Friday, October 10, 2008

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.

Labels: , , ,

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

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)

Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Adventures in Intellectual Property

As an Internet consultant, I get the opportunity to visit a lot of cool companies. Today I was at Intellectual Ventures, the invention and intellectual property factory in Bellevue, Washington. The company was founded by the legendary former Microsoft CTO, Nathan Myrvold.

Myrvold is an avid collector of weird and wonderful items. In the office we saw vintage movie cameras, dozens of 100-year-old typewriters, rare entomology displays and a giant T-Rex head from the movie Jurassic Park. (above, left)

They have a fascinating business model, a brave new world of intellectual pursuit. They acquire or create patents and inventions and then monetize them. See what Fortune Magazine, The New Yorker and Business Week had to say about the company. Also, check out Myrvold's presentation at TED (below).

Labels: , , , , , ,

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

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.

Labels: , , , , , , , ,

Thursday, July 31, 2008

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.

Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Thursday, July 24, 2008

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"

Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Microsoft Digital Advertising News



YuMe, a company dedicated to delivering ads across all platforms, has recently made a big deal with Microsoft to provide services and sales for digital video distribution. The video above is an interview with the Yume founder by Scobleizer.

In similar news, Microsoft just bought Navic Networks, a company that delivers advertising to digital television platforms. Read about the deal at The Seattle PI.

To learn more about the impending switch-over to digital television, read my earlier post T-Commerce, Digital TV and the Digitization of Content.

Labels: , , , , ,

Sunday, April 13, 2008

On The Media Podcast: How to Fix Tech Policy



Check out the recent On The Media interview podcast (above) with Tim Wu, Columbia University law professor and co-author of Who Controls the Internet?: Illusions of a Borderless World.

He's written an article for Slate Magazine about Jump-Starting Our Tech Policy where he outlines his recommendations which include appointing a broadband czar.

Wu is also an advisor to Barack Obama who has a pretty progressive technology policy. The next president needs to devise a cohesive approach toward communications and media which will allow equal access and continued innovation.

Labels: , , , , , , , ,

Friday, April 4, 2008

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."

Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Monday, March 31, 2008

Follow-Up to My American Marketing Association Webcast

Below is a version of my presentation from my recent webcast for the American Marketing Association. It doesn't have audio or animation so you won't get the full mind-blowing experience.

To see the full-on presentation with audio and animation, visit the micro-site where you will find the following: the slides below, the full archived webcast from the American Marketing Association and my PDF eBook.

Labels: , , , , , , , ,

Friday, March 28, 2008

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

Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,