Dad with Teeth

Messaging with a viral touch

nobody@vox.com(Drew Keller) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:18:35 -0700

These posts are, well, rather inconsequential. But fun all the same.

The use of online video to present, inspire and captivate customers has been one of the primary engines of the video distribution revolution. Here are a few examples that I think are worth noting.

dove evolution

The first is not new content by any means. According to the date stamp these videos are almost two years old. All the same their clarity in messaging and memorable content have insured a long self-life of interest for them. I offer two videos that work nicely and should be viewed in succession. The first (with 1.5 million views) is from Dove's award winning campaign that helps young women understand the mechanics of selling beauty. The second one is the other side of the coin. If parody is the highest form of flattery then Dove must feel loved. With 1.3 million views we see a journey on a road I know all too well.

The second is about the future rather than the past. Like the metal and plastic puck most of us lug around in our pockets and purses, our mobile phone of the future will be a constant companion, serving not only as our communicator but also as our environmental sensor. "Naturally", it will harness solar energy and be self-cleaning (thanks to integrated nanotechnology). But that's just skimming the surface. To see the full-blown vision of engineers at Nokia and the University of Cambridge Nanoscience Center, watch this video.

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Video on the Web All-Stars

nobody@vox.com(Drew Keller) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:38:08 -0700

I was recently asked to create a list of video syndication and distribution sites on the web. To create a definitive list would require a post much, much longer than this entire blog. I have compiled a few of my favorites and those I believe are market leaders.

I have created a rather diverse list of sites. Exploring every site may seem a little daunting at first. I have broken the list into examples of social networks and how user generated content is being incorporated in on-line communities. The second is a link to Brightcove with examples of how large corporations are using Brightcove's technology to create unique channels. Brightcove is by no means the only example of 3rd party channel creators. You also may want to browse around in the list of aggregators. This is where the real money appears to be right now. I think it is wise to have a familiarity with their model and approach. The last two are more of a list of hardware solutions and tech platforms. If you choose not to reinvent the wheel, it is likely you would use one of these solutions for distributing your content.

Social networks

Vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/

Bebo http://www.bebo.com/

Youtube http://www.youtube.com/

Myspace http://vids.myspace.com/

Eyespot http://eyespot.com/#

Magnify http://www.magnify.net/

Channel creation

Brightcove http://www.brightcove.com/customers/selected-customers.cfm

Aggregators

Hulu http://www.hulu.com/

Yahoo http://tv.yahoo.com/

Joost http://www.joost.com/

Veoh http://www.veoh.com/

Myspace http://vids.myspace.com/

Xboxlive http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/moviesandtv101.htm

AOL http://television.aol.com/

Tech platforms

Anystream http://www.anystream.com/

Gotuit http://www.gotuit.com/

Movenetworks http://www.movenetworks.com/

Permissiontv http://www.permissiontv.com/

Brightcove http://www.brightcove.com/

Blip.tv http://www.blip.tv/

Worldnow http://www.worldnow.com/

Distribution/Monetization

Signiant http://www.signiant.com/

Tremor media http://www.tremormedia.com/home.php

Adap.tv http://www.adap.tv/

Akamai http://www.akamai.com/

Yume http://yume.com/

Voxant http://www.thenewsroom.com/

Freewheel http://www.freewheel.tv/

Search

Clip Blast http://www.clipblast.com/#welcome

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The lawyers get a laugh

nobody@vox.com(Drew Keller) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:47:45 -0700

Web distributed video media is showing up in all sorts of novel places on the web. One problem area for large corporations and firms is attracting and retaining the best job candidates. More and more Human Resources managers are beginning to understand the value of creating content that reaches their intended audience using a narrative voice that rings true. The Boston law firm of Choate Hall & Stewart has created a recruiting section of their web portal that leverages some very innovative thinking about how to find the right summer associates. Frankly, this is very clever. The specific content will not have a very long shelf-life (the Mac v. PC parody will get tired in a few months) but the personal testimonial by this year's summer associates and the clever tone and solid production value leads me to believe they have an idea that will be stolen and emulated over and over. My mom said that is the highest form of flattery. But I digress. Their Director of Marketing noted, that the videos have "streamlined every point in the recruiting process" starting with improved candidate self-selection, more productive in-depth interviews, a higher acceptance rate on offers made and a higher quality of new hires. All recruits said they had seen the videos reacted positively. They especially appreciated seeing their friends candidly discussing their experiences.

What isn't necessarily obvious but should be noted is the success of the site really stems from the clarity and consistency of the vision for the site. All the videos are exceptionally well written, shot and produced. The interviews are short, to the point and sweet (as Wired called it, "snackable".) All of the elements really hold together and add up to create a very nice user experience. The consistency of the tone (not too stuffy, not too self-aware, not overly clever) makes it work. I think that is why the success of this implementation of web video in a non-traditional environment stands out. They did it right.

