Participatory culture, the things we create have magic powers

crafter, higres version
From: pt's photstream>

The things that people have made themselves have magic powers. They have hidden meaning's that others can't see.

This from a craft makers manifesto posted by Phil torrone on his Flickr feed, but it bears some strong parrellels to not only why we make crafts, but also media, and why not why we create and develop software. In fact anyone with a creative bone in their body will recognize the points here.

We are all makers. We're all creators. It's not just the story of crafts. It's the story of media makers as well... and not just media makers... but the makers of software and webservices that make the media making possible. But I am being redundant. :)

Majick!

A Charlie Brown Christmas Remix

I'm flumuxed by this enigma. A remix of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" with a new script and voice overs by the cast of the television show "Scrubs". I don't have the backstory of this posting yet. I don't see how the Scrubs crew could have gotten permission for the Peanuts gang, but the production quality is high I'm guessing it must have been done as some sort of in-house christmas video card, now leeked onto the web. Reminds me of the christmas video that led to the creation of the TV show South Park.

Watch movie (53 MB, 9.3 min)

Original post on December 14, 2006 from Film Threat: (RSS feed)

Former "Scrubs" production assistant Ryan A. Levin presents the Charlie Brown classic, as re-dubbed by the cast of "Scrubs"...

(Via Mefeedia)

Lip Dubbing: Endless Dream from Jakob Lodwick

A fun suggestion to videobloggers everywhere. Record yourself while walking along singing or lip-singing to your favorite song on your iPod. When you get home redub the acutal mp3 of the song over the video of yourself. Post it to your vlog and be sure to tag it "lipdubbing".

Enjoy: Watch movie

Original post on December 14, 2006 from Vimeo / mmeiser's contacts' video clips: (RSS feed)

From jakob:I walked around with a song playing in my headphones, and recorded myself singing. When I got home I opened it in iMovie and added an MP3 of the actual song, and synchronized it with my video. Is there a name for this? If not, I suggest 'lip dubbing'. Music by Apes + Androids http://apesandandroids.com

(Via Mefeedia)

Martin Scorsese's Sesame Streets

Watch movie (5.3 MB, 1.9 min)

Original post on December 12, 2006 from Vlog of the Day: (RSS feed)

Sesame Street will never be the same after this mashup trailor. Mason Dixon's notes: This should be shown in editing classes. Every shot is recontextualized according to the codes of filmic reality. Robert Dinero in Martin Scorsese's Sesame Streets from Apollo Pony

(Via Mefeedia)

vlogosphere needs more independant verification

From: Frank Barnako: Technorati follow-up

Technorati?s doing the best it can. While Google Analytics (GOOG), Alexa, Podtrac, Feedburner ? the list goes on ? each have their own technologies and are also making efforts to measure what?s going on. Which convinces me there is a huge opportunity for somebody to wrestle this metric reporting monster to the ground. While Nielsen/NetRatings (NTRT) and ComScore have rocket scientists working on Web traffic tools, features like RSS and podcasts and blogs have exploded. And there appears to be no third-party, verifiable resource for measuring them all. Yet.

I've been saying this about the videobloging space in particular for a long time.

Needs more independant data veritification and ratings companies.

Speaking purely from a business sense if you want a marketplace to evolve, say an advertising marketplace, you're going to need more than just a technoratti rating, or some unverified traffic stats.

There is a limit - using obtuse technological means to solve sociological issues

From: Good Experience - How (not) to prevent people from using bus lanes



This video is hilarious. It should have simply been entitled "DRM", for this is the perfect metaphor for what DRM is. All to often we think technological means can solve sociological issues... when often the technology is completely clumsy, poorly executed, and quite simple obtuse.

The world is not a perfect place, there are exceptions to every rule, life and society will always be messy... there will always be some spam... there will always be some theft. There are no "perfect solutions"... there is only prevention, deterrence and an increased understanding of social engineering.

I find it fascinating that we look endlessly for solutions to sociological issues in technology.

The problems in the IP world are not technological ones, they are due arrogance, greed, complacency and just plain laziness. The culmination of 10+ years of complacency in the music industry. Music executives and media makers at large companies just find it easier to label their customers as criminals and treat them as criminals then to actually trusts them and try to understand them.

