Abstract:

Networking sites, digital delivery, media sharing and other aspects of the social web are revolutionising the potential market for digital content developers. The Long Tail economy is already well established, and new, more effective tools are evolving at an astounding rate.

We’ll explore case studies from individual artists to products that have sold millions, compare the relative merits of different tools and explore real-world examples of a broad cross-section of socially-enabled digital content.

I’ll cover (VERY briefly):

• social networking - Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, 3eep
• video sharing - YouTube, Revver, Scouta, Spout, Archive.org
• blogging communities - Blogger, Perth Norg, Stomp
• photo and image sharing - Flickr, Picasa, DeviantArt
• social bookmarking - Buzka, del.icio.us
• digital music delivery/sharing - last.fm, iTunes, Martian Music/Method
• self-publishing and merchandise-on-demand - Lulu, Moo, Cafepress, Schtickers
• user review sites - Yum, TripAdvisor, Amazon, Digg
• forums - RedUser, VJForums, Aeclectic Tarot
• wikis - Wikipedia
• widgets - widgetbox, iGoogle, 88miles, clustrmaps
• RSS feeders and readers - feedburner, Google-Reader, twitter
• file sharing - Google-Docs
• online banks/ economies - Paypal, Second Life
• auctions - eBay
• chat - MSN i'm, Google-Talk, Skype
• affiliates - Amazon Affiliates, Google-AdWords
• promotion - BookTour
• shared resources - Fon $100 Laptop

I’ll cut through the web 2.0 hype and jargon and show you real outcomes and practical applications.

Of course many sites (including those above) incorporate a variety of tools and characteristics - I've listed them under the MAIN purpose, or at least, my main purpose... I know Amazon is first and foremost a shopfront, but I use it mostly for the customer reviews.

These tools can enable developers to foster a following and capitalise on an international niche market by overcoming WA’s physical isolation, and can also be used by companies and organisations for continuous professional development, cross-industry communication and inexpensive and highly effective viral marketing.

Aims:

Introduce both individual content developers and people within organisations to ‘web 2.0’ social networking and digital delivery tools in a practical way.

Outline of workshop content and schedule:

Preparation: I've provided a list of links above for people to explore before the workshop if they wish to do so (you don’t need to, but if you do you’ll be able to get more out of it and not feel quite so overloaded at the workshop).

Social networking: Building a relationship with your audience. The value of sincerity. Spreading content virally.

Digital Delivery: Making money from your content, brief comparison of business models (with reference to AFTRS CSB workshop for more detail on this).

Keeping up to date: Blogs, RSS, podcasts, iGoogle

Case Studies: Byte Me! Festival and VJzoo, Girl Friday, the Secret, Four Eyed Monsters, 3eep, Eagle vs Shark, Radiohead and possibly other ones that have come up by then (since real-world real-time what-is-happening-right-now examples are key to the workshop)

Q+A: We will leave a full half-hour for Q+A so that we can explore issues raised by participants, discuss possible strategies for their particular digital content field.

Feedback: All participants will be asked to fill in a feedback sheet in the interests of continuous improvement.

To whom and why would this workshop be of interest?

Independent Digital Content Developers, to find new ways to develop an audience, discovering new delivery models and finding revenue streams to support their work

Digital Content Developers within organisations who want to do the same for their organisation.

People who want to access wider online market for their product or services (we’re not aiming this at marketing and advertising agency people – we’d rather help people to market their own products as that’s more empowering, and also more effective in the world of the social web).

Public servants and others involved in digital content policy and administration.

Anyone who's ever met me and walked away thinking 'My brain hurts, too much information... I wish I'd been taking notes, I'll never remember all that...". This is still 'Too Much Information', but at least I'll be summarising it all in one session - with a handout!