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Tuesday must be Media Day

nobody@vox.com(Drew Keller) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:51:05 -0700

OK, I am just making this up, but could the gas crunch be a windfall for video syndication on the web? Are we going out less and sitting home more? I ask this because Online Media Daily reported today that U.S. Internet users watched 12 billion online videos in May, up 45% from a year ago and about 10% from April, according to comScore's Video Metrix service. That is really significant.

The other interesting thing today is that the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and others are reporting that Google Inc. and Viacom Inc. have agreed to allow Google to anonymize YouTube visitor data before complying with a judge's order to deliver the data to Viacom as part of a broader copyright lawsuit. This is from the pissin' match where Google is required to provide user data in an effort to prove that YouTube has done a poor job of policing copyright violations. This one might effect most everything we see on the web and how we interact with the web.

Finally, Will Richmond has an interesting perspective on long tail economics and video on the web. As one of the early champions of video syndication models on the web he notes today that the trend toward widespread video syndication to small-to-medium sized web sites continues to gain momentum. He believes there is an increasing likelihood that broadband video's eventual distribution model will look far different from traditional, tightly-controlled approaches.

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Aggregates and Brickbats

nobody@vox.com(Drew Keller) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:28:09 -0700

First of all the blog aggregator is a bit flaky. Sometimes you have to refresh the page once or twice for all the pages to load. Also, I think what I have discovered about feedraider is that if you have a private blog this will not aggregate your content. Kirk, Aaron, Keiichi, Brian, Yi-Jen, Susie, Chris, Sarah, Rebekah, Sean, Christy, Kristina, Sebastian, Jennifer and Raquel have all submitted addresses that are good to go. Annie & Maury’s feed appear to be blocked by security. At least the feed raider is not parsing your posts. I am aware it is a hassle, but if you want to be included in the class feed you may need to cross-post your weekly assignments to a separate blog without the security limits. Those of you who said you were sending me link information please check that you have sent it to drewke@u.washington.edu. If you blog is not listed it is either a security issue or I didn’t get it.

On a different note, here are a few items that have come up and you may be interesting in reviewing.

I love this site… This is what happens when a rival technology eats your lunch. A particular irony considering the site title and the final outcome of HD DVD.

http://www.thelookandsoundofperfect.com/

Give CNN credit: their 4 month-old "iReport" feature seems to making steady progress, demonstrating how a traditional news organization can effectively incorporate user-generated content.

http://www.cnn.com/ireport/

"Widgets" are quickly proving to be a potent way of distributing content in general and video in particular. EgoTV is a broadband content startup who is distributing their "Malibu U" program through Clearspring's widget platform. Here is how the model works. They are small chunks of HTML code that essentially create a container into which content can be continuously pushed. Widgets have gained widespread popularity with the rise of web 2.0 social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, as users can select different widgets for embedding in their personal pages. This allows both the user and visitors to easily view content there. A user can also embed widgets in personal content sites using PageFlakes, iGoogle or others, or can use widgets right on their desktop.

http://www.egotvonline.com/

Here is an interesting take on “fair use” in video. There is an ongoing discussion about fair use and the potential chilling effect on creativity when apparent copyright holders threaten legal action. It seems the Center for Social Media has developed a "Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Videos". Certainly relevant to all that we do in internet distributed video.

Broadband Internet TV has overtaken cable TV in France, according to audience measurement company Mediametrie.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117988728.html?categoryid=14&cs=1

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Week 1 Blog Highlights

nobody@vox.com(Drew Keller) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:06:35 -0700

Here are a few of the posts I read and enjoyed this week. Some good, thoughtful starts to the class. But I did not see posts from everyone.

Aaron

After watching the first couple minutes, the stream caught up to the buffering so I decided to see how long it would take to buffer the entire 30 minute show: about 12 minutes on a mediocre comcast wireless set-up.

Kirk

I have to tip my hat to Hulu.com for providing a service so slickly packaged and entertaining, that it may soon replace TV.

Nifty graphic illustrating BitTorrent

Raquel

The average of Metacafe video is only 90 seconds long. This feature prevents some technical and navigator crash related problems.

Brian

Websites incorporating streaming media should load promptly or else viewers lose interest and move on elsewhere.

Sean

I quickly found out researching for streaming websites can be a highly distracting (although enjoyable) experience… I did manage to focus on one subject, catching some Wimbledon actions. Tracking the little tennis ball on screen turned out to be a good test for streaming.

Also, I liked Sean’s comparison chart

Christy

Nowadays, having overcome the novelty of finding streaming media on a print publication’s Web site, I find such combinations of media (multi-mediumed multimedia?) to be the norm.

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testing mobile blogging

nobody@vox.com(Drew Keller) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:56:04 -0700

I am testing Typepad's BlogIt software. This looks promising as a way to post to multiple sites using my phone. Combined with the status change tool for facebook and twitter I may actually use it. Kinda' cool, actually.

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RIAA n You

nobody@vox.com(Drew Keller) — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 11:13:59 -0700

Two recent events are likely to touch us significantly here at the UW Streaming Media community.

