Tonight, instead of our usual potluck dinner social session, the #techgirlsdinnerclub hit the city streets for a talk on Publishing in the Digital Age hosted by UX Melbourne. The special event was held at Horse Bazaar, a really cool little hole in the wall with great decor and an impressive audio-visual setup catering to, I assume, many various types of arts/music/presentation events. They even had a Tuesday special $10 dumpling deal that included a 10 minute massage (!), and though their snack menu was tempting, it was the $6 mulled wine that won me over (a delicious tonsil town xmas party!). 
Rachel Lovinger was the speaker, hailing from New York where she works for Razorfish, a marketing company whose mission intent it to ‘build great brands by creating engaging experiences for consumers’. If you ask me, this intent sounds much like what any marketing company would attempt to achieve for a client, but Razorfish has campaigns with Mercedes Benz, CNN, Microsoft, The New York Times… so they must be doing something right?
Personally, I’m interested in publishing because I believe in this crazy notion that one day we will all be publishing our own content based on our interests, as opposed to content being published for us in this respect. I’m not quite sure how this will come about, but as the ‘times are ever a-changin’ (and fast), it has become one of my goals to inform myself more on the topic.
So here’s what I was able to grasp/jot down:
NIMBLE content (Rachel’s specialty and emphasis) = Content that machines can understand.
Content needs to be free (like a bird, not like beer). ---> (Ha!)
It must travel freely, as in be: socially-enabled, mobile friendly and on-demand.
It must retain context and meaning, as in: content needs to include mark-up language/tags that provides and links to provides meaningful information.
It must be structured, well defined and well described, as in : information separated from presentation and segmented into usable bits.
An important aspect of Nimble content is Linked Data: Data that is related and already created by someone else, that can be mapped to your data.
So… Revenue Models?
- Provide premium services (apps, ‘pro’ accounts).
- Online advertising
- Thematic matching.
Revenue can come from: Customers, partners, advertisers, governments/not-for-profits.
Those working in the age-old publishing industry must look at their roles differently in the new digital age. Content distribution now = Channels, Devices and Platforms.
I found this part especially interesting – Editors now become Curators of content.
- They must compile content from a variety of sources.
- Use archived content, provide context and meaning.
- Manage ad partnerships.
I found all this information to be suitably simple and it provided great food for thought. If you’re more tech savvy, then have a look through this much more advanced slideshow I just came across, which is clearly what Rachel usually presents to IT crowds worldwide!
Also, if you’re interested in this conversation, be sure to check out Rachel’s super-fly web-publication on the topic @ http://nimble.razorfish.com/
--- JGB (www.makingjgb.blogspot.com)
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