Our team has discussed a number of possible business models for our So’Pho’ widget. There are a few potential outcomes that would indicate different business models.
Infomediary model: we could license our content to Adobe
Rappa, in Business models on the Web, states “Data about consumers and their consumption habits are valuable, especially when that information is carefully analyzed and used to target marketing campaigns…some firms function as infomediaries (information intermediaries) assisting buyers and/or sellers understand a given market.”
In this scenario, we would assume that we would continue to administer the So’Pho’ widget; Adobe would pay us for access to the content and data generated by our tool. This would place us in the position of the ‘infomediary;’ we would provide Adobe with the valuable information that we glean from our tool about user behavior and needs.
Community model: Adobe provides So’Pho’ as a service
Rappa says, “The viability of the community model is based on user loyalty. Users have a high investment in both time and emotion. Revenue can be based on the sale of ancillary products and services or voluntary contributions; or revenue may be tied to contextual advertising and subscriptions for premium services.”
If we assume that Adobe has purchased or developed the So’Pho’ service and integrated it into Photoshop (either adding it at no cost, or providing it as an extension that would have a small fee), the Community model provides Adobe with many sources of monetary and non-monetary value:
It allows Adobe to advertise its brand and products on the So’Pho’ bookmarklet page
Adobe could also creatively incorporate contextual advertisements into the So’Pho’ tool (though this may interrupt So’Pho’s seamless and integrated feel, so this should be done with caution.)
Sites like Lynda.com could pay Adobe for referrals that came from So’Pho’.
Adobe may also allow customers to accrue points through participation in the system, and these points may be used toward discounts on Adobe products.
So’Pho’ would engage customers with Photoshop in a new way and provide a new sense of Photoshop’s utility; this could go a long way toward fostering customer loyalty and word-of-mouth advertising.
Rappa cites the ‘Open Content‘ sub-area of the Community Model, in which “openly accessible content [is] developed collaboratively by a global community of contributors who work voluntarily.” This describes the Wikipedia model. So’Pho is built upon this ‘open content’ premise; customers sustain and develop the community through their contributions. So’Pho’ is more of like del.icio.us than Wikipedia, however, since users would likely add and favorite tutorials for their own benefit rather than the benefit of the entire community. We discuss this further below.
Consider the business model beyond Photoshop
There are additional business opportunities if we make this tool outside of Photoshop, on the web. Advertising is a definite possibility; this is the typical model for a site like this. The ‘open content’ model described above might have even more of a chance to expand, if more people were involved in tutorial bookmarking.
Sustainability
Most online communities fail to succeed. Why does So’Pho’ have the potential to thrive? We address issues of sustainability below: what So’Pho’ is already doing well, and what practices we can incorporate to ensure that this tool is successfully incorporated into people’s Photoshop routines.
What So’Pho’ is doing well:
Compelling social object: We learned that communities are more successful when they are organized around a social object; something that people are compelled to add to or complete. Jyri Engestrom calls this ‘object-centered sociality.’ Our tutorials function as social objects in that they can be collected and annotated (i.e., completed); the system is centered around these tutorials. We might even consider ‘groupings’ of tutorials as social objects that people need to complete; for instance, someone might start a group called ‘using the Lasso tool’ and people would contribute tutorials that explain this well. This might even be a motivation for people to create tutorials, if they see there is a need on the site for tutorials on a certain topic.
Community-driven: The community members create value for other members through tutorial bookmarking. The system has the potential to continue to expand as more people add content, which keeps the content ‘fresh’ and provides ongoing value to participants.
Useful repository: So’Pho’ allows people to collect tutorials that are useful to them. It functions like del.icio.us in this way; research has found that users tend to use del.icio.us selfishly, bookmarking sites for their own purposes rather than for the good of the greater community (Rader, Wash “Tagging with del.icio.us: Social or Selfish?“). This model would work well for So’Pho’, because as people find great tutorials that they want to access from within Photoshop they will add them to the system. This selfish behavior helps ensure a continual flow of new resources and tutorials into the system – it also helps make sure that the resources that are added are of good quality.
