Jump Into The Stream

Cheers TechCrunch and Erick Schonfeld for this post on something i'm very passionate about: THE STREAM! Let's go swimming!

Once again, the Internet is shifting before our eyes. Information is increasingly being distributed and presented in real-time streams instead of dedicated Web pages. The shift is palpable, even if it is only in its early stages. Web companies large and small are embracing this stream. It is not just Twitter. It is Facebook and Friendfeed and AOL and Digg and Tweetdeck and Seesmic Desktop and Techmeme and Tweetmeme and Ustream and Qik and Kyte and blogs and Google Reader. The stream is winding its way throughout the Web and organizing it by nowness.

This real-time stream has been building for a while. It began with RSS, but is now so much stronger and swifter, encompassing not just periodic news and musings but constant communication, status updates, instantly shared thoughts, photos, and videos.

What does this mean for how we will come to consume information? John Borthwick from Betaworks has identified the real-time Web as a key investment opportunity (Betaworks portfolio companies include Twitter, bit.ly, Tweetdeck, Chartbeat, and Tumblr). He admits he and other investors are still feeling in the dark, but he describes the shift he is trying to capitalize on this way in a post titled “Distribution . . . now”:

First and foremost what emerges out of this is a new metaphor — think streams vs. pages.

In the initial design of the web reading and writing (editing) were given equal consideration - yet for fifteen years the primary metaphor of the web has been pages and reading. The metaphors we used to circumscribe this possibility set were mostly drawn from books and architecture (pages, browser, sites etc.). Most of these metaphors were static and one way. The steam metaphor is fundamentally different. It’s dynamic, it doesn’t live very well within a page and still very much evolving.

A stream. A real time, flowing, dynamic stream of information — that we as users and participants can dip in and out of and whether we participate in them or simply observe we are a part of this flow.

In a sense, he is trying to rationalize his investment strategy. But if he is correct, the shift from pages to ever-widening eddies of information will have a dramatic downstream impact on many Web businesses, especially media businesses. This rising stream has the potential to fundamentally change the contours of media distribution on the Web. Large destination sites like Yahoo and AOL, already weakened as distribution hubs by search and social networks, now face the prospect of becoming completely bypassed. No wonder AOL is sticking the stream in every part of its service, from its homepage to Bebo to AIM. (Yahoo is grappling with the emergence of the stream as well, but so far still thinks it can hold onto its place as a central traffic and distribution hub).

The stream does not replace Web pages or search, for that matter, but it has the potential to completely transform them. Already, we are seeing Web pages adopt the stream as a new user-interface. Web pages are increasingly being designed as places to present the most relevant streams of information. And with streams of data spreading everywhere, search actually becomes more important than ever as a navigation tool. As Borthwick points out:

Traffic isn’t distributed evenly in this new world. All of a sudden crowds can show up on your site.

Traffic occurs in bursts, depending on what people are paying attention to at that second across a variety of services. Someone might notice an obscure blog post on Twitter, where it starts spreading, then it moves to FriendFeed and Facebook and desktop stream readers such as Tweetdeck or Seesmic desktop and before you know it, a hundred thousand people are reading that article. The stream creates a different form of syndication which cannot be licensed and cannot be controlled.

The problem, more than ever before, becomes one of information overload. How do you keep from drowning in the deluge? Borthwick suggests letting go of teh notion that you can ever master the stream, even just your own personal data stream of friend’s Tweets, updates, blog posts, Flickr photos, YouTube video finds and so on:

This isn’t an inbox we have to empty, or a page we have to get to the bottom of — its a flow of data that we can dip into at will but we can’t attempt to gain an all encompassing view of it.

So jump into the stream and let it carry you away. Or you can stand timidly on the banks until everyone else around you has already taken the plunge.

(Photo credit: Flickr/Justin Lowery)

Social networked, user driven show hits the numbers

Sofia's Diary seems to really be taking off, which just offers more credence to the argument of how powerful good, social content can be. Launched by bebo it's obviously tying in nicely with the overall desire of the site's community, but i i think the brand association from Unilever and C&D just seems tacked on. The concept of creating these types of show is obviously working, but shoudl we be steering our client towards making them, or at least getting more involved than an annoying pre-roll?

LONDON - More than 5m viewers have logged on to social networking site Bebo to view the new interactive online soap opera 'Sofia's Diary' since it launched mid-March. From Brand Republic

The series started with the first episode attracting 305,000 views during the first 24 hours live on Bebo, rising to 1.3m views for the first four days online. Viewing figures consistently rose culminating in almost 2.5m hits for the first week online and 2.6m hits during the second week.

Sofia's Diary' is aimed at teenagers and twenty-somethings. It follows the adventures of 17-year-old Sofia Taylor and her friends as she adjusts to her new life in London.

Unilever's Sure Girl deodorant and Church & Dwight UK's teeth whitening product Pearl Drops Instant White have paid to feature in the series.

Fans are encouraged to interact with the show and contribute to storylines. Each week viewers decide which way Sofia should turn regarding an important decision in her life, with their vote determining the outcome.

Sarah Gavin, Bebo's global communications director, said: "We are absolutely thrilled to reach the five million mark during the all important launch weeks of 'Sofia's Diary'.

"The unique interactive element of the series encourages viewers to return daily to see if their individual vote has changed the next episode's outcome, giving fans a complete 360-degree personal experience."

Each weekday, Sofia and her friends update their video diaries with two- to three-minute instalments, as well as their own Bebo profiles.

Users can stay in touch with Sofia via mobile phone by receiving daily updates from her during the day, which lets them know what's happening in her world. The service is free to all users in the UK regardless of network and can be activated by texting "Sofia" to 60505.