Content Shifting Presentation

I'd like to thank everyone who contributed thoughts and ideas for the Content Shifting talk I am giving tomorrow at the Read Write Web 2Way Summit.

I spent some time yesterday and today putting together a draft presentation in Prezi. I've embedded it below. I know that the talking points are not included, but if you all have any suggestions on how to improve the talk, I'm all ears (in the comments please).

 

 

#Web/Tech

Comments (Archived):

  1. Charlie Crystle

    Interesting. why is the phone or tablet not a “discovery-oriented device?(btw–I love prezi, especially the ease of integrating web-based content)

    1. Matt A. Myers

      I think he was just trying to give some different examples from different segments of a spectrum..

      1. FAKE GRIMLOCK

        WORK COMPUTER = DISCOVER, SAVE FOR HOME OR LATER WHEN BOSS NOT LOOKINGMOBILE = READ SMALL THINGS, SAVE BIGGER THINGS FOR DEVICE THAT NOT SUCK FOR CONSUME THEMIPAD = CONSUME STUFF FROM EARLIER ON COUCH OR IN BEDHOME COMPUTER = DISCOVER OR CONSUME WHILE PRETEND TO DO SERIOUS WORK

    2. Dan Deppen

      I think its because its more difficult to search for things, at least on a phone. So its nice if you can do your searching on a laptop or desktop and then consume the information on your mobile devices later.

      1. fredwilson

        that is my use case

        1. Bala

          Fred, isn’t this content shifting thingy driven by what we are doing while we consume the content? I would even come up with use cases for switching the content… I spend a lot of time running would love to take my twitter timeline on the run, I.e text converted to speech and if I could interact with it while I am running it would be even cooler. I love audio books for that reason… I think there is an inherent link between text and speech… Clara (clarahq.com) does the most fantastic visualization of text, that is why Sony and CCP picked our services, our future platform will allow this fusion of text to speech and vice versa, think of a being able tweet with your voice? +1 for Content Switching

          1. Robert Thuston

            You make an important point.  Many of us wish we could consume content more regularly, and are looking for additional ways to conveniently cover more material in an effort to find relevant content.  Text to audio is an opportunity to increase times when we can consume/discover.I really like the idea of an intelligent text to voice that could break down a twitter feed even as you mention.  And with voice activation you could tweet/retweet, go into an article, and have the article read, go back out to twitter feed, etc.  This would allow users to get an extra hour of content consumption a day.Most of us spend fairly large amounts of time in cars, exercising, eating, etc. and all these could be an opportunity for additional discovery.Good point.

    3. Fernando Gutierrez

      Yeah, for me usually the phone is discovery and then I consume somewhere else. Maybe he says so because many of the content is discovered during your working hours, when you don’t have time to enjoy it, so you send it to the devicesyou’ll have with you after work.

    4. fredwilson

      they are discovery devices, for surebut for now anyway, i discover more on other devices and consume more on mobile devices

  2. Matt A. Myers

    Could understand it perfectly without the talking points.It’s definitely what’s happening. It’s apart of decentralization. 🙂

  3. gwarrier

    Great thoughts on content shifting. Not sure if this was included in the comments on your original post on examples of content shifting; but I thought something really intriguing was the Optimum Link feature that Cablevision recently introduced to the subscribers. It is $4.95/month and allows you to play videos, picture or any content from your PC onto the big screen.I though this is really interesting. Old Media/Cable seems to be really trying to re-invent themselves and give any cord-cutters second thoughts. Another example is the Cablevision app for the iPad which allows you to stream your TV programming onto the iPad. I for one, was really contemplating of getting a Boxee Box and going cordless. It was great because of the all the content avaliable as well the ability to play my content from the PC.The one concerning thing was that I might not be able to access all of the shows on Cable that I watch on Boxee; but the ability to move content from my PC was the deciding factor. Now my cable company is also offering this ability to my content around…(sure will have to asses the cost/benefit factor or $4.95/month vs the $199 for the Boxee box). It is amazing how competition from the new media services is forcing traditional (monopolistic) providers to change the way they operate – Either way it is us the consumers who are the winners…!

