CIQ Headlines for January 12, 2007

CIQ Headlines

Gather.com Seeks Unpublished Authors–(Gather.com) This social networking site has made a partnership with Simon & Schuster in an effort to find new talent. The First Chapter competition allows members of Gather to vote chapter-by-chapter and choose the winner of a S&S publishing contract. Like American-Idol for the Lit-Heads. A great CIQ idea.

Big Media Partners with Web 2.0–(MarketWatch) CBS has announced partnerships with YouTube (select the best 15-second inspirational video) and with SecondLife (A new Star Trek environment for fans). We think there are hints here of the next internet trend– creating higher quality content within the (generally) low quality UGC areas.

Social Network Sites’ Data Valuable to Advertisers— (Knowledge@Warton.com) A Wharton School of Business study has found that consumers are more likely to buy a product or service when they are networked with existing customers. This means that social network data could be very valuable to advertisers. The problem is that social networks’ data belongs to the network. Does this mean that SN’s will become ad brokers or ad networks? These sorts of cats-marrying-dogs examples are CIQ phenomena: evidence of a new kind of order that is in the process of breaking through.