Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Google Video Now Sharing Ad Revenue

According to Peter Chane, a senior product manager for Google Video, Google has agreed to pass on to the Diet Coke and Mentos clan "most advertising revenue" generated by their latest video. "This is the first case where we matched up video content with advertising," Chane explained. "We've taken user-submitted material that is not considered professional content and monetized it."

Interestingly enough, this move forward in online video is happening from Google Video and not coming first from the coveted YouTube. When questioned about how this might affect the Google/YouTube relationship, a Google representative said, "Until the deal closes, we're continuing to operate as two separate companies."
Computers.net: Get Paid for Your Videos: Google Video (not YouTube) Now Sharing Ad Revenue
People interested in participating in the Sponsored Video program are directed to a Google Video page that says it is for publishers with more than 1000 hours of video available.
Techcrunch » Blog Archive » Google Video Goes High Brow with Revenue Split

Google Acquires Wiki Collaboration Company Jotspot

A very smart move by Google, once again beating Yahoo to the draw.
Google’s office strategy just got a whole lot richer with the announced acquisition of the wiki based company Jotspot. A business oriented service that plugs a long list of different applications like calendars and photo sharing into a wiki framework, we called Jotspot “the best business-facing hosted wiki available” when we reviewed its newest iteration this summer.
Techcrunch » Blog Archive » Google Acquires Wiki Collaboration Company Jotspot

Monday, October 30, 2006

Students produce movies with cell phones

This story is a clear indication of things to come in Emerging Media. EMAC/ATEC needs to be doing something similar in order to give this program and its students more exposure to the current happenings in the industry. Don't miss this article.
The exercise is part of a new Boston University class created through a unique partnership with cellular company Amp'd Mobile and taught by director Jan Egleson.
Students produce movies with cell phones - Yahoo! News

Cos. have broad aims for TV on the Web

This company looks pretty promising for independent producers; offering a one-stop solution for publishing, distributing and monetizing video content.
Aiming to serve everyone from garage auteurs to major media companies, Brightcove offers free publishing tools and runs video wherever publishers want it.

That could be on the central Brightcove site, which is accessible through the video search functions at Google, Yahoo and AOL. Or content publishers can use Brightcove to run video on their own separate, branded sites. Or they can syndicate it to third-party Web sites, such as blogs or MySpace pages, where the content might run alongside user-generated material.

All those videos can be sold as paid downloads or streamed for free, with ads. Brightcove will sell ads and pool them among its customers, or it will plug in commercials that content creators sell themselves.

"They can launch a business in our system in a week," said Brightcove's founder and CEO, Jeremy Allaire
Cos. have broad aims for TV on the Web - Yahoo! News

YouTube Is Purging Copyrighted Clips

I wonder if this is going to hurt YouTube in the long run. On the one hand, media hosting sites should respect copyrights, but on the other hand, this is they type of content that attracts viewers such sites. YouTube and its many clones out there better figure-out a middle ground soon else this video boom is going to be in big trouble.
[YouTube] late last week began purging copyrighted material from Comedy Central, including clips from YouTube stalwarts like “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,” “The Colbert Report” and “South Park.”
YouTube Is Purging Copyrighted Clips - New York Times

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Google Blogger Service Outages Spark User Firestorm

Is this a sign of things to come? As more people start publishing blogs, posting videos, and generally creating more media rich websites, are the networks being stretched to their limits?
Users of Google's blogging service vented some anger Friday over outages and slow response times that have plagued the service over the last week.

Engineers at Blogger acknowledged the problems on the site's own blog. 'It's been a Murphyesque cavalcade of power failures, fileserver trouble, and wonky network hardware, and I hope you'll believe me when I say that the Blogger staff is even more sick of it than you are,' engineer Peter Hopkins wrote.

Blogger staff advised users to switch to the new version of the service, which is in beta. However, users publishing team blogs or blogs with more than a couple of thousand posts, wouldn't be able to make the move yet. The same was true for users publishing blogs via FTP to a non-Blogger server.
Google Blogger Service Outages Spark User Firestorm - E-business & Business Technology News by TechWeb

Friday, October 27, 2006

Private conversation is aim of new blog software

I think this is the right step in "blogging" because not everything one writes is for public consumption. I like this concept of a multi-level blog with a way to control who sees what.
The next big blog trend is about what you and your friends see and others don't.

