Digital media predictions for 2007

This will be my last day in the office before the New Year. I will attempt to resist updating this blog until then (about as likely as resisting the temptation of more Christmas chocs, to be honest...). However, I thought it would be a good time to make some predictions about 2007 - all of which you are very welcome to contend, add to or dismiss via the comments below.

So, I say, 2007 will be the year in which:

1) Access to the internet via mobile will surpass 40% of all internet use (globally).
2) A UK national newspaper will close its print operation. And a series of one-time print only magazine brands will become digital only (pick a number between 25 and 100).
3) Broadcast TV on your mobile will become commonplace. Sky will offer it as a bolt-on upgrade to your home services.
4) Microsoft/Google/Yahoo (one or all) will launch a mobile phone.
5) All mobile operators in the UK will follow 3 and offer fixed price mobile internet access.
6) A mobile operator will seek the edge by launching a fixed price for all services (ie £40 a month for all-you-can-eat internet, voice, text, mms...TV(?)
7) More than 10% of internet users will blog.
8) A citizen-journalism TV channel made up entirely of video shot on and uploaded from mobile phones will launch.
9) TV on demand will revolutionise how you consume TV and send advertisers into a blind panic.
10) A slow-burn campaign for users to claim back their digital identities will turn to a riot of noise by the end of the year...

Media companies and the 'clever-people' gap

Something controversial for to get your head around over the festive period: How are you going to attract the big brains you've always relied on, into the future.

I'm thinking particularly of media brands which inspire and are driven by passions.

In the past if a very clever person was passionate about (for example) horses, and wanted to be involved in publishing about their hobby they had one choice (assuming they hadn't got the bunce to start their own company) - join a media company.

They'd put up with starting on hobby-money salaries, poor managers and old fashioned hierarchies - because they had no other option.

Now the clever person doesn't have to worry about finding the cash to start their own publishing rival. Now they can start up digitally, cheaply, manage themselves, pay themselves what they are worth (they are a clever person - they will succeed) and chew chunks off you.

I'm not saying a passionate hobbyist with an IQ of 195 will never join you again. But I am saying that has become far less likely in the post-blog age.

The way people publish has changed. Has they way your media company recruits changed to close the clever-people gap?

BBC signs up with YouTube rival Zudeo

As reported by the Beeb itself: HERE
In nutshell - the BBC has done a deal with a High Definition downloads site (codename zudeo) from the makers of BitTorrent. And it's pay per view with some social functions (eg rating, blogs, fan sites etc). Users can also upload to it.

Privacy and Permissions: The customer wants his data back

Whenever you're involved in any kind of digital project clever marketeers will fight tooth and nail to make sure they get data-mining elements included.
They talk about 'owning data', by which we mean owning customers' personal details. The more we know about them, the more money we can make from them. Perfect knowledge... and all that.
But we shouldn't assume this is a digital default. Some time, very soon, we're likely to see a consumer revolt. And with the power vested in the blogosphere, the social consumer will get what they want - their identity back.

Individuals will own their data and offer us permissions to access it from time to time. It will be theirs to share, not ours to own.

What this means for brands is that we will have to work harder than ever at our engagement - we will have to make ourselves more trustworthy, more relevant and more worthwhile to get any kind of permissions. And we'll have to do it consistently, persistently, every day.

Peter Miles, discussing the issue on the Oxford Forum (see link below, left under resources, says:)

"For a whole host of reasons I think this current arrangement is illogical. I think the logical arrangement is much simpler and will be based on the fact that I do own (and retain) all rights to my personal data / profile but essentially I am prepared to 'share' aspects of this with selected companies based on a mutually beneficial arrangement for both parties.

"My logical situation would be something like:

"All data / profile on 'me' is stored in a secure place under my direct and sole control.

"I allow different levels of access to this data information to different companies / institutions based on the nature of the relationship. So I might allow my chosen Bank certain access and say my sports social networking site a different level of access.

"None of my data is actually transferred to these sites thay are simply allowed to access through to my secure place.

"If at some point I decide to 'deny' them that access then they cannot therefore keep any data of mine as a sort of legacy trace.

"One beneficial side effect of this might be that I will no longer need to remember 50 different user names and passwords as I - or is that 'me' - become the centre of my own universe.

I do think that at some point there is going to be a legal challenge to the current situation and that will spark a very interesting debate."

Widsets and Moblr

A couple of mobile internet enhancing sites/applications for you to consider:

Widsets.com (download it to your phone, it optimises sites, offering a better user experience on the third screen (and thanks to Alan Moore for that one).

And then there's the newly-launch moblr.com.

Moblr claims to work as follows:
"Upload: A video shot using a mobile phone can easily be published on the Moblr site. Users can either upload the clip directly from their mobile phone or send the clip by MMS or email. The clip can be named and tagged before it goes public so others can search for content easily.
"Viewing: All videos can be accessed for free from users’ mobile phones or PCs. Most recently uploaded videos are posted on Moblr’s home page and users can search all videos by category and tag.
"Formats: Nearly all video formats are allowed. (There is a file size restriction as the videos are intended for mobile viewing.) Moblr automatically converts files into a format that is compatible with most mobile phones and PCs. This means that videos can be passed from one mobile phone to another and from a PC to a mobile phone without any problems.

However, my tests of it have revealed a very clunky (no, unusable) mobile internet site and a fixed line site which works just like YouTube but with a tiny filesize limit (to suit mobile applications).
I’d be interested to hear other users experience because the idea (and it is in beta) sounds very interesting.