What creators of Smallville are doing would be an awful lot like someone selling you a house and then suing you ten years down the road because the house appreciated in value.
I had a similar idea on a much smaller scale. A major component in my idea was to have your characters make appearances that were elemental to the story.
For example:
One character is a musician - Fans will get location updates on where to find your actor/musician's performances in locations key to the story.
Another character might be a detective - Fans can follow his check-ins on social sites like Foursquare as he "checks in" to crime scenes.
Your enemy character can be a mystery to your fans - or fans can be lead to suspect many characters - but at least one actor is leaving real life clues in real life places.
Most importantly, these actors are doing real-time social updates ABOUT the fans that are interacting with them in the real world - For example, fans buy access through YOU to all the venues the musician will actually be performing at for the chance to have a conversation with the musician that may become integrated into the story line. The scarcity would be face-time with the actors/characters while they're in character. Real fans of the fiction will want to play a role in the fiction too - a real life conversation with an actor would play more like dialogue that's in context with the fiction than an interview with an actor who's out of character.
Like I said, my idea was on a much smaller scale and the story involved only two protagonists, making it easier to manage. Still, face-time with real people is a legitimate scarcity - one that people would pay money for if it meant interacting with the fiction they love in a real and meaningful way.
Firstly, you do not need Vista for Callwave to be the best thing to ever happen to voicemail. Matt was only explaining that the Vista gadget is particularly handy. However, here are some of the ways that Callwave helps you access your voicemail more easily:
1. The Vista sidebar gadget already mentioned by Mike
2. A small app that you can download that displays recent voicemails, the caller ID, and even lets you interrupt voicemails being left for you by unwanted callers (or allows you to interrupt voicemails being left if the call is urgent)
3. Email's the MP3 of the voicemail to you. There's a transcript of the voicemail in the email subject line.
4. Traditional from-your-phone access
5. Text message caller ID and message transcript
6. Web interface
7. Works with multiple phones - not just your mobile
And the sweet thing is that all these work together at the same time. I get a high volume of phone calls (and subsequently voicemail) in my line of work. Callwave has been a lifesaver.
But enough about Callwave. Back to the subject...
Most people I talk to would agree with the NY Times article. Traditional voicemail is cumbersome and clunky. It seems to be a pretty common practice, at least amongst people I know, to miss calls intentionally for one reason or another. Whether you know the caller and why they're calling, or you're in the middle of something important, or maybe it's just someone you prefer not to talk to, people seem to know that they're missing a call when the call goes to voicemail.
With tools like unified messaging and visual voicemail now easily available, it almost feels archaic to have to dial in to a phone system, enter a password, listen to a soulless voice announcing your calls in chronological order, and then having to interact with your voicemail via dial-pad. If it's available to them, most people so seem to prefer something far more elegant. I, for one, don't think I can ever go back to traditional voicemail.
...But because I was able to listen to them for free on Pandora I decided I liked them enough to buy tickets for myself and three friends for an upcoming concert. I suspect that while we're there we'll buy food and drinks and, if the concert's fun, we'll buy souvenirs. And all because I had free access to the infinitely replicable music.
It won't be long now before young adults start turning into older parents and the ol' reminiscing engine starts churning.
"Why, I remember my first job as a paperboy!" some parent somewhere will eventually say to their child, who will have just proudly confessed they've landed a first job of their own.
"A what?" the kid will reply with uncomprehending and cynicism.
"Well, back in Ought-Eight we used to ride around on our bikes with huge bags over our shoulders loaded down with rolled-up newspapers, which we would take door-to-door at five in the morning."
The kid thinks for a second on that bizarre image and then responds, "News-PAPER? Why didn't they just use RSS feeds and email to deliver the news for free?"
And even a child will be able to quickly grasp the unsustainable nature of the currently dying print model
One idea that might add life to an existing publisher's print media would be to offer a web-service that would allow subscribers to list all their favorite RSS feeds from anywhere, prioritize them, and then for the publisher to print those feeds for that subscriber in a monthly journal.
Of course, this wouldn't work for newspapers, and there's a good chance you'd have to scrap your current staff of journalists since embracing this model would be an acknowledgment at how irrelevant they'd become. Plus, it would require some additional expense since a publisher would be printing a specialized magazine or journal for every single subscriber. However, suddenly advertising becomes relevant to the reader since they can be targeted with more accurate demographics - something that hasn't ever actually been reliable in print media - since the subscribers are literally choosing their topics (and authors) of interest. And relevant/targeted advertising means more revenue for the publisher.
I don't believe this would be a sustainable model though. Plus it requires creativity and risk, which are two things I don't think print media can afford these days. Print media is simply on its way out. Even if you could bring all the benefits of blogs and RSS feeds to your print, you still have to print it and distribute it.
BestNetTech has not posted any stories submitted by Tyler Kneisly.
It's just like...
What creators of Smallville are doing would be an awful lot like someone selling you a house and then suing you ten years down the road because the house appreciated in value.
