Hello blog readers!  Let me introduce myself.  I’m Gary, one of the co-chairs of this year’s >Play Digital Media Conference.  Planning for the 2008 conference is in full swing and we have lots of exciting things in the works.

The conference will take place on November 15, 2008.  Our theme is Disruption: Changes in Today’s Media Economy. I’m excited to have a team of motivated, enthusiastic and passionate people who care about sports, entertainment, gadgets, innovations and everything under the sun as it relates to digital media and technology.

In addition to organizing the conference, I got my hands full with my summer internship at Nike.  As a marketing intern for the Digital Content & Media department, I get the chance to carry out a promotional campaign, perform industry research, and funny enough, help organize another conference!  But that’s not all.  Every marketing intern participates in a marketing case competition where we are put into teams that will present recommendations on a challenge that Nike is facing.  Our group is currently working hard to conduct consumer research.  There’s a lot of hard work ahead, but I’m having fun doing it.  Plus, you can’t help but take pleasure in all the green scenery Oregon has to offer.  As a SoCal native, this is unfamiliar to me so I am soaking up every moment.
So that’s my little tidbit.  Stay tuned for upcoming announcements!

One of the advantages of spending the summer in a big tech company is meeting writers / singers / miscellaneous interesting characters who come to talk to 30-100 of us at a time.  These people are like exotic specimens in the fish tank at the dentist’s office… which is why we call these presentations “fish bowls”.

A couple of weeks ago we met Marie Digby. Marie who? Marie the very talented and beautiful singer… that’s who. After she sang for us, she broke out of her shell and handled some Q&A. It turns out that Marie spent a full year recording her album in 2006. Her label, however, wasn’t inclined to release it, mainly considering the marketing efforts needed to promote an anonymous singer. Marie was kind of desperate, she had heard of other singers with albums never getting released. As this industry works, she can’t take the album elsewhere. That is when the proverbial friend told her to put some songs on YouTube. Marie’s cover of Umbrella, which has 8 million views to date, received Jay-Z’s praise when he told her that it was the best of the 200 covers he had heard. The label, now with a heavy dose of viral marketing, decided to release her album last April and now she is touring. The rest is history (still to be made).

Where the hell is Matt? Harding, spent an hour with us sharing stories from around the world. If you missed him, Matt is the guy dancing his geeky, silly dance on every corner of the globe. The video he released in June already has 7.5 million views. Matt was originally a game developer who liked to do his goofy dance. His first video was published before the YouTube era and got enough attention to connect him with Stride Gum, his sponsor until this very day. His second video has almost 11 million views, and his third was just released. Matt works on these projects full time. If you think it is a lot of fun going all over the world and dancing, you are probably right. But Matt actually spends typically no more than a day in each destination so I guess he spends most of his time on air planes.

To me it’s amazing how a medium that didn’t exist a few years ago is already responsible for the creation and promotion of new artists. If it wasn’t for YouTube these artists wouldn’t be where they are. Video on the internet is disrupting the way art is created. We decided that our next >play conference will be about disruption. You should be there.

It’s not everyday that you get to hear from one of the founding icons of the personal computer industry. So it was a packed event when Steve Wozniak, co founder of Apple , showed up at Haas to speak at an ASUC event. I had heard that Woz was an entertaining speaker and is never afraid to stray from the prepared script and that was definitely true. Here are a few nuggets from the talk:

- It was quite clear that Woz strongly believed that he was the technical brain behind Apple and its early computers and that Jobs was the marketing genius at the company.
- He survived a plane crash in the early days of Apple.
- It was funny and interesting to hear that Woz was really reluctant to leave his engineering job at HP and join Jobs to start Apple. It took a lot of convincing to get him to give up his role.
- When asked why name the company ‘Apple’? It was because they couldn’t think of anything better and a factor that influenced this decision was that Apple records was big in that period of time.
- After taking a break for 8 years and teaching in high school Woz returned to Apple but refused to take on a management role. So he remained an engineer for a few more years before quitting Apple permanently in 1987
- Woz loves playing pranks on people.

What really struck me was the kind of energy that Steve brought to the presentation. He seemed like someone who didn’t want to grow up and had an almost child like passion. I hope that this genius who practically kick started the personal computer industry gives us more amazing products in the years to come.

Click here to view the webcast

Flickr the popular photo sharing website turns 4 and is holding a ‘birthday event’ in San Francisco on the 15th. So for those who are around the city and have the time it might be a fun event to check out.

RSVP here

Rock band Nine Inch Nails is the latest musical group to offer an alternative for fans to consume its music beyond the traditional music business model. The band cut ties with its record label late last year, and has begun to offer various methods for consumers to get its new music, including a free option. Hopefully more artists will follow the lead of NIN’s front man Trent Reznor, as well as the band Radiohead, who last year offered its tracks on a web site for a price determined by each individual consumer. Bravo!

I’m curious to hear what readers have to think about Microsoft’s $44.6 billion dollar bid for Yahoo. With all that has been written of this move, I’ve seen almost nothing on what the actual “synergy” is supposed to be.

Microsoft and Yahoo’s combined WW market share for search is still less than Google’s. Correlated to search market share is online advertising revenue, where again Google trumps Microhoo. So if the individual parts cannot stand up to the giant, how can the sum? Does Microsoft think that their acquisition team can make 2+2 equal more than 4?

Certainly there are cost advantages, and the acquisition will allow Microsoft to reap significant scale advantages. But success in the World of online advertising comes from users and relevancy- which are reliant on technology, not scale of operations. You don’t get better products just by doubling the size of your engineering team.

