Good morning.  Epix is about to take the stage at this the last day of Streaming Media West.  Watch the keynote live at:  www.livestream.com/streamingmedialive/beta. Presentations this weekend at streamingmedia.com/west.  We’ll be posting the remarks here along with a summary of what was said this week by other content distributors and producers:

Emil Rensing, Epix
Epix is a joint venture of Paramount/Lionsgate/MGM that launched three week ago as a FiOS Pay TV cable channel that for $10/month makes its content available to subscribers on any platform :  on TV, on demand, and online.  Epix owns the multiplatform rights for all their titles in the PayTV window of 9-10 months after theatrical release for at least 2y and doesn’t have restrictions on their content like legacy cable providers who signed deals 10 years ago and now have to renegotiate rights for TV Everywhere.   Currently offering 180 first run blockbuster movies and classics, Epix seeks to grow it’s library to 3,000 titles as well as offer outstanding original and event-based programming similar to the HBO, Starz, Showtime model.  Programming like Madonna and Kings of Leon concerts, Sam Shepard’s  Tough Trade and Charlize Theron’s Atlas Shrugged.  Seeking to become home to original storytellers….original programming builds brand for the network.  In terms of the size of the Epix acquisition budget, having just launched they are small now 62 staff, a third focused on digital, wondering whether sponsored star-studded sitcoms like Easy to Assemble and Justine Bateman’s FM78.tv then become an attractive option. Emil Rensing, founder of Next New Networks, shares space with Boxee in New York, is a digital guy agnostic about formats, hoping to see Epix on that toaster we’ve been talking about.  A media business, Epix is proud of its technology partners who provide a seamless playback experience: Akamai, Adobe, ClipSync. Amazing friending feature allows you to invite up to four friends to sit in a virtual screening room, watch the movie together, and chat via pop up speech bubbles.  The friends do not need to be an Epix subscriber. You can check out Epix this weekend.  Three day passes are available at www.epixhd.com/invite.   Watch Iron Man, Cloverfield, Curious Case of Benjamin Button, all four Indie Jones movies, even Scorsese’s Mick Jagger doc, Shine a Light.  Epix will be the first to run the Star Trek movie in the new year, so stay tuned.
(per SMW remarks)

Anthony Soohoo, CBS
CBS distribution strategy online, on mobile, in the connected home has been open, non-exclusive hyperdistribution to AOL, Yahoo!, Google, MSN. CBS.com watch full shows. TV.com nexgen navigation with integrated TiVo functionality and online personalized guide watchlists for the 20mm users of TV.com (2mm iPhone app downloads).  TV shows now, movies in the pipeline.  CBS Web Originals believes there are different ways to tell stories in terms of byte size text format, take about 3-4 different shows on a quarterly basis, on a project finance basis, find a sponsor working with the creators, then distribute across CBS properties and CBS Audience Network, bring expertise on sales side, largest video sales force out there, CBS Interactive is the 4th largest video player in the world, reach on a monthly basis 120mm.  Offer content creators sales and distribution piece mixed up with the TheInsider.com, TV.com, Chow.com, CBS.com.  300 syndicated partners.  A combination of having limited resources and it being early stage for the connected devices, focusing more on mobile right now.  TV Everywhere great for consumer, but only 52% of broadcast nets making content available, 10% cable nets, no economic model/measurement.
(per Commonwealth Club SmarterTV remarks)

