GEO.Info Domains UNITE!

October 25, 2007 on 10:25 pm | In Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Recently I was talking to Sai Pola and reading some of the replies to his threads regarding the .info geo alliance.

The first factor I’m thinking about is the composition of partners, as well as the administrative and segmented decision-making for the various concerns such as stand-alone technology, syndication for content, and syndication or integration of advertisement insertion.
Those with large cities, or state names, and, other attraction names such as

GrandCanyon.info , other parks, and geo-names…

Their first imperative is to great an interface that works.

Something like pageflakes, perhaps more basic, but customizable.

Then, there is the network. Its very important to have a local directory, along with a social network for the site. In addition to an internal social network, it is also important to:

Aggregate Blogs and other Media

and

Co-Syndicate with other Social Media, Wikis, etc.

Other important “must-haves” of a regional page is the directory of business services.

This clearly needs to be a good directory, with feedback, voting, and enabling regular updates from the listings by those who are included in the catalog.

Email newsletter lists need to be created for all major interests like Live Events, Business Networking, Discounts, etc.

Ways to allow merchants to build their own lists is also another good option for some niches.

Forms of advertising that need to be supported:

Pay per Click Search
Pay per Click Contextual
Cost per Impression – Display Advertising
Cost per Action – Affiliate Marketing
Advertorials
Press Releases
Pay-Per-CALL
Newsletter Buys
Editorial Partnerships – Payola

Of yeah, and I forgot, a web page portal feature that the consumer has begun to EXPECT when they consider a new homepage, or starting point, is a

SEARCH UTILITY

The main forms of advertisements will be in the hotel, travel, and REAL ESTATE markets.

Having successful embedded social web services, AKA widgets, placed into top social networks like Facebook and Myspace will enable viral branding exposure.

In facebook, the programming Application Iterface for 3rd party developers is rather extensive.

In all ways embedded advertisements should be placed on these networks to drive awareness of the GEO.infos

The above speaks stricktly of technology concerns. The ability to have a social network, to have a business directory, a classified ads site, and a
social wiki…all in one.

It does not speak to two other important concerns:

1. Content – Domains will work best with a variety of large web feeds to tap into, and perhaps refine..as well as purely editorial content (especially for larger markets)

newyork.info could probably support a dedicated dating columnist… a lesser-populated city might have to settle with something that’s data looks like a templated www.90210.com

But, once each member has access to the technology they need to manage their feeds, their users, their exclusive and selected content…they’ll be free to
engage in the marketplace for users and advertisers.

Beyond the technological collective where software is made available to the collective, there is also the natural synergy of bundling for logistical reasons
in finding advertiser demand…..as well as consumer demand.

The volume the aggregate network can offer to national Real Estate and Travel brands becomes substantial, and worth the effort.

There is also a large degree of cross-site fertilization, College-age people typically reside in two states at once. Many people have multiple residences.

Other people will travel often, and begin using .infos as their preferred destination, if they can expect a high-quality experience.

In any ways, I am a firm believer that .us domains, even .com domains should be allowed access to the technology , software aspects of the collective.

Since, its good to grow on a platform that will eventually be enhanced by external applications, and compatibility will be a tremendous benefit.

They key is to not work with the non .info domains on content-syndication, and advertisement network collaboration.

The imperative is that a high number of premium .info domains have enough of a membership to have a consistent experience with consumers and advertisers.

Ad netogiations will be strengthened, and access to larger advertisers will be possible with a large distributed network.

Content relationships will be even more chaotic.

Depending on the demands of the market, they may want to access certain content feeds.

They could choose free ones, not associated with any member of the collective.

They could choose content that is free to all in the collective.

They could have content that is part of an exclusive sub-section of the collective, and perhaps external people as well. (at a higher price)

They might make their own content, and chose to sell it or trade it with others.

Each domain has a different profile, and overall value, which would justify going into different degrees.

The key is that there would be ways to support all of these decisions within the framework, with a Digital Rights Management System.

To create, implement, and package, and deploy the technology, and make the initial content integrations, will be a substantial amount of money.

