We’ve been working on putting together panels for >play since April. I’m excited to announce that we have a great lineup of moderators and panelists across seven different panel topics, check out http://www.playconference.org/panels.html for more details. Some questions that we hope to explore:

Creativity has been a great driver of the Internet but how has the Internet changed how creatives create, distribute and monetize their art?

The brand conversation is moving steadily online but what are the perspectives on the front line, agencies and brand marketers?

New options to watch TV are springing up all around us but what does the consumer want?

What are the disruptive technologies that are hitting the telecom industry?

Games are getting harder and harder to categorize as the gaming industry evolves, what seperates the trends from the fads?

Social media is an integral part of our lives but what does it mean to be always connected?

Athlete blogs, streaming video, fantasy sports, fan communities - Has digital media made the sports fan more engaged?

Buy your tickets for >play and join in the discussion!

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.

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!

In his book The Paradox of Choice[not an associate link], Barry Schwartz says that, “20,000 new products hit the supermarket every year, almost all of them doomed to failure.” Supermarkets love to get new products, if they can be convinced that there are dollars to be earned by “renting” space to these. Because of this and that the shelf lives of almost all of the products are so short they want to have a steady stream of new products lined up. The buyers of supermarket are every busy breed scouting for new products.

The  web portals and content aggregators is not far from supermarkets.  The WSJ says, that

Big Internet companies such as MSN and Yahoo have small teams whose job
it is to “discover” these smaller sites before their competition does.
They scan the Web, attend industry conferences and hobnob with
start-ups to get names of talented but obscure content providers. Marty
Moe, vice president and general manager for AOL Money & Finance,
says he has started making informal deals with smaller blogs and other
sites in order to fast-track the process.

There are millions of content producers (including this blog) all vying for the scarce attention of users. The Yahoo and MSN try to be the middleman, the supermarket shelves for all these new content produced every second. There is not need to worry about the shelf life of these smaller content producers, there are millions to come every year. The only concern for the “buyers” in portal supermarkets is to find those handful of one hit wonders and get them to produce that one hit while occupying your site’s real estate.

Would you have read about this blog’s post on Sprint’s move to Tear down the walled garden if not for getting shelf space on GigaOm, a 7-11 (so to speak) of content providers?

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I came across LOLinator, which turns any webpage into LOLCat-speak. For those of you who don’t know LOLCat, it originated as a series of cat pictures with funny captions written in a form of internet pigdin (wikipedia entry here).

I thought I’d try it out on the >play website, and had an amusing result! See it here. LOL!

There is a big convergence going on between the world of Digital media and Environmental movement. I shouldn’t complain, being at Berkeley and part of the school known for its innovation, technology and Social responsibility. But I am a little perplexed by this combination of digital media (ads, TV, gaming) with green topics.
First there was a commercial that was shot in a carbon neutral way.

Then  EA announced  teaming up with BP to add Global warming to SimCity.

Now NBC Universal announced Green week with environment friendly green themes in all its shows. LA Times green blogger Siel says

Starting today, NBC shows — from “Scrubs” to “Days of Our Lives” — will feature enviro-based themes. The green-tint is part of NBC Universal’s “Green Is Universal” week, during which TV addicts can take in more than 150 hours of enviro-themed content.

I wonder how much of electricity will be spent at homes as people stay glued to their TV sets to watch 150 hours of green programming. May be NBC should use a Codec for these programs such that the progams will show only on TVs powered by  Green energy.
I also wonder if we a DMEC can get bigger sponsorship for >play 2008, if we added a Green theme to it.

Here is the link to the transcript for Electronic Art’s conference call. John Eiccitiello was asked by an UBS analyst about what John said at >play, Berkeley Digital Media Conference. The lecture at Berkeley referred to in the analyst question is the >play conference Keynote speech by John.

Electronic Arts F2Q08 (Qtr End 9/30/07) Earnings Call Transcript - Seeking Alpha

Benjamin Schachter - UBS:

John, you were quoted in some media reports talking about some potential experiments and changing pricing structure I think at a lecture you gave at Berkeley. I was wondering if you could perhaps summarize some of those comments.

And then perhaps related to that, could you discuss a bit more about your strategy, what you see going forward in China, what you are learning over there?

John S. Riccitiello:

I think I just learned never to speak at your alma mater. But to answer your question about pricing, what I was referencing, and I was very clear to point out this is sort of a decade long issue for our industry, is the fastest growing pricing model, successful pricing model on the industry, is software that is essentially given away for free in Korea and followed on with microtransactions, a nickel, a dime, a quarter for one aspect of game play or another.

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An article I read this morning discussed Sprint’s intentions to partner with Google in a number of wireless endeavours: Sprint in Talks with Google

It seems that Sprint is open to allowing Google apps to work on their phones, with promises of a WiMax parternship sprinkled in for good measure.

With the rumors of the Gphone circulating madly, and Google’s support of an open mobile platform, it will be interesting to see how the major carriers react. During >play, Sprint VP Rick Robinson made the claim that his company was “tearing down the walls”, which certainly plays into Google’s hand.

But how will the other major players react? I guess for now, only time will tell…

Did you attend >play conference last Saturday? Would you give us your thoughts on the conference by taking this short survey?

http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB2273T9PHW3K

Thank you.