The online medium built for loudmouths is taking an inward turn to focus on private conversations among friends and family, instead of requiring bloggers to write for a public stage as most current publishing tools do.

On Thursday, Six Apart Ltd., a supplier of the software used to publish blogs, unveiled a widely anticipated blog-writing tool called Vox (http://www.vox.com).

While Vox blogs may look like other blogs, they are distinguished by five levels of privacy settings that can be placed on each item a user publishes. Who comments and who reads comments are also under the publisher's control.
Private conversation is aim of new blog software - Yahoo! News

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Skype founders plan to launch Web TV service

The founders of file-swapping service KaZaA and Internet calling program Skype plan to launch advertising-supported Internet television shortly...
Skype founders plan to launch Web TV service: paper - Yahoo! News

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Automated video news program using RSS and game-graphics

This is further proof of why traditional TV networks are in so much trouble as viewership continues to drop.
News at Seven is a mind-blowing automated news-video project from Northwestern University. It pulls news stories in from RSS feeds, digs up video and still images, and then composes a story that's 'read' by a video-game character from Half-Life.
Boing Boing: Automated video news program from RSS and game-graphics

Companies Show How To Blog

Further reaffirmation of why blogging is becoming so important for companies wanting to get their vision out in front of the consumer and not let the message be shaped by external bloggers.
McDonald's blogs on corporate responsibility. General Motors' blogging team posts pictures from photo-sharing site Flickr and videos from YouTube. Product groups within Wells Fargo use blogs to exchange ideas. And Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz, one of the first execs to start a blog and really make waves with it, is seeking approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to write about Sun's financial performance on his blog.

Despite the blog's reign as Internet trend of the year, these companies are in the minority. For many businesses, blogs remain a mysterious medium dominated by teenagers and technology geeks. Most execs 'do not read them, they do not understand why people write them,' Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li says. According to a tally by blog vendor Socialtext, just 40 of the country's largest 500 companies have blogs. That will need to change if they want to stay current with customers. "It's a different mind-set that they have to understand," Li says.
Revenge Of The Suits: Companies Show How To Blog - News by InformationWeek

Immen.se

More players are offering options to monetize online videos. Here's one...
They're text advertisements that usually appear at the end of a video, and they're related to what the video's about.
Immen.se › Learn More

Will Goobe Go Mobile?

I think it's only natural for Google/YouTube and similar video sites to start pushing content out to mobile users since there is huge growth potential in the market as bandwidth increases and younger users participate.
According to Telephia three percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, representing nearly eight million consumers, say they use their cell phones to take personal videos. That isn’t that high, but that percent jumps to 6% for consumers that have purchased a new handset in the last six months — particularly those that bought the Razr V3 series. In Europe, Telephia says the numbers are even higher with Spain at 15%, Italy at 14%, and the U.K. and Sweden at 12% and 10% respectively.
GigaOM » Will Goobe Go Mobile?

Talent Agency Is Aiming to Find Web Video Stars

"The goal this time around, executives say, is not only to recruit the next generation of television and film writers and directors from the relative obscurity of sites like YouTube and Revver. It is also to help the major Web portals that are hungry for original content to find the creative people they need — just as movie studios have long turned to talent agencies when looking for new directors, screenwriters and actors."
Talent Agency Is Aiming to Find Web Video Stars - New York Times

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Google lets Web sites tailor search to user tastes

The Google Custom Search Engine is the company's biggest push yet to rely on "the wisdom of crowds," where rival Yahoo Inc. and start-ups such as Rollyo.com and Eurekster.com have focused for several years.

"It is basically applying human judgment by saying I can make search better by allowing people to decide," said Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li.