Tom Gorke, MTV
Tasked with monetizing content off owned and operated 300 websites worldwide, goal is multiplatform, to stay close to consumer, drive awareness and traffic.  MTV is the largest provider of content to Xbox and iTunes.  The biggest driver of paid download to own is the need for portability, take it with you on the flight.  The need to aggregate a library of content has matured.  Done well on Hulu, Fancast, Atom, GameTrailers, DailyMotion, Veoh.  MTV is all about automation, too much content, it wouldn’t scale if had to customize, even putting a flag in a feed is tough.  Have close relationship with syndication partners, provide exclusive one off promotional content, lots of assets, art work, graphics.  Syndication partners care most about reliability and regularity of delivery, and standards of quality of content.  FB pulls a lot of content from MTV.  Really saw the power of Twitter during the VMAs with Kanye West.  MTV integrates Twitter into sites, audience of engaged folks.  Leading provider of mobile content, sold over 1mm of the 16 iPhone apps, VCast.  Live streaming tentpoles like Kids Choice Awards, VMAs. Live streaming is completely different technology (Ustream, Justin.TV, Kyte, Livestream).  When Ashton Kutcher did his Fantasy Football Show on Ustream viewership went from 100,000 to 1mm viewers, it had a watercoolers effect and was played everywhere all at once.  For the experiment, bought ad unit and inserted Ustream player – was expensive.
(per SMW remarks)

Vanessa Pappas, Next New Networks
500mm streams online in 3 years, 30mm views/month, believe in super-syndication concept, be where the audience is.  Yahoo! has been great for family entertainment, long form does well on iTunes.  TubeMogul is integrated in content management system but do a manual refresh to optimize sites that perform for you.  Recently hired category manager from YouTube.  Know your syndicated partner’s audience.  On Twitter you can’t just post and pray, need to have dialogue with engaged community.  Share office with Boxee, getting on Boxee, Roku..
(per SMW remarks)

Brett Wislon, TubeMogul
Free supersyndication service to Blip.tv, Break, Brightcove, DailyMotion, eBaum’s World, Facebook, Graspr, Grind TV, Howcast, i2TV, Imeem, Metacafe, MSN Video, Myspace, Revver, Sclipo, Sevenload, Streetfire, Twitter, StupidVideos, Veoh, VideoJug, Y! Video, YouTube, Viddler, Vimeo, 5min, Zoopy.  Best campaigns are hybrid like the recent intentionally lame Windows 7 videos.  Got 5.5mm views in September, impressive for a brand.  http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/24/video-windows-7-launch-party-parody-is-bleeping-genius/3.  Most have given up on trying to make money in online video.  Although YouTube is 50% of the game, study found that those that also syndicated to niche sites saw a 100x increase in viewership than those just on YouTube.  Greater success with vertical focus.  Analytics allow you to see where video is most embedded, can see if a specific mommy blog is an important outlet and starting feeding them exclusive content which they love because content drives traffic.  Moving from super-syndication (content everywhere blast) to hyper-syndication (content to engaged fans fast).  FB has no video strategy but is a top ten video site.  Study found most engaged viewers came from Twitter.
(per SMW remarks)

Brandon White, FUNimation
License anime content, aim to meet the needs of the licensors in Japan.  Syndicated via ad-supported video, iTunes, Xbox/Zune, PS3.  Use YouTube for fingerprinting.  Plan to syndicated across all CE devices – mobile, Blu-ray, web-enabled tvs.
(per SMW remarks)

Jim Louderback, Revision 3
Syndicates 20 shows including Diggnation broadly anywhere, anytime, any device, want to be where our audience millennial men live.  Auto-syndicates with Tubemogul but still need to manually refresh metadata at each site.
(per SMW remarks)

Dominik Rausch, Eleven Minutes Production, Easy To Assemble
EasytoAssembleSeries.com is a sponsored star-studded sitcom that has garnered 4.2mm+ views between its Season I & II on MyDamnChannel, YouTube, Ikeafans.com, KoldKastTV, Hulu.  Also distributed on iTunes.  In talks with DVD sales, releasing on hotel networks, subtitles for 10-15 additional countries in Europe & Asia.  Innovative series where in addition to celebrities like Illeana Douglas, Justine Bateman, Tom Arnold…IKEA is a co-star.  Web series same premium quality as film, all 10 episodes of second season strings together as a movie.  Production company is thinking of new ways to make content adapting to fragmented time-shifting society.  As traditional TV distribution disappears, new media will take over distribution for all platforms.
(per Commonwealth Club SmarterTV remarks)

