GigaOM web show "Cord Cutters"

Mark your calendars!  On Tuesday, April 26th, the world will celebrate Cord Cutters Day.  It is neither a national, nor Hallmark holiday, rather a manufactured “meetup” ginned up by the folks at GigaOM to raise awareness about  “cord cutting”.  It’s the gaining trend of folks giving up pay TV, for content they stream from the web, on broadband connected TV’s and set top boxes.

Now when I say the world will celebrate, I mean there are just over a dozen meetups scattered across the US, and one in South America.  At last check, the one in DC has three attendees.  Cord Cutters Day is likely in some part to promote their eponymous web-series.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti cord-cutting.  I have Boxee installed on a Mac Mini that was, until recently, connected to the big TV.  I’ve got a blu-ray with Pandora, Blockbuster and YouTube installed.  I’m excited by the promise of new networks and innovative content arising from the opportunity and potential of IPTV. But in addition to my blazing fast broadband, I also have an abundant digital TV package.  I enjoy that flexibility of what and how I able to watch.

And that, friends and readers, is the world we live in today.  People will seek out hacks to get the information and content they desire – when, and on what device they want it delivered.  What will be interesting to see is whether the cord cutting “movement” will prompt a shift in how services are bundled and where networks choose to distribute content.

What media moguls fear: 2011 could become the year when increasing numbers of people watch Web TV content from sources including Netflix, iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Vudu, Hulu Plus and Crackle — and trim or even cancel their monthly subscriptions for cable, satellite or phone company TV service.

from: Web and other options are shaking up how we watch TV by David Lieberman, USA Today

Who They Are and What They Watch?

I set out to find out the answer to these questions – on Twitter and Facebook of course.  I asked:

so apparently, the 26th is #CordCuttersDay. show of hands – who out there has cut the cord from pay TV and now solely web TV?

Turns out, quite a few people I know.  Here’s some of the responses:

Cut the cord March 2009. Hulu and online sites with on-demand content is enough for the wife and I. Since we still have Verizon FiOS I can watch ESPN3 for free. Good enough, just miss cable news stations.

-Ching-Yao Yu via Facebook

Actually, I don’t miss much. I get a little envious when friends talk about a new show, but I know that if it’s really good, I’m going to see it online soon enough

-Melissa Pierce via Facebook

we’ve been talking about it for a while. i’m concerned about Internet providers instituting tiered access though. we’ll be paying out the nose to have enough bandwidth to watch Netflix, so not sure what the benefit will be in the future. i’m watching this one evolve.

- Jen Roy Goode via Facebook

There are quite a few more responses in my Twitter favorites, echoing similar sentiments.

Where Is The Market?

For any of this cord cutting to work on a viable scale, all parties in the marketplace must be able to derive value.  Connected TV and set-top-box manufuacturers will have to move enough units to make it worthwhile for them.  Premium content providers will need to ink favorable licensing deals to make an IPTV offering worth their while.  Advertisers will have to be able to reach enough viewers to support the kind of cost-intensive programming that tends to reach a lot of viewers.  In order for the big infrastructure players to begin to un-bundle their phone-tv-internet offerings and create a la carte TV selection,  they will likely meter their bandwidth.

Finally, viewers will have to easily be able to access quality programming. Right now, those criteria just aren’t there.  Most people wouldn’t be satisfied with a diet solely of the independent TV shows available on the web.  While there is a great deal of phenomenal, economically viable, and successful independent content on the web, the viewership isn’t there to support other pieces of the puzzle.

Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen – Editor of StreamingMedia.com and OnlineVideo.net – summed it up, responding to me on Twitter.

Take a look at their An Experiment In Cord Cutting video.  It does provide some interesting insights.

People have well-formed expectations about how a TV should work, and the devices didn’t seem to confirm well to these mental models. Surfing TV channels is seamless; “tasting” unfamiliar on-demand shows includes picking them from different menu categories and waiting for them to buffer first (and often paying for them up-front). This latency is tolerated in exchange for high-consideration longer-form content but it becomes too much of a friction when all one wants is the “in-n-out” material.

- results from Hill Holliday cable cutting experiment

So while I certainly understand why people are looking into cord cutting,  I think there some people on the cutting side of the debate would like to frame this as a false choice, raising their pitchforks and torches against the infrastructure that brings the internet to their homes. Lord knows, I look at my TV/phone/internet bill each month and wonder how much overtime it will take for me to pay it.

But I consider myself to be in the middle ground here.  I like the flexibility of apps, the promise of new, niche market video content but I also like crystal clear HD network television shows on my 42″ Samsung.  Perhaps these two driving forces will push us toward consumer centric offerings.  Until then, my cord remains uncut.

What about you?  Are you a cord-cutter?  What led you to that choice.  What type of programming are you watching on the web?  What do you miss that isn’t available over the web?  Please take time to leave your voice below.

The Remnants of South by Southwest 2011

Fresh off a trip with the Secretary of Defense, with stops in Afghanistan, Germany, Belgium and Bahrain,  I had just arrived home early on the morning of March 13th, in time to do some laundry, nap for about an hour, then make my flight to Austin.  While disappointed that I had not been able to attend the first half of SXSW, I had high hopes for the remaining days of the now hugely popular conference.

