What a difference a year makes. The U.S. may now matter in two global sports that in years recent, we were an afterthought. Favre Gate of ‘08 is now mere nuisance and the NBA is filled with Conference altering changes. I also no longer loath the month of July as its significance in the sports landscape is quite plentiful.
I have been quiet on this site for exactly two months. This is to long for something meaningful not to result from my absence. Today is a very important date. It is the day I made steps to seriously pursue a passion, a direction. Today I began developing a site, and similar to GDGT it will be a least a few months before it is fully unveiled. July is an exciting month. Happy Birthday America.
GOOAAALLLL! That is right. Its summer so it is time to discuss elite soccer again. For 45 minutes, a full half, U.S. soccer was on top of the world. The Confederations Cup saw the U.S. leading Brazil 2-o, unfortunately the game ended 3-2 in favor of the South American power house. Brazil winning the Confederations Cup was not unexpected. The U.S. playing in the final and competing drew comparisons for many to the Miracle on Ice. While in no way does the Confederations Cup have similar importance to the Olympics, this would have been an unprecedented milestone in American soccer. Even with the loss, it represents the first time the U.S. competed in the final for a significant global soccer championship. World Cup ‘10, yeah U.S. soccer, you have piqued my interest.
The NBA Draft. Where to begin. Blake Griffin was selected first in the Draft. The Timberwolves selected three point guards while still having Sebastian Telfair under contract. There is a reason some teams stay in the gutter. You heard it here- some where between first and last – Ricky Rubio will never play for Minnesota. Perhaps because some have suggested comparisons to Iverson, I am hoping for great things from Milwaukee’s Brandon Jennings. Here is a great counter criticism post regarding his recent trials.Oh yeah, inexplicably, the Spurs some how landed DeJuan Blair at pick 37. There is a reason some teams always compete for a Championship.
Wimbledon. In Ladies singles, as anticipated, the Williams sisters will compete head to head yet again for Grand Slam title. The title game is on the 4th of July no less. Its America’s little way of reminding the British about a document we like to call the Declaration of Independence. The Gentlemen’s Singles final is a bit of a different story. American born Andy Roddick will face off against Roger Federer, winner of 14 Grand Slam titles. This is not the match the tennis world was expecting or possibly hoping for. Today Roddick took down Britain’s Andy Murray. I will not lie – a piece of me was rooting for Murray after watching the Hope of Dunblane, but I have moved on. Hopefully Roddick can bring relevance again to U.S. Men’s tennis this weekend.
Approaching the midpoint of 2009, the worldwide econalypse is in full effect. The close of April ushered in an 8.9 percent jobless rate in the U.S., which is believed to be at a 25 year high and now articles highlighting the worst hit cities are beginning to appear. This post is not about what is failing, but instead the new ideas, innovations and interesting developments rising out of the econalypse. It is not exhaustive, but it hopefully will unearth exciting and different ideas that could lead to a thriving 2010.
The genesis of this topic came from Po Bronson’s What Should I Do with My Life, Now? article and the Editor’s Letter in the February 2009 Fast Company. The final motivational push came from the 2009 Fast Cities special section that focuses on cities with an eye to a better more efficient and socially beneficial future.
Infamously, “The Video” from October ‘08 is now considered the marker for the end of Web 2.0. A staple of the era was the RSS Reader, however this past week Slate discussed how the advancements in browsers have surpassed the once celebrated efficiency of RSS Readers that perhaps have now arrived at their extinction. The ability to load multiple sites in their native design through tabbed browsing is subtly groundbreaking. Browsers are rendering sites faster and it eliminates the ”other inbox” that could grow unwieldy in only a few hours depending on the number of subscribed feeds. The browser is quickly graduating from a tool to access the Internet to the program that runs every computing activity. Pundits have suggested it is the new Operating System, while this shows a misunderstanding of the functions of an OS it does highlight the direction we are heading.
Online Search is an emphasis of Connected and like a slow rising tide, the landscape, expectations and definition of Search is gradually and most assuredly changing. For several years Google has dominated search through its superior keyword search algorithm. Semantic search is the holy grail of search, and similarly to the cup of life, we have yet to uncover and unleash its power. In the place of semantic search we have seen an explosion in social search. Mahalo had been the leader with its human-powered search engine that displayed results based on user input, but Web 2.0 social search was a clear second to Google. What if people could ask questions and search for information in real time with a global network? This is precisely where microblogging technologies like Twitter excel, however Aardvark may prove to be the technology that takes social search beyond the limitations of keyword search. Unable to improve upon what former colleague Fernando Rizo has already written on the topic, check out this analysis on what Aardvark and similar technologies will do to the world of search.
