Hacks Hackers SF
C.A.N.:I built my first website in notepad. It was 1999, I'd just finished a powerpoint class and my dad wanted a website
I made my own website shortly after - I include my college course and a blog and the rainbow gifs I liked at the time
you should be your own platform because you desebve to control your own content
rather than post to places like facebook or twitter, post to your own site and be your own platform
when you are your own platform you have the freedom to choose and to change
if you don't like your hosting company or your posting platform, you can change
I know it is 2015, and you can't ignore social networks, but you deserve to have the original record
social networks come and go -do you remember these? (shows ~50 that died)
if you want to establish yourself as a writer, photographer, film-maker, be your own platform
if you want to be paid or attract an audience, you owe it to yourself to be your own platform
this is my platform: erinjorichey.com
Colin Mutchler:we set up site where anyone can contribute art, and anyone can publish it as shirt
you're saying "wait max, isn't crowdsourcing terrible?" we found not
constraints matter: don't give broad goals, give specific ones
be positive: call people by their name, have them participate, don't be like a machine
have contests: but don't pick the one winner - we need a lot, not just one answer, so make sure al can see
Austin Smith:hands up if you really love ads? (not many hands) 37% of the internet have downloaded blocking software
in 1999 I hated ads enough that I wrote on one on the subway, and got busted by the cops
maybe a revolution did happen with help from these platforms, but did anything fundamentally changed?
investors put money into facebook & twitter to make a return, so it shouldn't be surprising that we now see ads
we are trying to remake advertising for good - we got an Occupy Wallstreet ad on Fox News
to convince regular people to advertise, don't use the word, say "help this artist reach an audience"
frame advertising as a gift - his friend wants to give the gift of reach to Steve the artist - a human gift
Will the internet survive? I'm not sure. if it is going to be different it is because humans fund attention
Ben Werdmüller: summary of presentationAlley Interactive is a digital firm in NY - sorry
even though New York is 3 hours ahead we're a year behind tech-wise
publishers are protective of their audiences and want to engage with them directly
don't try and get between the audience and the publisher - media companies are wising up to this
if you want a publisher to pay, solve their problem not readers' problems
if building a product for journalists, make it open source - training journalist to operate CMS's is no fun
journalist operate on a news cycle, the business people don't - journalist won't use it if they don't have a need
to keep publishing clients, don't let content marketers use your software. At least rename it
2 products news organisations want to buy: 1. Solve Web to Print
no publisher is good at doing web first then print - everything doing this is some huge janky thing
2nd ideafor publishers: Dsta managemnt and print subscriptions combined
Ryan Singel:i work with @erinjo on @withknown and we'll get on integrating indesign tomorrow
recently a man in NY posted a photo of him kissing his husband on his wedding day, and instagram removed
it's very easy to flag things as inappropriate on social networks - breastfeeding and drag queens every day
when Mark Zuckerberg posted about Charlie Hebdo, many of the comments were marked inapproriate
we've all heard of Snowden and the NSA, but we are all spying on each other as well
the PEN American center reported that > 1/3 of writers in democratic countries self-censor because of NSA fears
the cloud sounds fluffy, but it is actually someone else hard drive, and it can be easily deleted
the internet was designed for resiliency - unlike the silos we pour content into now, it was decentralised
what if we wer all service, we were all platforms, and stored our data on servers that we controlled
what if our servers were in our living rooms and newsrooms?
look at intel compute sticks and sandstorm.io as ways to store this
there are other platforms too, like @withknown that @erinjo and I work on
back int he day Microsoft freed us by giving computers on our desks; our dat shoudl be ours too
q:At Contextly we think about evergreen stories a lot - stories that aren't just current
an example from a publisher we work with - more than 40% of views went to content published before 2014
we wrote a story about Silk Road, and I got notifications that it was a top ten story every day for years
Mother Jones published a series of charst showing inequality in america, and it got more views than the Romney leak
there are seasonal evergreen stories - valentines, st patricks day and xmas recipes
there are also definitive stories that people refer to over time
to identify evergreens - look at referrals over long timelines, but also talk to your staff
evergreen stories are those that your community tells you that they are right for them
NPR indentified their evergreen stories and share one very day between 3am and 6am
publications should have an evergreen strategy
Ryan Singel:we shoudl do evergreens and was told "ad team saysadvertisers hate that"
q:you can use the evergreens to build audience, and can sell a package around valentines day when ad buyers show up
Austin Smith:having your own server? open source will get more usage? what?
Ben Werdmüller:I'm talking about the journalist/biz/tech relationship at the company - selling that is hard;
journalists don't have buying power - give them an open source thing with a SaaS platform that helps them now
businesses are about results - if journalists can say "lots of people came here for this, can we pay for it now?"
q:open source is a process as well as a licence - it's a way to involve your users more directly in your product
we work with education a lot and they work with open source software too
Max Slavkin:whenever I watch cable news we see lots of people funded by defence contractors; not by peace activists
Colin Mutchler:we got one artists on CNN ever, maybe we can get more over time
q:what trends in media changes all the time - the #OscarsSoWhite tag today is an example; they force TV to talk
if you do it with money it can go quicker. It depends on the issue and who owns the channel
Austin Smith:people switch from selling to journalist to selling to brands - is this a bad thing?
Corey Ford:brands have different needs from publishers so if you chase them you'll lose the publishers
brands have an ultimate goal; publishers just want people to keep reading
verizon built an undercover news site, but they wouldn't let journalists cover net neutrality
I know this is weird from a new yorker but you need some shred of idealism to be in the news business, even in2015
Austin Smith:do you have advice to publishers to be better customers for innovators?
Erin Jo Richey:publishers need to have more money
publishers and biz people pit themselves against their editorial staff. They need long-range perspective
it's hard to ask a dying news media brand to take a long term perspective
our platform is open source and we'd very much like to have journalists and media companies working with us
we are working with educators, and they like open source too, so we recognise the tension between use and sales
a lot of people told us to talk to marketing and brands as they have money