(Annette Moser-Wellman)

From the moment you wake up to when you go to sleep at night, who is your most intimate companion?  Well, I'll give you a hint.  It's not your partner or spouse.  It's not your Chihuahua either.  It's probably your mobile phone.  Not only does your device bring you immediate access to your social circle whenever you want it, but when its GPS is enabled, it reveals intimate secrets about you and your behaviors. 

Tony Fish is author and founder of AMF Ventures. He uses the term "digital footprint" to describe the data that you create and collect on your mobile phone.  Fish was recently recognized as one of The Observer's most influential thinkers in technology and business.  In our interview Fish talked about this Digital Footprint, the title of his new book - how it is created, sustained and how it brings values to individuals, companies and the media industry.

Fish talks about the detailed, sophisticated data graphs that are available when Web use, TV, radio and mobile are combined.  While you can determine some preferences from Web data alone, most of us interface with the Web just a few hours a day.  Add in the 18 to 24 hours of data available through your phone, and a whole new world of digital DNA emerges. 

When you look at the flow of data that comes off the mobile, it's different from any other media. It's with you from the moment you get up in the morning and shower to when you get back into bed at night.  It's actually creating data via your location, your attention, the time, who you are spending time with, when you take a picture, where that picture was taken and who the picture is of.  It's creating data and it's also consuming data. Over time, the device knows every routine you do.  When that data is analyzed, it is classified as 'normal behavior' or your personal preferences. As the user, you no longer have to deliver or input the data - it just is.

Fish predicts that the availability of these preferences will change the business models of the media landscape.  As you can imagine, these personal and social graphs are valuable to marketers and media companies.  Surprisingly, this information is very valuable to the user as well.  We will have at least three ways we can use our data - we can trade and barter it, and use it to discover new services and service improvements.  If you are an 'alpha user' with a large network of friends, your data will be more valuable to companies than that of other users.  For example, when you agree to share your data, you could be offered a free service agreement or even cash from a cell phone carrier. 

I asked Fish to give me an example of how this would work. "Imagine there is a company called Vacuum.  Vacuum turns around and says to its users, 'I will collect your digital footprint from your mobile, your TV, your searches on Google, Amazon, Yahoo and more, as well as your payment streams from your bank and credit card company.  I will collect your data and I will remove everything that locates you as a person from that data.  It will be completely transparent but unidentifiable.  I will then sell that data back to Google or to the Financial Times, to Nike, to whomever you want me to sell it to, such that you get great service improvement. I will ensure that the user is in control.'"

This type of model suggests that news organizations will need to create modules of highly segmented news that can be customized for the individual.  It also means that advertising can be specifically tailored. Some people may opt to receive ads as barter for improved service or even cash.  Even paid content schemes will develop, as consumers demand more in-depth, personalized news products.  "People will always pay for quality," Fish explains.

Fish is bullish about the future of traditional media.  He points out that digital media is about personalization, and as your media preferences become increasingly personal, there is the danger of gravitating to the same sorts of information sources.  How do you introduce new things and novelty to make your preferences more exciting? 

Fish explains that it's harder to introduce new content innovation in the digital space.  Magazines, newspapers, books, and the like, introduce creativity - things you may not necessarily read.   So, to the extent that you don't find novelty through your trusted networks, you will migrate to traditional media forms to get something that you can't get anywhere else. 

Conventional wisdom has been that traditional media should target their users demographically and provide exactly what reflects their interests.  But with the advent of highly personalized data, we may find that the thriving news organizations will be those who seek to inform and delight users on a wider and more varied swath of subjects.  So while your mobile phone may be your most intimate partner, you still may enjoy hopping in bed on Sunday morning with a cup of coffee, the newspaper spread out over the covers and your Chihuahua at your feet.


Annette Moser-Wellman is President of Firemark, Inc., an innovation consultancy, and author of Six Competencies of the Next Generation News Organization and Running While The Earth Shakes: Creating An Innovation Strategy To Win In The Digital Age, both published by the Media Management Center.

This TechScout article is part of a series of Moser-Wellman interviews commissioned by the Media Management Center to explore opportunities and insights at the intersection of technology and the news media. Click here to view other articles in the TechScout series.

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