Thursday, May 28

Immature subset

"In the last week I've gotten ads that range from 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 30 seconds, 41 seconds and 60 seconds. What is going on?"
- Streaming Media post [track]

there seems to be little doubt that online video or web-tv as both a narrative medium and as a commercial vehicle is immature. Being on the 'forefront' of online, which is itself still a bit underdeveloped in terms of sustainable monetization.

But is the length of an ad really the main point going forward? On tv you can get 15 as well as the more standard 30 second spots, but you can buy longer blocks and keep the story rolling. Or you can get a burst-ad (several small spots of a few seconds each combine to tell a larger story).

Isn't the real challenge finding a better way to match ads, content and viewers? The holy grail of behavioral and predictive matching, how the web was/is (???) supposed to move beyond billboards (aka banner-ads on mainstream sites) and into the land of quality - thereby breaking the old adage about half of ads being wasted.

Search ads have been one step in the direction, with Ad words also potentially stepping forward. But with so many advertisers and so many "non essential" or "non engaging" products, how can you keep the dream alive?
Detergent ads after surfing for several hours straight? Or only if you don't visit online ordering for pizza delivery?


Some good thoughts and questions in Six Pixels - both a blog post (Display Advertising And Search Are Connected At The Hip ) and the 'breakfast talk' with mr analytics (SPOS #152 - Orgasmic Digital Marketing Avinash Kaushik )

Things will change. Radically. But it will take time.

Do you want to make it change?
Or hope to get by until retirement or similar before it does?

machinma maturing?

http://newteevee.com/2009/04/28/how-to-make-machinima-without-getting-sued-blind/

video and some general but well considered advice

"there’s been little legal precedent set around machinima, and as such, numerous questions remain unanswered. For example, does machinima really qualify as “non-commercial” if it’s uploaded by a channel owner on a commercial service like YouTube?"


http://newteevee.com/2009/05/07/sony-adds-machinima-kit-to-playstation-3/


Living Room Stage Set” and selling for $4.99 in the PlayStation Home Mall starting today, it’s basically a virtual studio in a box
Stage Set doesn’t come with internal recording tools or an editor.

...so you have to capture it yourself, and do the edits somewhere else.

reminds me that there is an unopened dummies book somewhere around here waiting for some fun filled hours of low quality slapstick and jerky edits to be made.


-
...and the sun ...

Thursday, May 21

Latest fix; Metamor City

The Metamor City Podcast: "a sci-fi/fantasy audio fiction series that is distributed for free... a mixture of short stories and full-length novels, all taking place in one large world with an overarching story arc."

As Scott Sigler is winding down Contagious, and Mur still is short on fiction I decided it was time to track down some new additions to the audio menu. (Did I mention the drooling over Rookie limited editon? Ordered and confirmed.)

Heard a bit about Metamor during the time it has been on (intro post from june 07), so decided to grab the first few episodes and listen in. Really enjoying it so far, there are a few stand alone episodes up front - getting to know the setting and the feel. Then the first major work (Making the Cut) has just wrapped up at 31 episodes, so there is a bit of content to indulge in.

digital paper - for real?

Plastic Logic Product: "foray into the market will begin in the second half of 2009 with pilots, and trials with key partners."

Sound almost to good to be true - size of a normal document, thinner than a lot of power point decks if printed, wired and wireless access.

A very thin Wikipedia entry, but at least the foundation from Cambridge does seem sound enough in terms of tech know-how, not to mention giving a time frame rather than just a "prepare to be dazzled" type statement boost the probability a bit.

There is definitely a solid niche for a "professional iPod" - something light and portable (in your pocket vs in your hand), able to give you a broad set of content for use (music and videos vs doucments and magazines) and stay updated (mail, twitter etc)

Personally i'd love to play around with a kindle 2 or dx - mostly in order to buy books instantly, read them and then avoid taking up shelfspace afterwards. Lots of business books and paperbacks that really only need one read, bordering on disposable entertainment - and chances are if the need to re-read is there in a year or three, the device will still be around

A lot of consumer electronics don't burn out, but fade away under a layer of dust - still useable but replaced by the new toy on the shelves.

There is still a Visor stuck in the closet downstairs - "The Visor Deluxe had the option of translucent colored models, and had eight megabytes of onboard memory. " [wp]
Light blue and with an expansion slot for endless opourtunities...
Now I have a touch with 16gb of storage here, and a cell with a gig sd card downstairs. And both the app store and online access for quite a wide array of tasks.

...and the sun keeps it nice and light late, late into the evenings - summer is just about here...

Tuesday, April 7

Tri-pod or three horesmen?

Triple-header of media thinking today:

The speech the NAA should hear

(BuzzMachine, April 7th) - "you blew it" - a strong rant on the state of the States especially, having focused on milking a dying cow rather than changing with (or ahead of) the times.

Is it to late now, because the financial situation has turned years of cash reserves into weeks of burn-rate funds? Because there just isn't money enough to go around?

Only 20% of users use frontpage - rest from search, aggregators, blogs etc? Not quite the situation in Norway and the Nordic markets, but a strong reminder that more ways of finding content also means more ways of 'losing' control

Google's Love For Newspapers & How Little They Appreciate It

(Danny Sullivan, April 6th) - thoughts on the "print is the quality stuff, online is auto" (as said by surprisingly many abroad and locally), and the search (pun intended) for scapegoats, blaming google for being too good at search and then not blocking them out? Starts with an h...

Bit narrow overall, but solid on the google relationship and options.

