In the past, the front page of the newspaper or the TV news was our main source of information. Now, as media becomes social, we are just as likely to see a link on Digg or StumbleUpon, or get sent one through Pownce, or see one on a friend's blog. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Some feel this is making us more narrow in our interests, as we see only the content our friends agree is important, but others see these "recommendation engines" as a positive thing. Join Daniel Burka of Digg, Pema Hegan of GigPark and Candice Faktor of OurFaves in a discussion about how the Web is the new front page, moderated by Mathew Ingram.
Getting underway...
Daniel: Creative Director at Digg. Does feature development. In spare time, UI for P0wnce.
Pema: GigPark. Magazinec
Candice: Creator of OurFaves.com
Daniel: Community decides what's important out of massive amount of content.
Pema: Nature of news has changes. News finds you. Everything is news.
Candice: Allows anybody to share what is great in the city. Democracizes what's great. Different ppl can share different points of view. You can "fave" anything, things usually not written about.
Moderator: If you restrict yourself to a particular community, are you just reinforcing views you already have?
Daniel: Digg deals with this by having home page be a zeigeist. But on other hand, can track friends and see what they're into. Less diggs might not make the home page but diggs from your friends might have more interest to you.
Moderator: Real community has a diverse range of interests
Perma: Ppl look to diff groups at diff times. And sometimes, refer to their group of friends (the ppl they can really trust).
Candice: Recommendations help filter what kinds of things you're into. We are very entertainment focussed. They are very open because information is going public.
Question: Frontpage of Digg: serves as a zeigeist and subject to passion of the masses. Can it replace someone's home page?
Daniel: The bigger the community, the less special interest groups can dominate. Changes the Digg algorithm constantly to improve this.
Question: Any emphasis on profile popularity? e.g. what are males 18-35 interested in?
Daniel: These issues certainly come up. Regional news is an obvious step but it's complicated (to implement). Working on a Digg suggestion feature based on previous activity.
Perma: Tapping into relationships (and trust) in the real world at
GigParkCandice: Focussing on content, with suggestions for other content that's similar. Would like to take into account "similar people" in those algorithms.
Moderator: In a lot of networks, it's not just what you say, it's what you do. Need both
Daniel: Lots of sites (e.g. CNN) have most viewed stories, but they really mean "which have the best headlines". There needs to be an extra click for users. On Digg, your name is always associated with an action.
Moderator: Watching what ppl do: Do you have to be mindful of privacy?
Daniel: 2 extremes: 1)
Pownce - only your group of friends will see it 2) Digg - no expectation of privacy, everything you do is public. Isn't clear in FB who can see it - don't know where the boundaries are.
Candice: OurFaves and Digg are explicitly publically sharing something. FB = sharing things without even knowing it.
Question: @Daniel: Will Digg algorithm have a trust algorithm, not just popularity?
Daniel: That comes from what you are digging. Digging something on NY Times over a no-name blog; there's a matter of respect there but it's up to you
Moderator: Risk of ppl/PR-ppl gaming the system. How do you prevent that from happening?
Daniel: Something we struggle with at Digg. We have a pretty good handle on it. We deal with it from human perspective and algorithm. "Diversity score" = looking for unique digging activities, looking for unnatural behaviour. But also, users can bury things and can knock things off the home page within minutes. "Ppl aren't stupid". If something doesn't belong on home page, the community "axes it off the home page"
Candice: Easier for OurFaves to manage because not as big as
Digg. There's spam software they use. Transparency and giving users the tools to deal with spamis key.
Perma: It's all about friends and who you trust.
Question: In terms of the trust, a lot of the sites still go back to traditional media. Do you see a point where there's not enough solid, reliable, well-researched material where there's just mob-rule?
Daniel: Ppl like well-research material. "We're not trying to kill them, we're trying to link to them". They aren't putting their great content online, where ppl want to link to it. They are doing it a month later by which point someone already put the content online (on a blog). Home page of CNN is embarassing, ridiculous stories about "alligators eating babies". Hard to say they do a better job linking to news.
Question: Does it make sense for a big media company to rely on the readers to generate the front page?
Daniel: It would be great to see a concentrated effort.
Perma: Big media companies can work with these services, not against them.
Moderator: Good editors at
Globe and Mail do look at online trends. There is a feedback loop there.
Daniel: "One Page to Rule Them All" = foolhardy by media companies. Visits a lot of different sites every day.
Candice: Long-tail is where a lot of the content is, not the home page. Media companies = should make sure all their pages are great discovery pages for the rest of the site
Question: (from
Canoe.ca) We care about the front-page because that's where all the traffic is. They put their effort into that page for that reason to serve the business.
Daniel: Digg home page is most visited page on the site. Our home page isn't the only home page you visit everyday. You can't monopolize those views.
Question: More of a trend for big media to put emphasis on "most blogged" content?
Daniel: More likely to see "who dugg this story", "who put this on delicious". Looking at whose determining what's important, and choose what goes on home page.
Question: @GigPark: What's the differentiator for your business? How build that userbase?
Jonathan Keebler (Live)
MDM
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