Blueprint

[The Information Valet Project]

Blueprinting the Information Valet Economy

Building a collaborative, shared-user network

December 3-5, 2008
Reynolds Journalism Institute
Columbia, Missouri

REGISTER NOW . . . THE PROGRAM/SCHEDULE . . . LODGING . . . TRAVEL . . .

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RJI PICTURED

THE RJI VISION

WHAT'S 'BLUEPRINT' ABOUT?

The U.S. news industry, struggling as print advertising moves elsewhere and web advertising's double-digit growth sputters, needs to rethink and relaunch its relationship with 50 million customers -- to become their "information valet" able to make money whether those users are buying services, information (including music and entertainment) or being paid for web seeking and contact with sponsored messages and advertising. Consumers want a customized experience, but want to control and be compensated for use of demographic and usage profiles.
The Internet needs a user-focused system for sharing identity, exchanging and settling value (including payments), for digital information. The system should allow multiple "Information Valets" to compete for and serve customers with varied topical interests and appetites for demographic sharing.

WHAT TO EXPECT

A fast-paced, informal, focused set of briefings, discussions and round-table, task-oriented breakout work sessions designed in two days. We'll lay out specifications, then draw a consensus, conceptual blueprint for a shared-user Internet network for next-generation advertising placement and compensation, consumer-centric demographic management (and privacy) and multi-site commerce -- all designed to sustain journalism and provide new value to traditional print news subscribers.

WHO'S INVITED

If you are a publisher, news executive, Internet strategist, telcom executive, online advertising executive, technologist, public-policy or political expert, artist, marketer, privacy advocate you're likely to gain important new insights into the future of your business by attending, "Blueprinting the Information Valet Economy."

Two levels of participation welcomed

• Member/collaborators -- Enterprise partners, institutions, individuals, donors or foundations who are likely to play a key role (money or time) in forming the Information Valet Service Corp. (IVSC). This is a targetted/invited group. Reduced registration applies to this group, to make it clear that we are inviting them to consider contributing their time and institutional support as a result of what we all learn.


• General participants -- Registration is open to the public, until we reach a limit beyond which active one-on-one interaction and participation could be difficult.

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REGISTER NOW . . . LODGING . . . TRAVEL . . . PROGRAM

AN INVITATION

Why now?

THE NEED

Today we face a challenge not just for democracy -- how to support independent, fact-based reporting -- but for our own enjoyment as well -- how to find, sort and encourage the information and entertain we enjoy as citizens and people.

When people like Vint Cerf and Tim Berners-Lee helped invent key parts of the Internet and World Wide Web, no one foresaw that a one-time defense-industry experiment and academic research network would become a key engine of worldwide commerce.

Their elegant inspiration -- protocols that did barely what was necessary, and nothing more, has fostered nearly two decades of furious, independent, free-market innovation. But we now know there are some missing pieces:

• A way to get paid -- and pay for -- the exchange of small bits of value, across multiple websites.
• The ability to selectively control and share your identity, when desired, to obtain a personalized web experience.
• The freedom to choose from an array of service providers for such single-account, customized convenience, rather than be forced to a single provider.
  
  

Transferring value -- a shared-user network

The technologists would call this federated authentication coupled with a four-party commerce network. We're calling it the Information Valet Project. The Internet needs additional infrastructure which will update the role and effectiveness of advertising, enhance consumer privacy options, and enable the sharing of information commerce among publishers, producers and artists. (READ MORE).

For an afternoon, a full day and a wrapup morning, in the serenity of the Midwest prairie, and with the facilities of the just-opened, $31-million Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at our disposal, we'll hash out the governance, technologies, business models, marketing and financial operation of the Information Valet Service . . . who will own it and who will benefit.

Taking charge of disruption

Photo/Flickr

If you are a senior executive or strategist in the news, telecommunications, wireless, technology, health care, financial services or entertainment businesses, we urge you to joining us. Because the Information Valet Project could change your business in ways you haven't imagined. For once, it's your chance to shape disruption to your advantage -- before it occurs.

In the development of any transformative technology, a time arrives for collaboration that does not stop competition . . . but enables it -- by creating rules . . . and a level playing field. Whether it's settling on 60-cycles alternating current, or establishing the railroad-track guage, or the Bluetooth specifications . . . technology requires standardization before the real change begins.

As a participant in "IVP Blueprint," you are accepting a challenge to lead this pattern again in creating crucial new standards . . . to add a new dimension to the Information Superhighway that rigorously respects personal privacy, yet takes Internet information commerce to a new level of sharing -- and competition.

You may never have been to Columbia, Missouri. And you may never return again. But please don't miss this chance to visit America's heartland, at a special time and for a critical reason. The connections you make, the ideas you'll share . . . and hatch . . . should inform your business and your life for years to come.