    1. fredwilson

      innovative new competitors force the old guard to change. that’s how it should be

    2. TuneyFish

      Mobile is the cord cutting of computers, especially for those who spend hours everyday working on one. I have a 11″ MacBook air sitting in arms reach but I’d rather type .2 words/min on my phone because it’s less of a commitment.The only thing I want to use the MBA for is coding and blogging.

  4. Fernando Gutierrez

    That’s a great presentation. I understood it quite well without the talking points. It could be because I’ve already read about this issue here and recently, but I sent it to a friend and he really got it.The only place in which I got a bit lost was when you put the graphics about the times of the day when people read in the computer and in the ipad. I don’t get the third graphic, but I guess that with you there it’ll be easy.Content shifting is best explained with examples, so I think you could not do much better.

    1. fredwilson

      that example was sent to me by readitlater. it is real data from their users. the last slide is what has happened to their users who read on their iPads

  5. Steve Hallock

    Not sure I have anything to add to your talk, but the presentation without talk made me think.  You show a lot of different services.  I wonder if the eventual trend will be towards many services or whether it will start to turn into winner take all markets.  Once content becomes more shiftable, which I think we all know it will in the long run, it could go either way – easier to bring to whichever service you want, or easier to get it on the one service we all agree is probably best.Also the microchunk part could be an entire post/talk in itself. No one wants packages of content anymore – I want a very specific thing in a specific place/time on a specific device.Good luck on the talk.  I’m going to the Silicon Alley Talent Fair on Thurs that you recommended, will you be there?

    1. fredwilson

      i plan to visit the talent fair too. just not sure when yet.i think (and hope) we will see at least three or four different services of scale for every media type. that is best for innovation and best for the content creators

  6. aweissman

    That Thom Yorke cover of Neil Young via Tumblr and ExFm is pretty sweet;-)

    1. fredwilson

      I might have to play it live during the prezi

      1. markslater

        Careful – prezi doesnt allow audio overlay – unless embedded within a youtube vid or something. Its a shame actually – they add this feature and they become the knock out “how it works”self service tool on the web IMO. Being able to add narration and music to a prezi would be awsome.

  7. Nora Geiss

    Very interesting. Another aspect of this I find relevant is the fact of content shifters themselves becoming social feeds, in the way that, for example, Longreads approaches sharing of content that others “save for later” through their site and their Twitter account. One of the hurdles to content today being discovery, it’s a way of surfacing potential items of interest to the user (much like Amazon wish lists or “people who bought this also bought,” or the iTunes shared playlist idea – but focused around shifted content).This aspect being the one that drives awareness through sharing = good amplifier for monetization.Thanks for sharing! Have a good presentation.

    1. Nora Geiss

      (and of all of Boxees feeds, that one of them doesn’t reveal trending or popular content from the bookmarklet is kind of interesting – not a Boxee user so perhaps that happens elsewhere, but I could see that having a useful application, especially if it could then be fed back through other places users frequent to find content…This is one of the failings of Netflix, in my opinion – not enough ways for me to find content I might like. Their reco engine is very one-dimensional and I find myself shifting through the list forEVER before I find something I want to watch. A problem that shouldn’t be so difficult to fix.)

    2. fredwilson

      Right. Shifting is both a bookmark and a signal. Great point

    3. rebeccastees

      I bookmark or save to read later on stumbleupon.

  8. leigh

    Can’t tell if you talk about the need to focus on seamless customer experience between devices and interfaces – it’s what Apple does so well and why the switching costs are so high for those that commit to particular platforms

    1. fredwilson

      Seamless is good and apple nails thatBut open and universal switching is even better and apple constantly failsin that regardI mean its awesome that twitter is tightly built into ios5 but I’ve gotliterally dozens of services tightly integrated into my Android

      1. leigh

        and yet imagine if there was a world where we could have both.  🙂

      2. FAKE GRIMLOCK

        GRIMLOCK HAVE LOTS OF THINGS TIGHTLY INTEGRATED INTO IPHONE. MAYBE FRED JUST USE IPHONE WRONG?