This was my second tour of South by Southwest Interactive and what I have come to see is a conference whose popularity -the official tally from conference organizers puts event attendance at nearly 20,000 – has engulfed some of its usefulness and value.  If you go as an individual, you really have to be strategic with your time there to make it worthwhile, by my estimation.

It’s important here to note here this is “by my estimation”.  Your results may have been vastly different than mine.  Perhaps if I hadn’t parachuted in mid-conference coming off a grueling overseas work trip, or if I had avoided the lure of the social gatherings and gone head down into some serious panel attendance, my takeaways would’ve been different.  Still, I think to derive value from panels and keynotes you really should fan out in teams and arrive very early.  Much of the panel content is duplicative and some panels simply aren’t that good.  But there were some quality panels and keynotes, and Patrick Ruffini of Engage communications has outlined four of his favorites here.

Face to Face – It’s the People That Make the Conference

power to the people

The real, measurable value of these conferences is spending time meeting people face to face.  Frankly, you could do that without buying a pass to the conference.

While some of the parties and lounges require a badge, you can meet people and do business simply by roaming the lobby of the Hilton or Driskill, or on the main floor of the convention hall.  You can always catch the keynotes later.

With all of this ambient intimacy allowing us to keep tabs one one another – defying time and space – it’s no substitute for a handshake or a hug.  I had the opportunity to reconnect with people I hadn’t seen in years.  These meetings produced measurable value professionally, in terms of projects/plans I have in the pipeline, and at a personal level it was lovely to spend time with the folks who mean a lot to me. This is what made the trip worth it for me.

I want to especially thank ardent globetrotters Melissa and A.J. Leon along with Justin Levy, Lisa Horner and the rest of the Citrix Online folks for making me feel welcome in Austin.  I also want to send a HUGE shout out to NBC News Director of Social Media, Ryan Osborn.  Ryan and I attended social events and sessions together and it was great to mindshare with a very smart member of team NBC.

There were alot of wonderful, memorable moments for me this year.  I’ve collected some of them on my Flickr page.

No Breakout Platforms This Year

This was no coming out party for any shiny new technology like there has been for services like Twitter and Foursquare in years past.  Venerable Silicon Valley blogger Louis Gray proclaimed Hashable and Foursquare “winners” of this years confab, but other than that, there weren’t any real standouts. Like the title of this post implies, all of these platforms are evolving, and more emphasis is being placed on how people are using these tools – sometimes with wrenching geopolitical implications.  If nothing else, this demonstrates the maturity of mobile, social and location based technologies.  These thoughts are echoed in a post by IBM’s Todd Watson, also a SXSW attendee this year.

For so much of the past 10-15 years, we’ve been so enamored with the technology itself. But more recently, we’ve begun to take much more notice of what the technology can do to empower humanity and human relationships, in often profound and game-changing ways: the Green revolution in Iran, the Haiti earthquake, the Chilean mine, the recent quake/tsunami in Japan… – Todd Watson, IBM

Watson adds that all of this technology is forcing organizational change upon institutions.  Unable to keep up with the “speed of the network” governments, businesses and other command and control institutions are increasingly being outpaced by networked individuals.  This is an compelling trend that bears watching.  I’m interested in reading As One by Mehrdad Baghai and James Quigley.  In it, the authors outline many different types of organizational structures that work toward successful, unified goals.  Not the stuff of SXSW party buses, but it looks like a worthwhile read.

The Promise of Web Video at SXSW

I live, eat and breathe video.  I’m invigorated by the fact that production, distribution and monetization of video is now within the reach of anyone.  A scant few years ago this was the sole realm of broadcast and cable giants. But as with many institutions, the internet has leveled the playing field.  I see great opportunity here and am fascinated by the idea of launching a internet TV network.  In one of the more energizing conversations I attended at SXSW, IAC chairman Barry Diller described how this internet “miracle” is disrupting broadcast and cable TV dominance.

“Here you have this classic thing… You have a group of people, they’re on the train tracks. The train is five miles away. It used to be 10 miles away. In a year or two it’s going to be a mile away, and they’ll still have their hands out.” – Barry Diller, SXSW 2011

He appeared to be quite bullish on the future of internet television and believes it will be ubiquitous within three years.  More on his talk here.

Quietly, web video companies are doing something very de classe in the tech world.  Many of them are making money instead of just taking money.  Call me old fashioned, but I like that. In back-to-back “lightning round” sessions, companies like Howcast and Revision3 touted video ad CPM’s of $9, $15 and even $35.  More impressive is the potential for growth in online video.  Revision3 Chief Revenue Officer Brad Murphy shared these encouraging projections: (source: eMarketer)

• 2011 – 68% of US internet users will be watching online video at least once a month
• 2015 – 76% will be watching online video regularly
• 2010 – Marketers spent $1.5 billion in online video (up 48% from 2009)
• 2014 – Expected to grow to $5.7 billion

I sense great opportunity here and was inspired by these sessions.  One big disappointment for me this year was that I didn’t get a chance to meet Revision3 CEO Jim Louderback.  It’s impossible at something this big to see everyone you would like to, so hopefully our paths will cross soon.

