Asymmetric information imbalances have always been competitive advantages -in any way expressed- for companies’ existences.
The Web’s transparency is changing this for good and worse.

The increasing tranparency of the Web certainly has challenges for companies to keep its advantages over others. Publicly available information which is accessible to anyone is the prime challenge.
The information widely available applicates to competitive intelligence, information on products and services, information on brands, information with regard to target groups, which all can be used to enhance -both- the internal and external processes of businesses.
Web 2.0 forces companies to be open, to be transparent towards the market and the players/customers. If this isn’t done, the consequences might be even worse, due to the co-involvement consumers demand in transactions.

Though, paradoxically, if processes are enhanced and adapted to the opportunities that Web 2.0 offers, bigger asymmetric information imbalance  and competitive advantages can be created!
Think of all the information available on social networks, bookmarking sites, Wikipedia’s, blogs, microblogs which can be used to create or enhance business and further increase the asymmetry. Networks of people or companies always have existed which added value to the competitive advantage of business, but the easier access to all this information is being facilitated by the Web, forcing companies to extract intelligence from it easier, faster and with more accuracy.

Because information is out in the open, companies need to be able to learn and adapt faster than their competitors. This is the skill that can be mastered. Learning curves will follow each other quicker, advantages don’t remain as long anymore and information overload is all around us.
Overcome the challenges of the Web’s transparency but at the same way, alter the company to new levels with help of its transparency.

How do you think the Web can contribute to information asymmetry?

It’s only been a couple of weeks since the European Broadcasting Union demonstrated the potential of the HbbTV specification at IBC2009 in Amsterdam. But it won’t be long before Europeans start seeing the results – before Christmas according to some pundits. And once compatible devices are out in the market, they say the speed-to-market of applications developed for the platform will be incredibly short… as the industry looks to new models that embrace open API’s and SDK’s much like Apple has done with the iPhone and the Open Source movement online with enormous projects such as Sourceforge. With an HTML environment activated by a simple red button, in the same manner as a Web portal, the resulting content can be delivered over the IP stream.

How similar this will be to the UK’s Project Canvas initiative, announced in February 2009, remains to be seen – and it’s still not clear which platform will really rise to the top or if they will, in fact, reach compatibility at some point. But Project Canvas does bring together content from some of the UK’s biggest channels, including the BBC ITV, Channel 4 and Five. They are working on a more ambitious project to bring what is called catch-up TV and a variety of other programming and interactive services to television sets as soon as next year. But the move faces scrutiny as the BBC is a public broadcaster and particularly from Rupert Murdoch’s Sky TV which is the leading player in the satellite TV in the UK. In a speech last month, Sky heir apparent, James Murdoch abolutely slammed the BBC as an”Orwellian” institution—a provider of “state-sponsored” news with “chilling ambitions”.  There were whispers of an an even more hair-raising Microsoft and the Beeb hooking up at IBC, as the partnership was not ruled out the industry titans.

The great news is, for the web development community, HTML arriving on the TV scene will surely mean flocks of coders, designers and entreprenuers making a transition to the next stage in the evolution of TV 2.0 – which may very well provide the next tech bubble much needed in this recession.

And it looks to be levering as possibly not only an EU standard, but also a global one. Asian companies such as Korea’s Tru2way are already picking up on the new standard from the European ETSI and teaming up with global player Alticast. which offers HBBTV with PVR, a pluggable HTML Browser and Flash modules. And Korea’s Kaonmedia has hooked up with Founding member of the HBBTV initiative – ANT in their latest foray into the Asian Market. And Ant pitched a TV portal running a selection of HbbTV services based on the their Galio HbbTV Platform at IBC 2009.

During the IBC show in Amsterdam, Pleyo takes on Yahoo TV with its browser and widgets engine, which is compliant with W3C specifications and compatible with HbbTV (enabling access to interactive applications issued from broadcasting, Satellite or DTT, and broadband Internet networks), and a few other extensions for interactive TV based on the HbbTV standard. The Origyn Web Browser (OWB) is based on Apple’s Webkit and is more particularly designed for TV sets, TV decoders and other consumer electronic devices.

Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV or “HbbTV”, is THE major new pan-European initiative aimed at creating one standard for the broadcast and broadband delivery of entertainment to the end consumer through connected TVs and set-top boxes providing terrestrial TV players a platform to keep up with IPTV development in terms of Web and TV convergence.

HbbTV

Developed by industry leaders to effectively manage the rapidly increasing amount of available content targeted at today’s end consumer, Hybrid Broadband‐Broadcast Services is based on elements of existing standards and web technologies including OIPF (Open IPTV Forum), CEA, DVB and W3C.

The new technology is also called hybrid television because it uses over-the-air transmission as well as broadband connections and can do a lot. It’s terrestrial TV’s play at competing with rapidly emerging IPTV services which are more supple when it comes to Web/TV convergence.

What’s most brilliant about this technology, from the perspective of social media and other developers coming from the web is… it will open up possibilities of using open API’s and SDK’s which will allow independent developers to create customized applications. Imagine watching a sports program that ended with a page of links to similar, archived programs, or to the Web sites of online retailers selling tickets to the events.

HbbTV products and services provide the consumer with a seamless entertainment experience with the combined richness of broadcast and broadband. This entertainment experience will be delivered with the simplicity of one remote control, on one screen and with the ease of use of television that we are used to. Through the adoption of HbbTV, consumers will be able to access new services from entertainment providers such as broadcasters, online providers and CE manufactures – including catch-up TV, video on demand (VoD), interactive advertising, personalisation, voting, games and social networking as well as programme-related services such as digital text and EPGs.

So who else is tapping into HbbTV at the moment?

Within a few months, German viewers with specially equipped televisions will be able to watch public broadcasters’ Internet television services, which let users catch up on the shows of the previous week, whenever they choose, via their computers.

And the environment is less volatile in Germany, with the German-led hybrid TV project, which has support from several French broadcasters and a wide range of technology companies is seeking to create a set of hybrid TV standards for broadcasters and makers of TVs and set-top boxes. Broadcasters could then create and market their own hybrid services.

Luxembourg-based Inverto Digital Labs, which is now a supporting member of the new HbbTV standard, has stated that its retail high-definition hybrid set-top box platform Scena 6 will support it. They plan to enter the German market in Q1 2010 and will support a CE-HTML browser from French firm Pleyo, which is working together with Inverto to launch a rich selection of Web-based widgets on the box, such as news feeds, mailboxes, weather updates, Twitter, stocks and games. The platform will also offer a variety of hybrid applications such as ARD’s catch-up service for the ‘Tagesschau’ newscasts, access to ZDF’s ‘Mediathek’ library with hundreds of on-demand programmes, and access to RTL’s super-text service, which also combines streaming clips on-demand.

From the hardware side, Global company, STM Electronics, also recently announced they completed a Proof of Concept (POC) next-generation Set-Top Box (STB) solution at IBC 2009, capable of receiving interactive digital television services via broadcast or broadband Internet connections.

In the USA, there are only about 10 million Americans accessing Internet-delivered content on their TVs today, so who will be the one to bring it mainstream? Who knows… there seems to be no movement to a single standard and it looks like a race-off to see who will dominate the landscape.

Terrestrial, cable, satellite and IPTV providers are all innovating in a hurry to fend off web-based TV superstars such as Hulu before they proliferate. And Google with their Youtube seem to be nowhere in the picture, content to let others get in the early fray and perhaps step in later with a loud thump.

Yahoo Connected TV is a potential candidate and is driving hard and taking a hardware approach to widgetize TV via the next generation of TV’s themselves. It was only a month ago that Yahoo! and Intel announced the Widget Channel, the first in a series of initiatives that will bring what Yahoo! calls the “Cinematic Internet” even closer to living rooms across America. But there are plenty of questions which remain about how the service will operate and how successful it will be in reaching consumers.

