MediaFuturist: News

How to Capitalise On 21st Century Content Economics…

Here is my short letter via the Terrapinn blog announcing my opening keynote speech at the World eReading Summit in London, May 15/16, 2012.

"I am a longtime commentator on how the digital, mobile and social-media revolution has left Publishers reeling and in a state of total change or even disruption. This is a call to action to transform your business to embrace and conquer the digital age. Failure to do so will mean inevitable friction, market confusion and possibly a dysfunctional content ecosystem, when on the other hand you could stand to profit from long term revenue generating opportunities.

It is often said that where attention flows money follows (*Kevin Kelly kk.org), but the question is how, where and when to convert them. Today, digital natives are viewers, users, followers, friends, co-creators, co-producers or crowd-sourced collaborators, all-in-one. Going forward, data is becoming the new oil, and understanding, analysing, predicting and staying ahead of your ‘connected consumers’ is quickly becoming a MUST for your business in 2012 and beyond!

So far, technological content protection measures have not been successful. Instead, future ‘protection’ will need to come from the business models and from social cohesion. Delivering tangible value and inventing new free, freemium, feels-like-free models will be crucially important. Just look at Skype, Spotify, Amazon and the undisputed master of ‘free’ – Google. You need to asses the role ‘free’ will play in your business. How will you monetize your content and which new and innovative revenue generating concepts will transform the commercial prospects of your business? Yes, methods of monetizing content are fragmented, but also much more powerful, immediate and liquid than ever. This industry, this transitional period and the World e-Reading Congress 2012 are all key opportunities to harness your digital footprint and develop strategies that will pay dividends in solid revenue. I look forward to meeting you all at the World e-Reading Congress next May.”  Gerd Leonhard, CEO, The Futures Agency – Opening Keynote Speaker 2012.

Posted by Gerd Leonhard at 4:59 AM in 21st Century Content Ecology, Announcements, Bottom Lines, Broadband Culture, Conferences, Content 2.0, Copyright, Creative Rights, Cultural Industries, Data is the new Oil, Disruption, eBooks, EgoSystem EcoSystem, Free!, Future of Books, Future of Content, Future of Media, Meet me @, Monetizing Content, My speaking engagements, Networked Society, News, Open Network Economy, Politics of Content | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The Futures Agency is hiring: Content Curator wanted (freelance)

UPDATE: the role has been filled - tba shortly!

My company, The Futures Agency, is hiring a talented and creative Content Curator. This position is virtual i.e. not in our office, so you can be based anywhere. Start date is January 10, 2012.

The Futures Agency and its 25 partners helps companies, organizations and individuals to better understand - and then, act upon - the challenges and opportunities facing us in the next 2-5 years. We aim to develop and make tangible the most important foresights, and work with our clients to imagine and create their preferred futures. We are structured as a virtual organization with global reach, and offer a variety of unique and customized services to our clients, worldwide, such as think-tanks and seminars, keynote speeches and provocations.

To enhance our online presence and to better contribute to the conversations via our many social media platforms we are looking for a part-time, freelance digital media expert to serve as content curator for our various online channels such as our blog, our various Twitter channels, Youtube, Tumblr, Facebook and Slideshare.

Your role:

Research, identify and evaluate suitable sources (including those run by TFA's partners)
Publish the best and most relevant content (i.e. realizations, stories, bottom-lines and other valuable nuggets) via our various online / social media channels, as well as on our mobile apps
Occasionally write summaries of posts and essays submitted by our team members
Develop and implements strategies to build TFA's relationships and visibility online
Follow new media developments and introduce new tools to enhance TFA's global reach

Your skills

Deep interest and some experience in discovering future trends and delivering foresights, specifically in digital media, content and communications as well as in the topics listed below
Excellent understanding of social media and online publishing platforms
Ability to work fast and curate a large number of incoming content on many different topics (including video)
Excellent command of the English language (you don't have to be a native speaker but flawless English is required)
You must be able to work independently i.e. remotely with our CEO (Gerd Leonhard) and the team in Switzerland as well as with our partners, globally, and in various time-zones

Some of our topics

The Future of Business
Media / Content
Social Media, Social Networking & Social Commerce
eCommerce and Retailing
Telecoms & Wireless
Advertising, Marketing & Branding
Public Relations & Communications
Copyright and IPR
Recorded Music & Music Publishing
Radio, TV & Broadcasting
Online Gaming & Virtual Worlds
Film / TV / Video
Print / News / Journalism
Education & Training
Cultural Policy
Travel & Tourism, Future of Conferences & Conventions
Banking and Financial Services

We offer an exiting, open and highly interesting work environment with a high potential for learning, self-realization and growth and are open to candidates from any and all global regions. This position is being offered on a flexible free-lance basis at an estimated 10-12 hours per week. You will be working from your own (home) office and bill us by the end of the month.

