Online Video Mega List UPDATE1

Below are recent additions to my Online Video MegaList. This list is intended as an overview of video websites that are significant to digital content creators and digital content consumers. Learn where to upload your clips, where to find online video entertainment, where to find progressive multimedia, how to monetize your content and more. See the full list which is organized into categories such as Infrastructure, Upload Sites, Entertainment, Tools, and more.

• PLYmedia: Development, design, manufacturing and deployment of an interactive, multi-dimensional web video platform.
• jetvision: Jetvision provides immediate access to all your content in a single web video player that’s customized to match your existing website.
• VideoClix.tv: VideoClix’s original clickable video authoring software segmented, tracked, tagged and categorized objects within videos.
• VUVOX: VUVOX is an easy to use production and instant sharing service that allows you to mix, create and blend your personal media – video, photos and music into rich personal expressions.
• LANDLINE TV: A comedy video site that is "comically relevant...for about a week or so."
• Syndicaster: Syndicaster is adding several online distribution options for local TV stations, including the ability to publish video clips to YouTube, AOL (via Brightcove), Yahoo and other sites. Syndicaster is an online editing and video-clip management service that allows TV stations to broadcast any news clip and repurpose it for the Web by publishing it to their own Websites or through its sister service ClipSyndicate (both Syndicaster and ClipSyndicate are divisions of Critical Media).
• VidPay: A white label platform for sponsored video campaigns, helping video advertisers reach their intended audience.
• ActiveVideo: ActiveVideo Networks brings the full Web-media experience to TV, using well-established Internet and On-demand infrastructure. With 24 issued patents, ActiveVideo provides a mature, stable platform with infinite programming possibilities.
• Intruders tv : The leading provider of valuable insights through their unique approach to capturing Innovators on video.
• Kyte: Kyte is an end-to-end, online and mobile platform for the production, distribution and monetization of video content.
• ffwd: This video recommendation engine has just released its API to developers.
• Sling Media: Cool digital settop boxes that stream cable from your house to your computer. They will soon release an iPhone app that gives instant access to Cable TV and Tivo while roaming.
• Another settop box is Roku who will soon have a new product to Stream Netflix and Amazon video on demand.
• The Fancast Store: Online video store with a respectable selection of modern films.
• STRIKE.TV: Born out of the writers strike, designed to challenge members of the Writers Guild to create original programs for the Internet. The ad revenue profits go to the Writers Guild Foundation Industry Support Fund.
• Dailymotion: Video upload, sharing and categories.
• Heavy: Early-comer online video company focused on creating entertainment experiences for various demographics.
• Mixpo: An online video advertising technology company based in Seattle.
• mywaves: The largest free mobile video destination for consumers, attracting over 5 million unique visitors monthly to its free mobile video service.
• VideoSurf: A site for users to search, discover and watch online videos.
• Ooyala: Manage, monetize, syndicate and analyze your online video. Founded by two seasoned Google veterans.

See the full Online Video Mega List.

Intruders TV Relaunches

Intruders TV has re-vamped their site and posted a bunch of new video interviews with musicians, tech wizards, filmmakers and cleantech pioneers. They are a truely global operation, posting in multiple languages. Some great interviews are available...check 'em out.

They describe themselves as follows: "Intruders tv is the leading provider of valuable insights through their unique approach to capturing Innovators on camera. Interviews are conducted by well known, experienced and international industry editors, hand picked by Intruders tv to convey credibility and respectability both with the innovators being interviewed and the audience watching the interview."



"The mastermind behind Java, James Gosling created the programming language that brought the Internet to life and can be found in everything from smartcards to cell phones. In the interview above, James talks about Java, embedded systems, the iPhone and sensors in the middle of the Pacific!"

TV on the Computer

2009 is shaping up to be a huge year for online video. Check out the audio story and associated web page from All Tech Considered, the weekly segment on NPR's All Things Considered.

"Web video is growing up -- we're way past one-shot silly videos on YouTube -- and as more content grows online, we're seeing a real convergence between what's available on TV, what's available online and what we'll be able to stream back to our TVs from the Internet."

I notice many people in the media addressing the issue of watching video on the computer vs. watching it on the TV. The fact that is emerging is that many viewers are searching for good programming with their computer and watching it on their TV. Increasingly they are either connecting laptops to their TVs or using other media center devices. 2009 will see many more options such as the new LCD TVs with built-in Netflix coming soon from LG or other web-enabled TVs from the likes of Apple and Yahoo.

Also, don't miss the NPR.org All Tech Considered section.

Online Video Predictions for 2009

Mashable has published an optimistic set of predictions for online video in 2009 including the following:

• Record year for video content consumption


• Video monetization becomes reality


• On-demand video platforms gain as the economy slumps


• Mobile video finally breaks out

Check out the rest of the predictions from Alex Castro, CEO and co-founder of Delve Networks.

Analyzing, Indexing, Reading and Interpreting Online Digital Video Content

The advances in online video keep coming. It's a good thing, too, since video is quickly becoming one of the most popular online pastimes. As comScore notes, three out of four American Internet users regularly watch videos. In September, 146 million people watched an average of 86 videos each.

With so many videos online, new tools are popping up to help users sift through it all. For example, VideoSurf (see photo above), will actually analyze every frame of online videos from YouTube, Hulu and numerous other popular sites. The software analyzes faces and elements in the videos so that when users search for something like Johnny Cash, the results will bring the user right to the exact frames of video where Johnny appears. It works great.

Another spooky technology is from a company called called DigitalSmiths who describe themselves as follows, "Digitalsmiths is an innovative video indexing and digital content publishing technology provider serving major Hollywood studios, web video destinations, media companies and advertisers. The company’s proprietary computer-vision based video indexing, search and interpretation algorithms empower content owners and publishers to efficiently monetize their digital video content, and advertisers to automatically target ads to thematically relevant video content."

The New York Times has written a review of such sites called "Zeroing In On Your Favorite Video Clips".

Also, check out the video below from the PBS series Wired Science. Scientists are using facial recognition software to help Autistic kids learn how to interpret emotions by reading facial movements and visual cues. Wild stuff.

Start-Up Junkies

This Mojo HD reality-TV series was shot in Seattle. It chronicles the inner-workings of a start-up called Earth Class Mail. As someone who has experienced remarkably similar circumstances, I can tell you that this series is spot on. They really capture it. I know why I like watching this stuff. Does anyone else care? Apparently so...people are watching.

Above is a clip from Episode 3 which is described as follows; "With plans to sell his home, his planes and other valued possessions, Ron charges ahead and hunts for office space in downtown Seattle."

All this is courtesy of Hulu.com which keeps getting better and shows us what the future of "TV" might look like.

Video Fun in the Public Domain

Fun with the public domain. Goodnight Irene is a 20th century American folk standard popularized by such musicians as The Weavers and Lead Belly. The video clips are from Archive.org which provides free, public domain video footage such as school filmstrips, government training films and vintage TV advertising. Performed here by Ray Taylor and Todd Tibbetts. Edited by PixelFarmer.com.

YouTube Continues Cultural Infiltration

YouTube is the granddaddy of online video and they continue to innovate. Check out the above video by Dr. Michael Wesch regarding YouTube as a cultural phenomenon. (See a table of contents with timeline info.)

This week, they announced the launch of YouTubevertorials. These are affiliate marketing-type ecommerce links. Do you like a song you are hearing in a video? Buy it now from Amazon or iTunes.

This week, they also announced a partnership with CBS TV to post full-length TV shows. CBS will sell pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll ads and both companies will share the revenue.

My Documentary About Dot Com Culture

I finished editing late last night and here it is - Exit Strategy News Episode One: Bandwagon.

I've been collecting video and photos from over 18 years in the Internet industry. Erik Koto and I have captured many of our friends and colleagues on video and we'll eventually assemble further episodes. Tell us if you have video sitting in a closet somewhere. Also, we'd love to interview you. Everyone has a story.

