RSS and syndication offer exciting new ways for organisations to manage information, communicate internally, and to reach out to their customers and stakeholders. Are you ready for this? A lot of product names are springing up in this space, but to make a great decision about what can happen in your organisation you need to understand the technology, its potential and challenges.

1. BRINGING WEB 2.0 TO AUSTRALIA 28TH SEPTEMBER 2006 WEB DIRECTIONS BEN BARREN : [email_address]

2. Microformats RSS Aggregation Blogging Vertical Search UGC Open Source Folksonomy Web 2.0 Dot Com, Dot Bomb, New Web Annotations, Tagging, Voting Indexing, Filtering, Popularity 1% Rule, Creators, Tools Local, Topic, Demographic Text, Images, Video GPL, Database, Indexing Classifieds, hReviews, hListing Subscription, Ontology Tag /Presentation The Audience is Listening. Hello. Content, Networks, Platforms Podcasting Social_Networking Real Life, Second Life, Work

3. Tag /Web_2.0 Dot Com, Dot Bomb, New Web 1.0 : Dot Com Winners 2.0 : Web 2.0 Winners 5 WEB 2.0 TRENDS THAT MATTER : 1. User : The end user expects to participate on your website and product development. 2. Web O/S : Users wants web apps. Syncing optional. Not desktop only eg time spent on gmail instead of word or outlook 3. Social : The value of the service grows as more people use it. Eg aggregate reviews. 4. Small : Cheap to develop itsy web apps will proliferate end user. Widget clutter. 5. Subscription : Customers want to subscribe to content which is pushed to them not hunt web pages for updates.

4. Tag /RSS Subscription, Ontology, Readers 5 RSS TRENDS THAT MATTER : 1. Feed Ontology : Determine manageable hierarchy required to structure your content into RSS. 2. Feed Creation : Selection of range of RSS content types : Atom, RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, Feedburner, Add to MyYahoo, Bloglines, Rojo etc 3. Feed Syndication : Rules on allowing users to mashup your RSS and place on their site/blog. 4. Feed Advertising : Advertising decision, ad provider and extent of RSS advertising decisions. 5. Feed Platforms : Build or license your own from companies like Newsgator, or pass customers onto Bloglines, MyYahoo, Rojo etc

7. Tag /Microformats Classifieds, hReviews, hListing 5 MICROFORMAT TRENDS THAT MATTER : 1. Candidate Centric Jobs : hCard your resume, then ping job boards your hresume. Sites will then aggregate hresumes. 2. Hyperlocal Reviews : Review local businesses and share views with other locals. 3. Aggregated Classifieds : Sell your last model Ipod on your blog, which is pickedup by hListings engines. (and google) 4. Mapping : Mashup of structured data with mapping api’s. 5. SME-Commerce : Make your products into structured data and then ping away.

8. Tag /Aggregation Indexing, Filtering, Popularity 5 AGGREGATION TRENDS THAT MATTER : 1. Recency : Users are ultra-demanding and want to receive content the moment it’s created or happens eg Steve Irwin, Peter Brock + related fetching issues. 2. Popularity : Users also want to only receive entries that are popular : linked to, clicked on, viewed - but a new item has low metrics attached. Leads to different levels of authority, and services like digg community being important. 3. Verticalise : Services like popurls.com aggregate the aggregators :) Services are specialising around location + topic 4. Social Media Tools : As well as voting, tagging users want personal content management tools, so they can track/subscribe to content/feed. 5. Blog This : Find somethingkewl then people want to blog it and ping to friends. More software to build ! SEARCH VS SERENDIPITY

9. Tag /Vertical_Search Local, Topic, Demographic 5 VERTICAL SEARCH TRENDS THAT MATTER : 1. Blogs/Media : Find local bloggers, hyperlocal reviews, and bloggers of global interest to you. Now. 2. Travel/Retail : Find the best deal from all the major providers and value added tools eg trip planning. 3. Images/Video : Huge growth in microchunked video and images means search is very important. 4. Classifieds : Meta-aggregate the major classifieds sites and then provide tools for job seekers, real estate buyers and car hunters. 5. P2P, Finance, Torrents : Direct contact with people who have money to lend you, or a movie. AGGREGATE INVENTORY “ I don’t want to visit 10 sites to view all the inventory for the decision I am making. (holiday, job, car, loan, house etc)” SMART RESULTS “ Present me with the most relevant content immediately and provide me with tools to filter results.” CONTENT TOOLS “ Let me track the content I’m interested in, subscribe and store it, share it where needed, and check any updates.”

