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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

K tweeps here’s a (very late, gratuitous) Oct entry to the blog. I (for 1^st time ever na?) stayed home, didn’t go out (what w/demise of Castro Halloween etc..) & instead did buri nizer er.. shap ..er kuch bhi against voh evil donwalas lol In actuality it took me til last nite (writing this mid-Nov, cheating on post date lol- it’s new moon in Scorpio to finish said evil diyan curse on the organized crime elements who r giving ur gori hell.. er, were, past tense, we now hope

But I digress.. also there was a Fri the 13^th (in Nov) a few days back-tho I’d planned on finishing up the shap/sahera/black magick thingy, ended up doing a bewitching pyar spell instead Yet to see the result but hopefully.. Anyhow the drama of evil crorepati bura diwana baap & me being evicted etc.. continues.. of course exacerbated by voh thug ulloos.. who in turn I’m making ek filim about lol

Last nite I finally finished the spell began at Samhain aka Hallowe’en, a fortnight before. With any luck we’ll see bahut mushkilon happening to the criminals & gori finally being free of some old curses etc.. that petty jealous morons graced me with (not ) ages ago.. lekin ur some IT geek reading this who ‘doesn’t believe’ in this stuff na? Just wait n see! U don’t have 2 believe it, I’m believing it for you

Next up (aka proper November blog entry) is a list of character parts for the trailer to my upcoming film, ‘Soufi & Me’.. which if I didn’t already say, is about gori’s such-zindagi (get it? real life experience ka San Francisco thug don maderchodus Metlab: a suspense thriller feature film shot entirely in SF about the Arab mafia who are brazen sex traffickers, & with any luck (plus a little shap/sahera/bruja/hoodoo gonna be nailed by the Fed presently We hope..

At any rate, there’s gonna be tons of Arab (especially Maghreb aka Northern Africa originating, especially Algerian) male parts to cast, tons of goonday (aka gang member) walk on/no dialogue small roles that don’t require any acting experience, and a few small/interesting desi roles, including a Sri Lankan hacker/pimp & a Tamilian ex BF of mine lol.

Speaking of which, I talked briefly with Samrat Chakrabarti on Twitter (he’s promoting his latest film, Bombay Summer, which played at the Third I SF film festival a week or so back) -video reviews to come, still in need of re-homing my 350+ vlog vids after the semi-demise of revver.com.. I’m extremely hopeful he might agree to a small cameo in the film (btw there are two other desi male roles in the same scene, which is a humorous one Just FYI.. he’s the guy in Kissing Cousins (sorry if links don’t work, not under my control but try ‘goriji’ + film title in google), Loins of Punjab Presents and … Karma Calling and and.. I LOVE him.. he’s fabulous ;)

So get ur roles while their hot, n tell a dost na? Meantime u can see everything gori’s a doin at any point in time here –> that’s meri tweets na? Just join twitter & add me! Be sure to check out my lists, got a great desi list going (including ppl like Shahsi ‘sacred cow’ Tharoor, Rajdeep Sardesai (CNN-IBN) who did the SRK interview below, Karan Johar, Abhishek Bachchan, Vivek Oberoi, Preity Zinta, AR Rahman, lotsa fun regular desi ppl, including some pretty active Pakistan tweeps, etc..) plus lists of films, Arab/Maghreb stuff, human rights & of course, my ‘stop sex trafficking’ feed na? Plus tons more! If u join twitter u can subscribe! Whoo! :P

If u wanna be in the film, see the next blog entry (above this one on main page) for specs on the peeps needed for the trailer shoot, and keep checking here or my tweets where I’m gonna be listing parts (many) needed for the film. Many of which don’t require dialog/any acting experience etc.. which means it’s open to anyone meeting the physical descriptions needed & willing to work for free Please pass the word- especially please let any recent male immigrants from Algeria know (or people approximating such who speak French, Arabic & ideally, Darija- a local dialect which is hybrid of other two tongues) in order to try out for the lead parts- casting coming early Spring!

Meantime on the trailer, need to shoot ASAP in downtown SF.. don’t be shy-tweet me up if you wanna be in the film! pyar y’all! See u on twitter Remember: I’m @gorisf

K in case u haven’t noticed the column to the right lol –> I’m going crazy on twitter my peeps In the time I’ve neglected yeh blog (since early July 2009), ur gori’s tweeted about 1700 or more tweets & counting na? lol if u wanna add me on Twitter, I’m @gorisf na?