Will You Go Next Year?

It’s funny, looking back on my “speed of the network” post from 2008, I have to laugh.  Once again, here I was heading to Austin on the heels of an overseas trip that required the use of body armor.  My day job puts a lot of demands on my personal life, and this makes getting to SXSW challenging.  That holds true for many of us, so we hope for a return on our investment of time, energy and money.  There have been grumblings about the quality of the event itself lately.  In a piece for the Statesman.com, technology writer Omar L. Gallaga proposes Five ways to fix SXSW Interactive. (strange title because he has enumerated ten suggestions)

I would’ve posted this recap sooner, but as soon as I got back from Austin, it was off to South America covering the President’s visit. So in the leadup to the upcoming SXSW, I want to spend more time planning on how best to spend my time there.  I think I’ll go back next year.  I’ve got a line on a condo just two blocks away, so at least that part is taken care of.  I’d say this SXSW was worth the trip, but as I noted to someone, I didn’t “love” it, I “liked it a lot”.  So what are your thoughts?  Did you go this year?  How was your experience? Would you go again?  Did you find it worthwhile? Leave comments below!

Let my start by saying that my career in media has been paying the bills since 1988.  So I firmly embrace corporate media, advertising revenue and all media endeavors that enjoy commercial success. The lure of a life in TV (i’m a news cameraman by trade) was its combined appeal of an adventurous lifestyle and comfortable livelihood.  This is what prodded me to take my plunge into TV news.  But as with many things in life, my timing was off.  I came up in the ranks of cameramen well into cable’s affront on broadcast dominance,  admiring the legendary lenslingers before me, or more precisely their glorious tales of lavish travel and limitless budgets. Those were the glory days of TV news, and I got to see the vanishing apparitions – the vestigial remnants of those times.

Disruption Past

As a child of cable’s disruptive power,  I understood that challenge, that shift, that imperative for change.  So when blogging, podcasting and social networking emerged on the radar screen of my consciousness,  I wasn’t prepared to grasp their nascent and then unrealized impact on mainstream media.  Not until an unlikely series of events prompted the purchase of an iPod, did I come to realize that great numbers of people out there were dissatisfied with passively consuming mainstream content and advertising.  They were out there creating their own content and speaking to each other and were quickly becoming disintermediated.  With revolutionary zeal, web-preneurs sprang up like weeds creating platforms empowering people to share content and ideas.  Brands, of course, took note and migrated their messaging and their spending from TV, print, radio to the then “new” media.

Join the Conver$ation

This media revolution made YOU Time magazine’s Person of the Year back in 2006 – and was at once an empowering energizing force, but at the same time, made me fear for the future of my career.  Back then, it was all about the “conversation”.  As a brand, one couldn’t just stumble in and “sell”, one had to honest, transparent, conversational.  As social media has matured,  I get the sense that we have moved beyond that – and now we’re back to where we once were.  Brands just want access to us and the transaction remains the same.  Look, I understand that companies need to make money and that investors need to get returns on hopes of 10x exits.  But i’m struck by the rapacious speed with which social media, its adherents, and platforms are pursuing the buck.  Ironic to me, considering that it was dissatisfaction with traditional media and “push” advertising that in many respects gave rise to social media.

It’s strange, but I still haven’t completely shaken my nostalgia for the salad days of old media as I begin to feel twinges of longing for new media’s simpler times.  When old media was king it was advertisers buying access to passive audiences.  Now, marketers are paying to become part of this:

Power Shift

The mantra of the Social Media Club, “If you get it, share it” has been modified by “ninjas”, “gurus”, and “experts” in the field with the following addendum: “for a fee”. Meanwhile, tech/Web 2.0 headlines point to leaner, meaner more competitive times. Here are some trends pointing to a shift in social media from being people-powered media to corporate driven:

In a move akin to ABC News recent staff slashing, popular, free social network platform Ning is free no more and has cut its staff by 40%.
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How Facebook shares private information with third party companies is being scrutinized by Washington now, prompting one Senator to urge the FTC to get involved.
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Twitter has announced “sponsored tweets” prompting some to point out – if companies were using Twitter right, they wouldn’t need sponsored tweets.
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Pepsi passed on Super Bowl ads this year in favor of a $20 million social media campaign, and it’s probably not just about meeting new Twitter and Facebook friends.

So while this post may seem wistful, and perhaps critical of the direction that “people-powered” media has taken – none of this should be terribly surprising and it is perhaps inevitable. I still believe that successful, profit-motivated media can coexist with the community/individual driven kind. For my part, I’m just trying to stay ahead of it all and finding my place in this ever evolving landscape.

Most good blog posts, or at least the ones that attract the most traffic, draw a line in the sand – taking an unequivocal position. So just on the heels of the iPad launch, scores of tech bloggers are taking that stand against the onerous, closed nature of Apple’s latest offering. And the Church of Open Media has issued it’s doctrine against the iPad decreeing it a heretical, “retrograde” device.

