zondag 31 juli 2005

Online video consumption and distribution

I'm already using several tools to download and view online video content. And that's a problem. What I want is an online EPG (electronic programming guide) that aggregates everything and allows me to select, view and distribute content using just one interface. I'm curious to see who the winner(s?) in this space will be...

"The idea is that anyone should be able to publish video to thousands or millions of people at no cost because P2P technology makes that possible," said Nicholas Reville, one of the co-directors of the project. The group wants to "open up this video space in the way that the web opened up self-publishing for text or photographs."

Working in a virtual world

Stories on 'sweatshops', cheap Chinese working in virtual worlds, have been around for a while. 1UP did some field research, which resulted in an interesting read.

"For all the so-called virtual sweatshops discovered, a lot of these young men and boys don't mind their jobs, and they aren't exactly working in sweatshop conditions. There's a world of difference between making sneakers and watching bots fight all day. However, they are underpaid, or as Smooth Criminal puts it, "They get paid dirt. But dirt is good where they live."

Is 'good enough' good enough?

Is 'good enough' a fact of life? Here's what Seth Godin has to say, I feel and hope he's right. Good is the enemy of great.

"I don't think so. I think that the open nature of the web and the hypercompetitive environment of worldwide competition are pushing things in two different directions at the same time. First, the hyper-cheap, sort of junky stuff that discounters and others want to sell in volume. And second, the relentless pursuit of better. (RPB). RPB is the opposite of good enough. It's not Jack Welch's six sigma nonsense in which engineers codify mediocrity. It's a consistent posture of changing the rules on an ongoing basis."

Rich and thin does it

The New York Times writes about a research done into online dating. The results were not surprising, which is exactly the reason why you should read it.

"It is perhaps disheartening that superficial attributes like looks, income and hair color are significant determinants of who succeeds in the dating game. But, as the researchers caution, these are the only attributes that are readily observable in the data. As they point out, "Factors such as personality traits apparently allow us to partly make up for deficiencies in good looks and wealth." Whew, that's a relief."

Is ' goed genoeg' goed genoeg?

Is 'goed genoeg' een gegeven? Seth Godin heeft er dit over te zeggen, ik denk en hoop dat hij gelijk heeft. 'Good is the enemy of great' toch?

"I don't think so. I think that the open nature of the web and the hypercompetitive environment of worldwide competition are pushing things in two different directions at the same time. First, the hyper-cheap, sort of junky stuff that discounters and others want to sell in volume. And second, the relentless pursuit of better. (RPB). RPB is the opposite of good enough. It's not Jack Welch's six sigma nonsense in which engineers codify mediocrity. It's a consistent posture of changing the rules on an ongoing basis."

Dell fails

Many have been following the amazing story (read from bottom) about Jeff Jarvis and his really bad experiences with his Dell computers and the Dell company. I've also been talking about it with friends of mine who work at Dell, but nobody there seemed to know about it. And now we can see that it really starts to impact Dell in a negative way, even with mainstream consumers. Dell's support and marketing model is failing to adapt and learn from a changing consumer environment, that will cost them if they won't look at what's happening in the world.

"I happened to be sitting across from a couple of bank tellers from TD Canada Trust, the bank in our building. These two ladies I'd seen before so I knew where they worked.

Lady one: I was going to buy a new Dell but did you hear about Jeff Jarvis and the absolute hell he is going through with them.

Lady two: Yeah, I know the IT guy told me that the cobler blog was recommending we stay away from Dell."

Online dating? Rijk en dun moet je zijn...

The New York Times schrijft over een onderzoek dat gedaan is naar online dating. De resultaten zijn niet verrassend, en dat is precies de reden waarom het leuk is om te lezen.

"It is perhaps disheartening that superficial attributes like looks, income and hair color are significant determinants of who succeeds in the dating game. But, as the researchers caution, these are the only attributes that are readily observable in the data. As they point out, "Factors such as personality traits apparently allow us to partly make up for deficiencies in good looks and wealth." Whew, that's a relief."

Dell faalt

Velen volgen met verbazing het verhaal (lezen vanaf onder) over Jeff Jarvis en zijn slechte ervaringen met Dell computers en het bedrijf Dell. Met meerdere mensen die bij Dell werken heb ik hier over gesproken, maar geen van allen was op de hoogte van wat er zich in de 'blogosphere' afspeelde. En nu is langzaam duidelijk aan het worden wat de negatieve impact is van dit alles, op het niveau van de gewone consument. Dell's support en marketing model kan niet omgaan met de veranderingen in de wereld van (PC) consumenten, en het zou mij niet verbazen dat ze dat duur komt te staan wanneer niemand daar eens naar buiten gaat kijken.

