Context is as Important as Content

chillibreeze writer — Preeti Sharma

Five prime driving forces of change:

Volume of Information Flows

According to a UC Berkeley study (2002-03) the telephone and the Internet are dominant components of information flows and the Internet is the fastest growing medium. This study estimated that 17.7 exabytes of new information is communicated through electronic media every year. 1 exabyte is equivalent to 1018 bytes and 5 exabytes is all words ever spoken by human beings.
Also, according to the result of an Internet Survey published by the Business World, Feb 2006 issue the number of web pages indexed by popular search engines has doubled, to about 18 billion during the last year (2005-2006).
Such statistics is a pointer to the fact that the volume of content available through various forms of media is huge. The technology and content companies are now focused on how to improve relevant content retrieval. For example, some intelligent search products ensure search results on a particular topic appear as a cluster or grouped together and others present answers to questions. Specialized search engines like a9, Business.com, mooter.com, jux2.com, soople.com, bloglines.com are now available, for facilitating faster, quicker and more relevant search results

Collaborative content and delivery mechanisms

Mass collaboration is the order of the day. Emails, Skype, file sharing, blogging, wikis and social networking has mobilized collaborative work styles like never before.
Improved digital storage of content and delivery platforms like mobile phones, CD roms, multimedia books and web logs have led to new methods for content creation and delivery.
Reading survives, it is the delivery mechanism for content, which has changed

Accessibility to Information and Communication technologies

The world is networked and integrated like never before.
User friendly and affordable technologies have contributed most significantly to digital content use, delivery and applications.
Accessibility to information is possible through a variety of medium, like the mobile phones, personal computers, web logs, word processors, video editors, browsers, web editors, e-mail, spreadsheets, presentation software, instant messaging, plug-ins for web resources, bulletin boards etc.

Changes in business practices

The Internet is being increasingly used for news, researching, information search and business transactions. For example,

Consumers are spending more time on online content.
Communications sites in the US and are increasingly willing to pay for online content.
Countries and corporations are leveraging on the power of the Internet and other ICTs.
The publishing, media and entertainment industry are focussing on the use of the Internet to reach larger and widespread markets.
Digital asset management is the way media and entertainment companies are adapting to organize content in context .
Magazines like Time Inc are developing as ‘multiplatform media company’ instead of its original focus on ‘magazine publishing’.
Newspapers are not looking at only print edition readership figures but at total readership (print and online), which is high.
According to a recent study by Wharton faculty, newspapers are being challenged by the Internet and need to ‘strengthen their efforts to attract younger readers, make more imaginative use of the Internet, and develop stories, mostly local in nature, that better meet the needs of time-pressed subscribers’.
Another interesting example of re using/ repackaging content is the success of US magazine ‘The Week’. The magazine does not sell any originally sourced content; instead it is selling a summary of weekly events and being able to find buyers for the consolidated information- its key feature.

In this phase of information explosion, the hard lines of distinction between different media types like newspapers, books, journals, television, radio, internet, mobile phones and their roles have blurred. Moreover, online digital content developed by consumers themselves is becoming popular along with commercial copyright content.

Public Policy

Governments all over the world are focusing major public policy initiatives to use the internet and other ICTs for education, grassroot development, accessibility to work opportunities and overall improvement in quality of life. There is focus on e governance, e learning, online training and private public partnership programs for the same. This is directly impacting content delivery modules and types for whole new applications.

Conclusion

There are new opportunities and technologies for digital content creation, storage, retrieval and management.

The focus today is in ensuring content is in context. Due to large volumes of information available, it is critical that users get what is being searched for. Unless the consumer is able to access the right content at the right time, content has no relevance.

—About our writer:

Preeti Sharma is Assistant Coordinator of the e-publishing team of Chillibreeze and assists in research, writing and managerial support.