Nothing is more important or more of a differentiator between businesses than their corporate culture. Jason Calacanis is writing Mahalo’s own corporate culture document and posted three great examples.

NetFlix corporate culture document

Meetup.com Corporate Culture Document

The Zappos culture document

Digital Hollywood, the standard by which all digital media conferences are measured, a gathering at the intersection of film tv music gaming social mobile, an intense, exhilarating, deliriously exhausting brain squeeze where the brightest in the business try to piece it together while moving faster than the speed of light.  On stage and off were blockbuster producers, award-winning filmmakers, showrunners, web-celebs, network execs, festival programmers, publicists, press and brands. Even other stellar confabs (Westdoc, NY Television Festival, Digital Media Wire, SanFranMusicTech) were there soaking it in.  Co-located with the Variety Summit, Gerber Rigler Content Summit, EPPS Summit and CodeSpace Summit, infused with fresh and compelling happenings like a pitchfest with acquisition executives and screenings of the Interactive Emmy nominee reels and a Sundance winner.  The networking was outstanding, the information gold, and there was never a dull moment.  So many speakers and surprises, it wasn’t possible to get it all.  Luckily, the video is up at www.digitalhollywoodlive.com.  And the Twitter stream at #DH09.  Below is just a small summary of what was said:

Neil Stiles, Variety
WSJ estimated YouTube earned $250mm on $1B in storage costs/year, puzzled by this, just don’t get it.  Hulu is trading analog dollars for digital pennies, CPMs gravitating to zero, when it gets to 5000 channels, everyone is a producer.  Every blogger is 9 years old, throw it up quick without regard to accuracy, leaving it to the wisdom of the crowd to clear mistakes. Web revenue will never be as attractive as print, if you spend money creating TV film content someone has to pay, consumers will pay for engagement, for what they can do with the content.  New models of content as a service, pay once, use in whatever form you want.

Orly Adelson, Dick Clark Productions
Our brand is our award shows, putting embeddable preshow online to drive interest onair.   There are an infinite number of eyeballs to attract so why not put it everywhere. Social media is a great filter, fans see something they like, they pass it around. With the Country Music Awards, there is a 200% spike in music sales the day after CMAs because viewers tell friends to check out the songs featured.  Would love to put  So You Think You Can Dance online but too expensive because of music rights.  Make great content and they will come…Paranormal was made for $11,000, now in 160 theatres, at that cost there is no risk, my kids said it was scary, when a film evokes a strong reaction like that you’re going to have a big draw.  Many are watch shows online because they don’t know when it’s on air, it’s easier to find them online.

Peter Guber, Mandalay Entertainment
Technology was not born 4 years ago, it was born thousands of years ago.  One of the largest owners of baseball teams and stadiums in the US.  Teaches class at UCLA.  Today you need to be a renaissance person, cant just be movies, or just be music. Started out in 1968 at Columbia Pictures when there was an elitism, tv didn’t speak to film or music, today is the greatest opportunity that ever existed to bring audience directly to the artist.  Can no longer think of yourself as a movie guy, landscape is changing too rapidly, the rate of change is 3D omnipresent, no longer linear, how do you stay present, its the beginning of the beginning.  Now things are being pulled by you, by interest, we’re in a sea change, can’t have linear philosophy.  We are no longer talking to one monolithic audience of a million, rather we are talking to an audience of one, a million times over. Will watch dailies on iPhone but not Forest Gump.  Regarding interactivity, may not be interested in changing the outcome of the story but might want to buy that thing on the show, so there will be an integrated benefit.  The opportunity to talk back and intersect with the host, the immediate audience reaction changes the outcome, similar to what happens when your onstage and you make a bad joke, you move on.  The medium will dictate.  Can’t be without a phone.  When producing a product you go after a niche.  Paranormal, the new Blair Witch, was made for $15,000, Avatar epic is closer to half a billion sitting in theatres side by side, does it make sense to charge the same ticket price?

Carson Daly, Last Call with Carson Daly @carsonjdaly
Launched TRL in 1998 in response to how bad music videos were on MTV, wanted to empower viewers to choose, in a way it was the beginning of social media on TV when we turned the programming reigns over to the viewers.  If only Viacom would have bought MySpace would have been able to get a deeper connection with the kids.  Now at NBC and at the end of the day it comes down to money, NBC is owned by GE, we need to get paid.  We still don’t see lonelygrl15 driving around in a Porsche. Last Call with Carson Daly breaks bands. Artists are fueled by ego.  Many older musicians don’t have much of a digital footprint, they want to know what’s the play, is it worth their time, takes a lot of time to post (Miley Cyrus, eh), make more money elsewhere, they want to know where is Twitter’s value? Post 20x/day to 38,000+ Twitter followers for #militarymondays, like the idea of microblogging but not that into it personally.  Would post a picture of my mom but never of my kid.  In 2006, got Kevin Reilly’s backing to take a fresh spin on AFV with IYS, It’s Your Show.  Went to the web for talent, lots of tastemakers online, recruited those with big followings, one was Brookers, the most viewed female on YouTube.  But the NBC.com people never met the programming people and it didn’t go anywhere.  At the end of the day, the bills have to be paid. As for integrations, used to hate the Coke on Idol as a blatant sell out but now I get it.  The DVR has killed the 30 second spot, so now selling integrations, pitch Chevy on Mary J. Blige getting out of a Chevy truck at MSG.  As long as you’re selling stuff that relates to my wheelhouse, that’s relevant to me – golf, girls, guacamole, guns, beer – no problem.  As far as cost, content creators need to start factoring into production the way content is being consumed.  Why spend to shoot in panoramic, why not tv ratio.  25y ago you could spend $40,000 to create a show for a guy and hope he watches but now that guy is not just watching tv, he’s gaming, he’s tweeting, he’s elsewhere.  Richard has invited me out to Hanger 8 but have an exclusive with NBC, so can’t, but if I was out of work would be at Hanger 8 filming, why not.  Fox has done things for $15,000 as well as $.5B successfully.  There is a cyclical nature to film that circles round CGI and Arthouse…I want to feel a movie again.  In some ways I miss the days of the movie star, as SNL’s Seth Myers puts it, today celebrity just means mammal.  Balloon Boy is a celebrity.  Go to Starbucks everyone is talking to each other but no mouths are moving, noone is looking at each other.  The good news is the value of the live social experience is on the up.  (More from CD at #w2s, here onstage with Mark Cuban)

Richard Rosenblatt, Demand Media, @demandrichard
Serial entrepreneur built over $1.4B in internet media companies, credits include MySpace and Demand Media.  In the old days they’d pay 400x profit for future platforms but it was early.  This is a great time now, we are finally at the point where digital and hollywood come together.   This is the first time ever the audience is telling you – who is that guy and what he wants.  In 2004, MySpace profiles weren’t real for fear of who was reading it, now on FB everything is real, pictures of kids, family, there is so much personal information on FB profiles. (Carson – it’s a big mistake, trusting too much) But you can now find 100,000 people interested in bocce ball, culling for niches has never been easier.  Even Yahoo is going open and shared.  When you know what people want, you can connect them to the stuff they need.  That’s why I bought eHow.  There are 100,000/month looking to make homemade detergent.  1mm articles, 200,000 videos on long tail topics with Digg features, etc.  Demand’s Livestrong.com has 6mm visitors/month allows Lance to bypass media, at the Tour de France he was tweeting from his bike.  Wife Brooke has Modern Mom show.  See Comcast/NBC as a good move, Comcast is very progressive.  Follow trends, to see where we’re heading you must immerse yourself in the technology first, FB, Twitter, try different things but make the right choices where to focus time, you can’t follow every company TechCrunch, PaidContent, Variety writes about, pick game changing trends, if a lot of people are doing it, there’s something to it.  Twitter works great for celebrities and marketers, great way to send links and filter information.  A great example is the movie Couples Retreat, critics hated it but friends were recommending it and caused a spike despite bad reviews.  Follow 5-6 people you trust, see what they say, with 70mm on the mobile web and 100mm tweets a day, a good search engine can filter valuable information like what’s skiing like on Mammoth today.  Twitter search is better than Google.  Sun Valley Media Conference chatter – 31% of retail companies are using FB connect.  People buy in their network, what to see what friends are shopping for.  As soon as advertisers can figure out ROI, the whole market will open up.  Regarding Chris Anderson’s Free, there’s always someone paying whether its the user or the advertiser.  If time is a scarce resource would its good to have the choice to pay then spend time watching commercials.

Stuart Levine, Variety
A lot of great shows this season:  Modern Family, Glee, Biggest Loser, Sons of Anarchy.  More watching NCIS than going to Transformers.  There is an enthusiasm for TV.  Personally have 37 season passes on AppleTV, watch 7 days later, some great shows cancelled due to bad time slots.  Mark Cherry has been talking about Desperate Housewives – when is it going to end (Lost similar), some shows have a limited life, want to go out with a bang. / What was a 22 episode season, we are now seeing more 10-12-13 episode mid-seasons. / The broadcast 18-49, 25-54 demo is antiquated, Viacom has it as 18-24, 18-34, everyone calls it something else as they sell to different niches.

Marc Graboff, NBCU
TV has a 90% failure rate, but the networks need to get out of the way and provide a platform for creatives vision.  People don’t realize networks don’t get paid for shows that are TiVo’d.  The numbers are off  full rating points because the DVR causes a 4 week delay.  DVR usage hurts more than streaming.  Networks don’t get compensated for time-shifting.  25% The Office and 30% of Heroes are time-shifted.  Being worked on by CIMM, the Council for Innovative Media Measurement, comprised of 14 advertisers, agencies and TV companies, who are developing cross-platform metrics intended to measure total audience consumption on any platform anytime. / At NBC mid-season orders not happening, difficult to accumulate enough stuff to sell in backend, 13 episodes is not enough. USA, TBS, TNT largest 3 cable networks take couple of hundred episode order, 5 22-episode seasons.  That said, with windows collapsing, perhaps 13 episodes can be monetized instantaneously.  Why delay syndication pot of gold for four years, why not take little bags of gold along the way.  / Audience is so fragmented, hits no longer pay for losers. Have to retool because of a change in consumption.  / Glad we’re equity owners of Hulu, remember Hulu was an antipiracy move, if it wasn’t on Hulu 24 hours after it was on air it would be pirated.  Hulu as a destination site for quality fully produced masters of the show.  Just wish we weren’t training viewers to watch programming online with so little ad viewing.  FOD windows, pay to watch earlier.  NBC.com is a superfan site, place to go when show is not on to interact with characters, creators, stars, chat, blog.  Then there is the blogosphere, twitterverse where viral word of mouth spreads fast, its a phenomenon.  Bruno had huge numbers Friday night, word of mouth was bad and numbers fell off on Saturday. / Regarding Leno it’s too early to tell, doing better than projected, will evaluate in 52 weeks, not affecting House at 8 or Law & Order at 9.  It’s a transitional year for NBC, Jay happened last December, didn’t want to lose Jay or Conan, wanted comedy to counter the crime/dramas on the other networks, this was the solution.  Impact on local news, everyone is down in the 11pm slot:  CBS 10%, ABC 11%, NBC 12%. / Higher CPMs with more targeted audiences, still need to aggregate eyeballs.  / Cable model is robust, subscriber base is there, free TV syndication not, cash license fees on barter, 30 Rock syndication all barter whereas The Office years ago was all cash.  / We’ve been guilty of derivative reality shows like everyone else.  Looking for next big tent pole watercooler reality show, not drama, comedy or next ABT, Biggest Loser.  Something fresh.  (Marc Graboff, NBCU also delivered EPPS Keynote later in the conference:  http://www.mobilizedtv.com/nbc-entertainments-marc-graboff-keynotes-at-digital-hollywood) Advertising scatter market strong sell in the last minute, % held back from summer upfronts.  For many years we were #1, not fun being #4, great projects in development with Bruckheimer, Abrams.  On the right path creatively.  ABC was #4 for awhile now ahead with Lost, Desperate Housewives, Grey, CBS Survivor, CSI, Fox has Idol.  NBC wants a big fat reality shows that drives 20mm+ viewers an episode into the network.  NBC has its brand of comedies 30Rock, The Office.  Want a quality drama in the aftermarket.  A million great ideas, it’s in the execution.  Partnering with experienced  showrunners who can deliver 22 episodes of quality TV year after year.  / Branded entertainment – Bud Golden Wheat sponsored entire SNL episode and there were 9 minutes less commercials as a result.  Harkens back to Texaco Star Theater.  Product integration can’t compensate for loss of 30 second spots.  12-15% decline in upfronts will never recover.  Biggest shift in ad spending is from TV to cable.  Don’t know if it will ever come back.  Luckily NBC is in both.  TV is still the best way for big reach, mass audience – Olympics, Superbowl, 25mm weekly watercooler show.  Making shows available online has been additive, not cannibalizing.  Most avid viewers only watch half the episode.  Online gives a chance to catch up. And a chance to sample to other shows like Dexter.  The Office came alive on iTunes and made it a hit.  ABC.com, NBC.com, Fox.com stream online first before there was a Hulu, Hulu was the answer to piracy.  Safe legal environment to stream shows, not bootlegged rough cuts.  Hulu 4th most trafficked site.  Now its bolstering its economics. TV windows are collapsing, not watching Mash by default anymore because there is nothing else on.  No middle class anymore, hit tv drives revenue. Hits like Seinfeld will survive collapsing of windows.  Twitter and the blogs great place for instantaneous feedback, can’t control messaging, word of thumb.  Twitter killed Bruno, made Paranormal.  Glee @ Fox hit show because of tweeters, released pilot early.  Some tweeters are from the networks, plenty of that goes on.  Rebecca Marks at NBC culls social media on NBCU execs and shows.  Have to treat bloggers as journalists.

