EBusiness

Nicholas Reville comments on online video and how RSS is a big part of that future

Date: October 29, 2006 Author: Sean Comments: Leave a reply

From Nicholas Reville’s post from Sept 14, where he writes an essay that started as an email to BlipTV about why they need RSS:

http://www.getdemocracy.com/articles/future_of_video.php Nicholas Reville

Putting viewers at the center means giving everyone who wants to watch video a homebase where they can access videos from any hosting service or website. For miscellaneous videos, like the ones that have made YouTube so popular, this means a search engine that gives results from any service and let’s you watch what you find without jumping around from site to site.

For more serious videos– stuff that’s produced by known creators on a regular basis (like a daily or weekly show)– the best homebase is an RSS aggregator. The can be a desktop application (like the one we make) or a web-based aggregator. The important thing is that viewers can pull together video from anywhere on the web.

A. I am a huge fan of the Democracy player and the team behind it. It is almost exactly what I am looking for from a media aggregator (includes bittorrent-y goodness!) – channels, rss feeds, bittorrent integration.

B.  RSS has been a game-changer in the social media space for a while now (driving content syndication, blogging, podcasting and videoblogging), and it is still in the early part of the adoption curve (but podcasting and video blogging are the kinds of things that have been increasing adoption recently). If we accept the idea of giving the users what they want on their terms (their chosen device, their favorite medium, timeshifting, placeshifting, etc) then RSS is the magic bullet. It not only meets the needs but it exceeds the needs. It requires users to do little more than discover and attach the feed to their aggregator – a not-to-insurmountable learning curve. For publishers it means being more open with their content (in this case video) and letting the work out there.
C. Broadband is more accessible now than every before. It is getting cheaper. We have more choices.

The best part of this article (and I can’t believe it took a month for me to find it:

Promoting your RSS feeds is counter-intuitive: why would you encourage users to leave your website? You should, because small services can’t and won’t beat YouTube and Google and MySpace at the web game. Those companies are too big, too well funded, and have hired too many talented people that will continue to improve their service. You are better off getting your viewers to subscribe to your content while you have them. In this way, video RSS lets hosting services innovate to attract publishers.

Now this was written before the YouTube purchase, but it is even more relevant now. Asa follow up, Mike Hudack at Blip.tv wrote a response to Nick’s post where, with a few execeptions, he is almost completely on the same page.

It’s incumbent upon the Internet community to prevent any one corporate interest or collection of like-minded corporate interests from controlling independent Internet video. Independent Internet video should be outside the control of the FCC and the giant media conglomerates of the world. The artists and the viewers should be making the decisions. That means that artists and viewers should embrace open standards, distributed technology and open platforms. We’ve done our best to make blip.tv the best choice for those who want Internet video to be open and free. Hopefully Nicholas agrees, and I’m really looking forward to working together with Nicholas, the Participatory Culture Foundation and the Web at large to make sure that we stay at the cutting edge of open media.

And then Mark chimes in (far more eloquently than I – especially ’cause I left out the media copy-pasting that is needed to take this to the next level – arrggghhhh) . It’s funny because this is just the sort of thing Ze Frank does with his intros, Jaffe does with his Across the Sound podcast (which is frakkin awesome) – the idea of consumers becoming producers… not just listening to podcast, but sending in an audio file as viewer mail, or sending a little snippet of home made video for the introduction

Dave wonders about people – I’m wondering about companies, governments, alumni, charities…

Date: October 27, 2006 Author: Sean Comments: Leave a reply

On Wednesday Dave Winer posted something interesting about Google and its search services.

Something that’s missing in Google’s repertoire of information searching tools. It’s something between Technorati, Google News, and Google itself. Think of it as the old-girlfriend query tool. Let’s say I used to date a woman named Tammy. From time to time I wonder what’s up with her. So I do a search, and find the same old links. I want to find all the new stuff. I don’t just want to search blogs, so it’s not what Technorati does. I don’t just care if she makes the news, so it isn’t what Google News does. For extra credit, I’d like it to come in RSS format so I can teach my aggregator to do this for me automatically.

BTW, once we get this feature, I predict the same kind of backlash that came when Facebook added rich RSS support. All of a sudden lurkers will have a new advantage, and the lurkees might not be happy about it.

I agree that it does touch the creepymeter for lurkers (although some folks who live in digital and celebrate it might not mind at all). But Dave hits the nail on the head with both the usage and the fact that it is missing from the market.

What I want is the unholy mashup of google/googlenews/technorati for corporations, governments (local, national, international), non-profits, etc.

I want an RSS feed for  JetBlue (a former client, and my all-time favorite airline). And I want to see all of the news stories (thanks googlenews), blog postings (technorati/icerocket/whoever is next) and new content found by the googlebots about JetBlue. It becomes a clipping service on crack – a lot like what PubSub was offering (although only RSS) before their demise.