Google is moving beyond the formula-driven, one-size-fits all way it indexes the Web to a relativistic approach for finding sites. The move also points toward a balkanization of what different groups of people see on the World Wide Web.
Google lets Web sites tailor search to user tastes - Yahoo! News

JibJab, Verizon and Comedy Film Director John Landis iteam-up n the Great Sketch Experiment

"The Internet has given new talent a way to reach directly to the public," said John Landis, Hollywood film director. "It is an exciting and ever-evolving new medium and I am happy to have been given the chance by JibJab to meet and work with fresh young talent."
Business Wire Business News: JibJab and Verizon Wireless Team Up With Renowned Comedy Film Director John Landis in the Great Sketch Experiment: US:VZ - MSN Money

Monday, October 23, 2006

Wikipedia co-founder to launch competing project

Like Wikipedia, the Citizendium, or “the Citizen’s Compendium,” will be a wiki project open to public collaboration, Sanger said. But, unlike Wikipedia, the community will be “guided by expert editors, and contributors will be expected to use their own names, not anonymous pseudonyms,” according to its Web site.
Macworld: News: Wikipedia co-founder to launch competing project

AOL to offer downloads for movie, TV shows

Movies and television shows from Paramount Pictures will be available for sale through AOL's new video portal under a deal announced Monday.
AOL to offer downloads for movie, TV shows - Yahoo! News

Sunday, October 22, 2006

The Starbucks Aesthetic

Starbucks is bucking the trend and using its distribution advantage to try and blend culture in its mocca-capuchino-latte, so to speak. It's experimenting with promoting films, CDs and DVDs, and possibly books. Is this really going against the Long Tail theory or exploiting a niche market that's open to this idea? Read about it in this NYTimes article.
These days the so-called long tail model of cultural consumption — the 1.5 million songs on iTunes, the 55,000 films on Netflix — is getting a lot of attention among business theorists, and teenage boys are getting a lot of attention from the entertainment complex. But Starbucks relies on a previous model: a narrow range of blockbuster hits geared toward an older, educated audience.
The Starbucks Aesthetic - New York Times

Saturday, October 21, 2006

So You Want to be a Cop

Another funny video from JibJab.

Shawshank in a Minute

Cool video from JibJab

Are you the Master of Your Domain ?

"As with Seinfeld, there is a contest going on right now in the videohosting world between the forces of temptation; In this case, the temptation of allowing others to post any and all content, copyrighted or not, on your domain, ala Youtube; and the forces of copyright law, taking complete control of your domain and only allowing content that has been reviewed and approved, ala Revver.com .

Put another way, Youtube puts up a notice to all of those who post to its domain....'Please dont do it. We are telling you not to do it. If someone catches you doing it, you will be embarassed and they will have the right to come after you. But, wink wink, we all can have a good time in the meantime. Flog away at copyright laws'."
Are you the Master of Your Domain ? - Blog Maverick

What will Apple Do ?

Interesting take on the YouTube/Google deal and how it may affect Apple's iTunes, from Mask Cuban.
"While it used to be ITMS was the path of least resistance to legal music downloads in the past. That position is quickly being replaced by Youtube. As i have written earlier, its just too easy to convert the music videos that Youtube downloads to my computer over to Ipod format. ITMS has lost business from me. I believe they are losing business across the board. While some people think that its too much hassle for most people to do the conversion, that problem is disappearing quickly. A cottage industry of software apps is being built around Youtube. Its getting easier by the minute to download music to your IPod ...

Its different on the video hosting sites like Youtube, Grouper, etc. The owners of the sites all make the point as loudly as they can that everything they do is legal. Then Youtube is bought by Google AND they do deals with the music labels . So everything and anything that happens on Youtube must be legal. So forget going to ITMS for music. Lets go to Youtube. Its perfectly ok to convert the music Youtube downloads to me over to my IPod (of course if youtube and google truly were legal in their videohosting, there never would have been a reason to do a deal with these music companies at all, would there ?"
What will Apple Do ? - Blog Maverick

Cartoons Coming to Nokia Phones

The idea of making digital content more accessible to the growing legions of mobile users has grown in popularity recently as more manufactures look to sell handsets and content providers try to reach an ever-broadening audience.
NewsFactor Network

Friday, October 20, 2006

Motion Capture Technology That Captures the Soul

This is just plain cool! Don't forget the watch the video on this page. I was blown away by the quality of the facial animation.
The Image Metrics software lets a computer map an actor’s performance onto any character virtual or human, living or dead.