Please send your Resumé/CV and a brief summary of our qualifications for this position to office@thefuturesagency.com

Posted by Gerd Leonhard at 8:31 AM in Announcements, News, The Futures Agency | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Announcing my new Kindle book "The Future of Content"

Today is a very big day for me. My new Kindle book "The Future of Content" just went online at Amazon, and is already gaining a lot of traction. You can view a very short video greeting about the book on my GerdTube channel (Youtube:)

Of course I would be very happy if you would consider buying the book for yourself (only $3.90, Kindle-only) but beyond that it would be really great if you could help me spread the word via rating and / or 'liking' the book on the Amazon.com page, tweeting about it or just forwarding this mail to some friends that may be interested.

As you probably know, I have published my last 3 books as free pdfs (which are quite popular) but really wanted to try something new with this book; after all reading on the Kindle is a much better experience than reading a PDF, and thus is, to quote Kevin Kelly, one of those "New Generatives" :)

"The future of content" will also be available in dead-tree-versions aka print, via my Lulu store, soon - please stay tuned. Happy reading!

Gerd Leonhard
(Media Futurist and CEO of The Futures Agency),
Basel / Switzerland
http://twitter.com/#!/gleonhard
My public Amazon / Kindle profile
(sharing all my book highlights there)

Update October 25 2011: this nice review may be helpful:

Increases brain power for content creators, October 25, 2011

By

Suzanna Stinnett

This review is from: The Future of Content (Kindle Edition)

"I challenge you to expand your brain and read this book. What Gerd Leonhard is always doing is informing the global brain (or the collective brain) in ways that help us all get where we're trying to go. He builds the buildings in front of us.

This collection points toward several compelling answers for content creators. As a writer who is already swimming in the changing currents of "content," I found it intensely informative. Leonhard shores up my courage to continue embracing a digital world without DRM, and ebook prices "for the masses." He makes the all-important concept of curation crystal clear. If you are providing any kind of content in print or on the web, it's relevant. If you want to stay on the front edge of content creation and publishing, it's basic. I'm making this book mandatory reading for my epublishing circles"

Amazon Kindle German Store
Amazon Kindle French Store
Amazon Kindle UK Store

ABOUT "THE FUTURE OF CONTENT"
Futurist Gerd Leonhard has been writing about the future of content i.e. music, film, TV, books, newspapers, games etc, since 1998. He has published 4 books on this topic, 2 of them on music (The Future of Music, with David Kusek, and Music 2.0). For the past 10 years Leonhard has been deeply involved with many clients in various sectors of the content industry, in something like 17 countries, and it’s been a great experience, he says. “I have learned a lot, I have listened a lot, I have talked even more (most likely:) and I think I have grown to really understand the issues that face the content industries - and the creators, themselves - in the switch from physical to digital media.”

This Kindle book is a highly curated collection of the most important essays and blog posts Leonhard has written on this topic, and even though some of it was written as far back as 2007 - “I believe it still holds water years later. I have tried to only include the pieces that have real teeth. Please note that the original date of each piece is shown here in order to allow for contextual orientation.” Leonhard’s intent to publish this via the amazing Amazon Kindle platform, exclusively, and at a very low price, is to make these ideas and concepts as widely available as possible while still trying to be an example of what digital, paperless distribution can look like, going forward.

