Why Topic Pages Are The Next Big Thing

Chronological and real-time consumption of content just doesn’t work anymore. It’s time for topic pages to add a layer of organization on top. In last week’s post, 5 Reasons Why Web Publishing is Changing (Again), we explained why online publishing is going through another sea change. One of those reasons was topical organization of content … Read more

How Online Reading Is Changing – And How to Cope!

Yesterday we outlined five reasons why Web publishing is undergoing a sea change, via new services like Medium, Branch, Svtle and App.net. In today’s post, we turn our attention to the readers. We’re all readers, in some capacity. So the changes we’re witnessing in publishing affect us all. Here’s what it will mean to you … Read more

5 Reasons Why Web Publishing is Changing (Again)

We’re witnessing another sea change in Web publishing. From Pinterest at the beginning of this year to the launch this week of a new product from two Twitter founders, Medium, 2012 has been a year where the norms of publishing are being challenged. It wasn’t that long ago that Tumblr and WordPress were the cutting … Read more

Read-only Launch For Medium & Branch, But Twitter Founders Promise More

Twitter founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone have been busy developing two new services, both of which were publicly launched this week by their incubator company The Obvious Corporation. Unfortunately, both products are read-only for most people right now. So first impressions will be muted – perhaps even mystified, since Medium has very little navigation. … Read more

Understanding App.net: It’s Microblogging As a Service

App.net has so far raised nearly $800,000 in membership fees with the promise that it will be a non-commercial, user and developer-friendly version of Twitter. It’s off to a good start, with early adopters enthusiastically kicking the tires of App.net’s alpha service and (perhaps more importantly) its API. But there is still a lot of … Read more

Backers & Hackers Start Playing With App.net

Over the weekend, budding Twitter competitor App.net reached its funding goal of $500,000. Already the service has an alpha website and an API, allowing backers and hackers alike to play with it. As to be expected, the early users are geeky – and mostly male. It’s fun watching a nascent service find its legs. In … Read more

Olympics Online: Who Wins The Gold Medal For Best Website?

We’re well into the second week of the London 2012 Olympics, so which media website is winning with its online coverage? NBC fell at the first hurdle with its TV scheduling, but did the network get back into the race with its website? What about the New York Times, with its muscular web development? Or … Read more

5 Things I Love About Podcasting

My post about podcasting earlier this week attracted a lot of insightful comments. There were also a few insulting comments, but overall the feedback showcased what makes podcasts worth consuming: passionate voices. Not coincidentally, passion is also what makes blogs a vital part of the media world. So the point of my article wasn’t to … Read more

Music Innovators: Montag Reimagines the Album

While listening to a Spotify playlist from music discovery service We Are Hunted, I came across an intriguing artist I hadn’t heard of before: Montag. I starred the song, called ‘True Love’, and a bit later went back to explore more of Montag’s music. It turns out he is in the middle of a project, … Read more

Radio Killed The Podcasting Star

Podcasters are to radio what bloggers are to newspapers: independent voices taking attention away from mainstream media. At least that was the theory, when professional podcasts and blogs were getting started in the 2000s. But unlike blogs, podcasts by indie voices have not gone on to seriously challenge the mainstream media incumbents. Where is the … Read more

Thinking Big About Big Data: GNS Tackles Personalized Healthcare

One of the top four trends identified in Rock Health’s report on digital health was data / analytics. Arguably, big data is the most important factor in transforming the healthcare system – given the vast amount of genetic and other medical data available today, combined with the increasing prevalence of mobile health apps and EMRs … Read more

Investment in Digital Health Triples Over Past Year

It’s not just mobile health (mHealth) that is growing fast. The overall digital health sector – which includes mHealth, B2B apps and consumer services such as ZocDoc – is also rapidly expanding. That’s if venture capital funding is anything to go by. A report by financial services company Burrill & Company states that private financings … Read more