Cool content stuff

Now I’m sorry I missed Charlene Li leading this panel on the impact of technology on content and media:

The goal of the panel: to give “traditional media” attendees an idea of how new technologies are changing the way consumers interact with media. As readers of this blog, you are probably already experiencing the changes personally — everything from becoming content providers yourselves to just simply enjoying the proliferation of user-generated content.

The assembled team, including members from Six Apart, Google, digg and perhaps most intriguing, WetPaint, would have been interesting to listen to.

In fact, after looking at the WetPaint demo I’ve got to say I’m fascinated. This looks rather like a truly useful evolution of the wiki paradigm. I’m faced with setting up a new content-oriented site for one of our pet projects — but I don’t want to spend time setting it up. I want to spend time getting the content into the site and making a useful product.

Anyhow, back to the central point:

I believe that in the future media companies will generate the bulk of their value from serving their ability to aggregate and serve audiences better than the competition. It doesn’t matter if the media company actually creates or even controls the content that draws them.

With that as a central theme I think I missed out by not attending this panel. I couldn’t agree more. Authoring content is not the crux of the issue — its the presentation of the content in fluid, personally relevant terms. In other words, there’s plenty of content already. What we’re all looking for is a great way to find what matters for us.