ClikServ

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  Raj 4:39 pm on March 2, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

  Driving Innovation 

  Innovating can range from dreamy ideating to a process of market-research based needs fulfillment. We were faced with these two stark choices, each with its own limitation, during the process of designing the ClikServ system.

  Dreaming up ideas to serve a market assumes a keen understanding of the markplace ecosystem. That is not easy. One needs an initial understanding, deep contacts and lots of digging. Researching a market that is large and varied is itself very daunting. What is the right persona to base it upon? Who can provide the right feedback? How do we validate the feedback? Is our customer the publisher or the reader?

  At ClikServ, we rejected the first approach and postponed the latter in favor of a relatively new idea. First we identified that our success can only arise from adoption by readers. If the readers like it, the publishers will follow. So went our thinking.

  While looking for a method of defining features and ideas to serve content readers, I came across Luke Hohmann’s Innovation Games methodology and book.

  Innovation Games methodology allowed us to engage with readers (customers) in a fun way. We played “Prune the Tree” game with a group of 35 readers. We took liberties with the prescribed game and changed it to “Build the Tree” where

  1. Roots were the ClikServ infrastructure required
  2. Trunk was the ClikServ platform
  3. Major branches were the offering features, and
  4. Minor branches were the future of ClikServ offering

  

  ClikServ Tree Doodle

  The results of the game were amazing. Folks were given 20 minutes to play, but the game went on for more than an hour with strong participation. Many wondeful ideas came up, many of which we were able to include in our future roadmap. More on that in a later post.

  The biggest lessons learnt were

  1. Staff your Innovation Game fully. Learning from the game is seriously hampered without at least 4 individuals, including 1 presenter, 2 observers, 1-2 bad wedding photographer.
  2. Make sufficient time for the game. The game takes an energy of its own and should not be curtailed artificially. Neither should one provide too much time that folks start leaving.
  3. Allocate sufficient time before the game for prep, and after the game for a very detailed review.

  Please contact us if you feel you can benefit from content monetization, or would like to help us help publishers and readers.

   

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  Raj 12:05 am on February 9, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: entrepreneurship barnbuilders barnbuildr techranch recruit recruitment   

  Barn Builders 

  God bless the folks who came up with the idea of Barn Builders group in Austin.

  The core idea is borrowed from our agrarian past, where when one farmer decided to build his farm, the neighbors came together to help him build.  He in turn paid back in kind, by helping his helpers when they needed such help.  The official explanation is

  What BarnBuildr Is

  BarnBuildr is a community marketplace that revolutionizes the way entrepreneurs launch companies by connecting people to projects, through the exchange of services, social capital, and other non-monetary currencies.  To get involved yourself, visit our online list and introduce yourself!

  Fast forward to late 2009. When we found the list, we took advantage of it.  We have recruited our experienced execs, located an accounting outsourcing vendor, a website designer and developer, and business partners through the list.

  Social lists have existed for a long time.  What is unique about this list?  Go figure.

  As the BarnBuildr.com website states it … What are you looking to begin in 2010? (More …)

   
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  Debrah 1:36 pm on July 7, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

  2 Wolves & a Journalist go to Lunch 

  “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.”   Though often incorrectly attributed to Benjamin Franklin, James Bovard may be the source of this quote.

  
  

  Citizen reported news may be great for breaking news and editorial input but news stories and investigative reports need to have a professional journalistic basis that is undeniably trustworthy and not impacted by business drives or political ambition. (More …)

   
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  Debrah 6:28 am on June 18, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

  Afghanistan or Iran? 

  What’s a world to do with fewer international correspondents to cover world events?

  Iran’s election is consuming US news stories but with fewer on location journalist many news organization are relying on the 140 characters they find on Twitter and video on UTube for real time information. Fewer professional reporters are being sent on location and fewer news organizations have the funding available to support correspondent’s work. Now more than ever hard decisions are being made about which events to cover and when to stay home.

  (More …)

   
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  Debrah 3:27 am on June 16, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

  L3C? 

  The latest move to shore up journalism was announced this past weekend at the Investigative Reporters and Editors’ awards luncheon in Baltimore.? Beginning in July the Associated Press will initiate a six month pilot project that distributes articles from four nonprofit investigative journalism organizations to its 1,500 member newspapers.? AP also provides news to radio and TV stations. The four organizations are: the Center for Investigative Reporting, the Center for Public Integrity, Investigative Reporting Workshop and ProPublica.

  (More …)

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    Debrah 6:47 am on June 18, 2009 Permalink

    Mike,
    Thanks for your comments. We certainly appreciate your feedback.
    I hope you’ll check back for our updates!
    Debrah

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  Debrah 3:39 pm on June 12, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

  The Frenemy 

  API started it. No, Google started it or at least plays a leading role compromising the newspaper subscription business. API called it, accurately the role of a “frenemy”. John Koblin of The New York Observer reported that Bill Keller, New York Times Executive Editor used the term to describe the problem when he said,”Google is one of those companies that we generally refer to as a frenemy.” He actually went on to say that “on balance the traffic they receive from Google is beneficial and helps sustain their advertising business.”  Ah but that’s only one part of their business model.