We want to capture what it's like to work in the Internet industry, both past and present. What are your memories of the dot com bubble? Where will the future lead us?

Also Available: High-Resolution versions.

Hulu and Joost: Head-to-Head Video Battle

Hulu and Joost, two of the top online video entertainment sites, are improving their services at a very fast rate. Hulu is allowing viewers to embed videos in their personal blogs while Joost has dropped the stand-alone software and launched a browser-based player. Below are some articles about the two companies. Also check out the recent Nielson video census chart (above).

Free, Legal, and Online: Why Hulu Is the New Way to Watch TV (Wired Magazine)

Hulu Launches All Kinds Of Stuff To Keep You Defocused On Joost (TechCrunch)

New Widgets At Hulu; We Talk To CTO Eric Feng (TechCrunch)


About time: Joost to launch browser-based player (CNET)

Free Online Movie from Michael Moore

Today Michael Moore is releasing his latest documentary "Slacker Uprising" for free online. Get it here. The election-focused movie can also be bought on DVD and will eventually be released via more traditional channels. It is an interesting exploration of delivery methods. We'll see more experiments like this in the coming months.

The distribution is being organized by Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films (the company behind "OUTFOXED: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism" and "WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price").

"This is being done entirely as a gift to my fans. The only return any of us are hoping for is the largest turnout of young voters ever at the polls in November." - Michael Moore

Online Video 2.0: Rules of Engagement

Check out the latest white paper from PermissionTV. (Download PDF: "Online Video 2.0: Rules of Engagement") It is a great overview of the state of online video.

"A recent study from ABI Research estimates the number of viewers who access video via the Web will nearly quadruple in the next few years, reaching at least one billion in 2013, while Forrester views streaming video advertising as the fastest growing segment of the interactive ad market and predicts it will hit $7.2 billion in 2012."

The Future of Online Video

On the occasion of Google's 10th birthday, Chad Hurley (CEO and Co-Founder of YouTube) commented on the future of online video. Did you know that 13 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute!?

Chad says, "In ten years, we believe that online video broadcasting will be the most ubiquitous and accessible form of communication. The tools for video recording will continue to become smaller and more affordable. Personal media devices will be universal and interconnected. Even more people will have the opportunity to record and share even more video with a small group of friends or everyone around the world."

Top Technorati Techie Talks TV at TED

Entrepreneur, blogger, marketer and digital culture historian Peter Hirshberg gave a great talk about computer/TV convergence at a recent TED-related conference, EG 08. In addition to being an executive and a writer, he also serves on the advisory board of Technorati. Check out the video above where he charts the history of the internet along side the history of TV.

Read his blog about disruptive culture and technology.

He is also a trustee at The Computer History Museum.

How-To Videos Online

A huge sub-genre of online video is the "How-to" video. On the one hand, I welcome this development because many of the videos are useful, fun and informative. On the other hand, any hack with a video camera and a self-inflated view of what they can teach the world is now empowered to digitally lecture the globe. Let the learning and teaching begin!

5min
A place to find short video solutions for practical questions and a place for people to share their knowledge.

HowCast
User generated content that is produced by the HowCast professional video team as well as freelance associates.

Wonder How To
A community-fueled, search engine and directory for free how-to video, with an index of more than 100,000 videos.

Instructables
Instructables is a web-based documentation platform where passionate people share what they do and how they do it, and learn from and collaborate with others.

Sutree
SuTree is a knowledge community and an aggregator of instructional &
educational videos.

VideoJug
Life explained, on film. A comprehensive library of free factual video content. Professionally-produced, high definition.

ExpertVillage
Professionally produced and researched videos, to answer everyday questions with. More than 120,000 videos.

eHow
A platform for you to share your knowledge with others. Clear instruction and high-quality video.

Online Video Mega List

Web video has achieved mass-market popularity. This compilation of links serves as a taste of what's available. Move over, YouTube. You've got company. I will continue to add to (or subtract from) this list as time goes on. Leave comments if I've missed any good ones.

Upload Sites

• 12 Seconds TV: Upload and share short video, like Twitter for video.
• Blip TV: Upload your own or watch other people's videos. Solid set of monetization tools. Great player.
• Cruxy: Post your video, track your buzz and make some dough.
• Current TV: A global television network that gives you the opportunity to create and influence what airs on TV.
• Dailymotion: Video upload, sharing and categories.
• FlixWagon: Broadcast live video from your mobile device.
• HelloWorld: Online studio tools for posting video, live video and video email.
• LiveVideo: Original and exclusive content, weekly video contests, customizable video streaming community.
• Magnify.net: Community video platform. Hosting of pages and videos.
• MetaCafe: Video entertainment powered by you.
• Mogulus: Live broadcast platform on the internet. Mobile features and interactive chat.
• MotionBox: Family-friendly video sharing and storage.
• MySpaceTV: Mega portal/community.
• Qik: Stream live video from your phone.
• Phanfare: Family-friendly private video sharing and collaboration.
• Revver: upload your video and get advertising revenue.
• Stickam: Web video conferencing, live streaming and lifecasting.
• Treemo: An online media sharing community with a mobile component and a "green" slant.
• TubeMogul: Independent video producers use this tool to distribute to multiple platforms, monetize their assets and track their stats.
• Ustream: "Live interactive video for everyone."
• Veoh: From home videos to premier internet television content. From Michael Eisner. Also has a media player.
• Viddler Web application to upload, enhance, and share digital video.
• Vimeo: Slick upload and share site with robust software and player.
• VUVOX: VUVOX is an easy to use production and instant sharing service that allows you to mix, create and blend your personal media – video, photos and music into rich personal expressions.
• Vuze: Upload or watch high-def videos.
• ZigiMe: Social network where users can upload video.

Infrastructure, Software & Hardware

• Adobe Media Player: Finding, cataloging and watching your videos.
• adotube: Publisher-centric online video advertising platform that enables you to generate revenue by showing brand-name ads in your video content.
• Amazon UnBox: The ecommerce giant begins to experiment with online delivery of entertainment content.
• BitTorrent: Trade huge files with your peers.
• BrightCove: Large-scale internet TV platform.
• CinemaNow: Movies. Buy, Rent, Burn. Online.
• CastTV: Video search, attempting to index every video on the web.
• ClipSyndicate: Search licensed, professional content, embed a channel widget in your site and earn revenue.
• DigitalSmiths: Video search technology. Publishers can register and generate ad revenue.
• Dotsub: Any film, any language. Wiki-type citizen translation tool for video.
• Dragonfly: Your customized video network. Trackable. Monetizable.
• Ekko.tv: Instantly start a video chat with two of your friends.
• Feed Room: Enterprise video solution. Provider of technology to corporations and media sites.
• jetvision: Jetvision provides immediate access to all your content in a single web video player that’s customized to match your existing website.
• Kaltura: Open source video management tools for individuals and organizations.
• Kyte: Kyte is an end-to-end, online and mobile platform for the production, distribution and monetization of video content.
• Mixpo: An online video advertising technology company based in Seattle.
• Maven Networks: Online video advertising solution.
• MoveNetworks: TV 2.0. Web streaming technology and services.
• Ooyala: Manage, monetize, syndicate and analyze your online video. Founded by two seasoned Google veterans.
• Origin Digital: Video application service provider, syndication, reporting, multi-platform.
• Overlay.TV: Enrich, monetize, and share online video with animations, comments, products and hyperlinks.
• PermissionTV: A digital video distribution platform with tools to monetize and track your video assets.
• PLYmedia: Development, design, manufacturing and deployment of an interactive, multi-dimensional web video platform.
• Red Lasso: Search national and local TV broadcasts, make clips, share the clips.
• Another settop box is Roku who will soon have a new product to Stream Netflix and Amazon video on demand.
• ScanScout: In-stream video ad network for publishers and organizations.
• See Too: Privately watch videos with a buddy on the internet.
• Sling Media: Cool digital settop boxes that stream cable from your house to your computer. They will soon release an iPhone app that gives instant access to Cable TV and Tivo while roaming.
• Snackfeed: Snackfeed is a tool that lets you track your favorite videos and watch what your friends are watching.
• SwarmCast: Multi-stream platform provider for HD and live distribution
• Syndicaster: Syndicaster is adding several online distribution options for local TV stations, including the ability to publish video clips to YouTube, AOL (via Brightcove), Yahoo and other sites. Syndicaster is an online editing and video-clip management service that allows TV stations to broadcast any news clip and repurpose it for the Web by publishing it to their own Websites or through its sister service ClipSyndicate (both Syndicaster and ClipSyndicate are divisions of Critical Media).
• Tremor Media: Monetize your video (for companies and individual publishers).
• TVTonic: Watch, subscribe and manage video content. Designed to be used with a remote on Windows Media Center.
• UV Layer: Search and discover video. Create thumbnail walls as visual storage.
• Veodia: Platform-as-a-service video broadcasting tools.
• Veotag: A service that allows you to display clickable text on your audio or video files.
• VideoClix.tv: VideoClix’s original clickable video authoring software segmented, tracked, tagged and categorized objects within videos.
• VidPay: A white label platform for sponsored video campaigns, helping video advertisers reach their intended audience.
• Visible Measures: Deep and relevant measurement of internet video audience behavior.
• Yuxt: Social video bookmarking, list creator, playlist tools.