As is often said it's easier to hire lawyers then it is to spend money on R&D.

So, with a little innovation and a whole lot of evilness apple now has something like 75% of all online music sales. Why? The music industry created it's own tyrant. They literally handed apple the keys. It's freaking hilarious. Nice job music industry.

And yet... the music industry is no closer to having an open and competitive music market.

The real innovation is happening away from the ball.

The only other music label with any major market share is eMusic with about 10% of digital music sales. How do they do it? While eMusic is not perfect... essentially requiring a stupid monthly service fee instead of allowing people to openly buy music with a simple credit card as they need it... they do do one thing right. They sell unprotected mp3s that will work on the iPod or indeed ANY music player.

I'm torn, because on the one hand I want for these record labels to get a clue, but on the other hand...

Because all these idiotic mainstream labels are standing on the sidelines this has created huge opportunities for independent labels, musicians, and distributors as represented by CD Baby, eMusic, and above all so called "podsafe music", which is music with a simple liberal copyright license, aka. copy-left license such as those from the Creative Commons.

For all these fine institutions have done nothing has done more than the failures of the mainstream media's own endeavors.

Specifically the failure of products like Microsoft's Plays-for-sure DRM, the Zune and the iTunes music store. They have become proofs and vindication for anti-DRM advocates.

1) Plays-for-sure, Microsoft's proposed standard, because of it's complete failure... and the fact that it has become synonymous with 'plays for shit'... not only does it not play on the majority of mp3 players out there, but Microsoft themselves have abandoned it on their latest attempt at competing with the iPod, the Zune.

2) The zune, because of it's notoriety for being completely anti-consumer and obtuse.

and

3) the iPod/iTunes combo because it has created a gigantic monopoly that benefits no-one at all but Apple.

In conclusion...

The solution is sociological not technological.

The inherent flaw in youtube

From: BBC NEWS | Entertainment | The first superstars of web TV

Internet video is coming of age, with the best amateur film-makers attracting millions of online viewers.

Two of the web's hottest film-making teams have made videos for the BBC News website, talking about what they do and where they think it will lead.

SMOSH

Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla are two 19-year-old college students from Carmichael, California.

They are also two of the biggest stars on YouTube, where they go under the name of Smosh.

They started by filming a spoof music video for the Pokemon theme tune, which is now YouTube's second-most watched clip of all time, with 17 million views.

They have since branched out into their own comedy sketches, which have established the pair as firm favourites among the online video audience.

So where's the problem you ask.

1) Money Ian and Anthony have made of youtube: $0

2) Money Ian and Anthony can potentially make of youtube: $0

3) Money youtube has made of just one of Ian and Anthony's videos given 17 million page views and a conservative $5 CPM for all the ads and related traffic. $90k

4) Money google paid for youtube and needs to be made back before youtube can become a profitable enterprise for google: $1.6 billion

So... What does happen when all the stars of youtube wake up and start realizing that youtube is making hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars off of them and not sharing a penny and they have no mechanisms for making a profit or experimentation?

Provided google does start a revenue share, whatkind of percentage do you think these youtube stars are going to get? 5% mayb 50% even?

It all boils down to this.

No matter what google offers them the stars of youtube are going to wake up and realize thay can make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year if they migrate their fan base away from youtube onto an open vlog where they can place advertisements, or do paid subscription... or sell DVD's and merchandise or anything they damn well want, and take home 95% of the profits.

As they say, easy come, easy go.

Dare I say it?

Yes, I day say it.

Youtube is a fad.

One HELL of a fad, yes, but definitely a fad.

That google bought it will give it some staying power and longevity, but the masses are VERY fickle.

I think we're likely to see the migration away from Youtube over the coming years starting with the best and brightest stars that bring them the most traffic unless youtube offers them some serious revenue share AND... youtube must open up to the great world of iPod's, PSP's, and other portable media players and video podcasting which is going to increasingly threaten it's closed business model of web only video.

I speak of no killer app, and I speak of no rapid decline in youtube. All I say is this. Remember mp3.com. Yeah? Well that's youtube five years from now if google isn't very careful about taking the culture of creatures on youtube and turning disenfranchising it by treating it like a culture of consumers whose eyeballs are available to the highest bidder.