The iPad is retrograde. It tries to turn us back into an audience again. That is why media companies and advertisers are embracing it so fervently, because they think it returns us all to their good old days when we just consumed, we didn’t create, when they controlled our media experience and business models and we came to them.

iPad danger: app v. web, consumer v. creator -Jeff Jarvis, Buzzmachine

Update – The Chorus of Returns Begins

Your humble blogger here, updating as I sit in an airport terminal waiting for a flight to Mexico City to cover the First Lady’s visit. I felt I had to update what I published yesterday as we’re now seeing the chorus of “I’m Returning my iPod” posts.  Jeff Jarvis even made a video outlining his reasons.  Maybe this is a shift that will ultimately prod Apple to re-think pricing and exclusivity agreements with publishers.  Maybe it’s a few high profile bloggers using their influence and reach to voice concerns that are valid and point to salient shortcomings in Apple’s offering.  Maybe folks should’ve read the label before they bought it?

Why I’m Returning My Apple iPad ($AAPL)

Why I’m Returning The iPad

Look, I’m no iPad fanboy. I may eventually buy one, but I’m not suffering from the technolust that swooned those first in line to get theirs. I’m more interested in how the device will change the worlds of publishing and advertising. And now, the conversation is being framed as either/or in terms of participatory vs. walled content. I think that’s a false choice, and that there always will be choices in how we consume, create, share and interact with content. It’s perfectly fine to simply, passively consume media and that is precisely what the device is designed to do.

Lean Forward – Lean Back

I’m not sure who originally coined the terms “lean forward” and “lean back” media, but the premise is simple. If you’re not familiar with the terms, lean forward media is the kind we create, engage with, mashup, share, link to, comment on, embed in our blogs etc. Lean back is the kind we passively consume.

Examples of “lean forward” media

• blogs and the comments on them
• embeddable video
• links to content within a blog
• Twitter

Examples of “lean back” media

• books
• movies
• certain TV shows
• certain iPad content

Both of these types of media have intrinsic value and I don’t think we need to frame this as one replacing the other.  This blog falls into the category of lean-forward and I hope all of you enlightened readers here engage me and each other in a robust dialogue in the comments.  But what is it that makes people think that ALL media has to be like this blog?

What is wrong with people wanting to just be part of the audience?  I don’t buy this notion that every bit of content needs to be open to some online peer review,  or worse – the ill tempered trolls of the interwebs.  I further don’t buy the notion that all content – from blog comment, to link,  to twitter mention – is sacrosanct. Most critics of the iPad seem to hold this belief. To them I say: if you’re REALLY worried about the iPad hobbling your generativity… DON’T BUY ONE.

Walls, Windows, and Doors

Apple is building walls around it’s media empire. It want’s to set the price for apps and subscriptions and much of the content thus far doesn’t allow for much by way of sharing or commenting.  So what?  Apple is a company that’s in the business of delivering value to their shareholders.  How they get there – whether by open source or DRM ensconced walls -is up to them, not us.  The iPad is not a tool of individual media empowerment and as such, I’d equate it to a really great piece of stereo equipment.  It’s an entertainment appliance.

That’s just fine for most people.  If you’re reading this blog, you’re exceptional (on many levels).  Not just because you’re reading my blog, but that’s certainly a plus. You are part of my social graph, and I have to get your attention on Twitter or Facebook first to get you over here.   But most people aren’t this connected on the web.  In that respect, we are exceptional. We are the digerati.  But the self-ordained high priests of the Church of Open Media would have us believe that everyone is out there contributing content. That’s where I and others are given pause.

This is the place where this brand of critics fall most deeply into the same kind of echo-chambered trap as the news industry — by thinking that most people should think and behave like themselves. But most people are not and will not ever become creators of sophisticated media. Instead they’re working in bakeries and insurance offices and having babies and teaching people to play the fiddle.

Have iPad critics fallen into an echo-chambered trap like the news industry? -Howard Weaver

The social web allows us to create, collaborate and connect in ways constantly being innovated.  Social media, citizen media – whatever you want to call it – at the minimum, gives us a window into power structures like media, press and government – transparencey.  At it’s most open, we’re allowed through the doors and given an opportunity to help shape and create content.  Increasingly traditional media are opening windows and doors and extending their brands to online audiences. By and large these are good things.

But I think there will continue to be a strong desire for people like you and me to lean forward, engage, share, embed, post, comment and shout out to the world.  I also think there are more people in this world, who are just as happy to read, watch, absorb and ponder while leaning back.  Both of these approaches are just fine and I simply don’t understand all of the histrionics of this non debate – debate.  Am I missing something here?  Please lean forward in the comments below.

Related Reading

Consumers vs. Creators (or Will the iPad Destroy the World?)

Here Is Why The iPad Won’t Save The Magazine Industry

The iPad Luddites

The pace of change in media is happening so fast, most of us have barely wrapped our minds around current accepted notions, just as they are swept aside by technology driven evolution.  All of this overwhelms me, and I grasp that it is well out of our control.  But observing these patterns emerge is instructive and that’s why I think these four media trends are worth watching.