Basically I’m focusing on a few areas: desi cheez (of course, including Bolly & SRK filim stuff), the hypocrisy of fundamentalist Muslim (oops I almost starting putting hashtags lol) attitudes, aur tweets about my vids (revver.com, voh lame site now owned by some goonda who’s letting it fall apart literally+ not paying anyone boo)- they r gonna be re-loaded onto a functional site ASAP (all 350+ of them & counting na?)..

..plus I tweet bout meri *NAYA FILM* whoo Working title ‘Soufi & Me’ hai na? aka ‘Soufi et Moi’ lol ‘सूफी और मैं’ ‘الصوفي & لي’ etc lol! So there *is* a 2-part vid about my casting needs for this no-budget narrative feature film (to get technical on u there for a minute)- aka u could be famous & not have to really have acting skills to do so but… haven’t posted the vid(s) yet as I’m in the middle of finding a new video hosting site for reasons listed above.

Also, didn’t forget about the (hopefully humorous) acchi desi cheez gori clothing & accessories line (srsly! 2 use twit-speak).. it’s just that.. yeppers, I’m about to get evicted from my ghur (cry!), rent hasn’t been paid since the last blog post, u can see that’s quite a long time. Plus I’m being stalked by such SF goonday na? (Real don peeps eek!)- which is what yeh filim is actually about, besides being a love story

So if u pray 2 any goddesses or gods of any sort, say a prayer 4 gori aaj, tik hai? The donate 2 gori’s Mini Cooper fund link in the archive should still (hopefully lol) work, in case anyone wants 2 donate the extreme amounts of $$$ needed for me 2 stave off imminently becoming homeless *sigh* Or of course, you can donate towards the film, which ideally has a ‘low low budget’ of $500K (basically a budget to keep me housed while writing the script, feed the crew while filming & pay 2 rent a camera/print the film, with little left for anything else In any case, I’m doing the dang film, even if I’m living marg mein instead of ghur mein which is exactly what local thuggees would like to see happen

Oh if I didn’t say, it’s about gori kam trafficking bhi na? So if u wanna be a funder (or just lend gori her back rent $$)- catch me on twitter peeps & I’ll be bahut khushi 2 take any donations lol-or just say ‘hi’! Pyar jis & watch yeh space 4 more details on filim production & lol fundraising attempts!

BTW if ur bored (besides talking 2 me ‘live’ on twitter, u know u wanna, especially the more Tamilian-esque masti Sri Lumba Kala Sundars out there na?) u can check out my very own #Hashtag on twitter: #LHTE, which stands for ‘Learn Hindi Through English’ lmao. Because everyone knows that crappy Hindi book, my theory being that ‘Hinglish’ goes both ways: it’s not just some gora being unable to speak Hindi (or other Indian languages) but also desi peeps being unable 2 properly speak Angrezi na? So enjoy! All typos are directly copied from the book itself lmao!

Will bb soon jis, in the meantime, just read the next column & u got more details than I’m sure u ever wanted lol –>

This is mere speculation on my part, based on some rumours.

I’m quite sure that Apple will come up with a video-enabled iPod touch on September 9, along with iTunes 9 (which should have a few new “social networking” features). This part is pretty clear from most rumour sites.

AppleInsider | Sources: Apple to unveil new iPod lineup on September 9.

Progressively, Apple will be adopting a new approach to marketing its touch devices. Away from the “poorperson’s iPhone” and into the “tiny but capable computer” domain. Because the 9/9 event is supposed to be about music, one might guess that there will be a cool new feature or two relating to music. Maybe lyrics display, karaoke mode, or whatever else. Something which will simultaneously be added to the iPhone but would remind people that the iPod touch is part of the iPod family. Apple has already been marketing the iPod touch as a gaming platform, so it’s not a radical shift. But I’d say the strategy is to make Apple’s touch devices increasingly more attractive, without cannibalizing sales in the MacBook family.