"I happened to be sitting across from a couple of bank tellers from TD Canada Trust, the bank in our building. These two ladies I'd seen before so I knew where they worked.

Lady one: I was going to buy a new Dell but did you hear about Jeff Jarvis and the absolute hell he is going through with them.

Lady two: Yeah, I know the IT guy told me that the cobler blog was recommending we stay away from Dell."

zaterdag 30 juli 2005

Artificieel leven in een virtuele wereld

Een van de redenen dat ik zo'n fan ben van Second Life is dat deze virtuele wereld gebruikt kan worden voor allerlei experimenten. In dit geval gaat het over 'artificial life'. En ik kan niet wachten totdat er een Eccky woont in mijn tweede huis...

"The gold standard for any creator of artificial life is unplanned emergent behavior, and Surina has noticed at least a couple instances of these. For one, with enough fish in the school, they begin to move in circles."

Artificial life in a virtual world

One of the reasons I like Second Life so much is that this virtual world allows anyone to experiment with a variety of things. In this case it's about artificial life. And I'd love to see an Eccky living in my second home as well...

"The gold standard for any creator of artificial life is unplanned emergent behavior, and Surina has noticed at least a couple instances of these. For one, with enough fish in the school, they begin to move in circles."

What's happening?

Combine Flickr and Technorati, make this a screensaver, and connect your PC to your TV. CNN, but different...

"No, if you're looking for today's buzz, the first place to click is a Web log search engine such as Technorati, Feedster, or Blogdigger. By picking up the latest posts, minute by minute, from some 12 million blogs, these sites showcase an ever-changing mosaic of what is on the world's mind."

Wat gebeurt er?

Combineer Technorati met Flickr, maak er een screensaver van en sluit je PC aan op de TV. CNN, maar dan anders...

"No, if you're looking for today's buzz, the first place to click is a Web log search engine such as Technorati, Feedster, or Blogdigger. By picking up the latest posts, minute by minute, from some 12 million blogs, these sites showcase an ever-changing mosaic of what is on the world's mind."

zondag 24 juli 2005

Games not virtual

"Game administrators frown upon these practices since an influx of capital into an economy could cause inflation and affect quality of gameplay (or quality of "life"). Sweatshops, inflation, monetary policy -- all of a sudden, these virtual worlds don't seem so virtual anymore, do they?"

No, indeed, they don't.

Putting the public into public

So who will be the first to experiment with some new(?) content sourcing models?

"And perhaps it's time to make the Public Broadcasting Service into just that...media by the people, for the people. A nationwide public access channel that draws the best citizen content from around the country and (this is the important bit) is edited into PBS programming. Or at least take a few hours out of the week for this...I don't want to see Frontline, Sesame Street, Nova, or Newshour with Jim Lehrer taken off the air, but giving the Make magazine gadgeteers a half-hour a week to geek out about hacking stuff seems reasonable. The overall result may feel less professional but a lot more participatory."

Reduce(d) to mere pipelines

They (traditional vertically integrated telco's) shouldn't even try, they will fail if they do so.

"That poses a threat to wireless service providers. If they fail to establish popular services on their handsets, they'll be reduced to simple pipelines -- and will be hard pressed to recoup the investments they're making on speedy next-generation wireless networks."

Virtuele games steeds echter

Virtuele games worden steeds minder virtueel. Of meer echt.

"Game administrators frown upon these practices since an influx of capital into an economy could cause inflation and affect quality of gameplay (or quality of "life"). Sweatshops, inflation, monetary policy -- all of a sudden, these virtual worlds don't seem so virtual anymore, do they?"

I would like to, but I can't (anymore)

Back in the old days, things were so much easier....;-)

"No, I'm not keeping up with your blog.

I would like to. I really would. I like it and I like you.

But we're now well past the point where any of us can keep up with all the blogs worth reading from the people worth keeping up with. Even with an aggregator.

I just can't do it any more."

Who to trust?

Thoughts that make you think.