The iPad Changes How We Consume and Publish Media

I was at the local coffee shop the other day and a woman looking at the newspaper stand caught my eye.  As I stirred my coffee, I watched as she stood hunched over reading as much as she could above the fold.  I wondered if she’d be moved to buy the paper, but when here latte was ready on the bar, she grabbed it and left.  It occurred to me that there are folks who simply don’t want to have to deal with stacks of paper anymore.

The iPad is a further step, started by readers like the Kindle, towards an infinite world of  rich personal media consumption that lives in the palm of your hand.  The iPad is also forcing publishers to adopt HTML5 standards and has drawn a line in the sand on Adobe Flash.  From the White House to legacy media, web publishers are scrambling to re-tool their sites to be “iPad compliant” – and develop content apps for the device.

Thanks to HTML5 the iPad loves WhiteHouse.gov http://bit.ly/bSk1zX PLUS new mobile site looks nicer on phones – @Macon44

So this simple device has created a huge shift in how we create and consume content.  That’s power.

If the tablet device and Apple’s associated online shops become popular enough, the company could have a chokehold over publishing technology and content itself. It could become as central to the future of print media as it has become to the future of music..

How Apple Is Dogfighting To Control Your News – Ryan Tate, Gawker

Apple’s disdain for Adobe Flash also means that publishers who monetize with flash based banner ads are going to face considerable challenges. But Steve Jobs has a plan for that as well it seems.  A report in Ars Technica reveals that Apple is planning to launch a mobile ad network.  Now I won’t be one of those people standing in line when the iPad is released for sale in stores, but I will be paying attention to it’s impact on the publishing industry.  Here’s a look at the elegant iPad version of Popular Science. (HT Jason Kotttke)

Mag+ live with Popular Science+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

Web TV Set Top Boxes Liberate the Living Room From Cable Box Tyranny

In 2006, friend and web entrepreneur Jeff Pulver launched Network2, a web video network that he hoped would  come to rival traditional TV networks.  Network2 never developed as hoped, and TV networks, while facing challenges, are still standing.  I think he and others in that space were just a tiny bit ahead of their time.

We recently bought a 42 inch LCD TV and a BlueRay DVD player.  Both of these devices have network connectivity.  The DVD player has Blockbuster, Netflix, YouTube and Pandora built in.  Now that Google and a host of others have introduced set top IPTV boxes,  I think there are new opportunities to build new Network2′s.  Like Apple, Google has the strength of a well established ad network behind it.  People are hungry for web content on the big screen.  “Digital living technologies” research firm Parks Associates just released their Digital Lifestyles: 2010 Outlook report.  In it they find that consumers are hobbling together game consoles and PC’s to deliver web content to their TVs.

consumer interest in Web-on-TV applications is so strong that households are making their own connections via PCs and game consoles. From 2008 to 2009, the number of U.S. households using Web-connected game consoles increased by 64%, and the number connecting a PC to a TV increased by 36%, according to the firm’s latest report Digital Lifestyles: 2010 Outlook.

Whoever delivers an easy to use system of delivering web content to the big screen will create new opportunities for content creators and audiences alike.  “Flipping channels” on the internet seems to be in our not too distant future.

Location Based Apps Unlock Highly Targeted Ad Opportunities

Earlier this year the technology world was abuzz with the revelation that Facebook had won a patent on its news feed. While somewhat overlooked and of equal significance, Google was awarded a patent for Determening and/or using location information in an ad system.  As location based apps continue to rise in popularity,  brands, consumers and media are discovering new and useful ways of interacting with one another.  Marketing strategists have long been predicting the death of display advertising on the web.  From clutter, to intrusiveness, to infinite inventory – those banner ads are pretty useless and easily blocked.

We’re moving away from interruption marketing and enter a world where advertising blends harmoniously with consumers in their everyday life. - Samir Balwani, Morpheus Media

Local, relevant, targeted, location based mobile ads do exactly that – usually when the consumer is near the point of purchase.  Or as Ryan Sholin puts it, it’s advertising “Street by Street, Block by Block“  Still,  Google and ComScore have given publisher reason to believe there’s room for improvement – and perhaps hope for unlimited creative potential in display advertising’s future.

3DTV is a Visual Game Changer

photo credit: Tom Murphy

While 3DTV made quite a splash at CES this year,  the technology sounded a bit faddish to me.  But the more I hear about it, the more I’m coming to beileve it’s the real deal.  My friend and fellow news cameraman cum new media trailblazer, Tom Murphy, recently had the chance to see the technology firsthand out in Burbank.  Tom, also a skeptic initially, has been made a convert.

The difference here is that this is more than just incremental change.

I am writing this as a convert. Just a few days ago if anyone has asked me what I thought of 3DTV I would have grimaced a little, murmured a few niceties and ended my answer with a sentence containing the words “marketing gimmick”… TV in action I can honestly say that this is not some incremental change in technology, but has all the signs of being a complete game changer. – Tom Murphy from “3DTV: Not a Marketing Gimmick, Rather an Awesome Viewing Experience”

And because Tom is someone I trust, I’m in 3DTV’s corner now as well.

This last example of transformative technology will require creation of new libraries of 3D content.  Panasonic has developed a prosumer HD 3D camera for those early adopters who want to get ahead of the curve.

