Content

I’m struggling to figure out who this book is for. It’s well-written, interesting, and I enjoyed reading it. But I can’t figure out the intended audience.

It’s a narrative discussion about…content. Digital content, specifically.

There are only six chapters. The author discusses what content is, how the idea of user-generated content differs from the opposite, content farms, and the ideas of content being capital or assets.

There’s no advice here. The book just talks about the subject. It doesn’t take a position or tell you to do anything.

Again, this is all very interesting for someone in the content business (as I am). But I can’t figure out who else would read it? Maybe no one else – maybe I’m the target audience for this, and it’s just a very narrow target?

(To be fair, this is an entry in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series. The editorial dictates of that series likely influenced the content and tone of the book.)

Book Info

Here are some notes I took on the acquisition of this book:

I saw this on a stand while browsing in the basement of The Strand in NYC. It was a revolving stand of MIT Press Essential Knowledge titles. I was intrigued at the simplicity of the title.