Filed under: MISC
HIP HOP CHESS FEDERATION: LONG TAIL SOCIAL NETWORKING
Heidi Schumann for The New York Times
The rap star RZA, left, at the Kings Invitational this month.
I was passing through the park adjacent to my apartment with friends Saturday night and started chatting chess. In this particular park, chess players young and old congregated in the summer to smack talk and play 10 minute speed chess games.
I opened the NYT Sunday morning and was greeted by an article about the Hip Hop Chess Federation. On October 13th, hip hop legends like RZA and GZA from the Wu-Tang Clan gathered together for the Kings Invitational Tournament in San Francisco. In this case, chess is an outlet for young people, a constructive outlet promoting “unity and non-violence.”
This article spoke to me from a social networking angle as well. Social networks commenced operations as mega-networks filled with people of every affiliation (i.e. Facebook and MySpace). Slowly, social networks are moving to more specialized interests such as sites devoted to sharing Boston Red Sox scores or fashion advice. Long tail social networking sites created around niche interests such as the Hip Hop Chess Federation offer greater engagement by their audience. Surrounded by a few friends with a niche interest similar to mine, I am much more likely to engage in networking and discussion.
Why do we care? An increased level of engagement leads to a more captive audience, a more captive audience for advertisers for example.
Hip Hop Chess Federation’s MySpace Page
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
BROADCAST/CABLE
The massive stock market sell-off on Friday took a toll on the media giants. By the end of the day, News Corp. — now the world’s biggest media company — sported a market cap of $67.79 billion. Google, meanwhile, saw its stock rise, with a market cap of a whopping $201.24 billion. (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i729f8835496e3ace56c3dfbcac45c1b0 10/22)
Rupert Murdoch (Getty Images photo)
News Corp.’s annual meeting on Friday was a “Rupert Murdoch lovefest,” according to a report by the company’s own News.com.au. One shareholder even asked the 76-year-old media mogul for his autograph. Murdoch successfully blocked a proposal to overturn his control of the media giant. (http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,23636,22617898-31037,00.html 10/20)
Fox Business Network, which launched Oct. 15, apparently took some viewers away from rival CNBC during its first four days on the air. From Oct. 15 to 18, CNBC averaged 257,000 viewers from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., down 12% from 293,000 weekday watchers the previous week. (http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6492992.html 10/19)
On Monday, NBC will complete the physical integration of NBC News with MSNBC. The staff of MSNBC relocated from Secaucus, N.J. to NBC headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Center over the weekend. Parts of the new, state-of-the-art digital facility, however, don’t have air conditioning. (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117974436.html?categoryid=14&cs=1 10/21)
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt will produce a drama series for HBO that focuses on the politics and intrigue of international aid organizations and humanitarian workers. The series represents the first time Jolie, a United Nations goodwill ambassador since 2001, and Pitt have co-produced a TV project. (The Hollywood Reporter 10/22)
A new campaign from Delta Air Lines touting its in-flight video system is using the stars and hosts from Time Warner cable properties such as the cast of HBO’s “Entourage” and CNN’s Anderson Cooper. To be clear, however, a representative for Time Warner said Cooper was not endorsing the airline … just the cable news network. (The New York Times 10/22)
Comcast is working on its own version of Time Warner Cable’s “Start Over” service allowing viewers jump back in case they missed the beginning of a show, reports Multichannel News. The service, currently deployed in six Time Warner divisions, is slated to launch next year. (http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6492836.html 10/19)
Hollywood writers are giving Writers Guild of America negotiators the go-ahead to call a strike if they are unable to reach a new labor agreement with the studios. Also: Many moguls are said to welcome a strike because they believe the new television season is “dead on arrival.” (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aSb.b3Sbc3WU 10/19, http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/hollywood-moguls-sound-strike-happy-see-new-tv-season-as-dead-already/ 10/21)
This month iN DEMAND Networks introduced two new hi-def sports channels, GameHD and TeamHD, located in the regular sports package area of the cable system’s line-up. TeamHD will air all the NBA scheduled HD games through the NBA League Pass package and GameHD will air HD NHL games on NHL Center Ice in addition to HD MLB games as part of next year’s MLB Extra Innings package. (TheRetailBRIDGE.com 10/22, Broadcasting & Cable 10/19)
Meredith and Comcast are pairing up for a family-focused video-on-demand suite to launch in December. Called Parents TV, the multiple-channel cable platform will focus on every stage of parenthood, “from conception to college,” and will be available free for to Comcast digital subscribers. (http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6492980.html 10/22)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
ONLINE/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Google’s social networking site Orkut, little known in the U.S., has made a splash in Brazil but is attracting the wrong kind of attention from prosecutors, reports The Wall Street Journal. The head of Orkut’s Brazilian operation is facing criminal contempt charges for refusing to turn over personal records of users accused of using the site for criminal activity. Advertisers, who began using the site on an experimental basis, are running for cover. More than half of the site’s 25 million unique visitors hail from Brazil. And their usage is so heavy, the site ranks in the top 5 global web domains in terms of page views per month, according to comScore Media Metrix.
