Pravda on Media, Technology, and Rebel Filmmaking

The state of Silicon Valley:

- Web 2.0 as we know it is over - the first years we saw Flickr, where we learned how to use the web smarter and better. But our expectations changed, all good services should have the high level of product. There were a lot of startups, and suddenly you had too many services all around. web 2.0 is being used in non web2.0 companies. The concepts are now mainstream.

Now what?

- Get things done kind of applications (such as 37signals)

- There is an explosion of information, and content creation

- We need someone to clean the noise

- Summize for the web - is a killer concept

- Mobile application has an important role in this area as well

- Cloud computing reduces the need to pay a lot of money for infrastructure

Image by John Federico via Flickr

Though here on vacation, I am taking the opportunity to meet new and interesting people in NYC video and social media industry. Lucky for me, there are good people who are making it much easier:

- Jeff Pulver is hosting another legendary breakfast this morning

- Yaron Samid is hosting a NY Video 2.0 event tonight (thanks Bill!)

- Though I don’t participate, I hear that PdF is a great event as well.

The local community is so vibrant, that you just can’t miss a thing. Also met some very interesting and smart people one on one - details soon.

If you are coming to one of these events - come and say hi!

As soon as I return to Israel, I’ll return to regular updates of this blog…

Robert Scoble published a thoughtful post on Techcrunch, regarding the future of live mobile broadcasting. While Robert is one of the smartest people in the social media circles, I have to say that he missed the point here.

Robert saying that Qik and Flixwagon has no future cause Kyte already has it all:

Here’s why I think Kyte will dominate over Qik and Flixwagon:

1. The distribution system that Kyte has built is much better than either Qik or Flixwagon. Translation: the embeddable player that Kyte.tv has is much better than Qik or Flixwagon, more on that in a second.
2. The chat room that Kyte has built is much better than Qik or Flixwagon and can be participated in from other cell phones, something that Qik and Flixwagon can’t do.
3. The ability to mix videos from your webcam, live videos streaming from your web cam, recorded videos from camcorders, or from places like YouTube, along with both recorded and streamed videos from your cell phone goes way beyond what Qik and Flixwagon have done today.
4. Kyte.tv can play videos on an iPhone today. Neither Qik or Flixwagon can do that.
5. Kyte.tv can play videos on a Nokia today. Both from your recordings and other people’s. Neither Qik or Flixwagon can do that.
6. Kyte.tv is partially funded and supported by Nokia. That might not sound like a big deal, but it is. Nokia is using Kyte’s service internally too, and I’m sure Nokia is giving Kyte better engineering support than it’s giving Qik or Flixwagon.
7. Kyte.tv is way ahead of Qik and Kyte in getting real mainstream celebrities like 50 cent on its service, which means its growth is way stronger.

I believe that content, not features, will win the market.

Dominance in live streaming, mobile and online, is not based on features. Look at the live streaming business - a lot of the competitors have the same feature set, and if not, it takes couple of months for laggers to play catch up. In this industry, features cannot win the market, as it is too flat to gain market share.

It is content strategy that will win the battle. The market player which will have the best video content, the best talents, and the best fit between live events and the mobile streaming application, will dominate this field. Only if Kyte would manage to strengthen point 7 in Scoble’s argument, they will win the market. But, it is just a matter of smart business development moves from their competitors, to change the market situation.

I am honored to join the judges panel at TWS2008, Israel’s web startup competition, organized by The Coils, for the second year. The competition, taking place in Gan Oranim on the 1st of July, is aimed at innovative web startups, and covered by Mashable and GigaOm. Among the judges are friends such as Om Malik, Chris Brogan and Deb Shultz, as well as local industry figures such as Meir Brand (country manager of Google Israel), and others.

Winners will be announced in a day long event which includes panels and startup presentations.

I will be moderating a panel about alternative distribution channels - stay tuned for the full agenda.

Submission guidelines could be found here, and registration

Image by Brnboy313 via Flickr

Good morning,

- Boxee, an open source OS for the living room, goes to Alpha this Monday. Good luck for this group of brilliant guys

- HBO bought 10% of Funny Or Die - another move of TV brand towards the Internet. Rafat wrote a great post about it, and a video here.

- An insightful and funny presentation about Final Cut Server, the new media management product from Apple, by Richard Townhill, Apple’s Director of Pro Video Product Marketing, can be found here.

