OPEN

My big thing for the past couple of years has been to try and explain the implications of the web revolution as being about the shift from channel media (industrial age media, where the means of production and distribution of content are owned by organisations) to open networks (where everyone with a web connection can create and distribute whatever they like).

So you can imagine how excited I was when I saw Jeff Jarvis combined my twin likes of talking about media in the age of networks with a head-spinning data-visualisation. However, his post’s sat in my “must blog” pile for too long now so I’m sharing it with just the scantest of accompanying analysis…

He recounts a presentation by Samir Arora, CEO of Glam (an online fashion site / network) which includes the following diagram that shows why Glam’s network strategy is beating the iVillage channel strategy (to the tune of

The largest circle inside iVillage is astrology traffic and the dark circle in that represents people who come to iVillage for horoscopes and nothing else. That may bulk up your traffic numbers, but it’s not saleable to advertisers. iVillage is built in the Yahoo model of sites it owns or controls; it tries to lure people in and then bombards them with ads.

Glam, represented by the larger circle on the left, is a network. You’ll see clusters made up of smaller circles, representing their content areas: fashion, beauty, fashion, lifestyle, celebrity, teen. Inside each of those clusters, if you squint, you’ll see a small yellow circle. Those are Glam’s O&O (owned and operated) sites. All the many purple circles around those in each cluster represent outside, independent blogs and sites in Glam’s network. That is the secret to Glam’s quick growth without the cost and risk of doing everything itself.

If you’re a marketer, think about how your campaigns and content can learn from this strategy. Where are the networks that you want to connect to, that can appropriate and remix your brand to suit them. Think about the power of live networks that go on adding value to what you to do with the human magic of their network effects.