WebTV and online distribution of video has been a primary recent focus of Connected. Through excellent journalism and activism, Time Warner Cable abandoned its test of broadband data caps. Continued reporting that unearthed the economic fallacy that ISPs have attempted to use to rationalize data caps and metered billing will hopefully maintain net neutrality. This is a necessity for WebTV as big name players such as Amazon and Hulu continue to make legal, high quality content available to consumers. Original Webseries also continue to find a place in the growing WebTV space. A few recent top examples include:
Finally, the process of creating video is now a full fledged passion and recently I learned about tilt-shifting photography and video. This is an amazing example of Creative innovation:
This post is not necessarily about the NCAA Men’s basketball tournament or sports in general. It is about how the internet and webtv is impacting sports and the U.S. culture. March Madness has been a major event for a while now, but the internet has taken it to a completely new level of intrigue and accessibility. It is officially a mid March national institution.
A few years ago, options at the office for following the start of the tournament were limited. You could check score updates online, listen to games on the radio (broadcast or streaming) or take a long lunch. Last year CBSSports.com and NCAASports.com changed everything by providing good quality live streaming video for free. A quote this past week from the USA Today article helps highlight the magnitude:
Last March, 92% of the viewers that watched games at NCAASports.com did so through work computers, according to Nielsen Online. It’s tough to tell how “March Madness” affects workplace productivity. Employment consulting firm Challenger Gray & Christmas has made varying estimates since 2002. Last year, it said that NCAA-watching could cost employers as much as $1.7 billion in wasted time. – USA Today
Through the first three days of the tournament CBSSports.com received 4.8 million unique visitors, which represents a 65 percent increase compared to 2008. Another interesting statistic is the nearly half of the video streams are through the high-quality HD option provided through Microsoft’s Silverlight player. Silverlight was also used by NBC for the 2008 Summer Olympics, a relationship that has been extended to the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Putting aside network congestion, it is of little consequence how many individuals watched HD video on their office computer this past week. The significance is that there is scalable, reliable technology that allows for HD live streaming of sports games. By connecting a computer with internet access to a HD TV, March Madness fans can watch any live game in its entirety instead of being limited to the feed from their local CBS station. CBS does a fantastic job staggering games and ensuring viewers see the most exciting action, however giving viewers the ability to choose the game they want to watch or more importantly to flip between games showed exactly what is possible with webtv. The picture quality through Silverlight was impressive and the experience was well beyond my expectations. The only limiting factor is the ISPs. I unfortunately experienced buffering issues near the end of the day today that I can only assume I have Time Warner Cable’s throttling policies to thank.
How huge would it be if this could be done for the NFL or NCAA football? I know there are On Demand options through cable and satellite providers, but what if the middle man was cut out and consumers could buy HD On Demand packages that stream over the web directly from leagues? This is where it could all get very interesting because live sports is the final frontier for webtv. Once reliable options become available, there truly will not be a need for cable.
It is hard to imagine a worse start for the new administration. With direction from President Obama, Congress in its infinite wisdom has chosen to completely unravel more than a year’s worth of work to transition the U.S. from analog to an all digital TV broadcast. Their excuse is that consumers were unprepared and confused, however the new solution is so wrought with problems that confusion will be the least or our worries.
On Feb. 17, some full-power broadcast television stations in the United States may stop broadcasting on analog airwaves and begin broadcasting only in digital. The remaining stations may stop broadcasting analog sometime between March 14 and June 12. – From DTV.gov
Thanks government, this definitely fixes the problem. The FCC has the unenviable job of determining, which stations are allowed to change over before June 12. This means instead of all stations transitioning at one time, some stations in a region will be in analog while others could be broadcasting only in digital. One wonders if this could be “confusing” for consumers.
The decision also ties into the bloated “Stimulus Bill” with $650 million allocated to the digital-converter box coupon program. This is more than half a billion to fund more coupons and marketing for the new date. For a short time last year I had a hand in the millions spent on marketing to educate the public about the transition. By moving the date back, all that taxpayer money for marketing was essentially wasted. Moreover there are significant negative economic consequences for broadcasters and other tech companies that had been preparing for the February transition. Many broadcasters will now be required to support analog for an additional four months and companies who were preparing to utilize the the newly available spectrum for new technologies will need to stand idle while the recession continues in full force. Moving the date is a colossal mistake.