Future May Be Brighter, but It's Apocalypse Now

('Chaos Scenario' author et al. Bob Garfield on March 23rd) You have to love the title. Cross referencing 80-ies movies across genres and slogans? Priceless. And it wasn't even "edited by brooke"

"economies are unsentimental and denial unproductive" -expand the horizon and mass media with advertizing becomes a short blip. Word of mouth. Trust and relationships. That goes back a bit. Things have changed, and will continue to change.

mr OTM and adage goes through the media channels one by one, leaving no hope hanging, no rosy tint unbleamished. It certainly bodes well as an indicator of the entertainment value of the book, but not quite so well for the businesses and employees at hand.

"if you can watch TV programs on your actual TV, with very few ads and no subscription fees to a cable middleman, why wouldn't you?" Convergence is coming. Convergence is here.


And even the online "giants" get theirs, since online is also "killing" itself - anyone can blog, so everyone blogs, so "no one" gets a premium cpm and margins plummet faster than Moores law reduces tech costs.



The first two both from jayrosen_nyu - there are many thoughts and ideas out there, but unless we trust someone to distill them for us, how can we even hope to have the time to cover it all for ourselves? We publish well over a hundred stories on average (in the rss feed), and that excludes the majority of the sport coverage.

Can you build a trusted position with just a bit of content? Become a gateway with an opinion and bit of unique flavour? How much tech and personel can you support that way? How big or small can the audience get while still being valuable enough to warrant ad sales?


...and the sun got a bit covered in the afternoon, still hoping for a bright easter and some time on the bike...

Thursday, April 2

å æqéå
What do you want to do
Hva vil du finne på i dag ?
Ø

Yes it took a while to find the extra letters hidden on a hold n drag
tab with the keyboard here. But now it seems to work like a charm.

Writing this with easy writer, quite nice for the task at hand. And
responsive as well. So it is more a matter of mind over fingers than
system lag.

Let the musing begin!
@touch


- touching you

Tuesday, March 31

Got it

a month later? yeah. fiters and timeouts suxor

Updated the touch, bought the album from sirenia and picked up å bit of apps.
Now to test the wifi at work tomorrow.
- touching you
STATUS and update:
been trying to post from and via assortedmobile devices, more for fun than for real content. So far they have mostly been getting stuck either outbound or on the blog side, but today it seems to make a bit of a difference - the gmail sent one made it through (from gmail on the laptop, will have to have another go from the touch) While both using the webmail and the htc setup on the company mail keeps getting hung up in the spam filter. More worriesome is that with the new system we get a report, but even after releasing the messages it seems they ony bouce back into our system rather than going out as they ought to.
Plan for now: do a quick deploy and update on the site, then tomorrow install IE8 and add in the "comp mode" meta at first, and do some validation testing to see what doesn't play nice.

Sunday, February 8

convenience or bust

saw an ad for Sirenia and their new album 13th floor in nemi
click itunes search. Entered sir and there it was atop the list. Quick listen to preview of three songs and hello downloads.
Instant and half price compared to shop. -
a bit larger touch and the future really is digital, instant and allways on...

...and the sun shone brightly on the white expanse of snow ...

Saturday, February 7

immobile

So this is direct from the touch - online at blogger. Had to swap into HTML edit mode to get typing, but now it works lime a charm.
the real topic: Clive t. Again. 17.01 "this I'd your brain onvideo"
how will them glut of content affect the way we think?
will video take another major step in our lives?
most people spend a lot of more time on tv than reading books or papers. But when we study it I'd mostly books. How will that change with tons of related video? Courses, lectures, experiments like the flying bottles... Can we learn and remember as well or better with visual aids, as was mentioned on spos: 40% are auditory that makes podcasts as good as personal lectures.

Sorry, no copy means no links now. Will try to go back later and add in the most relevant ones.also loving the double space for point trick. Wondering if there are any others. Google next :D pretty code time on the responses as well when typing quickly. Loving it.
...and the sun won't shine, so no pictures today of the winter wonderland outside...

Friday, February 6

FreakAngels -still ongoing


Episode 0043: was amazing in it's weird way. With page 3 clearly a moment to remember. A bit more is revealed about the 'angels and their powers, and also some of the 'blast from the past'.

Somehow the series pulls me in for huge burst, then spits me out and hides in plain sight for a month or so. Then it is back in for an hour or more of solid amazement. Creativity first. Commerce second. Story above all.

Makes me believe that this online thing has something going for it. Bringing back the direct relationship and the storyteller / minstrel tradition, spinning the tale a bit at a time - stretching the canvas so to speak.

"FREAKANGELS is a free, weekly, ongoing comic written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Paul Duffield."

- 44 episodes of 6 pages, some interludes and a holiday greeting.


FreakAngels is TM and ©2009 Warren Ellis, and is recommended for mature audiences.

...and the sun shone brightly between the snowflakes...

Monday, January 12

Evolution 1:14

Here it is; Evolution of Dance 2: it hit YouTube over the weekeend, apparently had 150k views this morning, and right now "Views: 241,279" ... still a bit to go, since the original has passed 100 million views :)
It is #1 featured - apparently that page isn't live in terms uf updates, as it has it at 156k views right now.

Judson Laipply proves why white people dont dance in that many videoes - and why he is truly inspirational and great fun to watch.

Memix - remix

YouTube: "Memix" a fun remix/mashup of the interview between Colbert and Lessig, "set to a dance beat" [first vid via gisleh on twitter]

Love the focus and twist to "memix" - how I add value by doing something more. Really in character while at the same time making a great point. It's not about distribution, but about creativity and the chance to express something based on the things around you.

Strangely now meme or wikipedia article on the term yet.

...and the sun ran away from the rain of winter today ...