Audiences are no longer captive. They owe no loyalty to even the most hard core social networking sites as Orkut, Friendster and many, many others have found out.

This generation is increasingly savy, they get while the getting is good and move along. Youtube is to rigid of a playground, too much of a clay sandbox for the best and brightest of video producers.

Increasingly I'm find more and more of my favorite video makers have started their own domain, their own brand, and their own video blog... and they're using youtube the way traditional media companies are using youtube... purely for product marketing.

MobuzzTV got Hacked

Not many details, but a reminder that all is not always a hug fest in vloglandia. Mobuzztv.com got on the 9th. They were back up the next day to leave this brief video message, but have not posted a new video as of this posting. :(

In Anil's own words in the comments.

"They wiped the server, destroying everything. No message left.."

I just want to give them a shout out and say, I miss you guys. Get well soon.

(big group hug)

:)

Re: MobuzzTV Vlog: We got Hacked?

Hopefully they'll get some PR out of this and rebound quickly do to RSS subscriptions keeping them connected.

I'll try to follow up when they post their next video.

Rocketboom's Congdon Headed for HBO Comedy

Big news. Congratulations Amanda!

I hope Amanda won't forget about vlogging... and that HBO will find some great ways to bring Amanda back to the videoblogging world.

From: Rocketboom's Congdon Headed for HBO Comedy

Amanda Congdon, co-founder and former host of the comedy video blog Rocketboom.com, is developing a comedy program for HBO.

Details of the project are still being hammered out, but Congdon said she's aiming for a multiplatform property that will be integrated with original video content online. She intends to write and star in the series.

'HBO is exactly the place where I want to be,' Congdon said. 'I'm most interested in playing in that new dimension with two parallel levels of programming, online and on TV.'

Congdon has worked as an actor onstage and in commercials. She remains an owner of Rocketboom but is now concentrating on the HBO project and her www.amandaacrossamerica.com video blog. That project, chronicling her cross-country trek, revolves around environmental issues and is sponsored by the National Resources Defense Council, Environmental Countdown and Ford Motor Co. She recently signed with Endeavor for representation.

The opensource wikitchen (wiki kitchen)

I've seen the future and it is web3.0. Open source, wikis and social media are starting to have revolutionary implications in the real world.

Zkmiec-TheWikiTchen842.mp4

From: mmmff: WikiTchen

Crowdfunding / people-powered film / community driven financing

Regarding His Fans Greenlight the Project, Robert Greenwald Tapped a New Funding Source: The Audience
by William Booth, Washington Post, Sunday, August 20, 2006

From: NETRIBUTION - People-powered film financing raises $267,000 from 4 emails in 9 days

Adam P Davies and I have recently begun work on a new film funding book - an update to the One With The Pig on the Front. One of the things I'm most interested in this time round, following on from the Cluetrain stuff, is community-driven financing, and in particular how filmmakers who communicate directly with their audience online can bypass conventional sales and financing methods to some extent.

Tell me if this isn't what videoblogging is all about.

Well Robert Greenwald, who Stephen Applebaum interviewed for his Wal Mart documentary earlier this year, recently completed Iraq for Sale which gets a showing at the Leeds Film Festival next week. Struggling to complete the finance on the film, with producer Jim
Gillam, Greenwald emailed everyone who had previously bought copies of the film. Four emails and nine days
later, just over 3000 people had raised more than $267,000, which in
turn released another conditional $100,000 from a philanthropist. Film financed, industry reinvented, job done. I hope to case study this in full in the book, but meantime, here's a Wall Street Journal article telling more.

From Michael Sullivan Crowdfunding.com | People-powered film funding

This article was brought to my attention tonight and it's a GREAT example of Crowdfunding.

Smart use of the Internet to raise money!

Four emails and nine days later, just over 3000 people had raised more than $267,000

Call it community driven financing, crowdfunding, people-powered film or whatever you like but we're starting to see a repetive theme where a whole industry of middle men are being bypassed... where the audience and the artists are connecting directly to fund projects in art, music, film and media.

Read more about Crowdfunding on Wikipedia.

St. Louis & Detroit take #1 & #2, America's most-dangerous cities

From: Annual study of crime lists St. Louis as America's most-dangerous; Detroit 2nd | Chicago Tribune:

Days after the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series, their hometown jumped to first place on a list no one wants to lead: the most dangerous cities in the United States.

