Big content is creating information overload for users. There are three steps to cracking big content: 1) Remain calm and don't blame content, as information overload predates the internet. Tools like categorization, indices and alphabetization have long helped manage information. 2) Continue using new interactive tools like search, social features, filters and personalization to help users access information. 3) Don't panic, as advances in big data and machine learning will soon enable automated analysis of content to extract meaning and structure, alleviating much of the manual work required today. This will further enhance interactive experiences and help users navigate large amounts of content.

1. 21 February 2013
Cracking Big Content
Webinar

2. The Challenge

3. Big Data
Our information ecosystem (a.k.a. the internet) is producing
more data than we can possibly process using current
technology.
1,000,000+
60 Hours of special interest
video 750 Tweets groups
uploaded per second
every minute

6. The Marketing View
Marketing and BD have their own version of Big Data: Big
Content
40000
Publications 40,000
30000
20000
10000
4,000
40
0
2001 2012 2022

7. The Audience View
What
interests The real danger for the
me user experience is
Information Overload
What
you offer

8. The Result?
Unbounded
accumulation of content
offerings degrades the
experience.
Your communications
begin to look, feel, and
act like work.

9. First Things First:Blame
So whose fault is
this invidious
problem?
These guys.

10. Cracking the Problem
• Content isn’t really the problem
• The key to avoiding the experience of information
overload is to crack big content by:
– Organizing
– Engaging
– Adapting
– Analyzing

11. Response:
Three-steps to
Cracking Big Content

12. Step One

13. Keep Calm

14. Was there life before the Internet?
Information overload was not
created by the Internet.

15. Pre-Internet Overload
Since we’ve been able to record information,
people have complained that there’s too much:
• “Of making books there is no end.” - Ecclesiastes 12:12
• “The abundance of books is distraction” - Seneca
• “Life is short, art is long” - Hippocrates
• “Such is the flood [of books] that even things that might
have done some good lose all their goodness” -
Erasmus

16. Pre-Internet Solutions
Over thousands of years, we’ve created a range of tools to
guide overwhelmed readers:
• Categorization
• Indices
• Alphabetization
• Summation & Compilation
Too Much to Know: Managing Scholarly Information before the Modern Age,
Ann M. Blair, 2010

17. Categories

18. Compilation

19. Indices

20. Alphabetization

21. Step Two

22. Carry On

23. New Tools
Interactive media allow people to take control of
how they access information:
• Search
• Social
• Filters
• Tagging / Taxonomy
• Personalization
• Visualization

24. Search
Search is probably
the most powerful,
most useful tool we
can offer our
audiences.
It’s why Google is a
verb, and Yahoo is a
cautionary tale.
It’s also imperfect.

25. Social
It’s widely observed that social networks
are becoming the primary information
source for many users.
Social brings together two powerful
functions that help people find the right
information: influence and curation.

26. Social

27. Filters

28. Tagging

29. Personalization

30. Visualization

31. Visualization

32. How do we bring
all that together?

33. One North’s Research Exercise
In the “Trust & Worthy” site,
we imagined how all these
techniques can be combined
in a simple, unified,
interactive experience.
http://examples.onenorthinteractive.com/trustworthy

36. Step Three

37. Now Panic and Freak Out

38. Why Panic?
?
In between good content and a great interactive
experience lies a lot of analysis.
And currently, almost all that analysis must be done by
people. That means you.

39. Content “Entry” is a Lie
First Last
Contributors
Source
Attachments
Body
Content Entry Structure
Score Tag Relate

41. Computers Can’t Read
The problem is that current
systems can’t read – not even
Google knows what all that
web content means.

42. The Problem is Also the Solution
Some of the biggest names in Information
research are looking for ways to take raw content
and turn it into structured data - to give content
meaning.
They call this effort Big Data.

44. How Big Data Will Help
By 2022, these analysis engines will be available as on-
demand services that all kinds of other systems can use.
Web CMS
Content Data

45. How Big Data Will Help
WHAT DO YOU MEAN, IT
DOESN’T “POP”? By 2012, you will spend a lot
less time teaching your CMS
what your communications
mean.
You will be able to get back to
actual marketing and
business development.
C’M’HERE.
I’LL SHOW YOU “POP”

46. Cracking Big Content: The
Recap
Step One: Keep Calm
Don’t blame the content. Content is good.
Step Two: Carry On
Explore new, interactive capabilities to connect
users to information.
Step Three: Don’t Panic
Help is on the way. Embrace the Cloud.

47. Q&A