The future of NPR

And now for something not-so-completely-different, on Friday I'm participating in a Digital Think In for National Public Radio.  A group of us are going to spend the day formulating and envisioning a digital media strategy for NPR.  I'm really excited, as there's going to be some juicy business design involved, especially as we work with issues around the "social", "open", and "platform" aspects of their service.

Anyhow, if you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them -- please drop me an email or leave a comment.  The official Twitter hashtag for the event will be #NPRthink, and of course you can always find me at @metacool.

Hope to see you on Twitter!

Comments

[twitter.com/matthewscd]

On Social: what if there was a way to retweet a show, or a specific comment made on a show, in real time as it was being listened to? What if there was a "RT" button right beside the "Scan" and "Seek" button on the stereo? Granted, requires car wifi, but is that really so far off? Take the content to the web based on who likes it, in a way that lets people distribute it to the people that already follow them. Being able to link to content in the past can then allow links to related upcoming content in the future, plus gain insight into popular content and trends in popularity. Bonus points for NPR searching through users that have RT'd content, and having Ira Glass DM them directly with a request for support. There is likely a way to link this to the "radio bookmark" technology that already exists, at least for current available technology.

On Finance: what if there was a way to blend "keep the change" with local business and local NPR stations, so instead of the change going into a savings account, it went to local NPR? And what if there was a vanity credit card to advertise it?

On Platform: is there any reason that every NPR show isn't also video recorded and broadcast online? Could then provide potential content via API for local and national TV networks to augment their coverage. could be further pushed to local stations based on geocoded RT's of content (ie people in this area like this news, so would be worth considering adding it to local evening news broadcast).

[Diego Rodriguez]

Thanks, Chris! Great ideas.