Brent Friedman, Electric Farm
Production budget for Crackle’s Woke Up Dead is over $1mm, high for a web production but has talent attached which attracted integrated sponsors like Kodak.   (Premise of show is friend trying to monetize fact that friend is a living zombie, sub-plot pitching to brands for sponsorship).  Sometimes you have to take a risk to get a bigger payoff just like more marketing dollars equals more views.  Kodak also cross-promoted on their own site which over a million monthly uniques.  Valemont is a success with an engaged community of 25,000.
(per SMW remarks)

Thom Woodley, Dinosuar Diorama
All-For-Nots co-produced with Eisner’s Vuguru.  Doesn’t like sponsor integration, hurts show creatively, prefer ad-insertion, and smaller more engaged audiences of 50-100,000, hasn’t quit his day job as ad agency exec yet. Show All’s Faire about the Renaissance Faire reaches 20,000 Renaissance Faire fans plus sci fi, comics and comedy buffs.
(per SMW remarks)

I’ve just come across a site and it seems pretty interesting. Without wanting to appear to be an advertisement (as they’re most definitely not giving me any money), it’s worth having a look at Howcast.com.

It has some pretty good and some pretty amusing “how to” videos (and I’m talking how to do something, just in case you were hoping for an online archive of Carol Vorderman and co) which, at only a couple of minutes long each, managed to hold my attention.

Today’s favourites include how to spread a rumour  (did you know that apparently 95% of office rumours are true? And you thought those two never would…) and how to order a beer in seven languages, but I could easily spend all day finding out how to do things I never knew I wanted to do.

But the real reason I picked up on this site was that it does tell us how to do something that all budding journalists are supposed to be doing – twittering. How to use twitter is a nice idiot proof introduction - even I understood it. Since I can’t embed it directly from the site, here’s the YouTube version for you to peruse.

I still remember the first day I got access to the internet in my home. It hadn’t been the first time I used the internet since we were being taught how to make proper use of it in school. However, when I was sitting there, in my own living room, listening to that cacophony of noises that is the process of connecting to the dial-up internet, I knew I was going to be hooked.

My prophecy was true. Ever since that day, I’ve become more and more attached to the internet. I quickly found that in this online world, I can either be anyone I want, or an extension of myself. For a while I roamed around websites and didn’t really bother involving myself. However, in the summer of 2003, when I was 16-years-old, I created my first virtual identity.

I had recently gotten into the famous series of books, Harry Potter. I found an online forum that when joining, characterized everyone as a certain character from the books. You were able to take roles from the books and apply them into this virtual world. I loved it. For the next year, I joined MuggleNet Interactive (MNI) as a moderator (or a Prefect). I would return from school and dash to the computer to find out what I’ve missed. There were even weeks when I would leave this website open and simply refresh the page over and over (we had gotten the constantly connected cable connection by then). However, I had adopted a whole new identity for that website. Afraid that I’d be marginalized for being an Arab, I lied. I created a whole new self on MNI. A British schoolboy from a boarding school in London. It was difficult to keep up with all the lies after that. Where exactly in London? What’s the name of your school? Who is your roommate? What subjects do they teach? Who are your favorite teachers? Which is your favorite restaurant in London? etc.

Eventually, I dropped my fake persona, finding it very difficult to keep up. Then I soon found out that living a virtual second life wasn’t for me and left MNI for good when I was 17. That was six years ago. However, to this day, I am still a huge Harry Potter fan and proud of it and I regularly visit the Harry Potter fansite, MuggleNet.

MuggleNet Homepage

Now I do have other interests and one of them is finding out about things to build up my general knowledge. Websites such as Wikipedia, About.com, and Encyclopedia Britannica are almost daily attractions for me. Whenever I’m bored, I visit one or all of them and search for whatever pops into my head, from Animism to Za’atar. However, one of my favorite informational websites is Howcast, a website that provides in instructional short-form how-to video and text content that combines practical information with various filmmaking techniques such as humor, claymation, and animation.

