MediaReview

Lost Remote: Streaming sites listen up: Firefox 1.5 out today: "Firefox accounts for about 20 percent of visits to some sites"

Kevin Drumm on how blogging and reading on the Internet affects his abilities to read and comprehend off-line:
The Washington Monthly: "It's not just that I spend less time reading books, it's that I find my mind wandering when I do read. After a few paragraphs, or maybe a page or two, I'll run into a sentence that suddenly reminds me of something — and then spend the next minute staring into space thinking of something entirely unrelated to the book at hand. Eventually I snap back, but obviously this behavior reduces both my reading rate and my reading comprehension.

Is this really because of blogging? I don't know for sure, but it feels like it's related to blogging, and it's a real problem. As wonderful as blogs, magazines, and newspapers are, there's simply no way to really learn about a subject except by reading a book — and the less I do that, the less I understand about the broader, deeper issues that go beyond merely the outrage of the day."

BuzzMachine: "Craig was trying to clear up some misimpressions in various stories and posts that jumped off from this Guardian report but he couldn’t say much because the company is still stealth. To help clarify:

Craig invested in the news startup I’ve been working with, which I mentioned briefly back in May. He is one of our angel investors and advisor as an individual, not on behalf of Craigslist.

We’re not ready to show or describe our service in any detail; we’re still in development. Our goal is to create a platform to organize the world’s news using the best of technology, community, and editors. We see an explosion of interest in and coverage of news from incredibly varied sources around the world and see a need around that.

We plan to have a beta in the spring. And as I’ve blogged before, we will be looking for talent in various areas; we’re not ready to take on more folks yet but I’ll let you know when we are. And of course, we’ll post the jobs on Craigslist! "

Downloading for Dollars - The future of Hollywood has arrived. By Edward Jay Epstein: "Once upon a time—two generations ago—the movie business was about making movies. Nowadays, it is about creating intellectual property that can be licensed in a raft of different markets. "

Craig's news-trust project has been whispered about for almost a year now, here he pulls back the curtain, a little bit:
craigblog: A few words on a new media venture: "A few words on a new media venture

I'm working with some folks on technologies that promise to help people find the most trusted versions of the more important stories... and this is personal, helping out another group not associated with craigslist. This kind of technology is intended to preserve the best of existing journalistic practices, and should help retain newsroom jobs.

Just to make sure... it's NOT associated with craigslist, just me, trying to help.

It's intended to complement, preserve, and grow existing media.

Remember, existing news infrastructure, including editing and fact-checking, really big deal."

Journalism Under Scrutiny: "The best filterers are in constant contact with the filterees, and also interact with them in order to become better and better selectors. To be a good filter of the news is not as easy as it sounds, because one of the first questions that arises is: what gives you the right to filter things for me?"

A new concept, as mentioned by the CEO of new photo sharing site Riya.

Recognizing Deven: "One interesting thing that came up was the 'revenge of the long tail.' It is the idea that consumers are starting to realize the value they are providing via user generated content and want a piece of it. I believe this is a mega-trend that is just begining."

In a losing race with the zeitgeist - Los Angeles Times: "Showbiz people are prone to exaggeration, but when everybody is exaggerating about the same thing, you know something bad is happening. There's a dark cloud of unease hovering over Hollywood. A top CAA agent calls it 'mayhem.' A studio marketer says 'it feels like Armageddon.' A production chief puts it this way: 'Each weekend there's more blood in the water.'

Malcolm Gladwell might call it a tipping point.

The era of moviegoing as a mass audience ritual is slowly but inexorably drawing to a close, eroded by many of the same forces that have eviscerated the music industry, decimated network TV and, yes, are clobbering the newspaper business. Put simply, an explosion of new technology — the Internet, DVDs, video games, downloading, cellphones and iPods — now offers more compelling diversion than 90% of the movies in theaters"

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Internet TV 'to boom' in Europe: "TV delivered over broadband internet connections will become increasingly popular in Europe over the next four years, new research has predicted.

The number of subscribers is set to hit 8.7 million in 2009 - up from 658,000 now - giving operators almost 9.5% of the pay-TV market, Screen Digest said."

WSJ.com - Diller's IAC, AOL to Invest In Web-TV Company: "Some of the biggest names in the Internet business, including Time Warner Inc.'s America Online and IAC/InterActiveCorp, are lining up behind Brightcove, a start-up firm that is developing technology that could accelerate the growth of television on the Internet.

Barry Diller, IAC's chairman, is joining the Brightcove board as part of a $16.2 million round of funding announced today. Other participants in the funding group include Hearst Corp. and Allen & Co LLC, an investment-banking firm that specializes in media investments. AOL, which is making Internet TV a priority, is leading the investment group and is the largest investor.

Brightcove, which sells Web services to owners of movies, TV programs and other video content, is trying to stake out a commanding position in the changes taking place in how Americans consume media. Brightcove's tools give owners of movies, TV programs and other videos a way to sell their content directly to consumers on the Internet without going through cable, satellite or phone companies. By adding to the quantity and quality of video on the Web, company executives believe they will increase the importance of the Internet as a source of TV."

EFF: Help EFF Help You!: "Here at EFF, we're fighting hard for bloggers' rights. We've created the Legal Guide for Bloggers, we're litigating the reporter's privilege for online journalists and we are working hard to defend bloggers' rights to free expression, political speech, and anonymity, just to name a few.

