1. Sam Owens

    Gerant at Netdefinition SARL

    16 January 2001 12:52pm

    Sam Owens

    Consider this concept for a moment...
    For what purpose is content developed? Let's postulate that there are 4 main purposes: Entertainment, Information, Commerce and Community. See if you agree.
    Entertainment: think about traditional TV. Broadcasters and production companies develop content (called programmes...) primarily for entertainment purposes - from which they derive viewers and revenues. Sure, there's often an information angle, but is it not all about entertaining the viewer? Agree or disagree?
    Information: consider a site all about skiing. You love the sport and you're planning a trip. You need to find out about resorts (are they suitable for you?), want to know what the snow's like and you need to find a tour operator with a chalet for you and your 9 rowdy mates. Seems to be mostly a question of obtaining information, so the ski site develops content to give you that info. Oui ou non?
    Commerce: consider a budget airline. They want to make it as easy as possible for you to book your flights online - meaning they can save costs on call centres, etc. So the content will tend to be simple, easy to navigate and 'wallet-friendly'. True or false?
    Community: think about e-consultancy.com... The web allows whole groups of people to congregate and communicate in one spot - in this case, groups of people with an interest in ebusiness. So the content is developed (principally by you) in order to further that notion of community. Do you agree?
    I'd be interested to hear your views on this theory. Can one simplify things to this level, or is it much more complex? Do different media (be they 'traditional' web, broadband, TV, wireless, print...) fall more clearly into one camp rather than another?
    We're after your input to help inform a report about Content that works - so please get those opinions out...

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