Content matters differently today than it did yesterday and it’s only going to mean more to you tomorrow

IoT (or Internet of Things) is the technology of device-to-device communication. It suggests the interconnectedness of our mobile devices, cars and appliances. It is the buzziest new wave and we hardly know anything about it. We’ve heard word of its reference to all things connected and understand that it brings on endless technological possibility but we’ve yet to quite establish the ‘how’. IoT has opened us up to a playing field where a seemingly boundless amount of web addresses can be assigned to pretty well any sort of device, apparatus or appliance, giving our stuff the smarts to find their way to us. It has brought to life products like Mother and Nest, uncovering a new space for gadget interdependence and presenting huge opportunity for growth. In order to benefit from this we need to expand our lens and learn to leverage it. We need to grasp what it means for content because it’s shifting, and by definition, so is data.


Our content delivery is narrowing, and so are our attention spans

Information that was once consumed at length and in detail is now nearly inhaled at the skim of a page. This is nothing short of a testament to the turn of the tides. The evolution of content consumption has condensed the story telling of moments and memories, abbreviating them to fit our attention spans. This has awakened our appetite for content, speeding up our digestion and allowing us to not only consume more but also share just as much along the way. IoT is the collection of that content, and looks to parallel it to our coordinates and intentions for the purpose of interconnecting them with your machines and lifestyles. It’s pushing the bounds of our imaginations and originating things like fridges that tell you when your milk has gone bad, glasses that signal your waitress you need a refill or cars that detect your ETA. It’s exposing possibility and is paving the way to the most covetable thing of all: profit.

How will we get there?

As IoT forces content to evolve in shape, size and capacity, its real estate will widen, its reach will extend and the way we consume it will change. In this, understanding the different places this content is going to land is critical. From a device standpoint, we’re moving towards a separation of engagement types, and for that reason the way we create content will change. The fact remains that TV is king but the availability of different screens suited for different kinds of content engagement gives us the ability to gear devices intently. Though we’re progressing towards a place where production and absorption devices are different, we’re still struggling to nail the crux to the cross. Success will be in understanding the lens we present our content through as well as taking total advantage of what it means to have the ability to personalize it. Combining personalization to the data that we produce will drop the breadcrumbs to that golden egg.

Let’s face facts: personalized content makes us feel special

Content curation gives us warm, fuzzy feelings of guidance. It personalizes the experience of consumption and, frankly, humanizes tech. The challenge comes from the algorithmic approach of presenting content under the assumption that every person is the same. We all carry, work and/or use devices that are connected to the Internet. We’re now putting a human twist on building algorithms that matter to you and what you do. IoT adds that layer of context to the web. We are taking strides to reach a balance, but there’s still space for progress. We need to innovate in order to better understand what we want and how we want it, but most importantly we need to remember that although “content is king, context is God”.

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