"The strange thing is, today’s situation in the United States is not that different. If you are born into a lower-middle class family, chances are you will work hard all your life, which life will revolve around two types of agora: the local pub and an online chatroom or multiplayer game on the Web. Instead of the aristocracy we now bow our heads to multinational corporations and media giants like Microsoft, Universal, News Corp, and Viacom. Instead of the King the US now accepts the President as ultimate authority (who goes to war to… well, you know), and instead of the Family – that entity which sociologists call a 'zombie institution' because it still (though barely) exists but it is dead at the same time - we now accept our (online) circle of friends (read: people so similar to us so that we never can be expected to make a real effort to get to know or understand them) as the social group from which we get our cues as to what is good and bad."

De 'publieke' publieke omroep

Bij deze wat advies voor organisaties die klagen dat ze te weinig geld krijgen (de publieke omroep), maar ook voor organisaties (zeg Talpa) die misschien wat teveel uitgeven...

"And perhaps it's time to make the Public Broadcasting Service into just that...media by the people, for the people. A nationwide public access channel that draws the best citizen content from around the country and (this is the important bit) is edited into PBS programming. Or at least take a few hours out of the week for this...I don't want to see Frontline, Sesame Street, Nova, or Newshour with Jim Lehrer taken off the air, but giving the Make magazine gadgeteers a half-hour a week to geek out about hacking stuff seems reasonable. The overall result may feel less professional but a lot more participatory."

Telco's, ze leren het nooit

Ze (de traditionele en verticaal geintegreerde telco's) zullen het blijven proberen, maar ze zullen ook blijven falen.

"That poses a threat to wireless service providers. If they fail to establish popular services on their handsets, they'll be reduced to simple pipelines -- and will be hard pressed to recoup the investments they're making on speedy next-generation wireless networks."

Ik wil wel, maar het gaat niet (meer)

Vroeger was alles zo veel makkelijker.....;-)

"No, I'm not keeping up with your blog.

I would like to. I really would. I like it and I like you.

But we're now well past the point where any of us can keep up with all the blogs worth reading from the people worth keeping up with. Even with an aggregator.

I just can't do it any more."

Wie te vertrouwen?

Gedachten die je aan het denken zetten.

"The strange thing is, today’s situation in the United States is not that different. If you are born into a lower-middle class family, chances are you will work hard all your life, which life will revolve around two types of agora: the local pub and an online chatroom or multiplayer game on the Web. Instead of the aristocracy we now bow our heads to multinational corporations and media giants like Microsoft, Universal, News Corp, and Viacom. Instead of the King the US now accepts the President as ultimate authority (who goes to war to… well, you know), and instead of the Family – that entity which sociologists call a 'zombie institution' because it still (though barely) exists but it is dead at the same time - we now accept our (online) circle of friends (read: people so similar to us so that we never can be expected to make a real effort to get to know or understand them) as the social group from which we get our cues as to what is good and bad."

Less dumb surfers

How to convert dumb surfers into paying customers? The question has not changed since shopping on the internet was introduced, some of the answers did however. Although not radically. We're just getting better at it.

"But e-tailers are finding that getting paying customers to come back again and again through strong customer service is as important to their growth as it is in the world of shopping malls and downtowns everywhere. It's just that they'll have tread carefully, because with the Web, retailers are literally in their customers' homes and offices."

Minder domme surfers

Sinds shoppen op het web mogelijk is vraagt men zich al af hoe al die langskomende bezoekers tot kopers kunnen worden gemaakt. We worden er steeds beter in, maar echt veel veranderd er niet.

"But e-tailers are finding that getting paying customers to come back again and again through strong customer service is as important to their growth as it is in the world of shopping malls and downtowns everywhere. It's just that they'll have tread carefully, because with the Web, retailers are literally in their customers' homes and offices."

zaterdag 23 juli 2005

Broadband internet is a public matter

There's no crystal clear solution for how to provide broadband internet to every citizen of this world. What role must governments play, and on which level?

"Would you rather have the network run by a monopoly that is controlled by a bunch of greedy shareholders or a local government that the people at least have some control over?"

Breedband internet een publieke zaak

De dames van Dwars door Amsterdam zijn al een tijdje bezig met de vraag hoe glasvezel in Amsterdam beschikbaar te krijgen voor iedereeen. De rol die de gemeente/overheid daarin speelt, of moet spelen, is een centraal vraagstuk in de discussie. En ook al geloof ik in de werking van de vrije markt, er is iets voor te zeggen om de overheid een actievere rol te laten spelen wanneer het gaat om internet infrastructuur en toegang.

