Friday, October 19, 2007

A mapping meme

As seen on a Twitter post here - 'Dash = Tom Tom on steroids'. It certainly got an enthusiastic response from the floor. Oh, and Techcrunch likes it too.

Video at the Edge


Om Malik from Giga Omnimedia, Joel Hyatt from Current and Mike Volpi from Joost gave their views of video in a web 2.0 world.

Joel Hyatt started with the provative statement that many folk in the room might think that TV is dead. It’s not, he said. It’s just that much of tv sucks. (Cue laughter…) What Current wanted to do, when they started up, was to bring the magic of the internet to tv, not the dumbness of TV to the web.

He gave us some examples of what they're up to, including the launch this week of their 'pod assignment' initiative.

Mike wasn't quite so bullish in selling Joost but he was quietly confident in what it was all about, and who it appeals to.

From then on in, it was a rather tame debate about which was better – UGC on demand or professionally-created content on demand.

Games and the real world


Jane McGonigal is Lead Games Designer at the Institute for the Future (cool!)
and talked about games will connect better with reality. She suggested that networked games work better than reality in three areas:

- They come with better instructions (though, I can't remember when I last saw a young gamer read the manual).

- You get scores, energy tables and get a sense of how you are performing within that world - the kind of feedback you don't get in the real world.

- You also get better community in a virtual world - everyone shares the same sense of purpose.

Average gamer in a MMO spends 16+ hours a week in the game and about 10+ thinking about it. For Jane, this is rational behaviour.

So for many games, virtual reality is beating reality.

A rather radical approach to bringing kids back to the real world is something like Chore Wars - which appears to be quite popular, if a tad ironic. Or a game Jane designed called Cruel 2 B Kind - where you attack people with kindness, instead of AK47s.

Finally, she mentioned a game called World without Oil, a learning tool creating a virtual world around a fictional scenario without oil.

A forecast from Jane is that there will be attempts to embed the dynamic of virtual gameplay into ordinary life. Meanwhile new, 'non-gamers' will get into this space. Result? A new wave of immersive, life-changing games which move into the mainstream.

Keep an eye on Jane's thinking and research on her blog.

Big Media? Friend or Foe?

Amy Banse from Comcast, Quincy Smith from CBC Interactive were interviewed by Josh Quittner

His first question centred around two users Firstly, his brother-in-law, who’s just bought a 50-inch flat-panel monitor, to which he attached his mac, his xbox and his cable box. Then, there’s someone who gave up their cable service, got a super-fast broadband connection into his living room which gives him all his entertainment and telephony.

Past and future in one question – linked via IPTV and new technologies which are becoming more and more mainstream. So how do CBS and Comcast respond to this level of sophistication in the audience today?

Comcast, as largest ISP in the US right now, know that they have a way to create content gateways which they hope will appeal to these users but Amy thinks that cable TV is still here for some time to come.

Quincy, from CBS, feels that, if you do web content right, you can extend your brand and your content beyond borders. What people want to watch on their flat-sceen monitor and what they want online, though, is different. And CBS.com needs to appeal to both of these viewing trends and appeal to ‘new eyeballs’ at the same time.

He talked a little about You Tube and said that one of the most-watched clips there last week had been a chunk from CBS’s David Letterman Show, where he interviewed Paris Hilton. It wasn’t uploaded by CBS but by someone called Mangoface247, and got almost 4 million views. This is a real challenge for them. (No, really?)

Amy pointed out that online viewing has yet to cannibalise tv viewing and that people just want video. And they want to be able to access it seamlessly, regardless of what screen they view it on.

Josh asked about how each speaker was using social networks. Quincy talked about how the internet can help audiences talk about ‘watercooler moments’ from tv and how they need to facilitate this conversation in next generation tools and applications. In CBS’s case they’re either buying or partnering with companies to deliver these.

A question from the floor from an American living in London who challenged Quincy’s assertion that you can get your content beyond borders as he can’t access some CBS content. CBS Interactive network - Innertube - is offering clips and news on this, said Quincy, targeting the international market specifically. But they need to be careful not to jeopardise their international sales by offering full episodes. It’s a delicate balancing act, he said. And sees cross-border content as having marketing/teaser benefits, rather than duplicating the broadcast service.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Games web 2.0. Apparently.