So these are four technology trends I see shaping how we create and consume media in our daily lives.  How do you see these new trends shaping your media habits?  Or if you are a content creator, how will these change your approach to content creation?  Are there media trends that I’ve overlooked?  As always, I look forward to your input.

The Employee Blogger – Manage the Risk and Reap Reward

I wrote my very first blog post here three years ago, nearly to the day.   In 2005, I had an awakening to just how disruptive the empowered social web was to my industry, and ultimately my job.   So rather than just sticking my head in the sand, and hoping all of you would stop using the interwebs and start being better TV citizens, I dove right in and began exploring new communication channels.  My blogging, Twitter and experimentation with emerging mobile trends – such as location based services – have all been a part of my continuing media eduction.  To be honest, its also about positioning myself favorably in a troubling and uncertain career landscape for those of us who still toil in legacy media.

While anonymity was my cover early on, a modicum of web notoriety and Google ranking has put me in a position where those who employ me pay attention to what I say here and on Twitter.  Whether it’s this blog, what I say when I speak publicly, or my behavior  on the job – interacting with people face to face – it’s important that I represent the brand of my employer favorably.  I hope I do that here, but while we’re on the topic, I wanted to point you to my blog disclaimer, so that you know that these are MY thoughts, observations, and views.

Disclaimer 2.0

So, as you can see, I’m hoping that this “living, breathing disclaimer” can be an opportunity to demonstrate that I’m doing it right.   Thoughtless online behavior by a CEO or the lowest ranking worker, can put brands in a negative light.  Sometimes an insightful employee’s blog, like former Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang’s Web Strategy,  can take the spotlight off of the employers brand.

Recently,  Forrester Research laid out new guidelines prohibiting their analysts from blogging about research ares that they cover.  To some it’s a smart move that prevents their employees from diluting the brand.  To others, it’s seen as “Epic Enterprise 2.0 Fail” – a way of jealously preventing their personal brands from getting larger and more relevant.

Forrester CEO George Colony is well aware of that savvy analysts can build their personal brands via their positions as Forrester analysts amplified by social media (see the post on “Altimeter Envy”). As a consequence, a Forrester policy that tries to restrict analysts’ personally-branded research blogs works to reduce the possibility that the analysts will build a valuable personal brand leading to their departure. -  SageCircle

Employers struggle with the notion of their workers having a voice on the web.  At the extremes, there are two tribes – one that espouses a social media utopia where every worker has open access to social networks, and another that operates in fear and pushes to silence the rank and file.  Hopefully, a more pragmatic third tribe recognizes the risks and rewards of their employees social media use and provides a set of guidelines for them.  NPR has an approach to all of this that I admire.

As NPR grows to serve the audience well beyond the radio, social media is becoming an increasingly important aspect of our interaction and our transparency with our audience and with a variety of communities. Properly used, social networking sites can also be very valuable newsgathering and reporting tools and can speed research and extend a reporter’s contacts, and we encourage our journalists to take advantage of them. – NPR Social Media Guidelines

Policy Evolution

These policies and guidelines will continue to evolve as new technologies and communications platforms further push the boundaries of openness and transparency.

I’m interested in hearing your experiences – as a worker or an employer – with disclaimers, social media policies and the like.  I’ve already gotten some good  feedback on Twitter and Facebook.

QUESTIONS:

On the Road Again

In a few hours I’ll be wheels up from Joint Base Andrews on a chartered 747 bound for Asia.  I’ll be accompanied by my colleagues and contemporaries from the worlds of broadcast, print, and online journalism.  We’ll be keeping tabs on President Obama has he participates in the APEC summit in Singapore, and visits regional powers China, Korea, and Japan.  And as the Fifth Estate – you guys, readers of this blog, Twitter friends -  I’m hoping you keep tabs on US.  When I get to Andrews I’m going to put together a Twitter list of journos going on the trip and I hope to share that here before we take off.  If I’m unable to turn it around that fast I’ll get it to you when we land.

AS PROMISED, HERE IS THE LIST

Work Shifters

David Baeza of Citrix Online considers the White House traveling press to be the “ultimate workshifters”.  Workshifting – the notion of working from hotels, coffee shops, or anywhere that isn’t a cubicle in an office building.  I met David and his colleague Lisa Horner when I spoke at the Inbound Marketing Summit in Boston.  After hearing my story, they knew they’d found a real workshifter.

Our office is wherever we set up our workspace and transmission facility.  The logistics involved in covering the President on a global trip are dizzying , especially for television.  We will parachute into each stop on this trip and work out of a pool transmission facility/workspace that has been set up in advance.  Each stop will be abuzz with activity as crews and reporters are transported to and from various events.  No one will be getting much sleep on this trip.  I think my last best chance of that will be on the plane.

Adventures in Sleep Deprivation

While covering the Clinton White House,  The Discovery Channel followed the White House press corps as they traveled with the President on a trip that included stops in Turkey, Greece and other countries hidden in the cobwebs of my memory.  They were shooting a documentary about sleep deprivation and we proved to be the perfect subjects.  Here is  a preview video of the documentary, and if you don’t blink, you’ll catch a glimpse of me two pairs of glasses ago.

