I ventured out this evening to meet a couple friends for coffee...headed out to Brentwood (in LA, not NorCal) expecting to find a quiet coffee shop setting given the Oscar ceremonies here in town (made me think back to being in SF in 1995 when the 49ers were in the SuperBowl...best time to head out to get errands done!)
But as i approached the coffee shop on San Vicente, I could tell the place was packed...what was the deal, nobody cared to see Helen Mirren (it's like watching my mom being nominated for an Oscar) when for her role as "The Queen"? oh wait, must be fact everyone planned to go home and condense the 4+ hour telecast in to a couple hours thanks to Tivo?
No, me thinks that the commentary in GigOm re: the decline of Hollywood may be close to the mark. While I wouldn't attribute all of the shift to social networking yanking the masses out of the theaters, I do believe that the Internet and the plethora of choices users have to be entertained and informed -- and to be so entertained and informed on their own schedule -- has reduced the need for the galvanizing force of the major motion picture at your local theater or the 'must see' TV show on a Thursday night.
And I'm certainly no Einstein for coming up with the notion that the social media onslaught has turned everyone in to a budding journalist, Internet star, etc. (disclaimer: guilty as charged!), but I don't attribute the decline of Hollywood to this phenomenon. Forces are converging -- bandwidth, familiarity, ease of use, mobile, on demand, etc. -- that enable consumers to call the shots...and that means if they don't want to race down to wait in line at the MegaUberCineplex across town to watch "The Queen" versus waiting for it to be available for digital download then so be it.
Or better yet, if they decide to pass on Helen's portrayal altogether to instead create a mashup of their own via Jumpcut to post on their Myspace site then so be it even more!
Monday, February 26, 2007
Saturday, February 24, 2007
where have i been?
...or better stated, where has February gone! been a busy month...still recovering from the superbowl...and a birthday trip for yours truly.
so what's top of mind this week...more web2.0 (or can we say we're on to 2.5 at this point) features that are interesting...even if not quite complete businesses.
one is Sphere...they've gotten some traction with publishers (TechCrunch, Time to name a couple...scroll to bottom of a post or article on these sites and click on the Sphere link), and their implementation is clean and intuitive. they even have a smattering of a business model in that their pop up with links to related content carries an IAB standard ad unit. they're in the mix with the other web2.0 guys trying to engender user engagement from story pages...but they have a nice app. curious to see where users gravitate in this space with the mix of Sphere, Digg, Delicious, Netvines, et al.?
the other is pbwiki...again, not exactly clear where we draw the line between a blog, wiki, message board, etc. these days...but the pbwiki site is pretty easy to use and to set up a wiki for any use -- business or personal. from a business model standpoint, they seem to be heading down the free w/ subscription upgrade path that we are all familiar with in the online world.
worth checking both of these guys out.
so what's top of mind this week...more web2.0 (or can we say we're on to 2.5 at this point) features that are interesting...even if not quite complete businesses.
one is Sphere...they've gotten some traction with publishers (TechCrunch, Time to name a couple...scroll to bottom of a post or article on these sites and click on the Sphere link), and their implementation is clean and intuitive. they even have a smattering of a business model in that their pop up with links to related content carries an IAB standard ad unit. they're in the mix with the other web2.0 guys trying to engender user engagement from story pages...but they have a nice app. curious to see where users gravitate in this space with the mix of Sphere, Digg, Delicious, Netvines, et al.?
the other is pbwiki...again, not exactly clear where we draw the line between a blog, wiki, message board, etc. these days...but the pbwiki site is pretty easy to use and to set up a wiki for any use -- business or personal. from a business model standpoint, they seem to be heading down the free w/ subscription upgrade path that we are all familiar with in the online world.
worth checking both of these guys out.
