[OPLIN 4cast] OPLIN 4cast#188: Flipboard

[Editor]

Last week, Flipboard <http://www.flipboard.com/>, "your personalized 
social magazine," made a big splash in the Internet world, generating so 
much interest that their servers crashed on the day Robert Scoble first 
wrote 
<http://scobleizer.com/2010/07/20/exclusive-first-look-at-revolutionary-social-news-ipad-app-flipboard/> 
about it on his popular blog. But beyond being an intriguing app for the 
iPad, Flipboard raises some questions about its potential effect on the 
future of the publishing business.

    * Why Flipboard is one of the best iPad apps
      <http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/why_flipboard_is_already_one_of_the_best_ipad_apps.php>
      (ReadWriteWeb/Marshall Kirkpatrick) "...the promises of syndicated
      content, social news and a touch interface for real-time
      information are more real today than they were yesterday."
    * Making Twitter and Facebook updates seem more important than they
      are
      <http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=F5EB5332-1A64-6A71-CE5A943ED9DC1D24>
      (ComputerWorld/Jared Newman) "The seams only come apart when the
      social feeds are vapid. Flipboard may be the iPad's most powerful
      content aggregator, but it'll take a skilled user to filter what's
      really important."
    * Who owns the user experience?
      <http://www.stoweboyd.com/post/848965669/the-flipboard-dilemma-who-owns-user-experience>
      (Stowe Boyd) "But the presentation in Flipboard poses some real
      business problems. Where's the ads? Publishers make their money on
      ads (and pay walls), and so they are going to start to howl if
      people are viewing their stories with all the ads parsed out."
    * Is Flipboard legal? <http://gizmodo.com/5594176/> (Gizmodo/Joel
      Johnson) "The company hopes that content companies like Condé Nast
      will be so pleased at the way Flipboard presents their
      [copyrighted] content that they'll work with the
      company---subscriptions and revenue sharing were mentioned
      specifically---instead of suing the pants off of them."

/*Cool* (but ultimately insignificant) *fact*:/
Flipboard is currently free, backed by $10.5 million in funding from 
some high-profile people like Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, Facebook 
co-founder Dustin Moscovitz, and actor Ashton Kutcher.

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