Ben Ayers

Here is media futurist Gerd Leonhard’s latest video in his GerdTube series. Gerd asserts that the technology-fueled ‘Culture of Participation and Sharing’ is now changing the content and media industries at a very rapid pace.

Youtube has changed TV and video, forever; blogging and self-publishing has changed journalism and print media; P2P, web radio and now on-demand streaming has uprooted the recorded music industry. Any successful ‘content’ player must now develop and put in place a web-centric (and web-native!) business model that is based on unrestricted sharing and user-engagement as THE crucial starting point - not as an after-thought or a mere concession to the demands of the people formerly known as consumers.

He is of course absolutely right. But then people won’t want to share, engage with or emerse themselves in content if it’s no good. So the business model must also allow for making some damn good content.