In online publishing you need to keep experimenting with form (visual/temporal/feedback/aesthetic structure of UX). I’m far behind where I’d like to be. Partly because I’m not as good at it and need support from design/arts types, partly because the tech for indies is weak...https://twitter.com/vgr/status/964579086747107328 …
-
-
I think the picture emerging is this: A) distribution at scale = covered by
@stratechery aggregator theory B) Form innovations = NYT/Bloomberg as a way to resist aggregators (ie until FB/Google figure out how to “platformize” a form innovation, the verticals have an edge ...Show this thread -
...Indie publishers (defined as small 1-2 person WordPress based ops with low/zero capacity for form innovation) can only innovate on content. New narrative styles, voices, tones, conversational gambits etc. The “horizontal media innovation” (Medium/Genius) are a conundrum...
Show this thread -
...These players try to generalize a form innovation without a content innovation to go with it. I think this is ultimately weak. They never seem to live up to initial promise. So Medium ends up being angst journals, Genius struggles to get beyond lyrics markup.
Show this thread -
... I’ll throw one more out there that I thought had promise, but too few people have the chops to actually do it. Stephen Wolfram’s idea of a computational essay: http://blog.stephenwolfram.com/2017/11/what-is-a-computational-essay/ …
Show this thread -
...gap I see in this survey is form experimentation tooling for indies to integrate into existing blogs and things. Need new era in the plugin game basically. tldr: I want to do things like Bloomberg mall game, but at ribbonfarm scale. WITHOUT an art/game design studio in house.
Show this thread -
...Addendum: many are pointing me to interesting new tools, but that’s the wrong way around! I don’t want to find a new tool and think up a content idea. I generally have an idea in mind requiring custom (but generalizable) tooling of which I produce the prototype case...
Show this thread -
...Take a minor form “innovation” on ribbonfarm, my Now Reading page. A few others like
@KevinSimler have adapted it. https://www.ribbonfarm.com/now-reading/ Obvious candidate for a good plugin. One guy offered to pluginize it, but wasn’t clear he’d be able to support it long term.Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.