Jeremiah Owyang discusses how web tools and social media enable companies to connect with customers

Trendwatch: “MicroMedia” provides bite-sized voice and video to micro audiences

MicroBlogging evolves to MicroMedia
Forget “Video Snacking” that term is soooo old, way back in April at Ad:Tech. That’s for short video content on the go, often consumed on mobile. 5-10 minutes of fast content.

In addition to Video Snacking, a new type of media style has evolved. You know about Micromessaging services like Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku, and 3Jam, many of the inner circle have adopted those.

Tools and conditions are favorable
Mobile devices are getting better at capturing video and audio. Some Nokia phones have 5 megapixel cameras in them. On board cameras are becoming standard for most laptops, and I’ve several webcams I can access at anytime. Like most online media and ways we communicate, we start with text, go to audio, and then evolve to Video, the same applies to the Micro channel. So what’s new? MicroMedia. What’s the definition of Micromedia here’s mine:

[MicroMedia: Quick audio or video messages published to a trusted social community. May be created and consumed using mobile technology, and often distributed using other social media tools, listen to this example.]

Examples:
There’s a few pioneers using these tools, Scoble has been using Dave Winer’s Twittergrams at the Techcrunch 9 party. What’s a Twittergram? It’s him with his mobile phone dialing a number and doing a mini-podcast. It then publishes to Twitter, and he adds it on his blog. They are short, just about half a minute, and are mini-interviews. While Robert is clearly publishing it to the public, one should note he considers the world to be his trusted network.

More folks are creating and publishing videos to their networked friends (only folks they allow to see) on Facebook, there’s Kyte TV, and Facebook video. It’s really an evolution of email, now with video. David Geller’s Eyejot does this too.

MicroAudience
These tools, while they could be broadcasted public, often have small controlled audiences of friends and families, they are Micro Audiences, or as what we call narrowcasting.

What’s to come?

More individuals will be publishing audio from mobile devices (then video) or video from the embedded cameras in laptops to their trusted networks. We’ll start to see more evolution of text to also these micromedia formats. Don’t worry, text isn’t’ going away, it’s one of the fastest ways to consume info, but we’ll see more richer media.

47 Comments so far

  1. David Krug July 29th, 2007 12:07 pm

    All good points thanks for sharing out in the open :)

  2. […] I’ve heard of is Sketchcasting, Bobcasting, and then there’s other favorites like MicroBlogging, mobBlogging, Live Blogging, and perhaps even more I don’t know about or can’t think of […]

  3. Traveling with Kyte.tv « Scobleizer July 29th, 2007 5:27 pm

    […] Jeremiah Owyang has an interesting post on “micromedia” and if you visit my Facebook profile I answer him, and another question about how microblogging […]

  4. Bjorn July 29th, 2007 8:16 pm

    hmm, micromedia… this might be a useful label for the twitter-like messaging services. thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. =D

  5. Deepak July 30th, 2007 12:02 am

    Great post. As you allude to later in the post, text is always going to be very powerful and should be included in any definition of micromedia. It will be interesting to see who actually ends up using these new ways to communicate and how. In other words, is sending mom pictures from your cellphone a microaudience?

  6. Krish July 30th, 2007 12:36 am

    I see a potential growth in the business side too. My company back in India (in which I am a partner) uses twitter to communicate with their customers. We find twitter more useful because of the mobile phone compatibility and direct messaging capability. I see the same use with micromedia too. Offering personalized short notes to customer using video. Suppose a tech is working on the customer’s project, he can use micromedia to send out a quick note to the customer. This adds a personal touch and benefits the company in the long run.

  7. Marius July 30th, 2007 1:30 am

    Now, kyte.tv allows you to even ‘audio or video chat’, either from the mobile-phone or the pc!

    You should check it out. it’s, as ‘krish’ already mentioned, a new and very personal way on communicating within communities.

