By Dana Coester
I sat down with futurist Robert Scoble
at the Augmented World
Expo in May to talk about what’s next for journalism. Scoble, former tech
evangelist for Microsoft and currently startup liaison for Rackspace, is
renowned for the “Scoble effect” — which in geek celebrity terms may be the
tech equivalent of the Oprah effect.
He’s also known for being blunt (his
pronouncement “Glass is doomed” reverberated through tech media early
this year). He pulled no punches assessing the state of journalism and offered
some words of wisdom for journalism’s next steps.
Glass half full
Wearables were the centerpiece of the
AWE event, with a host of new contenders entering the market, from Epson’s Moverio (I bought one) to cult favorite Oculus Rift (I want one).
Scoble makes it a habit to play with all kinds of augmented reality and virtual
reality devices, and we talked about why journalists should too — less for
producing content (You’re better off using a GoPro, he says); but for the epic social upheaval underway.
Coester: Glass doesn’t do much yet, but
you still think journalists should be experimenting with it. Help me make the
case to fellow journalists.
Scoble: It’s going to be a big deal for
journalists. I can do media while we’re walking around. I can just interact
with you naturally and make media. That is going to be an interesting place to
explore.
But Glass changes the social contract
we have with each other. Even though I have Glass, I still have that uneasiness
around it because there’s something interjected in between us and we haven’t
had that culture. We haven’t had this slice of glass between us.
And that changes the social contract,
but if you’re a journalist … maybe that’s a cool thing.
Context is king
Contextualized data is the new story in
augmented reality, and Scoble outlines its trajectory, from gimmick to value,
from mobile to wearable, from GPS to “3D’fying the world.” We are “living in
the age of context” he says, but still need to build the right contextual
operating system and a new user interface for the physical world.
The leap from gimmick to value with
new-fangled content experiences begs the participation of journalists who can
add meaningful content — and relevant context — in these early experiments. At
stake is no less than what Scoble describes as the building of technology’s
soul.
As for what journalists find at stake —
such as threats to privacy in a perpetually documented world — he is more
cavalier about the tension between being catered to and being surveilled but
notes journalism may still have a super power.
I get the feeling when it comes to data
and privacy, you’re an all-in guy.
Scoble: The time to lament
loss of privacy is over. We have to figure out how to gain trust over the
freaky line. People have finally woken up to the fact that our government is
surveilling them with [NSA leaker Edward] Snowden.
Although Snowden went to journalists to
distribute the leaks.
Scoble: Well he could have
posted that to Twitter, and we would have gotten just as many hits.
I was surprised at that too. It wasn’t
really necessary, at least in regard to distribution. Maybe Snowden found value
in the aura of credibility?
Scoble: Absolutely, maybe
that’s the last piece of power that journalism has.
Journalists are already working in big
data and experimenting with it in new ways. Although Google owns it all, and
journalists don’t.
Scoble: That’s an
interesting insight. Shame on the journalists for not understanding what Google
is doing to them.
The new newsboy: let's make a deal
What Scoble really wants to talk to
journalists about is Facebook. And he’s one of the few noting Facebook’s behind-the-scenes
moves hinting the maturing social media platform’s future is still very
much in play, and data continues to indicate that more news than ever is being
shared via this distribution powerhouse.
You’re adamant about Facebook for
journalists. I’m more of a Twitter fan.
Scoble: I’m not going to
read CNN. I’m going to read Facebook. Or whatever replaces Facebook.
Journalists still don’t know how to use
Facebook. Maybe it’s for a whole bunch of internal problems, where their boss
said they’re not allowed to be on Facebook. I used to work for Fast Company,
and people would say, you know you’re not allowed to post there. What are you
talking about? This is the future of your news distribution!
If people don’t understand how much
control Facebook has in regards to distribution of news, they’re going to be
locked out.
Stop being anti-Facebook. That’s just
not going to work for you.
Is there a secret to monetizing content
we just don’t know yet?
Scoble: People are going to
be writing about this for decades. What is the mix of news? How much do you
invest in it, how do you monetize it?