Howcast Homepage

I’m also extremely interested in film and so I tend to visit websites such as ComingSoon.net, IMDB.com, and Apple – Movie Trailers.

Apple - Movie Trailers Homepage

And last, but certainly not least, my iGoogle homepage. Providing a link here would be pointless since you would need to have my Gmail account username and password in order to see it, and I will not be giving those away. But, I will show you a screenshot of what I see every time I open my browser.

My iGoogle Homepage

5min announced today a deal to syndicate home and food videos from Scripps Networks (s SNI), give Scripps the ability to sell advertising on its videos and others in the 5min VideoSeed network, and provide relevant videos for Scripps sites. (Scripps properties include HGTV, Food Network, DIY Network, Shopzilla, BizRate and uSwitch; it wasn’t stated which ones will be involved with 5min.)

5min CEO Ran Harnevo

So a site like Answers.com, DoItYourself.com, something more specific like Pregnancy.org, or now Scripps properties, can keep going about their normal business producing text content. 5min inserts an in-line video player that pops up when it determines one of its 120,000 pre-screened videos is relevant to the particular topic. Ad revenue from views of the video is shared between 5min, the publisher, and the creator of the video.

Harnevo said 5min has sold 100 percent of its inventory for the past 12 months and gets an average 2 percent click-through-rate for direct sales. Sites in the network are making “five digits a month” and content creators $5,000 to $10,000 per month. 5min has 320 publishers and 250 million monthly uniques.

Sure, 5min is just getting started, but the company is clearly doing something right. It’s taking how-to videos, which are the closest parallel to contextually targeted cost-per-click Google text ads, and treating the videos just like text ads.

Google (s GOOG) itself had actually done something similar with YouTube videos. However its AdSense Video Unit product was not about context, but rather publishers choosing to display videos from a pre-set list of YouTube partners. That product was shut down earlier this year. YouTube is now experimenting other contextual video recommendations within its own site, but it’s never really given the distributed, contextual approach 5min is taking a fair shot.

But where 5min is focusing on distribution rather than production, another how-to video startup is doubling down on its investment in content. Howcast has raised $1 million in a $3 million round of funding, according to an SEC filing found by paidContent. The company says it’s “selectively expanding participation for growth capital” based on “strong market traction.” Howcast, which has recently gotten glowing coverage on Nightline and in the New York Times, told both outlets it expects to be profitable next year.

And it’s not someone I met on JDate, either.

Have ya’ll heard about Howcast? It’s a website with Youtube qualities that focuses on “how to” videos made by “emerging filmmakers.” I just got started looking around…but I like what I see.

Embedding isn’t working. But check out how to mount a horse if you have two minutes.

Israeli how-to video site startup 5min said today that it’s raised $7.5 million in a Series B round led by Globespan Capital Partners, with previous investor Spark Capital kicking in as well. Including the $5 million first round and angel funding, this latest round brings the total amount 5min has raised to $12.8 million.

In December of last year, 5min launched its video syndication platform VideoSeed, which matches relevant how-to videos to keywords used on partner sites.

The how-to video playing field remains a crowded one. Among those that have raised funds over the past year or so are Howcast, which has taken in $10 million and Graspr, which has raised $2.5 million. And Videojug at one point had a war chest of $30 million.

Per tutti coloro che si sono sempre chiesti come salvarsi se smarriti in una foresta, come baciare appassionatamente o che non hanno mai capito come fare il nodo alla cravatta, è finalmente arrivata la soluzione online che aspettavano: Howcast.com.

How to, “come fare per…”: questo è il motto della piattaforma di videosharing che fornisce ricette e istruzioni per il self-made.

Al posto di lunghe letture e indicazioni incomprensibili, Howcast.com propone video originali, divertenti e illustrativi, spesso surreali come How To Fight Off a Vampire (Come sconfiggere un vampiro) o How To Play a Real-Life Game Of Quidditch (Come giocare una reale partita di Quidditch) per realizzare imprese, attività, viaggi, etc all’insegna del fai-da-te.