  8. […] kaldes for MicroMedia. Det nye dyr i åbenbaringen, som Jeremiah Owyang beskriver det. Efter at alle - med eller uden noget på hjerte - har haft deres mulighed for 3 minutters […]

  9. […] Yesterday I tried to define what tools like Kyte, 3Jam, Facebook Video, and Twittergrams are. They’re bite sized versions of media, and often have mobile and social media hooks. Read about MicroMedia. […]

  10. Changes in Orbit- Standby…

    In case you missed it, and some may have, as Jimmy Daniels pointed out on this post that didn’t make it, that some entries are not making it to the front page. Apologies for this, but things are moving and getting broken in the movement. Like this pos…

  11. Carolyne July 30th, 2007 5:52 am

    MicroMedia is/was the name of a online database provider here in Canada. THey were purchased by ProQuest.
    also
    Micromedia Inc. is a privately held company located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Micromedia Inc. has been providing unix, web, network, programming, and database consulting services since 1995, but not graphic design.

    This domain name is in use, is trademarked, and is not for sale.

  12. Tina M Bjers July 30th, 2007 10:02 am

    Really interesting - thank you! I think this will also emerge to more traditional news reporting, with journalists on the field doing micro media from i e the UN, a big accident or the stock market.

  13. jeremiah_owyang July 30th, 2007 10:18 am

    Scoble is breaking news from his Twitter, such as the earthquake that recently happened. He heard about it on Twitter, and told someone who had family in the area.

    Yup, in fact the concept of the news ticker is not new!

  14. […] increasingly pervasive “micro” term, used to describe everything from the nature of today’s content to the characteristics of markets. We are moving toward a marketing world that is driven by a […]

  15. […] Rubel and I exchanged emails early this morning. I asked him for his thought on how MicroMedia was taking hold. If you remember, Rubel was one of the fanatics of Twitter when it first hit the […]

  16. […] to turn one outlet into the one thing for everyone. We thrive here by embracing and utilizing the micromedia model. So I think the fact that someone I don’t know found Kevin and started reading SPR very […]

  17. Getting Kyte.tv–TechBizMedia July 31st, 2007 10:15 pm

    […] at first, but once you understand the concept, it is quite powerful. Perhaps this is what micromedia is all […]

  18. […] Trendwatch: “MicroMedia” provides bite sized voice and video to micro audiences […]

  19. […] doubt, Orkut and Friendster too). So now he’s talking up “MicroMedia,” which he defines as: Quick audio or video messages published to a trusted social community. May be created and […]

  20. Braxton August 1st, 2007 11:10 am

    Great post - we have been watching the micromedia trend evolve quickly on Zannel. A lot of attention has gone to prominent bloggers and various technorati, but an interesting phenomenon we are seeing is the uptake in the urban community. These people use their phones much more than computers, and are using micromedia to communicate directly as well as convey their core identity. We see pictures of tattoos, quick videos of cars peeling out, etc. All of this is social media focused on expression and communication rather than entertainment or information broadcasting.

  21. […] Owyang began a conversation the other day on his blog “Web Strategy By Jeremiah.” It was picked up by Steve Rubel […]

  22. […] “MicroMedia” provides bite-sized voice and video to micro audiences (via Micropersuasion). Attention spans grow ever-shor […]

  23. Marco Hansell August 4th, 2007 10:06 am

    It’s all very exciting to me, as micromedia changes the face of publishing in general. I’m seeing a lot of the old corporate giants having to make significant changes in their business models in the past year or two in order to adjust to these “disruptors” of their big slow machines. All the traditional newspapers and publishing platforms are certainly threatened by the new people-powered publishing that is becoming so seamless and easy, that I can’t remember the last time I read a newspaper!

  24. links for 2007-08-06 « David Black August 5th, 2007 6:27 pm

    […] “MicroMedia” provides bite-sized voice and video to micro audiences - Web Strategy by Jeremiah “MicroMedia: Quick audio or video messages published to a trusted social community. May be created and consumed using mobile technology, and often distributed using other social media tools” (tags: internet socialmedia blogging unbundling nanopublishing microchunks twitter language neologisms) […]

  25. vaspers the laundry detergent August 6th, 2007 2:32 pm

    Micro-blogging is the New Journalism. Lifecasting is the New Blogging.

    Blogs seem so slow and prolix.

  26. vaspers the laundry detergent August 6th, 2007 2:33 pm

    Micro blogging asynchronous chat status update link archivers like Twitter, Jaiku, and Pownce enable Emergency Communication channels, like in Virginia Tech massacre.

