Survey on New Media
Now Playing: Economist Podcast - Survey of New Media w/ Chris Anderson
Topic: Web 2.0
I'm spreading the word as I'm sure that many others as well, about The Economist's recent issue that includes a survey on New Media. Great thoughts and conversations, including a podcast w/ Chris Anderson of WIRED and one with Dave Sifry of Technorati.

Highlights from the Chris Anderson (aka Mr. Long Tail guy) interview:

1) There will still be the superstar performers/artists, but the gap between their sales and the average folk will diminish
2) Rather than people coming together over mainstream content that was pushed because of broadcasting scarcity (media monopoly of the airwaves or means of distribution), people will come together based on the stronger bonds of actually shared interest in content (because we will all be content creators, in the very basic sense since our playlists will be tracked and shared with the network). Imagine that, coming together over actual shared interest rather than over tenuous links of geography/location.
3) New Media companies (and if Old Media companies can make the transition) will have to unbundle content into microchuncks, one-to-one broadcasting, but in a smart, rebundled manner (sounds like what Umair pointed out was missing from the recent Disney deal to offer some limited content online for free).
4) Your collective memory and learning will now be accessible and probably value to yourself and others (exactly what I was thinking about a year ago).

Especially with theme #4, check out the David Sifry podcast, which discusses this idea of your collective learning/ah-hah moment engine. I'm reading The Virtual Handshake by David Teten and Scott Allen on my smartphone and here's Cory's Doctorow's perfect quote on this concept:

"Author Cory Doctorow calls his blog his 'outboard brain:' the place where he archives information that he needs. Your files, and better yet your blog, are a powerful way to organize your own accumulated learning." (pg. 180 of the PDF)

Fred, Umair, or Jeff, any thoughts on this, I assume you guys will read the survey and maybe listen to the audio interviews.