So for the past seven weeks or so we’ve been talking about fostering community conversation, civic engagement, and enabling people to discuss the news that affects them. And we have come up with some pretty cool ways that undoubtedly encourage interactivity and will potentially help form an online community of engaged individuals who are motivated to have their voices heard.
But that’s what we need to get at - the people who comprise these communities. As much as the structure of what we create matters (ease of use, clarity, etc.), the fundamental piece to this puzzle isn’t the applications we are creating; It’s the people using it. Passionate people with genuine fervor for the content they are reading are the consumers targeted on the Web.
An understatement to say the least, the members of ESPN.com fit this profile perfectly. I sat down for a phone interview with Patrick Stiegman, vice president and executive editor and producer for ESPN.com to find out more about their Web properties, and the people who traffic them.
“The passion that sports fans have is the fuel that drives our community,” said Stiegman, who oversees production of an estimated 20 ESPN Web properties. “Sports is somewhat tribal - people tend to aggregate around a team, school, or state. With the fan profiles on our site, it’s like a virtual discussion at a bar,” said Stiegman.
The “fan profile” Stiegman refers to is the nexus of ESPN’s social community. With the fan profile, users can post a picture and information about themselves, message one another, see who has recently viewed their profile, add widgets, create a friend list, blog, post photos, join groups, and get updates about their ESPN fantasy sports teams. This virtual water cooler is essentially Facebook for sports fanatics – complete with a comment wall.
In addition to the fan profiles, users are able to personalize the news they receive from ESPN.com via their “MyESPN” page. Modeled after iGoogle, users can keep tabs on news from their favorite teams, check scoreboards, mark their calendars for TV listings, and check progress on their fantasy teams all on this one page. This personalization acts as a gateway to the communities the fans interact with, but according to Stiegman, it is a feature that is not used heavily.
“There is a lot of value around personalization in the news business, but people are hesitant to do it because they are worried that access could be shut down to it,” said Stiegman. “Ten to 15 percent of people personalize. The vast majority of people don’t want to put the time into personalization because they don’t want to miss something else going on in the sports world.”
While personalization (ideally) facilitates interactivity, it appears that many people are not willing to spend the time to customize the content they receive.
So to you, using your RSS reader, iGoogle page, and desktop widgets for news, (and of course, those of you who don’t), how vital is personalization to your Web experience?
