The Fold: So 20th Century

The fold is dead. Long live the scroll.

Hierarchically defining stories by their street appeal, on a newsstand or in a coinbox, is a tactic we know today as linkbait.

When commercial internet experiments started, their page layouts memorialized the coinbox shaped newshole from what was already a dead medium -- only they didn't know it then.


Back in the late 20th century, with narrow bandwidth and low resolution monitors, that choice almost made sense. But that was a long time ago.
Here in the 21st century, engagement is the goal, and the digital page layout rule is scroll, baby, scroll.

Three digital purveyors --  nytimes.com, cnn.com and foxnews.com -- present their content with differing degrees of density, complexity and reading levels to different audiences, but they share one common approach: their pages send users hierarchically scrolling from big stories/packages/images/movies to lists of headlines and links.

Sandwiches of aluminosilicate glass and stainless steel that fit in our hands are our window to the world now, not a coinbox or a newsstand.  The metaphor of the fold is now as antique as the medium whose metaphor it was. 

If you have more than a screen's worth  of content, show it.

New News vs. Old News -- Trusted Networks

Where do you get your news? Great question, with great answers from the community.

What I loved about magazines and newspapers growing up, and why I was a reporter until the internet was invented, was the thrill of the unexpected. The stories journalists called "didjas"  could be anything amazing: scientists claiming that advanced dinosaurs could be ruling other planets, pictures from space, a cat rescued from a tree.

The multipage full color special sections on moonshots were the most awesome. If the internet was around when the space program was, we could have liveblogged it.

"The Filter Bubble" is the opposite of that; it shows us what we already want to know, not what we don't know, based on our digital trails.

Digital surprise and digital delight happen despite the filter bubble, but you have to defeat the machines to get them. The bloggers, curators and content strategists who filter the filters are our allies. They do what editors used to do, plus links, community and moving images.

The rabbit hole of the internet -- starting here and winding up who knows where -- enables serendipity for all sorts of things, but your digital trail can defeat that unless you don't let it.

If you work at curating the content you consume, and finding trusted networks, you can find amazing things. If you don't, you'll keep seeing the same ads for diapers long after your child is done with them.

There's a hierarchy of news, with slots for things that affect more people and things that affect fewer; within those slots, there are things that are more or less important to you, things that could directly affect you, and things that are just fun. There are vast spaces and opportunities for matching people and interests.

A continuum of news:

1. World War III begins
2. World War III ends
3. Science did something awesome 
4. Science did something awesome that directly affects you or someone you care about
5. Today's winning lottery number in another state
6. Today's winning lottery number in your state
7. An author you follow publishes a new book; a band you like releases a new album.
8. It's your child's birthday

Random example: LOLcats, circa 1960s was news to me when I found it. I have no recollection how I found it, but when you get to where you're going on the intrawebz, there you are.

Design School

A group of design students toured a shop I'm working with, so I demonstrated UX by doing a quick survey.

• Interested in print design? All but one.
• Interested in digital design? Just a few.

It's the opposite of what I would have predicted.

Are they in love with print because it's retro? Because they see digital as just ads?

They played along with the joke that I had just perpetrated user research on them.

Content Strategy: Yes

A friend's kid wants to be a copywriter. I was like, "Honey, what do they teach kids in school these days?"

Copywriting isn't just words for print, anymore, unless you want to get left way behind -- it's  part of content strategy, spanning media and platforms, across the website, mobile, and social, including:

• Will there be video clips? Images? Product descriptions? 
• What will/does the CMS do about tagging and structuring content?
• SEO and HTML: What's your plan for the H1s, H2, H3s,  URLs and keywords?
• Email marketing and retention: Planning for who gets what messages, when.
• Customer service: You'll need autoreplies, followups and recommendations for guiding the call center people.

And that's just a taste.

"Content strategy refers to the planning, development, and management of informational content—written or in other media. The term is particularly common in web development since the late 1990s. It is recognized as a field in user experience design but also draws interest from adjacent communities such as content management, business analysis, and technical communication." -- Wikipedia

"Our industry is growing. Which means it’s changing. I believe a certain amount of Defining The Damn Thing (DTDT) is necessary, as it helps us clarify the boundaries of what we do. Sometimes I get frustrated by our inability to settle on a standard set of labels and descriptions for what we do, and I laughed a bit when we were mocked by the US News and World Report Best Careers 2009 report for not being able to agree on a name for ourselves." -- Karen McGrane 

100 Years Ago, a Match was an iPhone

Today, the magical device in your hand that illuminates the world and makes knowledge accessible is an iPhone: tapping on a piece of glass is all it takes to make or get words, movies, photos and music.

100 years ago, when you had to light a candle to read a newspaper, draw or play an instrument, a match to kindle the flame was the special tool that let you get and create information.

When fire was the only way to bring light to darkness, matches were precious objects -- the technological equivalent of an ISP.

People carried match safes in their pockets in those days, made of gold, from Faberge; silver and enamel, or brass -- with a matching pocket inkwell, for 19th century texting. The  small boxes were so well made that collectors buy them now, at auction houses and on eBay and etsy.

100 years from now, what will people carry in their pockets? What will the updated version of a Vespa case look like? What will bring knowledge, words, pictures, music and light out of darkness then?

It Starts with a Tweet

AVC.com always has great posts.

In this one, "Understanding Twitter," the comments show enormous support for a tool that already seems like it's always been around, even though it's still new.

Twitter is so many things, and they all start with tweets:

-- Community: crises, disasters
-- Promotion: events, products, brands
-- News and information: #ongoing #topics
-- Personal AP wire: people tweeting to their communities as editors/curators
-- Personal/public: friends @ friends

I have just about abandoned my Facebook account and use Twitter in pretty much all these ways.

You?

Startup Idea: Summer Camp Registration Clearinghouse

This would be so huge so fast -- the Summer Camp Registration Clearinghouse.

1. Camps post schedules and descriptions.
2. Parents search, select, register: One ID, one website.
3. Camps get paid.

Perfect, right?