This is going to be a really deep
problem for the industry for another decade at least. [Pierre] Omidyar may find
a way out of the business model problem. And maybe [Amazon CEO] Jeff Bezos. He
understands that if he’s going to sell a gadget to you, it better bring you
some news.
Technology companies have become media
companies over the past 10 years, but media companies haven’t become technology
companies. Can you imagine if The New York Times had built a social network for
distributing news?
Scoble: Facebook didn’t come
at the world through the lens of journalism. It came at the world through the
lens of a college kid who wanted to get dates. And that’s a very different way.
I’m not sure The New York Times could
ever have gotten to the place where Facebook did because of that different
worldview.
I agree. The New York Times should have
been working much harder at getting dates. What can they do now?
Scoble: If we’re moving to a
world where everyone has a camera on their face – people are going to see news.
Can I build a brand and a community of people to share that news with me and
everyone else? Can I build a trust network?
I would really be building partnerships
with the technology companies, even to the point of sharing ad revenues. Can we
make a deal?
I’m glad I’m not in the journalism
industry right now.
Is there a place for journalists to
make an impact now, as we enter a brand-new era in augmented reality?
Scoble: If I were a
journalist, I would be thinking about distribution. When I grew up, the news
showed up on my front door. Now Facebook is that news delivery guy. I’d be
asking, what do we need to do to build the future distribution system?
It’s too late for The New York Times to
be a Facebook or a Google.
Let’s play the next game.
*Kudos to Time Inc.’s new digital boss,
M. Scott Havens, who says the re-envisioned company is up for the challenge,
stating ambitiously, “We want to build the next LinkedIn or Facebook.”
Listen Up
Three thought-provoking quotes from
tech leaders discussing the future of wearables and augmented reality.
“In the future all lights will be
projectors.”- Nicolas Henchoz, founder and director of the EPFL+ECAL Lab
in Switzerland.
What does this mean, and why do we
care? Lights may comprise a new distribution ecosystem for 3-dimensional
content. Like the promise of plastics in The Graduate, can journalism get in on
the ground floor? Media companies should begin now to anticipate, and invent,
the new distribution networks and devices they will need to survive.
“In 10 years, neurointerface will be as
ubiquitous as mobile is today.” - Steven Feiner,
professor of computer science, Columbia University.
Prepare to be thoroughly
disintermediated as humans enter an era of direct brain-environment interface.
The first wave of this interface challenge will be how to meaningfully
contextualize data (remember when journalists translated data into stories?).
Does this mean a journo-bot future? Not necessarily. As the following quote
suggests, journalists and other storytellers can play a central role in a fully
augmented world.
“Environments will be painted with
information.” - Tim Chang, “quantified self” evangelist, venture
capitalist, Mayfield Investment Fund.
The central question for a fully
augmented reality is how we control, manage, and coordinate what information
goes where. There is a persistent call among developers to move beyond the
gimmicks technology enables to find “the story.” But it’s not a story form
familiar to journalists. All-new names are emerging for what kinds of stories will
populate an AR landscape: The predictive story, the sensor-based story, the
anticipatory story, the quantified story, and more. How to define these new
narrative experiences? Journalists have an opportunity, even an obligation, to
shape that.
Back to Scoble, who calls this our
Apple II moment.
“This is a point in time we’re going to
remember in the same way I remember un-boxing an Apple II way back when. It’s a
touch point in history.”
This post originally appeared on PBS MediaShift and is published on
IJNet with permission.
Dana Coester is an assistant professor at the PI Reed School
of Journalism, West Virginia University, and also serves as creative director
for the school’s media innovation center. Coester’s work focuses on community
media and the economic development potential in technology disruption. Her
research examines the future of storytelling with special interests in mobile,
augmented reality and wearable technology at the intersection of narrative and
neuroscience. Coester earned her master’s degree in Journalism from the
University of Missouri-Columbia in 1993.
Header Image CC-licensed on Flickr via Ted Eytan.
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