Archive For January, 2008
The official reports on Davos were interesting. “But if the luminaries hoped for strong policy prescriptions from Ms. Rice, they were disappointed . . .” But I prefer the reports from participants, bloggers, who tell it like it is and give their opinion. “Seeing Condoleezza Rice speak was dreadfully painful – I hadn’t think it [...]
Blyk is a mobile network in Europe for 16-24 year olds that’s funded by advertising. They appear to be quite a class act, which is why Danah Boyd is involved. Here’s an animated what-we-do video from them that shows off that style. Not corporate. So, what will the ads look like that they present to [...]
Right, nothing is at risk for broadcast TV as long as we keep it in perspective. That’s true . . . except the perspective he’s referring to is so limited. Sure, people love convenience, as Bob says, and so broadcast TV will go for several years, delivering numbers like it always has for those who [...]
NBC is buying LX.TV, which produces short vids on its version of culture – restaurants, museums, real estate – in New York, LA, and so on. This is a great example of how the technology can evolve, but the content lags far behind. Watching LX.TV is like being on a transatlantic airplane and watching very [...]
Tim O’Reilly and Umair Haque are asking the same question, making the same point: Tim: How do ad agencies, publishers, and advertisers take advantage of the conversational nature of the internet, where word of mouth may carry more power than even the best crafted ad campaign? How do you create and harness “viral advertising”? Umair: [...]
The usefulness of Tumblr has completely exceeded my expectations. It’s a backpack for data. It’s something I’m using throughout the day. I’d say I’m tracking at least twice as much information with Tumblr for two reasons. It’s so easy, that’s the first reason. With the “Share on Tumblr” link in my toolbar, I’m grabbing quotes, [...]
Deep, revealing piece in The Atlantic online version about HBO’s The Wire and its creator, David Simon. HBO is creating some of the most provocative TV out there, and it’s worth trying to understand why. “Dickens takes the byzantine bureaucracy of the law and the petty corruptions of the legal profession, borrows from the neighborhoods, [...]
TV ratings dropping. Viewing habits changing. What’s an exec to do? Who knows? But what an entrepreneur can do is figure out a way (the many ways) to give people great, original content at Web prices that’s cheap and unlocked. It will be some combo of skinny studios (and the deals one is able to [...]
Whoever gets this job at Warner Music Group better plan to be CEO within three years because she is going to need that kind of control to do all of the things in the job description, which comes down to building a completely new business on the fly.
No one knows what’s going to happen with this economy because the global relationships and the financial instruments have never been this complex. But if anyone can smooth out the map and read the tea leaves a little, it’s Roger Lowenstein. All of his books, “Buffett,” “When Genuis Failed,” “Origins of the Crash,” bring economics [...]
The fact that 9 out of 10 Americans describe themselves as “conscious consumers” is just downright scary. Try again BBMG, that’s not useful research. Sustainable consumption is not a new line of business.
The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust is a very cool album. Link. It’s a solo performance by Saul Williams, who came up through the spoken word movement. And Trent Reznor of NIN was heavily involved in its production. Here’s Saul performing Niggy live at NYU. Unfortunately, Reznor is disappointed that when they offered the [...]
I got an invite to Hulu’s private beta, so this morning I checked it out. If you’re addicted to TV, this is for you. I watched parts of Heroes (Season 2, Episode 5, 43:09 min) in a coffee shop with your average broadband and there’s nothing to criticize about the product. It’s crisp, clean, smooth [...]
I want bought one of these because WordPress is a great publishing (not just blogging) platform. Link. It’s what the Web is all about.
TV moving to the Web is such a fascinating thing to observe. Hulu can give you full blown TV shows, oldies and current, because of its partnership with News Corp. and NBC (still beta, but see the blog for some examples). But it’s such a top-heavy business model, that even though Hulu has spotted the [...]