Its creators say it goes way beyond standard hand-drawn computer graphics, which require staggering amounts of time and money. It even goes beyond “motion capture,” the technique that animated Tom Hanks’s 2004 film “The Polar Express,” which is strong on body movement but not on eyes, the inner part of the lips and the tongue, some of the most important messengers of human emotion.

“One of our principal tenets is to capture all the movements of the face,” Mr. Wood said. “You can’t put markers on eyes, and you can’t replicate the human eye accurately through hand-drawn animation. That’s pretty important.”
Cyberface: New Technology That Captures the Soul - New York Times:

Video-hungry users could push Net to brink: Nortel

Is the growing demand for online video going to stretch the Internet to its limits?
"The only reason YouTube didn't destroy the Internet is because there was a bit of a bubble in terms of excess capacity out there," Roese said. "But, boy, don't take that for granted."

Nortel believes its Metro Ethernet unit, which uses technology similar to the one used to connect local, short-distance networks to build Internet infrastructure, will soon draw carriers that need more capacity and let them stay safely ahead of the demand curve.

This curve has been growing steeper as users demand more bandwidth for online video, music, games and, increasingly, television.

"That's our underlying fear," he said. "If the industry cannot keep up with the demand because we kind of take it for granted after the buildout in the 2000 timeframe, if we ever hit a wall, the impact on global economies, the impact on innovation is just profound."
Video-hungry users could push Net to brink: Nortel - Yahoo! News:

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Videos that Put YouTube.com on the Map

If you are not already tiread of YouTube, here's a NPR report on the top six videos that made the site so poular among Internet video viewers.
Launched in August 2005, YouTube.com wasn't the first Web site with video archives. But what set YouTube.com apart was the site's ability to make it easy for technophobes to upload videos to the site and find and view what others uploaded.

The site's slogan may be 'Broadcast Yourself,' but a big part of the appeal may be the many clips taken from popular television shows or films that find their way into the archives. Visitors to the site view more than 100 million videos every day.
NPR : Videos that Put YouTube.com on the Map

Aliens Teach University Economics Class

Here's a preview of things to come in education. As kids spend more time online, the teaching will shift online as well and here's a good example of how it's going to happen.
[Students] taking ECON 201 at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro... don't even come to class, they just log in to the Internet. The entire microeconomics course is a video game that students play online to earn three college credits.

The Sarbonian aliens are named after economics professor Jeff Sarbaum.

"This is a game in which the students are literally immersed in a story. And they take on the role of a character," he explains. "So all of the reading material, all of the content, all of the examinations and homework, if you will, are built inside the engine of the game."

NPR : Aliens Teach University Economics Class

Eastwood examines nature of heroism in new movie

And now for something comeletely different... Being a HUGE Eastwood fan I was naturally drawn to this story. But the movie is very relevant today considering the mess this country's in. We need more voices telling the world why war of any kind is bad for everyone. Emerging media is very much in the middle of this with blogs and vlogs discussing this very important issue.
The three flag-raisers are hurled into the public spotlight as canon fodder and used as propaganda tools to sell war bonds.

The war and their subsequent brush with celebrity marked the men for the rest of their lives. The crux of Eastwood's film is how wars, even 'good' ones, create perpetual nightmares for the people who fight them.

Eastwood, 76, said he did not set out to make a war film, but a movie about the meaning of heroism and an examination of celebrity, something he has lived with for years as he rose from spaghetti westerns to making Oscar-winning films.

Eastwood examines nature of heroism in new movie - Yahoo! News

A Virtual World but Real Money

It's all about the money; that's what it boils down to. As more people shift online to conduct their daily business and socialize, companies are trying new ways to reach this audience. This is just a sign of things to come.
The Second Life online service is fast becoming a three-dimensional test bed for corporate marketers, including Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Sun Microsystems, Nissan, Adidas/Reebok, Toyota and Starwood Hotels.