The official NBC channel has been pulled from YouTube, increasing speculation that NBC and partner NewsCorp. may be ready to launch their Hulu online video joint venture. NBC and YouTube have helped one another considerably during the past two years, points out Valleywag – the network giving the start-up legitimacy before it was acquired by Google and the video site helping boost shows like Saturday Night Live and The Office. (http://valleywag.com/tech/online-video/nbc-pulls-youtube-channel-313276.php 10/21)
Facebook is getting ready to make its comprehensive Applications Directory available to users who are not registered or logged in to the site and enable them to be indexed by other search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and Windows Live. One of the newest Facebook apps links to Second Life, allowing users to bring their avatar into their Facebook profile.
With all the rumors and gossip out there, it’s nice to be able to report a legit piece of Google-Facebook news. Google News, which is on a bit of a bender when it comes to trying new things of late, went live today with a Google News app for Facebook. As explained on the Google News blog, “this experimental application enables users to create custom sections or select from a set of pre-defined topics, then browse and share stories with their friends on Facebook.” It’s still in beta. (http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-a-real-google-facebook-pairing-google-news-experiments-with-facebook-ap 10/19)
Sony Pictures Television’s Minisode Network, the studio’s online repository for shortened TV classics, is branching out from its home on MySpace to receive distribution on Sony’s user-gen video site Crackle, as well as on AOL and Joost, the NYT reports. By extending its network among different sites, Sony will offer different advertisers special sponsorship deals tailored to match their respective campaigns. (http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-sony-expands-minisode-network-distribution-shrunken-retro-tv-shows-to-r 10/19)
At the recently held Google Zeitgeist ‘07, a panel on social networking featured Chris Alden, Michael Birch, Reid Hoffman and Esther Dyson. On the official Google channel on YouTube, a full video of that panel is here. (http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-social-networking-panel-discussion-at-zeitgeist-07 10/20)
Growth in the number of people signing up for social-networking sites like MySpace and Facebook will peak by 2009 and plateau by 2012, according to a report by U.K.-based Datamonitor. The firm warns investors of being overconfident about a Web phenomenon that is not proven. (http://www.news.com/Analyst-Social-networking-faces-uncertain-future/2100-1025_3-6214355.html 10/19)
(Below) Someone I respect in the digital space recently said, “If you can count it, it’s not innovation.” Interesting thought. Staying ahead in the new media universe sometimes means blazing ahead in uncharted waters. Sometimes, that is.
Big media companies are frustrated that their counts of Web visitors keep coming in vastly higher than those of the tracking companies. The growth of online advertising is being stunted, media industry execs say, because nobody can get the basic visitor counts straight. (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/22/technology/22click.html?_r=1&oref=slogin 10/22)
CEO Randy Falco is trying to make AOL into a global Internet media firm that can compete with Yahoo and Google. Such a shift means AOL needs staff with different skills, he says. AOL plans to help people find Internet content, he adds, especially user-generated video. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/21/AR2007102101157.html 10/22)
(Below) This digusts me. The internet should not be policed by cable/telco affiliates. Granted, illegal file sharing is illegal file sharing, but the affiliates should not be the arbitors of right and wrong on the internet. Anything less than net neutrality is unacceptable in my book.