Mark Koops, Reveille
The Office the first season didn’t have the biggest ratings, but it did well for the network and they supported Greg Daniels with press, promotion, marketing, not telling him how to write a script. / Would have loved to have had Millionaire, the first $B failure continues to live on in syndication as a $B franchise.  / Talking about the cycle model, Biggest Loser took 2 cycles to increase ratings, now attracting marketing partners and advertisers on a more consistent basis, high-end sponsors:  Subway, General Mills integrations.. The only one showing up to watch Project Runway in the beginning was Laura Zalaznick.  / People turn up and watch The Biggest Loser and The Office because they know when its on, when you move the time slot the message to the audience is forget it.  / Mercy great scripted show on NBC, well cast, well written series, hope they stick with it.  / When you watch 24, you know you’re getting 24 original episodes, no more 3 originals with a repeat a week, with Biggest Loser (Tu you know you’re getting 32 weeks of original programming.  / House business model works, control cost of it, powerful storytelling.

John Landgraf, FX Networks
Don’t have a huge slate, 11 scripted series, still read every script, watch every rough cut.  Creative stuff is fragile, need to baby it and nurture it in its infancy til its grows to be a robust adult.  / Damages viewing is up 80% from DVR but don’t get paid for it.  Nielsen needs to be revamped, follow viewers where they are, FOD cable partners cant track it and sell it, as viewing experience changes, measurement needs to chance too.  Now viewing over weeks and months, not over 3 days.  / Knowing when show has reached its potential, this is the last season of The Shield (Th 9)/ Seinfeld was an acquired taste, an unusual show leading 25mm into it./Now when we market to live-only viewer, make it an event for the viewer.  They know FX will repeat it or can catch up on iTunes or VOD but they’ll never get back to it, a decision delayed is never made, need to eventize and market the show. / Always Sunny in Philadelphia (Th 10) is a hit show after 5 years, up 70% in ratings.  FX is not a network known for comedy, model is about less expensive shows perhaps taking a loss on the first run, but having patience to to grow it 5 years and turn it into a compelling product.  FX owns Sunny, and took it off of Hulu to make it available for DVDs and syndication.  Damages value to leave it up forever.  But Hulu helps with discovery of previously obscureshow, wasn’t originally in heralded group of comedies, Hulu elevated it.  At first made all 50 episodes available to find audience.  The Hulu ecosystem even with a hybrid of ads and subs can’t replace linear airing to DVD to syndication, need to protect ability to create hits or don’t have a business. / FX caters to a yunger generation, but no one really knows who is watching, multiscreen challenge of tracking elsewhere, STB data not accurate. /Audience is not as attached to big ticket, The Shield and Sons of Anarchy have proved you can stick to your overall budget.  If changed production value on 24 audiences would notice, needs to be the same storytelling, intimacy of characters in the bedroom, less car chases, explosions. / Every network needs a healthy balance, look what Idol did for House/ Look How I Met Your Mother, a single camera sitcom with no middle, no buzz, is going strong thanks to Neil Patrick Harris as the breakout star. / Want 100 episodes, when you get to 80, you’re in good shape.

Dana Walden, 20th Century Fox Television
Can’t have a mid-level hit get to 4 seasons anymore, need to have a property people want to watch again for a viable DVD, syndication, international, EST and digital platform business.  Depressing when you get a bad time slot.  Joruneymen – highest testing pilot since 24, plum time period after Heroes, no longer enough, see it with Lie to Me, got best time period, best audience, audience found clicker and its premeired poorly.  Arrested Development was ahead of its time, sure Fox would love it on air now.  FBC didn’t have right fit for it, it was a bit narrow. / Big hit in the ratings:  Sons of Anarchy, successful 13 episode oder international and home entertainment, big eventized shows on lesser orders/  Its not one size fits all, need to be facile, business changing quickly, don’t want to burn out new revenue streams / X Files released favorite episodes in one million different ways, consumers will pay for cult shows/ Talking end of life – Ideally you want a show that is highly serialized but not episodic like Law & Order with an outstanding cast. For a show like Prison Break, how many prisons can they break from, if you try to stretch beyond its limits you creatively hurt the show long term, that incredibly bad ending memory of an asset in its afterlife of syndication, etc.. Prison Break is hugely lucrative DVD, International people want to collect it, own it. / DVRs make it hard to monetize videos. / We have two great shows:  Glee and Modern Family, and the luck of them being scheduled against each other.  Miss one, watch the other the next day on Hulu. We support Hulu and are part of NewsCorp which has an equity interest in Hulu but it’s personally challenging to have shows available so quick after airing.  The priority is to watch on air, then watch completed master in living room via Hulu, better than bootleg.  / Meanwhile in the past 2 years cost of production has escalated out of whack.  Need to make changes.

Mike Farah, Funny or Die
Specializing in celebrity content (Will Ferrell, Chris Henchy, Neil Patrick Harris, Mandy Moore, Christopher Lloyd, Renee Romjin..).  No celebrities are compensated for FOD, can’t pay for content but video producers can insert their own pre-rolls, FOD has ads on the site, brands buy into the entire slate, higher end productions that get seen, free publicity, cheap effective celebrity content shot on short notice, not much to crack the code, look for quality and quantity for good diversions from work, training ground for UCB groundlings, hands-on uber-control, cost effective,

Mike Polk, Break.com
Known for nutcake videos, skateboard stunts, rodeo donkey, whatever is entertaining for millennial men, try not to turn off advertisers.  Site has series and one-offs. Branded content for Cheetos, Mountain Dew.  Produced hilarious video:  Cleveland, II.

Josh Spector,Comedy.com
4mm monthly uniques, now a guide to what’s funny right now.

Maria Kermath, ATT Interactive
Rebranding Yellow Pages for those born after 1977: Have to Eat, Drink, Snack, Pee.

David Zucker, Secret Secret Service, Airplane, Scary Movie..
Brand is zany comedy laugh-out-loud spoof.  Movies are in Oscar-free zone, get joke onscreen.  Shooting in HD – makeup has to be better.  Like to make people laugh, target audience is 4-11y, slapstick humor.  Classic 70s film aesthetic embracing new tools, with pre-vis make movie before you get to the set so you can show cast and crew what you are thinking of before they perform it.  Remaking Kentucky Fried Movie. Airplane didn’t lend itself to being a franchise but Paramount wanted a franchise. Naked Gun by contrast lent itself to unlimited adventures.  Uncomfortable doing R films, for brand of slapstick want to take it down to PG.  Mentors – Frank Wells, USC Film School, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Ted Turner, Weinsteins.

Brett Ratner, Beverly Hills Cop IV, X-Men
Billion dollar director known for Rush Hour Trilogy grossed $800mm worldwide. Brand is action thriller but tastes are eclectic.  Would like to make a ronatic fantasy film too.  Old school, stuck on film, not embracing digital yet.   Likes Canon better than Red.  Spielberg said Dreamworks sends list of top 50 YouTube videos a month.  Hollywood is looking or fourth quadrant – fun, family-oriented films.   Paranormal Activity  incredible film – huge box office like Blair Witch, it’s all anyone is talking about.  Also use pre-vis to show actors and crew how to move Golden Gate Bridge in Xmen, all action sequences were animated.  Mentors:  NYU professor, Dino de Laurentiis, Bob Evans “The Kid Stays in the Picture.”

Bob Osher, Columbia Pictures
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs just hit $100mm mark.  Brand is good stories with good characters well told. Character driven even when its for kids.  New kids every 7 years.  Don’t want to have a studio style, want it to feel fresh and original.  Animated films rely on A-list talent voices for marketing.  Pixar uses shorts program to develop young directorial talent.  Sony too.  Sony Imageworks 3D pre-vis tools allows for real-time re-rendering so we only animate what we’re going to use.  Even show pre-vis to marketing team.  Proprietary right now but soon enough will be a tool on Apple for 9y to use.

Ondi Timoner, We Live in Public, Dig! (Sundance winners)
Big Brother is not one man, rather Big Brother is our collective consciouness.  Internet is so insidious, technology is alienating, humans have a desire not to be alone, to go off the grid and have live experiences.  When born, the cord is cut, and we spend the rest of our lives reconnecting.  Secured all music rights in perpetuity for We Live In Public including track from Spoon, all music is on DVD. Oscar-qualified – abiding by windows – scheduled invitation-only screenings online.

Josh Harris, Wired City
Serial entrepreneur that proved early has little to do with sustained success.  Fan of Truman Show, edges between real and virtual, in 5 years it will all be on. Founder of Jupiter Communications, created chat for Prodigy, worth $80mm, blew it all on excesses of next ventures, escaped to Ethiopia during dot com bomb, festival circuit resurrected him, now living in pool house of Jason Calacanis, Mahalo.com, repped by WME, pitching Wired City, a competitive celeb-reality multiplatform game show.  In LA to learn how to do reality at scale with partners like Endemol, Reveille, Fremantle.  Maybe he’s got the next Intervention for Rob Sharenow, A&E.  We Live in Public Show in the 90s had an engaged online community of 1,000 – small even for niche.

Jeffrey Gordon, Writers Boot Camp
Email, texting, listmaking is writing.  5 story components:  main character, dynamic character, third party opponent, adventure, genre.  Beat out beginning middle end.  Write first draft quickly.  Need progressive dredge material.  Don’t quit day job to write.  Can do it PT, 10hr/wk, 6 months.  Too much free time not good for writers, writers need experience to make it more lyrical.  Plot needs to be character driven to care.  Talked about Ylse.com, high production value not easily monetizable.  See portals as marketing vehicles, companion websites to define and extend brand.    Don’t have to write a tentpole  franchise to be successful.  High concept romantic comedy is hot, action adventure fantasy and supernatural thrillers.  Seek sponsors, sell $100 ads/month to 10 people, or create content for other brands.

Kevin Yen, YouTube
Topped 10B video streams in April.  For $5-10/day buy search keywords to rise above the din on YouTube, allows you to put your video right in front of the person searching for it.  Not interested in being a gatekeeper, it’s becoming harder to tell the difference between UGC and premium.  Rightsholder should max rev from consumption of content.

