Web Video Is The Future Television

Video overwhelms the Web. And it should.

There is plenty of evidence to suggest that the Internet, at one time the plumbing that connected pages of text and occasional images, is rapidly transforming itself to be a network of video publishing and viewing.

At first glance, this seems quite terrible. But in fact the emergence of the Video Web is critically important, intellectually exciting, and entirely inevitable.

There are historic reasons why we fear video. For most of us who grew up on Batman, or Gilligan's Island, or Charlie’s Angels, we've known that TV was at best junk food... and at worst, a cognitive cancer. In recent years, television has become far less benign, filling hours with a grim view of our world with programs like Fear Factor, Big Brother, GLO TV or the Jersey Shore. As television increasingly dominates our leisure and screen time, it has continued to spiral down toward base human fears and car-wreck peeping tom voyeurism.

When it came along in 2005, Youtube could have been viewed as an accelerator of this trend toward trivial amusement and video junk food. Certainly, squirrels on skateboards didn't qualify as height art. But Web video isn't television. It's something else entirely. And in the past 5 years, from 2005 to 2010, as Web video has moved to become the fastest growing and most prevalent form of traffic emerging on the Web, something else happened.

Web video abandoned TV.

There are plenty of examples of this — but the perhaps most dramatic one is the growth of TED Talks. TED Curator, Chris Anderson, calls this emergence Crowd Accelerated Innovation. His thesis is that Web video accelerates the cycle of humans creating, sharing, and iterating.

YOU MUST WATCH:

Chris Anderson: How web video powers global innovation

Three things have changed in past five years — the combination is like rocket fuel for Web video.

1. Cameras. Web video cameras are now standard fare on cell phones. Flip Cams are cheap and record remarkable HD video. The sales of Digital SLRs (DSLR's) put high quality camera with interchangeable lenses in the hands of mid-budget pro-sumers.

2. Bandwidth. Back in 2005, broadband was still elusive for many Web surfers. And video just wasn't a very good experience on dial up. Now, video moves with rare buffering as users find they are able to get a HD experience with relative ease.

3. Distribution. Youtube was important in breaking the monopoly that broadcast and cable had over video distribution, but since 2005 more and more distribution solutions have come on line. Devices like the iPhone and iPad have made Web video viewing far more ubiquitous. But the barrier between the Web and the living room flatscreen is about to burst wide open. With boxes like Roku, Boxee, and AppleTV(2) on the way, viewers are going to be able to choose between broad Web video offerings, and more limited cable/entertainment packages. And 'over the top' solutions like Netflix make the Internet to flatscreen option all the more reasonable.

The trifecta of change — Cameras, Bandwidth,and Distribution promises a future where change happens quickly. Of course, there can't only be winners. The broadcasters and cable companies that have for decades been able to be the exclusive distributor of video via closed one-way networks are now starting to feel the sands shift under their feet.

Slate Showdown: iPad Vs HP Slate Vs JooJoo Vs Android

By Dan Nosowitz

Everybody’s talking about tablets, especially those single-pane capacitive touchscreen ones more specifically known as “slates”. The iPad is the biggest news maker, we posted The iPad on the Future, but there are lots headed our way (most with built-in webcams).

Here’s how they measure up, spec-wise:

As you can see, they have different strengths and weaknesses, some of which will become more clear in the coming months as we learn more about each tablet. (That Dell Mini 5 is especially inscrutable right now.)

The iPad has the most storage, cheap 3G, the time-tested iPhone OS and its mountain of apps, and a serious amount of Apple marketing juice behind it. But it’s also

famously lacking features common to the other tablets, such as webcam and multitasking. The Notion Ink Adam is perhaps the most interesting of the bunch, with its dual-function transflective screen from Pixel Qi: It can be either a normal LCD or, with the flick of a switch, an easy-on-the-eyes reflective LCD that resembles e-ink. Its hardware is also surprisingly impressive – but it remains to be seen if Android is really the right OS for a 10-inch tablet.

The Dell Mini 5 and forthcoming Android edition of the Archos 7 tablet are two of a kind, almost oversized smartphones in their feature sets. Is an extra two or three inches of screen real estate worth the consequent decrease in pocketability? Perhaps not. And finally, there’s the maligned JooJoo, formerly the CrunchPad, a bit of an oddball as the only web-only device in the bunch. It doesn’t really have apps, can’t multitask, and pretty much confines you to an albeit fancy browser, sort of like Chrome OS will. The JooJoo is also the only tablet here to have no demonstrated way to read ebooks.

Playing The Bigger Game - PART 6

Step 6: Surround Yourself with People Playing A Much Bigger Game.

Once you realize that intimidation is for suckers, it’s time to use that newfound knowledge to surround yourself with people who will force you to play a bigger game every single day.

If you’re not actively working to add more of these people to your social / professional circle, then you’re in trouble.

Here’s why:
As humans, we tend to live up to the expectations of our direct peer group. In fact, for the most part, it’s a limit – an average of maybe our five closest connections. Don’t believe me? Rich people hang out with rich people. Overweight people tend to have an overweight social circle. Health nuts chill with health nuts. We tend to hang around with people who reinforce our current set of behaviors, and we don’t deviate much.

