Blog: thelongtail.com

Scarcity Abundance

Scarcity Abundance

Scarcity Abundance

Scarcity Abundance

Scarcity

Abundance

The Long Tail of Media

NYT

CNN

WashPost

AP

BBC

SF Chron

Guardian

YomiuriWired

Boston GlobeTimes UK

ForbesTime

Fox NewsBiz Week

PBSNPRMNSBCMTVCBS

NewsCBS

NewsCNN

MoneyTelegrap

hCBC.caSydney

Morning Herald

SJ Merc Chic TribReutersIHTWSJEconomist

FTESPNPost-

GazettePR

Newswire

BUSINESS MODEL

ROI Memo We’ll figure it out

Scarcity Abundance

RULES

“Everything is forbidden unless it is permitted”

“Everything is permitted unless it is forbidden”

Scarcity Abundance

SOCIAL MODEL

Paternalism (“we know what’s best”)

Egalitarianism (“you know what’s best”)

Scarcity Abundance

DECISION PROCESS

Top-down Bottoms-up

Scarcity Abundance

MANAGEMENT STYLE

Command and Control

Out of Control

Scarcity Abundance

Two steps of abundance

• 1990: Explosion of variety of products.

• Now: Explosion of information about products.

You need both.

04/02/10

04/02/10

Key messages

The laws around things change when they become digital

Filter on the way out, not the way in Categorization is doomed Bottom up is the only way to cope

04/02/10

Information & the physical

“In a physical store, ease of access to information can be measured with a pedometer”

Cf.

04/02/10

Things we take for granted

In physical space, some things are nearer than others

Physical objects can only be in one place at one time

Physical space is shared Human physical abilities are limited Organization needs to be orderly and neat

04/02/10

The music industry analogy

04/02/10

The music industry analogy

"For decades we've been buying albums. We thought it was for artistic reasons, but it was really because the economics of the physical world required it: Bundling songs into long-playing albums lowered the production, marketing, and distribution costs ... As soon as music went digital, we learned that the natural unit of music is the track.

What does the record company do? Market Find/Filter Produce physical product Handle logistics required for physical product

04/02/10

And when it goes digital?

Users handle logisticsUsers shareArtists produce cheaplyArtists sell directlySocial services provide

filter functionConc: why do we need

a record industry?

04/02/10

The importance of categories

In the physical world categories matter“We invest so much time in making sure our

world isn’t miscellaneous in part because disorder is inefficient”

“We’ve been raised as experts at keeping our physical environment well ordered, but our homespun ways of maintaining order are going to break”

Scale changes thingsConclusion: “The solution to the overabundance

of information is more information”

04/02/10

Things in multiple places

1st gen – we mapped physical, we put files in folders

2nd gen – we use multiple terms to describe files and search

The same thing can be in several places at once

Libraries – books can only be in one category, because they’re physical

04/02/10

The order of order

1st order – need to organise the objects themselves

2nd order – physical objects separate info from actual object, e.g. catalog

3rd order – digital, content and its info

“We have entire industries built on the fact that the paper order severely limits how things can be organised. Museums, educational curricula, newspapers, the travel industry, and television schedules are all based on the assumption that in the 2nd order world we need experts to go through information, ideas, and knowledge and put them neatly away”

04/02/10

Amazon vs. Libraries

The absurdity of the Dewey system

There is no perfect classification

Physical limitationsHave to learn a system

A whole range of metrics and pathsThere is your classification

No limitationsThe system learns about you

04/02/10

New classification

“Classification is a power struggle – it is political – because the first two orders of order require that there be a winner”

Tagging – use any terms that are useful to you

Folksonomies – bottom up taxonomy

Data mining – we find relationships between item

04/02/10

Four new strategies

1. Filter on the way out, not the way in2. Put each leaf on as many branches as possible3. Everything is metadata and everything can be

a label4. Give up control