Building the Information Valet Economy

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Building the Information Valet Economy

• Sustaining news and information through a
  shared-user network
• http//www.Informationvalet.org
• http//www.ivpblueprint.org
• Bill Densmore
• October 9, 2008

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Key goal
Assemble a coalition of publishers, advertisers,
technology and financial-services companies in a
federated-authentication / shared-user network
for internet information commerce.
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Key results

• Online users to easily share, sell and buy
  content across multiple Web sites with one ID,
  password, account and bill.
• Update role, effectiveness, compensation for
  online advertising through personalization
• But user privacy/profile management controlled
  by the consumer.

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The evidence is mounting that the news industry
must become more aggressive about developing a
new economic model.--Project for Excellence in
Journalism, The State of the Media 2007
Problem recognition
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Long term, we've got to get paid for news
(online) or we can't keep producing it,
Singleton said. But he said that it has to be
an industry-wide solution and not just one paper
acting alone. -- Dean
Singleton, CEO, Media News Group
Posted April 28, 2006 at
http//www.twincities.c
om/mld/twincities/business/14446579.htm
Problem recognition
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We must change how we charge for content . . .
One-size-fits-all on the business side has to
evolve. Tiered pricing with premiums for
timeliness or comprehensiveness is one option.
- Tom Curley, AP CEO, Nov. 10, 2007
Solutions
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. . . The more time Ive spent on this, while
I think there are legal things, enforcement
things, etc., etc., they are not the meaningful
way to fight piracy. The meaningful way to fight
piracy is you need to give consumers legitimate
options to get what they want.
-- Peter Chernin, president, News Corp.
Aug. 4, 2008, interview with
Charlie Rose
Solutions
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Maybe the solution isn't to escape the market,
but to empower it. Modern computing offers
unparalleled capacities to track and calculate.
Imagine a vast menu of news and commentary
offered to you ad-free for pennies per item, the
charges micro-billed, added up and presented like
a utility bill at month's end.
-- Edward Wasserman, Washington Lee Univ.
Miami Herald column
published Feb. 18, 2008
Solutions
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Buffet muses out loud The ideal combination
would be if The New York Times, the Wall Street
Journal and The Post had a joint web site, and
you couldnt get any one individually. That, you
could sell for a fair amount of money, and it
would have one hell of a readership.
-- Warren Buffett, quoted in Fortune
Magazine, July 26, 2007 /
http//money.cnn.com/magazin
es/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/08/06/100141340/
Solutions
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The Situation Today

• Journalism is expensive, and mass-market web
  advertising alone will not sustain it
• Subscriptions for content puts up walls that
  destroy the unity of the open web
• Sustaining journalism requires rethinking the
  very notion of news as a service, not a product

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The Situation Tomorrow

• The news industry becomes a trusted and
  ubiquitous advisor, authenticator and retailer of
  all web content
• Audiences are measured through a federated
  network that also tracks and shares revenues for
  ads and content
• Consumer controls demographics, and can be
  rewarded for looking at ads and sponsored
  content.
• Sophisticated pricing and bundling options give
  consumers more buying power by subscription or
  per click

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The Information Valet

• An Information Valet is each users most-trusted
  gateway to the web
• The gateway can be any site that chooses to
  participate such as the newspaper, Facebook, a
  U.S Bank or VISA
• Participants benefit by helping users find the
  content and services they want

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The Concept

• Collaborative system owned by larger users, not
  equity stakeholders non-threatening because it
  cannot be rolled up by a dominant player
• Establish value for the delivery of specialized
  audiences, and reward gateway sites for providing
  this service
• Demographics are shared based on the opt-in
  permissions set by consumers

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For Consumers

• A single user ID that works everywhere
• Get paid for viewing ads
• One-stop method for buying text, music, movies,
  services
• One bill for all online content purchases
• Privacy controls to protect personal data
• A more personalized online experience
• Faster, easier access to the content you want
• Opportunities to exchange personal data for
  access to premium content

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What will happen next is that the audience will
say If youre going to sell us to advertisers,
then youve got to pay us. And thats the
long-term challenge that I think newspapers are
going to be facing. -- Paul
Maidment, exec. Editor, Forbes Magazine
Interviewed
during On the Media, Feb. 25, 2005
http//www.onthemedia.org/yore/transcripts/trnascr
ipts_022505_aboutface.html
The value of one
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For Valets

• Valets compete to be best at meeting consumers
  diverse information needs
• Each valet is compensated for finding, shaping
  and referring audiences
• Valets help advertisers present targeted messages
  to end users who opt-in
• Internet advertising becomes more valuable
• Convert 50M newspaper customers to web-info
  customers

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HOW IT WORKS

• Flash animation shows flow of information from
  consumer to websites to network authentication
  and logging service. Key points
• No permanent central user database
• Only enhanced log report saved for periodic
  settlement
• User controls level of demographic sharing
• http//tinyurl.com/4amatq

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Project tasks

• Convene cooperative members
• Form, capitalize association
• Manage network/technology build
• Establish rules for enumerating, exchanging value
  
• Assure privacy opt-in demographic sharing
• Contract some operating pieces

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Whats the result

• News organizations paid as service providers
  gateways to premium () or sponsored (ads) info
  anywhere
• Users get a simplified, personalized web
  experience
• New revenue sources unlocked (wholesale/retail)
  personalized ads/services

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What can you do?

• Help identify founding collaborators
• Invent new forms of ad personalization/targetting
• Assert that news has value or it goes away
• Be creative about originating, remixing
  information thats unique, needed

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Building Info Valet economyThank-you!

• Sustaining news and information through a
  shared-user network
• http//www.informationvalet.org
• Bill Densmore
• Densmorew_at_rjionline.org
• Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute
• October 9, 2008 573-882-9812