Orcmid's Lair: The Long Tail Meme

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Welcome to Orcmid's Lair, the playground for family connections, pastimes, and scholarly vocation -- the collected professional and recreational work of Dennis E. Hamilton Archives Atom Feed Associated Blogs Edge City Numbering Peano Praxis101 Prof. von Clueless in the Blunder Dome Recent Items Goodbye, "Pre-Approved Offer" Open Source: Taking Food from the Mouths of Capitalist Babies? Scoble Links: Overwhelm of the Solitary Connector Don Knuth on Science as Art and Scholarship as Community Effort Agreeing While Disagreeing Addressing Customer Demands? Crushing Supply-Push Under Demand-Pull The fearful state of on-line students The Final Page Oh, the tragedy, the humanity: Donate Now (amazon link)	2005-04-02 The Long Tail Meme ACM News Service: A Miss Hit. This is a nice summary of Chris Anderson's "The Long Tail" and the impact the notion has had in viewing digital commerce and the ways that many small audiences are reachable -- as well as having their own voice in the mesh of Internet overlays. The 2005-03-24 Jack Schofield Guardian Unlimited article is a pleasant read and overview to what the discussion, and some degree of excitement for us cottage industrialists, is all about. The article lead captures that in a valuable way: "Companies should wake up to the new economics of the internet, and think abundance, not shortage, says Jack Schofield." I think this is an appropriate rejoinder to Stephen Downes notion that the power-curve aspect of the long tail is disempowering, and the cinema and film example is a great illustration of how the long tail can create value away from the popular, the same way amazon.com and eBay do. Language is rich because of the long tail, and it is natural that a few words are heavily used because language is also highly-adapted to economical expression as well. The potential impact on the Creative Commons effort around abandoned works is something that is not understood, but it will depend on what the revenue model becomes for works that are no longer salable, or even available, through physical channels. I don't think this is so big an issue, because a work that is still marketed via some DRM mechanism is not abandoned in the sense meant for out-of-print books and unsupported computer games. The article points out that Larry Lessig and Chris Anderson have not brought that discussion forward, and it will be important to see how that could be made to work for mass-market unacceptable or abandoned works. The same question applies to software that moves into the tail from the standpoint of support withdrawal and obsolescent platforms, something the furor over the impending end-of-life for Visual Basic 6.0 may illuminate. If the long tail erodes the peak where mass-media and mass-marketing thrive, this may indeed be disturbing for mainstream producers. Still, antique cars and their aftermarket quests don't seem to upset the automobile industry. I am curious how the long tail plays out in the trust economy around digital products. This Jack Schofield piece provides useful perspective on the tension that surrounds "The Long Tail." posted by orcmid at 4/2/2005 07:28:20 AM *Comments:* Orcmid, I'm slowing beginning to understand what the "long tail" ideas are about, and this piece is helpful in that regard. So, thanks for that. But you lost me when you said that Amazon and eBay help promote what's not popular. My experience of Amazon is that there the books that are popular to many are promoted, just the way popular books are promoted in the NY Times best seller list. It seems to me that an orientation that focuses on abundance rather than scarcity is indeed revolutionary in a supply and demand driven economics. I agree there is abundance and Hooray! But how are we going to be able to see it and value it when scarcity and competition are the prominent ideas? # posted by Bill Anderson: 11:49 AM Hi Bill. I threw you a curve with "promote." Amazon.com has tens-of-thousands of books, including ones that ordinary bricks-and-mortars bookstores can't or don't carry. And for what they don't have "in stock" there may be a listing and links to booksellers who do have the book. I have been buying more-and-more books from stores that have used or remaindered ones that are less expensive than those at amazon.com. I locate and order them via amazon.com, and the ease of ordering and using amazon for payment makes these sources attractive to order from. I just bought Simpson Garfinkle's 1995 book on PGP that way. It's how I obtained Schneier's Secrets & Lies that I'm now reading. I'd say that amazon has an abundance model and they do not restrict what they offer to some selection of the most popular. They might feature popular books in their recommendations, but I think the "people who bought this book also bought ... " and other statistics might just as easily reflect a niche in the long tail. # posted by orcmid: 1:46 PM By now I should know that it is Simson Garfinkel, not what I said. And I have him on a book cover within arms reach so it is really sloppy of me to not double-check [;<). # posted by orcmid: 1:51 PM Oh funny, I didn't use "promoted," you did. Well, it sounded like something I might have said. I agree that the New York Times book list (and the same in my supermarket's book rack) is conceding little about the long tail. I'd say that the amazon.com approach is quite different. You can know the popularity of an item, but its availability isn't limited to the big spike and my experience is that they are interested in recommending what I have shown an interest in. It's more like the supermarket, but with a personal shopper interested in my satisfying my specialized interests [;<). # posted by orcmid: 3:13 PM Post a Comment

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