Posted by Gerd Leonhard at 11:46 AM in Branding, Broadband Culture, CHANGE, Consumer Insights, Copyright, Creative Rights, Creativity, Crossmedia, Crowdsourcing, Data is the new Oil, Decentralization, Disruption, EgoSystem EcoSystem, Emerging Markets, End of Control, Future of Advertising, Future of Books, Future of Broadcasting, Future of Business, Future of Film, Future of Journalism, Future of Media, Future of PR & Communications, Future of Reading, Future of Sports, Innovation, Interviews, IPR, Link Economy, Mobility, Music Flat Rate, Music Like Water, Must Reads, Must-haves, My writings, Open Network Economy, Open Source, Politics of Content, Predictions, Reading 2.0, Resources, Search, Sharism, Social Commerce, Social Media, Social Networks, Storytelling Trends, Telecom2.0, The Futures Agency, UGC | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

My latest posts via The Future of Business Tumblr blog

via Futureof.biz

rss feed widget

Posted by Gerd Leonhard at 4:29 PM in Blogging, Future of Business, Networked Society, News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Check out my Future of Business blog on Tumblr

I started using Tumblr a year ago, and because of its easy use of viral tools and instant-post options via Instapaper etc I have build a pretty good following there, already. I usually post interesting snippets I find via Twitter, Flipboard or my 1000+ RSS feeds (no, I don't actually read all of them), and only the most crucial ones are presented. In other words, this is not a river but a drip-feed:) Check it out at Futureof.biz , on any mobile devices try the new Conduit-powered mobile app.

Posted by Gerd Leonhard at 9:54 AM in About Me, Announcements, Attention Economy, Blogging, Me, Mobile, Must Reads, My Mobile App, News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

New PEW report: the state of media. Read this. Now.

Here. Poynter.org has some good comments. Futureof.biz source. Stateofthemedia.org

Advertising bounces back - but not for print - and online leads along with LocalTV (US)

ads back but not for print

Radical move of audiences to the Internet: chew on this.

Audiences move to the web

Posted by Gerd Leonhard at 1:42 PM in Advertising Trends, Bottom Lines, eCommerce, Future of Advertising, Future of Marketing, Future of Media, News, Print & Newspapers, Realizations, Resources, Trends | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Cool video trailer announcing my speaking gig in Doha / Qatar, December 6, 2010

Nice to see this kind of creativity from an event organizer. Way to go, ICTQatar! Meet me there if you're close-by or spread the word. Thanks.

"The Future of the Content and Media Industries: New Business Models and Opportunities. ICTQATAR's Connected Speaker Series continues on Monday, December 6, with renowned Media Futurist Gerd Leonhard. Every content and media industry - film, TV, radio, gaming, software, music, publishing and news- has been severely impacted by the explosive growth of the Internet and the empowerment of the hyper-connected consumer. Facebook is now the biggest broadcaster in the world, the full convergence of TV and Internet is here, telecoms are entering into the media fray, advertisers are switching their budgets to digital media in hordes and "free" or "freemium" content seems to be irreversible. What is the future for the content and media industries? Where will new revenues come from and who will pay for what? Who will be the winners and the losers in the new digital realm? Gerd Leonhard, described by the Wall Street Journal as "one of the leading media futurists in the world," will take on these questions and more as part of ictQATAR's Connected Speakers Series on Monday December 6, 2010 at Ritz Carlton Hotel, Doha, Qatar from 6 -8 p.m."

Register today at: http://connectedspeakers.eventbrite.com !

Posted by Gerd Leonhard at 7:44 PM in 21st Century Content Ecology, Announcements, Broadband Culture, Conferences, News, Social Media, Videos I Like | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Announcing my new company: The Futures Agency (TFA)

Today I am delighted to officially announce my new company, The Futures Agency (TFA). TFA is based in Basel, Switzerland and is currently comprised of 15 amazing people i.e. Associates that are working with me on an independent basis; additional team members will be announced shortly. Think of us as a 'band' of futurists and foresight-experts, visionaries, advsiors and idea-curators ...and you'll get the idea.