The Motion Picture Association of America is said to be talking to companies that offer high-speed cable and DSL Internet service — including Comcast and AT&T — about adopting technologies to discourage users from illegally swapping movies and television shows over their networks. (http://www.nypost.com/seven/10222007/business/hollywood_piracy_fight_widens.htm 10/22)
While pundits predict the Internet will make dinosaurs out of big media, execs from CBS and Comcast at the Web 2.0 Summit insist that getting TV clips on YouTube or Facebook actually attracts more viewers. The Web isn’t “cannibalistic to television,” says CBS digital head Quincy Smith. (http://www.informationweek.com/software/showArticle.jhtml;?articleID=202404948 10/19)
News Corp.’s MySpace is unveiling a new online video series called “Roommates” that will air exclusively on MySpaceTV, marking the first time the social-networking site develops its own show. User feedback is expected to help shape story arcs for the advertising-supported series. (http://mediabiz.blogs.cnnmoney.cnn.com/2007/10/22/myspace-goes-hollywood/ 10/22)
This could be the worst acting I’ve ever seen in a piece of content of any kind. Quality is still important here folks. While the internet is overrun with quantity, I would ask that content producers still focus on quality.
Episode 1
Christian video site GodTube became the nation’s fastest-growing Web property for August, with 1.7 million unique visitors. The Plano, Texas-based site, whose partners include the top U.S. “megachurches and Christian retailers,” is supported by both religious and secular advertising. (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-ca-webscout21oct21,1,1997188.story 10/21)
And just in case, you were wondering what God was thinking, check out my favorite banner ad on the site below. Are sarcasm tags really necessary here?
Michael Arrington’s tech-industry blog TechCrunch is said to bring in $240,000 per month in advertising. However, no self-sustaining blog media business has ever weathered a downturn, says Gawker Media boss Nick Denton. “So it would be unwise to sound too triumphant.” (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/10/21/BUVJSNSTC.DTL 10/21)
Top 10 Parent Companies Web Sites, Combined Home & Work (U.S.), September 2007
Rank Parent site Unique Audience Time Per Person
1 Google 118,003 1:34:34
2 Microsoft 117,677 2:00:29
3 Yahoo! 109,085 3:08:30
4 Time Warner 102,252 3:50:34
5 News Corp. Online 73,506 1:51:52
6 eBay 65,105 1:56:03
7 InterActiveCorp. 61,108 0:25:05
8 Amazon 49,759 0:25:14
9 Wikimedia Foundation 47,575 0:16:33
10 Apple Computer 44,291 1:00:04
Source: Nielsen/Net Ratings
Filed under: WIRELESS
WIRELESS
(Below) Being that AT&T is the service provider home for the iPhone and the wireless iTunes service, this is an interesting development.
AT&T, the biggest U.S. mobile service, plans to offer wireless song downloads from Napster’s digital music service, expanding an existing agreement. AT&T will sell Napster music directly on its phones for $7.49 for a bundle of five songs, or $1.99 for a la carte purchases. (http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN2137835220071022 10/22)
Mobile multimedia solutions Thin Multimedia, Inc. has partnered with mobile advertising company Amobee Media Systems on a mobile advertising solution to integrate banners and content overlays directly into video. The system enables the video to start immediately, allowing mobile operators to earn revenues as soon as the video begins streaming.
Filed under: GAMING
GAMING
After years of strong sales, Sony’s PlayStation 2 may soon be on its way out, says Deutsche Bank analyst Jeetil Patel. He said it might also be time for Electronic Arts to drop the prices on its key sports franchises. (GameDaily BIZ 10/19)
Filed under: TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY
SanDisk, the memory maker, has made a curious but an interestingly simple move: it is launching an online video service and a USB flash drive that can carry videos downloaded on a PC for playback on TVs. The Sansa TakeTV video player is a mix of an oversized USB drive, remote control and a small dock that connects to a TV, and it has an accompanying video service, Fanfare. (http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-sandisk-launches-taketv-usb-drive-connects-to-tv-to-play-online-video 10/21)
($150 for up to 10 hours of content; $100 for up to 5 hours of content)
While I commend any piece of technology that makes it easier for me to move content from PC to TV, what I’m really looking for is a device that allows me to send content from PC to TV AND vice versa.
Take TV
LG Electronics is about to release the 32PC5RV, which is believed to be the world’s smallest plasma television. The 32-inch TV, a size dominated by LCD HDTVs, will be available in 27 countries this November, with retail prices starting at about $1,000. (I4U News 10/21)
Apple continues to post strong computer sales, with new reports estimating that it will move into third place, behind Hewlett-Packard and Dell. “I’m quite pleased with the pace of new operating systems every 12 to 18 months for the foreseeable future,” CEO Steve Jobs said. “We’ve put out major releases on the average of one a year, and it’s given us the ability to polish and polish and improve and improve.” (International Herald Tribune 10/22)