Content & Entertainment Portals

• Acceptable: Watch. Vote. Create. Their judges decide which submitted clips are acceptable to be voted on.
• ActiveVideo: ActiveVideo Networks brings the full Web-media experience to TV, using well-established Internet and On-demand infrastructure. With 24 issued patents, ActiveVideo provides a mature, stable platform with infinite programming possibilities.
• AllOfTV: An archive of streaming TV content on the web. A site with this range of free content is surely going to be shut down soon.
• AtomFilms: A source for independently produced, online entertainment for ten years.
• BabelGum: "TV experience, Internet Substance." High-resolution and full-screen.
• Beet TV: Business news about the media revolution.
• Blinkx TV: 26 million hours of searchable video and major partnerships with dozens of media companies.
• Crackle: A Sony Pictures Entertainment Company formerly known as Grouper. A multi-platform video entertainment network and studio.
• DubiousTV: Seattle-based producers of online shows.
• The Fancast Store: Online video store with a respectable selection of modern films.
• ffwd: This video recommendation engine has just released its API to developers.
• Heavy: Early-comer online video company focused on creating entertainment experiences for various demographics.
• Hulu NBC Universal and News Corporation joint video venture. Many popular TV shows and movies available full-length and full-screen.
• HungryFlix: Feed your portable device. Purchase with micropayments.
• Intruders tv : The leading provider of valuable insights through their unique approach to capturing Innovators on video.
• Joost: All the things you love about TV, fused with all the fun and interactive power of the internet. From the guys that brought you Skype and Kazaa. Full screen. Downloaded client.
• JumpTV: Free live TV from all over the world on your PC.
• LANDLINE TV: A comedy video site that is "comically relevant...for about a week or so."
• Live Universe: One of the largest online entertainment networks from MySpace founder Brad Greenspan. Video, Social Networking & Music.
• MeeVee: Traditional TV listings and online video from hundreds of sources. Personalized guides to surface new programming choices based on individual interests.
• mywaves: The largest free mobile video destination for consumers, attracting over 5 million unique visitors monthly to its free mobile video service.
• Neovids.tv: Production company that creates, acquires, and distributes online video content.
• On Networks: Producing tons of original content. Original programming for original people.
• MojoHD: High-def online site owned by Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner among others.
• Podaddies: Advertising solutions for video publishers.
• Revision3: Discover, watch, subscribe, discuss. Original shows.
• Rocket Boom: Daily internet culture news video program.
• STRIKE.TV: Born out of the writers strike, designed to challenge members of the Writers Guild to create original programs for the Internet. The ad revenue profits go to the Writers Guild Foundation Industry Support Fund.
• Tilzy.tv: What to watch on the web. Guides and reviews.
• VideoSurf: A site for users to search, discover and watch online videos.
• ViralVideos: Displaying the web's most shared viral videos.
• WellcomeMat: Local personalities and professionals use video to highlight real estate, cities, neighborhoods, parks, schools, events and local businesses.
• WorldTV: Create your own channel by assembling videos from the web or watch other people's channels.
• Zattoo: Live TV on your PC from all over the world.

Progressive

• DIY Video Summit: DIY video in the age of digital media.
• FreeSpeech.org: Campanion website of the progressive TV channel. Politics, culture and social issues.
• FORA.tv: "The World is Thinking." Political, social and cultural issues via web video.
• TED: Technology, Entertainment, Design. 18-minute speeches from progressive luminaries.

Other

• For Your Imagination: A content production company, creative video studio and marketing team.
• WallStrip: Videos about how cultural trends effect the stock market.

Updated April 26th, 2009.

Online Video Advertising Growth

It seems that every time another research firm predicts the size of the online video advertising market, another firm turns around and makes a higher prediction. The realities of the market and the ever-increasing adoption of online video is proving that the predictions are too low. The only thing we can be sure of is that advertising for online video will be huge! This is great news for all of us content creators...if there is money in the market, funding for shows will continue to increase.

Lehman predicts $2.4B in U.S. Video Ads by 2010. See the TechCrunch post.

Parks Associates predict $6.6B in Online Video Ads by 2012. See the NewTeeVee post.

Forrester predicts $7.1B in Online Video Ads by 2012.

Fifty Percent of US Population will Watch Online Video in 2008

Not everyone agrees. "Expectations for online video ad revenue growing faster than the evidence"

Opportunities for Content Creators

Andrew Baron, creator of Rocketboom, recently talked to Beet.tv about the numerous opportunities that exist for digital content creators. Now, more than ever, individuals and small shops can make a living creating original programming for the web and mobile devices. He talks in detail about how to approach entrepreneurial efforts in the fields of digital film making, story development, online video and web show production.

The Rocketboom folks just announced a seven-figure distribution deal with Sony this week, so this is a content team that knows what they are talking about.

NYT Article Takes Pulse of Web Video Scene

A great recent article in the New York Times titled "Night Life Reprogrammed" explores the nightlife and social scene that has sprouted up around the next-generation web industry that is newly emerging. Special emphasis is placed on web video companies and their interactions with the industry and the world at large. The article mentions a bunch of great internet video content and entertainment sites such as the following:

• Wine Library TV
• Video blogs like Downtown Diary and Pop17
• Digital media production company Dinosaur Diorama
• Online video entertainment pioneer Blip.tv
• Hip Hop video blog Ill Doctrine
• NY Video 2.0

For more companies like this, check out my 4-part series about digital media content sites "They Promised Us Convergence".

Metacafe Partners with Web Video Content Creators

AdAge is reporting that the web video entertainment company Metacafe has partnered with a dozen content-creation companies including 60 Frames, Aniboom, CelebTV, Collegiate Images, Comedy.com, Comedy Time, Diagonal View, GamePro Media, Howcast, SXM, Wannahaves, and Young Hollywood.

"It's important for content creators that they not only have their work distributed as broadly as possible but also that they team with publishers who can help ensure their videos reach the right viewers at the right time," Scott Bushman, vice president of content for Metacafe.

Digital Media Content Business News

When I started this blog over a year ago, it was to cover stories in the still-emerging digital content industry. This world of online entertainment and digital delivery is now mainstream, and continues to grow. Popular old-school media companies have begun to embrace the new delivery channels and content-creation techniques. Take the recent examples below as proof.