Perhaps the new administration should look at technology directives that actually benefit consumers instead of fouling up a program that was in place long before it came to power. One example is the growing trend of ISPs implementing data caps and metered pricing. A recent GigaOM post describes how Time Warner, Comcast, AT&T, Charter and Frontier Communications are all either beginning to test or have rolled out capped internet access to some or all of their customers. As I have written in the past, this will hinder innovation, raise prices and place a barrier for wide adoption of webTV. President Obama has the ability to eradicate this business practice, it remains to be seen whether he will have the foresight to take on this issue or whether network neutrality’s double edged sword will be realized. Some weeks back I stated my desire to put past feelings aside and become part of the solution for change. I am still waiting for action by my government to earn my commitment to it.
After declaring bankruptcy in November, Circuit City announced that it is officially closing its doors and going out of business. Only a couple years ago companies could not grow fast enough, but now most real estate projects have been canceled, stores are closing everywhere and many retailers are in danger of succumbing to the same collapse as Circuit City. The Washington Postreports that the current economy has made restructuring company debt more difficult and that this could merely be the first wave of many U.S. business closures in 2009.
It is true that poor debt related decisions by companies several years back compounded by the current economy is the driving factor for corporate failures such as Circuit City, but I believe there is another subtle shift occurring that touches all companies regardless of their industry or their current financial standing. Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign can be summed up in one phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid.” It was simple, direct and highlighted the country’s shift in focus from foreign policy to the recession. The economy is bad, real bad, but while to some it may sound unbelievable, many companies will fall this year because they were four years late in developing a viable online business model. Predictably, “It’s the internet, stupid.”
Consumers’ desire to shop and more importantly buy at brick and mortar retailers is fading. Online retail spending dipped three percent this past holiday season, but more and more people are growing comfortable with online shopping and the superior prices found there. Specifically, electronics are a popular online purchase through sites like Amazon.com and NewEgg.com. While this is not surprising news, it is arguably the reason why Circuit City failed and why companies like Blockbuster who were slow to adapt and implement an online strategy may be on borrowed time.
It is a shame to see Circuit City go. It was where I bought my first computer, but unfortunately is where I previewed my new computer and TV before purchasing them at Newegg. For nostalgia sake, here is a memorable commercial that was probably my first exposure to “The Circuit”
The importance of true journalism is arguably on par with society’s need for government, medicine and commerce. It monitors all areas of life to ensure justice, seek out truth and serves as the gatekeeper and agenda setter for public discourse on the most important events and stories impacting the world. For me, the definition of journalism begins and ends with print media and more specifically the newspaper. The oncoming demise of the print newspaper has been predicted, discussed and analyzed, but in 2009 it will arrive. Could journalism die with its most accountable and investigative medium?
The Atlanticis one of the U.S.s oldest publications and one of the best examples of the journalism elite . Earlier this month it sent shock waves through the industry, outlining the death of the New York Times by May. This news comes alongside reports of the Los Angeles Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Chicago Tribune and Star Tribune all facing the possibility of going exclusively online or closing down completely. I lamented this trend in August and suggested the answer and revival of local dailies could be in redirecting its focus on truly being the local voice of the city in which it resides. The Atlantic proposed a similar approach, while the New York magazine wrote of hope through new media types with skill in journalism, developing and design.
Could it be enough though? Earlier this month, tech blog Gizmodo broke that Apple’s Steve Jobs would not be delivering the Macworld keynote address due to health reasons, while traditional media refuted the story, regurgitating Apple PRs explanation that is was more due to “politics than his pancreas.” Traditional media was wrong and with this misstep it fell another notch in its argument of better sources than new media journalist. I do not use the word journalist lightly. 2009 will be a historic year with the ushering in of the first African American U.S. President, the worst economic climate in more than 50 years, the demise of local print media and the resurrection of true journalism through passionate, aggressive new media bloggers.
One last thought on this topic is how citizen journalism and specifically Twitter will mix into this new journalistic environment. I agree with MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka that citizen journalism is important, but will not be the foundation for future news reporting, instead a supplement. A great example of its power is demonstrated in the reporting of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 crash this week. Here is the first photo of the story, posted through Twitter:
With each December arrives two very important yet diametrically opposed events in the sports fan’s life. The beloved college football bowl season is always coupled with strong opposition to the dastardly BCS system and intense discussion for some form of playoffs to determine the National Champion. 2008 is without a doubt the worst conclusion to the BCS since its inception. There are as many as nine teams that have a legitimate argument for playing in the title game: Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Alabama, Penn State, USC, Utah, Texas Tech and Boise State. Assuming you can put aside the discussion for a playoff system, it is incomprehensible how Texas Tech and Boise State have been left out of BCS games, while Ohio State, Cincinnati and Virgina Tech get the big pay days. In the end it is all about money.