Now, I really don’t expect Apple to even announce the so-called “Tablet Mac” in September. I’m not even that convinced that the other devices Apple is preparing for expansion of its touch devices lineup will be that close to the “tablet” idea. But it seems rather clear, to me, that Apple should eventually come up with other devices in this category. Many rumours point to the same basic notion, that Apple is getting something together which will have a bigger touchscreen than the iPhone or iPod touch. But it’s hard to tell how this device will fit, in the grand scheme of things.

It’s rather obvious that it won’t be a rebirth of the eMate the same way that the iPod touch wasn’t a rebirth of the MessagePad. But it would make some sense for Apple to target some educational/learning markets, again, with an easy-to-use device. And I’m not just saying this because the rumoured “Tablet Mac” makes me think about the XOXO. Besides, the iPod touch is already being marketed to educational markets through the yearly “Back to school” program which (surprise!) ends on the day before the September press conference.

I’ve been using an iPod touch (1st Generation) for more than a year, now, and I’ve been loving almost every minute of it. Most of the time, I don’t feel the need for a laptop, though I occasionally wish I could buy a cheap one, just for some longer writing sessions in cafés. In fact, a friend recently posted information about some Dell Latitude D600 laptops going for a very low price. That’d be enough for me at this point. Really, my iPod touch suffices for a lot of things.

Sadly, my iPod touch seems to have died, recently, after catching some moisture. If I can’t revive it and if the 2nd Generation iPod touch I bought through Kijiji never materializes, I might end up buying a 3rd Generation iPod touch on September 9, right before I start teaching again. If I can get my hands on a working iPod touch at a good price before that, I may save the money in preparation for an early 2010 release of a new touch device from Apple.

Not that I’m not looking at alternatives. But I’d rather use a device which shares enough with the iPod touch that I could migrate easily, synchronize with iTunes, and keep what I got from the App Store.

There’s a number of things I’d like to get from a new touch device. First among them is a better text entry/input method. Some of the others could be third-party apps and services. For instance, a full-featured sharing app. Or true podcast synchronization with media annotation support (à la Revver or Soundcloud). Or an elaborate, fully-integrated logbook with timestamps, Twitter support, and outlining. Or even a high-quality reference/bibliography manager (think RefWorks/Zotero/Endnote). But getting text into such a device without a hardware keyboard is the main challenge. I keep thinking about all sorts of methods, including MessagEase and Dasher as well as continuous speech recognition (dictation). Apple’s surely thinking about those issues. After all, they have some handwriting recognition systems that they aren’t really putting to any significant use.

Something else which would be quite useful is support for videoconferencing. Before the iPhone came out, I thought Apple may be coming out with iChat Mobile. Though a friend announced the iPhone to me by making reference to this, the position of the camera at the back of the device and the fact that the original iPhone’s camera only supported still pictures (with the official firmware) made this dream die out, for me. But a “Tablet Mac” with an iSight-like camera and some form of iChat would make a lot of sense, as a communication device. Especially since iChat already supports such things as screen-sharing and slides. Besides, if Apple does indeed move in the direction of some social networking features, a touch device with an expanded Address Book could take a whole new dimension through just a few small tweaks.

This last part I’m not so optimistic about. Apple may know that social networking is important, at this point in the game, but it seems to approach it with about the same heart as it approached online services with eWorld, .Mac, and MobileMe. Of course, they have the tools needed to make online services work in a “social networking” context. But it’s possible that their vision is clouded by their corporate culture and some remnants of the NIH problem.

Ah, well…

I found a game for the iPhone called spinball, and from the screenshots it looks like an exact clone of Curveball, plus a few UI modifications. I used to spend hours on end playing Curveball; it’s just insanely addictive. Frustrating too. Play it… At your own risk. I take no responsibility for any damages to your mental or physical health, nor can I be held liable if you get insanely addicted and do stupid stuff like throw your computer out the window :p
My current high score since I found it again yesterday: 19490 (Level 6). I know I’ve gotten to Level 7 before, but that was ages ago.
Scratch that, just got 21690 – Level 7.