The ranking was being released Monday by Morgan Quitno Press, a private research and publishing company specializing in state and city reference books. Violent crime surged nearly 20 percent there from 2004 to last year, according to FBI figures released in June.

Is there some correlation between the baseball & violent crime?

Obviously not, but I remember the riots in 1984 after the Tigers won it.

Tried hitting Morgan Quitno Press's website, just appears to be down.

'Web 2.0', a 'viral video'

I'm so sick of the terms and even the very idea of 'web 2.0' and 'viral media' of course I had to post this viral video about web 2.0. :)

Watch movie

Original post on October 23, 2006 from No fat clips!!!: (RSS feed)

A little something you have probably seen before, as it won at The First Post Viral Competition. But if didn't, this is the right time!It shows a very interactive computer system, a kind of interactivity that goes beyond virtuality.The short has been directed by Leo Bridle and Leo Powell. The music was composed by Tom Rubira.Neither of the directors has had any formal training to date although both did Art foundation courses at Winchester School of Art in 2005. This autumn, Leo Bridle goes to Bournemouth Arts Institute to study animation while Leo Powell will study Fine Art at the University of East London. (Source: The First Post)P.S. Ok, there were a money prize but also, the winners "will be shown on a number of online entertainment websites including YouTube.com".

(Via Mefeedia)

Can Ask A Ninja make $50-100k a month?

From: Ask a Ninja' visits Madison Avenue - MarketWatch

The two funny guys behind 'Ask a Ninja' are asking serious money for advertisements placed in their podcast.

Douglas Saline and Kent Nichols are pricing their five-minute episodes at a CPM of $50. They told Advertising Age they get 1 million to 2 million views a month, which could mean a price of $50,000 to $100,000 per show. Saline and Nichols were in New York last week to pitch the show to marketers.

Mark McCrery, CEO of Podtrac, the Ninja ad-rep firm, says the pricing is justified by Ninja's audience: 57% between 19 and 34, and 83% male.

There have been 47 episodes of 'Ask a Ninja' since the series got started about a year ago. The venture began after the Saline and Nichols failed to sell a Ninja movie script and decided to try something on their own. It clicked. (Apology for the pun.)

Fans were not pleased with the Ninja decision to take advertising. 'Presenters' get a graphic at the start of the show and a 10- or 15-second scripted segment at the end, with the Ninja endorsing the product. Advertisers have included Sony Pictures and Warner Brothers.

There are other sources of revenue: 'Premium' members pay $12 to $15 a year and get access to shows a few days before they're posted on the Web. The Ninja show's theme song can be purchased as a ring tone. And the Ninja Mart Store sells $20 caps and $16 T-shirts.

'We're just a couple of funny guys trying to pay our bills,' according to the site. 'Bills that are in the tens of thousands of dollars. We don't want to rip anyone off, and we don't want to go broke doing this either.'

First note Ask A Ninja's business plan

1) advertising

2) paid annual subscriptions

3) merchandising

Second... not merchandising as Ask A Ninja is quoted as doing here has been around on vlogs for years... sell some hats, t-shirts and coffee mugs... if you've got a great brand like Ask A Ninja it's a piece of cake.

What's new here is a) advertisting which I'll get into in a second, and b) paid subscriptions.

Paid subscriptions first. It may not be the best model for them and it's still VERY experimental in the video podcasting space. In short I know NOONE doing it yet... and yet I think Ask A Ninja is right to dive into it and include it in their business plan. It's a good experiment.

Now then!

Let's get down to this crazy specs on advertising

1 - 2 million monthly views X $50 CPM = $50-100k/mo

For those of you who don't know CPM is an online advertising term "Cost Per Thousand Impressions" In this case those impressions are pre-roll ads I assume 15-30 seconds on the front of every Ask A Ninja episodes.

So can Ask A Nija really make $50-100k a month?

First... I don't question that Ask A Ninja is getting 1 to 2 million video views a month. It's a very realistic number given my experience with other vlogs.

The real question therefore is can they effectively transfer that ALL to ad views and is a $50 CPM ($50 per 1000 views) a realistic target.