Russ Schafer, Yahoo! Connected TV
Right now SDK is invite-only.  Public post CES, 1Q10.  Just had web/mobile/tv developers conference in NYC.  Everyone in household has their own personalized dock.  NBC widget allows for relevant personal ads, only serve stuff relevant to you, profile makes it a more personal experience.  In time, allow different economic models – pick shows a la carte or by subscription, all models can coexist.

Jared Tobman, Reveille
Reveille making money with branded entertainment, activate people around an idea, not a shill or product placement.  Promotion is the metric that drives success. Guarantee distributions when ad-supported with paid promotion.  CPA ads.  What percent of digital copies can be monetized depends on convenience, quality, immediacy – people will pay different amounts.  Better ways online than the 30 second spot you can TiVo passed.  Leverage talent across distribution channels, bring known quality online.  YouTube will build a model for reach and frequency, get redistributed in viral marketplaces and make viral video monetizable.  TV Everywhere is walled garden.

Keith Quinn, Paramount Pictures
Product strategy – hybrid of transactional and ad-supported.  Dr. Horrible was available for free on Hulu and paid on iTunes at same time, and people bought it.  Choice for consumers is good.  Windows breaking down in distribution.  A brand cuts above clutter.  Top 3 iPhone apps are brands.  Social networks are a great place to launch, mass opinion, curation from friends.  Add in microtransactions, FB will be pretty powerful.  $30-40mm made on Paranormal.  5-6 of iTunes Top 100 are cover tunes or mashups from Glee.  Journey is in the Top 100 because of Glee.

Jessica Schell, NBCU
Social media is incredibly important now, viral marketing complements reduced budgets, need it to get bigger audiences, making it portable to enable fans to share with networks, talent on shows engage fans and viewers, have that direct connection, bringing community onto NBC sites.  Go to NBC.com, USAnetwork.com for the network brand, go to Bravo, Sy Fy, USA for the show brand.  Loves FB Connect!  Port identity around web with you, warm welcome, when want a deeper experience with the show, notion of portable community, you can see your friends from FB when you show up on NBC sites, shows up on feed, lowers barriers to entry, no need to reenter information and create new profile.  Seek great tech partners via Peacock Equity Fund like EveryZing voice to text SEO product makes live TV searchable, provides transcript.  Moving beyond metadata to real-time data, valuable for an unscripted show like CNBC where you don’t know what they’ll talk about ahead of time, huge library of clips.    You don’t see a lot of cable content on Hulu, more braodcast content, TV Everywhere will have to figure out how to protect dual revenue streams for content producers.  Still early days, need to be a business model to support premium content without watching 5x the ads.  Kindle opens new revenue streams for content producers.

Kenneth Hertz, Goldring Hertz & Lichtenstein LLP
FB connect powerful platform, increased Jib Jab’s transaction flow.  Web levels playing field to get content to market but its the tyranny of transparency, content still has to be great: U2/BB didn’t move the needle on record sales.  Paramount’s Pranormal #3 watershed, went direct to consumers.  FB 80mm US, 266mm WW in 2 years.  Can’t launch new content widely in walled garden.  Gatekeepers were all about shelf space, challenge now is discoverability, how to get marketing and promotion to rise above the din.  How does good content find audience to be monetized.  Hulu earned $120mm, no profit.  Market is $100B in US.

Felicia Day, The Guild
Loves sponsors and are transparent with fans whereas McFlurry on 30 Rock seemed very sneaky, not sure whether it was paid product placement or not.  Become sensitized to it.  Prefer pre-roll, more honest.

John Fasano, Woke Up Dead
Have no problem with integration only wish Kodak wouldn’t have taken cameras back.

Michael Oates Palmer, West Wing
Mad Men genius at making product placement feel organic to story.

Eric Berger, Sony Pictures Television
Go where customers are, set up branded environments, embed video player on YouTube, provide DRM, control the user experience, incubating shows online.  Angel of Death went on to SpikeTV, DVD, put through pilot program online.  Crackle has 150 movies, classics, dip in dip out strips, take advantage of windows where content wasn’t monetized before, minisodes keep the story arc beginning, middle, end but super condensed, using the web to unlock library value.  Started partnership with What the Buck, has 25y under young female audience.  Doing well with $4-5/movie rentals on Sprint.  PPV does millions.  In mobile there is a willingness to pay, ringtone wallpaper, subscription movie service.

Neil Tiles, G4
G4 is owned by Comcast, 5-6y old.  Not highest rated in network space, niche.  Different programming tv to web.  Need to protect cable source of revenue.  From a scripted standpoint, web enhanced tv experience, partner with Stickam to bring in viewers, live to itneract with guests, talents.  Why does Discovery have Cash Cab? Has little to do with the brand.  Dynamic ad insertion tool help advertisers find the people amidst theis fragmented media.  Difficult time to plan because we don’t know what platform is next.  Can’t pull full shows online.   Rights issue.  Np presence in full episodes based on deal structure.  Force Hulu to put some free content behind paywall.  Comcast cable ops win writing checks to G4.  Bud TV sucked, BK doing it right.  Microtransaction is so key.  iPhone is conditioning people to do it.  Dialing 411 was a microtransaction.

Sab Kanaujia, NBCU
Solution is to aggregate eyeballs on the backend in order for the content to go everywhere. Seamless to the audience.  Valuable analytics to advertisers.  Get more uniques with distributed widgets, than on destination website.  Top Chef or Heroes widgets, deliver ads against them.  Mobile is different than web or tv, need to create content from scratch.  Value of compelling storytelling not going away, reaggregation is a huge issue in industry now.  Mass media has been dead for years except tentpoles like the Superbowl.  Need to reach out to one individual at a time.  85% sold out on video network, the rest sold through remnant ad network, other through bundled ad buys.  User authentication via TV Everywhere will lead to higher CPMs.  People will pay for gret content, microtransactions let you pay where you consume.  Watch FB, people will pay for what they like.   (Average cable home watches 15 channels, brands are comfortable knowing what they’re going on which is why soap opera model worked for so long, brands haven’t really migrated yet.)

Albie Hecht, Worldwide Biggies
Kids & Family animations, winner of two Oscars, launch, iterate, find audience, leverage to new media, 30% are kids under 3y.  30% of iPhones are sold to kids under 17y.  Going from web to inanimate objects, connected toy biz will be huge.  Manipulate action figure watch it onscreen.  Toys are a new medium.  Youth oriented virtual worlds interaction with real world action figure.  Future is interoperability of avatars, take monkey to another world with wallet and status.  Hybrid models:  media sponsorship, subscriptions, per use, micropayments, distributed hosted economies, gifts, apps, casual mmo, VW, if the digital wallet is easy to use, people will pay more.

Greg Goodfried, EQAL
Lawyer by background, partner is doctor, financed start of EQAL.  TMZ started online as a totally different production.  Need to treat mediums different in content creation business.  New platform:  UMBRELLA low cost monthly subscription, currently in beta, enables content producers to publish to website and simultaneously post it everywhere.  Arrington is the voice of TechCrunch so there is a huge added benefit to go back to the site.  Hub + Spoke approach.  Content can go everywhere with ads baked in. Paula Deen established broad style guide, brand look, rules across properties.  Umbrella will allow a blogger with a Flip who gets millions of views to make money with ads served.

Danae Ringelman, IndieGoGo, @gogodanae
Helps artists do it with others, provides free online audience-building tools.  Offer DIWO Live every Friday at Noon, a free conference call to ask questions.  Internet gives filmmakers direct access to fans, 1B WW, finance with crowdfunding, use the festival circuit as launchpad (bring DVDs, merchandise, take advantage of publicity), be everywhere your customers are, savvy sm outreach, Ted Hope’s power of $1, provides market validation, increases chance of pick up.  Participatory culture-offer value and incentives, know the basics: audience sizing, ID comps, production vs P&A, start now, production is the new promotion, capture emails, identify assets, VIP perks, post web presence, create pitch clip, determine trailer strategy, cross-platform engagement with audience, have a dialogue – ask questions, run a poll.  Engage audience via website, blog/rss, email, reaching out to bloggers, influencers, orgs, FB, MySpace, Twitter, Stumble, Digg, widgets, house parties, festivals, ask fans to request screenings.  Theatrical distribution:  Festivals, Fathom.  DVD/VOD – CreateSpace, NeoFlix, DiscMakers.  Online Aggregators – New Video, Cinetic, Indieflix, Film baby. Josh Kornbluth (Haiku Tunnel) using IndieGoGo to raise $15,000 for Love & Taxes.  Video sharing sites: YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler, Metacafe, Revver.., Analytics:  TubeMogul, YouTube Insight Tracking Tool, FB, MySpace, Bebo, hi5, Twitter, Digg, Yahoo Buzz!  Email:  Vertical Response, Constant Contact, iContact.  Influencer search tools:  Technorati, Blogger.  Use Google alerts to track buzz.  Press: HelpaReporterOut.com.  Daily reads:  www.indiegogo.com/blog, www.workbookproject.com, cinematech.blogspot.com, www.peterbroderick.com, www.indiewire.com, www.kk.org/thetechnium.  Lance Weiler’s $8000 film grossed over $4mm.

Matt Tyrnauer, Valentino
Clips posted on IDA, www.documentary.org.  Couldn’t have been made with film. Needed a small unobstructive camera for small friend to stand with under desk with boom to allow for intimate conversations.  Has done $1.7-2mm theatrically in NA over a 6m run.  Got a seven figure guarantee at TIFF.  Platform release in 4 cities DIY classic model, #1 grossing film for three frames for 3w in a room.  $1.2mm production + legal fees, flying crew from NYC to Italy, dress code, glamour crew, spent on helicopter to get a beauty shot of yacht.  Expected ancillaries to be everything – intl audience, DVD.  Don’t cut too deeply, spend if you think it will help you.  Niche: nationwide sewing groups, marauding hoards of midwestern ladies.  Valentino has 6 pugs, another niche film appealed to.

Courtney Sexton, Participant Productions
Food, Inc., The Soloist, The Informant.  Have social action teams to promote film.  Deal with Magnolia.  Often use filmmaker as celebrity.  Need a powerful sizzle reel.  Twitter was a huge part of Food,Inc.

Rebecca Yeldham, Anvil
LAFF director.  Shooting on video was a revelation.  Amazing what you can catch when you’re not thinknig ca-ching!  Not obsessed accumulating hundreds of hours of footage.  Forged connection with Digital Domains to find audience for film.  When Anvil presented at Sundance in 2008 docs were declared dead.  All art houses had folded.  Now market is alive again.  Had to convince people it wasn’t about heavy metal, but about friendship, not letting others define you, and never giving up on a dream.  Devastated after Sundance, had Lips and Robb Reiner as assets and wonderful director Sahca Gervasi.  Had to wait 8m til TIFF.  Became festival sluts because team was dying, incredible experience at LAFF, gave DVDs away to tweeting talent, generated enormous buzz.  VH1 executive saw it in Prague, fell in love with it, got sizable six figures, film was self-financed.  Screened for specialty divisions, spent a week at Angelika.  42 West excellent publicity.  Every attendee became a walking ad.  Reviews reverbed.  Fertile year cultivating word of mouth.  150 cities, still screening. Anvil was on Conan 2weeks ago, opened for AC/DC at Giants Stadium.  Doing a 40 city tour in January where the band does 3 songs at the end of the film, eventizing the screening, calling it the Anvil Experience.  Keep production costs as low as possible without compromising aesthetic, $300-400,000 doc budget for a 90min feature.  Epic quality not inexpensive.  But the lower it goes the better chance for upside.

Marina Zenovich, Polanski:  Wanted and Desired
Emmy-nominated.  Every film has its sotry, took 5y tomake, sold to HBO and Think at Sundance, Weinstein for international.  Think is now defunct.  HBO did a great job.  Conscious decision not to go theatrical.  Needed to pay back investors.  Had a small theatrical just to expeience it on the big screen.  Tragic brilliant historic figure, a holocaust survivor, called a malignanttwited dwarf, perfect villian, made big money, famous, controversial, legacy of wife’s murder behind him.  Must have interesting characters or its boring.  Not all films are meant to be theatrical.  Gets as much content as money.  When the topic is controversial, not many want to take the risk.

