NewsScape has been around as an idea for the past 25 years. All the obvious variations of the domain name were gathered to “ring-fence” the brand, and NewsScape began work as a story “scraper” that scoured the web and news sources for content. NewsScape used intelligent agents to sort what it found, to create the most comprehensive news aggregator as long ago 1999. When this service was suspended in 2006, it had collected more than 6 million de-duplicated and classified stories in MS SQL Server databases.
The proposition was - and remains - that “NewsScape reads the news, watches the TV, listens to the radio and scours the internet, so you don't need to...”
But there was no suitable business model, and user numbers were not enough to warrant devising an advertising-funded strategy. And we expected that the idea was going to be taken and developed by one of the 800 pound gorillas, so when Google News duly showed up we were not surprised; and any further development of the genre seemed pointless. The idea was put on the back burner, and further developments awaited. We turned down a couple of modest offers for the brand/domain name bundle, and resolved to do something innovative and creative “eventually”.
The social media scene began to define itself and to take off with the arrival of viable and affordable smart phones in 2010 - so it was time for NewsScape to dust off the early ideas and see how they had stood up to the test of time. If a video of a duck on a skateboard could go viral and gather 10 million views, what might properly worthy content get?
Well, not that many! The triviality of popular content reminds us that internet is more about entertainment and light relief than “worthy”.
Other way points on this journey have been determined by the evolution of video platforms and video editing. The multiplicity of analogue world TV broadcast standards has been reduced to international digital formats 1280x720 and 1920x1080 (full HD) - and even then it doesn’t matter, as software can now “transcode” trivially between different formats around the base of MPG4 transport standards. In 2018, technology no longer represents any sort of barrier. A thoroughly impressive camera is built into most smart phones, and just £200 for a Lumix TZ80 provides a purpose-built video and stills camera (and recorder) with performance and features that would have cost far more than £2000 when NewsScape was first devised. Which means with the tech sorted, we are can concentrate on the proposition that “content is king”.
The next barrier is distribution of content. The 800lb Gorilla of “social media” video hosting is Google’s YouTube service, which solves the storage and delivery problem to billions of users - but it doesn’t solve the problem of getting attention and seeding viral content. Facebook (and is companion InstaGram are now more of a one-stop community where carefully constructed viral content can infect the whole community with a few well placed sneezes; but it is still far from the ideal solution of an independent web presence and user community.
Political turmoil is increasing, and the wisdom of trusting any service provided by a company under the control of foreign ownership and/or government has to be considered. It must be unwise to rely on services like Facebook or Google which are based and controlled outside the UK. These companies are going to be increasingly conflicted by contradictory trans-national legislation, and under all manner of inconsistent political and commercial pressures. And so, at any time, these services may act arbitrarily to move goalposts and change rules - like has just happened here when Facebook deleted 700 users without any warning.
The future...
The Future for NewsScape is to build its own independent internet platforms, based in facilities in the United Kingdom. We may use "heavy lifting" cloud services based anywhere when we can, but we will not risks any eggs in those baskets that are not backed up in the UK.
To define our way forward, we have gone back to something a NewsScape founder wrote in a 1994 blog, wherein was predicted the emergence of what are now known as “influencers”:
"...Sooner or later, the Internet will be too vast for statistics to matter. How can anyone get their mind around the notion that there is 80MByte of fresh data added each day? A million new users each month?
The art of making the most of the incredible treasure troves and resources of the Internet is just that: an art. The application of science in the form of "agents" that can attempt to profile the users’ requirements is a partial solution, but in the end, all Internet users will have to rely on the editorial skills and judgement of a few people who have acquired the mystic skills necessary to appreciate, collate and understand just enough to achieve the guru status necessary to be able to steer and form opinion of all others.
Much the same already applies in many walks of life: no-one had time to sample all the delights of the West End or Broadway, and so a breed of professional browsers grew up known as the "theatre critics". When the theatre-going public accepted that some of these people expressed views in line with their own, they granted them the most astonishing powers of life and death over the theatrical producers and performers.
This
critical process evolved to encompass the new industries of radio and TV-although
in the case of radio and TV, this was a lot more accessible to casual browsing
by the public, who for a long time had relatively little choice anyway.
In the case of the Internet, it is easy to gain the impression that everyone is a critic. It is in the nature of the system that such people will be attracted to become the early adopters and share their views with anyone who will read them. But there is also a growing element of "dark subscribers" who eagerly graze the information but keep themselves to themselves as the more flamboyant Internet users establish a hierarchy of guru-ness [now called "influencers"].
These people are happy to use email as a valuable tool and treat the rest much as you might a CDRom encyclopaedia. The importance of steering and guiding this mass of endeavour cannot be underestimated if the Net is to fulfil its purpose...."
(C) NewsScape; 1993-2018
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