Transparency is good for companies. Transparency is good for governments. Transparency is good for non-profits/NGOs/Organizations, etc. It may not be so great for individuals who want more privacy. What Dave is describing is the ability to look/watch/catch up with someone – its the root of something cool. I want to keep an eye on the people/groups/structures who affect our lives (governments), our well-being (HMOs, Hospitals), our finances (companies we invest in, the IRS, the Federal Reserve). If I trusted them all, they could put out their RSS feeds and I would watch.
It applies to pretty much any niche (woodworking, democratic politics, people, NY Yankees, Classic Chevys, Gourmets, Real Estate, etc.).

I love my aggregator because it pulls from the affinity groups/communities (blogs, news organizations) that interest me. Take Dave’s idea a step further, and give me a web/blog/news aggregator that pulls all of the video and audio clips that fit my criteria (let’s say, a local election):

  • a soundbyte from the radio
  • a clip from cnn
  • a video blogger who does an interview about the candidate
  • blog posts from folks who live or work on the campaign

Put it in RSS and it plays through my video aggregator as a channel (WHoooooooHOoooo Democracy Player).

We are becoming the editors (blogs), radio personalities (podcasting), video stars (video blogging) and network programmers (RSS, Aggregators, The Democracy Player).

This is Fun.

Somebody hire this guy…

Date: October 18, 2006 Author: Sean Comments: Leave a reply

Not everybody loves the guy, but he is smart and uncompromising when it comes to his beliefs. Blogging, RSS, Podcasting… he has either been in the center or the start of a lot of the social media spaces that have been developed since before the last bubble. For a while I have wondered what he was going to do next, and then he announced he would stop blogging… so it sounds like Dave wants to grow outsider ideas from the inside of a major pub.

Disclaimer: I am looking for a job as CTO or Chief Scientist at a professional publisher that wants to make a strong transition to the new environment. So here I practice what I preach, I’m floating ideas in advance of using them.

–Dave Winer 

Wonder if he ever thought of going back to WIRED. Especially now that the magazine and WiredNews are one group again.

Anderson! Lessig! Smackdown!

Date: September 28, 2006 Author: Sean Comments: Leave a reply

Great discussion at the New York Public Library. Professor Lawrence Lessig from Stanford (author of Free Culture, CODE and other laws of cyberspace) and Chris Anderson (author of The Long Tail and Editor of WIRED magazine) were going to sit down and discuss “The Rise and Fall of the Blockbuster”.

I left my voice recorder and my camera at home (sitting on the desk where I would remember to bring them) so here is a brief play-by-play:

Professor Lessig is smarter than me. WAAAAAY smarter. Geometrically smarter. And he gives good deck.
Chris Anderson wrote a pretty engaging book that is keeping people talking

Synchronization is a large part of why our media sphere, content and media diet are what they are

Does the increased access cause an increase in volume of media? Are there more books being written now (think it is a 2/3 increase from 10 years ago) because there are more ways to get access to the books – more bookstore chain stores, more wall marts, Amazon and Barnes and Noble online?

In the 50’s a huge % of people watched I Love Lucy. Now the best rated show on TV has a fraction of that audience

Anderson thinks Net Neutrality wont happen because the telecoms arent that competent

One of Lessig’s previous appearances inspired a member of the audience. He went to Law School (not sure if that is a good thing).

It wasn’t really a smackdown.

Best question of the night (and paraphrasing due to too little sleep and not enough RAM):

If you write a blog about the topic of the book and spend the time and conversations and listening and engaging the audience, is having the book printed the ultimate form of DRM?

Lawrence Lessig has the greates powerpoint decks.

Hopefully Toby will throw me some of the photos from the event.

Power Laws and the Long Tail are interesting, but the conversation (pro and con) are all-the-more interesting.

Audience member asks if long tail will be the cayalyst for micropayments? (ed. note =UUUGGGHHH the concept has been tried and failed – please kill it) – Anderson feels the micropayment in this case is ATTENTION – we are paying attention, giving our attention and our time, participating or lurking in the conversation is a payoff in and of itself.

A fun evening was had by all – unfortunately I had to go to the office (4 days in a row) to finish some work

good times man, good times.

Social Media Club – Fun Event

Date: September 19, 2006 Author: Sean Comments: Leave a reply

Social Media Club Logo

Got the chance to hang out this evening with the crowd for the first meeting of the NYC chapter of the Social Media Club (whose tagline is “if you get it, share it”). Chris Heuer (founder of BrainJams, Media Literacy advocate and Bloggercon/Gnomedex attendee) and Howard Greenstein (ex-member of the WWWAC, NYNMA, and all-around evangelist of the NYC Media scene pre-bubble) led the discussion.

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I showed up late, but got to participate in the discussion of podcasting (“the term podcasting is the biggest thing holding back podcasting”) and a short discussion about microformats as well as XPRL (XML Press Release microcontent format).

All in all, it was a fun event (even though I showed up late). Some of the usual suspects showed up (HI Steve and Annette), and the discussion was fun, if not a little short (will not be showing up late again). It was a lot like one of Isabel’s dinners – not as intimate, but some great conversation with cool people.

I am really looking forward to the next meeting.

cool – the leading (and first?) business magazine in Second Life!

