Content - who owns it

And why does it matter anyway? This is clear as mud since sites sprang up that offered consumers the ability to generate their own content. And that aggregated content became the site content.

And then "Web 2.0". Where consumers were given the means to easily extract their own, or other peoples data, and use it elsewhere. Flickr and their API that allows a photo stream to be shown on a blog for example.

So in Pure Play we have planned in RSS feeds for the content that we believe will be of interest to be extracted. And we have also planned (I say planned because the build has only just started) to allow a user to export all of their data in a useful format (XML variant most likely).

But do we have all the bases covered in terms of what users will expect? In a Techcrunch critique (linked here) of a newly launched $1.2 million backed parenting site from New Zealand Perth, Australia (Matt from Minti left a comment and corrected this - glad to oblige) Michael Arrington complements them on elements of their approach

"This is a good start because they’ve effectively set up a blog-like area for each user where all of their articles on parenting are aggregated"
yet in the next sentence
"But again, without an RSS feed and the ability to syndicate out the content, Minti is telling its users that Minti owns the content that they write, not them. "

I hope we have taken the first steps that are needed. However we cannot be sure as nothing is absolutely right or wrong in the content space - it is still rapidly evolving.

The only thing I know for sure is that we will be planning changes and developments from the moment V1 is launched. Or before :-)

And so will the Minti founders - a couple of hours after Michael posted his comments they responded. Here is an extract

"Like most early stage Beta’s, we launched with our basic feature set so we could get to market as fast as possible without leaving too much out. We have taken your advice regarding possible “edge content” contributions into serious consideration and would love to chat more with you about taking this further"

With an open attitude and response  like that I am fully sure they will take advantage of his offer to chat to them about improving their site!

keith

Comments

[Matt]

Hi Keith and thanks for your comments on Minti. Just a quick correction that we are actually from Perth Australia and not New Zealand (although there is a NZ company called Minti which makes kids clothes).

In terms of content ownership we are also looking at getting more open and perhaps taking on the creative commons approach of Wikipedia - although they are not-for-profit which makes it a bit easier...

We would like to add RSS features to our site for each member so as articles are written they can be syndicated but it may be a couple of months for that. I look forwards to seeing the solution you have for your business and send you best wishes on your launch of V1 from down-under. - Matt

[keith bohanna]

Appreciated that comment Matt - its all a step by step process!

keith