But we need your help to spread the word, grow our membership and keep fighting. So we're launching a special membership campaign specifically for bloggers. We've created a button for you to put in a permanent space on your blog that declares your support for bloggers' rights, and for the work EFF does to support them. The button links to our Bloggers' rights campaign, http://www.eff.org/bloggers/join/."

wow.
BBC NEWS | Business | China tops India on average wage: "China tops India on average wage
Indian share trader
Financial analysts in India earn less than their Chinese peers
Skilled workers earn more in China than in India, a new survey of pay in two of the world's fastest growing economies has revealed.

Project managers are paid twice as much in China than in India, according to human resources consultants Mercer.

Software engineers, sales staff, financial analysts and factory workers all earn more in China than India.

But average pay is rising faster in India and could surge further if demand for skilled workers outstrips supply."

tv and podcasting are getting lots of play this week

TV Extras and The Long Tail. Apple: news developments: iPod, Mac and more: "

Since the studio, not the network, owns the show, build buzz for the show before the decision is made by offering it online for $1.99. The studio could then take some sales figures into a pitch meeting with the network. Heck, they might recoup some of the losses made on producing the pilot episode."

"....Of course there are still a lot of pieces to fall into place, and the aggregators (e.g. the TV/PayTV channels) still have some time, and some plays of their own, e.g. consumers constructing their own personalised PayTV channel, from a pool of available shows, as one simple option.

There are numerous examples of listener/viewer-supported content struggling in the *broad*cast market, and at this point it seems pretty inevitable that more creative output will be delivered in a podcast-like model, itself just an evolution of the subscription concept, according to current technical limitations."

Its hard to believe that reggaeton is an ouevre that can supply enough content to a 24 hour station, but i'm glad its here.
calendarlive.com: Bilingual format boosts KXOL: "The station's explosively popular music — reggaeton, a mix of Spanish and American hip-hop with roots in Puerto Rico, Panama and Jamaica — and its advertisements run with equal-frequency flips from one language to another. Sometimes the station's back-and-forth by its disc jockeys comes much faster, even sentence-to-sentence or phrase-by-phrase. It's not unusual to hear callers intermix their languages as they tell a joke, ask a question or relate a personal story.

'It's like being at home,' said Soto, who listens to the station usually in his car. 'You get English and Spanish and you don't notice the difference. It all blends together.'

It's a blend that's produced astonishing results in the L.A. market ever since the station — owned by the Miami-based Spanish Broadcasting System Inc. — changed in late May from a Spanish-only to a bilingual format."

Rebecca MacKinnon attended the Chinese blogger convnetion and comes away with a fascinatin obersvationsRConversation: "Me&isaac-cbcI came away from this conference with a lot more than just a t-shirt.

I’m also leaving Shanghai with a realization: Web2.0 is potentially a very Chinese thing. One of the most important words in the Chinese language is “guanxi.” It means “relationship.” Whatever you think about the term “Web2.0”, the point is that social networking and relationship-building are at the core of today’s most exciting web innovations. The Chinese happen to be the most natural and skilled social networkers on earth.

The Chinese economy functions today (to the extent that it does) thanks largely to personal relationship networks: networks that enable people to get stuff done despite bone-headed regulations, politics, logistical obstacles, and everything else. You are nothing in China – and can accomplish very little – without a good “guanxi” network. Expect Chinese internet users to seize upon Web 2.0 tools as a way to expand and deepen their human relationships, enhancing both personal lives and businesses. Expect Chinese users build new tools that suit their own preferred ways of communication. The Chinese are likely to have a growing impact on the evolution of web applications."

Scobleizer loves Yahoo Maps, but says we're all playing in Google's world.
Scobleizer - Microsoft Geek Blogger � Yahoo’s new pretty maps are doomed (and so are Microsoft’s): "That it’s not about maps, it’s about the advertising platform that Google has built. It’s not about prettiness, it’s about who has the most user generated content (I still hate that term).

Huh?

First, let’s focus on the advertising platform component of how Google is disrupting Yahoo and Microsoft.

Google pays Web site owners MAJOR DOLLARS to put its advertising component (er, service) on its Web site.

Visit Zvents. Click on one of the featured events.

See the Google ad component there?

Now, tell me again why that can’t be a Yahoo or Microsoft ad component?

I’ll tell you why. Google’s ad component pays better because of its dominance in search (and, because they told all the banner advertising people and companies to screw off and die — they understood that users will click on blue underlined text and are being rewarded for that understanding)."

Comedy Central taps broadband for the MotherLoad | CNET News.com: "Cable channel Comedy Central, which is owned by media conglomerate Viacom, announced Tuesday that it will launch its first broadband-optimized video channel on Nov. 1.

Initially the site, called MotherLoad, will have five distinct channels and offer more than 450 video clips, with roughly 50 to 80 new clips added per week. The offerings on the site will include three-minute clips from original Comedy Central shows, including 'The Daily Show' and 'The Colbert Report.'"

Boing Boing: CNN's Kristie LuStout blogs on China geek culture: "China is a kingdom of geeks. There are more than 350 million mobile phone users here -- that's more than any other country. As for the Net, more than 100 million are plugged in, making China the second largest Internet market in the world."

bbc_bpv.pdf (application/pdf Object)

BBC June 04 report on its future. PDF