Flagging content – we include a feature that allows people to flag inappropriate content. Community members can regulate the community in this way and ensure that the tutorials are high-quality. We plant to push flagged items down in the search results.
How we will sustain So’Pho’:
Pre-populate content – to create initial value for early-comers, we will find a way to add content to the system. We will either do this manually or use a service like Mechanical Turk to fill out the information.
Motivate contribution – we want to take steps to ensure that users will feel rewarded and motivated to add tutorials and content to the tool. Some ideas for this are the following:
Points for quality contributions: users might receive points in the system when other users bookmark or favorite the tutorial they have added. These points could potentially be used for credit toward Adobe products.
Activity level: users might achieve different levels of activity based on the number of tutorials they have added and the number of comments they have posted. This would give people something to strive for – to achieve the next-highest level.
Awards: If users have the ability to give each other awards (such as the ‘barnstar’ in Wikipedia), this might be another motivation for people to continue to contribute.
Use analytics – we will make use of analytics on an on going basis to understand user behaviors and features. We can tweak So’Pho’s features through time to ensure that it continues to offer relevant and useful functionality.
Check for broken links - we will crawl through the system periodically to make sure there are no broken links to tutorials. If the link is broken, we could take a few actions: remove the tutorial; ‘hide’ it and ask the tutorial submitter to try to locate a better link; or crowdsource this activity and ask the community to try to find a link to the tutorial. If a link remains broken for a certain amount of time, we could permanently remove it.
Consider sustainability beyond Photoshop – because our project has recently taken a turn from being built in Flex to being built in HTML, we might have a web-based tool that people could use to access tutorials from anywhere. This offers additional potential for sustaining the community and site; a website would offer much more screen real estate and more opportunities to implement community-oriented designs. It might be interesting to try to incorporate our tool with existing web-based communities or other sites that people already visit often – that would at least keep our tool visible and help people remember to use it.
Business/Sustainability Plan
Due March 25, 2010
Business model
Our team has discussed a number of possible business models for our So’Pho’ widget. There are a few potential outcomes that would indicate different business models.
Infomediary model: we could license our content to Adobe
Rappa, in Business models on the Web, states “Data about consumers and their consumption habits are valuable, especially when that information is carefully analyzed and used to target marketing campaigns…some firms function as infomediaries (information intermediaries) assisting buyers and/or sellers understand a given market.”
In this scenario, we would assume that we would continue to administer the So’Pho’ widget; Adobe would pay us for access to the content and data generated by our tool. This would place us in the position of the ‘infomediary;’ we would provide Adobe with the valuable information that we glean from our tool about user behavior and needs.
Community model: Adobe provides So’Pho’ as a service
Rappa says, “The viability of the community model is based on user loyalty. Users have a high investment in both time and emotion. Revenue can be based on the sale of ancillary products and services or voluntary contributions; or revenue may be tied to contextual advertising and subscriptions for premium services.”
If we assume that Adobe has purchased or developed the So’Pho’ service and integrated it into Photoshop (either adding it at no cost, or providing it as an extension that would have a small fee), the Community model provides Adobe with many sources of monetary and non-monetary value:
Rappa cites the ‘Open Content‘ sub-area of the Community Model, in which “openly accessible content [is] developed collaboratively by a global community of contributors who work voluntarily.” This describes the Wikipedia model. So’Pho is built upon this ‘open content’ premise; customers sustain and develop the community through their contributions. So’Pho’ is more of like del.icio.us than Wikipedia, however, since users would likely add and favorite tutorials for their own benefit rather than the benefit of the entire community. We discuss this further below.
Consider the business model beyond Photoshop
There are additional business opportunities if we make this tool outside of Photoshop, on the web. Advertising is a definite possibility; this is the typical model for a site like this. The ‘open content’ model described above might have even more of a chance to expand, if more people were involved in tutorial bookmarking.
Sustainability
What So’Pho’ is doing well:
How we will sustain So’Pho’: