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!

This is some what of a follow up to my previous post on contents and their shelf lives. GigaOm reported today that their site took a hit when a ” A truck driver drove into a power transformer in San Antonio, Texas, causing it to explode. That explosion caused major power disruption and took down RackSpace, our hosting company. ”

Om wonders how fragile our Internet infrastructure is if a single truck driver can take down so many sites.

I ask, so what? If million blog posts don’t get posted or get read for a day or two would it matter? Did anyone skip a beat other? What does it tell about the place the new UG media have in our lives? If you didn’t miss them for a day, do you need them the next day?

When blogs stop posting after all there is no one to read them, do they make a sound?

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?

Powered by ScribeFire.

There was a news from the least expected quarters on the signs of what is yet to come in search. You wouldn’t expect National Association of Convenience Stores conference  to give you guidance on the future of search. In the recently concluded conference, Gilbarco Veeder-Root a supplies of fuel control systems for gas stations announced a system that lets gas station owners:

… display maps, find local listings, and even print driving directions and money-saving coupons from Gilbarco’s Encore® dispensers with color screens and the Applause™ media system. The live internet connection means all information is in real time. The Gilbarco® Applause™ media system is the first content management system that uses Google’s world-class open content infrastructure to deliver valuable information at the pump.

Many advertisers have been vying for the attention of the captive customers filling gas. Now this display system is meant to display “aps on the pump’s screen and locate their desired destinations. They can also search Google’s local business listings by category (restaurant, hospital, gift shop, etc.) to find the nearest choices. Once a destination is selected, consumers can also print the driving directions at the pump. Easy-to-read instructions are printed on the receipt printer, making it convenient to take them with them in the car.”

There is one catch that wasn’t mentioned in the press release but was pointed out by IWeek,

The Google service will be very limited initially. Using the pump’s touch pad, drivers will be able to choose a category, such as restaurants, hospitals, hotels, or landmarks, and then pick a listing and print a map to the location. Retailers will choose the listings.

This may sound like a limitation to most, but I see this as the emergence of UG search results.  Imagine a common open platform like this that is available for every community and individual. The members then start compiling search results that they think are relevant to particular queries. May be they even decide the Ads they think are relevant. Just like the Gas station managers who pick only those attractions and restaurants that are are close by, the user search generators will focus only on content that are relevant to the particular locale they are in.  The multiple planes of separation now you can get very interesting, locale, interests, gender, income level, ….

This is User generated search. Or is this Search2.0.

For me, one of the glaring non-features of mobile phones has been the lack of IM.  I know there are a few third party vendors that have dabbled in this area, but no one has really captured the market yet.  And sure texting gets you part of the way there, but per message fees and absence of a friend list leave it short.  Today’s launch of 3’s Skypephone finally makes this functionality a reality.  Not only can Skype users call each other for free, they can send free instant messages as well.  Hopefully this development will encourage US carriers and phones to include the feature before long.

Long-time reader, first-time blogger. Looking forward to >play.

Found a cool site, www.connect2elect.com.

I try to stay up on politics, but media coverage is always focused on “electability” and never seems to really give me a picture of what the candidates actually stand for. I have to admit that I like Barack as much for his personal background, speaking ability, and the fact that I think he *seems* to represent change…none of which mean anything in terms of his issues.

Connect2Elect lets you list out your core beliefs, preferred candidate attributes, and political and social beliefs, and then matches you up with like-minded Candidates. It is fairly easy to use, and lets you see who you match up with in each of the four aforementioned areas. I have seen other sites like this, but this one struck me as more user-friendly than the others.

Well, now I know that based on the issues, I should support Mike Gravel (D). Of course, as an unknown 77-yr old Alaskan senator, he’ll probably be out of the race soon, and then I’ll be back to supporting Barack. Still, I liked the site for easily allowing me how to compare the candidates on their actual views – it’s like match.com combined with compare.net.

Since the site makes me give a login…I wonder if I’ll be receiving Mike Gravel campaign emails soon!

Forbes reports on a video search company Blinkx that offers Ad overlay on YouTube Videos. Google, which owns YouTube, wrote the book on context Ads and monetizing web pages. Google does offer Ads in YouTube pages, but the Ads are generated purely based on the text content added to the video.

What Blinkx does is a tool, “that lets online publishers place targeted text ads in any video embedded on a Web site based on the actual content of the video”

Blinkx is for website publishers who embed YouTube videos in their sites. Blinkx can’t place these Ads in the YouTube page itself (only Google can).

All these aside, I thought that the videos are the real Ads.  So now we are going to see Ads on Ads?

Technorati Tags: business model, youtube, video ad models

Truemors.com is the new web2.0 project by Guy Kawasaki. You can post/TXT any news item you want and it stays up or dies. You can’t add image, only the Truemorists (volunteer moderators) can do that. I posted a Truemor on >play, it is still in top 10 of Tech and a nice Truemorist (thank you) added >play logo as the image. Visit truemors.com and click on the “Interested” check-box for the >play truemor. Post a comment as well, if you can.

On the conference day, you can keep posting Truemors as you hear from the keynote speakers and panels.

Here is how to post your own Truemor.

TXT: Text “2020 <your message here> ” to 55022.

Email: post@truemors.com

To get you started before >play, here is something you can post to Truemor right now:

“Did you know EA’s John Riccitiello acquired BioWare, a video game maker, twice? He is going to be a keynote speaker at >play conference. www.playconference.org”

Technorati Tags: guy kawasaki, truemors, trumors, truemorist, electronic arts, bioware, play conference, digital media

Hi. I’ve been working on a book about the Internet, young people, politics, and civic life - and have compiled a list of economic, technical, and social trends that have helped me to think through the evolving state of internet tech. I’ll be speaking on the politics panel at >play - would love to hash through some of these concepts with other panelists + audience.

Economic

• Over the past 100 years, the economies of modern complex democracies have become centered on information and cultural production (financial services, accounting, software, science, film, music).
• The price of computational technology has fallen rapidly over the last 20 years, such that common people now own the means of producing information. Acting independently, an individual can create so called “units” of economic value.
• A pervasive interconnected network (the Internet) enables people to inexpensively distribute these units.
• The Long Tail: this massive network enables targeted distribution. Business and organizations can earn a return on investment by offering software, products, services, and information that may be of interest only to a limited number of people.

Technical

A new breed of software is emerging both as a result of and an enabler to these economic trends. These technical trends can be characterized by the following list:[1]

• The web as platform: the new breed of software doesn’t run on your desktop computer. It runs on the web. To access the software, you can use your web browser, mobile phone, or any other Internet enabled device.
• Remixability: software developers assemble new software by using pre-existing data and other software. These new creations are typically called “mash-ups.”
• Open: open standards, code, data, and APIs enable easy remixability.
• Massively connected: over 1 billion people have access to the Internet. Over 50% of U.S. citizens have broadband access. Most Web2.0 software relies on this extensive network to enhance its features.
• Users are co-creators: users are no longer simply readers online; they are also writers and creators. Their contributions enhance the value of the software they use.
• The network effect: a product or service becomes more valuable as more people use it. Software is oriented to harness the “collective intelligence” enabled by the network effect.
• Decentralized: creating software is no longer the exclusive domain of a few corporations. It’s being created, distributed, and modified by a decentralized group of people and organizations.
• Emergent: instead of pre-defining patterns of usage, Web2.0 software offers looser structures, onto which users can apply their own structure. Usage patterns are said to “emerge.”
• Rich user experiences: software features and display capabilities are more closely approximating qualities of “real-life.” Using web software is becoming a more vivid experience.

Social

The convergence of these economic and technical factors – the removal of constraints on producing and distributing units of societal value – is causing dramatic shifts in the fabric of our daily lives.

• Individuals are taking a leading role in the production of information, knowledge, and culture.

• They are creating units of societal value that don’t require large investments in capital, legal protection, proprietary methods, or that adhere to the market pricing system in general. In other words, people are creating and giving away the products of their labor.
• As people distribute their own units of value, traditional producers, such as consumer mass-media are declining in influence.
• With so many new creators, the range of information available is dramatically increasing.
• As potential creators, there is a trend towards viewing the world from the perspective of a participant rather than an observer.

• Massive groups of loosely connected people are creating tremendously valuable properties such as Wikipedia
• They are doing so without the need for stable long-term structures such as formal organizations, membership, or hierarchical working environments.
• The aggregation of these distributed actions can create a massively coordinated action, such as in the case of the immigration rallies. This coordination can be achieved even if the individual actors are not expressly coordinating with one another.

• Networked connections are making it easier to communicate with close friends on a frequent basis. These strong relational bonds are strengthening.
• Weak connections are also strengthened by this same effect. Communication among distant relations requires low effort.