I had big expectations of how the conference would examine games in a web 2.0 context but, instead, what we had was a couple of chaps from EA (Trip Hawkins) and Robert Kotick (Activision) being interviewed by the impossibly young – and rather breathless - Morgan Webb (has anyone ever seen her and Kiera Knightly in the same room?). And very much talking games 1.0. Okay, maybe games 1.5 – they get half a point for referencing mobiles – but I learned more from Yves Guillemot (boss of Ubisoft) at the Edinburgh Games Festival in August about how web 2.0 impacts on games than I did from these guys. Or gal.

Philippe Dauman of Viacom

An interesting conversation with Philippe Dauman, President and CEO of Viacom and a big announcement that the entire Jon Stewart (The Daily Show) video back catalogue is to be put online, amounting to 14,000 clips. The Daily Show website will use also start to use widgets and embed more social media.

Philippe said that Viacom believes in following the consumer and building content around what they want to do online. They don’t necessarily jump on every bandwagon as it rolls out but are looking at what they might do with Sarah Silverman and their comedy back catalogue as next steps in this kind of online material.

John Heilemann – contributing editor of New York Magazine, and the interviewer – talked about copyright and reminded Philippe that Viacom had sued Google/You Tube last year about copyright infringement. Since then Google have committed to being more rigorous in this area so John asked if Viacom were happy with how that was going. Dauman gave a very diplomatic answer which amounted to ‘We’re still waiting to see whether they’ll deliver on this’.

The Google probing continued and turned into Mainstream Media vs the Kids (aka You Tube) but it felt like Google/You Tube’s lack of ability to deliver on copyright management led to Viacom’s decision to partner with Joost.

Philippe also talked about the non brand-related content they plan to create including virtual worlds and ways in which they intend to move users around their content and brands. He talked about Nickelodeon online, the development of Nicktopolis and how plans are afoot to partner with Marriott to create Nick Hotels.

And yet another question about potential bidders for Facebook - and was Viacom interested? Thehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif gnomic Mr Dauman said they're developing apps for Facebook and will be looking at companies and partners like them in order to keep their finger on the pulse in serving their audiences. Social networking matters to Viacom and they're creating an app whereby your personal profile will travel with you across all their sites. Time spent on their sites is increasingly a performance metric for them.

A question from the floor about UGC and creative commons which, worryingly Dauman didn't seem to have heard of. Standard line from him, though, that 'we're always interested in developing new talent but we need to nurture and reward professionals in this space'. Sounds like he's still smarting from his run-in with You Tube.

Future plans? Viacom intent to invest 'hundreds of millions of dollars' in games.

STOP PRESS: Even as I was posting this, my ever-vigilant chum, Troy, mailed me to say that Viacom and a string of other Big Name Broadcasters have agreed on guidelines in order to protect copyright online. Notably absent, the WSJ article points out, are are our chums, Google.

Essentials at Web 2.0 summit No. 3

Gadgets. A lot of iPhones and Crackberries. About a 50/50 split of Macs and PCs. And when you look around at how folk are welded to their various devices, you realise that multi-tasking is probably being raised to whole new level. I even spotted some people writing. On paper. Whoah...

Another random stat for you. Look hard at this picture. If you look really carefully you'll see a lady skulking among the palms. As Meg Whitman of eBay pointed out, men outnumber women at this conference by a factor of about 9 to 1. And this photo proves it.

Essentials at Web 2.0 summit No. 2

Snacks. You really could eat and drink all day here if you wanted, and if, like me, you had positioned yourself next to the baked goods table. There are scones, muffins, fruit, coffee, tea, drinks - and that's just in THIS room. Lunchtime brings picnic bags which have sandwich wraps the size of small rugby balls which you struggle to a) get your mouth around and b) finish. Oh, and crisps, fruit and a small salad.

Powerpoint at speed

One of the highlights of this conference for me is Mary Meeker, who leads Morgan Stanley's Global Research team. She has some great and really sound insights into market trends in new media across the world.

However, NO ONE presents as speedily as Mary does. 48 slides in 15 minutes. Phew. Rather than try and take notes as fast as Mary speaks, I’ll shall direct you here. It’s good stuff – go look.

I'm not sure how she'd respond to my boss, Ken MacQuarrie's rule for powerpoint though. Three numbers - 10, 20, 30. Never more than 10 slides, lasting no longer than 20 minutes and never use a font size less than 30. Something of a challenge but a good discipline...