I will serve as CEO and plan to grow this company into one of the most amazing agencies on the planet, employing these 5 key principles:

Knowledge grows when shared (therefore we share everything)
Proudly find elsewhere (PFE)
Do what you do best and link to the rest (Jeff Jarvis)
Spend less time being important and more time being relevant
The leaders of the future are connectors - not just directors

(If you need more of my favorite memes please go here)

I am extremely pleased to have been able to gather some of the sharpest minds and greatest people, anywhere, including:

Glen Hiemstra (Futurist.com) Seattle, USA
Neil Perkin (Digital Strategist and Social Technologist), London
Jonathan MacDonald (Marketing / Social Media Strategist and Consultant), London
Alan Moore (Community, Branding & Marketing Strategist), London
Mike Masnick (Techdirt Founder and Content Strategist), San Francisco
Jack Myers (Media Economist and Futurist), New York
Rudy de Waele (Mobile Guru and Strategist), Barcelona
Clive Rich (Digital Media Law Expert, Strategist), London
Didier Marlier (Leadership and Change Expert, Coach, Professor at FDC Brazil), Geneva, Switzerland
Lars Cosh-Ishii (Japan Expert, Mobile Guru), Tokyo, Japan
Kei Shimada (Mobile Expert, Founder & CEO Infinita, Japan)
Ross Dawson (Futurist), Sydney, Australia
Brian Newman (Film Futurist), New York
David Smith (Futurist at TheGFF, London)
Mikael Jensen (Digital Media Strategist, formerly at TDC Play, Copenhagen, Denmark)

This amazing team of powerful individuals and collaborators is supported by Project Manager Gabi Ruttloff, in Zürich, and (Multimedia) Journalist, (Social) Scientist, Researcher & Creative Dr. Martin Strickman, in Cologne, Germany.

The purpose of TFA is to provide our clients with a lot more firepower and emotional intelligence when answering this key question: What does the future bring, and how do we prepare for it...?

Or, to put it more proactively (for those inclined to that sort of thing;): Which future do we really want to create?

TFA offers seminars, workshops, think-tanks and advisory sessions ranging from 3-5 hours to 3 days, with anywhere from 2 to 10 people, worldwide. Some of our thinktanks may use a format called the Disruption Experience which I have been finetuning together with my good friend and world-renowned leadership expert Didier Marlier, who lives in Switzerland as well. Other thinktanks may use our "FuturesExperience" format, and additional formats will be announced soon. As an example, a few weeks ago TFA undertook a really amazing mission for a one of the largest mobile operators and telcos in Africa; 3 days of serious future-thinking and plotting with the executive team. Hopefully I can share some of those stories with you in the future.

Some of us were already tweeting together at Futurefeed, but in addition we will now bundle all efforts as follows: Twitter (@futuresagency), the blog (RSS feed), Youtube and Slideshare.

Posted by Gerd Leonhard at 5:34 PM in About Me, Announcements, Best of Gerd, CHANGE, Companies to watch, Cool people, Current Affairs, Emerging Markets, Me, Must Reads, News, The Futures Agency | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Announcing my appointment as Visiting Professor at the Fundaco Dom Cabral (Brazil), one of the world's leading business schools

I am delighted and honored to have been officially appointed as 'Visiting Professor' at the prestigious Fundacao Dom Cabral (FDC) in Brazil (based in Sao Paulo and Belo Horizonte). FDC is ranked number 6 on the list of global business schools and executive education providers (see below), and collaborates globally with Kellogs and Insead. Download the FT Rankings of global B-Schools (5 MB PDF)

I will be teaching, presenting, giving talks and delivering speeches in Brazil on a regular basis, both for FDC's many executive training programs, and events, as well as for their own staff and internal training. Some of my previous work for FDC can be found here: The Future of Business (slide-show) and Shifting to the Open Network Economy (slide-show).

Related work in Brazil includes my appearance on the RodaViva TV Show, my collaboration with the NBS agency (Future of Communications event in Feb 2010), and my work with Feira Musica Brazil (Future of Music - Music 2.0 in Brazil).

At this point I also want to thank some of the key 2 people that have egged me on to do more work on Brazil: leadership guru, innovation expert and fellow FDC professor Didier Marlier and music business entrepreneur and iMusica founder Felippe Llerena - thanks to both of you for bringing me to Brazil! Going forward, you can track my travel dates and plans (incl. most of the Brazil trips) via Dopplr, or via my Twitter stream; my next trip is June 21-26. When teaching at FDC in Sao Paulo or Belo Horizonte I may also be available for think-tanks and various speaking engagements in Brazil - just ping me if you are interested.