Scott Hamilton Kennedy, The Garden
Oscar-nominated, always retain rights to sell DVDs, have them at first screening, $25. Need strong story every step of the way.

David Gale, MTV
Not a golden age of anything, we’re at the dawn of the digital media revolution.  Last piece in the puzzle is distribution.  Amazed at the pitchfest, everyone had something worthwhile, democratization of media, for the longest time the hollywood gates were shut, now allowing people with true talent to get in.  Seeing new talent hadn’t seen before, more willing to take a chance, it’s not the same level risk at issue, question now is how to create a sustainable business.

David Tochterman, Versatility Media
Fuuny or Die just sold a show to HBO commercial cable.  Kold Kast, Warner 2.0, 15 gigs, Babelgum.  Longer episodes with mainstream extensions.  Guild, Dr. Horrible, Secret Girlfriend.  Revision 3 is now on Roku.  Funding, Audience, Metrics, Revenue.  Katalyst HQ and NBCU’s Community debuted on FB to large audiences.

George Ruiz, ICM
Atom, Crackle, Paramount, Revision3, Next New Networks, Microsoft are all paying for content. Big fan of Roku, interesting way to get content into the living room.  Seek talent with significant online followings.  The Guild was a great script targeted to a large online audience of gamers.  Also represent  Amber Mac, Girls Go Geek on Xbox LIVE, and Hoodlum, won Emmy for ABC Lost companion.

Justine Bateman, fm78.tv
20 scripts in development and were in talks with many brands including P&G and IBM, distribution partners including Hulu and blip.tv, but not CBS TV.com yet. Spend little, don’t incur overhead, don’t pay salary, completely mobile, do own PR.   Started studio during the writers strike when traditional distribution bottomed out as a workaround.  Creating something magical, know many directors, actors, formed many partnerships to monetize online web series.  Present sponsors with an ROI spreadsheet showing them the economic value of celebrity, ability to draw traditional press vs. how much that would cost as a half-page ad in People, a cover is priceless, you can’t buy the cover, what’s the reach 56mm people, a 15 minute spot on Letterman vs. how much a TV spot costs, $.64mm value for example, what the sponsor gets for their money, how they can reach their targeted demographic.  On finding sponsors:  Got in a room with Digitas, they liked what we were doing, met P&G and IBM on a panel.  When Nestle at the doorstep said I’m not carrying you over the threshold, we went to Candy Convention and met brand managers for Mars.  Had good luck with cold-calling CMOs and CEOs, chatting them up.   A TV show without promotion doesn’t work.  People won’t mistakenly stumble upon your hub url.  It’s a joke that the basis for the industry’s currency, the Nielsen ratings are determined by a poll.

Kim Evey, The Guild
The Guild owns IP, Microsoft has exclusive window, using New Video for other windows as well as Amazon, YouTube.   Microsoft profited day one from The Guild.  When Felicia goes on Jimmy Fallon she always thanks her sponsors MS, AMazon, Sprint.  They find it very thoughtful of her, that she values the business relationship.   Date My Avatar made it to #1 both on iTunes and Amazon with George and Kim on Twitter egging on 1.5mm fans – we’re at #2 let’s get it to #1, and a Josh Whedon blog post helped too.  When needed a retail store to line up in front of for a shoot, the natural choice was Game Stop, approached them and said what’s it worth to yo and they paid a fee for the integration and let them shoot in a shop.   Thanked them by showing it at Comic-Con in front of tweeting passionate eyeballs.

Paul Kotonis, For Your Imagination
Aggregators are the only ones that make money from CPM, not producers.  Not all views are created equal, a view from The Guild is not counted the same as a Rev3 view or YouTube view.  When does it count, 15 sec into it, 100% viewed, what about auto-play.  Have no idea what rate of completion is on YouTube.  Views don’t equal people.   (Edelman – Use media buys to drive views and engagement back to online, success metrics are is consumer making connection to brand.  ManiaTV – Need 1000 shows online to get critical mass online, need a quantity of programming)

Amber J Lawson, Babelgum
Where frat boy comedy ends, and evolved hipster comedy begins, political, timely, topical, female, sci-fi, celebrity, animation.  Looking to acquire content with brilliant concepts from producers with proven track record of building loyal audiences.

Kate Neligan, Lionsgate
Mobile messaging movies, can pre-order for TV.  Factor in budget for niche title to market home video, go to Ning, Fear.net for reach.  When it goes FOD (free video on demand) the advertising is entertainment.  Connected TV provides more on demand orders.  Stuff virally via Comcast VOD, push iTunes, Xbox in digital space, MOD focuses on the customer instead of blockbuster, not just push title but include platform.  FiOS widgets – what’s hot on demand, DirecTV apps.  From a PR perspective, have to drop content in and let fans use it the way they want to. Don’t know what the next best thing is.  It’s about listening, and putting stuff out there.  Try to influence and immerse, let them move it for you.

Gary G-Wiz, Public Enemy
Raised over $50,000 from fans for new album with the fan funding engine, www.SellABand.com. Aiming for $250,000 by end of year.  Artist direct to fan platform.  Like to see advances in media like ringtone consumption, IMAX – can’t be pirated, have to go to the theater to experience it.

Julie Supan, Ning
Ellentv.com, TwilightSaga.com is on Ning.    180,000 organize fan movements on Ning.  Incorporating game mechanics into platform, connect more emotionally in publicity campaigns, watch for virtual gifting, looking at Nokia feature phones, iPhone is only 10% of the market and on the high end.

Thomas Hughes, MGM
42000 little movies, 10000 hours of television.  Bullish on the space.  Aggressively distributing libraries in FOD, mobile, EST, can experiment more with deeper library titles.  Also heads up clip and still licensing.  Had a great summer with FOD.  Fall is tougher because new episodes are back.   Don’t oversee DVDs.  Stargate saw very little erosion in EST (iTunes) when added FOD (Hulu). People that want to own still download.  FOD is a supportive platform of EST.

Adam Powers, Rovi
Young guys 18-34y have a sense of adventure to play around with the technology which is why they tend to be early adopters.  (90% doing 5% of clickthroughs per emarketer). Current navigation by time and channel is clunky.  Rovi, formerly Macrovision which owns TV Guide, throws away the grid for global search based on name of show.  Total Guide will allow for better STB measurement of online and cable/broadcast content.  $3B investment.

Eric Gould Bear, Monkey Media
Seamless contraction, expansion technology, reduces amount of material needed on DVD for versioning.  1991 Apple shipped QT, 1993 NCSA shipped Mosaic, 1997 Toshiba shipped first DVD player in US, MS acquires WebTV, 1999 TiVo shipped first DVR, Matrix first DVD got people to buy DVD players, 2001 TiVo announced telescopic advertising, 2006 Samsung shipped Blu-Ray, 2008 Tru-Two Way, Comcast TiVo DVRs.  Build affinity within the context of the program.  Interactive advertising will drive functionality of the boxes.  (Right now it’s so clunky that by the time you buy the sweater the show is over, UK has the red button for interactivity.)

Geoff Katz, ATAS Interactive Emmy Winners
(metric of FB fun, $4 value of one fan)
- Stephen Andrade, NBC, SNL, Jimmy Fallon, The Office, 30 Rock
- Lisa Hsia, Bravo Digital Media, Top Chef
- Michael Benson, ABC, Lost (Flash Forward FB app)
(Alison Moore, HBO Voyeur)

Josh Weltman, Mad Men
Ad consultant that sits in writers room to make sure agency work is accurate, products integrated into story, some exist, some are made up.  Don’t know which are actual deals, not told, church/state, brands have no approval on how portrayed in storyline, everything is beholdent to the story, second season seeing more flexible brands.  Knows what brands want and how to integrate them to maintain integrity of brand and story.

Mark Ely, Sonic Solutions/CinemaNow
Understanding platform payment pain threshold.  Windows digital distribution EST, VOD, rethinking how to merchandise content, 10,000 sme free, portability is key, android app, iPhone app in development, not on PS3, Xbox or US Wii but on Wii in Japan.

Jason Rubenstein, Redbox
Movies are only 1% of video consumed on internet.  Windows collapsing won’t happen overnight.  Millions opt-in for email/zip code, double digit open rate, $1 a day DVDs, can reserve DVDs, return to any box, working on 30 second digital download on SD card.  Goes anywhere, don’t have to return it.  won’t always be a kiosk play,

Doug Sylvester, Avail-TVN
Fear of piracy causing the collapsing of international windows, used to be 6m or 1y, now same as domestic, but still need to pony up larger guarantee for earlier window. (60% watch 10-15 channels)

Ted Mundorff, Landmark Theaters
Some festivals are markets.  Game has changed, no one wants to make a film deal first time seen at festival.  Filmmaker needs to be patient.  Can always get someone to release it but can’t always get someone to market it.

Laura Kim, I Wake Up Screening
Theatrical marketing for NatGeo.  Was at Warner Independent, spent 18 years at Sundance, TIFF, Cannes, EFM, Telluride (since 1992-3).  Sundance is not hte best for business, 99% come back with no distribution.  Love LAFF, buyers, filmmakers well treated.  Slumdog world premiered at Telluride, great word of mouth festival, curatorial process makes it prestigious but little business is done. Sundance can be very expensive.  LAFF body of films are a joy.  World premieres balanced with audience satisfaction.  Want to show film with engaging filmmaker who will win you over.  Sometimes with the festivals its better to be highlighted than spotlighted.  Be generous with screeners, make it as easy as possible for buyers.  They buy because of critics not buzz, too risky otherwise.

Amy McGee, Sundance Institute
Most filmmakers feel they have made it if they show at Sundance.  Mission is to support the artist beyond the 10 days throughout the year with distribution opportunities.

Rebecca Yeldham, LAFF
Anvil was the centerpiece of LAFF last year.  Premiered, played teh Ford Amphitheatre, connective tissue betwen the industry, filmmakers and audience.  Hone identity of festival – balance blockbusters with experimental.  LAFF is LA’s secret treasure, largest festival in LA to a different level of prominence.  Sundance is a rapturous experience, programming from the heart.  Was at Sundance, doesn’t bow to industry.  Days of 7 figure offers are gone.  With 5000 submissions, surely you miss stuff.   In LA, the festival experience has to be compelling enough to get everyone off the sofa.  Not a destination like Sundance.  They live and work in this town.

Sharon Swart, Variety
Covers the markets – Cannes, EFM (market/fests), AFM (killed Mifed)  LA is a company town, Cannes is arty, less pictures.  TIFF is a defacto market for press, oversees buyers and sellers.  There used to be a stigma 5-6y ago direct to VOD but no longer.

Rooftop Comedy, MGM, Fox…
http://www.mobilizedtv.com/marketing-hollywood-cross-platform-branding
http://www.mobilizedtv.com/digital-holllywood-discussing-broadband-content

International Academy of Web Television
In addition to all that was going on at Digital Hollywood there was also the inaugural meeting of the IAWTV.  Festively gathered were Felicia Day of The Guild, Ned Cantu of NYTVF, Tim Street of French Maid TV, George Ruiz of ICM, Dina Kaplan, of blip.tv, Drew Baldwin of Tubefilter, Jim Louderback of Revision 3 (releasing first scripted comedy series, Web Zeroes), Justine Bateman and Dominik Rausch of Easy to Assemble and many others.  The IAWTV is putting a call out to grow its 100+ membership to better process Streamys submissions, 100,000+ were submitted for 2009.  Dues are free through 2008, $90 for 2010, benefits include peer groups, voting, tickets, directory listing, industry events discounts, job listings, newsletter..  2010 Streamys tentatively set for April 11, venue TBA.  (1300 attended the first at the Wadsworth Theater.)  Next meeting is at NATPE in Vegas.  For membership details, email membership@iawtv.org or visit www.iawtv.org. Here’s video from the follow-on Hollywood Web Television Meetup: www.stickam.com/tubefilter.

