Subject: Re: #2 DCI's Web World and Email World Trip Reports From: chip@wired.com (Chip Bayers) Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 00:16:26 -0700

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At 2:12 AM 4/20/95, TOM VASSOS (M.B.A., B.E.S.) wrote:
>#2 DCI Report from Tom Vassos and Jacqueline Fortin

Tom, Jacqueline, thanks very much for your thorough reports from both
Internet World last week and now Web World this week. I look forward to
more!

>
>Well it's Wednesday and there were several conference sessions
>that we attended (hence, this long note).

I'm responding selectively, because I happen to be a little close to the
topic discussed below. I'll be doing booth time on Friday afternoon - come
say hello if you're there.

>
>Speaker:  Jonathan Steuer
>"WWW Publishing:  Combining Content and Community"
>http://www.cyborganic.com/
>
>This chart was used to describe several Internet technologies
>and to help you understand that whatever your vividness or
>interactivity requirements are, you can probably accomplish
>it somehow on the Internet.
>
>                |  virtual reality
>                |
>                |
>                |                                  several more
>   Vividness    |                 CD           items were listed
>                |
>                |
>                |  e-mail                                   IRC
>                |
>                |_________________________________________
>                        Interactivity
>
>Organizational models you may consider using on the Internet:
>* Publishing
>* Broadcast
>* Film
>* Nightclub
>* Theme park

Or some combination of the above.


>Consider making your model as interactive as possible.  Don't
>jump to conclusions on which model above is most appropriate.
>People want to be entertained.
>
>Next was a Case Study of HotWired which has about 160,000
>subscribers.
>
>Before they launched their offering, they built a community of
>people to help them make several early decisions.
>
>Content only goes up online one month after it appears in
>the hard copy magazine. (This is to avoid a loss of hard copy
>magazine sales.)

That's specific to the Wired magazine archives on our site, of course. The
bulk of the content on HotWired is created specifically for HotWired.

>
>The HotFlash highlights note goes out via e-mail and describes
>the highlights of that month's issue. (About 50,000 subscribers.)

Actually, it highlights new content on HotWired each week.

>
>The advantage of the e-mail listserv approach vs a WWW
>approach is that you don't have to depend on users coming
>back to your site.  You go to them, monthly, weekly, etc.

It's a nice complement to our Web service - a way to layer the information
you can offer your membership, along with customized features on the site.

>
>Combining content with community:  trying to get people to
>gather around the "information campfire".
>
>Advertisers have banners that users can click on to see the
>advertisement.  This is really the only medium in the world
>that an advertiser can actually determine exactly how many
>people viewed their advertisement.
>
>HotWired also has the ability to determine how users navigated
>through their pages.  This helped them determine how they
>could improve the layout of their pages.
>
>Be careful when people quote number of hits.  For example,
>each gif image transferred counts as a hit.  One screen with
>9 gifs = 10 hits.

Absolutely. Hit counts, as has been discussed here and on other lists,
don't measure much more than the load on your servers.

>
>HotWired Lessons:
>
>Metaphors and maps:  Difficult to visualize where you are in the
>publication so they added an unguided tour and they redesigned
>their home page to include what's in each of the sections.
>
>Registration process:  Violated user expectations at the time.
>Original home page simply asked people if they were a member
>or not.  This turned away about 40% of the users that never
>bothered to read further.

Very true - which was why we've streamlined the process wherever possible.
If we could find a way to get rid of the registration process, we would.
Some sort of agreed upon standard will arrive sooner rather than later,
because the advertisers will demand it. It is not, we believe, I/Pro's
current system, because that screws around with URLs too much in order to
track users. We've promised our users that we won't share their individual
usage data with advertisers. With I/Pro, that's impossible.

Unfortunately, given the extreme unreliability of hit counts as described
above, our registration process was the best system we could come up with
to measure usage, _and_ develop a sense of community in our interactive
areas (i.e., allowing people to establish a name and persona on the site
that can not be appropriated by others.)

>
>Discussion area is not very popular.  Could be partially due to
>the usability of the user interface.  Advanced features include
>allowing users to post html which may include graphics or
>links to their site.  This type of discussion area needs to be
>nurtured, ie., monitored, fed with appropriate info, etc.

User interface issues are always difficult - we're definitely working very
hard to improve the usability of the space. I'm curious whether Jonathan
discussed his involvement in the design of the Threads space. As for
nurturing - it's an ongoing process, which we're constantly tweaking and
improving.



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