VRM and Media

Conference IIW8 Room/Time: 6/E

Convener: Doc Searls

Notes-taker:

Attendees:

Technology Discussed/Considered:

Discussion notes, key understandings, outstanding questions, observations, and, if appropriate to this discussion: action items, next steps:

Business model for free media

2 approaches currently


 * Sponsorship – big pockets support free stuff.
 * Or appeal to the viewers – NPR, etc.

If music – band greenday, radiohead, go to their silo and deal with them in their different way.

Each radio system has its own system

Their fundraising is identical also.

VRM model is Emancipay.

See slides
 * Additional to the original grant – not want to have IP issues.
 * Want to add value in public domain

Advantage with iphone is single target platform.


 * VRM will inform CRM
 * The “r-button” provides stance on contributions.

Doing this with information cards – See Craig Burton Graphical indication of intention relating to interaction.

2 stages – will fan out to other media.


 * Listen log – logging system – what have you been listening to. Most stations don’t send data out with their streams.  Stations will later want to cooperate in sending out data.
 * Data collection associated with the media. Need granularity if will pay for media in a new way.  Want to make it easy to contribute to media.

Discussion of funding

Give customers their own pricing guns. Wanamakers did it after the French.

Emancipay is a pricing gun system. Want to equip individual with means to put money on the table for media and declare what it is worth. Can inform what is there with listen log.

Harder with newspapers. Newspapers could not have approved business plan now. Carbon footprint is an issue with both newspapers and online.

Some want to contribute, but don’t want to be a member. If so, should be able to impose conditions on the contribution.

Don’t want to CRM someone into negativity. Don’t spam someone into the negative.

The main purposes of the log are:


 * Information on what you listened to – situated cognition/memory. Without having to search general website.
 * Also for let you know what you value – to help you pay, and decide what you like.
 * Designing it so that the information is not on the phone.
 * Want to be able to bookmark songs, stories, etc. to be able to reference/purchase easily.

If people can see what using, they will value it more, and if make it easy for them to pay they will.

Can folks be tied in but anonymously. Yes.

Can the logs be constructed anonymously? Cannot keep it on the machine currently. Question of whether can maintain the log anonymously.

Medium providing data that can be used.

Speaking with Apple. They are friendly with the radio community. Apple receives podcasts from NPR and posts them for free. Within iTunes – the hope is that they would provide the symbol to show the viewers' relationship with the podcasts.

Would require a protocol and an API to do that. So, if have already given money to “this American life” and you are on Itunes, see the loop there on iTunes. Want to unpack what that symbol means. Would it make a call to a different window.

Would go to a rules engine.

Information cards and card selector model provide infrastructure.

What is under discussion now is selector based model. Would like to take that to Google and say here it is. This will help with customer service. Apple could be a payment mechanism as well.

Want to have option available to others that have not yet contributed.

Notion that all computer devices with be selector based because expedient. Selector smart enough to display only those that are needed at that time. Have multiple secure back channels controlled by user. That would be useful for VRM construction.


 * Data set – could be a link
 * Card
 * Rule set

Does the R button indicate an action or a state? It is a state that supports an action

“states” are intention to buy, intention to sell, etc. In this context

See – Information card.net for white paper. (cookie versus selector model)

Question of just speaking of existing business models. If combine VRM with social graph. VRM can combine social aspect with it. Response is that can do it now with infrastructure and buy in for entities.

This is a business model for musicians. Any musician that does this.

What if iTunes charged zero or a fixed price. Want to provide them with a kit to drop in to the existing application.

DMCA – left streaming unsolved. Record companies not like internet radio stations. No willing buyer and seller. Copyright arbitration royalty panel was fashioned. RIAA liked it, stations not like it. Public radio had a carve out. That ran out – copyright royalty board was fashioned. More high power. Still favored the RIAA. In absence of willing buyer/seller. They set the pricing gun at X price per listener. Sound exchange get the money to the artists. What if a willing buyer system. Can listen to whatever you want, wouldn’t mind paying small amount per song. It is micro accounting – keep track of what listen to and work out what will pay over time. Accumulation of information on what have listened to enable payments.

This could play in the YouTube world also.

Take the standards, protocol and API and drop them in.