Evan Williams, the CEO and co-founder of the short-messaging site, said Tuesday that he “desperately” wants to retire or evolve the company’s “suggested user” list, which offers suggestions of people to follow.

Twitter may eliminate

The list, which was launched early this year and is available to anyone logged in to Twitter, includes people and companies ranging from the actress Kirstie Alley to musician John Mayer to Southwest Airlines.

Just being on the list can provide an enormous boost to the number of followers a Twitter user has…Click on for more news………

In case you’re a dinosaur who hasn’t come out of the newsroom in the last 15 years, you may want to look at this video. In fact embrace it. It’s a conversation with Jason Calacanis, Jeff Jarvis and Nick Denton. If you don’t know who those guys are, you might as well just prepare to be laid off.

Digital Hollywood, a must for content licensing professionals, lands at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel M 10/19-Th 10/22 and producer Victor Harwood didn’t miss a thing.  Action packed with the Variety/Content/CodeSpace/EPPS Summits, International Academy of Web Television meetup, WGA comedy writers boot camp, filmmaker screening, pitchfest, poolside cocktails, a social mobile gaming connected device multiplatform hackathon, prizes, and DJ afterparties.  1500+ will be mixing it up with blockbuster producers, showrunners, festival programmers, publicists, A-list press, web-celebs, network executives, brands, agencies, Emmy winners and VCs.  Companies including HBO, Bravo, Starz, Scripps, Fox, NBCU, CBS, Disney-ABC, MTV, FX, G4, Sony Pictures, Paramount, Miramax, MGM, Mandalay, Lionsgate, Marvel, Merv Griffin, Dick Clark, CinemaNow, Redbox, Fremantle, Reveille, Endemol, blip.tv, Evil Global Corp, EQAL, Rooftop Comedy, Demand Media, YouTube, Y!, MySpace, Mattel, Activision, Guthy-Renke and more.  From Carson Daly to Public Enemy to Justine Bateman – everyone is heading down.  With sub-$100 pricing for unemployed media execs, this is going to be the most interesting DH yet.  But if you can’t make it, you can follow along #DH09.  The guide below is just a mere sampling of the offerings, for more details visit www.digitalhollywood.com:

M 10/19

10-11
Variety Summit/Orly Adelsen, Dick Clark Productions

11-1 Palisades Ballroom 5FL
IAWTV/International Academy of Web Television Inaugural Meeting, members include Alex Albrecht, Diggnation, Justine Bateman, Easy to Assemble, Miles Beckett, EQAL, Veronica Belmont, Tekzilla, Hayden Black, Evil Global Corp., Felicia Day, The Guild/Dr. Horrible, Greg Goodfried, EQAL, Brian Seth Hurst, ATAS,  Dina Kaplan, blip.tv, Jim Louderback, Revision3, Sam Reich, DutchWestTV, Scott Roesch, Atom.com, George Ruiz, ICM,  Tim Street, French Maid TV…

12-9
CodeSpace Hollywood:  SDKs galore, check out the platforms, join a team , build an app, win prizes, dance the night away

12:15-1:30
Variety Summit/Keynote Lunch/Carson Daly, Peter Guber, Mandalay, Richard Rosenblatt, Demand Media…

1-2:15
DHI/Mike McCurry, Arts + Labs, Fremantle, Reveille, Activision…
DHII/DH Upfronts/Genius Rocket, MTVN Tribes, Technorati, Google, IBM, Microsoft Advertising…
DHIII/Ted Cohen, TAG Strategic…

1:30-2:45
Content Summit/Withoutabox, Bunnygraph, The Station, Veoh…

1:45-2:45
Variety Summit/TV Ecosystem/NBCU, Fox, FX, Reveille…

2:30-3:30
DHI/Shashi Seth, Cooliris, MTV, Discovery, YouTube, Cisco…
DHII/Story Worldwide, USA, AOL, Comcast Spotlight, Ed Moran, Deloitte…
DHIII/LBS Apps/5th Finger, Nokia, Handango, Starcom, Mobiclip…

3-4:15 Room 631
Content Summit/Comedy Writers John Hamburg, Larry Amoros, Glasgow Phillips, FOD, Break.com…

3:45-5
DHI/ICM, Starz…
DHIII/TimChang, NVP, TwitVid…

4:15-5:15
Variety Summit/Brett Ratner, X-Men, David Zucker, Scary Movie, Sony Pictures..

4:30-5-6 Room 631
Content Summit/Pitch Camp/MTV, Lionsgate, KCET, IndieGoGo, Break.com, Omelet, Aniboom…

5-6
Poolside Cocktails

6:30-9
Content Summit/DH Excellence Tribute to Sundance Doc:  We Live In Public/Ondi Timoner, Jason Calacanis..

Tu 10/20

7:30-8:45, Venice Room
Breakfast Briefing, Monkey Media SeamlessTV Telescopic Video Patent Licensing Program, RSVP vip@monkey.com

8:30-9:15, Room 631
Content Summit/Writers Boot Camp for Screenwriters, TV, Webisode producers with Jeffrey Gordon

9-10:15
DHII/Social Apps and Mini-Apps/Permuto, Slide, Gigya, Verve, Rocketfuel…
DHIII/ZillionTV, Origin Digital, Priority Digital, HD Cloud, Zoran, BitGravity
DHIV/Craig Alexander, Turbine, Allen DeBevoise, Machinima, Microsoft, Stormfront, IGA…

9-5
CodeSpace Hollywood/Developer Camp

9:30-10:45, Arcadia C
Content Summit/Transmedia Storytelling w Helen Ross, Mad Men on Twitter, Adam Armus, Heroes…

10:45-12
DHI/Kevin Yen, YouTube, Patrick Barry, Y! ConnectedTV, Reveille, MySpaceTV, MTV, NBCU…
DHII/MTV, msnbc.com, Wunderman, Enfatico, McCann…
DHIII/Braxton Woodham, Zannel, Gracenote, Sony Pictures, Motorola, ClipBlast!…
DHIV/Mattel, Vivendi Games, Microsoft, Vector, Tarver, ASAP Games, g-NET…
3D/Angela Gyetvan, 3ality, Andrew Fear, NVIDIA, IMAX, RealD, SMPTE…

11-12:15, Arcadia C
Content Summit/Storyteller + Producer = Creator/Writers Lie to Me, West Wing…

12:30-12:55, Arcadia C
Content Summit/Lunch/Snagfilms

12:30-1:45
DHII/Neal Tiles, G4, Eric Berger, Sony Pictures, Sab Kanaujia, NBCU, Greg Goodfried, EQAL, Shawn Gold, MySpace…
DHI/Interpublic, Guthy-Renke, Google….
DHIII/Lionsgate, Cisco, Adobe, Microsoft, Verizon, THR…
Demos/MONKEYmedia, Qtv, PeopleBrowsr, Edgecast…

1-1:20
Content Summit/Indie Go Go…

1:30-2:45
Content Summit/Doc Filmmakers – Roman Polanski: Wanted & Desired, Anvil, Who Killed the Electric Car…

2:15-3:30
DHI/Lionsgate…
DHII/Disney ABC, Oxygen, Fox, Filmaka, TVGuide.com, TheWrap, Microsoft Advertising…
DHIII/Reality/Reveille, Endemol, Merv Griffin, LATimes.com/The Envelope, AllThingsD…
DHIV/Fox, Motorola, mSpot, FLO TV, GoTV, Paramount Pictures Digital Entertainment, Fun Little Movies, Kit Carson…
DRM/James Burger, Dow Lohnes, Alan Bell, Paramount, Jack Lacy, Intertrust, Rajan Samtani, Digimarc…
VW/Electric Sheep, IMVU, Gaia, RocketOn, GMG, Sulake, Raptr…

3-4:15
Content Summit/PGA/Bollywood Hero, Level26, MTV, FilmNation…

3:50-5
DHI/Enhanced Advertising/RockYou, Starcom, Google, Bunchball…
DHII/Best Buy, RallyPoint, Rovi, OpenTV Labs…
DHIII/Google, Canoe…
DHIV/Justine Bateman, Easy to Assemble & fm78.tv, George Ruiz, ICM, Dina Kaplan, blip.tv, Babelgum…

5-6
Content Summit/Starz Animation, Aniboom, ka-chew!, ASIFA…

5-6/6:30-8
Poolside Cocktails

W 10/21

9-10:15
DHI/Alloy, Jivox, TubeMogul…
DHII/Andrew Kippen, Boxee, OpenTV, Digeo, ZeeVee, SyncTV, Motorola…
DHIII/James Burger, Dow Lohnes…
DHIV/Michael Scherotter, Microsoft, JWT, Ooyala, Gotuit…

9-5
Code Space Hollywood/Developer Camp, Awards

9:15
EPPS/B/Breaking Talent/Dancing with the Stars, People Magazine, EMI, USA Today…
EPPS/A/Chuck D, Public Enemy, Lionsgate, All Things D, Orange-FT, Ning…

10:45-12
EPPS/Small Stories/PR Writing at the Moment
DHII/Scripps, Fox Sports, MONKEYMedia, Comcast Spotlight, MGM, Rovi…
DHIII/GCs/Grant Michaelson, ABC, IFTA, WGA-West, GoTV…
DHIV/Napster, Y!Music, MemBrain, WB Records, MySpace Music, Topspin…
DHI/Roku, Zoran, Clearleap…

12

EPPS/Keynote with Marc Graboff, NBCU with Julia Boorstin, CNBC

12:30-1:45, Room 731
Content Summit/Interactive Emmys/Bravo, Hoodlum, NBCU, HBO, ABC, ATAS
DHI/Avi Savar, Big Fuel, Story Worldwide…
DHII/MTV.com, VH1.com, TV Guide Online, Sezmi, Oxygen, IFC…
DHIV/Ali Partovi, iLike, UMG, Sony Music, Gracenote, LA Times…

2-3:30, Room 731
Content Summit/Brand Integration/Break.com, Omelet, Mad Men, LadderUp, Transpond, ATAS

2:15-3:30
DHI/Metacafe…
DHII/Intel Capital, Granite Ventures, Scale Ventures…
DHIII/Mark Ely, CinemaNow, Jason Rubenstein, Redbox…
DHIV/Kevin Arnold, IODA…

3:30
EPPS/B/Getting Air Time on TV & Radio/NPR, Clear Channel, ShowBizExpress, E!, Extra, AP, BET, CBS
EPPS/A/E!, Magic Johnson, ET, Parade Magazine

3:50-5
DHI/Fox, MTV, msnbc.com, Y!…
DHIII/Marvel, Motorola, Parade…
DHIV/Flixster, HSN, Fandango…

4:30
EPPS/Landmark Theaters, Sundance Institute, Variety, LAFF

5
Poolside Cocktails

6-9, Arcadia A
Adobe Cocktails, Appetizers, Workshop, sneak peek at 2010 feature film/workflow

8:30-2
Code Space Hollywood/Afterparty with Mystery DJ

Th 10/22

9:30-10:45
DHII/Gaia…

11:05-12:20
DHIV/Marketing Hollywood/MGM, RockYou, Miramax, myYearbook
DHII/SodaHead.com, GOOM Radio…
DHIII/MTV, TurnHere, Vantrix…

12:50-2
DHI/ClipSync…
DHII/Nabbr…
DHIII/MomTV…
DHIV/MapMyFitness, Sapient Interactive…

2:15-3:30
DHIII/Rooftop Comedy, Demand Media, Fine Brothers Film, The Alchemist, BettyConfidential, Mom Life

I found this fascinating quote today:

Jason Calacanis has taken on a new cause, outing angel groups that charge entrepreneurs to pitch. I agree with Jason that any angel group that charges an entrepreneur to pitch should be avoided. It suggests to me that the group is more about making money on pitch fees than investing.avc.com, A VC, Oct 2009

You should read the whole article.

Dette er desverre ikke kun et amerikansk fenomen, men også noe vi ser i Norge.

