"The end of exclusivity" & the beginning of hyperactivity

Liz Gannes had an excellent write up on The End of Exclusivity.

Quotable quotes:

"Embeddable video is an underrated innovation. It’s the most successful web “widget” to date and was key to YouTube’s ascendance. And of course, it’s a way for users to participate in content without actually generating it themselves. More importantly, it’s putting an end to the practice of locking up content in distribution deals, even in cases in which the hoity-toity television networks are involved."

"Parsing out content in a single location at a certain time doesn’t make technological or even business sense any more."

"Hulu ratchets this all up a notch by allowing people to embed its content on the open web. Suddenly, everyone’s a self-serve local television affiliate, with the incomparable reach of the Internet. Personally, I’ll take embeddable video over the closed environment of Hulu rival Joost any day."

"Of course, the move away from exclusivity and formal deals is bad news for aggregators, because they don’t get to stand out from the competition by imprisoning the best content within their walls. But hey — more often than not, video search sucks, so there’s still a reason for aggregators to exist. And even the most dedicated creators don’t want to publish to 15 different web sites every time they make a new video."

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Summarizing:

a. Users are keen to participate in publishing, distribution and re-purposing. Want your users to pay attention to you? Help them participate.

b. Don't be a destination. Be a gateway. (need an analogy? Check out http://www.google.com)

c. Everyone is involved. It's a democracy. Act accordingly.

d. Publishers want to maximize exposure, but it's irritatingly hard for them to do so. How do you solve this problem? Refer point b, above: Be a gateway.