Essentials at Web 2.0 summit No. 1

Power. Not the kind wielded by Rupert or Steve or Mark, but voltage.

I prefer to follow the sessions here from the Nokia lounge, not the Grand Ballroom where you're crammed in like sardines and can't get wifi through the 2-foot thick marble walls. No, up here there are tables, sofas and better lighting. And four out of five delegates are using their laptops as I type, blogging, doing mails, reading other blogs on this event or uploading pictures to Flickr.

When you see someone coming into the room, they don't look for a spare seat immediately, nor even scope out the range of snacks on offer (see later post up) but they scan the skirting board or the carpet or under the table looking for elusive powerpoints so that they can work all day without the little red battery light beginning to flash. Once you're plugged in, you're set for the day. And you guard your spot with your life.

A shiny new thing


18102007077.jpg
Originally uploaded by Blue Blanket
Nokia have a big presence here and I met a really nice product manager in multimedia, Chris Bouret, who demo-ed the new N810. While not specifically targeting the iPhone, it's similar in its wifi capability and touch screen. I liked it. Though don't expect it will be on offer from BBC Technology for about a decade.

The Mark and John Show

Big intro from John Battelle and Tim O’Reilly at the start of the afternoon, riffing on what was to come over the next few days. Yeah. We can read the programme in the glossy brochure - let’s get started already.

First up: Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook.

Okay, so he’s about twelve and a half. And talks like one too, in his cute little Adidas flip-flops, while cleverly deflecting the opening question from John Battelle about how much he was to sell Facebook for.

Mark talked a bit about the social graph – the set of friends and acquaintances everyone has and how Facebook tries to map this so that individuals can showcase themselves and their friends through a series of applications. It’s all about connections, he says, and how we use our social networks to gather information. It’s no longer about huge mainstream media companies disseminating news, it’s about social groupings sharing stuff together.

John asked a question about privacy and security on Facebook. Zuckerberg said that there is an interesting ‘interplay’ between privacy and how much information people want to share. Most folk would rather share stuff, than keep it private, he thinks. A few years ago, people wouldn’t even share their first and last name on the web. Now it’s much less of an issue. And if you modify your privacy settings, you’ll find that there are varying levels of information-sharing, because you won’t automatically be publishing it to 45 million Facebook users, just the ones you choose to within your network(s).

And then, after a series of questions from the floor, did the persisent Mr Battelle not ask the cute Facebook moppet the killer question? Had he considered bringing in a web veteran to help run the company like Sergey Brin and Larry Page did with Eric Schmidt over at Google? Actually, he used the more patronising term 'grown-up'. Mark looked perplexed. ‘Er.. no’, he answered. ‘I think we’ve got a good team, that’s what works for us’. Good answer, Mr Z.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

On the edge

Thriving on the web's edge was the topic of the last workshop this morning, with panelists from My Space and Veoh. The bulk of the session was very technical and skewed towards business infrastructure issues but there were some headlines which were interesting from the point of view of usage in video on-demand and how two hugely successful - and recent - start-ups developed and thrived so quickly.

William Wohnoutka from Level 3 hosted the session and started out with some insights on usage:

International internet traffic grew 57% from mid-2006 to mid-2007 and it's expected to double every two years to 2011.

What drives this traffic increase? Compelling content + more choice = massive growth.

This causes all kinds of challenges vis a vis infrastructure spend.

Aber Whitcomb, CTO, My Space:

Went up against Friendster and developed My Space in about a month. Thought they could manage it with about ten guys. Early approach very reactive - break, fix, break fix. Simple architecture and simple org chart.

As My Space grew rapidly, they had to re-architect as they went and be more proactive in their business style. They learned to build things for themselves and keeping the site up and running was more important than cost-savings. And, in doing this, Aber claims they never had to sacrifice performance in favour of cost efficiencies.

As the service has matured, policy and procedure have become more important. There are now around 400 folk in their technology operations alone.

They have spun off other groupings like mobile, international, new products, infrastructure etc

Lessons learned?

Get a product out fast, fix it later and take advice from users.

Looking to the future?

UGC creates a long tail effect which has implications for storage

New formats - especially in video - are things to watch

Dave Burkhardt, VP Operations, Veoh:

Video is - or will be - hosted everywhere. These causes a plethora of choice for consumers and makes for a confused marketplace.