I’ve been both a little busy but bored at the same time lately. I decided I’m going to overhaul the DEQ site design (a religious wordpress blog I run for my old mosque) because I’m not happy with the LightWord theme. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great theme, but it’s not what I’m looking for. The way it works is like a standard blog with each post containing several self-hosted videos. I’ve decided I’m going to rebuild it so that firstly, the videos are hosted elsewhere. Youtube would be the obvious choice, but there are competitors that are simply better. It came down to Revver and Viddler.
Both are similar in the sense that they have ad-revenue-share schemes and have very customisable interfaces through their respective API’s. But I am faced with a difficult compromise: Revver allows me to create a white-label of the site, but has a 100MB file size limit. Viddler, on the other hand, has a 500MB file size limit, but white-labelling is only available to business customers.
Given that most of the videos are around the 300MB mark, it makes a big difference.
In the end, it came down to client requirements. Though technically, it’s me who created, developed, maintains and records the content for the site, it’s for the mosque, so they are the clients. They don’t want the videos to be split into smaller parts, meaning Viddler is the way to go.

The second thing I’m rebuilding is the design. I’ve already created one WordPress theme, which I know is four short of my intended target for the end of this month, but I’ll learn along the way.
This time, rather than making a design based on the technical knowledge I have, I decided to completely let loose and design for the sake of making it look good – no compromise. Then I’ll learn how to do the stuff I don’t know. It’s a positive step forward.
In my mind, I know how it should look. But in the name of doing it professionally, I’m following the technique of Elliot Jay Stocks – a designer I recently heard of because of his book ‘Sexy Web Design‘. So I’m going to go through the entire planning and research phase, beginning with the sitemap. I should get the requirements from the clients first, but I already know that I have free rein on most of that. As long as the videos are there and work, they’re happy. They’re not very technically inclined, so they’re not really aware of what sort of stuff is possible. Thus, their existing web projects lack ambition. As Elliot Stocks would say, “it’s not sexy”. No, I haven’t missed the irony of trying to create a religious website that can be called ’sexy’. I’m taking control of that aspect of things – and the only things in which I’ve let them have a say is stuff to do with the actual videos. I’m not a friendly web-designer, am I? :p

I used WriteMaps to create the sitemap – it’s quite useful: simple and effective. I did some post-processing for the sake of it in photoshop, so here’s the final* sitemap:

*Where ‘final’ means ’subject to vary due to unforeseen circumstances’.
Click for larger image.

See the “An XT Production” thing in the corner? That’s that I was talking about here. Next is the wire-framing, paper-prototyping and then the design. Finally, the coding aspect of it will come into play. That’s the part I’m dreading: trying to get what I see in my mind and turn it into working 1’s and 0’s.

I’ve got a new partner in bed. She’s not like you would expect. She has great curves which compliment her slim figure oh so beautifully. I’ve known her for ages; she’s always been around, just hiding in the shadows waiting for when I need her. Now she’s here, and I can’t let her go.

What? You thought I was talking about a real girl?
And just for the record, I don’t sleep with the blade out.

Days Without Incident: Five

When YouTube was officially launched in November 2005, it only took a few months before its popularity multiplied by the summer of 2006. Its design by founders Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim changed the way we watch videos on the internet; music videos are no longer only available through Yahoo! and hardly anyone streams live footage through RealPlayer.

So why isn’t there a well-established YouTube of audio?

Every MySpace profile has an audio player, usually with some tracks off of a trendy unknown local indie acts debut EP (and a link to the iTunes page for the digital download of said EP).

With the growing popularity of podcasts and programs such as Skype (and to a lesser extent, Übercaster), it’s a wonder why it’s so hard to find an easy audio host.

Not to mention that prank calls and celebrity hissy fits still capture the publics attention. In February, TMZ released an audio recording of Christian Bale losing it on the set of Terminator Salvation, and in November, a prank call to Sarah Palin from a Canadian comedian posing as French President Nicolas Sarkozy made its way around the internet and onto news programs.

Most recently, the Michael Jackson and Steve McNair 9-1-1 calls have surfaced on the internet. I’ve been searching Google for a suitable website that hosts audio files with HTML code to embed a player and found about half-a-dozen.

None seem to be compatible with WordPress.

• Audioo is a site designed for the exact purpose of hosting audio files the same way YouTube hosts video files. The template is identical, but when the copy-and-paste HTML code is put into WordPress, nothing appears.

• Houndbite is similar, but like Audioo, nothing shows up when its code is plugged in.

• Odeo collects audio (and video) clips from all over the internet and allows users to listen to them through a player. Creating an account is free, but like the other players, it doesn’t work on WordPress.

