The Many Dimensions of Real Time

Update: A less abstract response to the Twitter as Cronkite post.

With posts like this driving the debate over the value of real time ‘news’ we should stop and think a little about the nature of time, information, the networks through which information is propagated and the values we associate with various aspects of this complex. I tend to think of the temporal aspect of data with the following timestamps:

• Ideation: the time at which the event occurred (or at which the author had the idea to write something to be published through their network)
• Authoring: the time at which the document was created
• Publication: the time at which the document was transmitted
• Consumption: the time at which the document was read

One can debate real time in terms of the difference between these time stamps. Often, the time between publication and consumption is really what is being discussed (and here the world has decided to leave blogs behind for the new shiny world of microblogs even though one can get pretty close to real time via pings and RSS). There is an assumption that this time difference is identical to that between ideation and consumption, but this is where it is important to pause and consider another key aspect of time and information:

• Content value

Content value increases wrt the time between ideation and consumption in inverse proportion to the probability that the information is accurate. For example, if experiencing an earthquake and reporting it has a low chance of being inaccurate and thus increased value. On the other hand, if I make a snap judgment about the stock market and report it as fact the content value decreases. Or, perhaps a better example, if I am sent a document reporting the behaviour of the president during his youth at an airforce base, then immediately broadcasting that may not be the best move.

Understanding the value of the content doesn’t stop there. There are two other factors:

• Relevance to the consumer
• Ability to take action

Information about Tiger Wood’s inability to control an oversized motor vehicle is of no interest to me, so I couldn’t care less if the information took an infinite amount of time to reach me. When it does reach me, what action can I take? Absolutely nothing. If there is an earthquake in Edinburgh, however, there is very direct action that I would take.

When I worked at Intelliseek/BuzzMetrics, many customers wanted what they called real time alerting. In working with these customers it became apparent that this meant daily updates. The reason being that their ability to take any action was moderated by at least 24 hours lag time anyway.

As is typical in the blogosphere, and especially when it comes to reading the tea leaves of the technologies of the future, I can’t see any real thoughtful debate on issues like those I’ve outlined about. I’m not saying that my framework is correct, but it does attempt to pull apart the issues. Having said that, analysing the space with this perspective may not actually help us predict where the money will be made, or what behaviours will ultimately prevail. Attentions spans are contracting at alarming rates and it is not Adam Smith’s job to look out for our shriveling minds.

Comments

[Johnbrissenden]

Very interesting piece. I posted something on similar lines a few months ago (which I now can't find!), and it strikes me that the phenomenon you describe presents an interesting possibility for the production and consumption of journalism: that is, the end of News. The urgency of News has been progressively increased, not by the needs of its consumers, but by the march of technology and by the commercial imperatives of corporate media and competition. So we end up with rolling news channels and the low-cost, low-effort, superficial journalism that results. The disruption of that temporal plane which you so clearly articulate frees us, the consumers of information, from the timescale of "news". I will catch up with material of general importance, or of specific interest to me, in my own sweet time, not when the paper is published or when the Ten O'Clock News comes on. What could be interesting is the development of more and more forms of journalism which are similarly liberated from the tyranny of news time.

[Nick DiGiacomo]

I would add an "Action" timestamp after consumption in your initial list - i.e. the time at which you take action on the data/information. As you suggest vis a vis Tiger Woods, most of the "real time" data from microblogs are manifestly irrelevant, as useful action is rarely taken (unless one considers retweeting into the mob a useful action). And if action is taken, it is done only after independent confirmation of the data.
Otherwise said, the more actionable a datum is, the more valuable it is. But the more costly the action, the more one wants confirmation of the data/information. This "cost/benefit" analysis is exactly what clients want done for them, which is why just selling tools that gather and display real-time data (e.g. about brands, products, etc.) is a low-value business solution. SAS calls it "business intelligence" for a reason.