Last month, NewsGator's Walker Fenton, General Manager of Media & Data Services, and Sean Ammirati of mSpoke (a NewsGator partner), were invited by Professor Andreas Weigend, an expert in data mining and E-business, to a discussion at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business.

There the three of them discussed, in front of a class, the atomization of online data (such as RSS), the impact of Twitter on traditional media and businesses, the way "conversational media" is developing, and other topics.

In particular, Walker spoke about how NewsGator collects relevant attention streams/data; for example, every time someone clicks, rates, shares or interacts in any other way with content on our system -- whether through widgets or RSS feeds -- we collect this data.  And Sean spoke about how mSpoke then uses this data (which we share with them) to help power NewsGator's various Related Content offerings  for publishers -- covered here, here and here on this blog.

If you're interested in widgets, attention data, RSS, and ways data can be repurposed online, you'll want to check out the video above (click on it to play).

Enjoy!

I'm really pleased to announce the unveiling of two new widget campaigns that utilize some of the richest features of NewsGator Technologies' widget framework. Portable cobranded widgets extend your brand, and related topics widgets offer up trusted content to enhance readership.

Discovery Channel and HowStuffWorks.com today introduced these syndicated content offerings for online news publishers' Web sites. Here's what each one has to offer:

Discovery Channel's Science and Technology News Widget
From cutting-edge medicine and renewable energy to nanotechnology and flying cars, Discovery Channel’s portable widget features science and technology news from its award-winning Discovery News service. Since 1998, Discovery News has produced breaking news and in-depth coverage and analysis of technology and space-related news, as well as developments in earth sciences like meteorology, geology and ecology. With credible and compelling science and technology content updated daily, the new portable widget provides publishers such as online news organizations with a turnkey solution to bolster science and technology coverage and engage online audiences.

“With our high-quality engaging content, Discovery Channel has always been a trusted source for people online who want to explore the rapidly advancing world of science and technology,” said Iain Langridge, vice president, operations, digital media, Discovery Communications. “Using NewsGator’s service, we provide publishers a way to deepen their consumer experience with original science and technology news from a credible brand in an easy-to-distribute-and-digest package.”

HowStuffWorks.com’s Related Topics Links
HowStuffWorks.com, the Web site famous for demystifying the world, is on a similar mission to better inform visitors while supporting publishers. HowStuffWorks.com’s new “Related Topics” offering allows visitors of a participating newspaper’s or content partner’s site to follow related topic links next to a story they are reading and discover articles that illuminate the original story.

“People want to know more about the world around them. The news tells readers what happened, HowStuffWorks.com explains why and how,” said Jason Hoch, vice president, product development, HowStuffWorks.com.  “From the ways in which a tornado forms to the science behind multiple births, the new ‘Related Topics’ modules offer readers more in-depth information on the latest headlines allowing them to learn more and further satisfy their curiosity.”

“Succeeding on the Web means putting your content where your consumers want it, when they want it, and NewsGator’s Syndication Service does that by making it easy to share content with other sites in ways that benefit both the publisher and the audience alike,” said Walker Fenton, general manager of NewsGator’s media and data services division. “Our offerings bring tremendous value to publishers by giving them greater access to high-quality content from trustworthy and recognizable brands like Discovery Channel and HowStuffWorks.com.”

The new Discovery Channel and HowStuffWorks.com offerings seamlessly integrate into a publisher’s Web site – augmenting the publisher’s existing content with relevant partner information that increases page views and ad revenue, improving search engine optimization and increasing lift. The offerings are available to qualified media companies, and there are no maintenance or resource requirements.

Want more info? Here are a few helpful links to get started:

• Sign up for a cobranded Discovery Channel Widget: http://dsc.discovery.com/widgets/newsgator/signup-page.html
• Discovery Channel widget featured in the NewsGator Widgets gallery: http://newsgatorwidgets.com/GalleryDSCCobrand.aspx
• Sign up for a HowStuffWorks.com related content widget: http://newsgatorwidgets.com/hsw/
• Watch a screencast about the HowStuffWorks.com widget: http://newsgatorwidgets.com/hsw/howtohsw1.aspx
• Watch a screencast on how to get started with the HowStuffWorks.com widget: http://newsgatorwidgets.com/hsw/howtohsw2.aspx

The ever-illustrious Jenny, one of our technical support engineers here at NewsGator, has created some very helpful screencasts that show you step-by-step exactly how to make the most of our related content offerings, which I've covered at some length in previous posts -- here, here, and here.

She's created one screencast which explains how the related content service works.

And another screencast which shows, in great detail, how to build a related content widget.

These two screencasts are both highly helpful and I strongly recommend taking a look at them if you don't know about our related content service and want to learn more, or, if you're ready to build a related content widget.

Today I stumbled upon a great commentary piece, written by Donna Barrett and Randy Siegel, that appears in Editor & Publisher.  Since newspapers represent a substantial base of clients for NewsGator's Media & Consumer products, and since nearly every day recently we hear of another newspaper either on its death bed, or being shuttered all together -- along with some seemingly sounding the death knell of the entire industry -- I think what the authors have to say here is hugely relevant in the current climate.  The premise of their article is this,

"Sure, newspaper companies face serious challenges. But we also have serious opportunities to re-engineer ourselves as quality content creators for local print and online audiences that advertisers still desire."

The authors go on to say that,

"well-run newspaper companies will succeed by fighting hard, experimenting and evolving while tuning out those armchair critics who revel in the thought of a society without newspapers or news."

But what most caught my eye is one of their most important suggestions for how they believe newspapers can survive, and even thrive, in the future:

"Newspapers can increase their revenues and reach by investing in more content creation for different audiences, not less. The more compelling articles and information a newspaper and its website can offer, the longer readers and online users will be engaged. The longer consumers are engaged, the more exposure they will have to ads in print and online. The more attention the ads receive, the better the advertisers’ responses typically will be and the more those ads will be worth."

This description, almost uncannily, describes precisely what we're doing for media companies here at NewsGator!

First, by widgetizing content you are, indeed "investing in more content creation" and making this content highly portable across the entire social web.  Also, since widgets have been shown to enhance engagement rates, time on site, brand equity, etc. this fits right into the authors' point that the longer the consumers are engaged, then the more exposure they will have to ads -- which in turn helps newspapers' bottom lines.  And every single NewsGator widget is "advertisable."  In fact, we just announced our highly sophisticated Ad Burner optimization program that can seamlessly do just that.

Finally, two other product offerings from NewsGator also enhance content creation as well as reader engagement: our related content widgets, as well as our branded iPhone applications based off NewsGator's highly successful NetNewsWire application.

I encourage you to read their entire article here, but my take-away message here is that majority of the pertinent recommendations the authors make here in terms of newspapers enhancing & increasing content, enhancing readers' engagement with that content (which leads to higher ad revenue) are exactly what all of our offerings -- whether it be regular widgets, related content widgets, branded iPhone applications, our AdBurner program, or our data service offerings -- are designed to do.  There may be a down economy, and newspapers and media companies are no doubt struggling, but that just makes NewsGator products all the more important.