Content and Coding are Not Commodities. SXSW 2012 Presentation

Content && Coding != Commodities

@ SXSW March 11, 2012

Ben Balter (@benbalter)• Hacks/Hacker & White HouseJennifer 8. Lee (@jenny8lee) • Hacks/Hackers

Raju Narisetti (@rajunarisetti) • The Wall Street JournalAndrei Scheinkman (@ascheink)• The Huffington Post

— Problem —Coders see content as

“stuff” and code as “art.” Whereas creators see code as “stuff” and content as “art.”  

Technology view of content:Low-touch.

Scale from quantity.

YouTube (historically).Twitter.Flickr.

Creator’s view of content:High-touch.

Scale comes from quality—hits.

Twilight. Harry Potter

Hunger Games.

Technology can make a difference!

Exciting! Impactful!But then you click through...

?

Is that describing the same job?

There is a culture gap. But...

Coders and “Contenters”actually have a lot in common.

Both want to work with smart people

on interesting problems that have impact.

If you truly grasp that, you have won half the battle.

Our Hack and Hacker Manifesto

for how to work together effectively.

1. Coders and creators are not short-order chefs.

Don’t just give orders.

As leaders of the Hacks/Hackers group, I figured you might be able to help me track down a developer with a bit of time to do a fun journalism project…

A front end developer is needed for an interesting video project by Sii Media, a new video journalism startup founded by Saul Hansell,. The task is to make a working demo of an innovative interactive video newscast format. Skills required are HTML, Javascript (including modifying an existing HTML5 video player), and creating a very simple Web front end to our back-end CMS using API calls. The overall work is probably one person-week of time or so for a good developer, and this needs to be completed before the end of February. Anyone interested should contact [email protected].

Collaboration is key.

Talk in terms of problems. Don’t just assign your solutions.

2. Understand the creative mind of a coder.

Coding can be an art.Code can be like poetry.

3. Speak in a language that motivates writers and creators.

Craft and quality (not just quantity) matters.

Quantity = Scale (of audience). Getting their work

in front of a lot of people.

Btw.Writers hate the term“CMS.”

Content is not something to be “managed.”

“It reduces the heart and soul of journalism — stories, photos, graphics,

the news — into generic ‘content,’ something akin to the unidentifiable

filling in a Twinkie. Ick.”

— Washington Post Ombudsman

5. Acknowledge contribution on both sides.

(Bylines! Credits!)

This is how we get to work that is ...

On the Web vs.

Of the Web.