I don’t agree with everything Emily Bell at the Guardian says, but her latest column is spot on, in which she highlights comments from ITV’s Michael Grade who recently said:

“The history of the modern media age is littered with casualties of people who believed in technology rather than content.”

It’s an interesting argument at a time when the old adage ‘content is king’ seems to prevail whenever the internet is concerned. But is this content serving technology or the other way round? At a time when as much online content as possible is a means to an end as far as search engines are concerned, it is all to easy to think of content and neglect creativity.

As Emily, highlights, “What most of the brilliant technologists are actually motivated by is providing usefulness, entertainment, education and social connectivity to people.”

Great technology should enable great content. The best technologists are inherently creative. Those who are ultimately successful are the ones that use technology to create content that appeals to a wide audience. And, as Emily suggests, the best ideas (especially online) often occur when creative content and creative technology meet.