10. Tag /Social_Networking Real Life, Second Life, Work 5 SOCIAL NETWORKING TRENDS THAT MATTER : 1. Personal Profiling : Anything you write, mention, comment on, upload will be indexed in Google forever. 76% of females google someone when consider whether to date them. Or so they say ! 2. The Customer : Job Boards were about the employer. Social networks like linkedin are about the candidate. Or boompa about the car enthusiast and buyer. The trend for intermediaries will be a more balanced hybrid. 3. Sub-Feature : Expect major 1.0 websites to incorporate social networking at the consumer and enterprise levels. Most will do it badly. Some won’t, esp if they create expert communities around products. 4. Real World : Social networks using the real world : Based on your family, friends, interests and so on. Intersection with GPS and mapping. More Plazes.com type hyperlocal offerings. 5. Verticals : MySpace about LA music. Social Networks will continue to verticalise into specific genres - Music, sports, entertainment + church.

11. Tag /Blogging Text, Images, Video 5 BLOGGING TRENDS THAT MATTER : 1. Australia Expansion - The mass public is aware of "blogs", many read them without knowing. Many have commented on one. As Telstra BigBlog and ninemsn spaces, fox myspace market blogging, the next 2 years will see 100% + blog growth. 2. Social Networking Again - New services like vox.com have social networks and neighbourhoods integrated into the core blogging functionality. 3. Vlogging + Podcasting - Blogs are generally text and image upload, with ability to embed video. This will broaden to allow simple upload and embedding, syndicating of video and audio. . 4. Product Blogging - After individuals, small to medium businesses will rely on blogs to sell product. They will require custom tools, templates and marketing programs to market and sell. 5. The Long Tail - The growth of amatuer and pro content will mean the long tail keeps growing. Ecosystems like myspace will continue to be "blockbusters". SIXAPART VS WORDPRESS

12. Tag /Podcasting Content, Networks, Platforms 5 PODCASTING TRENDS THAT MATTER : 1. More Podcasts : Setting up a podcast is still hard - Recording the audio requires a microphone; Software like garageband to record; Editing is a mess; Then hosted with a libsyn or podshow; promoted and syndicated through networks such as TPN, Podcast Alley and Ipodder. There will be a continued huge growth of pro radio content such as Merrick + Rosso. 2. Pod Platforms : For consumers of podcasts it is too hard to download, sync and listen to a podcast. You need to isolate the rss feed, download a program such as Itunes or Ipodder and then get the file into your MP3 player or Ipod. Most people still just listen to the MP3 file on their computer. 3. Apple Monster : Itunes is sending cease and desist letters to companies with "Podcast" in their name. Itunes has the largest market share of the podcast market of listeners. It's the google of podcasting. 4. Phonecasting : Nokia and Motorola dont want people using Ipods to make phone calls. Thats why they are giving you Ipod functionality in their new phones. The next step will be ability to record a podcast in mp3 and immediately upload it onto your blog and the web. 5. Skypecasting : One feature that will double the podcasting market overnight is the ability to record mp3 podcast ready audio through Skype.

13. Tag /Open_Source GPL, Database, Indexing 5 OPEN SOURCE TRENDS THAT MATTER : 1. Open Source : Postgres, Lucene, MySQL have all been essential to the development of gnoos and our related businesses. The cost of entry to develop a web application is now 1/10th of previous cost : $50k-$200k budgets to build and run a Web 2.0 application vs $500k to $2m in dot com 1.0 days. 2. GPL v3 : With open source it's all about the community - You need to know the rules that govern how the application you are using can be applied. If you are licensing the service, you cant charge for the actual open source piece, but you can for the physical work to develop and support. And you have to give back. 3. Proprietary Assets : While using open source assets in your build, you need to know which pieces of glue and what proprietary assets you are building. Things that you own. With gnoos we own our own Australian Blog Index . 4. Commercial API's : For modern web applications, often the optimal combination is to use open source, proprietary built components as well as custom white labelled commercial API's from Web 2.0 companies overseas. 5. Engineers + Developer Community : While there are many php and java developers, the challenge is to find geeks that are smart enough to learn the specific open source and commercial API elements. Ideally you can find those that have worked on Postgres, MySql, Wordpress, Microformats, XHTML/CSS/Ajax.

14. This document, prepared specifically for the benefit of News.com.au Ltd the intellectual property of Feedcorp Pty Ltd. It is protected by copyright and it is presented in circumstances of complete confidentiality. It remains the exclusive property of Feedcorp Pty Ltd and must not be given, reproduced, or disseminated, to any person, public authority, institution or organization without the express permission of Feedcorp Pty Ltd in writing.  Feedcorp Pty Ltd 2006 CONTACT DETAILS Feedcorp Pty Ltd ABN 85 115 461 133 33 Regent Street, Elsternwick VIC 3185 Australia Telephone +61 3 9528 6570 Ben Barren: Michael Leone: Mobile: 0406 516 156 Mobile: 0419 525 088 Email ben@feedcorp.com.au Email: michael@feedcorp.com.au http://benbarren.blogspot.com