We do not have a playoff system because the NCAA cannot figure out how to make more money from it than the current system. Cincinnati and Virgina Tech play each other because they each won their respective BCS conference. Boise State does not have that luxury and is solely dependent on an at large bid, which was given to Ohio State because their fans “travel well” meaning greater ticket sales and higher revenue for the host city. Texas Tech lost out because two Big 12 schools (Texas and Oklahoma) were already selected for BCS games. To come off as fair and prevent any one conference from receiving to large a portion of the BCS bowl revenue, the NCAA made a rule that prevents three schools from the same conference to receive BCS invitations. Texas Tech could very well be the second or third best team in the nation, but they are locked out of the BCS. NCAA – it is not about the student athlete, sports or sportsmanship – it is all about money.
This week we all learned that head to head matchups are meaningless in college football. Texas beat OU in the Red River Shootout 45-35. It was decisive and on a neutral field. Texas’ only loss came on the road, after a miracle play with 1 second left. The BCS standings are a joke. Even more amusing is reviewing each Coach’s final votes in the USA Today poll. The media could have stepped up and voted Texas over OU to cancel out the computer rankings. Its a sad day for sports. Even the AP dropped the ball. UTs only hope is for a shared AP championship, though I would not hold your breath…
Donovan McNabb. Since I am an Eagles fan, I can tell you unequivocally that he is one of the worst QBs in the league. This is due to the fact that his accuracy(not Philly’s WR play) is embarrassing for a professional. A few weeks back the Eagles tied the Bungles(Bengals) 13-13. McNabb quickly became famous afterward for declaring he did not know a regular season game could end in a tie. In a recent article Rick Reilly decided to quiz other NFL players about rules of the game. In his normal witty style, he presents the argument the McNabb may be in good company. This still does not alleviate my displeasure with McNabb as my team’s starting QB.
Joey Porter. You have to respect players that can intelligently address a topic and not provide the pre approved statements given by their PR staff. Last week Plaxico Burress accidentally shot himself in a club with a unlicensed gun he was carrying for protection. Since then he has be attacked and labeled an example of what is wrong with today’s professional athlete. Today Porter spoke back, “Everybody has their mistakes, but that’s exactly what they are … Until you’ve been in that situation, when you’ve been robbed at gunpoint or you’ve had a gun waved in your face or had your house broken into before or been carjacked, you really don’t know what it’s like. For a person to carry a gun, I mean, you’re not carrying a gun to show that ‘I’m tough.’ It’s safety, it’s nothing but safety. They’re making [Burress] out to be such a bad guy but you look at all the guys that’s been robbed this year, all the home invasions, all the guys that’s been shot, like Collier, look how many times he got shot. I’ve had my house broken into before … I know Plax had been robbed before … But it’s tough for us to say we’re professional athletes so we’re not supposed to protect ourselves.” Here is a strong article on fear many athletes still have following the horrific death of Sean Taylor titled Living Scared.
Lastly, this week is the Jimmy V Classic. I wanted to honor that with his famous speech at the 1993 ESPY Awards. “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up.”
If you read a fair amount about new media and specifically web video distribution, you will come across two terms that seem nearly synonymous – IPTV and Internet TV. I believe there is little confusion about what is Internet or Web TV. It is one of my passions and a common topic on Connected. Examples of Internet TV include Hulu, Sling, Revision3 and TheWb. What is IPTV though?
Internet Protocol Television or IPTV is the telecomm industry’s answer to cable companies encroachment on home phone service. IPTV is a closed system for providing content similar to cable or satellite. In the U.S., examples of IPTV include AT&Ts U-verse and Verizon’s FiOS networks. It has the potential to provide a more efficient content distribution than cable and allows for a more engaging user experience with widgets and other interactive features. I had the opportunity to subscribe to U-verse and can say without question it is a higher quality product than anything Comcast or Time Warner offers up.
