I was doing some evening reading I came across and interesting thought on the intersection of social networks and content:
Media is fast-becoming an important area for the social network. The news feed, long a place for friends to share personal photos and thoughts, is becoming more of a content discovery engine
I’ve posited elsewhere on the role of content in the evolution of the Internet. In a nutshell, if Web 2.0 is the social web, then I respectfully submit for your consideration that Web 3.0 is the content web. What I mean by this isn’t that the Web 3.0 is about taking traditional content that has been available in traditional media (literature in books; movies on film; music on CDs) and putting them on the web, obviously we are well into that trend. What I’m referring to is entirely new forms of content that have yet to be created for the social web
Then my thoughts drift to Canada and the potential behind Canadian start-ups. Canadians have always been innovators in content, even if that innovation didn’t happen at home. Note:
- Canada is becoming a leader in video games
- Canadians are funny
- NFB remains one of the preeminent film associations and archive (and is surprisingly innovative)
- Rush is still alive
- Canada has some of the best animation schools around
So does all this bode well for Canadian content companies? As we think about national competitive differentiators, aspects of a country’s economy that sets it apart from the rest of the world- should we be thinking content?
If Canadian start-ups could combine technology smarts and content smarts, could the result be a whole new class of content, the likes of which we haven’t seen yet?
We need a larger and a more collaborative entrepreneurial ecosystem in Canada to thrive, and of course easier access to angel investors and VC’s would help as well. It’s good to see lots of recent company exits in Canada lately, that’s a positive sign!
Later this year, and into 2011 I think we’ll start to see more platforms that allow users to create video and other content together in new open and connected ways. The focus right now seems to be on distribution and monetization, and I think the creation model will be next in line for innovation. Exciting times are ahead.
Excellent post Ron, and I agree with your assessment of web 3.0.