Steve has a fantastic weblog and fantastic insights into PR and media. Networks used to control all, they were the gatekeepers, net changed everything. Percent of Americans plateauing but huge, daily circulation going down, but not as much as for TV, but that was just the beginning. But broadband was the real change. Real shift in how people interact with the Internet. Visitors to top news sites has plateaued, self-publishing and uploaders dominating. Pew Internet: 84 percent of internet users are self-publishing. Everybody's on the bus. Trust in media vs. peers, soared in 2006, much higher than media, about 70 percent, but has dipped, people have reacted. Need to have a connection to publishers and build bridges to them. Newspaper-sponsored blogs have grown 4x in one year, now more than 4 million.

Embracing the me2revolution: need to connect with people who are influential in a given sector. Sharing: what do you have that uploaders want? Money, can make things, traffic. For an individual $100 may be big, for media it's small. WaPo blogroll, can apply as a blogger and can categorize, if approved you're listed with other bloggers, bloggers get money for ad content. This is the model that you should be looking at [COMMENT: This is the model that you should be looking at]. Different motivators: visibility as well as money, different kinds of visibility. You're not alone in this, pure play Internet portals are looking at offering revenues, including YouTube.

Sharing also means building connections. One lives in Washington state, one lives in Florida, Yahoo offers the ability to put together materials for travelers to learn about one's local area, will certainly be monetized. NYT, no collaboration for crosswords on site. "Every media site will turn into a social network in five years." Houston Chronicle can launch blogs on any subject that you want. Conde Nast tries lipstick.com, social bookmarking for celebrity gossip, bought the play. Need to fit how to fit your content into millions of different places on the Web. Widgets are going to be extremely important, small chunks of content streaming into a page or desktop. Google personal home page, five thousand widgets, not just about an RSS feed, something for people to interact with as well.

Don't ignore the long tail. Everyone wants to have a desktop relationship, but look at what online offers. Widgetbox shows content from all across the Web in widget form, get that "group hug." Every player in the NBA has a widget, can post it in MySpace, Blogger, Typepad - self-syndication of contextual content. Big content players need to think through these models. Yahoo! Finance - ability to integrate with widgets.

Think about tapping the community to build things for you. Twitter - update your current status for cell phones, IM channels, BBC updates for content in real time. Google Earth - data layer can add and subscribe to news in your area [COMMENT: great for hyper-localization] Slate on Reddit: white-label version for their site. Everybody wants reach and frequency, challenge is to open the door for marketers, partner with PR agencies. "We get two-way," advertisers don't necessarily know how two-way operates. Marketers > Media > Customers being disintermediated. BudTV with no intermediary. Half of cable content will be Web content for flat panel TVs. Sensitive products such as condoms go better direct to market. Pure online plays get this most effectively and most quickly.

Share the wealth
Connect Peers
Fit into small places
Open doors for marketers
Look at crowdsourcing - you don't have all the answers

Question from WK: How does it fit in to traditional publishers? Steve: how do you get your content to a MyYahoo personal page, as an example. Have to be where people want you.

- PR tradtional skills fitting in, not being displaced.
- Top 50 brands, Wikipedia pages on them place most highly
- ROI, what's it like now? Page views are dead, build relationship with most vocal customers and facilitate discussions with peers.

A fantastic presentation, it's a map for many things in the future. Main thought: note that the real compelling presentations these days are coming from the content side, not the technology side. Technology is important, but it's all about what you make with it now. It will evolve, but the deed is done.