CwF...
I had a similar idea on a much smaller scale. A major component in my idea was to have your characters make appearances that were elemental to the story.
For example:
One character is a musician - Fans will get location updates on where to find your actor/musician's performances in locations key to the story.
Another character might be a detective - Fans can follow his check-ins on social sites like Foursquare as he "checks in" to crime scenes.
Your enemy character can be a mystery to your fans - or fans can be lead to suspect many characters - but at least one actor is leaving real life clues in real life places.
Most importantly, these actors are doing real-time social updates ABOUT the fans that are interacting with them in the real world - For example, fans buy access through YOU to all the venues the musician will actually be performing at for the chance to have a conversation with the musician that may become integrated into the story line. The scarcity would be face-time with the actors/characters while they're in character. Real fans of the fiction will want to play a role in the fiction too - a real life conversation with an actor would play more like dialogue that's in context with the fiction than an interview with an actor who's out of character.
Like I said, my idea was on a much smaller scale and the story involved only two protagonists, making it easier to manage. Still, face-time with real people is a legitimate scarcity - one that people would pay money for if it meant interacting with the fiction they love in a real and meaningful way.
Re: Extortion
You mean besides the legal and moral reasons not to extort, right? Or do you really advocate RIAA's frivolous law suits?
Callwave (Redux)
Firstly, you do not need Vista for Callwave to be the best thing to ever happen to voicemail. Matt was only explaining that the Vista gadget is particularly handy. However, here are some of the ways that Callwave helps you access your voicemail more easily:
1. The Vista sidebar gadget already mentioned by Mike
2. A small app that you can download that displays recent voicemails, the caller ID, and even lets you interrupt voicemails being left for you by unwanted callers (or allows you to interrupt voicemails being left if the call is urgent)
3. Email's the MP3 of the voicemail to you. There's a transcript of the voicemail in the email subject line.
4. Traditional from-your-phone access
5. Text message caller ID and message transcript
6. Web interface
7. Works with multiple phones - not just your mobile
And the sweet thing is that all these work together at the same time. I get a high volume of phone calls (and subsequently voicemail) in my line of work. Callwave has been a lifesaver.
But enough about Callwave. Back to the subject...
Most people I talk to would agree with the NY Times article. Traditional voicemail is cumbersome and clunky. It seems to be a pretty common practice, at least amongst people I know, to miss calls intentionally for one reason or another. Whether you know the caller and why they're calling, or you're in the middle of something important, or maybe it's just someone you prefer not to talk to, people seem to know that they're missing a call when the call goes to voicemail.
With tools like unified messaging and visual voicemail now easily available, it almost feels archaic to have to dial in to a phone system, enter a password, listen to a soulless voice announcing your calls in chronological order, and then having to interact with your voicemail via dial-pad. If it's available to them, most people so seem to prefer something far more elegant. I, for one, don't think I can ever go back to traditional voicemail.
I've never paid for a "Death Cab for Cutie" album...
...But because I was able to listen to them for free on Pandora I decided I liked them enough to buy tickets for myself and three friends for an upcoming concert. I suspect that while we're there we'll buy food and drinks and, if the concert's fun, we'll buy souvenirs. And all because I had free access to the infinitely replicable music.
The end of print is the beginning of long yarns
It won't be long now before young adults start turning into older parents and the ol' reminiscing engine starts churning.
"Why, I remember my first job as a paperboy!" some parent somewhere will eventually say to their child, who will have just proudly confessed they've landed a first job of their own.
"A what?" the kid will reply with uncomprehending and cynicism.
"Well, back in Ought-Eight we used to ride around on our bikes with huge bags over our shoulders loaded down with rolled-up newspapers, which we would take door-to-door at five in the morning."
The kid thinks for a second on that bizarre image and then responds, "News-PAPER? Why didn't they just use RSS feeds and email to deliver the news for free?"
And even a child will be able to quickly grasp the unsustainable nature of the currently dying print model
A different approach
One idea that might add life to an existing publisher's print media would be to offer a web-service that would allow subscribers to list all their favorite RSS feeds from anywhere, prioritize them, and then for the publisher to print those feeds for that subscriber in a monthly journal.
Of course, this wouldn't work for newspapers, and there's a good chance you'd have to scrap your current staff of journalists since embracing this model would be an acknowledgment at how irrelevant they'd become. Plus, it would require some additional expense since a publisher would be printing a specialized magazine or journal for every single subscriber. However, suddenly advertising becomes relevant to the reader since they can be targeted with more accurate demographics - something that hasn't ever actually been reliable in print media - since the subscribers are literally choosing their topics (and authors) of interest. And relevant/targeted advertising means more revenue for the publisher.
I don't believe this would be a sustainable model though. Plus it requires creativity and risk, which are two things I don't think print media can afford these days. Print media is simply on its way out. Even if you could bring all the benefits of blogs and RSS feeds to your print, you still have to print it and distribute it.