  (More …)

   
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  Debrah 11:15 pm on June 9, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

  Economic Solution – Anyone? 

  The correlating challenges faced by the music industry and newspapers are incredibly similar – neither are new and both have been a looming problem.?The suggested economic response models have been similar as well.?The Business Week story?The Music Industry?s New Internet Problem?by?Douglas MacMillan?sums it up well while his video tells the story.?MacMillian’s report?demonstrates that pay walls and micro payments being suggested by?Gordon Crovitz,?Steve Brill?and?Leo Hindery, Jr.?as they launch the e-commerce,?Journalism Online, LLC,?may not be the complete answer to the problems newspapers and other media are currently facing. The solution is still elusive and a true economic model that will satisfactorily meet the need of ?reporters, song writers and their newspapers or distributors to receive compensation for their work seems yet to be developed.?

  Football » Blog Archive » Ice Cube Tray Leo Hindery Jr Classic Monsters, and Newsboy are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Newsboy 5:07 pm on June 12, 2009 Permalink

    Hi Jenny

    Thanks for your comments. We appreciate your feedback. Please check back with our blog
    and keep providing feedback.

    Thanks.

    Raj
    raj@saveournewspaper.com

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  Raj 8:05 pm on June 9, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

  Why is Clay Shirky wrong? 

  In his blog, Prof. Shirky claims that micropayments would not work for newspapers, similar to the iTunes-music model, because

  1. You listen to music multiple times, but read newspaper only once, and hence are not likely to pay for it.

  • Whether people would pay depends on perceived value and convenience, not solely on repeated use.? What about that prom dress that would be worn only once?? What about the fashion accessory that would lose its luster after once use?? What about that vacation that you’d go to only once?
  • Mike Masnick’s blog also debunks Shirky’s claims, stating that Shirky is retrospective about business models … what would work and what wouldn’t.   Innovation is constantly swimming against a stream of skepticism.
  • Prof. Shirky suffers from a classic fallacy, that my needs are the most representative of the market.? Whereas, the market is a heterogeneous mass of needs and preferences that does not follow a piper.

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    Clay Shirky 5:07 pm on June 26, 2009 Permalink

    Don’t be fooled by the eMusic examples. The vast majority of popular music is held by 4 organizations that will not license it to eMusic et al. So long as that situation obtains, past performance *is* predictive of the future.

    And you’re onto something with the PBS/NPR model, where 10% of the listeners pay, and it supports free access for everyone. This is logic that uses the network for what it does well, and is, in economic terms, the antithesis of the MP model.

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    Raj 6:36 am on July 1, 2009 Permalink

    When you call the NPR model an antithesis of the micropayments model, I understand the following. You are saying that micropayments can only work if there is a large majority of the people agreeing to make those small payments.

    That is where I respectfully disagree. The MP model that would work is one where a small percentage of readers (say 10%) agree to make a small payment for specific content. Compare the 10% yield to the current CPM rates of online advertising and you’d probably say that this will work. (I’m going to put this in a future blog with numbers for 3 types of online publishers).

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  Raj 9:31 am on June 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: newspaper micropayment   

  Is micropayments a viable solution? 

  There have been dozens, if not more, micropayments services that have attempted to make a go of it.? Each failed for one reason or the other (another blog coming up on that next).

  For example, we’ve have many services, most of which have bitten the dust, e.g. Flooz, Beenz, Cybercash, Bitpass, FirstVirtual, Cybercoin, Millicent, Digicash, Internet Dollar, Pay2See, Peppercoin, B-Token, and Tipjoy.

  Now, we have other forms of virtual currency hitting the market that may also address this problem.? Foremost among these new ones coming are Facebook Currency, Google Checkout, Paypal Micropay, TwitPay, and more …

  YAY’s

  Among the supporters of the idea, there are the old and the well known.?? According to Walter Isaacson’s article in Time magazine, micropayments are the best way to save our papers.? He says that ad funded news media is “self-defeating, because eventually you will weaken your bond with your readers if you do not feel directly dependent on them for your revenue”.? According to him this is an old idea whose time has come now.

  The biggest vote for micropayments, seems to be the Wall Street Journal experiment with the micropayments model starting later this year, as per Financial Times article.

  NAY’s

  According to Clay Shirky’s blog, micropayments fail “because the trend towards freely offered content is an epochal change, to which micropayments are a pointless response”.? He says we have the problems of mental transaction costs and that of substitutability, where a reader will find a free substitute even for a small benefit.

  (More …)