Related articles by Zemanta

• It is ridiculous startups have to pay to pitch (scobleizer.com)
• Startup Scam: Paying to Pitch Puts Power Players on the Warpath (readwriteweb.com)

It’s easy to to adopt the policy of avoiding risk at all costs, that whenever possible, the products you launch or the engagements you have should be flawless and without downside.
Here’s the problem: in most endeavors, a small increase in risk can double the reward. It’s the second doubling of reward that brings serious risk with it. But the first leap is relatively painless.
In the chart above, notice that going from point A to point B brings almost no incremental risk. It might feel scary, but rationally, it’s not. Doubling reward again from B to C, though, brings significant incremental risk. It’s this second doubling that gets you through the Dip, that leads to a breakthrough, that makes you remarkable.
But I’m not even talking about that. I’m just hoping you’ll warm up by making the tiny leap of avoiding all risk. Riskless is hardly worth your effort.

Unemployed, and lovin' it !

When I first wrote the original  Audible jingle, I had no idea how much Jason Calacanis loved Audible books. After hearing him drool over  them every time he’s on  TWiT , I felt the need to include him in the song.

Take it away Jasoooooooon!

Wanna get paid for answering questions? Join Mahalo and start typing.

Peter Kafka wrote a post about it in the All Things Digital blog yesterday, in which he explained how Jason Calacanis’s search site is changing. Unlike most search engines, Mahalo provides search results compiled by people, rather than from computer algorithms. Until now, Mahalo employees and other people online working as volunteers have been writing up search results pages. Now, however, Mahalo will let civilians take responsibility for results pages and split whatever money the page makes through advertising, 50/50.

As Erick Schonfeld at TechCrunch points out, you can go to Mahalo and claim pages for yourself. But don’t expect to get paid just like a regular employee — you’ll be paid in Mahalo Bucks, which can be traded in for American dollars, or you can spend your Mahalo Bucks on the site later. The exchange rate for American currency is 75 cents to the dollar. So, as Kafka points out, an even split of 75 cents means you’ll make 37.5 percent of every dollar your page earns.

Calacanis told Kafka that some Mahalo pages earn as much as $10,000 per year, though that’s the exception rather than the rule. Schonfeld said you’re more likely to get $20 to $50 per page, per year. And the more you do, the more privileges you get. You may even be able to sell the pages you’ve claimed at some point in the future.

As Schonfeld said, topics are first-come, first-served, so even though you may be an expert on particle physics, if the particle physics page has already been claimed, you have to find another site on which to share your knowledge. There’s also a possibility that spammers could misuse the site, but Schonfeld said Mahalo is committed to monitoring pages for that sort of behavior.

For more on Mahalo and related topics, surf on over to these links:
How Mahalo Works
How Wikis Work
How Internet Search Engines Work

“Twitter business start-ups are combination socialist and radical markets.”
Jason Calacanis
Computer History Museum
Mountain View, CA
May 26, 2009

I caught the last part of Jason Calacanis (@JasonCalacanis), day one lunchtime keynote “How Twitter Will Make a Billion, and How You Can Make a Million.”  (Given my lateness, I guess I only have about $100,000 coming my way).  Jason had lots of great anecdotes, assertions and observations given his background, experience and implementation with Mahalo and @answers.  He believes (as much of the audience did by show of hands) that Twitter will be more valuable than Facebook in 5 years.

The first afternoon panel focused on Twitter Strategies:  Real-World Success Stories, and featured Jeff Pester (@UniqueVisitor), Bryan Rhoads (@bryanrhoads), @WarrenWhitlock and a substitute for Justin Kan from justin.tv. Some highlights:

What do LeVar Burton, Felicia Day, Steve Wozniak, Marina Orlova and Shaquille O’Neal have in common? They all appear in I AM A GEEK — a collaborative video project bringing together some of the biggest creators, personalities and web celebs in the online world.

I AM A GEEK leverages the power of social media to do good. The video is a project of the Society for Geek Advancement, which was founded upon the principle that we should all embrace our inner and outer geek.

The Society encourages the global geek community to realize its potential to give. This delightful organization is helping Room to Read (one of my favorite charities) build libraries for children in developing countries. Without Room to Read, many of these children would not have access to books.

You can help by spreading the Geek Advancement message through blogs and social media, purchasing an “I AM A GEEK” t-shirt (all proceeds go to Room to Read) and/or making a donation. Lets show the world what it means to be a geek and the power for good of a global geek community!

Home :: GeekAdvancement.com.

THE SOCIETY FOR GEEK ADVANCEMENT was founded upon the principles that we should all embrace our inner and outer geek and have fun while doing it. As individuals who love learning, innovating and believe in possibility as well as change, the second step of responsibility is to “be the geek that keeps on giving”. As a member of SGA, we work together as a global community to provide the tools and help others realise their true potential too!

Jeg bruger i snit 2 timer om dagen på at lytte til podcasts. Jeg har tidligere skrevet om nogle af de bedste, som stadigvæk er blandt min favoritter.

For dem der er faste lyttere af Leo Laporte’s This Week in Tech, vil man kende den altid kontroversielle startup jetsetter Jason Calacanis.

Ud over at sin succes med sit Mahalo projekt TechCrunch 50, har Calacanis for et par måneder siden startet This Week in Startups (TWIST), en podcast for entrepreneurer der vil have de bedste insider tips til at få en succesfuld virksomhed op og stå.

Når Calacanis gør ting, så er det 100% gennemført. TWIST er ofte over 2 timer lange, hvilket er noget af en mundfuld, men så får man til gengæld også en kæmpe dosis kvalificeret startup viden, som man ikke finder andre steder online.

Hver episode har Calacanis inviteret en gæst i studiet, hvor de taler om online business strategi. Denne uges episode #13 var ingen undtagelse.

Intet er perfekt og heller ikke denne podcast. Selvom Calacanis har en gæst med i studiet, lyttere der ringer ind med spørgsmål og svar og ansatte der byder ind, så bliver TWIST hurtigt til en monolog. Calacanis er excentrisk, energisk og meget selvsikker, noget som klinger hult hos os danskere. Til forskel fra Leo Laporte’s TWIT hvor dialogen er i højsædet, så får man her en af US’ størtste entrepreneurer for fuld udblæsning og uden indpakning, hvilket er ganske underholdende og forfriskende, når man kommer fra et land, hvor bombastiske udtalelser er undtagelser.

Calacanis deler uden tvivl vandene og er bevidst om det. Han er kontant og lader sine konkurrenter og fjender vide hvordan han har det med dem og deres fejltagelse. Specielt Jimmy Wales får på puklen for han fallerede Wikia projekt. Dette bliver dog ofte for meget, da det grænser til en opblæst selvforherligelse som ikke er passende for en mand i hans position. Men igen et billede af en mand der ikke er dansk og bestemt ikke udpræget ydmyg.

Hylder forsøget og entrepreneurens energi. Calacanis går direkte til sagens kerne og har en “no bullshit” tilgang til de folk der ringer ind og vil have rådgivning i hans “Ask Jason” del af showet. Det er før sket, at Calacanis har tilbudt at investere i en startup hvor founderen har ringet ind, hvilket viser hvor direkte han er og han har handling bag sine ord.

Hvorfor skal danskere lytte til TWIST? Om man har 3 fallerede startups på CV’et er kun et plus og bliver hyldet i hvert program. Calacanis er en arketype og et bevis på at Janteloven skal man glemme alt om hvis man vil blive til noget inden for startup verdenen. TWIST og Calacanis deler mange ligheder med Martin Thoborgs podcast, dog med en helt anden dybde.

Calacanis er marketing i yderste potens. Som startup virksomhed kan man lære noget nyt i hvert afsnit af TWIST. Calacanis forstår kunsten at eksponere sig selv og sin virksomhed gennem utraditionelle metoder. Denne blogpost er skrevet på opfordring af Calacanis der udlovet gavekort til Apple, hvis man skriver et review af TWIST og man kan være sikker på, at Calacanis har regnet på hvor mange eksponeringer dette initiativ giver og hvad han kommer til at betale for det i sidste ende. Han kender alle marketing tricks der er i bogen og deler rigt ud af sine guldkorn.

Hvis du har en startup, så bør TWIST være en fast del af din tirsdag.

Episode 13

Date: Aug. 28, 2009

Guest: Matt Mickiewicz, Founder of SitePoint, 99Designs, and Flippa

SitePoint is a fast growing online media company and information provider targeting the Web professional market, specifically Web Developers and Designers. The company has five major revenue streams: advertising and sponsorship, content-based products both online and in retail, software, and more recently streaming video subscriptions and classified listings. SitePoint is currently the 978th most visited web site in the world!

99designs is a disruptive startup which connects passionate designers from around the globe with savvy clients who need design projects completed in a timely fashion without the usual risk or cost associated with professional design.

It’s definitely a cliché but there’s no other way to describe it — 99designs was started by designers for designers. Our role at 99designs is to provide a friendly, professional, and secure environment where designers from all walks of life can compete on a level playing field – where they can show off their work, improve their skills, communicate with peers, and win new clients.

99designs was founded by Mark Harbottle, co-founder and chairman of sitepoint.com, along with internet veterans Lachlan Donald, and Paul Annesley.

Flippa is the leading marketplace for websites.

As a buyer, you get to choose from the widest range of established web sites, with comprehensive information about the business helping you to make the correct decision with confidence.

As a seller, you have access to a huge crowd of interested and informed buyers keen to bid good prices for premium product. The hard work you’ve invested in building your business will be rewarded

Special Announcements:

• (04 min) Jason’s Review Challenge, plain and simple he wants feedback on the show good or bad.  So he has created a contest to review this episode and the winner gets a $500 iPhone gift card.  Post it and send the link to contact@thisweekinstartups.com
• 4 remote shows coming up, next week live from Sequoia (2 conferences and 2 from Sequoia)
• We Live In Public, tells the story of the effect the web is having on our society as seen through the eyes of “the greatest Internet pioneer you’ve never heard of”, visionary Josh Harris.  If you buy a ticket (in the next week) the first 100 people to email a pic of the ticket to contact@thisweekinstartups.com you will receive a Mahalo pack.
• New segment “Jason’s Shark Tank”, 3 minutes to pitch your idea (similar to Dragon’s Den)
• Jason will be the first user of the professional user account for Twitter.

Ask Jason: (22min)

1. Stewart Moore from Maryland

• How likely is it for someone to start a consumer hardware company? Very expensive, you are competing with the big guys.  However, things are changing and a few smaller companies have succeeded Flip and Slingbox.  Flip was very simple, no features and went against the norm.  Their have been failures OQO, make sure your idea is different.  He wants to create a device that can download and create podcasts.  Make sure you do a 100 to 1,000 unit run and have people order in advance and start the work when you get 500 orders then you do it.  Consider using Kickstarter to help fund your idea or ChallengePost to help you get the design work done (one of Jason’s Angel investments).

• How does a small fish know if a big company is really interested, what is the next step after initial interest? Great question, you may have to go through 5, 10 meeting to get anything done.  They are big companies and it takes a long time to get anything done.  Protect yourself assume it will not happen and run your business is so.  Ask them during a meeting is this something that you may be able to execute on in 30 days, 60 days or 90 days and based on what they say let them know you have 3 other clients interested and you will make sure to get back in touch with them in said period.  Jason prefers the slow approach to salesmanship when people seek him out.  Consider a free, opensourse version to let them see something and if interested you can make a full version.  Jason prefers a visualization approach give them something to see.

1. Tim Holladay, Splat Technologies, mobile app. development.

• How does a small fish know if a big company is really interested, what is the next step after initial interest? Great question, you may have to go through 5, 10 meeting to get anything done.  They are big companies and it takes a long time to get anything done.  Protect yourself assume it will not happen and run your business is so.  Ask them during a meeting is this something that you may be able to execute on in 30 days, 60 days or 90 days and based on what they say let them know you have 3 other clients interested and you will make sure to get back in touch with them in said period.  Jason prefers the slow approach to salesmanship when people seek him out.  Consider a free, opensourse version to let them see something and if interested you can make a full version.  Jason prefers a visualization approach give them something to see.