• PaidContent.org parent company, ContentNext, has been acquired by Guardian News & Media.


• HBO has decided to offer digital versions of its content on iTunes.
  
  
• Media industry grand-daddy CBS Buys digital pioneer C|NET for $1.8 billion.


• Disney Online Creates New Team Focused on Online Virtual Worlds, Communities and Games


• Online-Video Firm Revver Is Acquired by LiveUniverse.


• The new Vivendi multimedia service, called Zaoza, will deliver content across multiple devices and encourage users to share


• Hollywood continues to go digital. Lions Gate Entertainment has decided to strike a deal with Google to share advertising revenue from YouTube clips of it's films.

My Interview with Brian Goldfarb

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Brian Goldfarb, Group Product Manager of the UX Platform and Tools Strategy group at Microsoft. We spoke in Orlando after his keynote speech.

We chatted about multimedia, creative teams, designers, developers, Silverlight, desk clutter and endless email sessions.

See my recent coverage of his presentation, including Silverlight video of the whole talk.

Digital Media Entertainment Studios

As a producer and consumer of digital media, I find it encouraging to see such a healthy crop of newfangled filmmakers. These are companies dedicated to creating content pieces for digital distribution. Like studios set up to create TV or movies, the internet studios are generating new works and releasing them to a mass audience.

For example, the makers of LonelyGirl 15 have transformed themselves into "EQAL (pronounced “Equal”), the social entertainment company dedicated to redefining the way we interact with content and with each other."

"Worldwide Biggies is a Digital Entertainment Studio that’s redefining entertainment by creating hit properties for young adults and the digital family."

"Next New Networks is a new kind of media company, creating micro-television networks over the internet for targeted communities, bringing together elements of tv programming and internet philosophy to allow viewers to contribute, share and distribute content."

Generate is "new content for a new generation. With the entertainment industry undergoing a seismic shift in reaction to the rapidly changing consumption habits of the youth and family audience, we recognize there now exists a unique opportunity to create a forward-thinking company that understands both this audience and their increasing demand for content across multiple platforms."

60 Frames is "a company specifically focused on financing and syndicating web content, in an environment where artists maintain creative freedom, significant profit participation, ownership and control over their properties. 60Frames provides financial, legal, creative, physical, marketing and distribution resources to professional artists who wish to create original, high quality programming for the internet and other digital media platforms."

Vuguru is Michael Eisner's company that is producing high-quality digital entertainment properties. Learn more about this in my recent post from Eisner's recent keynote speech.

Endemol is a thriving production entity that creates powerful content for all media platforms. They've done Big Brother and Deal or No Deal and are focused on both traditional and emerging technologies.

Stage 9 Digital Media is an ABC TV offshoot focused on creating digital programming for internet audiences. They are syndicating rapidly to YouTube, Hulu, Zvue and even on the Xbox among others.

"Electric Farm Entertainment is a digital studio for the development of intellectual properties across multiple platforms." They are the studio creating Gemini Division, the online sci-fi series available at the NBC website.

"Medialink helps professional communicators and the media engage their intended audiences with compelling video and audio distributed via the Web, television and radio. We produce award-winning video and audio content that is promoted and distributed to broadcast and broadband media outlets"

Vint 'Father of the Internet' Cerf Re: Online Video

Check out the great interview with Vint Cerf on BeetTV. He has not only won every techie award in the universe, but he's been steering strategy at Google since 2005. He has interesting things to say about the future of online video, which he predicts will involve more downloading and less streaming.

The Conference on Creativity & Technology

Highlight video of our recent trip to the CRE8 Conference in Orlando this spring.

Microsoft Silverlight Presentation by Brian Goldfarb part 1

(Install Silverlight to view this video.)

The video above is part one of a keynote speech given by Brian Goldfarb of Microsoft at the 2008 CRE8 Conference. I attended the conference in Orlando and you can review my earlier posts from the show.

A cultural change is afoot at Microsoft, where the oft-neglected designer is finally getting a long-craved-for hug from the Borg. This time it really seems like they are serious about respecting user experience and good human-computer interface design best practices. For instance, Microsoft is part of the OpenAjax Alliance and they have even launched a full-on designer community.

Check out his presentation to learn about Microsoft's new approach to the entire "ecosystem of developers" which involves "collaboration between teams of partners". Microsoft is not only trying to provide tools to do tasks, but they are also addressing the need for workflow solutions. How do teams work closely together, freely exchanging ideas, files and deliverables? With the new products, a designer can open up a project that has been coded by a developer and vice versa.

Goldfarb leads teams dedicated to building upon Microsoft's Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), their unified application framework. Among other things, it allows developers to apply basic windows functionality (like spell check) into multimedia applications.

He spoke broadly about general changes in Microsoft culture and practice. He mentioned that their server is now standards-based, and the "browser is getting better, I promise".

He shared a variety of example Silverlight sites from their Gallery, including Break.com, HSN,and the mind-bending "Deep Zoom" technology on the Hard Rock Cafe site.

At the time of this presentation, Microsoft was seeing over one million downloads a day of the Silverlight plug-in.

The new products support HD video, adaptive streaming solutions, XAML, and DRM-ready features. Read my post about a recent all-day Silverlight training event I attended at Microsoft to learn more about all this stuff.

Goldfarb stressed that they are building demand. Now they need creative people to develop the supply. To that end, they are offering 10 gigs of free hosting! The video above takes advantage of this. They are encouraging the developer network by providing a free place to get started.

Silverlight is driving plugin adoption by offering content developers a free hosting and streaming service: "Microsoft® Silverlight™ Streaming by Windows Live™ is a companion service for Silverlight that makes it easier for developers and designers to deliver and scale rich media as part of their Silverlight applications. The service offers web designers and developers a free and convenient solution for hosting and streaming cross-platform, cross-browser media experiences and rich interactive applications that run on Windows™ and Mac."

Video Publishing Platform Wars

comScore Video Metrix, the king of media statistics, tells us that more than 10 billion videos are viewed per month in the United States. In March 2008, there were more than 11 billion!

As has been written about numerous times on this blog, there are dozens of companies trying to corner pieces of this market. One of the biggest is Brightcove, who recently revamped their services and site. They describe themselves this way, "Brightcove empowers content owners—from independent producers to major broadcast networks—to reach their audiences directly through the Internet. At the same time, we help web publishers enrich their sites with syndicated video programming, and we give marketers more ways to communicate and engage with their consumers."

Recently a Seattle-area start-up has begun to challenge the mighty Brightcove. Delve Networks, formerly called Pluggd, published a direct challenge on their blog this week. They are going after Brightcove's corner of the video market and appear to be doing quite well.

The online battle for video platform domination rages on! It'll be fun to watch.

They Promised Us Convergence, part 4

The great plodding march toward complete convergence continues. TV and movies are merging with the digital world. This series on my blog tracks many of the companies, creators and video sites that have joined this quest for convergence. Below are links and quotes about many of the sites I didn't cover in parts 1, 2 and 3.

The goal of CastTV is "to index every video on the web (from YouTube to iTunes, and everything in between) and to help users find videos that matter to them."

"Viddler is a fresh, creative web application that lets you upload, enhance, and share digital video quickly and easily inside your web browser. Sharing your story. Making search results relevant. Bringing users together."

"LiveVideo is where you want to be to find original and exclusive content, weekly video contests, and great videos. Essentially, LiveVideo is your ultimate video destination on the web. We are a customizable video streaming community that allows users to watch, upload, search and share videos, allowing you to have a completely interactive video sharing experience!"

Stickam is "driving the next wave of business communications with rich media meetings that liberate users from time and geographical constraints." They provide "Web communication services... designed for the delivery of multimedia Web communications."

Qik lets you "stream live video fast to the world. Right from your phone."

MoveNetworks is calling themselves TV 2.0.