These trips are grueling, and this one will prove to be no different.  If you want to see what it’s really to cover VIP trips, take a look at these videos.  I produced a two part web series on an around-the-world trip we did with Defense Secretary Gates back in 2007.  This will give you an idea of the schedules and workloads we endure.

Round-the-world with the SecDef

Inside the Pentagon travel pool

The Fifth Estate

So I hope you’re able to keep track of us as we travel with the President throughout Asia.  Before we head out is there anything you’d like to ask me or some of my colleagues?  Please do so in the comments below! You always know where to find me and I’m grateful that you all keep me company when I’m on the road. Look forward to hearing from you guys.

Speaking at IMS09 - Photo courtesy Steve Garfield

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to speak at the Inbound Marketing Summit in Foxborough, Massachusetts.  (video of the presentation at the end of this post)   It was back in August, in a cramped, dimly lit Jimmy Seas restaurant on Martha’s Vineyard where Justin Levy and Nick Saber first approached me about presenting at #IMS09.  Over generous pans of of pasta, we shared stories and ideas about social media, traditional media, marketing and where all of those things intersect.

This isn’t the first time I’ve been asked to speak publicly about my perch at the intersection of old and new media, but each time forces me out of my comfort zone.  As a network news cameraman, I’m far more accustomed to leaving the public speaking to the folks in my viewfinder.  Telling cocktail party stories about my life as a news camerman – flying in Chinooks over Afghanistan,  rocket attacks in Baghdad, or traveling on Air Force One – is great among friends.  But  my challenge was to create value for the few hundred marketing professionals who would be listening to the story of a news cameraman cum early adopter of social media.  It’s flattering to be asked to speak, but unless you deliver valuable, useful information to business professionals, you’re wasting their time.   So here’s the condensed version.

OVERVIEW

Organizations often cringe at the notion of employees speaking openly about the company on social networks. Many regulate, or downright ban the practice. The risks have been well established, and there are plenty of horror stories about workers going off-reservation online. But the rewards are abundant if companies provide guidelines and encourage those passionate about social media. Who are your best brand ambassadors? Believe it or not, empowering rank and file staff to engage the social web can often result in more promise than peril.  Conversely there are scant rewards for ham-fisted, clumsy, corporate social media efforts.  As Comcast’s Frank Eliason aptly put it at the Blog World Expo this past week

“Don’t force people into this social space if it’s not a natural fit for them.”

@comcastcares

I’m reminded of a story told to me by a PR person I had worked with on a shoot.  A reporter from a major national daily newspaper was told to produce a pre-determined number of Tweets per day and those Twitter posts would be “graded”.  Really???  Wow, talk about sucking the oxygen out of the experience.  We’ve got to do better than that.

DATA

A  Russell Herder and Ethos Business Law study, entitled “Social Media: Embracing the Opportunities, Averting the Risks”, surveyed over 400 marketing, HR, and management executives on their attitudes toward social media.  Some key data points:

• 73% increase in US use of social media (Neilsen)
• just over half of those surveyed believe social media is bad for productivity
• nearly half believe social media use can damage brand reputation
• 8 out of 10 believe social media, as corporate communications, can build relationships with customers and build brand reputation

OBJECTIVE

By sharing my story with the marketing professionals in attendance,  I hoped to demonstrate that empowering rank and file employees of an organization can be a useful, organic extension of a firm’s marketing and PR efforts. I wanted to show that it isn’t necessarily or SOLELY – the communications or marketing director, or the CEO who might be your best brand ambassador. 

Interestingly,  two presentations that preceded me helped frame and define my journey into social media.  Paul Gillin outlined some dismal trends in traditional media consumption in his talk entitled “World Without Media: What Will Fill the Void?”.  

He was followed by new media video visionary Steve Garfield who held a APEC sized photo-op, empowering the audience  with thier video cameras to become legions of content creators.    

It’s clear that the world of mainstream media will never be the same.  Also clear, is that I’m still figuring out how my skills mesh with that emerging landscape.  Legacy media needs to meet people where they are and engage them in the way they consume and produce media.

Below is the video of my presentation in it’s entirety. So assembled readers, did I deliver what I set out to achieve? And if you were at IMS09, did I meet your expectations? (Audio is thin, so you’ll have to strain a bit to hear it)

NBC’s Local Media Initiative

In a move that acknowledges the diminishing influence of one-way communication channels, NBC has renamed the Television Stations Division “Local Media Division”. There was a great deal of coverage in industry blogs. Media Week and Lost Remote have both framed the change as a fundamental shift in business.

NBC Local Media better reflects the full scope of our capabilities, as well as our ability to offer clients a fully-integrated, local media solution across the full portfolio of our assets.-John Wallace – President, NBC Local Media Division, from press release

As marketers continue to shift ad dollars from traditional media to online, it’s vital for companies like NBC to take the brand where the people are. Increasingly, that means web and mobile. As newspapers and TV move to build online, the distinction between the two becomes meaningless. Right now local “newspapers” appear to be winning online.