New formats - especially in video - are things to watch

Veoh gone from being in the top 1000 to top 30 most visited websites, with 15% month on month growth.

Advice: bad habits are hard to break so implement processes early on to save headaches later.

Crystal ball-gazing? By 2010, 99% of all internet traffic will be video.

Workshop central


17102007170
Originally uploaded by Blue Blanket
It's the first morning of the Summit and, up until lunchtime, there are a range of workshops available. With a choice of seven in each block, it's hard to decide which ones to go for. Having sat through a product pitch for a web 2.0 diary/planner app earlier, I'm now swithering between 'Web Two Point No: And you thought Microsoft was Bad' (good provocative title) and 'Sipping from the Search Firehose' (which sounds rather unsanitary).

Meanwhile I have had my first experience of Microsoft Silverlight with the conference mash-up which is on the plasma screens all over the place. It's a bit clunky and some of their spelling leaves something to be desired but I'm going to see how it evolves over the next few days.

Oh, and won't the conference bag be great for the beach?

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Just noodling about...


In a fascinating San Francisco Chronicle article this morning, I read how Current TV (that's Al Gore's tv/web UGC hybrid) is bidding for the elusive C word - convergence - by challenging users to deliver 'assignments' to the website which may or may not end up on TV. Because, in case we didn't already know this, apparently 70% of 18-34 year olds are watching tv and 'noodling about' on their laptops at the same time. Those pesky kids.

I initially typed in 'viewers' there but that's exactly the nub of the issue - how do you combine the two so that your users become viewers - and vice versa. Confusing, isn't it? And I'm not even going to irritate you by calling them 'viewsers'...

So, TV execs throw down the creative gauntlet by asking folk to post videos on themes like 'Some companies are paying their workers to get fit' (I wish...) or 'Do you live in a megacity?'. Having broadcast - or posted - the films they like, they hope to get a conversation going around that content.

According to one of Current's co-founders, Joel Hyatt, 'The magic of the internet isn't that you can watch "Desperate Housewives" on it. It is that this is where you can engage and interact and build community and influence'.

The network's internal studies show that the average viewer to the channel watches 7.5 hours per week. Which isn't bad in amongst the hundreds of channels available on cable in the US.

What isn't clear, though, is whether those viewers are in the target age range. Because, as we all know, just creating content on a platform we know kids consume, does not mean they'll want it. The stuff has to be worth the effort to come and find...

Monday, October 15, 2007

Ligger alert!

Apparently, there are some unscrupulous internet entrepreneurs out there who'll try anything to get access to the Rich and the Powerful at the Web 2.0 Summit this week. I mean, they won't even pay the entry fee to the conference or get themselves 'invited'. All to press business cards on folk and get a free cookie. Tsk, tsk.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

The Three Cs

I gave a lecture at the University of Abertay, Dundee, on Thursday night about how the web and audience behaviour are changing. It was to a mixed crowd – students from the University’s School of Computing and Creative Technologies,colleagues from the BBC and friends and family – and I rather enjoyed it. Even though there were some in the audience - mainly my older relatives - who were more there to watch me strut about in my academic gown, than listen to my views on the state of the wired world...

In looking at the differences between web 1.0 and web 2.0, I had a wander down memory lane, reminiscing about my first experiences of the internet and came up to date with a look at the BBC’s iPlayer (which comes out of beta on 1 December) and some rather funny mash-ups from You Tube.

One of the ways, I chose to describe what web 2.0 has become is by using the three Cs – control, create and connect.

Control what you watch or listen to – and when you want it. Sometimes legally - and by paying - sometimes not.

Create content – from photos on Flickr to mash-ups on You Tube. The ability to broadcast is no longer restricted to the big boys like the BBC.

Connect with people in social networking environments which become part of your daily routine online.

The fourth C - for us in mainstream media at any rate - is the challenge of building these audience behaviours into what we do, in a period of shrinking budgets and political challenge. We live in interesting times...

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Let's go, Web 2! Let's go!

I found a site, via the wonders of Facebook, which is now a favourite and appears on my Blogroll regularly. It's a great primer for what web 2.0 may or may not mean - a directory of sites which all claim to be web 2.0 in look, feel or aim.

It's quite clear, looking at them, that they fall broadly into services where you can publish or share video, photos, blogs, personal details, friends, community information etc etc. You wonder how many You Tube, Flickr, Facebook wannabes can come along which will really give the Big Boys a run for their money...