• Yudu is a free tool for journalists that offers web hosting of audio, video, images and documents, but its player won’t play ball either.

• Blip.fm isn’t quite the same–it’s more of a virtual jukebox. It boasts integration with Twitter, FriendFeed, Tumblr and LiveJournal, but it’s front page defines its capabilities: “create your own music station.” You are the DJ, but rather than upload your own content, you pick songs from Blip.fm’s library. It’s just not the same.

• Blip.fm’s biggest competition is IMEEM, “the world’s largest social music service.” It offers millions of songs to stream for free, but it’s no place to upload your own work.

• VR+ is a pay program that turns cell phones (namely the iPhone and the BlackBerry) into audio recorders. It can capture an audio clip, then share it via email, Facebook, MySpace Twitter and Blogger–but not WordPress.

• Like VR+, Evoca can record audio through cell phones, but also through your computer microphone and Skype. It also allows previously recorded clips to be uploaded, but like VR+, it’s not free.

What these sites have in common is that not one stands out above the other. Every humour site has its own video player and live video sites like uStream, Qik and Justin.tv. It’s just so easy to get video online.

There are dozens of YouTube copycats–Metacafe, Dailymotion, Google Videos, Revver–but the audio hosts have no one to copy.

I then found out that WordPress only likes using its own audio player, which only supports MP3 files, but can be used for free, as long as the file is hosted elsewhere (unless you purchase a space upgrade for audio abilities).

Until one site establishes itself as the alpha male by allowing audio uploads of any filetype with full integration into todays social networking sites and mobile devices, the rest of us will have to adjust our reception.

K gori’s cheating here since this is actually being written in July (mostly) about cheez June se na?

Belated Khushi gay (uh bi!!!) Pride na? Here’s my rant about lack of Bi visibility to start things off…

gori's bi rant- khushi belated Pride 2009 peeps!

Been hacked for about 9 wks, unable 2 get online 95% of the time, turns out this has 2 do with goonday aka thuggees San Francisco mein, which have been harrassing gori ever since the demise of yeh M1M… augmented by garam Arab yaar & posse, got that?

At any rate, u can now see mehri Twitter feed (add me! @gorisf & say ‘hi’ with a DM or something na? Only if ur not spam tik hai?)

Meantime, basically blogging about the entire SF International Film Fest (<–go there to see my reviews! yey!) plus the Frameline 33 Queer (tik hai, LGBT if you must) film fest (both from SF) got obliterated. As u can see from that link, it’s very very slow going trying to upload the 17+ film reviews from that fest, seeing as I’m hardly ever able to keep a connection going for even 24hrs…

But don’t be sad, u can see gori’s twitter feed, so far with daily updates, to the right –> (or just add @gorisf tik hai?)

If u wanna see gori cry, check out this cool movie review from the Frameline Queer film fest:

gori's 'Edie & Thea' film review from Frameline 33 -SF Int'l Queer Film Fest 2009

If u missed the end of the cafe lurks (reason: mafia peeps like usual), check this out (vid to the right, below)

gori cafe lurk 50+ ..SF thug edition muh... circa 4/09

Gotta jet before the thugs get my connection again! Be sure to keep an eye out 4 gori’s naya filim about garam Arab yaar, gori aur the sex trafficking scammers na? BTW status of gori’s naya desi lounge/club is currently unknown, depends largely on my dost’s willingness to take a risk of thugs trashing his nice new lounge/computer space, since both of us refuse to pay kickback $$$ to them (u thought this happened Mumbai mein sirf na?)

Pyar mehri jaans Be sure to watch my twitter feed to the right, I’m frequently in Union Square (theoretical film location) working on the script/watching thugs go by these days & would love some (non criminal sirf, please!) desi yaar company

PS if ur wondering on the SRK in San Francisco cheez, let’s just say nahin, I didn’t meet him, it’s a little too painful to talk about Meantime, here’s a fellow tweep’s blog about being an extra in one of the last shoots in the North Bay before SRK, Kajal & KJo left for Mumbai *sigh*…

Aur here’s a photo of SRK standing in the EXACT SAME SPOT gori can be found standing at every time she is returning to her house via disgusting filthy BART (just stood there today- actually there’s another photo I can’t find right now of him standing approx where the woman ki sari is to the left, that’s what I mean lol, plus he shot across the street from my old house @Mint Karaoke Bar, plus he shot @CCSF, which I can see from my current place arggggggggggg!!!! <–a digression lol)… at least mujhe samjhe abi that it’s possible that my long dreamt of Bolly-style script starring SRK as a bi male (directed by Karan Johar) taking place on Nob Hill IS a possibility… zindagi bahut strange hai na? Let’s see how my first film attempt goes, then maybe I’ll have a shot at the SRK script na? Cross fingers!