Una volta entrati in Howcast.com è davvero difficile uscirne. Dubbi, perplessità e curiosità che appartengono ad ogni comune essere umano sono finalmente risolti seguendo lo schema di una ricetta culinaria: partendo dagli ingredienti necessari e opzionali per realizzare la nostra opera,  si passa poi alla presentazione delle istruzioni che bisognerà seguire step by step. In molti casi l’ironia di fondo è eccellente.

I video durano 2-3 minuti e vengono realizzati da aspiranti registi o semplici amatori che ottengono anche una ricompensa in denaro: 50 dollari per ogni video caricato. Il sito vanta già di un archivio di 100 mila video suddivisi in 25 categorie: dalla tecnologia ai viaggi, dal cibo agli animali. (repubblica.it)

Per chi non avesse ancora imparato a usare Twitter è giunto il momento di consultare How to use Twitter che, non a caso, è uno dei video-ricetta più cliccati insieme a How To Have Sex in a Car (Come fare sesso in auto) e How To Kiss Like Angelina Jolie (Come baciare Angelina Jolie).

I sogni possono realizzarsi seguendo piccole e divertenti regole!

La Blanche

There’s so much I want to know.  Stuff like:  How to kiss like Angelina Jolie. How to shotgun a beer. How to knit fingerless gloves. How to fight off a vampire. How to generate good karma. So much to learn, so little time. But now there’s a web site that tells me everything I need to know. www.howcast.com   Developed by Google and You Tube veterans, the site was named on Time’s 50 Best Websites in 2008. With over 100,000 videos and counting, I sense endless entertainment and vast knowledge to be had, just  a keystroke away.  There was even a Howcast about choosing the right thong (almost 60,000 views). Wow. I wonder if they’ll have lessons in How not to be an arrogant ass, a wife beater, a liar or a douchenozzle?  

The video “How to have sex in the car” has generated over a million views.  If you have to watch a video to figure that out, then…

Check the New York Times article for the story about Howcast.

I think there is much to be learned from studying how other people simplify and present complex information, so the article in the NY times biz section on Sunday about Howcast, the online “how to” video resource, was enlightening. Howcast is one of a growing number of sites that are trying to capitalize on the YouTube-inspired frenzy for online video, by creating short, instructional videos on a ridiculously wide range of topics—from the useful (how to use Twitter) to the frivolous (how to survive a bear attack…on second thought, maybe the Twitter video is frivolous, and the bear attack is useful). The requisite rating, sharing, and commenting features apply.

The Times article makes some interesting points about the opportunities and challenges of entering the social media business category. Howcast CEO, Jason Liebman is quoted, “Being a media company today means you can’t exist inside a walled garden, just driving traffic to your own site. You have to produce the content, distribute it all over the Web, develop the technology — all of which is hard to do. But you need to do everything in order to be successful today.”

In other words, it’s relatively easy to enter the category, but it’s enormously challenging to stick, succeed, and make a profit.

Of course, I was drawn to the “How to start a business” section which includes an impressive number of videos, but not too much that is fresh or informative. Here’s one on writing a business plan that is not terribly original, but it delivers some pretty dense material in a concise, effective way.

Entre tanta falsedad que hay en estos dias, uno ya no puede confiar en nada!!

Asi que esta es una guia para que nadie les vea la cara ( ya que ustedes no veran otra cosa que el tema del video) y sean muy habiles para saber la verdad.

La pagina se llama www.howcast.com y pueden encontrar infinidad de “how’s to” y escogi este despues de ver varios de muchos, desde como hacer helado, tomar fotografias, saber si le gustas a otra persona, etc,etc.

Al inicio de  cada uno tiene lo que uno necesitara entre materiales y habilidades y algunos consejos y advertencias. Los videos estan muy bien producidos, valen la pena.

Entren a ver algunos otros!