Because of that, a small-game crowd can actively pull you down. Yeah, this is the sad part. Hanging with struggling business people? See what happens when you tell them you’re taking a daring risk. (”Are you crazy?”) Trying to lose weight? See how people react around you when you try to eat more sensibly. (”C’mon, live a little.”) If you decide to up your game, you’re rocking the boat for your own crowd, and they will – with the best of intentions – try and draw you back to “safety.”

It’s a tough world for those hanging with small-game crowds. But don’t get me wrong, I’m not advising you to ditch your friends and associates – far from it. Instead, you I’m saying that you need to be working on expanding your own circle to include more bigger-game people and be open to helping your current peers come along for the ride.

If your current peers aren’t willing to play a bigger game, be gracious and understanding. It’s not easy. You may even be squirming thinking about it. But nothing motivates like a good example, so focus on being one.

How do you find people who are playing a bigger game? It’s simple. Look for the people at the top of the food chain in your niche and consider their type of game. Does the thought inspire you or terrify you? If it’s the latter, there’s no shame in that. Maybe it makes no sense for a one-person operation to try and jump to the game of someone with a staff of hundreds.

So go one level down. Who’s one tier down from them? Can you play your game on their level? Inspired? Run with it. Terrified? Drop down another rung, and lather/rinse/repeat until you get to a point where that feeling of terror softens into the sense that “Oh crap, I might actually have a snowball’s chance of pulling this off.”

A snowball’s chance is good enough. It’s a start. Find people at that level and start networking your way onto their radar (more on that in upcoming Tuesday’s when I’ll give you notes on networking). Start stepping out and risking some public failures and they will do what they can to keep you from failing.

There’s nothing a successful person loves more than giving a boost to someone with chops, because they remember when someone a little higher up did the same thing for them. Leverage the hell out of that.

When you hang with people who play a bigger game, they actively pull you upwards. To continue hanging with them, you’ll feel a positive pressure to push yourself in all the right ways and to stop making excuses. They’re not going to accept your excuses and fears of failure. They’ll understand them, and they’ll empathize with them … they just won’t tolerate them.

And when that happens, you’ll push past your limiting beliefs and play that bigger game to the max so you can keep hanging with that group of real players. I’ll step you through how to start the ball rolling on. Game on.

I LOVE NY 22 of 28 Places to Visit

In 1900, Gansevoort Market was home to 250 slaughterhouses and packing plants, but by the 1980s, it had become known as a center for drug dealing and prostitution, particularly transsexuals. Concurrent with the rise in illicit sexual activity, the sparsely populated industrial area became the focus of the city's burgeoning gay BDSM subculture; loosely embracing the business model of disco impresario David Mancuso, over a dozen sex clubs — including such epochal lodestars as The Anvil, The Manhole, and the heterosexual-friendly Hellfire Club — flourished in the area. At the forefront of the scene was the members-only Mineshaft, situated on Little West 12th Street. Open around the clock from Wednesday evening to Monday morning, the club boasted a dance floor and several dungeons among its many amenities. A preponderance of these establishments were under the direct control of the Mafia or subjugated to NYPD protection rackets. In 1985, The Mineshaft was forcibly shuttered by the city at the height of AIDS preventionism.

Beginning in the late 1990s, the Meatpacking District went through a transformation. High-end boutiques such as Diane von Furstenberg, Christian Louboutin, Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney, Rubin Chapelle, Scoop, Theory, Ed Hardy, Puma Black Store, Moschino, ADAM by Adam Lippes, Jeffrey New York, the Apple Store, and CALYPSO by Christiane Celle, custom home furnishing boutiques such as Establishment, restaurants such as Pastis and Buddha Bar, and nightclubs such as Tenjune, One, G-Spa, Cielo, APT, Level V, and Kiss and Fly, all have recently opened in order to cater to young professionals and hipsters. In 2004, New York magazine called the Meatpacking District "New York’s most fashionable neighborhood".

Apple's NEW I-PAD - YES! I-PAD

The best way to experience the web, e-mail, photos and video, Hands Down! All of the built-in apps on iPad were designed from the ground up to take advantage of the large, Multi-Touch screen. And they’ll work in any orientation. So you can do things with these apps you can’t do on any other device.


Ryan Anson/AFP/Getty Images
Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs announces the new iPad as he speaks during an Apple Special Event at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts January 27, 2010 in San Francisco, Calif.

Everything you know about computers just changed.

With its introduction of the iPad, Apple is likely to transform the way you do everything from read the newspaper to prepare business presentations. You might not experience these changes this year or next, but several years from now, you will likely look back on your current computer, even if it’s a brand-new model — yes, even one from Apple — as an archaic system that was clunky and frustrating to use.

The reason for this can be summed up in one word: touch.

The iPad is controlled with a 9.7-inch, touch-sensitive screen, and it heralds a transition from using a mouse and a keyboard for typical computing tasks to touching, tapping and gliding your fingers on a silky glass screen. Anyone who owns an iPhone or iPod touch, Apple’s other devices with a so-called "multitouch interface," knows how wonderfully intuitive and intimate the experience can be, especially when compared to a hulking desktop machine.

