We're Not Who You Think We Are
Now We Play The Waiting Game . . . Aw, The Waiting Game Sucks! Edition
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It’s no secret that the publishing industry is facing the same challenges that all of the other content industries are facing. On the one hand, new technology offers publishers the chance to fundamentally re-invent their business models, on the other hand new media is syphoning off the attention of a growing number of would-be book readers. For the most part, book publishers have responded to these new challenges in the same way their peers in other content industries have responded — s-l-o-w-l-y.
As a group, book publishers clearly need help coming to terms with their own future. Fortunately for them, O’Reilly Media’s Tools of Change for Publishing (TOC) conference has come along not a moment too soon. The event, hosted earlier this week in San Jose, was designed to be a gentle introduction to all manner of technology issues facing the publishing industry. For three days TOC was a place where publishers could face their biggest fear — acronyms — and learn more about POD, XML, RSS, and DRM.
Good Gods, Will This Day Ever End? Edition
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There was a time, not so long ago, when money was the only ingredient any candidate or political group needed to disseminate a political message to the masses.
Billions of dollars have been spent producing and distributing political advertisements. To this day, pundits and analysts gauge a candidate’s prospects for competing in an election by the amount of money that candidates can raise to buy media time.
But all of this is changing rapidly, thanks to social media. The economics of campaigning are being turned upside down by services like YouTube. We’re entering a new era of grassroots politics where average citizens can produce and distribute political messages that reach a global audience instantaneously, at almost no cost. These new distribution channels are fundamentally altering the balance of media power.
At the same time, the widespread availability of these new tools raises some interesting questions about disclosure and transparency. For example, we know the Obama Girl loves Barack, but we don’t have a clue who she is or what her motives are. From one perspective, she’s helping the candidate gain exposure with a young demographic. From another perspective, she might be harming the candidate among voters who see the video as frivolous — depending on who produced the video, that may be the goal.
[Read more…] about How to Start a Political Revolution Without Breaking the Law
Binary Solo! Edition
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[Lopy notes: Spiral Frog finally launched, and we finally reviewed it]
It’s been nearly a year since I first took a look at the concept behind Spiral Frog, the website that offered to give you FREE music as long as you sat through advertising. I didn’t think that it was a concept that I was going to really care for, but I was totally willing to at least give it a shot, since at that time, the site’s launch was going to be by the end of the year. The year being 2006.
However, as I noted at the end of 2006, Spiral Frog pushed back their release date to Q1 2007, so we had to wait a big longer for our FREE music. How much longer, no one really knew, as reports surfaced about problems behind the scenes. At various points, I tried to sign up for previews and emails via their website, but I guess that I’m persona non grata.
Then, something weird happened. At some point in the past couple of months, Spiral Frog has launched, but only a preview. And only in Canada.
[Read more…] about Do You Want Spiral Frog? Get Thee To Canada!
Found A Job Edition
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It’s been over a week now, and the firestorm over the last scene of The Sopranos will not abate. I swear to gods, I was going to stay out of it, though I thought it was fracking brilliant in all of its slammed-door ambiguity, and thought that those demanding closure were like peep-show patrons who had the window closed on them just before they, er, “finished.”
Or Michael Palin in the Argument Clinic: “that was never five minutes just then.”
I didn’t even have trouble with that Journey song I’ve always hated (which actually is pretty much any Journey song) playing over the ending, because it was perfectly in character for Tony to like Journey.
[Read more…] about David Chase, Don’t Tell Us If Tony Soprano Is Dead
Got Yourself a Gub Edition
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If you’re into that sort of thing, this summer is shaking up to be a wild one in Hollywood. While blockbusters galore are filling the screens and record-breaking sales are making the headlines, a revolution is about to emerge. Our sleepy little town is about to enter what I believe will be the most contentious Guild negotiations ever.
This is a fight that has been simmering since, oh, 1981 or so. Back when Betamax and VHS were slugging it out with Laserdiscs. The studios, who were just beginning to see the endless programming possibilities of cable television (satellite being, if not a dream, a fantasy), and you can imagine their confoundment (is that a word?) when they learned just how much people would be willing to spend to own movies.
It would be close to a decade before these selfsame studios really grasped the lucrative nature of television series and consumer ownership.
[Read more…] about Preparing For The Summer Blockbuster