Si no me creen que hay de todo, he aqui el link sobre como jugar un partido en la vida real de Quidditch, el juego de escobas voladoras de Harry Potter!

http://www.howcast.com/videos/204924-How-To-Play-a-RealLife-Game-Of-Quidditch

I was approached AGES ago about whether I would be interested in establishing a HowCast channel for Stu’s Shed, and recently I finally did just that.

You can find it at http://www.howcast.com/users/StusShed

There are about 19 videos on there at the moment, and I expect that once the problem I am experiencing with my original video feed is sorted, the other 38 or so will magically appear there as well (speaking of which, I have been working with Blip.TV, and we are close to solving the video problems).

Podcasting for How-to!

If you have trouble viewing videos on this site, and don’t use iTunes to get the podcast, another option is to go directly to my TV channel on Blip.tv – this is where all the original videos are hosted, and you can view them streamed directly from that site. http://stusshed.blip.tv/ All 57 or so videos are there, ready to be viewed.

WWW.TENISVELHO.COM

Silicone ou Natural?

http://www.tenisvelho.com/silicone-ou-natural/

Você é um macho conhecerdor de seios?

Você sabe diferenciar quando o seio é siliconado ou natural?

Mais Notícias em:

Ganhe dinheiro com o EASY SHARE

WWW.TENISVELHO.COM

Silicone ou Natural?

http://www.tenisvelho.com/silicone-ou-natural/

Você é um macho conhecerdor de seios?

Você sabe diferenciar quando o seio é siliconado ou natural?

Mais Notícias em:

Ganhe dinheiro com o EASY SHARE

Like many Americans, I have been riveted by the outpouring of dissent in Iran against the powers that be. It is amazing to see such a public expression of outrage in an oppressive society. And it is equally amazing that the government can’t seem to put a lid on it.

One fascinating element of this story is the role that the Internet is playing as an outlet for that dissent. There have been numerous reports that the Iranian government has blocked cell-phone calls and access to Facebook and other Web sites, and shut down text messaging services for two days.

So how do videos, pictures and blog posts keep popping up? Well, one reason may be that Iranian geeks are finding a way to run around the censors. Check out this video by Howcast, which was financed by the U.S. State Dep., which shows you how to circumvent Internet censors and keep publishing.

relationship advice from Renzie.

These days, almost anyone who’s anyone has a digital video camera- even those built into mobile phones, laptops and regular cameras.

So what’s to stop you from capturing your own intimate moments with your significant other for posterity’s sake or for personal archiving?

Sex tapes and sex scandals have been around longer than Hayden Kho (and his various playmates), Katrina Halili, or if you prefer, Paris Hilton, Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson, etc.

Personally, I don’t care what you do in the bedroom on your time, as long as it’s consensual and kept private.

Which brings us to the topic of this post.

With digital media being oh-so-easy to share, and everyone out to catch a glimpse of the latest in amateur porn, shouldn’t you take extra precautions to protect your very own private stash?

Video courtesy of HowCast.

Here’s what I say:  Keep it private, keep it safe, keep it consensual.

Cheers, everyone!

cat care with Renzie.

If you’re a serious ailurophile like myself, you’ll probably want to learn how to talk to your cat.

Cats are extremely intelligent (although admittedly snobbish) little creatures capable of displaying lots of affection, loyalty and love for its human companion.

Here’s a little video on how to communicate with your cat.

Video courtesy of HowCast.

Cheers, everyone!

Howcast is a website devoted to how-to videos.  The cool thing is, they’re all made by aspiring filmmakers, like me.  They give you a script, and then set you loose to shoot whatever you want.

Best part is, you get paid $50 for every video!  It’s not much, considering the time it takes to shoot even a two minute video, but at least it’s something for your resume and reel.

My first video, “How to Calculate Your Carbon Footprint,” is online now. Check it out.

Recently I wrote about the US Air Force’s detailed social media plan and pointed out that many companies could learn something from their bottom-up approach.  Now, I am reading how the US State Department plans to use social media to create a Digital Town Hall.  This event is not just a bunch of “Joe-the-plumbers” on YouTube.  No, this Digital Town Hall will have a much more impressive guest list, including U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. 

