After the event, I had the privilege to exchange an email interview with Paul Saffo
, one of the panelists for the New Media @Arts House, and here are some of the replies he gave for my questions!
1. What is the biggest problem that traditional media companies face in a commercial context when it comes to the new media?
Their biggest problem is that they have legacy businesses to manage. It is easy, but unfair to write off traditional media companies (and their executives) as clueless dinosaurs because managing existing operations is always hard, and even harder when a company is faced with fundamental change such as that presented by the new forms of digital media.
Distracted by running the current business leaves very little room for imagining what is next. Shareholders don’t help either — they typically demand that the old business keep making money and also demand that the company do nothing to risk income (and stock price), so even the smartest executive at a traditional media company is in a real bind. And even if they should find time to figure out what the next big idea is, it is unlikely that their company will be willing to what is needed to get the strategy right. For example, they might refuse to invest in such a “small” thing, or perhaps do the opposite, smothering a small effort with too much money.
2. If you are giving a pitch to someone going into Web 2.0 as a new start up, what will be the warnings that you will give to this wo/man?
Know the risks and assume that the company will fail. And assume that coming in second is not good enough. Just ask all the companies who, like YouTube, were doing personal video upload/display. Youtube’s founders got the glory (and money), but everyone suffered because YouTube’s success sucked the oxygen out of the space. So by all means take the risk, but don’t be blind to the implications of the risk you are taking. If you are young, then going for the risky option is probably a good thing, as you have less to lose and even if the company should fail, you will learn much.
3. What do you think are the key advantages of jumping into the business of Web 2.0 rather than the traditional media?
Easy — are you a builder or a maintainer? Do you want to stay home or explore a new frontier? Do you want to tell your grandkids someday that you sat on the sidelines while a whole new industry was invented? Imagine you were in silicon Valley 25 years ago — looking back where would you have rather been? IBM, or Apple? In mainframes or PCs… So, by diving into the new media space you will learn much, help build a new industry, and maybe even do well financially.
4. Despite the Arabic phrase “He who speaks of the future lies, even if it is the truth”, what is your prediction on the state of social relationships in the Internet and how it will evolve?
First of all, what a ridiculous phrase (and I hope the person who uttered it was joking). This is a moment when we all must look into the future, or we will never solve our current problems, much less invent the new ideas/inventions/industries we need in the future of our survival. One should never imagine they know what the future holds, but one must look ahead to identify the range of possibilities — both risks and opportunities– or the result will be disaster. It is like driving a car… as you are driving, you are constantly looking into the future, but if you took the advice implicit in this idiotic saying, then you should simply close your eyes, press harder on the gas pedal, and pray…
Now, about relationships, this could be a very long answer, but the most important thing to keep in mind is that beyond all that is changing, there are underlying principles and desires that will remain constant. We will still want close friends and casual friends, people we can rally count on, and others who fit into one part of our life mosaic, but not others. A good way to make sense of the changes to today is to look closely at earlier media revolutions and the changes caused by the advent of reliable postal service in the late 1700s, by the arrival of the telephone a century ago, and then email two decades ago. Even non-obvious information technologies like typewriters and file cabinets are instructive — before these two technologies, office work was done exclusively by men, but when typewriters arrived, women came into the office workforce. And proof of just how big the shift was was demonstrated by the technology that disappeared — spittoons! Before women worked in offices, male workers regularly spit into spittoons!
Now, one small example to think about. This time around, the area I am most intrigued by is what effect does automating relationship/network tracking have on the outer ring of friends and social relationships? With a computer whispering in my ear, reminding me why I know someone lead to a more effective network of casual friends?
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