Pyar y’all.. watch the twitter column or add @gorisf to get updates on filims, gori’s whereabouts & the (now ever-present) Arab & other mafia peeps na? Laters!

Everyone knows YouTube has the online video market in a headlock.

However I’m far more intrigued by the battle for online market share between Viddler and Revver.

Tik jis it’s already the end of May (actually I’m cheating it’s early June lekin gori post-dated yeh post so I will have a May post na?)

Race riots have yet to start in ‘White Australia Forver’ (oh that’s Canada oops) phir bhi it should be coming any second now… just like ghetto Pakis UK mein na? Jao! Light them on fire n stuff! Just don’t mess with the historic architecture tik hai jis? Seriously, what a bunch of heinous ferengi na? Beat the crap out of them! Isn’t voh Punjabi Kuchbhi Singh yaar who got sliced in the stomach (one of many, poor thing!) bahut garam na? Wanna marry gori & come to US yaar? *sigh*

At least now gori’s rants about UK/Aus/Canada & other non-US gora colonies being hella racist won’t be as likely to meet with disaffected shrugs by gori’s apathetic desi dostana aaj.. small compensation I know…

So why we’re here.. yeppers, gori is being actually chased now by such goonday na? Incredible but true! Watch for a series of vids on voh suherchod, coming soon to mehri vlog!

BTW (ha jis, gori’s cheating on the date here a little) lekin do u notice how Obama’s 6/4 Cairo speech sounds like some boring college professor’s history/economics/kuch bhi lecture? Worse yet, what about the fact that the audience would only applaud when Obama either a) totally brown-nosed Islamic culture or b) quoted the Qu’ran (with poor transliteration lol).. BTW Obama it’s ‘ISlam’, IZlam nahin na? Guess gori’s garam Arab yaar encounter has opened yeh akon hara to the hypocrisy/narcissicism of Muslims (not to mention the US military establishment) in any case .. Gori’s not caring so much right now, since this is undoubtedly the first time since the artificial creation of the ’state’ (cough cough) of Israel that an Amrikan pres has actually uttered that sacred word: Palestine.. Palestinian nahin na? PalesTINE jis! Sadly, this is a massive start… Still lovin Obama in any case, if for no reason other than the khushi circumstance of looking at a brown yaar pres yey!

Peeps… Well gori’s actually really truly updating/re-doing cheez here this time…

Depending on the level/frequency of hacking (& how busy I get at the SF International Filim Fest na?) this could take anywhere from days.. to months lol Anyhow, in the meantime, please check out yeh choti gori poll ..u can fill in other suggestions at the bottom- make sure they are friendly ones, since I’m sure u don’t want to experience gorigiri na? (aka: buri nizer!) lols… BB laters!

Maverick Network caught up with Steven Starr the co-founder of Revver last week found out what he has been up to in Bali and Jakarta, his impressions from a dinner with Indonesia’s top bloggers and web start-up entrepreneurs and his desire to come to Pesta Blogger 2009.

Unspun, together with better people such as Nukman, Enda, Iman,  Ndoro and others have been invited to a dinner  with Steven Starr, one of the key figures behind Revver, a videocast site that shares its revenue with its creators and one of the few good examples of how people can monetize the web.

According to Wikipedia:

In 2006, Revver was awarded the Most Influential Independent Website by Television Week, nominated for an Advanced Technology Emmy Award, and honored as one of the 100 most promising startups by Red Herring. In 2007, Revver announced it had paid out its first million dollars to online creators and syndicators. In February 2008, Revver was sold to LiveUniverse.