  27. jeremiah_owyang August 6th, 2007 2:43 pm

    Vaspers

    Ustream was used in the virginia tech massacre, a witness talked directly to the press

  28. […] clear to me that email is one of the slowest, blogging is becoming more sluggish as new tools and MicroMedia start to take hold. Networks among the early adopters have already formed and solidified (like […]

  29. […] ready to consume more ‘bits’ of chunky information, hence the coinage of the term MicroMedia. I’ve observed Scoble scanning his feedreader, he ‘imprints’ a post to his mind, […]

  30. Mikro-wpis o “mikro-” August 11th, 2007 1:44 am

    […] Sztandarowym przykładem “mikro” są oczywiście mikro-blogi (np. Twitter, Blip), które pewnie mają tylu samo zwolenników ilu przeciwników. Obie strony zyskają z pewnością nowe argumenty za sprawą mikro-mediów, o których pisze Jeremiah Owyang. […]

  31. […] We’re early adopters of everything: Facebook, Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku, etc. Suddenly, everyone is talking about micro-content. We’re now onto MicroMedia. […]

  32. Dropping a Pebble in the center of the lake August 30th, 2007 6:01 am

    […] is getting smaller, faster, and more connected, I’m seeing this through the adoption of MicroMedia, niche communities, and intimate conversations with smaller groups of folks. Savvy communicators […]

  33. Shout out for schools : The SCHOOPY blog October 5th, 2007 10:51 am

    […] that resulted in “What I’ve Learned”. There is an interesting move to micro content (or MicroMedia) that is making waves on the web these days…Twitter being the most […]

  34. Integrating MicroMedia into my life October 14th, 2007 4:59 am

    […] seen at a Boston ice cream shop, is loving Twitter now, a form of MicroMedia, we both enjoy the rapid conversations and community consciousness we can learn from listening in. […]

  35. Roy October 24th, 2007 3:20 am

    This is know how a document can work without micromedia because I have tried to open a document and for it to open it needs micromedia software to be installed. Please tell me on how I can get to software

  36. Video: Top canadian web companies (2:30 min) October 26th, 2007 4:42 am

    […] the spirit of Micromedia, or Mediasnacking, I keep these videos short and […]

  37. […] just created my first utter, a new mobile web service. What is it? yet another form of MicroMedia (a phrase that I coined, and it’s taking off, see Steve Rubel and […]

  38. B00MBL1TZ. – links for 2007-11-01 October 31st, 2007 6:24 pm

    […] Trendwatch: “MicroMedia” provides bite-sized voice and video to micro audiences Der Begriff gefällt mir: “MicroMedia: Quick audio or video messages published to a trusted social community. May be created and consumed using mobile technology, and often distributed using other social media tools.” (tags: micromedia blogging media) […]

  39. […] short, this event will be a very cool way for you to use your various MicroMedia tools to participate in what has the potential of being a global conversation about the future of […]

  40. […] değişimin ilişkili olduğu bir diğer nokta ise Mikro Medya ismi verilen akımın yükselişe geçmesi. Mikro medya kavramı, Internet üzerindeki sosyal ağlar […]

  41. […] one of the folks that prodded him into blogging, and took this example to show him how I was using MicroMedia (Twitter and Utterz to start with). Since I missed his speaking session, I asked him to summarize […]

  42. Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR November 15th, 2007 10:11 am

    […] My flight is leaving. We landed. Getting in cab. Etc?”. Trust me, there is a method to the MicroMedia madness as both an individual and a commercial communications […]

  43. […] too, thinks it may be part of an emerging micromedia trend, and points to Jeremiah Owyang’s definition: micromedia “provides bite-sized voice and video to micro […]

  44. […] birthday of the term “screencast”. She also talks about screencasting in the context of micromedia, specifically […]

  45. Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR November 25th, 2007 11:18 am

    […] is leaving”. “We landed”. “Getting in cab. Etc?”. Trust me, there is a method to the MicroMedia madness as both an individual and a commercial communications […]

  46. […] time we have to consume it. Even if one were to only focus on micro-niche interests and snack on bite-sized content, demand could never ever scale to match the supply. Content is a commodity. The Attention Crash is […]

  47. […] is leaving”. “We landed”. “Getting in cab. Etc?”. Trust me, there is a method to the MicroMedia madness as both an individual and a commercial communications […]

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