Jason’s Shark Tank: (42 min.)

Shaan Siddiqui

• Idea: Emotify, Tag content based on how they feel and create user media packages.

• Jason’s Recap: The Delicious / Stumbleupon of emotions, you have the core of an idea.  BuzzFeed has a tool that is similar.  It is in the feature phase, let me guess you are not sure exactly where this will go, can the feature turn into a product and then a business.  What have you done before? 2^nd startup, self funded, spent $25,000, worked on a year and a half too long and it failed but he has moved on.  Jason would have to meet you he prefers crazy passionate entrepreneurs.  How does this go from this being an interesting feature to a product?  Will this become a destination site?  Shaan didn’t answer with conviction, he said basically maybe.  This concerned Jason because he thinks it would be a good destination site and wanted to see passion for the idea.  What did your parent’s do?  Father – Teacher, Mother – Manager of a local supply firm, You grew up middle class?  Yes, what kind of car did your parents drive?  Accord and Civic.  Did you go to college? Yes, paid for college himself.  How much money would you need and what would you spend it on?  They are about 8 weeks from launching, they have a workable link.  They need runway, for servers and a site redesign.  They received some money from a local angel.  Jason wants a java code to help him make his site better.

• Matt’s Recap: He like the idea of content across multiple websites and multiple mediums and possible curated content.  What he didn’t hear was, how will this make money?  Right now Shaan is expecting advertising but the business model isn’t fully developed.

• Tyler’s Insight: One of his favorite feature is the Tweetmeme button, it allows you to Retweet right away.  Within 6 months he is reaching Digg like numbers, it gives instant feedback.  Will this be a similar simple feature?

• End Result: Jason is intrigued and Shaan is onto something, he can’t say yes or no on the spot but you fit his profile, you are cheap by nature.

John Theriault

• Idea: Vivolve, a life profile site for teens to start building a career resume, free for teens and recruiters, business model based around data subscribers.

• Jason’s Recap: Your ability to pitch this is terrible but your idea could be brilliant.  Basically, LinkedIn for High School students allowing them to start a resume 8 years before you start looking for a job.  The name is terrible, work on branding.  Why did you come up with this idea?  He was a sports writer and saw good student athletes struggle to create a helpful online profile to get recognized.  After some thought and explanation the name is sinking in.

• Pointer’s on how to pitch by Jason: Present the problem or frustration you solve or make an analogy in the first 10 seconds and then move on to idea.

• Matt’s Recap: It has a lot of potential; I like how your idea started down the sports niche.  You could track stat’s and charge recruiters for access by making their lives easier.  Once you start perfect the sports niche you could evolve the idea into other areas.

• Tyler’s Insight: The internship space and application space is lacking.

• End Result: Jason would like to see the sight, he loves the idea of a LinkedIn for teens and will follow up.

Discussion: (1:18)

• Matt came from a working family and built everything from the ground up.
• He was 15 years old when he started the precursor to SitePoint, he was learning how to build a website as a hobby and started finding cool things but everything was scattered about.  He compiled all the data into website called Web Master Resources (1997-98)that linked to all the resources, he quickly became the go to destination for website building.
• They bootstrapped all the way and bartered for everything from software to email lists.
• While in High School he was taking advertising orders, success was quick.  His parents didn’t think the success would last they thought it had no legs.  However, when it succeeded he skipped going to college, the only thing he may have missed out on is the social aspects of college.  Jason eloquently says the chicks.
• 2000-01 things got tough when money dried up, advertising shrunk but never had to lay anyone off.  What they did was study how people used their website and the most popular feature was, “print this article”.  They wanted to explore printing up their most popular articles as cheaply as possible and created, in his words a crappy little 200 page book but sold 20,000 for $35 apiece, which led to the books they continue to publish.
• When 99designs was started the going rate for a logo was $5,000 – $20,000, so expensive many people didn’t even get a logo.  The average price for a logo on 99designs is $300.
• There is a movement among graphic designers against spec work and is trying to get people to stop participating at 99designs.
• 99designs has 44,000 designers in their community.  99designs provides lead generation for other work for designers.  Their lead designer in Romania made $80,000US last year through their site and probably much more on the side.
• Flippa, new site recently created is a marketplace to buy and sell websites.

The News: (1:34)with Andrew Warner of Mixergy

• Apple’s Snow Leopard released with few added features, is this the end of innovation in desktop computers?  No, I don’t understand this release, I guess the big feature is exchange and speed.  However, it won’t be too noticeable.  Will you be upgrading in this office?  No, I don’t even think we did the last upgrade.  Jason would like to see more innovation in monitors.
• NFL banded Twittering during games.  Ocho Cinco found a work around by sending a signal to a friend at the game to send out tweets.  Is this a distraction to work or a great publicity stunt?  Jason, doesn’t like the idea he is a work and should concentrate on the game and let his play speak for itself.
• Yelp has an augmented reality feature, will this become a mainstream?  Very cool not sure if everyone will have a use for it.  Therefore, not that big of a deal.
• Microsoft photoshopped out a black man out of its Polish site and replaced  him with a white man.  What do you think?  Somebody is an idiot; I don’t know what they are thinking.  I don’t think it was malicious but someone not thinking the situation entirely through.  What steps do you take at Mahalo to prevent social oops?  He is very clear that you represent your company even if it is on your private Facebook account.
• Wall Street Journal reports Steve Jobs is obsessed with the tablet computer, do you think this will be a hit?  Depends on price, will it be a better experience than the iPhone, iTouch.  He doesn’t see it being a huge hit, very niche.
• Bit.ly, shortening url for other sites.  Are people making a mistake by turning over their URLs to shortening services?  Benefit are the statistics and eventually most people will have their own service.  They need to guarantee the service will be up no matter what happens to the company, until then I would be concerned.

Dead Pool: (2:10)

• Tipjoy, micropayment company
  • They will be competing with Paypal
  • Not big enough of a difference

Notable Quotes:

• (50 min.) Jason, If you’re not crazy I would never invest in you, if you’re like a normal person that disqualifies you from my investment fund.  My investment thesis is, I like crazy unreasonable entrepreneurs.
• (59 min.) Jason, A-B-C, Always Be Cheap as a startup.
• (1:59) Jason on relationships, Grab time when you can and do something epic.

Relationship Ideas:

• Do something that will make all the other girlfriends / spouses jealous
• Bring your significant other to conferences
• Gift idea, bring it to another level not by spending more but be creativity and make an effort (ex. Buy a box of chocolates, remove some of the chocolate and place something nice in the box)
• Take a hike with a great view, surprise her with a some wine, cheese and crackers.  Small surprises.

Insights From Tyler!!!:

• (16min) If you think you are a social media guru if you have not seen this movie (We Live In Public) you are nothing.

Homework: (2:04)

• Go to audiblepodcast.com/twist – Sign up for 3 months send in receipt to TWiST and receive a Mahalo pack and $20 for the first 50 people.

• The Accidental Billionaire, due next week

TWiST Sponsors:

• Ustream
• DNA Mail
• WebSpy
• Audible

Leo Laporte (@LeoLaporte) and Jason Calacanis (@JasonCalacanis) recently hosted an interesting podcast (#TWIT Episode 206) wherein Jason asserted that Apple should be vilified for having a business model based on its closed platform and anti-competitive nature.  He encouraged people to give up use of their iPhones in order to protest what he saw as an abuse of power on Apple’s part.  Jason followed that up with an article entitled ‘The Case Against Apple’ where he essentially describes his evidence of the anti-competitive nature of Apple.  He finishes the article with:

Apple will face a user revolt in the coming years based upon Microsoft, Google and other yet-to-be-formed companies, undercutting their core markets with cheap, stable and open devices. Apple’s legendary comeback ability will be for naught if they don’t deeply examine their anti-competitive nature.

What I think Jason is missing here is that Apple ‘fanboys’ (I am admittedly one of them) have been prepared to pay a premium for a good user experience and we’re prepared to live in a closed environment in order to preserve (for now) that good user experience.  The problem here is that we don’t seem to be able to get that same level of user experience elsewhere.  Is that anti-competitive?  Windows has, in the past, been a miserable experience.  There are some technical reasons for this but there is also the primary reason that Apple appears to place more of a premium on producing products that WORK.  Do they work 100% of the time?  No, but they do a damn sight better than most of their competitors.  Is that anti-competitive?  I understand, for now, that part of the price for this is a closed platform.  I wish that wasn’t the case, but currently I value gear that works over open platforms.  If that’s part of the kool-aid then so be it.  That situation will change when a good user experience becomes a commodity.

I look forward to the day when ‘Microsoft and Google undercut Apple with cheap, stable and open devices’ WITH GREAT USER EXPERIENCES.  Until then I will continue to reward the company who apparently has realized how much I value the fact that my IT gear works the way I want and need it to work.  Isn’t that what competition’s all about?

I often wonder who calls the shots.  Some how the older I get the more important that is to me. I like leadership. I also believe in followers too. There’s nothing wrong with people following. Thought leadership? I like that term too. People that push the envelope of thinking in marketing, social media and technology are leaders.

I love “what if” questions too.

But in social media, though leadership is needed and is important, except that it’s the crowd that steers the ship.  The mob dictates. Viral determines. On Youtube, sensationalism seems to rule. Humor dominates.  Getting hurt drives traffic. Perez Hilton is a must read. Jason Calacanis and Michael Arrington shift the tide. Why is that?  No longer does big media/ mass media call the shots.  The fourth estate  is and was the dog and yet  it no longer wags its own tail. The user calls the shots. The tail wags the dog.

That isn’t such a bad thing except…

Our thirst and their thirst too,  is now satiated by the envelope that was once here and now is here…

Which begs the question, “Where will this put us in 5 years?” I’m not afraid of the tech aspect of that question.  That is exciting. I’m just wondering where the standards and where our ethics, morals and norms will be in that time. The more that UGC( user generated content) explodes on the scene and continues to permeate every pore of our online being, the more desensitized we become, which means, we’ll want more. Our expectations and our needs become greater. Almost to the extent that even governing bodies might start letting down their guard.

Face it, we’re becoming UGC  users and junkies; and where our fix comes from next (the technology) is not as important as how strong the next fix will need to be just to function or satisfy our demand.

There’s not a thing we can do about it either.

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Macanvändare? Trött på gnällspikar som Jason Calacanis som hotar sluta använda Appleprodukter?
Sugen på att ge dem svar på tal? Då är @rickwebb din vän.



Att Twitter spridit sig utanför nördkretsar är ingen direkt nyhet, men att kyrkor börja marknadsföra sina twitterkonton är i alla fall en nyhet för mig.


ZooVision streamar film till mobiltelefoner och har sen börjat av juni lyckats få upp ett gäng animefilmer som enskilda appar på iTunes App Store. Den senaste – Lady Death blev precis godkänd och här är det intressanta:
Den handlar om Lucifers dotter Hope och allt utspelar sig i Sverige på 1400-talet. Joråsåatte.


Snart är det fredag! Då är det så klart dags för FollowFriday på Twitter. För den som undrar lite hur det egentligen funkar så har StyleWalker skrivit ett bra blogginlägg i frågan.


Somliga hävdar att Facebook igår förutom att köpa FriendFeed även drog igång sin real time search vilket tillför statusuppdateringar från personer som valt att göra dem publika till den vanliga sökningen. Dock verkar det bara ha varit någon som tryckte på knappen för tidigt och sen ångrade sig eftersom funktionen inte är tillgänglig längre. När den väl börjar funka menar vissa att den kommer att utgöra ett seriöst hot mot Twitter men det kräver att alla gör om sina profiler så de blir publika och det lär inte hända.
Twitter var från början publikt by default och där har endast ett fåtal valt att skydda sina uppdateringar. Det är en helt annan sak att få medlemmar vana vid en sluten krets läsare att helt plötsligt öppna upp för alla andra.