"WorldTV is an entirely new concept in the world of web video. More than 10 years in the planning, it realizes a long term vision to empower anyone, anywhere to become their own media mogul, and to create their own fabulous TV Channel."

Adobe Media Playerlaunched a media player that works great for finding, cataloging and watching your videos.

Also see my recent post about the DIY Video Summit.

Remember that the deadline for the mandatory shift to digital television draws ever closer. See my recent post T-Commerce, Digital TV and the Digitization of Content.

The set top box market continues to take in new players. "VUDU is the revolutionary new movie on-demand service that provides instant access to more than 6,000 movies and TV shows, with hundreds of titles in high-definition. Whether you're in the mood for a top Hollywood new release or an art-house classic, VUDU lets you rent or purchase and starts playing faster than you can grab the popcorn." FOXTEL has a pretty great box. And this month also saw a widly publicised rumor that Blockbuster Video is about to announce a set top box of their own and this rumor appears to be true.

Maven is "the power of internet TV" and was bought by Yahoo for $160M. "Introducing the first and only complete online video advertising solution to dramatically increase video advertising inventory and revenue via new ad formats, an intelligent and dynamic video ad insertion engine, and sophisticated video ad inventory management tools."

Live Universe, the latest venture from MySpace founder Brad Greenspan, bought Revver, in February 2008. LiveVideo.com is another project by Live Universe.

BuddyTV is "original and fresh coverage on TV Shows, TV News, TV Spoilers, Live TV Commentary, TV listings, Forums, and Community."

"MeeVee is the first destination to bring together traditional TV listings and online video from hundreds of sources in one place. Using innovative new technologies, MeeVee has changed the way viewers find TV programming and online video by enabling them to personalize their guides to surface new programming choices based on individual interests."

Beet TV continues to crank out great video coverage of many of these topics.

Mogulus is "giving users the power to create live, original television programming, all done on their own global broadcasting channel."

PermissionTV will give you the tools to monetize your video assets.

ViralVideos displays "the web's most shared viral videos."

YouTorrent, is a meta search engine that finds you bit torrents.

Stay tuned for more in this ongoing series. Check out the previous posts:
They Promised Us Convergence, part 3
They Promised Us Convergence, part 2
They Promised Us Convergence, part 1

Wired Science: Free Video for Geeks

"Take the DNA of WIRED Magazine, the first word on how science and technology are changing the world. Add the giant-robot might of PBS. Result: WIRED Science, a new weekly series that brings the magazine’s award-winning journalism, groundbreaking design and irreverent attitude to public television."

Ray Kurzweil: Outrageous Inventor, Entrepreneur, Thinker and Doer

Filmed in 2005 "Prolific inventor and outrageous visionary Ray Kurzweil explains in abundant, grounded detail why -- by the 2020s -- we will have reverse-engineered the human brain, and nanobots will be operating your consciousness. Kurzweil draws on years of research to show the speed at which technology is evolving, and projects forward into an almost unthinkable future to outline the ways we'll use technology to augment our own capabilities, forever blurring the lines between human and machine." From TED.com.

On the list of contemporary creative thinkers I'd like to eat a sandwich with, Kurzweil is near the top. I appreciate and respect a person who can simultaneously dream fantastical notions and also perform practical technical feats. He not only thinks, he does. He thinks about the power of cell phone cameras years before the technology is mature. Then he does a project and works with the American Foundation for the Blind to create a working product that will speak the text of photos taken with a modern cell phone so that blind people can read pasta box labels and street signs and love letters.

Check out Kurzweil Technologies to learn about his numerous successful business ventures. He's been building and selling companies since he was a teenager. He's started music product companies, the FatKat Artificial Intelligence investment tool and educational technology companies.

I've always been curious about his thoughts on the coming technological singularity. This is a point in the (near?) future where technology will be accelerating at such a super fast rate that culture will reach an almost magical point. Our tools and combined intelligence will make almost anything possible, including (near) immortality.

A recent Wired article has a current look at the modern Kurzweil. He is making sure that, when the singularity arrives, he's good and healthy. He rides his bike, he's lost 30 pounds, he takes dozens of vitamins and supplements every day and he's on a strict diet. (Futurist Ray Kurzweil Pulls Out All the Stops (and Pills) to Live to Witness the Singularity)

Wikipedia says, "Raymond Kurzweil (pronounced /kɚzwaɪl/) (born February 12, 1948) is an inventor and futurist. He has been a pioneer in the fields of optical character recognition (OCR), text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition technology, and electronic keyboard instruments. He is the author of several books on health, artificial intelligence, transhumanism, the technological singularity, and futurism."

See some of his books on Amazon.
Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever
The Age of Spiritual Machines
The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology

Adobe Media Player for Internet TV Content

Adobe is now in competition with iTunes, Windows Media Player and Real Player. Their new Adobe Media Player is a great digital media content player that helps you organize your favorites and find great video and audio.

Adobe has also teamed up with a bunch of participating content producers and suppliers such as CBS, Comedy Central, BlipTV, MTV and Universal.

Adobe has a great history of making universal, cross-platform apps that quickly become the standard. This Media Player has a chance to become the standard tool that allows digital content consumers to aggregate and control the incredible amount of audio and video that is sprouting anew every day on the web. Check out my previous three articles on the convergence of TV and the web.

"Adobe Media Player software provides control and flexibility to view what you want, when you want — whether online or offline. You can queue up and download your favorite Internet TV content, track and download new episodes automatically, and manage your personal video library for viewing at your convenience."

DIY Video in the Age of Digital Media

Howard Rheingold has been one pixel ahead of most people for decades now. His writings and thoughts about new media, grassroots communications and virtual communities must be digested by any serious student of the digital age. Howard and I worked together at Whole Earth Catalog in the early 90s. He's the guy who came running into the office waving a floppy disc above his head screaming, "You've gotta see this." It was the first Mosaic browser and it blew our minds.

Check out the video above from the 24-7 DIY Video Summit. You'll see an intro by Howard and some video of Henry Jenkins, author of Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. Thanks to Ulrike Reinhard for the video.

The DIY Video Summit is described below in their own words:

"We are in the early stages of a fundamental transformation in how we create, share and view dynamic visual media. This transformation is enabling a new media ecology that can support widespread amateur video creation, and peer-to-peer and many-to-many distribution to audiences both large and small. Although it is clear that there is tremendous demand for user-generated and bottom-up forms of digital video, it remains unclear how best to support these creative projects, what the implications are for artistic practice and how to build bridges between old and new media."

Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder

I hate folders. My files never fit perfectly into a folder structure. Many modern taxonomists are suggesting that we are seeing the demise of folders and the death of buckets. In other words, if all content can be tagged with keywords then why bother sticking it in any particular folder. How often have we all tried to file a document in a particular folder only to realize that it could actually be at home in multiple folders? With tagging, we don’t have to worry about this, just tag a document with a variety of keywords and you’ll be able to find it again one day.

David Weinberger talks about this in a much more eloquent fashion than I do. Check out his new book Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder. I especially enjoy his humorous brushing aside of Melvil Dewey, inventor of the stunningly frustrating Dewey Decimal System. Check out the video below where he talks about (among many other things) how Dewey was a man obsessed with the number ten...so much so that he would arrange his travel dates so that he would arrive at his destination only on dates that were divisible by ten.


"Google Tech Talks May 10, 2007 David Weinberger's new book covers the breakdown of the established order of ordering. He explains how methods of categorization designed for physical objects fail when we can instead put things in multiple categories at once, and search them in many ways. This is no dry book on taxonomy, but has the insight and wit you'd expect from the author of The Cluetrain Manifesto, Small Pieces Loosely Joined, and a former writer for Woody Allen."

Digital Media Products Store

I've launched a new Amazon Affiliate store featuring products of interest to digital media enthusiasts. Check out the new Exit Strategy News Store. I've included books, DVDs and software that I've found helpful, informative or just plain fun.

