Live From ReadWriteWeb @rww 2 Way Conference #rww2way – Content Shifting is a Trend to Watch

Fred Wilson, a well known VC, gave the keynote at the ReadWriteWeb conference in New York today. A major trend he mentioned is content shifting about which he had written previously on his blog avc.com. Content shifting is the ability to read and share content continuously from device to device.

People are consuming content where they want, when they want, and how they want. He gave examples of Dropbox, chrometophone and also a service that let’s you see ads later called AdKeeper. If you are watching a movie on Netflix you could stop on one device and start at the same place in the movie from another device. Companies that get this right by providing content on as many devices as possible really do well. The stock graph of Netflix after they made streaming available on Xbox is a good example of this. Here are four points he shared in his presentation for creating content:

1 – Microchunk it – Reduce the content to its simplest form.
2 – Free it – Put it out there without walls around it or strings on it.
3 – Syndicate it – Let anyone take it and run with it.
4 – Monetize it – Put the monetization and tracking systems into the microchunk.

Fred showed stats from a mobile analytics tracking service called PercentMobile. His advice for content creators was that content does not have to be free but should be freely available for developers to do interesting things and make the content available across devices.

Technology trend is moving away from discovery oriented devices (laptops, satellite radio) to consumption oriented devices like phones, gaming devices, etc. He has a blog post on avc.com on this topic.

Fred Wilson got a lot of questions from the audience including one asking if New York was a good place for startups. He responded that the tech scene was vibrant in New York and it’s a good place from what he has heard. In reply to another question Fred opined that it was a bad idea to develop software for a single device or operating system.

Look for more reports from the ReadWriteWeb conference and follow along by looking at the hashtag #rww2way