The dinner is put on by the good folks at the US Embassy who hav been displaying a lot of Net Savvy these days besides being the the major sponsor of Pesta Blogger last year, they’ve had Ambassador Hume and three of his staff blogging about Hilary Clinton’s Visit on Dipnote, the US State Department’s blog; the use of YouTube to promote diversity visa lottery, Idul Fitri greetings, and having a Facebook fan page, among other things.

So it should be an interesting night and who knows, some of the people attending may be as rich as that Gates chap one of these days.

A good friend and I recently had a theological discussion regarding man’s free will and God’s omniscience, so we decided to record new conversations and upload them online to a video host. Since YouTube recently decided to put a 10-minute cap on all new videos, we chose to make an account with Revver instead, as Revver is INCREDIBLY more amazing than YouTube ever was. With all of that aside, let’s get to the gist of the video:

Luke Hamilton is an atheist, and my best friend. We often have philosophical and religious discussions, and in this video Luke voices his belief regarding our “free will”. Luke posits:  If  God knows all things, we must forfeit our concept of having a “free will”, as our decisions would then not necessarily be “free” ones but rather only decisions we make to fulfill a predetermined life we are forced to live.

I respond by raising the issue that our free will only seems to be in peril if, only and only if, God’s influence on a decision you make were to be so unbearably overwhelming that the decision would instead be “God’s will” rather than your own “free will”. I continue to lay out what I believe are solid points philosophically regarding fore-knowledge and free will, and cite as a quick example the avid movie buff who knows the end of the story right from the beginning: The actor in the movie (with the analogy of the movie being “real life”, the actor being a person who makes “free” decisions, and you, the movie-watcher, viewing the movie from a God’s-Eye-View) makes decisions which are wholly uninfluenced at the time he makes them, yet you know how the movie will end because of your position as the informed movie-buff.

We end on a neutral note and leave the discussion open for further comments, questions and responses. Feel free to join in!

-adamryan

These days the pathway to fame and fortune begins online, and your fans are your financiers.  Stop shopping your script old school!  No better way to lollygag in a down economy than to create a killer franchise.  So this one’s for you my friends, the animator, screenwriter, and big personality…it’s never been easier to create your masterpiece and sell it to your fans.  To get in the game simply follow the 22/22/2 rule, make it funny, put it up, talk to your fans, and sell them tees…

So you ask, what is the 22/22/2 rule?
I made that up  but it is the minimum pitch you’ll want to approach any video site with:  20-22 episodes, 22 minutes each to serve up on long form platforms, divisible into 2-4 minute segments to run on short form platforms with 15s preroll.  Then create an outrageously funny 30 second clip of it to get on Funny or Die and StupidVideos.

What’s selling right now?
Funny is selling big to the M 18-34 gamer/geeker humor and niche…it’s also smart to story around product categories advertised online.

Secrets to making it viral…
Who knows but you have to be superfast to capture attention… Make it timely with a laugh out loud title and thumbnail.  Simple story arc, three act structure, begin with chase, end with question.  Leverage brands whenever possible.

Put it up…like now!

I.  Amazon
Yup, you could be selling on Amazon next to big titles in minutes, and have a pathway into the living room via AVOD via TiVo and XBLA. Not sure why Amazon’s CreateSpace is the best kept secret in the industry but it is how you’re going to make your money.  They publish books, CDs, and DVDs on demand and send shorts 20m+ to AVOD.  Have your friends, family and fans post five star reviews the moment the site goes up and in the body of the review have them liken your work to a current bestseller and voila! you’re on your way to being optimized in Amazon’s recommendations engine.

II.  Blip.tv, Metacafe, Revver, imeem, Atom, Crackle
You can also make money on Blip.tv, Metacafe, Revver and Atom with a certain number of views and ratings.  Keep in mind, noone is getting rich off of CPM, mostly you can expect a penny per play, compare that to split on a $1.99 download where a content producer might walk away with a $1 per download. But Atom is owned by Viacom and has its own AtomTV Monday nights at 2am on Comedy Central and relationships with V Cast, etc. so if you’re stuff is awesome and you get voted to the top, you could land a non-exclusive rev-share deal or buyout.  Crackle, owned by Sony, will also buy the good stuff and acquire talent for its original programming via contests, with the grand prize being a pitch meeting with Sony executives.