5Min: How to Raise Money From VCs

This hilarious (but kinda true) video is available on 5min.com, "a place to find short video solutions for practical questions and a place for people to share their knowledge."

In the video above, an Israeli entrepreneur shares his theories of how to raise money from venture capital investors. As he smokes his cigar, he suggests inserting the logo of another venture firm at the beginning of your Power Point presentation. Then politely apologize to the VCs you are pitching and pretend it was an accident. The theory is that VCs want to invest in companies that other VCs are interested in. Funny...but also true.

5min believes that everyone is an expert in something. So, either share your knowledge or go to the site to learn something. Where else can you get a 5 minute lesson in belly dancing, drawing and street fighting all in one place?

Nerd TV Video Interview Archives

"NerdTV (Soon re-launching as SuperNerds) was a weekly online TV show from PBS.org technology columnist Robert X. Cringely. NerdTV is essentially Charlie Rose for geeks - a one-hour interview show with a single guest from the world of technology. Guests like Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy or Apple computer inventor Steve Wozniak are household names if your household is nerdy enough, but as historical figures and geniuses in their own right, they have plenty to say to ALL of us. NerdTV is distributed under a Creative Commons license so viewers can legally share the shows with their friends and even edit their own versions. If not THE future of television, NerdTV represents A future of television for niche audiences that have deep interest in certain topics."

Some Guests Have Included:
Macintosh OS programmer Andy Hertzfeld
PayPal co-founder Max Levchin
Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy
Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle
Internet publisher Tim O'Reilly
Father of RSS Dave Winer
Autodesk co-founder Dan Drake
Intel Capital co-founder Avram Miller
Anina High Fashion Meets High Tech
Spreadsheet inventor Dan Bricklin
Computer mouse inventor Doug Engelbart
TCP/IP inventor Bob Kahn
Internet entrepreneur, Judy Estrin

Download: The True Story of the Internet

The Science Channel is broadcasting a great documentary chronicling the history of the Internet called Download: The True Story of the Internet. Created by technology journalist John Heileman, this film is full of interviews and insights and behind-the-scenes gossip.

They describe it this way: "From the founders of eBay, Yahoo, Amazon, Netscape, Google and many others, we hear amazing stories of how, in ten short years, the Internet took over our lives. These extraordinary men and women tell us how they went from being geeky, computer obsessed nerds to being 21st-century visionaries in the time it takes most people to get their first promotion. And, how they made untold billions along the way."

Merlin Mann. Worst Website Ever. SXSW 2008

Merlin Mann is one of the big brains behind 43 Folders. He gave a great presentation at this year's SXSW (South by Southwest Interactive Conference in Austin). He's a writer, speaker and broadcaster and this performance pokes the whole internet industry in the eyeballs. This is a really funny look at the web from a guy who's seen it all from the inside.

Microsoft Silverlight and Expression Studio Training

I am here live at the Microsoft Conference Center at a full-day training seminar for Silverlight and Expression Studio. We have 70 people from our company getting trained by Arturo Toledo who will also be speaking at our Cre8 Summit conference in Florida in April. I'll be there blogging live from Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort.

One of the coolest new features in version 2 of Silverlight is the Seadragon image technology which aims to "change the way we use screens, from wall-sized displays to mobile devices, so that visual information can be smoothly browsed regardless of the amount of data involved or the bandwidth of the network." Check out the amazing demo below.

Presenting Perfectly with PowerPoint

PowerPoint has reached ubiquitous status in most parts of the world. Today anyone can give a multimedia presentation. Although most of these presentations are either mind-numbingly boring or brain-bendingly confusing, there are still artful public speakers who can use this tool to make magic.

David Byrne (formerly of the Talking Heads) created a great book and DVD art project called Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information that is a must see for any serious PowerPoint junkie.


Also, check out Clif Atkinson's seminal guide to presenting, Beyond Bullet Points.


Very Funny: Don McMillan on most common mistakes people make while doing PowerPoint presentations.

Zune Arts Digital Music Videos

I love my iPhone, but the marketing efforts surrounding Microsoft's Zune are catching my eye. They are funding the creation of a lot of great mini digital art pieces.

"Zune Arts brings the best creative minds to collaborate on inspiring works of art under themes of sharing, connection, discovery, and friendship. Zune Arts is continuously growing, ever-evolving, and always open to new voices, influences and ideas. Zune is Microsoft's music and entertainment brand that provides an integrated digital entertainment experience. The Zune platform includes a line of portable digital media players, the Zune Marketplace online store, and the Zune Social online music community."

MountainZone.com Early Media Coverage 1997

Here are some more retro flashbacks from the early days of the web. This montage shows how the mainstream media was covering our dot com start-up between 1995 and 1997.



These clips were pulled from the following:

MountainZone TV Commercial series

"Wild Wild Web" syndicated on CBS

CNN Financial

Seattle News on KIRO-TV

ABC Sunday Night Movie "Into Thin Air"

"Up To The Minute" on CBS

Live Update on CNN

Reebok's "PE-TV"

"Playing in Style" on FOX

For more stories from the dot com days, see posts about my personal Internet history.

T-Commerce, Digital TV and the Digitization of Content

In one year, your old TV won't work anymore. Broadcast is going digital. This is the end of the TV antenna.

At midnight on February 17, 2009, all full-power television stations in the United States will stop broadcasting in analog and switch to 100% digital broadcasting. Digital broadcasting promises to provide a clearer picture and more programming options and will free up airwaves for use by emergency responders.

Learn the details from the US Department of Commerce at DTV2009.gov. More info at PC Mag.

We've seen many buzzwords develop from this impending switch-over. One such word makes me simultaneously excited and terrified. T-commerce is the merging of remote-control ease-of-use boob tubes with the instant economic advantages of online ecommerce.

What does this mean for advertisers and the economics of television broadcasting? Accenture, the global technology consultancy, has produced a detailed study on the subject. I actually think it is great news for digital content producers and designers.

"The findings of our Global Digital Advertising Study 2007 represent a resounding call to action for participants throughout the advertising value chain. The survey also shows that the challenges facing them should not be taken lightly. Change is coming, and businesses will have to invest and change radically to get in or to stay in the game. But Accenture believes that the rewards will justify the effort. The long-term future of the advertising business — if we will even be calling it that a decade from now — is bright."

Digital Handel's Messiah, 1994

In 1994 my company won a contract to broadcast the the annual Kennedy Center Handel's Messiah performance live on the web with video. We'd barely just started our company, MediaZones, and the only reason we got the gig was because very few companies were doing live internet video. We'd had some cursory initial success with local Seattle events and that made us the default experts. So, we loaded all our digital gear into travel cases and headed to Washington, DC to try and make it work.

We were hired by a company associated with the Paramount Theatre in Seattle. They'd made all the arrangements to get our crew from Seattle to DC and all we needed to do was make a postage-sized flicker of video appear on their webpage while the live event was going on. We used a now-defunct software-hardware combo called Xing Technologies that required we lug a giant server with us, along with 4 desktops and a laptop. Not to mention our cameras, microphones and cables.

In those days we felt lean and mean when it came to equipment. When we were at events, the TV crews would gawk at us and be amazed that we could broadcast from just seven suitcases. They couldn't take us seriously because we, in their minds, had barely any equipment. We didn't even have a van. How could we be professionals? How indeed.

Back in 1995, I sketched this comic rendering of the whole adventure and I have recently posted it online.

In comming weeks, I'll post some photos of this trip...I just uncovered another box of media from those old early days of the web. Stay tuned!

Do Not Erase: My Lust for Whiteboards

I have always been pro-whiteboard. I do not miss the days of the chalkboard. I welcome the glossy white surface! I once created a small conference room where all the walls were covered with whiteboard material. We could brainstorm or write notes or just sit there and stare at the wide open expanse of board.

