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18 Jan 2008
Thoughts about MicroContent State of Affairs
Lately I have been thinking about writing up a MicroContent State of Affairs. I have the impression that there has not been happening much lately. But that depends at what aspect you look. So I start of with some thoughts.
Theory - I do not see anything happening on the theoretical front of MicroContent. But maybe I am looking at the wrong angle here. I guess that the Semantic Web can (and is) contributing here a lot, but I do not feel that impact.
Type Ranges - I am a proponent of many MicroContent Types. There are already many types available, but there does not seem to much growth. The main types are still the golden triad (audio, image, video). Naturally blogs and micro-blogs are still continuing to get attention, and are still growing.
Other types just have a lot less impact. Where are the other types? Where are the downloadable recipes? I assume that the acceptance of other MicroContent Types depends on the availability of standards and support in services and applications. That is where the portable identity is stalling now (and getting new traction). And Locations (as in KML) are now getting traction. What is happening with bookmarks?
Mashing - The number of mash-ups are still increasing. Have to look a bit more into this. Many mash-ups are based on Google Maps. These are not really MicroContent related mash-ups, but more general Web 2.0 approaches. Many mash-ups are limited to widgets, i.e. filling a web-page. That is all OK, but I would like to see a next step.
Adoption - the more interesting things are now happening around adoption. How much MicroContent is going around? How many people are actually using it? The growth of downloadable audio, video, rss are good indicators here. I have to gather some numbers here.
Usage - the more interesting things are happening around adoption. How are people using all that MicroContent. Twitter is here an interesting subject. The same goes for delicious. Personally I just do not use, but other swear by it. What am I missing? How is podcasting going?, etc, etc.
Devices - how is MicroContent evolving on other (i.e. non-pc) devices. Naturally the iPod, Smart Phones, but also car navigators.
Business - how make people money on MicroContent. YouTube and Flickr come to mind. What are the services? What are the business models?
Enough stuff to do some work on.