Date: August 1, 2006 Author: Sean Comments: Leave a reply

http://www.slbusinessmag.com

I am digging into Second Life more and more and found the link above today (thanks PSFK!). This team has put together a magazine for and about SL business. The topics are neat, the layout is pretty good and they even have advertisers.

THe most interesting thing about the story is this:

You have the potential to reach for your dreams. The team of SL Business Magazine is proof of that. I am deployed in a war zone with the US Army in Afghanistan. I can escape the shattered terrain and death outside my mud and plaster building when I create an exciting and beautiful world full of friendships inside Second Life. It also allows our Creative Director in China to provide you with the stunning designs found in this issue. Our Editor in Canada can easily meet with our Copy Editor and Sales Manager in the United States. We have contributors from locations such as Australia, Germany, Japan and other global locations. So the point here is the obvious! And that is the idea behind our motto: Reaching. Connecting.

This is actually really well done. I cant wait to see issue 2

Farewell to InfoRouter

Date: July 30, 2006 Author: Sean Comments: Leave a reply

Seems that Steve Gillmor is closing down his ZD blog and is getting to work on Gilmor3.0 (pardon the pun). He is required reading and listening (Gillmor Gang) for me. While I am going to really miss his commentary and observations, it is very cool to see him coming out to NYC to meet with the Root guys, and pound away at the attention opportunity (wanna grab lunch while you are in town?).

Links are dead. Office is dead. TV is dead. Page views are dead. Inforouter lives on in the cache.
Best of luck…

Clueless marketing

Date: July 7, 2006 Author: Sean Comments: Leave a reply

Tom Hespos discuss another member of the Coalition of the Clueless:

One of the challenges I face in pitching Conversational Marketing to clients is the notion of finding bloggers who will take up the task of blogging about the client’s business. Paramount is lucky to find not one, but several. And what does it do? Piss one off to the point of getting two key ones (and probably more to follow) to boycott coverage of Paramount’s upcoming (Name of Movie Removed by SB) flick.

Its ironic that they didn’t learn from LOTR (including some of their mistakes).

When you engage a community, especially a leader in a community, you strengthen the ties between yourself and that tribe/culture/group/pod/whatever. Would it hurt to seed this guy with some behind the scenes stuff (photos, maybe a visit to the set, a frickin tshirt?). Those photos were going to get out there anyway. So instead of someone who thinks enough of your crap to write about it and drive FREE PR, you piss off a whole bunch of people.

I disagree with Tom that the marketers at Paramount dont get it. I have had, lots of clients who get-it. I bet the guys and gals at Paramount who are responsible for promoting this movie (which I will not mention to avoid giving them any google-love) got up this morning, saw the news and vomited all over their Wheaties.

I have a theory that every big organization (corporation, non-profit, federal agency) has a guy I call Oscar. Sometimes he is in legal, sometimes marketing, sometimes PR. Oscar is the guy who kills good ideas from the internal and agency folks. He is the guy who sends an email with one line “this wont work – lets go with what we know”. Oscar gets paid to make sure things happen, not innovate. Oscar is the champion of the status quo. He is dismissive of the ‘kids’ (referring to the 20-something to 80-somethings who blog, visit these sites, proudly call themselves fan-boys, etc). Oscar sucks.

Paramount (thanks to Oscar) is taking us for granted because, even if they shut him down, his audience will see the movie anyway.

Maybe even grab a bittorrent of it. 🙂

Exxxxccccceeeeleent

Gnomedex – Chris Pirillo and Should TagJag be funded?

Date: July 1, 2006 Author: Sean Comments: Leave a reply

Chris and 3 VCs on stage

Chris gives the elevator pitch

new look and feel thanks to liquid orb

300 searches ou tthere that output rss

make your own – tag is your own – functional more than anythign else

organize by category – through the feeds –

todd cochrane launched blubrry with rss search

easily readable urls – push the query throiugh the different rss feeds

takes advantage of opml

export and import for an aggregator

wants to grow this out – a lot of promise

everything you hear of UGC is bullshit – how do you gen revs?

wants to be able to set it up to share rev thru google adsense id, etc. etc. – splitting 50% of traffic to the person generating the content. Pay people for the traffic they send out

mobile and search based

will people look for mobile rss searches – one place to subscribe to – tagjag responsible – filtering and clustering latrer

feedback to chris from vcs

Jeff Clavier

should it be funded – vc, angels, audience

why does he need funding? – bootstrapping

there is nothign wrong with bootstrapping a company that fulfills needs and dreams

angels and vcs dont necessarily want you to take the money

what does he want to achieve

why did he do it – why is he the best person to do that – VC – always a thought to competition – will it be a better solutioin that wink?

vc’s will want you to give 100% of your time

how to solve in the context of the team

in cool idea stage but not vc funded stage – rally free and bootstrap – evolve from neat idea to long term sustainable biz

dont position it as raising a bunch of money

if you suck we will tell you

chit chat – see progression – not 1 event – a process through time

take adv of where the trajectory of the biz goes