Posted by Gerd Leonhard at 10:09 AM in About Me, Announcements, Brazil, BRIC, Emerging Markets, FDC Brazil, Future of Business, Meet me @, My speaking engagements, News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Announcing new, exclusive Content for my free iPhone & Android apps

My mobile phone apps for iPhone and Android were just released a few weeks ago and over 1000 people are already using them - very cool. And they will remain 'free' as well - the only thing you'll have to pay is... attention. As promised, and in-line with my new "Mobile First" mantra, I have been busy (re)-creating and formating exclusive content that you can only get via the iPhone or Android apps, such as various new podcasts and audio-only versions of my presentations, audio/mp3 versions of select chapters of my books, previously unpublished pictures etc. Check out the Flickr screenshots below and go get your app, now. For mobile phones users that don't have an iPhone or Android device, check out my mobile lifestream page and the mobile version of my Music 2.0 book.

Posted by Gerd Leonhard at 11:43 AM in Announcements, Apps, Me, Mobile, Mobility, News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Great news: The MediaFuturist Android / Google app is now available, for free, as well, following the iPhone app launch last week

Go get it now, while it's still free (I will be announcing my business model for my mobile apps next week). Mobile first, from now on!

Posted by Gerd Leonhard at 1:12 PM in About Me, Android, Announcements, Future of News, Future of PR & Communications, Gerd in the media, Me, Meet me @, Mobile, Mobility, Monetizing Content, MY PRESENTATIONS, My videos, My writings, News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Mobile first, from now on: the Media Futurist iPhone app is now ready for 1000 free users

As Google's Eric Schmidt said at the Mobile World Congress a few days ago: from now on, it's MOBILE FIRST. Right he is! He probably didn't know this (or disguised it cleverly) but incidentally my iPhone app, powered by the very swift and happening MobileRoadie people in LA, was approved 2 days ago and is now live in the app store.

The app will provide you with a much simplified and quicker way to access pretty much everything that I publish (now that's a scary thought), including my videos, my podcasts, my blog, my tweets, my lifestream, my images and illustrations, and of course my slideshows - pretty much everything but my bank account;).

Talking about 'bank': I will be creating a lot of app-exclusive content in the next few weeks, and will really build up my mobile presence in order to be ready for the iPad and other tablet devices which I intend to use for 'futuristic' publishing purposes, i.e. for monetizing my work in new ways. Therefore - and in keeping with the Freemium theme - the first 1000 users will get this app for free, afterward my costs will go up a bit and the app will cost a whopping $1.99.

So hurry and get your free version now, while you still can (several hundred have already been downloaded in the past 24 hours). I would also be delighted if you could share this news with anyone that may be interested; it looks like lots of students and university folks are already downloading it and that sounds like a good fit, too. Please re-tweet and spread the word.

I will, of course, offer an Android app as soon as MobileRoadie comes up with the goodies, and the same goes for iPad-ready formats (I have some very special plans for that... too early to share but... it will be exciting). As to the Freemium: I will probably try to offer both a basic, free version as well as a paid version, in the future - it all depends on the demand. You tell me.

If you don't have an iPhone, don't despair: you can still use my mobile lifestream site, read my blog's mobilized version, or get the entirely mobilized Music 2.0 book for free, as well.

Lastly, if you like this app and want one, too (does anyone not?), I do have some discount codes for the MobileRoadie platform - ping me to find out more.

Posted by Gerd Leonhard at 5:06 PM in About Me, Announcements, Apps, Attention Economy, Best of Gerd, Content 2.0, Cool Tools, Future of Content, iPhone, Marketing2.0, mCommerce, Me, Must-haves, My videos, My writings, News, Reading 2.0, Real-Time Web, Social Media | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Check out the new Futerati: feed aggregator / reader with my favorite tweeps

As previewed a few weeks ago, the new beta version of my crowd-sourced tweeple aggregator and tweet-reader "Futerati" is now online and open to all. Futerati is basically a curated site that displays my favorite Twitter people, presented in 20+ categories such as Futurists, Authors, Thought-Leaders, Bloggers, Visionaries etc. You can review all the latest tweets on one page, including the images and videos (much like the Power-Twitter plug-in for Firefox), and you can follow all of them with just a few clicks.

I quite like it - in fact, I am reading a lot of my Twitter updates via Futerati now, myself. Do let me know how you like it. I am still adding people all the time, btw, so... stay tuned!