Slutligen, Hitler är verkligen sur på att Facebook köper Friendfeed.



(via tips från @tkj)

I really enjoy listening to Jason Calacanis when he’s on TWiT, and I think he generally makes a lot of sense (and considering his success, he clearly knows more than me).  However, his anti-Apple rant (like so many others) is really off-base (I’m not the only one that thinks so).

There is no technical reason why the iTunes ecosystem shouldn’t allow the ability to sync with any MP3 player

The iTunes ecosystem does allow the ability to sync with any MP3 player (even more so now that music is DRM-free).  You can build an application that uses the XML library description that iTunes creates to figure out where all the music/video is, and do what you like with it.  The way I see it, there’s no reason that iTunes/Apple should be forced to support any MP3 player with their software.  Apple clearly makes some money from the iTunes music/video sales, but it’s clearly not the main profit generator is the ecosystem – the high-margin iPods/iPhones are.  Apple has spent a great deal of time and money building a store and an application to make the players more appealing.  Why should any other player get to piggyback on the top of that?  If (e.g.) Palm wants to create an online music store and develop an application that works with it and the Pre, then they should be able to (and I see no reason they can’t).

I like iTunes more than other media applications I’ve used, but it’s certainly not perfect, and it shows that it started out as a music player and is now a great deal more.  I love the iTunes Store, but Amazon completes with it (I can’t tell how well, since they won’t see to me in NZ) as does the Zune Store – which even offers a subscription model (no idea if this is available in NZ – it’s too Windows-centric for me).  There’s absolutely room for someone (e.g. Palm) to build a better store (or interface with an existing one like Amazon) and built a better application.  Do that, and build a better device, and you’ll get customers.  Don’t expect that Apple should have to help you compete against them.

Think for a moment about what your reaction would be if Microsoft made the Zune the only MP3 player compatible with Windows.

The iPod/iPhone isn’t the only MP3 player compatible with OS X.  However, isn’t the Zune is the only MP3 player compatible with the Zune store?  The “PlaysForSure” idea got thrown out some time ago.

Simple solution and opportunity: Not only let the iPhone work on any carrier,

How many countries is the iPhone locked in?  It certainly isn’t locked here, or in many other countries (e.g. Australia).  This is only an issue in some countries, like the U.S. – it’s a U.S. Apple problem, not an Apple problem.  From what I understand, it makes business sense for Apple to have an exclusivity deal with AT&T, at least for now.  I don’t see anything wrong with that.  If AT&T was bad enough, then people wouldn’t use it, even if it was the only iPhone choice.  If other companies made phones good enough on other carriers, then it wouldn’t matter which network the iPhone was with.  I presume this is a temporary issue and the U.S. will join the other enlightened countries before long and have unlocked phones, anyway.

but put *two* SIM card slots on the iPhone

A nice idea in some ways, but about as un-Apple as you can get.

3. Draconian App Store policies that are, frankly, insulting

This is actually points 3, 4 and 5.

Yes, every application on the phone has to approved by Apple, and if you were interested in something adult in nature…well…you can’t do that.

From all accounts, the approval process needs a lot of work.  One suspects that now that Jobs is officially returned to work (and Schiller is speaking openly about at least some things) that changes will happen before too long.  I think Apple must surely realise that the situation is getting out of control, and will start implementing changes.  For now, there are still a lot of applications that I really love, there are none that I know of (which is an issue, of course) that I wish I had, and only one that has been pulled that I love (which is Amazon’s fault, not Apple’s).  I’m willing to give Apple a bit more time to fix this – I suspect that even they didn’t realise quite how successful this would be.

4. Being a horrible hypocrite by banning other browsers on the iPhone

Again, this is really just a specific case of #3.  Personally, I see almost no demand for Opera anywhere apart from by a few (very extreme) fans.  I don’t even see much desire for Firefox or Chrome on the iPhone.

5. Blocking the Google Voice Application on the iPhone

There’s a lot of talk about this.  It seems overblown to me, considering that Google Voice isn’t even publicly available (I believe it’s an invite-only beta) and is U.S.-only.  I think it’s just that a lot of the noisy tech pundits use Google Voice, and so this impacts them directly.  I think there are much worse cases of App Store approval problems.  In any case, this is again just another instance of #3.

Making great products does not absolve you from technology’s cardinal rule: Don’t be evil.

It seems to me that the cardinal rule is more “make great stuff”.  I’ll still buy from Amazon, even after they killed my favourite iPhone application.  I dislike some of how Apple handles App Store submission, but I’ll still buy various products from them.  I dislike DRM in general, but the iTunes Store is good enough that it’s still worth using.

1. Do you think Apple would be more, or less, successful if they adopted a more open strategy (i.e. allowing other MP3 players in iTunes)?

Less.  A huge part of the appeal of the Apple ‘ecosystem’ is that because they control all parts, everything “just works”.  If you use all-Apple products, everything works so much nicer than if you mix-and-match.

2. Do you think Apple should face serious antitrust action?

No.

3. Do you think Apple’s dexterity and competence forgive their bad behavior?

Yes.

Jason Calacanis escreveu um post hoje sobre o negócio anunciado entre Microsoft e Yahoo hoje, na área de buscas. Não me envolvi muito nas milhares de leituras sobre o assunto, mas achei alguns dos comentários do Calacanis muito bons, aplicáveis para outras empresas.

O Jason Calacanis é um empreendedor que admiro muito. Pela agressividade, pela maneira inteligente, rápida e constante que vende sua empresa e seus produtos. Ele está sempre pensando em como fazer diferente e ter um super sucesso.

Os melhores pontos do post, na minha opinião:

• Ser agressivo e inovar são as duas únicas saídas para se ter sucesso.
• A Microsoft é uma empresa a ser respeitada, apesar dos muitos críticos: resiliente, pensa grande, pensa longe, não desiste.
• Entregar o ouro para o bandido e desistir da briga (o que parece ter sido feito pelo Yahoo) não é uma forma bacana de se manter no negócio.
• Com dos gigantes agora no mercado (Google e Microsoft), há espaço para pequenas empresas, rápidas e inteligentes, criarem nichos, e até assumirem a terceira, quarta e quinta posição.

Meu resumo: resiliência é difícil de se manter, mas se paga. Onde todos estão vendo as dificuldades, os empreendedores, como o Jason, encontram oportunidade.

It seems rather counter-intuitive to the modern concept that the wired world connects more people than ever before, that it could also be one of the most disconnecting links to our humanity. As written by Jason Calacanis in his article, The End of Empathy, the emotional cues of face-to-face interaction are lost on the internet, leading to what he calls “Internet Asperger’s Syndrome (IAS)”. In this syndrome, people on the internet stop perceiving the basic human goodness in people, and what develops is a decline of empathy, followed ultimately by the worst aspects of humanity: hatred, envy, and greed. Since individuals are representative only by the non-emotive expressions of words and avatars, people on the internet are reduced to nothing more than objects. The pursuit of attention on the internet becomes of foremost concern that is fed by the human desire for higher visitor stats, more Twitter followers, more Facebook friends. While social networking is considered one of the greatest tools of business for the modern e-commerce age, it has also reduced human interactivity to that of short exchanges of meaningless banter.

In truth, the anonymity of the internet has enabled people to abandon the individualistic life they lead in the “real world”, and pursue the various personas, and ideas that they can’t, or perhaps won’t, try outside the wired world. Although anonymity can be a means of shielding the public from dehumanizing the individual, it is not an end to the random attacks that constitute the hedonistic internet. I write a blog mainly for my own enjoyment, and receiving comments and feedback from it is a part of that enjoyment. Still, there have been times when I’ve found it necessary to withdraw, because of being emotionally hurt by the words of seemingly emotionless entities.

At times my writing has been described as “pedestrian”, weak, unimaginative, lacking in both formal structure and style. Criticizing my writing is perhaps the easiest way to hurt me, and a thousand comments of praise from individuals who visit here often can be overruled by one insensitive remark from somebody I’ve never heard of. Known as “drivebys”, these anonymous entities often visit a blog and write nothing more than a vicious insult, or a take a threatening tone. A sudden visit by one of these people can leave one feeling cold, shocked, disconnected from the enjoyment that is participating in the interactivity with other people.

As Jason Calacanis describes in his article, this small act can be one that destroys the very will to continue on:

As you know, I moved to this email newsletter to get away from the IAS factor on blogs. It worked for the first four months, but last month, someone flamed me, calling me an idiot and my missive “garbage.” It was the first time any one of the 12,000 or so people on the list ever flamed me.

Now, I consider myself a fairly thick-skinned, tough person, but I realized that I had not emailed you in a month, and that it was probably because of that short email. The 12k suffered due to a three sentence flame by just one person, probably suffering from IAS.

Perhaps the worst-kept secret I have is that my writing name isn’t my first name. I chose my middle name specifically because of a historically relevant interaction I had with a deranged individual on the internet. While I’ve been mocked by many for this, having my name “scare-quoted” by detractors, there is a very real and pragmatic reason for using my middle name. A few years ago when I was writing opinion pieces on the internet under my given name, without any shielding whatsoever from the entities that ebb and flow in the internet stream, I received some interest from a particular individual who shared my opinions on immigration. What began as a commonality in one political position led to his wanting me to read “the truth” about the holocaust and the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Realizing I was dealing with a neo-Nazi, I began to put some distance between myself and this person, but I rather unwisely publicly rebuked him in a forum. The next thing I knew, he was calling my house.

I don’t know if you’ve ever known the fear of having the shroud of your virtual world torn from your eyes, only to realize there are real-life implications to your words. The man on the phone with me was threatening, hostile, frightening. The mention of a gun was used, and the suggestion that my home really wasn’t that far from his.

Shortly after I stopped writing. I stopped participating in the internet medium while I sought to absorb the consequences of interacting with these faceless denizens of the world wide web. Because I enjoy writing, I returned, but only under a new shield of protection. I now began to choose my words carefully, my associations even more so. I sought to engage in “friendly” exchanges and a debate of ideas with people, but never to expose myself to a point where I would put myself or my family in danger. Even so, I’ve been caught up in pointless arguments and countless encounters with people who take the electronic manifestation of my intellectual presence in this universe, and wrap it neatly into a condescending and belittling remark that seeks to destroy my emotional confidence. In internet parlance, it’s called having a “thick-skin”.

Jason Calacanis describes the encounters he often has with those who have made disparaging remarks about him in the wired world, back in the world of flesh and blood:

I’ve had a couple of folks introduce themselves to me in the past couple of years and say something to the effect of “Oh, I wrote this horrible thing about you but I didn’t really mean it. I really respect your work.” They are normally very uncomfortable when this happens. Sometimes, they are even shaking and stuttering. I typically pretend I don’t know what they’re talking about and tell them it doesn’t matter–a complete lie. Typically, I know exactly what they said, because you remember when folks say something nasty. I’ve come to the conclusion that all I can do is forgive them and move on.

The problem with the dehumanizing aspect of IAS is that people tend to forget there is a real, thinking, caring human being behind the pixels. While it may seem entertaining to refer to people in derogatory terms, with invective and pejoratives that are laced with cruelty, such words rarely fail to infect the psyche of the person inflicting them. Since people are objectified on the internet, it somehow seems valid to attack the object of scorn with ridicule. But by turning people into neat categorically-incompatible objects that are to be treated with contempt, we’re subconsciously teaching ourselves that it’s okay to identify as aggressive, psychologically violent behaviours. Behaviours which, logically, will manifest themselves in the real world, just as it did during the objectification of women in the past.

I believe that this is partly what separates political blogs into the echo chambers in which they generally reside. The resultant exchanges of counter-partisan debate inevitably devolves into a complete lack of empathy for the opponent. As humanity is lost, that connection in the physical world that makes us more than just a sentient species, the breakdown of communication is based upon inflicting psychological warfare. In this war, as in others in the real world, one cannot escape without casualties. The engagement of psychological warfare cannot be waged without damage to one’s, for lack of a better term, soul.