However, the company managed to convince a number of consumer electronics heavyweights to include the widget service in their future products, announcing partnerships with companies including Samsung Electronics Co, LG Electronics Inc and Sony Corp. The service will be included in TVs being shipped in North America and to 10 countries in Europe.

And Verizon Communications has integrated special widget versions of Facebook and Twitter with its FiOS TV (fiberoptic) offering. The company has joined hands with social media innovators like Facebook Connect, Twitter, ESPN, Veoh, blip.tv, and Dailymotion to offer users a fresh Web experience. The services will allow FiOS TV subscribers to connect with others while they watch TV. They can also search and view a variety of online, personal PC-based videos on their television screens simultaneously.

Yahoo! TV Widgets – Interactive TV and Intel CE 3100 Demo

The behemoth in the USA will likely be Adobe’s new Open Screen Project… and they have teamed up with the likes of the BBC, Cisco, Comcast, HTC, Intel, LG Electronics, Marvell, Motorola, MTV Networks, NBC Universal, Nokia, OpenTV, Palm, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Texas Instruments, The New York Times, Toshiba, and Verizon Wireless partnering to use the Flash and eventually the Air Platforms to provide rich interactive experiences across computers, devices, and consumer electronics.

However, getting in as a development partner is another story and snagging a piece of the action with the US$10 million Open Screen Project Fund is likely not to be easy. Having said that, there are some inspiring examples at the site. It’s certainly not an Open Source project by any means.

Is the Real-time Web really that emerging and transformative or is it hyped and cleverly used marketing jargon?

One of the definitions I came across on the Real-time web is the following by mr. Fromm.
He wrote a series of articles about the Real-time Web for ReadWriteWeb and in the first part of the series he described the Real-time Web as:

Is a new form of communication,

Creates a new body of content,

Is real time,

Is public and has an explicit social graph associated with it,

Carries an implicit model of federation.

I do concur with them as being implications of the Real-time Web, but in effect, the Real-time Web are advancements in technology developments which make it possible to communicate -almost- in real-time. 

The description of mr. Fromm is characteristic for the buzz created on the subject, it’s overblown, it’s not a creation of a new emerging form of interaction or media,
The current buzz on the Real-time Web can be clearly spotted if we analyze Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2009 graph:

 (on a side note, I don’t fully agree with the position of Microblogging within the Peak of Inflated Expectations phase, because it’s has not ended yet by far. Takeovers and developments still fuel it, for instance the buying of Friendfeed, Facebook’s real-time messages, Bing’s incorporation of Tweets and so on)

The graph shows that microblogging, as one of the concrete usages of the Real-time Web, is within the Peak of Inflated Expectations and is heading towards the Trough of Disillusionment. After a period of hype and buzzing, microblogging will face a harsh period where companies with real useful applications will survive and for many their fifteen minutes of fame will end in this phase.

What does the Real-time Web need to overcome in order to attain mainstream adoption?

The usage of real-time communication.
Twitter is still not understood -and thus adapted- by the masses, and those who have used it are mostly skeptical towards microblogging. A cause is the processing of real-time information without getting an overload.
The Hype Cycle states mainstream adoption in two to five years. Technology developments are once again the solutions and initiators of a (sub-) cycle  for an easier processing and understanding of real-time information.

More important, prior to the usage is:
The benefits of real-time information.
How can companies benefit from the Real-time Web in terms of intelligence, customer understanding, industry developments, internal company enhancements etc?
Enterprise usage of real-time communication and information will not adopt before it is clear what the added value is. The Peak of Inflated Expectations won’t speed this process up.

The Real-time Web won’t emerge as long as users and everybody else in the process have found useful, applicable and realistic reasons for it.
The phase beyond hype, where relativation and perspective will take over, is approaching.
What’s your opinion, what will thrive and what won’t survive?

During the infancy phase of the Internet, quality content sufficed to attract visitors, now the amount of content is saturating and solely not sufficient anymore to be distinctive, persuasive and to convert visitors. Think of the many businesses offering the same books and music, the many travel websites offering much of the same and so on.
Here is where context plays and will play an increasingly important role. Depending on the context, the sites can and will be perceived different.