        1. fredwilson

          no. i just refuse to use an iphone

          1. FAKE GRIMLOCK

            FOLLOWING TWO STATEMENTS VERY DIFFERENT, ONE TRUE, OTHER ONE NOT:”I don’t use an iPhone for X because I don’t like using iPhones”VS.”An iPhone cannot do X”IT IMPORTANT TO SAY TRUTH, NOT USE POSITION FOR PUSH PERSONAL BIAS.

          2. fredwilson

            a blog is a web site where you push your person bias

          3. FAKE GRIMLOCK

            STATE SOMETHING TO BE TRUE THAT IS NOT TRUE IS NOT OPINION.ME, GRIMLOCK, THINK FRED KNOW THIS.

          4. TuneyFish

            Do people get you and cookie monster mixed up on the phone?

          5. Bala

            Why do you refuse to use an iPhone? Just curious

          6. fredwilson

            reason number 1 – no way to swap out a battery. this is non negotiable withmereason number 2 – some apps i want don’t run on itreason number 3 – it’s not open. the whole things they did with twitter isavailable to any developer on android

  9. James Joaquin

    Fred, I really liked the draft. Two trends I suggest you mention:1) the lack of flash in iOS causes problems for consumers, and drives some of the shifting behavior you describe. 2) content publishers need new tools for dynamically reformatting and transcoding their content so it displays properly on all these screens / modalities.Case in point, I saw your tweet on my iPad, clicked on the shortened link, saw the post in the embedded Twitter browser but could not view the Prezi (no flash), added the URL to my ReadItLater account, then viewed it on my laptop via the ReadItLater Firefox extension!

    1. fredwilson

      Hi james. Nice to hear from you. I had the exact experience when I loadedthe post on my ipad. Apple is not particularly committed to truly open andubiquitous content shifting

      1. FAKE GRIMLOCK

        THAT LIKE SAY “GUY AT FLOUR MILL REFUSE TO GRIND THIS GRAIN US BUY AT SLAVE PLANTATION. HIM AGAINST FREEDOM.”FLASH NOT EXACTLY GATEWAY TO SHANGRI-LA OF OPENNESS. 

        1. fredwilson

          true. and i expect it may be history within a few years. but until that is the case, i want to be able to consume content published in flash

          1. TuneyFish

            Pusher, Heroku, and make something like : http://futu-stickies.heroku…Codr.cc – these are the types of apps that will make years of progress happen in days.Content collaboration in realtime = future.

    2. ShanaC

      Actually, the flash thing is sort of ironic, especially when you see that around 40% of his “mobile visits” are not phone devices

  10. Druce

    cool, just read…after seeing in my cached RSS feed on the subway, where I starred it and read when I got back to my computer

    1. fredwilson

      Very meta druce

      1. Druce

        Come to think of it, I rarely see something in Twitter or Facebook and mark it to follow up later, because that workflow is not well supported. Maybe that’s why you say the mobile device is less of a discovery tool. For me it works both ways, Instapaper stuff to read offline, read cached feeds to mark stuff to follow up later. If the tools support it, works great.[apologies for dupe, sent previous reply to wrong thread]

        1. FAKE GRIMLOCK

          FACEBOOK FEW ITERATIONS OF LIKE BUTTON AWAY FROM BE PERFECT BOOKMARK FOR LATER TOOL.SAME FOR TWITTER WITH FAVORITE BUTTON, AND METADATA STUFF THEM INCLUDE WHILE AGO (AND DO NOTHING WITH).US SEE IF THEY PURSUE THAT OR NOT.

          1. Druce

            Great idea if it works. Not finding how to filter just my favorites in a cluttered timeline though. (either on the web or tweetdeck). Semantically there should be a difference between something that’s a favorite and I think should be a Top Tweet, and something that I just want to read later because I don’t have time right now. 

          2. FAKE GRIMLOCK

            WHEN TWITTER MOVE HASHTAGS OUT OF 140 CHARACTER COUNT, THEN IT STOP BEING TOY AND RULE WORLD.

