Adam Gee on Cross-Platform challenges - they're a lot like 4iP's

[Ewan McIntosh]

Telly's about broadcasting, one-way, closed in the sense that it's controlled by a professional elite based on scarcity. Networked media is two-way, many-to-many, and open in the sense that amateurism is celebrated, collaboration and participation is key, and the 'product' is never quite complete, always organic and evolving.

Adam Gee (delicious bookmarks | blog | twitter), my colleague from Cross-Platform at C4 in London, was up in Glasgow today to work with a group forming part of The Research Centre's (TRC) cohort of ... In his own two or three major projects a year he's working alongside a television commissioner, in concert with an indie who can span both television and "noo-media" or a couple of indies working together, and frequently a Government department or organisation seeking to fulfill its public service duties through a media product.

The key difference with 4iP is, of course, that we don't produce projects that interweave with a television show or series, presenting a different set of challenges to producers and commissioners alike as we try to gain traction, quickly, with disparate often invisible audiences. Yet many of the challenges faced by 4iP are nonetheless shared by our cross-platform colleagues, and are currently being explained in a series of posts by another colleague, Matt Locke. Namely:

How to you get people there?

How do you keep them there? [and my own post summarising some more issues of maintaining attention] (Take The Sex Education Show's Sexperience site as an example of a huge success in keeping people coming back. Initial uptake figures of 5000 contributions per week, 4000 comments per week and 1000 questions per week are still maintained now).

Finding an elegant exit to leave material of worth on the web and continue gaining value once you've withdrawn from your full-time support.

[Helen Jackson]

Great links - thanks!

[Jim Wolff]

Another great insight into the challenges that *all* web startups face. Some really great resources coming out of these. posts. Much appreciated.

Jim