One is the recent decision by the University to cooperate with the RIAA as they sniff out file sharing. The penalties by the RIAA are outrageous, and clearly represent a desperate act by an organization that is not only becoming irrelevant to the musicians, but is unable to recognize the potential of new distribution opportunities. By cooperating the University has created a defacto opening of its database of users to the RIAA and will reveal not only how students are using the network, but who is using the network.

It is a difficult decision because these are public monies, and sharing music without permission is patently illegal. But privacy and the opportunity to freely pursue academic issues free from prying eyes and pressures of social fashion have always been a hallmark of this fine institution. Opening up who is using the internet and how sets a precedent that could impact research far beyond music sharing. What if I am dong research on late term abortion, or pornography, or imigration, or social drug use, or voting patterns, or lobbyists, or any other controversial subject? If someone in power says, "Hey, I don't want tuition or tax dollars going to that sort of thing, you have to stop it," the University would be hard pressed to say, "Oh, no. We don't cooperate with those sorts of witch hunts." Hey, they have agreed to do it with the RIAA. This precedent risks setting a pernicious benchmark, and how can you close the door once you have made this exception? I can see the logic of the University’s position, but it smells of corporate lawyers and the lack of a spine. Sad really.

The other news from the RIAA is the recent arbitration victory against Internet Radio sites. Because an arbitration committee in Washington DC drastically increased the licensing fees Internet radio sites must pay to stream songs, radio sites chose today, June 26th, as a day of silence. Sites like my personal favorite, Pandora, will see their fees will triple, and are retroactive for eighteen months. You can find more information here on the day of silence.

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The UW Bookstore n' Us

nobody@vox.com(Drew Keller) — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 11:32:41 -0700

OK, it appears the Book Store has messed up. To be honest, this is really frustrating for all of us. I have not heard if they are ordering another batch of our textbooks, but you might want to explore options with Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

As an alternative to the reading assignment for this week, if you do not have the book yet, you can read and comment in your blog on the Vanity Fair article.

(http://www.vanityfair.com/ontheweb/features/2007/06/wolcott200706)

Or you can choose a streaming site that has an implementation of video media that you like or hate and can comment on that. I would reccomend that you do the reading once you get the book, because you will feel quite lost for the rest of the term if you do not have a basic foundation in the technology.

Again, I am sorry the bookstore did this to us. I ordered them two months ago, that should have been plenty of time. It makes me wonder if customers are just picking them up because the bok looks interesting. Or perhaps they bought them for Kathy's class by mistake. I think we share the same class number this term.

On a totally different note, a goofy video of Rube Goldberg-type inventions that appear as segment bumpers in the Japanese children's show "Pythagora Switch". This serves no purpose in class whatsoever, but I think they are cool. I dare you not to have the catch little jingle in your head for the rest of the day.

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How nice to get the degree

nobody@vox.com(Drew Keller) — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 22:55:28 -0700

Graduation_cohort

It was a great day today. One I have looked forward to for the past two years. Graduation has meant a lot to me, not just for the degree, but for the opportunity to show my kids what it means to set a goal and work really hard for it, sticking to the task until you finish it. As dopey as it sounds, over the past few years whenever my energy would flag I would visualize myself in cap and gown getting my masters, with my kids looking on (I never went so far as to imagine them looking on approvingly, they are 9 and 11. That would be way too much to expect.) Today was the day I worked towards, the day I saw in my mind's eye when the going got tough. And it was worth it.

Granted, it was a little different than I imagined. I didn't plan on the toilet backing up this morning and having to unclog it before I could go. I didn't plan on the hideous traffic and parking at the U. And I didn't plan on my lovely wife getting so sick Monday night that we spent all day Tuesday in the hospital. We barely got her well enough to drag her to the ceremony (you may notice in the photo below I am holding her up. She was trashed.)

I also never expected to be given the honor to speak at commencement. It was humbling, really. I had worked on my speech for a few days, and even practiced it in front of a few understanding folks. But I really underestimated the size of the event. I figured only a few hundred at most would be there. It looked more like 2-3,000 people from the stage. I was so nervous I had a hard time keeping my place on the page. It was not as smooth, and my timing was off from my rehearsals, but I think I got my message across. At least I hope so. I am not sure why they chose me. Really, there are equally deserving members in my cohort. I chose not to tell any of them about me speaking because I was embarrassed that I was chosen and they were not. When the time came they were very supportive and even teased me a little that I had not said anything. The bottom line is that I would not have passed up the opportunity for anything.

Graduation_fam

I also love that my presence on stage with all the regalia that a post graduate degree brings embarrassed my kids. I love that they had that great mix of pride that their dad was at the podium, and humiliation that their dad was at the podium. I think they really understood that this day was important to me, and ultimately, to them. College is in their future... whether they like it or not. There are a few other photos in the collection. One of me speaking and one that typifies just how excited I was to greet the day. Life is good.

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