The content defines What is offered, whilst the context defines How / Where / When / Whom it’s offered. Without context, content is just data, in the broadest meaning of the word.
Without context, the content is poorer, less relevant and less qualitative, even if the content intrinsically is, for these reasons one site with the same content can very well work and another site with the same content just can’t.
The context basically is the determinator.
The two diarchies have a symbiotic relationship. they sustain each other, they give meaning and reinforce each other.
Websites, value propositions, e-business must be approached integrally, to create and achieve a long-term recurring relationship. Context creates understanding.

The current state of the Web (2.0) offers new technologies/enablers and at the same time are becoming basic requirements in relation to the context. Some of the oppurtunities I’m talking about are for instance personalization, collaboration and customization.
Mostly personalization and customization advance how, when, where and to whom the content is provided, all in order to reach the right customer at the right time at the right place with the right offer.
Collaboration adds both challenges and oppurtunities to the context, for reasons like co-creation, not being able to steer the process completely, social networks, end-user innovation, open innovation, but necessarily when moving into the outward focus, even more because a business has no choice, the prosumer is becoming part of it.
Is it a technology push or a market demand which is enabling all these oppurtunities?

If we examine the content and context with a top-down approach, ( see also The 3 Fundaments of Online Strategy ), online strategy is part of the marketing strategy and needs to contribute to its overall goals. With regard to the marketing strategy, the context is important to provide and retain the value proposition of products and services (content) to the target audience.
When executing the website-, internet- and social fundaments, the content and context need to be in line with the overarching levels to remain consistent, powerful, relevant and effective to achieve its goals.

Dissected per level:
*On the consumer level: 
Consumers become increasingly demanding and ’spoiled’, companies won’t retain consumers if consumers don’t get what they want. Transparency creates a market space where consumers can hop without hardly any switching costs to another competitor and enjoy increasing bargaining power by consumers. Secondly, segmentation will get better and more granular. Right now, products and services are being pushed to their target audiences without any refinements. Targeted segmentation will be the next level in relevancy from this point of view.

*On the business level:
Business context is dynamic, thanks to the Internet, the oppurtunities are seemingly endless, Flickr adapted its business model from a gaming portal to a photo sharing portal due to input by its target audience and an unfulfilled need which existed amongst them. Markets become saturated and it’s a waste of energy and money to compete in Red Oceans. Products and services can be altered to suffice the new formed context (strategic planning) with the help of your customers! A double-layered meaning of outward focus.

*On the channel level:
Multichannel marketing focuses on integral cross-channel efforts making use of the distinctive advantages of each channel to reach the target audience on their terms in their way. Again, the context is important if it wants to be effective. Effective relates to being not pushy and logical from a buying process point of view.

*On the advertising level:
Online advertising. Time and money are constantly invested to create algorithms and systems to reach consumers effectively and thus as little disruptive as possible and with better relevancy. Behavioral targeting, -re-targeting and contextual advertising are examples of technologies which are being developed to provide relevant advertisements. This counts also for search engine algorithms. Bing call its engine the “decision making” engine, wanting to provide answers instead of results.

*On the website level:
Amazon does a great job in terms of personalization and to present highly effective content to customers, other kinds of technologies are focused on providing users tools to create their own interfaces with the content they want or need at that point of time.

*On the platform level:
Wordpress does well in having developed a system fully focused on bloggers, the complete interface and features are addressed to them.

Throughout the article I’ve referred more often to context than content. Quality content is a condition. As written at the beginning of the article, content and context reinforce each other, but content must have a quality threshold. Nobody wants average content. Furthermore, to have an effective symbiotic relationship between the two, consistency is key. The outcome of the relationship is quality relevance!

Ladies and gentlemen, are we ready to advance into the Internet’s marketing oriented era?

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Originally published on the personal blog of Gianluigi Cuccureddu.