COLLABORATIVE CREATIVITY

Worthwhile reading for those who seek insight into the big trends that will shape the world of media, communications and audience behavior. No surprises here but nevertheless a really useful concise roundup of the big changes in consumer electronics, ubiquitous web access, media consumption and participation. There has been a flurry of news since the big CES show, but most of it consists of snippets and fragments. Ben has a knack for surveying lots of little evolutionary steps and distilling them into a recognizable pattern. http://mashable.com/2010/01/24/internet-of-tomorrow-column/

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The use of the Internet to tell stories pre-dates the World Wide Web, but most major publishing houses have been slow to grasp the power of collaborative creativity. Now Harper Collins launches Inkpop.com, a well-executed online storytelling tool for teenagers. Post your original story, chapter by chapter, get feedback from readers, make edits and revisions in public. Readers can participate by making lists of favorites and by promoting the works that they favor. It’s worth paying attention to Inkpop. I have no doubt that the publisher will find talented writers who assemble their very own online audience of fans and convert them into book readers.

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On Friday, Kara Swisher of AllThingsDigital hosted a panel discussion about Social Media at the Sundance Film Festival. I was excited to join the discussion with smart people from MySpace, Facebook, Google, Participant. It was especially cool to meet filmmaker Ondi Timoner, the two-time winner of the the Sundance Grand Jury award. She added a very pragmatic perspective. It was a lively discussion that covered the evolving role of the audience in storytelling, the economics of online media versus traditional media, the part played by big distribution sites like YouTube, FB and MySpace, and many ways filmmakers can connect directly with their audiences. Here’s the interview that Kara did with Jason Hirschhorn, David Eun, me and her mom (no kidding!): http://bit.ly/6xIvNr

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A worthy missive, considering the massive cultural, economic and political shifts that are taking place around the world now. I found the comment from one reader apt: “I know that all you said is true. Why do I feel so alone in this knowledge, though?” As William Gibson said, the future is already here, it just isn’t even distributed. http://www.evolutionshift.com/blog/2010/01/01/the-transformation-decade/

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At a time when Hollywood is focused on big budget blockbusters, it’s nice to see that there’s an alternative. Examples of crowdsourced creativity. http://www.geniusrocket.com/info/case_studies/

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This list is useful. Like it or not, these are the tech trends with the most momentum as we move into 2010. http://ow.ly/XexP

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Why doesn’t Twitter grow? Mashable’s Ben Parr provides stats and analysis on the flatlining of Twitter usage. http://bit.ly/6YpwMI

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Within the first few hours of arriving at CES, I encountered three different manufacturers who made unsolicited offers to build a device for me or my company. Or any company I could recommend.

What kind of device? Apparently, it doesn’t matter. “You tell us the specifications,” said the representative of one Chinese ODM, “And we will build exactly what you want in the quantity that you specify. No upfront investment, no inventory risk.” Does that sound like a deal that’s too good to be true? It probably is.

But that won’t stop some big media companies from taking the bait. Brace yourselves for a flood of bespoke gizmos sporting major media brands. Innovation or desperation? Soon you’ll see content companies hawking branded hardware, aided and abetted by device manufacturers who face certain death by commodization.

The best illustration of this fad is the proliferation of e-book readers, widely noted in the blogosphere. The components for these devices are almost all identical, so the ODMs are eager to find partners who can help them differentiate.

When the cost of manufacturing is so low, you might expect to see some radical experimentation with form factor. That can lead to good things. Check this out: http://bit.ly/7joa3n Buried in the middle of this video from New York Times is a glimpse of the coolest device that I saw at CES: Lenovo’s new dual screen netbook. When you don’t need the keypad, you can pop the screen out for a small portable tablet. Finally.

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