Creating an Engaging Experience While Building a Business

The static web sites of most TV and Radio stations have been eclipsed by the more interactive offerings of newspapers. Perhaps the economic imperative of the dying newspaper industry has forced print publishers bring online innovations to market faster. So the challenge for local media is to build an engaging, imersive, media platform that actually becomes something the community can’t live without – at the same time scaling the user base to a point where the enterprise is economically worthwhile.

What would that platform look like? What key elements would satisfy both the community and the media company? I took that question to my very smart Twitter posse and they came up with some great ideas. Here’s a small sampling:

All very smart ideas from early adopters of social web technology. Smart ideas about the evolution of local media can be found in practice and in theory, but ultimately big media companies are looking for the ones that will generate increased traffic and ad revenue. I do think it is vital for those in charge of any local media initiative to get input from outside the corporate meeting rooms. They should be talking to the local blogging, tech, and social media communities. They should be sponsoring conferences, discussions and meetups with the pioneers of the social web in their local communities.

I strongly feel that media companies need to discover and encourage the brand champions within their own organizations to use social media. While there may be some who grumble about already burdensome workloads – and believe me, TV news is a pretty thankless sausage factory – standing by and hoping that the sales and promotions departments will save careers is not a good career strategy. I’ve discovered that meeting and listening to people on the social web, through platforms like Twitter, blogging, Facebook, and meetups, has enriched my life both personally and professionally. It’s also allowed me to bring the NBC News brand into this space.

Envisioning Local Media

Mel Taylor outlines the key points of a recent speech by former CBS News chief Andrew Heyward. In it, Heyward outlines the current problems with the state of TV news, and discusses some forward-thinking approaches to building succssesful online platforms. Don Dodge, while blogging about newspaper strategy, puts forth ideas that are equally resonant in television’s web efforts. Essentially he says be local, be a marketplace, and be the best local search engine out there. A good example of very useful local search platform is the Boston local search platform Citysqaures.

I think the key to success in transforming local media is to build a platform that people can’t live without. It should be a place where people can connect around ideas and affinities, build their own social netowrk profile, network and create events, have a robust mobile component, and should recommend content and events based on the users profile. People want to share and create content and links. Making that easy and customizable, in a locally relevant way, is key to getting the Facebook generation passionate about local media.The bottom line is, of course, the bottom line. But while media companies have to focus on profits, they should not look at their web presence as a secondary effort, or simply repository for recycled newscast content.

For local media platforms to be successful, they will have to implement imersive, relevant, engaging, and useful experiences for the community. So my assembled readers, how would you build a successful local media platform? What are some good examples of ones you’ve come across?

Bringing together the brightest minds of new television

I just booked my travel to the fall Video on the Net Confernence in Boston. I’m very excited because the spring conference in San Jose was a great opportunity for me to connect with key players in this emerging ecosystem. Once again, looks like the best and brightest will be attending this one too. For those of you who missed it, here’s a look a back at VON ’07, San Jose.

It was fun meeting my neighbors last night and explaining “I have a TV station in my pocket.” That got wonderful stares.
Robert Scoble – Twitter/@scobleizer

Meanwhile, CBS Interactive’s purchase of online show Wallstrip has validated internet video as a vital component of a web content business model. That deal has received a lot of attention, as more and more content creators look to ink agreements with big media companies. So it’s no surprise that once again, VON will be well attended by reps from companies like NBC Universal (my current employer), AOL, Washington Post Newsweek Interactive, Turner Broadcasting, Spark Capital, Akami.. and the list goes on. Video on the Net will be another huge opportunity for me, and for anyone in this space, to network with key industry leaders and get a better idea of what’s on the horizon.

“Digital” media initiatives vs. listening, conversation, and the social web

I often hear about this media comany’s “digital media initiative”, or that this person is in charge of “digital efforts”. If you’re just thinking digital, I think you’re missing the point. I recently attended a seminar at my alma mater American University entitled: PHOTOJOURNALISM: Surviving the Digital Challenge. Overall, there was great discussion, but I heard no mention of engaging audiences in conversation and using video as the starting point. Hosted by the White House News Photographer’s Association and AU’s School of Communication, it was a useful and informative discourse on the imperative for photojournalists to think of themselves more as content creators and less as media workers, and an examination of the internet as a key distribution channel.

Video journalism messiah and media raconteur Michael Rosenblum keynoted, and with no hyperbole, described shifts in media today as world-changing as Gutenburg’s printing press. He and I may not agree on everything, but on this, he’s dead right.

Michael Rosenblum “weighs” the merits of specializaton

While talented, smart media makers can hope to define themselves as bridge-builders between old and new media – integral to a media company charting a course into new territory – I’m personally not banking on it. I’m smack in the middle of this sea change in media, as the diminishing value proposition of a career as network news cameraman thrusts me into the empowering, enriching world of social media. While the “digital challenge” is an important discussion, nothing was really mentioned about video as conversation agent on the Social Web. The “social” part of this is often more of a challenge for traditional media companies. Social requires what VON organizer Chris Brogan deftly outlines as listening.

I think video can and should be an important part of a media company’s SOCIAL web efforts. That’s precisely why I’m attending Video on the Net, to build my personal brand, measure my media strategies with , connect with key industry leaders, and re-connect with the rock stars of internet video.