B2B Media has a tremendous opportunity to leverage the semantic future of the web. The next phase of the Internet will be about creating value from masses of data; data on a scale that is almost unimaginable and almost all of it totally free.

Figuring out how to make money when the base data is free is a challenge. Just ask the software industry which has had to work out new models to leverage open source. Conceptually the problem is the same.

Lots of data that publishers sell is already in the public domain or owned by somebody else. The value is in how it is put in context and how it is delivered. That is a core publishing strength.

Big Data – structured, semi-structured and plain messy

Some of this data will be structured in the way we currently think of as structured, which means structured upfront by clever people who create relational data models. Masses of this SQL structured data already exists and more is being created every second from transactions being done by millions of people.

But the golden triangle cannot rely on the structure upfront model forced by the relational database technology. A structure on the fly model has to emerge and that will require semantic technology.

Other data will be semi-structured, in spreadsheets, in XBRL tagged documents, in RDF triples, in microformats and RDFa and in formats yet to be invented. The technology to mash this all together and make it useful is right now in the very, very early stage. The killer apps are yet to be invented. The winning platforms and standards are today still in labs, committees and garages.

But we will see this new technology because the opportunities created by this. The industries that B2B Media report on are also undergoing fundamental, non-linear change. That is a tremendous opportunity for B2B Media firms to regain a central role in the industries they cover.

The Scale Of Open Data Is Hard To Grasp

It is hard to imagine the quantity of data that is being made available, because every type is growing at the same time and each feeds the other:

- Every transaction creates new data.

- Sensors, cameras & other devices create data.

- Every online conversation creates new data.

- The government creates new data and makes it all available.

- Every person is now a media firm via blogs and tweets.

Companies Will No Longer Control Data

One idea that will seem historically quaint is that big companies have an advantage because they have a lot of data. The data they have in their transactional databases are vast, but like a grain of sand compared to what will be available to a single individual in a dorm room in Bangalore or a garage in Boise. Governments will ensure this level playing field, as they are already doing with initiatives such as Data.Gov and the SEC XBRL mandate.

That shifting of power from companies to individuals and small teams is historically critical. Today in America, around 25% of the population is self-employed; 70% work for small business or themselves. Only 30% of the population works for big companies. Yet large companies today control 2/3 of US GDP; 50 years ago they only controlled 1/3. We may have seen the high water mark of that trend and it may now be reversing. The leveling of the data playing field is a big part of that historic trend. Data is power and it is being liberated.

If You Missed The First Two Waves, Ride The Third

Surfers know that there will always be another wave. B2B Media missed the first two waves:

Wave # 1: Search.

Wave # 2: Social Media

So, it is time to jump on the next wave, Open Data, Semantic Web, LinkedData, whatever we want to call it.

One technology does not replace (let alone “kill”) another technology. A new technology builds on the current technology and solves a problem created by that technology. It is not semantic web versus social web. It is both together.

Filtering And Putting In Context Is A Core Publishing Skill

Social media has created masses of new information that flows in real time to and from our mobile devices. That is great, but it is also a problem. Our poor befuddled brains need a bit of help figuring out which bits of that fire hose will help us.

In short, as Clay Shirky tells us, we don’t have an information overload problem, we have a filtering problem. Semantic technology is key to that filtering. But great writers and editors are also needed!

Data That People Will Pay For

When all data is open, free and in the public domain, how can you make money from selling data?

One way or another you are selling data. People may pay with attention (and you make money from advertising) or they may pay directly from subscriptions or transactions. Either way, you need to show them enough value in your data.

Data that people will pay for has to be actionable. It has to help them make money, save money or satisfy a specific need. To do that your data has to satisfy 3 key points:

1. Just In Time.

2. In-Context.

3. Credible.

Just In Time. This is a better description than real time. There is data you need right now and that has value. It has to be “fresh”. You may pay a premium to get that data before everybody else has it. This means learning how to use Real Time Web tools such as Twitter, XMPP, PubSubHubBub. Forget about print cycles. Even forget about online workflow systems. This is “auto-publish and correct later”. This also means thinking mobile first (the only device we carry all the time is our mobile device).

In-Context. This makes it actionable. Without context, that just in time data will be missed. You have to understand how your data will be consumed, what the person will do with the data. That will tell you the “whole product”. You can either create the whole product or more likely work with an ecosystem of partners who will deliver the whole product. Learn how the programmable web works and work with some geeks who love APIs, feeds and REST.

Credible. Your brand may get you through the door. But every item of data you sell must withstand due diligence. The user must be able to drill down to an individual data item to understand its “provenance” (where it comes from and how it was created, who created/modified it and when they did this).