The State Department is using Howcast (odd choice) for the video streaming but content will also be available on Facebook, MySpace, Ustream, YouTube and Twitter.  Additionally, if none of those sites strike your fancy that night, you can grab the embedded code and stream the Digital Town Hall meeting.  You can even select your preferred language for the night.  Would you like fries with that?

All of this social media play by government agencies seems a little odd, because when you think of the US government, quick and trendy are not the first two adjectives that come to mind.  So why is it that when it comes to social media, government agencies are far ahead of the vast majority of American corporations? 

To answer that, consider what makes up the core of social media?  Opinion, conversation, interaction, rapid fire news, open dialogue, banter, promotions, follows me “wars”.  Politicians and the agencies that represent them are thriving in Social Media because it reflects the communication format they work in every day.  Real time, no holds barred, direct communication.

In the recent past, brands were built on research, strategy, planning, and crafting of a unique message intended to capture the spending dollars of consumers.  Social Media has turned brand building, and marketing in general, into a real-time, hold-on to the seat of your pants type of event.  Because of this, marketing campaigns and political campaigns now have much more in common and Marketing Managers need to address their brand the way a Campaign Manager oversees a candidate.  In politics, it’s great to have everyone talking about your candidate, but you still have to control the message the public takes away from all that talk.  The only way to do that is to jump into the discussion and spin the message back to the core ideas. 

Politics is all about spinning the message and to spin the message you need involvement and control.  Politics is real time, all the time and it makes sense that the Spin Doctors would be able to easily move their communication style into social media.  Now, it’s Corporate America’s turn.  Is your company ready to spin?

State Dept. Hosting High-Tech Execs in Iraq – Federal Eye -.

Several executives from well-known high tech firms are in Iraq this week as guests of the State Department, part of an effort to boost the use of online and social media in the war-torn country.

While in Iraq, the tech representatives will meet with government officials, educators and other community leaders to talk about how their technologies can be used to help boost transparency, accountability and anti-corruption efforts. The delegation arrived Sunday and will be in the country through Thursday, according to State Department acting spokesman Robert Wood.

“As Iraqis think about how to integrate new technology as a tool for smart power, we view this as an opportunity to invite American technology industry to be part of this creative genesis,” Wood said during Monday’s daily press briefing.

Among those traveling as part of the first-of-its-kind delegation is Twitter chairman and founder Jack Dorsey.

“The embassy has yoga classes. And belly dancing,” Dorsey tweets, in reference to the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.

“Cell phone usage here is massive and the velocity is increasing,” he adds. “17.5 million mobiles. 85% penetration. The infrastructure is overwhelmed. Only 0.06% Internet penetration.” (You can also follow the action on Dorsey’s Flickr feed.)

Richard Robbins, AT&T’s director of social innovation, is also along for the trip and quoted/tweeted Iraq’s deputy prime minister: “The only way I can get through cabinet meetings that are long and boring is looking at my iPhone.”

Blue State Digital vice president David Nassar summed up the first few hours of the trip: “What a day. Flight to Baghdad, no food for 14 hours, then huge meal with Iraqi General. Trying to absorb everything.”

But later he tweeted that the “Highlight of today by far was meeting a brave young Private and having him show us around his vehicle.”

Dorsey, Robbins and Nassar are traveling with Jason Lieberman founder and CEO of the “how to” video site Howcast, MeetUp CEO Scott Heiferman, Raanan Bar-Cohen, vice president of blog engine WordPress, Kannan Pashupathy, Google’s director of international engineering operations, Ahmad Hamzawi, Google’s Head of Engineering for the Middle East and Africa and Hunter Walk, head of product development for YouTube.

President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and just about every other presidential contender used many of the technologies provided by the companies represented on the trip for outreach, organizing and fundraising during the 2008 campaign. Since Obama’s victory, several tech leaders have met with transition and administration officials to explore ways to collaborate and adapt their technologies to governing.

