@Intelligent Content 2009, Palm Springs
Scott Abel freaked the hell out of me in Palm Springs yesterday. Not with his story of bad customer experience, but with his story of good customer experience! He sketched a world of companies providing me with more information than I ever asked for. And the flow just kept coming and coming and coming…
Scott told about Apple iTunes and how they are able to sell you more tunes based on every communication you have with them. They even are able to sell to you when they send you your bill. From a personal perspective I feel really uncomfortable when people (or companies) do not know when to end a conversation.
From a professional perspective however, you really have to admire the document choreography, as Scott calls it, that is required to realize this. You need an integrated process where a new sales pitch (information) can be intelligently related to the item you are buying (more information).
Salim Ismail started his presentation with an exploration of intelligence. We would need to understand something about the concept of intelligence before we are able to create intelligent content. He showed a hierarchy of intelligence based on pattern matching. Machines are really good at doing the numerical pattern matching. With intelligent content we try to help them to do the second level on contextual pattern matching. But the highest level of pattern matching was still reserved for humans only, since it needs intuition.
Salim bridged the gap between humans and machines with a referral to Kevin Kelly in the video below, where he talks about what could happen in the next 5000 days of the internet (@2:17). Or as Joe Gollner said during lunch: “One brain to rule them all”. And we all completed: “One brain to find them. One brain to bring them all and in darkness bind them”.
Being here, at Intelligent Content 2009, you cannot but get the feeling that we are getting somewhere. That content or information can help in doing things smarter, doing more smart things. I will certainly be coming again, next year!