"Would you rather have the network run by a monopoly that is controlled by a bunch of greedy shareholders or a local government that the people at least have some control over?"

zondag 17 juli 2005

GPS Monopoly

It started as a PR-campaign, but it's growing bigger and bigger. Love to have a brainstorm session on translating other cardboard games in a similar way.

"Players start out buying properties and placing apartments and hotels on them, much like the classic game. The twist: Rent payments are determined by the traffic patterns of 18 real cabs, tracked by satellite. Players collect or pay rent depending on where the cabs go, with the high tally winning at the end of each day."

GPS Monopoly

Begonnen als een PR stunt, maar daarvoor eigenlijk een te mooi concept.

"Players start out buying properties and placing apartments and hotels on them, much like the classic game. The twist: Rent payments are determined by the traffic patterns of 18 real cabs, tracked by satellite. Players collect or pay rent depending on where the cabs go, with the high tally winning at the end of each day."

zondag 10 juli 2005

Vliegen met Google

Vanwege de langzaam dichterbij komende lancering van Eccky heb ik niet al te veel tijd gehad voor m'n weblogs de laatste week, een van de dingen die daardoor is blijven liggen was een beetje experimenteren met Google Earth. Iets waarvan anderen ook erg snel enthousiast blijken te raken.

Vrijdag zat ik in het vliegtuig voor een kort tripje naar Finland en heb gedurende de vlucht gefascineerd zitten kijken naar het kleine LCD-schermpje boven m'n hoofd waarop Finnair 'live' beelden liet zien van de aarde waar je op dat moment 10 kilometer boven vliegt. Maar inmiddels zit ik thuis op de bank naar een 32-inch LCD TV te kijken terwijl ik via Google op 500 meter hoogte met zo'n 400 kilomer per uur boven de aarde zweef met een heerlijk muziekje op de achtergrond. De ultieme screen saver zeg maar. Ben begonnen in New York, en vanuit daar richting het zuid-westen, kan mijn ogen niet van het scherm houden...;-) Alleen deze feature al maakt Google Earth meer dan de moeite waard, dan heb ik het nog niet eens over alle andere (commerciele) mogelijkheden gehad.

donderdag 7 juli 2005

Safe being risky, risky being safe

Seth Godin was in Amsterdam last night, first time I saw him performing live. Impressive. I liked his statement that it's "safe being risky, and risky being safe." I think that if you do not really understand what that means and do something with it, you won't be successful without being lucky....

Seth Godin in Amsterdam

Gisteravond was ik bij de presentatie van Seth Godin die in het kader van zijn vakantie even in Amsterdam was... Voor een uitgebreider verslag kun je hier terecht, hier voor een paar foto's. Wat mij vooral bij is gebleven is een slide waarvan de boodschap was: "it's risky being safe, it's safe being risky." Dit gaat op voor alle mooie voorbeelden van succesvolle marketing die Godin gister liet zien, om nog maar eens aan te geven dat er geen makkelijke manier is om succesvol te zijn. Je moet risico's nemen, en dan wil het nog wel eens fout gaan...

maandag 4 juli 2005

Hyperwords

Hyperword is een grappig idee met veel potentieel, al ben ik niet helemaal overtuigd van het model dat ze hanteren. Marco schrijft vandaag ook over ButterFly, zit een beetje in dezelfde hoek.

"Hyperwords is a very big idea about tools that make the web a lot more linky and contextual. For now, the demo allows you to load a web page through Hyperwords and mouse over and select various functions from a menu including looking up the definition, searching for on search engines including Technorati and highlighting. The cool thing about the highlighting is that the info is added to the URL so you can copy paste the URL to someone to give them your highlighting."

Hyperwords

I really like the Hyperword idea, not sure whether their current model is the way it should be done however. More on that later...

"Hyperwords is a very big idea about tools that make the web a lot more linky and contextual. For now, the demo allows you to load a web page through Hyperwords and mouse over and select various functions from a menu including looking up the definition, searching for on search engines including Technorati and highlighting. The cool thing about the highlighting is that the info is added to the URL so you can copy paste the URL to someone to give them your highlighting."

zondag 3 juli 2005

Chilled innovation

At first I thought the June 27 decision by the Supreme Court in MGM v. Grokster wasn't as bad as it looked. Companies developing technology that can be used for file-sharing can do so legally as long as it is not their intention to let people use it in illegal ways. At least that's the way I interpreted it... But Larry Lessig (who else...?) explains why it really is a bad decision.