The delegation travels to Iraq as Foggy Bottom continues to expand its online presence. Clinton hosted a digital town hall while in the Dominican Republic last week and officials regularly update the Dipnote blog. It also has an active YouTube channel and launched Exchanges Connect last year, a social media site for anyone interested in global affairs. The Obama team has adapted its use of social media during the presidential campaign to governing, earning early praise for turning the president’s weekly radio address into an Internet affair.

By washingtonpost.com Editors  |  April 21, 2009; 6:06 AM ET  | Category:  Agencies and Departments

wie gutes chilli mit kaffee runterzuspuelen.

erst merkwuerdig. so aehlich empfand ich die nachricht heute, dass google, twitter, meetup.com, howcast, at&t und einige andere tech-firmen auf geheiß der us-regierung  unterwegs in bagdad sind, um… ja, was zu machen.. wahrscheinlich lawrencevonarabienesk 1001 nacht in puncto telco zu consulten/analyzen/leveragen (so aehnlich heißts mit sicherheit). oder wie es @jack (mitgruender twitter) zwitschert “Nothing specific. We want to listen to figure out what works and what’s needed”. etwas konkreter wird @heif, dafuer vermutlich von W’s redenschreiber assistiert: “can’t wait to hear how iraqis might embrace potential of the people’s internet in a 21st century democracy..that’s why we’re here”.

** update **

mittlerweile ist auch eine offizielle pressemitteilung des state departments veroeffentlicht.

During their visit to Iraq, they will provide conceptual input as well as ideas on how new technologies can be used to build local capacity, foster greater transparency and accountability, build upon anti-corruption efforts, promote critical thinking in the classroom, scale-up civil society, and further empower local entities and individuals by providing the tools for network building.

zweifelsohne spannend. dennoch hat die einleitung seine berechtigung, denn da gibt es doch etwas, einen leicht saeurlich, bis widerlichen beigeschmack. mal abgesehen davon, dass die live-bericht durch @jack, @heif und@rar646 teils wie ein stueck surreales kasperletheater der EBS wirken und mit solchenoder solchentweets oder solcherlei flickr-shows eher den anschein einer klassenfahrt erwecken.

es ist ja auch ein schoenes bild; da treffen sich die freundlichen, bunten buchstaben und das putzige voegelchen im irak, um dort ein wenig zu spielen – und nebenbei ordentlich business zu machen. unabsichtlich quasi.

die schoene und neue, vor allem aber bunte welt der tech-firmen wirkt oft so freundlich und arglos, dass vergessen wird, dass es auch hier letztlich nur um viel kohle geht – auch wenn das motte “dont be evil” lautet. ob es nun google ist, dass allein schon durch seine omnipotenz skeptisch stimmen sollte oder das vergleichsweise winzige “growth-monster” twitter, oder der ikonische apfel.. letztlich leben diese unternehmen (vllt. mit abstrichen bei letzerem) nur durch uns user, also unsere informationen, unseren input, unser habenwollen. das mit diesem asset auch leicht unfug getrieben werden kann oder dinge passieren, die uns vielleicht nicht gefallen, das scheinen wir allzuoft auszublenden.

wenn die zukunft des vernetzten krieges (newsweek via readwriteweb) schon jetzt auf dem und durch das iphone stattfindet, dann braucht es wenig vorstellungsvermoegen, um sich auszumalen, was dienste wie twitter oder meetup dort (mindestens auch) zu suchen haben. schon jetzt waere passives und gruppenorientiertes  instant-messaging mit spaeßen wie geotargeting u.ae. sicherlich bestens fuer die haeuserkampfkommunikation geeignet.. das allerdings ist sicherlich nicht das ende der fahnenstange.

ich will das nicht per se verteufeln, aber darueber nachdenken sollte man schon. denn wo wir dann auch schnell dabei sein koennten, quasi als stiller aktivposten kann beispielsweise hier sehen, bei den unembedded jorunalists.