The other day I was driving over the Fremont Bridge in Seattle and saw a billboard for Google. They've been advertising in Seattle a lot lately, doing a bunch of hiring for their Fremont and Kirkland offices. I love the want-ad they created. It's a giant whiteboard with "Do Not Erase" scrawled across it. Sorry for the blurry photo, I was driving by and I snapped the above picture with the iPhone during traffic.

If you too feel the whiteboard lust, then perhaps you should contact Wall Talkers. These high-end, custom dry-erase gurus will create all manner of whiteboard mayhem. They make curved whiteboard walls or they'll paint all surfaces with special dry-erase paint so that literally everything is write-onable!

If you don't have a whiteboard that prints out onto paper, then you'll need to take photos before erasing. Thousands of people have drawn all manner of things on their dry erase boards and posted the photos to a group on Flickr.

Many have been inspired by the mighty whiteboard, including artists and animators who create fun hand-drawn animations like this.

Family Friendly Digital Media

I've recently made updates to another web site I created called FamilyMusicParty.com. The site publishes information about family-friendly music including videos, lyrics, artist bios and other fun stuff.

Comic: Making a Cybercast 1997

Back in 1997 I owned a company called MountainZone.com. We published outdoor sporting information on the web. We didn't know it at the time, but we were building a community.

We traveled from Seattle to Stratton, VT to broadcast the US Open Snowboard Championships. Since we were posting our audio, text, pictures and videos to the Internet, we called it "cybercasting" which sounded even sillier in the 90s than it sounds now.

We finagled ourselves into all-access media passes and we bartered a free room in exchange for a banner graphic on the event page. We were doing everything for the first time...breaking ground. Media folk and journalists rarely asked for web connections in the early 90s when we started our cybercasts, but by the late 90s it was becoming more common for press rooms to offer Internet. Although the connections were thru 28.8 modems, definitely not high-bandwidth.

We were serious about the sport and our team knew the riders, event planners and other professionals. By the end of the weekend there was underwear on the lamps, beer on top of the computers and silly string hanging from the ceiling. How we ever published anything is beyond me.

But it worked...and the visitors to the website started streaming in. First there were dozens, then hundreds, then thousands. By the time we sold MountainZone in 1999 we had millions of visitors pouring into the site to learn about mountain biking, skiing, snowboarding and climbing.

Above is a comic I drew on the plane ride home (click it for the full story). The photos are provided as proof (to myself) that it all really happened and it was not a dream. Watch this blog for more of my personal Internet history. I’ll be digging up some great dirt.

Treemo 1.0

Seattle-based Treemo.com graduated to 1.0 status today. Right on, cats. Great new widgets and some slick interface enhancements.

They Promised Us Convergence Part 3

There has been plenty of TV-Internet convergence going on since I posted the first two parts of this series. (parts 1 and 2)

On Networks is producing tons of original content.

Mojo is a high-def online site owned by Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner among others.

Vuze is allowing users to upload or watch high-def videos.

Lots of Little Screens: TV Is Changing Shape
By Denise Caruso for the New York Times
"INEXPENSIVE broadband access has done far more for online video than enable the success of services like YouTube and iTunes. By unchaining video watchers from their TV sets, it has opened the floodgates to a generation of TV producers for whom the Internet is their native medium."

However, CastTV and Hulu are still in private beta. I've seen both and they look very promising.

They Promised Us Convergence Part 1
They Promised Us Convergence Part 2

A Sloppy Survey of Branded Content

I see a possible future where almost all commercially-produced entertainment will be what we call today, “branded entertainment”. Whereas today we are awash with “interruption marketing” (commercials that punctuate your TV show with pauses), tomorrow we will have stories that are financially supported more directly by brands. Positive side effects may include more visibility into who is footing the bill for our content. We will also benefit, as media consumers, from the increase in variety and the decrease in interruption. However, the pitfalls are many. Dangers include the possible triumph of propaganda over free press or the diluting of all that is culturally pure. But whatever, bring on the entertainment!

It has been called advertainment, branded content, advertorial and content marketing. Some call it story marketing, capturing the imagination first and the wallet thereafter. Merchandise joins narrative. Experiential campaigns with brand integration. A new age where brands speak to their audiences thru the use of stories, ideas and characters. The much-blathered-about death of the 30 second spot.

Some modern entertainment more closely resembles a traditional TV commercial. For example, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is essentially a 60-minute Sears commercial. Sponsor and creator become one. Other branded content, while still being a commercial, feels more like entertainment. One example is the BMW Films campaign which started a massive trend back in 2001, paving the way for numerous experiments and innovations.



Back in 1995 I worked on a website project for MCI. Gramercy Press was a fictional office from their television commercials, filmed in a “reality TV” style. The website displayed clickable photos of office locations, allowing the visitor to dig into the desk or listen to the voicemail messages. The audience began to identify with the characters in the episodic TV commercials and had a ravenous appetite for online “back-story”. I remember talking to one MCI partner who was under the impression that Gramercy Press was a real company, staffed by real people and was worried that the website would be left unattended if “Sheila” from the commercial was hit by a bus or was out sick. I distinctly remember a conference call where my colleagues and I at Free Range Media in Pioneer Square, patiently explained that Sheila was a fictional character from a marketing campaign…and this was an MCI vendor close to the project. Story Power! (Evidence of this campaign is hard to come by. All I could find was this and this.)


Today giant corporations like Microsoft understand the power of story and encourage marketing campaigns such as SiteOfChampions.com, an interactive, narrative Flash/video campaign to promote their SideWinder mouse. And huge brands such as Got Milk? develop richly imagined and painstakingly executed interactive marketing art like GetTheGlass.com.



A frenzy has begun to infect all modern media. Today this phenomenon of the merging of brand and story is explored in many mainstream media. PBS Frontline broadcast a great documentary called The Persuaders which explores this world. Characters seem to be jumping seamlessly from sitcoms to advertisements and even the reverse. Caveman began as a Geico commercial and has now become a TV show. Even mainstream magazines like AdWeek have created sub-brands like Madison & Vine to explore the merging of Madison Avenue and Hollywood.



This swirling vortex of modern messaging in mutating before our eyes. Watch it unfold and you may find yourself simultaneously fascinated, repulsed, intrigued and disgusted. Behold!

The ON: Digital + Marketing blog has a page of posts regarding branded entertainment including stories about Hanes underwear, Mercedes-Benz.TV, P&G’s Crescent Heights online soap opera, Scion’s “Little Deviants”, Oprah’s product placement and more.

Gamekillers: Axe Dry and MTV team up to bring you a show about guys sweating over chicks.

Wikipedia talks about how branded content blurs conventional distinctions between what constitutes advertising and what constitutes entertainment.

A search for branded entertainment on Del.icio.us brings up almost 600 links.

There is even a Branded Content Marketing Association.

Hottest Mom in America, a reality TV series that auditions American women vying for the title of "Hottest Mom", is one of the first entries by a pharmaceutical company into Branded Entertainment. The show from Buzznation studios is backed by a single sponsor, Medicis Pharmaceutical, the makers of the Restylane cosmetic injection treatment.

Aquent is a marketing company with “the world’s largest creative talent pool”, more than 400,000 working creatives. They understand the growing need for creators to build story-driven campaigns.

Seattle-based Digital Kitchen promoted themselves via a mocumentary. Designerslashmodel.com: I love design but what i really want to do is direct.



Subservient Chicken: classic viral marketing content from Burger King

Branded Entertainment online magazine interviews R/GA, the world's most award-winning interactive agency

Branded integrations are many things, but "measurable" is not often a word that can easily be used to describe them. But NextMedium, a branded entertainment company based in Los Angeles, is bringing accountability and detailed metrics to the art of product placement.