Bare bones, we’re talking $250,000.00 to $500,000.00

Its small by most Web Startup Standards, and serves a collective appropriately.

Some members may have some cash, and wnat to be part of the investment aspect.

There may be media investors who want to take a big stake.

Its important that an judicial committe be created that is not partial to the investors / media providers, nor partial to
the domain owners.

An independent authority which at least manages the technological development of the system which will control the standards.

We will be making our own microformats.

See microformats.org

Its possible domainers and content owners may have different ideas of what those formats would be, or how they would be supported in the
standard interfaces that we are all building a brand to platform.

In all, it is probably proper that issues of the minimal common language that enables the syndicated network be managed by a independent board which consists
of representatives from domainers, advertisers, as well as Intellectual property managers and technological architects.

Members are free to develop further enhancements on content syndication, but basic protocols must be followed if advertisment inventory, user-behavior, and
content are to be made available in common markets.

The CONTENT part of the collective will be governmed by a chaotic mix mesh of free and exclusive, and syndicated content.

Overall, the individual domainers will have FULL control of the software they use, provided the license it through cash, or revenue share on advertising.

The only place where the consortium will come into play is how their fully-self-operating portal can collaborate and synchronize , and optimize based
on information from other domains, or advertisement relationships.

So, they do own the technology. And they are a member of the overall network.

When a network affiliate ( a domainer) is involved in taking upfront advertising, or is opted into a federated advertisment network, then their obligation
would clearly be to maintain a running web site that can serve advertisments.

Other .info domains may prefer to not be a member of the network-proper with its obligations to accept media buys from the central federation. Perhaps they will be more like a Customer of the advertising network.

Perhaps someone like LasVegas.info would feel their better off going direct with their illustrious market.

Perhaps small markets I’ve never heard of feel the federal area won’t be serving their needs.

Maybe they start their own “in the middle of nowhere .INFO ” Marketing alliance.

Who knows.

Its really best to allow options, get a critical mass doing a simple integration…..allow options for the large guys and the small guys with special concerns…

I have been working on the social networking experience, www.ConnectSociety.com

Also, I have a site at www.linkassociation.com which serves as a portal , directory, reciproal-link, and also generic web object management system. I’ve also programmed it to understand tags, and also, “Relational Tags”

which point to one objects (such as a URL, or item on a list) is tagged with another object……..along with a conjunctive STRING element denoting their relationship.

Essentially, I’m looking to move this into something Supporting the RDF – Resource Description Language for Assertions.

Other integrations down the line will be supporting heirarchies, and even more general organizational ontologies with OWL, the Web Ontology Language.

What these two things collectively do is allow people to communicate about the “things” that are on the sites……as well as the “categories”, or “concepts” they use to distinguish between discrete sets of those things.

This takes HTML to a level supporting a logical grammar.

You have nouns (objects, links, resources)…verbs (processes) , adjectives (attributes) ,

And, for logicians, there are 3 kinds of adverbs. Ones that modify verbs, ones that modify adjectives, and ones that modify other adverbs.

One great search engine is hakia.com . Try searching for the phrase “What’s What”.

Since this engine is OBJECT or NOUN-BASED…..semi-intelligent……it actually knows that your query is incoherent. I like it when my search engine knows I”m trying to pull a fast one on it.

This engine will also admit when its results are a little more shaky. How’s that for honesty? They’re coming out with a social search feature where you can join groups based on your search behavior.

How about that? I AI like this is really the frontier of the syndicated media system.

Back to Features…..Having Toobars and Plug-ins Weather, Sports, and what all the other pedestrian interests the locals are so fond of.

The technology aspect of the domainers should also be thinking about how to integrate with Firefox, and Internet Explorer, to further enhance the experience for end-users across the networks.

Desktop Applications anyone?

This could also be a way for people to show local pride in their email addresses.

Somehow matt@newyork.info , (upper east side) recalls better than mattcrobson@gmail.com

Although the .infos have a lot to gain by having a ultra-high experience level, I think accomodating the .nets, other .coms and (gasp) .us domains could be useful for technology and even controlled content swaps.

Just not advertisement integration, or co-branding with similar look and feel, and mandated “zoning and decency” laws.