1. Building an OS for content
Solving the interest graph problem
Ty Ahmad-Taylor | @tyahma | 28 Sept 12

2. Right
now
Real-time v.
Lack of
Popular
Specificity
Benefit
of APIs What’s
missing
Operating
systems

3. Operating systems

4. Computers Content
User User
Applications Devices
Operating system Pages
Drivers IA
Hardware Content source

14. OS conventions
1.OSes are meant to be a more or less
transparent foundational layer
2.They should make your life easier
3.They are customizable, but not
personalizable
4.They also organize your information
‣ Folders
‣ Applications
‣ Search
‣ Recency

15. Right
now
Lack of
Specificity
Benefit
Real-time v. Popular Presentational Paradox
of APIs
What’s
missing
Operating
systems

16. Real-time

18. Popular

20. Determing Interestingness,
Popularity or Hotness
Nope. Nope. Yep.
Single gross measure. Single gross measure. Multivariate.
Causation? Correlation? Variable weighting is the
secret sauce.

21. Real-time versus hot
1.Users are going to complain either way.
2.Twitter made its decision
‣ They have left the door open, slightly for others that
want to pursue popularity
‣ Klout ain’t it
3.Blending the two remains unexplored

22. Right
now
Real-time
Lack of Specificity
Benefit
of APIs
What’s
missing
Operating
systems

32. Do you know who has the best
interest graph information,
but isn’t using it for content?

33. Specificity

34. Right
now
Real-time
Lack of Specificity
Benefit of APIs
What’s
missing
Operating
systems

35. If you don’t use APIs
internally

36. Traditional APIs

37. RSS can be the plumbing

38. APIs as a development
philosophy
User
Front-end clients
RESTful API
Heavy lifting

39. Real-time
Lack of
Specificity
What goes on right now in content
What’s
missing
Benefit Operating
of APIs systems

40. Traditional

42. Plucky upstarts

49. Plucky Traditional

54. People without kids in
private school

57. Jamie xx fiend needs

58. The state of content today.
1.Most producers are narrowly focused on their
own content and narrowly approach their
traditional business problem of reach and
frequency
2.Those that aren’t don’t think broadly enough
about other’s content
3.No one has solved the “real-time versus
popular” conflict
4.Almost everyone lacks specificity, or
granularity.

59. Right
now
Real-time
Lack of Specificity
Benefit of APIs
What’s missing and the opportunities
Operating
systems

60. Openness
Your stuff
Other people’s stuff
Value to end-user

61. Specificity

62. Real-time versus Popular

63. Real-time versus Popular
This is azure blue, not purple,
for color-blind folks

64. Operating systems
User User User
Applications Devices Personalization
Operating system Pages Distribution
Drivers IA Classification
Hardware Content source Content sources

65. The content OS business
opportunity
1.Taking a broad view of organizing content for
users solves a customer problem of
relevance.
2.The interest graph has one-to-two success
stories. There is room for plenty more.
3.The link economy and the social economy
are well-established, but unexploited for
delivering customer value.
4.Solve the OS problem for content.

66. People don’t
care about
publishers,
they care
about quality
and
specificity.
Solve this,
please @tyahma