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
meevee!
back from a bit of travel down to cloudy, rainy miami for superbowl XLI.
took a spin on meevee.com a bit today following the update posted on VentureBeat. like the personalization and search features that let me select from a number of topics and have meevee track down the videos that fit those topics. i'm not exactly sure how big an audience meevee can get for basically creating an online EPG, nor is there clear sense of what their technology may be worth from a licensing standpoint. but for now at least there's a place i can go to find updated "baseball" videos like the crazy "Magic Pitch" video that meevee pointed me to on YouTube.
took a spin on meevee.com a bit today following the update posted on VentureBeat. like the personalization and search features that let me select from a number of topics and have meevee track down the videos that fit those topics. i'm not exactly sure how big an audience meevee can get for basically creating an online EPG, nor is there clear sense of what their technology may be worth from a licensing standpoint. but for now at least there's a place i can go to find updated "baseball" videos like the crazy "Magic Pitch" video that meevee pointed me to on YouTube.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
zoho notebook...finally real collaboration?
check out the interesting demo of zoho notebook via youtube. while it's hard to get true sense of how easy and useful the application will be for users, it looks pretty slick in the video. to date i haven't seen any of these web-based collaboration tools really get traction, but if there was indeed a place where a group could convene asychronously to collaborate on a project using all different types of media that could open up a whole new dimension on the web.
of course, like most new tech toys, the group that i immediately think of in terms of use case are the younger technofiles. i can already envision my daughter and her friends creating a "notebook" (or better yet a scrapbook) where they chronicle their school days, social lives and maybe even use it to collaborate on a school project once in awhile. (ok, maybe i'm dreaming a bit on this last use case!)
all kidding aside, i can actually see some pretty cool applications for this in the classroom...a way to foster collaboration between students in new learning environments. an approach similar to what Edutopia is focused on.
of course, like most new tech toys, the group that i immediately think of in terms of use case are the younger technofiles. i can already envision my daughter and her friends creating a "notebook" (or better yet a scrapbook) where they chronicle their school days, social lives and maybe even use it to collaborate on a school project once in awhile. (ok, maybe i'm dreaming a bit on this last use case!)
all kidding aside, i can actually see some pretty cool applications for this in the classroom...a way to foster collaboration between students in new learning environments. an approach similar to what Edutopia is focused on.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Picks...Pal and Pop
relatively new consumer internet sites PicksPal and PicksPop (yes, they are part of the same company) are interesting plays in the online gaming genre. i've bounced around a bit on PicksPal, but have had some issues with their site UI...not the most user friendly layout and nav i've seen.
other bit of frustration comes in the fact that once you make a pick you can't trash it and start over...even if the event is several days away.
aside from these minor gripes, these sites take advantage of that primal need in all of us to wager on something...and the nice thing with these two platforms is that there is something to bet on for everyone. needless to say this isn't true 'gambling' in the Vegas way...you wager points and if you pick right you have a chance of winning prizes (some better than others).
as potentially compelling and addictive as PicksPal (and i suppose for some folks PicksPop) may be, they appear to be on that same nomadic journey as several hundred other Web2.0 startups -- the long and windy road to advertising glory. one can only imagine what the company's spreadsheets are telling the VCs who have invested to date...at what point will advertisers start to flock in real numbers? as of today, all that we see are the dreaded house ad.
other bit of frustration comes in the fact that once you make a pick you can't trash it and start over...even if the event is several days away.
aside from these minor gripes, these sites take advantage of that primal need in all of us to wager on something...and the nice thing with these two platforms is that there is something to bet on for everyone. needless to say this isn't true 'gambling' in the Vegas way...you wager points and if you pick right you have a chance of winning prizes (some better than others).
as potentially compelling and addictive as PicksPal (and i suppose for some folks PicksPop) may be, they appear to be on that same nomadic journey as several hundred other Web2.0 startups -- the long and windy road to advertising glory. one can only imagine what the company's spreadsheets are telling the VCs who have invested to date...at what point will advertisers start to flock in real numbers? as of today, all that we see are the dreaded house ad.
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