The iPad signals the moment when computers changed from being bulky products tethered to desktops and power cords to thin, portable devices you can carry in one hand and slip into a backpack. In Store APRIL 2010 for about $499

To read the entire story, go to: Apple's new I-pad

Fortune Smiles on the Brave

The MEGA World of Lil Mogul
by Richard E. Pelzer II
aka Lil Mogul


As many of you know, Richard E. Pelzer Sr., Lil Mogul’s Dad and business mentor, would tell me, "no person or company can be great without first being brave." That statement always stayed with me as an entrepreneur. In an economy that's got a lot of businesses basing their decisions on fear, it's important that companies turn up the volume on their brave stance ... because no economic climate needs or rewards bravery more than one in crisis.

Scores of other brands were born and bred during economic slumps: Def Jam, Revlon, Charles Schwab, Microsoft, FUBU and MTV. At the start of the Eisenhower recession, April 1955, a salesman named Kroc inked a franchising deal with the brothers McDonald’s. And in 2001, another year of economic and social upheaval, Apple introduced the iPod.

Outlined below are a set of practices that can help drive your company bravest work, called "A Blueprint For Bravery."


1. Build A Brave Culture
Company philosophies are about as useful as a box of wet matches unless they're part of the culture. And a culture can't be brave unless its people are. The minute you get behind your own philosophy, you'll notice that brave people - clients and employees with extra fight in them - will start to find you. Building a brave culture can include exercises such as asking new hires to participate in random acts of bravery. Or instructing your planners write "brave criteria" into their briefs. A good employee is one who knows they're on to something when an idea makes them a little nervous.


2. Make It Real
Bravery's intangible. To make it concrete, give it a physical presence in the world. Start with an identity system that communicates your position clearly. For example, I write down my thoughts, I challenge myself to overcome my deepest personal fears, displaying them in frames on my office wall.

This isn't about dressing up the office. It's about committing wholeheartedly to the value you want others to embrace. By making this abstract quality real for you, you're extending the philosophy beyond work and into lives. And that gets poured back into your business.

3. Unleash Secret Weapons (In A Stealth Way)
An army that charges blindly into the fray isn't brave so much as suicidal. Before going to battle, arm yourself with intelligence, insights and brand strategy. Gather and examine all the data in collaborative, partnerships/client meetings. During these "Brave Sessions," identify the lethal "Weapon," or marketing strength, which you'll use to slay your client's marketing "Goliaths," or challenges.

Go deeper than your typical strength/weakness analysis, because when it comes to challenger brands facing goliath competitors, the best weapon will tend to be a secret weapon-an opportunity that hasn't been leveraged fully or at all.


4. Be Firm In Belief, Brave In Battle
Unless they have something to believe in a conviction that's bigger than the battle-armies will retreat. It's important to work with clients to develop a "Brand Belief," a guiding principle that gives creative’s and clients a greater sense of purpose and meaning. It's something to live up to, bigger than any one product or service.


5. FINALLY, Speak The Truth
Brave marketers can handle the truth. They rely on their teams to hold them accountable, to turn good ideas into brave ideas. They accept the cold truth about their own ideas for the sake of bigger, bolder solutions. And they step up to tell clients the truth for the same reason.

In business as in life, you can't teach bravery anymore than you can teach creativity. But you can establish a set of conditions that allows courage to flourish. And when you do, this otherwise immeasurable quality -- without which greatness isn't possible -- produces highly measurable results. I think Franklin D. Roosevelt said it best, and with perfect simplicity: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

Kid Vlogs From Apple Store, We Smell a New Commercial Campaign

Kids. They grow up so fast these days, with the Twitter and the MySpace and Tamagotchi and sports drinks. You've gotta hand it to them, though: they've got their technology and they know how to use it.Which is why the dense YouTube account of Nicholifavs, filled with a kid who vlogs exclusively from New York City's Fifth Avenue Apple Store, is merely a natural progression in the realm of Things Kids Do Now. If, indeed, this is a viral marketing ploy by Apple, then hats off. And if it isn't, Apple had better snatch him up quick. Justin Long, meet your match. Photo: Lil Mogul



Update 9/20/09: The internet has spoken! Since our original post, things have really started to take off for 13-year-old Nicholi White from Harlem, New York. After growing interest and coverage online, Good Morning America featured Nicholi's videos, touting him as "YouTube's Newest Star." Most recently, White was profiled in the New York Post where he talks about his newfound web "celebrity": I'm blowing up... I'm going back to school on Sept. 9, and I can't wait. I'm going to show my teachers.

Aside from school, what's next for Nicholi? Well according to a video posted this week, he's headed to Los Angeles. Nothing has been confirmed, but the New York Post claims that "the likes of Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah have also come calling."We'll keep you updated on things as they unfold, although I'm sure simply subscribing to his YouTube channel will provide all the breaking news straight from White -- where he thrives -- at the Apple store.