  11. ShanaC

    This is a personal thing: The animation in prezi has always weirded me out since the first time I saw it, because I keep thinking about the direction content is supposed to come at me, and it never does.Why adkeeper?  That technology, as far as I know, hasn’t been tested in the field yet.  While it is hugely interesting conceptually, brand dollars are now switching massively into display (because magazine and tv are going away).  I’m not totally sure how adkeeper would help – would it be better for a slightly more DR ad set?  I keep thinking food coupons or something with adkeeper….(though in theory you could try for a viral spike in ads, or try to create ads that fulfil the same need as my preteen self with absolut ads in magazines…but would RTB prevent parts of that?)

  12. paramendra

    I am so glad you picked Prezi. 

  13. paramendra

    The number one thing I note is your well known bias (as well as mine — I am a long declared browser bigot) for the browser as right for all screen sizes comes through. I have a feeling you are going to make this point even more forcefully down the line. Smartphone native apps are until we can get wireless broadband as ubiquitous as air. Then it’s the browser all the way. Apple, for all its glamorous size, could not resist. 

    1. fredwilson

      that’s why i used prezi

      1. paramendra

        Browser bigotry all the way.

  14. William Mougayar

    I think there are 3 types of content we’re talking about: 1) sounds/music, 2) videos/films, 3) docs/text. It seems that each one of these types has its own ecosystem and solutions. Do you think it will continue to be separated, or is there a breakthrough opportunity in meshing the three types? So, it’s not just that content of the same type is shifting (that’s easy), but if sound, video and text can shift inside one another, that would be interesting. 

    1. awaldstein

      True William.But it seems that video, especially TV is the one that is holding this back through network copyright, the distribution = content paradigm.I think that this is the one that the mass market feels and is most aggravated by.

      1. William Mougayar

        Yes, copyrights and global access rights are a ball of wax, but I was thinking first of user-generated video as a initial segment for allowing “content shifting”.

    2. fredwilson

      i think we will see different services for different media types. i also think we will see the emergence of new services for text based mediums like magazines and books

      1. William Mougayar

        InterestingRe: new services for magazines and books…any current examples or hints of?

  15. Dan Offner

    Great stuff except where is the Evernote slide.  Can’t work without it these days.  Puts my web content in the cloud, easily organizable, and accessible anywhere, anytime, and on any device.

    1. fredwilson

      i don’t use evernote and i didn’t want to have to learn it for this prezi.i agree that it is a classic case of content shifting

      1. dkural

        That’s what I really like about Evernote: Nothing to learn. It just works. I don’t think I would’ve figured out how to use it otherwise =)

  16. Guillermo Ramos Venturatis.com

    I went to a store and bought an Ipadwhen she asked me to plug in Itunesmy initial content shifted to a baduntil I went back to my cloud free tunescontent shifting…

  17. Liz

    Just two comments:1) You show the dashboard for many of these services and I hope you will identify them in your presentation if the names aren’t apparent. While RWW2-Way will have a tech-oriented audience (I’m assuming), it would be a mistake to assume everyone is familiar with the same set of tools/websites. People use different versions of tools that do similar things and might not recognize some of your examples.2) On a surface level, it seems like there is a conflict between the forecast to a) Free it and b) Monetize it. Perhaps you meant “free” only in a multiplatform-friendly sense. Or maybe you are thinking of monetizing like Facebook (subtle ads) and Twitter (promoted trends) have monetize their services (or selling data on their consumers). But when thinking of consuming content, monetize usually means subscription services and that isn’t free.Looks good though! It gave me a lot of suggestions for sites I want to check out now.

    1. fredwilson

      i mean free in the sense of freeing the contents of the shackles of traditional distribution systems. i’m all for monetizing as the last point shows

  18. FAKE GRIMLOCK

    NOT NEED SHIFT CONTENT.JUST NEED SHARE BOOKMARKS ON DEVICES. BOOKMARK STUFF, LOOK AT LATER.REINVENT WHEEL WITH MORE COMPLICATED WHEEL JUST MAKE EXTRA WHEEL NO ONE WANT.

