeated itself on the online front. Not being known
for their technology skills, traditional agencies today are being dumped for their
weaknesses in the Web & digital technologies. And with the importance of online
advertising strategy burgeoning, it is a matter of time before marketers turn
to digital shops for their strategy & other agency-related work.
A case
of history repeating itself? |