"By making it a process that goes through the courts, you've just increased the legal uncertainty around innovation substantially and created great opportunities to defeat legitimate competition. You've shifted an enormous amount of power to those who oppose new types of competitive technologies. Even if in the end, you as the innovator are right, you still spent your money on lawyers instead of on marketing or a new technology."

SMS.ac a 'succes'?

I was really surprised to read a BusinessWeek article on the succes of SMS.ac. Especially after reading Joi Ito's experiences with this company a couple of months back.

"Today, that might be a bit hard to imagine. Currently, SMS.ac, the mobile social-networking market leader, claims some 40 million users, only 14% of whom are based in the U.S. Most other services only have thousands of customers, who typically pay a $5 monthly subscription fee. Yet social-networking services are already a major driver in the use of SMS and multimedia messaging (MMS), says Scott Ellison, an analyst with consultancy IDC."

Spectrum policy reform

If they can do it in the UK, why not in the rest of the world....? It would be such a great innovation boast.

"Basically, they'll offer up a ton of spectrum, and then let the market decide what to do with it. This is a huge change from most places that designate that specific spectrum needs to be used for certain things (such as 3G services or television) and thereby limiting how useful it can really be."

Slecht voor innovatie

De beslissing van het Amerikaanse Hooggerechtshof in de zaak MGM v. Grokster leek in eerste instantie niet zo erg als je misschien zou denken. Bedrijven die technologie ontwikkelen waarmee mensen bestanden kunnen uitwisselen mogen dat gewoon blijven doen zolang ze maar niet de intentie hebben om mensen auteursrechtelijk beschermde bestanden illegaal te laten uitwisselen. Dat is zoals ik het begreep althans... Maar Larry Lessig (wie anders...?) legt uit waarom toch echt een slechte beslissing is.

"By making it a process that goes through the courts, you've just increased the legal uncertainty around innovation substantially and created great opportunities to defeat legitimate competition. You've shifted an enormous amount of power to those who oppose new types of competitive technologies. Even if in the end, you as the innovator are right, you still spent your money on lawyers instead of on marketing or a new technology."

Het 'succes' van SMS.ac

Ik krijg (te) vaak uitnodigingen binnen van mensen om me in te schrijven bij SMS.ac. Ik had al langer het idee dat SMS.ac er vervelende trucjes op na houdt, en eerder dit jaar kwamen meer mensen daar achter. Vol verbazing lees ik nu echter een artikel in BusinessWeek waarin ze het succes van dit bedrijf beschrijven.

"Today, that might be a bit hard to imagine. Currently, SMS.ac, the mobile social-networking market leader, claims some 40 million users, only 14% of whom are based in the U.S. Most other services only have thousands of customers, who typically pay a $5 monthly subscription fee. Yet social-networking services are already a major driver in the use of SMS and multimedia messaging (MMS), says Scott Ellison, an analyst with consultancy IDC."

Een nieuw radio spectrum beleid

Als die Engelsen het kunnen, waarom wij dan niet? Zou een mooie innovatie impuls zijn wanneer meer landen hun beleid ten aanzien van het radio spectrum zouden herzien. Al blijft het uiteindelijk jammer dat we de 'schaarste' zelf gecreƫrd hebben.

"Basically, they'll offer up a ton of spectrum, and then let the market decide what to do with it. This is a huge change from most places that designate that specific spectrum needs to be used for certain things (such as 3G services or television) and thereby limiting how useful it can really be."

vrijdag 1 juli 2005

Online magazines and advertising revenues

This might persuade some online publications to abandon the (forced) registration and subscription model, a decision that will have additional advantages.

"In fact, more than 50% of online magazines now say that they're profitable, with the majority of that revenue coming from advertising. Of course, what's interesting is that, aside from advertisers becoming more comfortable with buying online ads, one of the big changes over that same time period is that many content sites have recognized that intrusive ads are not effective -- but relevant and unobtrusive ads do seem to work."

Advertentiemodel werkt voor online magazines

Misschien dat dit een steuntje in de rug kan zijn voor de publicaties die overwegen om te stoppen met (verplichte) registraties en subscripties. Iets wat nog meer voordelen met zich mee zal brengen overigens.

"In fact, more than 50% of online magazines now say that they're profitable, with the majority of that revenue coming from advertising. Of course, what's interesting is that, aside from advertisers becoming more comfortable with buying online ads, one of the big changes over that same time period is that many content sites have recognized that intrusive ads are not effective -- but relevant and unobtrusive ads do seem to work."