Moderated Content

The social web produces tons of content. A lot of it is junk. Publishers have to be able to step into that flow and quickly and efficiently do two things:

- Delete the junk. You can use tools to delete the most egregious content spam automatically. But to outwit the spammers you need human editors as well

- Promote the good stuff. This is the “editor’s pick”. You are putting your brand on it and saying: “we like this, so we think you will as well”. You may want to have registered users who can also vote content up and down (crowdsourced editorial); but this has to be carefully managed, it is dangerous to rely 100% on machines.

Adding Your Leaven To Make The Bread Rise

You can still produce your own content. This can be the “leaven in the bread”. People don’t buy leaven; they buy bread. The other components (water, flour and salt) are commodities but essential. Leaven makes it rise and makes it good. But more leaven does not make bread better. You need the right combination of user generated and in-house generated content.

Getting that balance right is the key to quality content at the right price.
_ Too much user generated content and the quality suffers. The pure aggregators mostly learn this lesson over time and add human editors.

_ On the other side, too much in-house generated content and your costs will not be covered by advertising revenue.

Semantic Web Meets Offshore & Crowdsourcing

Quality content at the right price requires tapping into a stack that includes a global labor pool and semantic technology:

The higher layers need to leverage the lower layers and there will be movement between these layers. Use offshore for routine work that can be managed with replicable processes. Over time the best in the offshore team can become top tier experts. They can also work on the automation layer, in effect “training the robots”, codifying the routine work into systems.

The low cost human layer is in transition as well due to crowdsourcing technology. Demand Media is basically a crowdsourcing platform. Contrary to what people assume, the content creators in the Demand Media are mostly in America; they are work at home people. But other crowdsourcing platforms such as Mechanical Turk do rely more on offshore. Basically, these platforms are totally location agnostic.

The Open Data Stack

We are likely to see the Low Cost Human layer divide into 2 sub-layers:

This gives the top tier experts massive leverage. But they need the vision and tools to make that leverage possible. For all these layers are tapping into the Open Data layer.

Leveraging This Stack

The concept of a stack is common in the technology business. It is fairly new to publishing, but needs to become part of the mental mindset. How do you leverage this stack?

1. Top Tier Experts. They are the stars and stars don’t have loyalty to any organization. They are building their own online brand. Your organization needs to be the best place for them to work, but you also need to protect your brand and intellectual capital when they leave. These experts must know how to leverage the stack. If they simply create their own content, your organization is not adding value to them or to the market.

2. Dedicated Offshore. They do the routine work and the people who manage them are key to your future. They are process people and you can use these processes to protect your intellectual capital. Treat your dedicated offshore team with respect, give them high quality work, challenge them to produce excellence and listen to their ideas. Whether they work for a contractor or are on your payroll, treat them the same.

3. Crowdsourced On Demand Work. Your dedicated offshore team is the best place to manage this, as this is a process business. It is a way to handle spikes and to offload work that needs to be done at a very low cost but is not quite ready for automation.

4. Semantic Aggregation Technology. The base technology is likely to be open source. But you can build proprietary advantage that is domain specific. The taxonomies, list and exception handling are all core to your advantage and domain specific.

5. Open Data. There is no proprietary advantage. This is like air, essential but totally free and everybody has it. Quiz: what is more valuable air or gold? Air is free, but try doing without it!

Get them coming and get them going

B2B Media firms operate in niches. Some niches are big and some are small. Some niches are growing and some are not. But niche means constrained. And that means making money at every opportunity to connect buyer and seller, from ads, subs and trans.

So you need to get them coming and get them going.

That means making money in real time and in context.

Ten years ago Marc Benioff, the founder of Salesforce.com, asked this question:

"Is it possible for enterprise software to be as easy as Amazon.com?”

Ten years later he has a business with about $1.3 billion in revenues and a market value around $8 billion based on answering yes to that question and building a company to prove it.

If anybody had asked that question ten years ago about B2B Media and executed on it, they could also have an $8 billion business.

But it is not too late. Even now, nobody has done it yet.

All you need to do is connect the buyer and seller in real time, in context.

That initial connection may happen on a mobile phone. The venue for that connection may be an online webinar, a one-to-one meeting online or a face-to-face event. That may result in a transaction, a subscription or a qualified lead.

At all steps in that conversion you can be making money.
You can partner with firms for the technology and services to support that. But don’t get dis-intermediated. The connection happens on your venue and – this is the critical bit – is enabled by your trusted brand.

The Internet is a wild-west town. Buyers are nervous. It is unclear whom to trust. Amazon works because you trust them. B2B Media firms have a trusted brand. In many cases that trust is being eroded but can be recovered. In the end, your one big asset is trust.