    1. fredwilson

      i disagree grimlock. maybe with text that works. but certainly not for video and audio

      1. FAKE GRIMLOCK

        IF HAVE GOOD WIFI, WHAT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CLICK LINK IN LIST OF SAVED THINGS IN THING APP, AND CLICK IN LIST OF SAVED THINGS IN BOOKMARK APP?IF NOT HAVE CONNECTION, THEN YOU HAVE GOOD POINT.

        1. fredwilson

          tvs, car dashboards, etc are different than computers

          1. FAKE GRIMLOCK

            THAT DIFFERENCE GET SMALLER EVERY DAY.

          2. fredwilson

            true and that is exactly what this presentation is about

  19. FAKE GRIMLOCK

    CRITIQUE OF PRESENTATION FROM THIS DINO:1. EXPLAIN WHAT THINGS AM. NOT EVERYONE HAVE FRED-KNOWLEDGE OF EACH SERVICE.2. GIVE EVIDENCE FOR CLAIM. CURRENT TREND NOT VALID PREDICTION OF FUTURE TREND.3. PRESENT COUNTER-CLAIM. IT BETTER TO SHOW, DISARM, EVIDENCE AGAINST YOUR IDEA NOW THAN TO IGNORE, LEAVE AS WEAPONS FOR PEOPLE TO TEAR CLAIM TO PIECES LATER.

    1. fredwilson

      the first two i will do with my voicethe third is a great suggestion. thanks

  20. scotlandpaul

    I think there is also a point related to the non logged in users. I loved the idea behind Nutshell mail originally (it hasnt really advanced much) and only consume twitter through it now (so that’s content shifting), but would love the idea that music, friends suggestions and other media can be ‘auto’ content shifted to me in a method I pick, at a time I choose (I get the Nutshell mail at 7pm, which I chose ) . I prioritize content shifting over something that thinks it can learn from my behavior (assumes I cant choose myself), though I use stumbleupon and realize how it improves the web for me.I like being fairly anonymous and content shifting actually helps that, which of course is probably a challenge for the actual core services. I havent posted to twitter for over a year (or logged in), but I read it every day – content shifting allows that. I feel it increases my efficiency (particularly if you follow the 4HWW of only checking email twice a day in batches). So the point for the presentation is that content shifting improves efficiency.

  21. Calvin Chu

    I give Prezi presentations all the time.  This particular presentation seems *very linear* in nature, so it seems like you’re using Prezi mainly as a slide transitions gimmick.  Probably best to stick to Keynote or Powerpoint for this type of presentation.  

    1. fredwilson

      it’s the first time i’ve ever used it. i am sure i’ll get the hang of it eventually. i’m not as good at it as you are

    2. Eric Scherer

      Calvin, do you know where to get good tutorials for prezi? Not the one from the site! 

      1. Calvin Chu

        I’m not aware of any good tutorials for Prezi.  I might at some point do a talk on conducting presentations in Prezi.  To sum it up, Prezi’s tools are primitive by comparison to the more mature presentation software  However, what it IS good at is showing perspective, giving glances of the big picture and doing drill downs, showing an entire landscape and doing an exploration, showing information at odds by skewing the angles.  And because it is best used in presentation of information in a non-linear way, the speaking role is different from a slidedeck style pitch.  In short, the speaker is STILL the center of attention, accentuate the strengths of the presentation software and avoid its weaknesses.  Calvin

  22. jarid

    Is there a good Twitter content shifting app out there? Today, when I’m browsing Twitter on my phone (either through Tweetdeck for Android or m.twitter), and I come across an interesting link, I use the star as my read-it-later app. Not really what it was designed for, but does the job.

    1. TuneyFish

      U should checkout Rockmeit

    2. Donna Brewington White

      @msuster:twitter had an interesting post about this the other day…http://bit.ly/mbrgt6

      1. jarid

        Thanks, hadn’t seen it before. I feel better that I’m not alone…

    3. Dave W Baldwin

      Keep it simple Jarid… just ReTweet it.  Later you can scan your RT’s.And @fredwilson:disqus , as I posted on Mark’s blog, just do a RL feature.  That sticks with my position regarding use of Favorite to mean something truly complimentary related to originality.

