In 2005, Fred Wilson authored a blog post titled "The Future of Media". It remains extremely relevant and insightful, 5 years after its publishing, and has been proven right throughout a few major waves of innovation, such as Facebook and the iPhone. In Fred's words, the future of media has 4 major components:
1 – Microchunk it – Reduce the content to its simplest
form. Thanks Umair.
2 –
Free it – Put it out there without walls around it or
strings on it. Thanks
Stewart.
3 – Syndicate it – Let anyone take it
and run with it. Thanks Dave.
4
– Monetize it – Put the monetization and tracking
systems into the microchunk. Thanks Feedburner.
Today, I saw a new innovation that is feeding on the above points, but is also extremely good at the interface level: The Flipboard. And, yes, please add me to the fanboy list. And please see the video below for Mike McCue's demo of the Flipboard. It's really difficult to describe.