Obviously, Microsoft is no dumb animal- one has to assume they have a well thought-out and forward-looking strategy for all of this.

The question is- what is it?

DMEC is hosting Mobile Monday this coming Monday evening at 7pm in the Bechtel Engineering Center.  This month’s topic: mobile browsers.  The event is free to attend and open to all.  Feel free to RSVP on Facebook or Upcoming.

From the posting at the Mobile Monday site:

There’s been a lot going on with browsers on mobile devices: the changes in usage coming about due to the iPhone, new high capability browsers like that demoed last month by Wake3 and the announcement yesterday of Skyfire, and the advancing work on Firefox mobile. The last time we did an overview of browsers was back in March 2006, so it’s definitely time to return to the topic.

Don’t tell me you haven’t had this experience: you’re away from home, you have no idea where the nearest bathroom is, and you’ve got to go. Bad. It’s definitely happened to me on many occasions. I pray and curse (and yelp), and eventually find a…um…solution. Apparently the easier route is to pull up a browser on your mobile device and beg MizPee for the address of the nearest john.

MizPee provides locations of toilets and vistors rate their experiences with those toilets. It didn’t work on my mobile device this afternoon, but I expect they’ll get the site working on most browsers before too long. I’d dare to guess this is the first business with the pee-pee dance as their logo.

One business model: charge visitors for results based on how badly they need them. The price could start at $10 and decrease $1 every minute.

I see a toilet database pairing well with map services. I love to take road trips. Knowing which gas station had the most pleasant restroom would definitely influence my choice of which exit to take when passing through towns. Maybe some establishments would even take pride in maintaining a high MizPee rating to attract additional business.

According to Gartner Research, the battle for high definition home video will soon be won by Sony-backed Blu-Ray technology. While I was too young to remember the battle over video cassets (VHS vs Betamax), as a consumer later in life I definitely benefited from having only one format to worry about.

The same will be true for HD video, I’m sure. Like a lot of people I know, I’m holding out on the leap to purchase a HD-DVD player because like changing lanes in traffic I don’t want to get stuck in the slow lane. Now I’m not about to go out tomorrow and by a $200 Sony player based on Gartner’s word alone, I’m sure they have some idea what they are talking about.

At the very least, Gartner’s pronouncement could turn out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Just ask The Little Train that Could.

Dear DMEC Friends and Colleagues,

Happy New Year! With the birth of 2008 comes the birth of IndieGoGo. Eric Schell and I (DMEC’s 2007 Co-Mavens of Film and co-founders of IndieGoGo) invite you to join IndieGoGo’s vibrant community of filmmakers and fans.

IndieGoGo is an online social marketplace connecting filmmakers and fans to make independent film happen. The platform provides filmmakers the tools for project funding, recruiting, and promotion, while enabling the audience to discover and connect directly with filmmakers and the causes they support.

On IndieGoGo, filmmakers can raise money and awareness, find cast and crew, and gain credibility through the help of their number one resource, the fans.

Fans get the opportunity to discover and impact the films of tomorrow, while getting insider access and VIP perks for their support. It’s easy and fun!

Filmmakers who have already joined IndieGoGo include Irena Salina (”FLOW: For Love of Water,” 2008 Sundance selection), M dot Strange (”We Are the Strange,” 2007 Sundance selection), Christopher Roberts (”The Believer,” 2001 Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner), and Michealene Cristini Risley (”Tapestries of Hope;” Huffington Post Blogger).

If you would like to learn more about what’s possible, just follow the 3 steps outlined below. The more you take action, the cooler IndieGoGo becomes for everyone.

Enjoy making independent happen!

Best,
Danae Ringelmann & The IndieGoGo Team

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

SIGN-UP:

• Go to www.indiegogo.com
• Sign-up for IndieGoGo by clicking on the Sign-up link in the Short Cuts window on the right side.
• Confirm registration via email and start exploring!

DISCOVER & PERSONALIZE:

• Click Around: Familiarize yourself. Read the “FAQs” and “How It Works” if you’re curious.
• Discover: Check out the Projects listing, People listing, Resource listing and MyGoGo pages. Click into Project & People profiles. Toggle through the Info, Media, Q&A, Team & Private sections. Watch videos, click on links, and have fun exploring! Check out the Take Action icons on the left.
• Create Personal Profile: Click on your Profile in the Short Cuts box and add some personal flavor. Include a cool pic & bio. Showcase your interests and tastes as a fan.

TAKE ACTION! (actions embedded in each profile on the left)

• PROMOTE projects you like (grab the widgets and stick them in your blog or websites).
• ENDORSE projects and people you like.
• RATE projects and people based on the different criteria.
• FUND the projects you would like to see made. Every little bit counts.
• BECOME A FRIEND of projects and people to gain insider access.
• COMMENT ON projects and people in their profiles. Ask questions. Do shout outs! Open up conversations with other filmmakers and fans.
• WATCHLIST: If you’re not ready to endorse or rate a project add them to your watchlist and follow their progress. Revisit your Watchlist on your MyGoGo page.
• GET VIP PERKS: Filmmakers decide what perks to offer their contributors. VIP Perks could include a credit in the film, an invite to a cast party or even a character named after you!
• CREATE PROJECT PROFILE: If you’re a filmmaker (or would like to be), create a project profile and use IndieGoGo’s platform to help bring it to life.
• SUBMIT FEEDBACK: If you have any problems or suggestions, please let us know by clicking Feedback or via email. We’re not perfect; help us get there!

Have fun making independent happen!