Jan. 20 2010

welcome robin sloan.

Dec. 29 2009

Most user-generated content is created as communication in small groups, but since we’re so unused to communications media and broadcast media being mixed together, we think that everyone is now broadcasting. This is a mistake. If we listened in on other people’s phone calls, we’d know to expect small talk, inside jokes, and the like, but people’s phone calls aren’t out in the open. One of the driving forces behind much user-generated content is that conversation is no longer limited to social cul-de-sacs like the phone.

Clay Shirky (via azspot)

This is actually something we’ve always acknowledged at Vimeo. We even had an awkwardly-worded tag line for a while, “not everyone should see everything,” that was meant to convey the closed nature of some interactions on the site. I like how Clay has expressed the ideas here.

(via dalasverdugo)

exactly.

man, that’s it.

Dec. 12 2009

Gin, Television, and Social Surplus

syntheticpubes:

I re-read this every few months and it always cheers me up. Perhaps social media isn’t to blame for a lack of productivity—it’s just doing an effective job of soaking up our increasing number of idle hours. Those idle hours are probably a symptom of broader economic missteps in the face of globalization and its inherent upsets.

(I still like that 4chan hyperbole though.)

this discussion has been seeping into my head for the past few weeks.  all the tech we’re creating to lower thresholds and open the fire hoses a little wider to our brains is actually and obviously hurting us.  sure, you know the facts faster but you haven’t had time to actually think about them before you’re bowled over with the next.  arguments about television aside, there is a situation that is in the present where we must become editors for ourselves.  information, however delivered, isn’t all useful.  finding and digging for the exceptionally valuable can only be a human function, not a computerized one.

everything “real-time” might not be worth your time.

Dec. 11 2009

TechCrunch sues Fusion Garage over the Joojoo -- we break it down -- Engadget

i’m really less into this debacle b/c of the actual tech & product but more about how arrington’s only chess piece is his blog and everyone who reads it that doesn’t take every single pixel with a grain of very big salt.  begging people to tell their readers about drama surrounding a product?  weak charlie, weak.

i’m not going to buy whatever pad this is b/c the price is too much but if i did, i’d do it in spite.  mikey is going to come up on the losing end of a business deal he either handled horribly from the beginning or couldn’t withdraw himself out of quick enough.

this is a great case study surrounding law, business, contracts, perception, media and hedging your equity on your mistakes.

Nov. 12 2009

The future of the Twin Cities media ecosystem

I would love it very much if we stopped talking about the content we provide and begin talking about the value we provide. What I mean by this is that the pieces of content that compose our media – our articles, our broadcasts, our images – have never been what we got paid for. What that content delivered over time – understanding, expertise, perspective, entertainment, and yes, eyeballs – these things are what have been the foundation of the media’s support.

if you read this here web site, you’ve surely realized that i’m a broken record when it comes to the content & value sentiment.  also, linking to matt in general.

anyway, click-through to read the whole post.  it’s his transcript from a keynote.  moreover, it’s a great case study documenting collapse via gluttony and restoration via focused curation.

in other words, stop the mindless churn and start giving a shit.  FOCUS people.  focus on what you’re doing, what you’re consuming, how you’re thinking about it (you are doing that aren’t you?) and why it might matter to someone else.  most importantly, why it won’t.

Nov. 08 2009

pieto:

OURS is the first age in which many thousands of the best-trained individual minds have made it a full-time business to get inside the collective public mind. To get inside in order to manipulate, exploit, control is the object now. And to generate heat not light is the intention. To keep everybody in the helpless state engendered by prolonged mental rutting is the effect of many ads and much entertainment alike.

Since so many minds are engaged in bringing about this condition of public helplessness, and since these programs of commercial education are so much more expensive and influential than the relatively puny offerings sponsored by schools and colleges, it seemed fitting to devise a method for reversing the process. Why not use the new commercial education as a means to enlightening its intended prey? Why not assist the public to observe consciously the drama which is intended to operate upon it unconsciously?

from The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man - Marshall McLuhan (1951)

C.R.E.A.M.

Oct. 27 2009

Simulmedia

zachklein:

I recently learned about a fascinating data-driven company called Simulmedia. They buy raw data from set-top box companies like Tivo and analyze it. Among many other things, they learn when a user watched what and and for how long. With a set of millions of users, they identify viewing patterns and can predict with certainty how receptive you might be to one television program given that you voluntarily watch some other one.

What’s interesting is their business model. Instead of selling the clean data back to the networks like we’d expect, they go back and ask, for example, “How many viewers would you like us to deliver to Mad Men?” Then they take the network’s own marketing assets, like a 15-second trailer, buy commercial slots on other networks, and target the viewers of specific shows who they know will be receptive to Mad Men. In turn, they get paid for the uptick they promised.

New media bounty hunters. I’m very impressed.

very smart.  in other news, this past week’s mad men was indeed very good (as everyone says it was).  however, all of the data this company is hedging its bets on had nothing to do with me - i downloaded the season from itunes.  so, kudos to optimizing an aging business model?  i’m sure they have big plans for when people start to ditch tv in general - well, let’s hope.

Oct. 11 2009

merlin:

Gross Domestic Productization Something Something Idea Conceptifying Stone Soup 20,000-Foot View Kimono Opening Media Space Vertical Vertical Vertical

For anyone who’s actually curious: my idea had been to make NPR and member-station programming compatible with the audio equivalent of Instapaper. Viz, I bookmark $nprshow here (meaning “anywhere”) and it shows up, rss- or tivo-like in a notional stack there (meaning “everywhere”). This could also be the basis for addl crazy ideas like the time- and context-sensitive API application our “Open” team was kind enough to let me present at the end of the day.

if you’re in “major” media today and aren’t thinking about this kind of stuff - look for a new job.  i realize this attitude is contrast to my previous missive but this is another solid example of what i’m talking about.

“look for a new job” isn’t meant as a threat - it’s meant to be an option.  maybe, you’re meant to innovate elsewhere.

Oct. 05 2009

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

nikography:

so long, lonesome by explosions in the sky

turn off. take out some paper. make marks.

bonus: sheet music for this song transcribed by cleiph

it was a good media night.  really enjoyed both most recent episodes of curbed, entourage (esp. jay) and this song.

Sep. 04 2009

But the Internet did something else to the news. By putting everyone on a 120MPH highway, it left very little room for value judgment and discretion around what is or isn’t worth talking about.
Basement.org: On The Web, More Isn’t Only Less, It’s Actually Nothing (via 43folders)