After a month or so of light blogging while he was away, Martin has just posted some linkbait to try and recover some of his lost technorati ranking points (can you guess what a twintle is before you read jhis post? ;-)
This 'floating of terms' is something I was having a sideways think about earlier today... I'd been writing up some notes having read the OU's Broadcast Strategy Review (internal link) and couldn't really unpack from that document what they thought broadcasting was (there's a philosophical treatment on the nature of broadcast on the website...)
So here's my first pass attempt at a definition of the 'new broadcast':
a means of transmission/publication within which the marginal cost of distributing content to additional consumers of that content tends towards zero, and the marginal cost to the consumer of receiving additional broadcast materials, having acquired the broadcast receiver and, if necessary, paid for access to the carrier, tends to zero
Invoking marginal cost tries to get across the idea that once the transmission equipement and receivers are in place, and a free carrier exists between them, there is no cost to adding more consumers of the content that is being broadcast, and no cost to receiving more content, unless payment is required to access the content. (There may also be a distribution/carrier cost - such as the fee for your broadband connection. But if it is 'unlimited' use, it's marginal as you consume more content).
There's a little more jargon in there that needs unpacking - this is based on something I scribbled 5 or 6 years ago now - a 3 layer model incorporating content, channels, and a carrier.
There's lots of issues with the 'definition', (and the 3 -layer model...) such as that it admits all forms of content rather than just audio and video transmissions; but on the upside, it does accommodate novel distribution channels, including viral ones (where the consumers themselves become part of the transmission apparatus).
Things like newspapers are ruled out of being a broadcast medium (it costs to print another newspaper), but admittedly the whole of web publishing IS admitted ;-)
Scheduling (and to a lesser extent, simultaneous viewing) is another feature of the traditional broadcast view, but what that allowed was discoverability of known item content. Search and other navigation techniques, as well as syndication feed subscription models, meet the same need?
Viral transmission is interesting - here the consumers become part of the transmission and discovery system. Viral marketing is also similar to 'water cooler' discussions about last night's tv, except in this case if you missed the thing being talked about , you CAN go and watch it and become part of the discussion. So i don't have to preempt my viewing to be able to chat with you - we can negotiate the content we are going to talk around...
I bounced the definition passed Marc (I don't think he liked it much ;-) but he did suggest I could try it out by adding it to the Wikipedia entry for broadcasting...
I have to admit I hadn't thought of this (nor did I do any 'research' looking up definitions of the term - I just made something up that helped me think about scalable distribution) but Marc's comment did make me realise that to date, the only real Wikipedia contributions I've made have been to fix the odd typo and revert the occasional page to get rid of spam.
So here's the question - if I wanted to try out a radical redefinition of broadcast on Wikipedia that was fit for th 21st century media landscape, how should I go about it?
Make a change to the actual entry page, or go into the discussion/Talk page and float the idea there?
Blogged with Flock
Posted by ajh59 at November 7, 2007 03:37 PMI think of broadcasting as "one to many", i.e. it has the notion of gearing/leverage (but I bet that's not what your beancounters think).
Posted by: AJCann at November 7, 2007 07:33 PMJust do it! (Wikipedia)... if you feel strongly about your definition AND can defend it, that's what it's there for
Posted by: Marc Eisenstadt at November 9, 2007 04:48 PMBroadcasting is the distribution of audio and/or video signals which transmit programs to an audience. The audience may be the general public or a relatively large sub-audience, such as children or young adults.
There are wide variety of broadcasting systems, all of which have different capabilities. The largest broadcasting systems are institutional public address systems, which transmit nonverbal messages and music within a school or hospital, and low-powered broadcasting systems which transmit radio stations or television stations to a small area. National radio and television broadcasters have nationwide coverage, using retransmitter towers, satellite systems, and cable distribution. Satellite radio and television broadcasters can cover even wider areas, such as entire continents, and Internet channels can distribute text or streamed music worldwide.
The sequencing of content in a broadcast is called a schedule. As with all technological endeavors, a number of technical terms and slang have developed. A list of these terms can be found at list of broadcasting terms. Television and radio programs are distributed through radio broadcasting or cable, often both simultaneously. By coding signals and having decoding equipment in homes, the latter also enables subscription-based channels and pay-per-view services.
Posted by: bretheart at November 15, 2007 11:54 AM