WiredPen

At least four ads in the upcoming Super Bowl extravaganza are being produced not by ad agencies but through "user generated" contests. Advertisers are paying up to $2.6 million to run a 30-second commercial on Super Bowl XLI, being broadcast by CBS. Production costs can add another million.

Compare that to the Dorito  "Live the Flavor" ad created by Weston Phillips, 22, and Dale Backus, 21, in North Carolina. They spent $12.79 … plus a lot of hours … and their existing investment in technology, of course. Their entry is one of five finalists; there were 1,060 video submissions.

The WaPo writer is wrong, in my opinion, to call these producers
"amateurs" because too often I think we associate the word with someone "lacking the skill of a professional." As Phillips notes, his team was actively trying to break into the advertising field:

Read the rest of this entry »

Once upon a time, I’d heard of TED — I’m certain of it. But it wasn’t until last week, when a COM300 student suggested I watch a clip featuring Ken Robinson, that I (re)discovered it. I’ve now sub’ed to TedTalks and am grateful for my fall 2006 video iPod splurge. I’ll be checking out 2008 registration next month.

Links and notes for webcast to Leadership Spartanburg (SC), 25 January 2007.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m not exactly sure where to start with this … but it seems to be a great example of media convergence, long tail economics, the power of internet media …. and the problems facing institutions like record companies. Since I can’t figure out how to start, I think I’ll just write chronologically.

Warning: adult content (SNL-like) follows:
Read the rest of this entry »

Engadget reports, in a “non-scientific sampling,” that Sony has disabled Zune’s song sharing feature for “popular artists by Zunerama and Zune Thoughts.” They go on: “it looks like it’s roughly 40-50 percent of artist that fall under this prohibited banner, and the worst news is that there’s no warning that a song might be unsharable until you actually try to send it and fail.”

In related (DRM) news, cNet reported yesterday that “Apple plans to make it possible for people to listen to iTunes’ songs on devices other than iPods, according to a published report.” I’m pretty sure this move has been hastened along by EU action (certainly not by US government action).

The DRM wars are, of course, yet another version of standards wars (think Blue Ray, Beta/VHS, CDMA/GSM …). But DRM is also about protecting institutions (and their markets) from disruptive technology.

I feel a little bit better about my struggle to find a SmartPhone that I’m willing to live with for a year or so. That’s because I expect by 2008 I will have migrated to Apple’s iPhone. But my (ahem) six-year old phone has a stone-cold dead battery, and I’m just not gonna put more money into it.

It seems like most of the "SmartPhones" sold in the US have Microsoft as an OS — just look at the offerings at Cingular, Verizon, T-Mobile. Rim and Palm have the best market share, supposedly. But the big three all charge a pretty premium for Blackberry data. And Palm has a crippled Treo, compared to Europe’s Nokias. And don’t get me started about how the Big Three insist that incoming phones have wiFi crippled. Grrr.

I found this great article at Internet News: Why aren’t smartphones more popular?

Read the rest of this entry »

Gack! It’s been a month since I posted here. In the interim, we had the windstorm from hell … resulting in a nightmare experience with Delta on our holiday tirp to the Bahamas. Seattle has been locked in the grip of Arctic air fronts and ice and snow and sub-20 weather … until now. Two classes this quarter: COM 300, Intro to New Media … and COM 585, DM Content Creation.

I’m a regular guest now on Blog Talk Radio - RSS feed here! And I’ve put a toe in the water in political podcasting; inaugural post info.

Students in COM300 create a PPT presentation as part of their role as a discussion leader. This tutorial (part of the COM300 website) walks students through creating a basic powerpoint presentation and saving it as HTML. [HTML version required Winter 2007 only, not Spring.] In addition, students learn how to upload those files (FTP) to their University of Washington webserver.