One of the best explanations I found defining the difference between IPTV and Internet TV was in a presentationby Jeremy Allaire, founder and president of Brightcove. Surprisingly, it was given on March 10, 2005. What amazed me is how accurately he predicts and works through the challenges facing Internet TV including cable contracts, bandwidth throttling, content ownership, profit cannibalization and bandwidth costs. It is arguable to suggest Allaire is a visionary for this emerging market and at worst a pioneer who has lead Brightcove to become a dominant player in Internet TV.
About two weeks ago it was announced that during the Thanksgiving weekend, Plum TV would debut its new show Mr. Internet. Plum is a bit of an obscure network that is broadcast in eight high-end resort markets such as the Hamptons and Vail and focuses on the culture of these communities. It caught my attention because it is being produced by advertising firm Crispin Porter + Bogusky(CP+B), which is the same firm behind the current Microsoft campaign.
This is not the first time a TV show grew out of advertising firms. Two significant examples are Caveman and Schooled. However, if there is one thing that can be said of CP+B, it is that it takes risks. I think it is fair to say the firm believes monumental success cannot be achieved without allowing for complete failure. This is why I am always drawn to the firm’s new ventures ,and simply put, this concept happens to be the premise for great creative marketing.
Mr. Internet reminds me very much of Talk Soup circa the late 90s, except its host is antithesis of John Henson. Dave Schiff the VP and group creative director at CP+B is emblazoned with tattoos and describing him as edgy would be an understatement. It appears he has seen a weight room or two in his lifetime as well. Why would I focus on this? Simple. While content is crucial, the success of shows like Talk Soup and Mr. Internet hinge entirely on the likeability of the host. Case in point, Talk Soup was widely watched with its first two hosts (Greg Kinnear and John Henson), but fell off the map once Hal Sparks took the reigns. It took nearly half the show, but I think I get the selection of Dave Schiff as host and believe he will bring strong, direct credibility.
The first episode of Mr. Internet was a wild ride. I think the content was great, and was surprised that its knowledge of internet memes was broad enough that it offered something to both novices and Web 2.0 experts. Without a doubt the best segment of episode 1 was with Christian Lander, creator of the Web site Stuff White People Like. The site looks at stereotypes in a comical fashion (not racist) and has had more than 30 million visits. Some how I was completely unaware of this site that has now morphed into a New York Times best selling book. I am a particular fan of Stuff White People Like #18 – Awareness.
The two main drawbacks to Mr. Internet is that the video quality when watching online is poor and the only place you can find it is on Plum. Despite these limitations, I look forward to see how the show develops.
Microblogging has arrived. There are now millions of people using Twitter as well as its competitors Pownce and Jaiku. My learnings from the world of marketing points to one obvious conclusion. Where the people go, the corporations are sure to follow.
Similar to earlier forms of online engagement(message boards, blogs and communities), companies must understand that the world of microblogging is about conversations. In the offline world, nobody likes the guy who walks into a room with a bull horn. People generally ignore the interruption or verbally attack it until it goes away. The same premise applies online and as such, companies/marketers need to listen first. Just like any conversation, once you get a feel for what topics are already being discussed, then companies can join in and build on the topic with relevant, useful points. This is online marketing 101, but it still amazes me how often companies ignore these rules.
Chris Brogan wrote an excellent post a couple months back titled 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business. It looks at how you can get started, what topics are appropriate to tweet about, how to authentically build community and the negatives and positives you can expect to encounter through efforts in the realm. I have yet to find a more succinct, yet all encompassing post on how companies can go about microblogging correctly. Some strong examples of companies on Twitter that have joined the conversation and established a following that positively impacts their brand include: Starbucks, Dell, Jason’s Deli, Jet Blue, Kodak, Whole Foods and Southwest Airlines.
There are two sides to the corporate microblogging coin though. The first and possible most important, is how you are engaging with your customers. The other side is how corporations can provide their employees new tools that allow for greater communication and productivity. Enter the internal corporate microblogging tools from Yammer, Present.ly and QikCom. Skeptical? Even Forrester Research begrudgingly states that microblogging has a place in the enterprise 2.0 market that is expected to reach $4.6 billion by 2013. ReadWriteWeb provides more background with a good overview and links to a report by Pitsachio Consulting on enterprise microsharing tools.
Lastly, I recently came across direct proof that companies are listening to the microblogging noise. A family member of mine wondered aloud on Twitter whether it was time for his company to bring Yammer into the fold. I suggested he also take a look at Present.ly and QikCom. In under 24 hours I noticed both Yammer and QikCom were following me on Twitter. Clearly they are listening, I am now wondering when they will have something meaningful to add to the conversation…