What can actually be called “Branded Entertainment” anymore? The production of most modern entertainment was paid for by someone, somewhere along the line. Is branded entertainment simply the stuff where the brand is exposed? I don’t mind watching sponsored content, as long as it is of high narrative quality…plus I also like to be told who is paying for it.

Much of the new branded entertainment will not resemble a traditional product promotion model; in fact some entertainment may not mention a product at all. A simple brand identification at the beginning may allow the viewer to make the association. A viewer might think, "Brand A created this content. I like this content. Therefore I like Brand A."

We’ll be right back after a word from our sponsors…

Technology, Entertainment, Design

Since 1984, the TED Conference has organized many of the worlds great thinkers, artists, scientists, architects and performers for an annual gathering. Each presenter gets only 18 minutes to give a talk. This forces them to crystallize their ideas into a direct and efficient performance.

Recently TED has embarked on an ambitious web initiative. They have digitized many of these speakers and are offering their talks free to the world via their website.

Some of my favorite talks include:

Dutch artist Theo Jansen demonstrates his amazingly lifelike kinetic sculptures, built from plastic tubes and lemonade bottles.

Planetary scientist Carolyn Porco shows breathtaking images from the Cassini voyage to Saturn.

In a friendly, high-speed presentation, Will Wright demos his newest game, Spore, which promises to dazzle users even more than his previous masterpieces.

Jonathan Harris wants to make sense of the infinite world on the Web -- so he builds dazzling graphic interfaces that help us visualize the data floating around out there.

After sweetly confessing that he never meant to be a performance artist, Golan Levin explains that his art is all about the quest to find a personal way to use a computer.

Bill Stone, the maverick cave explorer who invented robots and dive equipment that have allowed him to plumb Earth's deepest abysses, explains his efforts to build a robot to explore Jupiter's moon Europa.

Kevin Kelly uses evolutionary theory to discuss the purpose and value of technology.

Also, don't miss The Future We Will Create: Inside the World of TED, a documentary about the conference, available from Netflix thru their "Watch Instantly" online streaming video service.

They Promised Us Convergence, an UPDATE

Back in June I published a list of companies that are blurring the line between TV and computer. (see original post) The march toward convergence continues as evidenced by the companies below.

iFilm was acquired by Viacom in 2005 and "is a leading online video network, serving user-uploaded and professional content to over ten million viewers monthly."

Blinkx apparently has over 14 million hours of searchable video and major partnerships with dozens of media companies. Read more about the partnership with RealNetworks (and the competition with Windows Media) in a post on Beet.tv.

The Interactive Television Alliance is "an independent trade association representing the broad interests of the entire ITV industry."

Seattle-based BuddyTV has all the info you'd ever want to know about your favorite TV shows.

For a great article on the marriage of search and TV content, check out John Battelle's post "TV and Search Merge".

Of course, BitTorrent is still going strong as some users continue to ignore the strictly legal channels and just trade huge files back and forth.

Hulu is NBC Universal and News Corporation’s joint video venture, still in private beta. They have some huge plans, which is probably why they just left iTunes to go it alone.

Wilco Live

Just a short post about the soundtrack to my summer. Wilco has been playing over and over in my car, home and iPod. Great rock, well-made, rich and textured. Attached to this post are a couple photos and a short video clip from my old Treo phone which was laid to rest right after this show. They played outside in Marymoor Park, Redmond, Washington. Bill Frisell joined them for a few songs. A lovely night for humans and dozens of freshly-hatched dragonflies.

Family Friendly Digital Media

Sometimes I hook my laptop up to our home LCD TV and I watch videos and play games with my kids. One thing we’ve noticed is that it is often a challenge to locate appropriate music videos for the whole family. An innocent search for "Oh Suzanna" on YouTube.com might display a frat boy fart contest. We've been saving links to good videos on a new website we slapped together called FamilyMusic.tv.

Lately, rather than searching the web, we’ve been producing our own family-friendly digital creations. It is true that one of the drivers of user generated content has been users not finding what they want, so they create it themselves. Below is a sampling of our latest experiments. These were all created using consumer tools in our home. So, ah.. watch out!

The Mystery of Lazy Hill Farm
A music video made using toys and art supplies found around the house. The song was written by me and brilliantly brought to life by Ray, Zack and me at Andrew’s home studio.


The Camptown Ladies
A classic old tune spiced up by The Family Music Party Experience. Zack, Ray, and Todd played on this. Andrew engineered and produced.


Little Boxes
Written and recorded originally by Malvina Reynolds in 1962. I recorded it at Poolhaus Studios in Burbank, CA. I played all the instruments and sang all the vocals.


Faces on My Money
The kids and I tried to record a song and shoot and edit a music video in 4 hours or less...and it shows! I wrote the lyrics and part of a song and Ray supplied the better part of the melody and some real chords.

They Promised Us Convergence

I am still waiting for my hover-car and my bionic elbow, but something that "they" promised us long ago has finally arrived. My TV has mated with my computer. Unfortunately the offspring is an unruly tike in desperate need of potty training.

Although the technology has arrived and the content has begun to flow, the landscape is still very much like the wild west days of the early web. We see multiple standards competing. We see sites that exist one day, but are gone (or gobbled up in an acquisition) the next day. Quality is all across the board. The method of presentation and delivery is varied from site to site. It sure ain't one kind of idiot box, it's full-on control for the user with no owners manual.

Here are a few sites that are combining TV-style entertainment content with the web:

Joost: All the things you love about TV, fused with all the fun and interactive power of the internet. From the guys that brought you Skype and Kazaa. Full screen. Downloaded client.

FORA.tv: "The World is Thinking." Political, social and cultural issues via web video.

AtomFilms: A source for independently produced, online entertainment for ten years.

Zattoo: Live TV on your PC from all over the world.

TVTonic: Watch, subscribe and manage video content. Designed to be used with a remote on Windows Media Center.

AllOfTV: An archive of streaming TV content on the web. A site with this range of free content is surely going to be shut down soon.

JumpTV: Free live TV from all over the world on your PC.

Current TV: A global television network that gives you the opportunity to create and influence what airs on TV.

BabelGum: "TV experience, Internet Substance." High-resolution and full-screen.

Veoh: From home videos to premier internet television content.

Acceptable: Watch. Vote. Create.

Amazon UnBox: The ecommerce giant begins to experiment with online delivery of entertainment content.

Adult Swim: Cartoons for adults.

CinemaNow: Movies. Buy, Rent, Burn. Online.

Ustream: "Live interactive video for everyone."

Art Wolfe Travels To The Edge

I was on the team that just launched a new website for internationally known nature photographer Art Wolfe. The new site will support Mr. Wolfe’s new television series, Travels to the Edge and is located at http://www.travelstotheedge.com/.

We created the entire website, including design, development and unique hosting concerns related to management of such a highly trafficked site. We also created, wrote and edited all of the content, from interviews with Art Wolfe team members to the final copy edit. I acted as executive producer and art director.

For the multimedia sections of the site, we used Adobe Flash in a complex configuration to serve multiple video streams, utilizing XML.

Major sponsors for the program include Canon and Microsoft. The program is produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting and distributed by American Public Television.

Red Menace

I need one of these cameras. Or two. This is the deal; entrepreneur Jim Jannard who is famous for founding the Oakly eyewear company started Red Digital Camera Company. This is a company that seems to be doing everything right. They even nabbed red.com.

All the buzz about this camera is because it promises super-high resolution at consumer prices. No one can get their hands on one just yet, but Peter Jackson ("Lord of the Rings") shot some promotional footage with the camera and supposedly loved it.

With a 4520 X 2540 resolution, this Super 35mm is a mind-blower at 12-Megapixels.

Where the Hell is Matt?

I was on the team that just launched a website for Dancing Matt from WhereTheHellisMatt.com. He is currently on another round-the-world trip, this time seeking out others to dance with him. Check out his site where you can follow him on Google Maps.