The sudden rush of real companies into so-called virtual worlds mirrors the evolution of the Internet itself, which moved beyond an educational and research network in the 1990’s to become a commercial proposition — but not without complaints from some quarters that the medium’s purity would be lost.
A Virtual World but Real Money - New York Times

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Google to convert HQ to solar power

Kudos to Google for taking the initiative. If more corporations adopt this approach, we could see some effect on the current energy crisis, and also help the environment in the long run.
Google wouldn't disclose the project's cost, but it won't strain a company with nearly $10 billion in cash.

The anticipated savings from future energy bills should enable Google to recoup the solar project's costs in five to 10 years, estimated David Radcliffe, the company's vice president of real estate.

"We hope corporate America is paying attention. We want to see a lot of copycats" of this project, Radcliffe said.
Google to convert HQ to solar power - Yahoo! News

Virtual economies attract real-world tax attention

The rapid emergence of virtual economies has outstripped current tax law in many areas, but there are some clear-cut guidelines that already apply. For example, people who cash out of virtual economies by converting their assets into real-world currencies are required to report their incomes to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service or the tax authority where they live in the real world.

It is less clear how to deal with income and capital gains that never leave the virtual economy, income and capital gains that in the real world would be subject to taxes.
Virtual economies attract real-world tax attention - Yahoo! News

Second Life is virtual world with real economy

Second Life is an online, 3D world with a thriving business sector and a currency that can be exchanged for U.S. dollars, effectively making it a real currency in its own right. Up to 135.5 million Linden dollars, worth about $500,000, changes hands every day among its 900,000 registered users.
Second Life is virtual world with real economy - Yahoo! News

Yahoo adds CBS news to video lineup

Yahoo's reliance on video from established TV networks has caused some Internet industry observers to question whether the Sunnyvale-based company is being too stodgy in its approach. YouTube and other online video upstarts are thriving by giving Web surfers a chance to watch and rate a potpourri of amateur clips.

"Yahoo almost seems to be telling people what they should be watching instead of letting them make their own choices," said Dmitry Shapiro, chief executive of video startup Veoh Networks.
Yahoo adds CBS news to video lineup - Yahoo! News

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Wallflower at the Web Party

Is there a lesson in this story for entrepreneurs? Take the money and run or hang in there hoping for a better opportunity, that's the big question.
Friendster’s fate is “a real puzzle,” Professor Piskorski said. “This was a company that had the talent and had the connections.” he said. “They had this great idea that people really took to.”

There is no single reason that explains Friendster’s failures, Professor Piskorski added, which is what makes it academic fodder. “It’s a power story,” he said. “It’s a status story. It’s an ego story.” But largely, he said, Friendster is a “very Silicon Valley story that tells us a lot about how the Valley operates.
Wallflower at the Web Party - New York Times

New Technology That Captures the Soul

Cool new mocap technique discussed in this article.
[If] Image Metrics can do what it claims, the door may open wider still, to vast, uncharted territories. To some who make the movies, the possibilities may seem disturbing; to others, exciting: Why not bring back Sean Connery, circa 1971, as James Bond? Or let George Clooney star in a movie with his aunt, Rosemary; say, a repurposed “White Christmas” of 1954? Maybe we can have the actual Truman Capote on-screen, performed by an unseen actor, in the next movie version of his life.
Cyberface: New Technology That Captures the Soul - New York Times:

We Are a Camera

Good article on the current "video" obsessed culture.
"We have become so accustomed to cameras everywhere that we know how to behave on video as well as we know how to order a burger. And we all know what such familiarity breeds. It is no wonder that, for the generation raised on video, the au courant way to address the camera is to exude contempt for it, degrading it. This is the YouTube aesthetic; and with it, Martin Scorsese’s fears are realized."
We Are a Camera - New York Times

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Adobe buys Actimagine, extends mobile offerings

While all the news is being made by online video sites, there are other developments afoot that are enabling mobile devices to become feature rich media delivery platforms.

Flash is one of the key technologies enabling this and Adobe is quietly trying to capure the market and become the leader in this area.
Pushing deeper into the market for mobile phone applications, Adobe has agreed to acquire Actimagine, a French developer of video and interactive vector graphics technology.
Macworld News: Adobe buys Actimagine, extends mobile offerings

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

PBS Programs Now Available on the iTunes Store

More power to Public Broadcasting and to Apple iTunes.
"The remarkable success of PBS podcasts on iTunes over the past year indicates that PBS members and viewers of all ages are enjoying the new, expanded access to the content they want, when and where they choose."
PBS Programs Now Available on the iTunes Store

Run Windows apps on Macs without Windows

Pretty cool solution, to run Windows software installed on the server, on your desktop Mac.
New server-based software that claims to allow Mac OS X to run Windows applications without installing them has been announced.