Well... Ask A Nija actually quoted a $50 CPM... but this is quite high. I'm guessing they're NOT making this kind of money on EVERY ad view. I'm betting to some degree they're bragging about their upper limit... and rightfully so... nothing attracts advertisers and gets them to chuck up the big bucks like showing off your biggest brightest tail feathers.

That said... irregardless of wether Ask A ninja is making $50k or $100k a month or just $20k a month we're talking 2-3 guys working out of their basement! They're succeeding... and this is only the start... in the next couple years this industry is going to explode... and they're going to be more and more advertisers competing for premium video and audio podcasts... whomever can come out on the top of the barrel is going to make tremendous money. Right now I think Ask A Ninja is right where they need to be... as is Rocketboom and Ze Frank.

We're at the start of a new industry. A whole new sector for advertising.

What we need now is a Billboard 100 of sorts for various facets of video podcasting, audio podcasting, podsafe music... some industry rags... some groups competing to be the Nielson's ratings of this space to veryify and standardize how numbers like Ask A Nija's are tabulated... so advertisers don't have to gamble on wether they're closer to 1 million or 2 million.

And let's not forget advertising ISN't the end all be all... protect your intellectual property people.

Build brand and idenity... trademark it... merchandise it... later maybe you can licensce for who knows what.

Right now if you've got the talent the sky is the limit. The playingfield is level. You can do all the same thing as big media players.

licensce it

syndicate it

advertise on it

sell it

And most importantly of all make sure you realize that 95% of vlogs and audio podcasts will never monetize like this because Ask A Ninja is ENTERTAINMENT... and while that's funa and all the other 95% of vlogs and podcasts are merely COMMUNICATIONS.

Just like blogs before them 95% of all video blogs and audio podcasts will be closer to telephones than they are newspapers, TV shows and such... this is to say... they are interpersonal communications... that JUST so happen to be public... just because you're communicating in public... standing on a soap box or not... doesn't mean you're a movie star people... know the difference and by all means REVEL in your new found freedoms and encourage others to participate... but don't mistake these completely new media and your place in them for something they are not. This little evilution isn't about entertainment and news... it's about everday communications.

"The film of tomorrow will resemble the person who made it, and the number of spectators will be proportional to the number of friends the director has."

Truffaut saw almost 50 years ago the future of the moving image would be one day belong to everyday people... and the audience would find these everday moments interesting because they would be the creators friends, family and peers.

This is precisely what we're sing on services like youtube... once you get past the "viral videos" and the spectacle of it... you'll realize it's just people sharing little everday pieces of their life with friends, and peers around the world. Not entertainment... just communications. Youtube is more akin to what people one day envisioned as videoconferencing than it is TV or movies. It's like a big video conference party line... with an open ended timeline.

Most of it has very little to do with where Ask A NIja is going and that's great and fine and dandy.

What you thought everyone was going to be a TV star?

Ha!

YouTube turns over user data to Viacom's Paramount Pictures

From: YouTube turned over user data to media firm lawyers - MarketWatch

On May 24, lawyers for Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures convinced a federal judge in San Francisco to issue a subpoena requiring YouTube to turn over details about a user who uploaded dialog from the movie studio's 'Twin Towers,' according to a copy of the document.

YouTube promptly handed over the data to Paramount, which on June 16 sued the creator of the 12-minute clip, New York City-based filmmaker Chris Moukarbel, for copyright infringement, in federal court in Washington.

That YouTube chose to turn over the data, rather than simply remove the offending video from its site -- as it did Friday when it agreed to take down 30,000 videos at the request of a group of Japanese media companies -- came as a surprise to copyright experts.

The video in question was a student created film with student actors. Based on a segment of script from the movie "twin towers".

Bravo Youtube. Bravo Viacom / Paramount.

Without your bold and heavy handed moves Twin Towers would have had serious box office setbacks as it hits the theatres.

What's more youtubers and bloggers everywhere will cherish and praise your good names.

And meanwhile millions of copies of pirated versions of Twin Towers will flow out of manufacturing facilities and across P2P networks world wide.

But you've shut down one student filmaker, Chris Moukarbel, whom dared to make his own homage to your film.

Way to kick some fan ass.

Money well spent. Bravo.



Again... this was in May. Youtube is just f*cked.