III.  iTunes, Netflix, Hulu 
Yes, it’s true, for iTunes you do need to go through an approved distributor.  They have been villified for this process but Apple does this for good reason.  There’s a whole ingestion role that the approved distributor serves and even this approved distributor has to go to 3rd party before Apple can start its QC to see if the title is a fit. If you have a top talent like Mark Ruffalo and its a great film, they’ll want it but plan no later than September to submit it to get it on for Thanksgiving.  Everyone rushes their titles on for the biggest download buying time, the holidays, which starts before Thanksgiving.  And you will also want to want to window.  First pay download for the holidays, then subscription and free streaming rev-share around Valentine’s Day.  The great news is that these approved distributors all have relationships with Netflix and Hulu, which not only is the premier destination for premium content it’s also the largest and most respected syndicator sending its player out to 60+ structured partners including AOL, Blinkx, Break, Cinemanow, Cooliris, DailyMotion, Fancast, Flixster, Glam, Metacafe, MSN, Movielink, MySpace, Sling, TVGuide, Yahoo!….  These distributors also have relationships with Joost, Veoh, TV.com, Jaman, B-Side, Sezmi, Vudu, soon XBLA, ZillionTV, and can be very creative in monetizing the properties via soundtracks and mobile wallpaper.  Great you say, who are these majestic people and how can I meet them?  Well, therein lies the rub.  They’re very busy culling through referrals from Apple etc and have limited bandwidth.  So you need to be vetted by someone who knows them or try www.indieflix.com who will pitch award winners or festival selections.  Luckily it’s easy these days to secure festival credentials via Amazon’s  Withoutabox who for one fee and application submits your film to as many festivals as you like.  How cool is that! Withoutabox will also submit your work to Amazon’s IMDb for bonus promotion.  All this said, even a million views is not going to result in much money.  Even with a $45CPM+ on the premium sites, after everyone’s take you might wind up with less than $2,000.  Netflix with its lump sum buyout per term is usually the next best payout after iTunes but a Hulu deal gives vast exposure and legitimacy and should be as aggressively sought after as iTunes and Netflix.

IV.  $$$ YouTube, MySpace, DailyMotion, Break….
You can monetize your content on YouTube as well as the other UGC sites (DailyMotion, Metacafe..) but your stuff has to be high production value with brand, talent and/or strong following that advertisers are targeting, and you need to be in the know to pitch that business development executive and secure a content partner agreement.  For YouTube specifically, you need to have original videos suitable for online streaming, express permission to use and monetize all av uploaded, and you regularly upload videos that are viewed by thousands of YouTube users.  If you meet that criteria, you can get started now by clicking here.  So build your network and use the UGC platforms to aggregate your fan base.  Tubemogul can consolidate your uploads and provides detailed analytics on what is being watched where.

V.  Soundtrack too 
It’s actually very easy to get your soundtrack on iTunes, and sell into the long tail via Tunecore, IODA, CDBaby, Napster, eMusic, and Annie’s List.  And Pandora will take over the transom submissions and index your soundtrack to play along like artists and link to your iTunes and Amazon shopping carts.   Imeem pays revshare and also slipstreams indies into playlists of like artists.  So when creating your soundtrack keep in mind that if it sounds like Radiohead, it might play alongside Radiohead and in turn have a shot at acquiring their fans.

Fans are Financiers, Love Them!!
Your fans can make or break you, and all they want is some engagement, some interaction.   At minimum, create an email list, let them know where you’re screening, invite them to the parties, deliver them brand experiences, and set up a blog so they can post their comments.  Twitter is a must and Facebook (MySpace for the soundtrack) but very time intensive if you’re not into it.  Enlist a dedicated fan to help you keep it up.  Bring them onto your team.  Give them credit as an officer on your Facebook fan page.   For your other fans, post clips of the videos on YouTube without soundtrack and invite them to mash it up giving prizes to the one with the most views like a cameo in one of the videos.  Then create cool merchandise on CafePress or Zazzle and invite them to buy it to fund your work.  You will make more money selling tees than selling the content.  The content builds the brand, and your dedicated fans will evangelize the brand and pay for the brand experience.  Cultivating loyalty is very important and extremely satisfying to your audience.  Give them trivia.  Ask their opinions and advice.  Make them part of your journey.  Love them and you will be richly rewarded.