  23. sigmaalgebra

    There is the n solution to the n^2 problem, and a special case is the one language solution to the Tower of Babel problem.In particular, for digital media, there’s the sequential byte stream file solution.My view is that the n^2 problem is so big and the n and sequential byte steam file solutions so good that they can’t lose.So, for positive integer n, we have n ‘content displays’. Then we have n(n-1), call it n^2, cases of ‘content shifting’ we have to be able to handle. The n^2 is way TOO much. Bummer.The n solution is to write n ‘conversion means’ to ‘shift’ the content from the n devices to some one standard. That standard is now and can long be just a sequential byte stream file.There’s a reason for such simple standards, the n versus n^2 reason. E.g., in the US electric power is 60 Hz A/C and 115 V. All the power sockets deliver it. All the devices can use it. And any device that wants something else can convert it. So, maybe for n devices we have n conversions: If each of the n devices wanted its own power from its own power socket, then we would need n^2 converters to permit any device to draw power from any socket.The same n versus n^2 economies work for the ‘data type’ of ‘media content’ to be ‘shifted’.For content in a byte stream file, all the file systems can store it in whatever directory (‘folder’) desired. All the backup software can save/restore it. All the Web browsers can up/download it. Same for FTP. Standard SMTP e-mail can send and receive it. Then with various ‘media players’ or Web browsers possibly with various plug-ins, various devices can display it.In particular, for digital media, there are the sequential byte stream files: Create, store, send, receive, display them.

    1. Dave W Baldwin

      Very good Sig… keep the focus long, for that way the obvious can be achieved vs. a lot of quacking about products that make it complicated.

  24. Mark Gavagan

    Fred,My suggestion to improve your talk is to eliminate the Prezi slides altogether. While some presentations require visuals or are greatly enhanced by them because of their nature, there’s nothing on your slides that your listeners need to see or that will truly enhance the experience.Unless truly needed, slides generally serve to put a needless barrier between you and your audience. Master your material (I’m sure that’s not an issue for you) and focus on delivery and connecting with listeners (eye contact, effective pauses, etc.).Steve Jobs is a wonderful exception to my suggestion, but he’s revealing brand new developments and using slides to reinforce a few key ideas as he makes them. He also puts himself directly in front of the audience (no lectern) with the screen well behind him.  Good luck.-Mark GavaganP.S. Thanks for your terrific blog.

  25. Gaurav Agarwal

    Google Reader – Starred Items

  26. Ade

    Kill the ambient noise on your video clips.

    1. fredwilson

      Not sure how to do that

  27. 2joshis

    @fredwilson:disqus How about read it later for things like books, shoes (physical objects). i.e. a look it later based on something like google goggles. take a picture, run image recognition and add it to consume later list.Also for audio point the phone to song coming from car radio and it tells you which song it is (records the songs and sends it to cloud for signature match) and add’s it to you playlist.

  28. research papers

    Great post, I enjoyed ready reading it, Keep posting good stuff like this.

  29. Rayhan Rafiq Omar

    It would be interesting to get the feedback from the audience you presented this to. I find my iPad 2 very frustrating for this very reason. I want to save content and view/read/listen later or share with someone more intuitively.

  30. NICCAI

    Very interested in this presentation Fred – I assume you’ll link to it if/when it is available.  I’ve been ideating around shifting for not just media but also sharing of niche data.  At Move, Inc, our whole world is property data, and the connection between physical viewing and online searching of properties is still very immature.  I like what Boxee and ShowYou are starting to do with video and the watch later concept, but I have yet to adopt them in the same way I have Instapaper.  What makes text so great is your ability to consume it in just about any setting – from meetings to transit to the john.  Audio and video are distinctly harder to shift, and are far more “context sensitive”.  Video to text shifting would be incredible.

  31. benton.yetman

    Nice presentation Fred. One thing i particularly like about Prezi is the ability to share and build on other presentations. I had some fun refining yours visually a bit this afternoon:http://prezi.com/adlkxmksgk

    1. Fernando Gutierrez

      That’s a great refining! very cool use of Prezi.

  32. fredwilson

    there is no browser on a rokuroku is solving a simpler problem