The software means Mac users don't need to use Boot Camp or Parallels to run Windows applications, though they will need a Windows server, making the new solution ideal for workgroups.
Macworld UK - Run Windows apps on Macs without Windows

Google proclaims its commitment to Mac

This is good news for Mac users. I hope, going forward, we'll see more parallel development of Google tools for Mac users so we're not treated as second-class citizens.
Google has affirmed its commitment to the Mac by starting up the Google Mac Blog and pushing some new software and browser plugins our way.
Tech Digest: Google proclaims its commitment to Mac

Monday, October 09, 2006

Google snaps up YouTube for $1.65B

So it happened! Now we wait and see what emerges from the union of these two creative forces.
Internet search leader Google is snapping up YouTube for $1.65 billion, brushing aside copyright concerns to seize a starring role in the online video revolution.
Google snaps up YouTube for $1.65B - Yahoo! News

Sunday, October 08, 2006

No longer the MySpace of your youth

Social networking the true power behind MySpace.
It's not all youths on MySpace. Half of the site's users are 35 or older, according to comScore Media Metrix's analysis of its U.S. Internet traffic measurements. Only 30 per cent are under 25 despite a common belief that the site is mostly populated with kids and young adults.

Just a year ago, teens under 18 made up about 25 per cent of MySpace, the popular on-line hangout run by News Corp. That's now down to 12 per cent in the comScore analysis released Thursday.

By contrast, the 35-54 group at MySpace grew to 41 per cent in August, from 32 per cent a year earlier. “This analysis confirms that the appeal of social-networking sites is far broader,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president for comScore, adding that the data suggest that social networking is becoming mainstream.
globeandmail.com: No longer the MySpace of your youth

'Second Life' 3-D digital world grows

Good article on the growth of Second Life and some of the issues that users have to deal with in a Virtual World.
In the beginning, Philip Rosedale created a virtual heaven and a digital earth, and then he said 'let there be "Second Life."

Whether or not it's good, the 38-year-old entrepreneur's 3-D world is certainly fruitful and multiplying.
'Second Life' 3-D digital world grows - Yahoo! News

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Google Is Said to Set Sights on YouTube

I wondered how long YouTube could sustain the growth on its own. This had to happen sooner or later.
Google is in discussions to acquire YouTube for $1.6 billion, people involved in the talks said yesterday. While the talks are in the early stages, and may fall apart, the size of Google’s offer may push YouTube closer to a deal. Other companies have also expressed interest and could swoop in with a higher offer.
Google Is Said to Set Sights on YouTube - New York Times

Friday, October 06, 2006

Blogger book craze could fizzle from overkill

"I just hope publishers with deep pockets don't squash the life out of blogs becoming books," said Clare Christian, publishing director of The Friday Project, a start-up firm dedicated to combing the Internet for book projects.

"It's like the dot-com boom all over again," added Paul Carr, Friday Project's editor in chief.

'In the same way that publishers knew they needed a Web site even if they didn't know what that was, they're just buying up blogs because they're hot."
Blogger book craze could fizzle from overkill - Yahoo! News

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Hunting Incident - Trailer

Trailer for an upcoming animated short.

MySpace Rules Online Video

These are some eye-opening stats.
"37.4 million unique individuals watched a video on MySpace in July. All told, they collectively watched 1.4 billion videos... 3 out of 5 Internet users are watching online videos, typically twice a day. On MySpace, its audience on average watches 39 videos a month, or just over 1 times a day."
Dean's Review: MySpace Rules Online Video
Original article on MarketWatch

Monday, October 02, 2006

MP4 Watch for Videos

"...check out this watch that can play MP4 videos on a screen that’s tinier than your cell phone display."
CoolTechZone.com - MP4 Watch for Videos