- Chris Hambly and his social media gang from the UK are organizing another great Media Camp, focused around industry and academia relations.

Have a great day!

Om Malik anounced a new venture today called NewTeeVee Station, an editorial driven guide to online videos:

...NewTeeVee Station is your guide to online video, pointing you to hot new memes, following the emerging stars of the web, and just generally indexing this new entertainment medium. Whereas in the past we covered online video shows like Ask a Ninja, Obama Girl andWallstrip from a business perspective, now we’re also reviewing content for content’s sake…

….NTV Station features editorial reviews of online videos written by a team led by Liz Shannon Miller, who comes to us from Variety and the Daily Reel. We eliminate the static and bring to you videos that are actually good — but also the stuff that’s so bad it has everyone talking… When you visit the front page of NTV Station, you’ll see in one glance what’s hot at that very moment. Our editors monitor the online video universe and refresh the site with new videos throughout the day. A special widget developed using the VodPod API allows you to scroll through all of our past video picks….

I am a big fan of sites trying to make some sense of all the videos out there. In a past, I wrote a hotly debated post where I asked when would someone create an online HBO equivalent, and gang all the best video shows to one site. This is a form of content discovery in my opinion - a way to bring the best videos to my computer screen. Would Om answer my prayers?

Challenges ahead

Value

There were several initiative in this area, one of them was Jeff Pulver’s Network2.tv. While N2 was aiming at being a definitive guide to all episodic video on the web, it seems that Om’s effort is a mix of being IMDB and an editorial driven site, that does some filtering for the audience. What I am missing here is a clear value proposition, or, in other words, what exactly should I expect - the best videos? The hottest videos? All the “good” videos?

Definition of Quality

One of the trickiest issues in the world of online video is the definition of quality. How can the editor in NTV know what’s good for me? Though philosophical in nature, it is a major challenge, that I’d love to hear Om’s opinion about.

User Interface

Last but not least, user interface is one of the biggest challenges in online video today. Looking at the current interface of most video recommendation sites, one would see the same scroll down page with x amount of videos. This interface works for YouTube, but in my opinion should be improved. NewTeeVee is built as a blog, and as such it is well designed. As a video interface - not so good IMHO:

1. Almost one-third of the screen is dedicated to promotion, ad space, and other money making machines.

2. Viewers need to scroll down in order to see recommended shows.

3. Video player is covering a small amount of the screen - while it is supposed to be the dominant experience

4. Users need to click at least twice to start playing a video

My belief is that online video interfaces should be, well, video interfaces. I’d like to see a site with a dominant video player, where users could navigate and find the best videos for them. This way, the video experience is the dominant one, and not the textual interface.

I hope that Om will be successful in this project - the web certainly needs one!

WWDC, Apple’s annual developer event is starting in few hours, with Steve Jobs’ keynote that everyone are waiting for. Couldn’t go to San Francisco? Check out these sources for everything WWDC:

- VentureBeat opened a FriendFeed room with live coverage.

- Summize helps you to get all the WWDC related twits in one place

- Macrumors opened a dedicated website for live coverage, as well as keynote twitter feed.

- TUAW has a guy on the ground, talking with developers and covering the event.

- Engadget live coverage can be found here

- And, here is Gizmodo’s page

These are only some of the resources for the event. Want to know more? Check out my weekly finding - a cool site which aggregates Apple related news - Macblogz

That’s it for today - have a great week! (And hopefully 3G, GPS enabled iPhone)

Surprisingly enough, my call for action against US networks, asking them to allow me to pay for downloading their content from my country, didn’t result in a Million Man March to Washington.

So, I chose the other path - hacking the system

Part One - Breaking The System

I am using iTunes a lot. Though I can’t use my  credit card to purchase content, I found a simple way to use iTunes:

a. Find an American address (could be a hotel or any other establishment) and use its address for your iTunes account.

b. Buy iTunes gift cards in Amazon or an Apple store if you are visiting the US.

c. Redeem the card in iTunes - and you are on!

Part Two - Enjoying The Experience (While Spending Money…)

Now, this is cool. A true VOD experience on my computer, with class A content that I love to watch. And the biggest plus - no uncertainties.

You see, one of the things I hate most in downloading P2P content is that I don’t really know what I am getting at the end of day - is it really the movie I wanted to see? Is it in high quality? And when will I be able to see it? With iTunes I know exactly what I am getting. Episodes are downloaded fairly quickly, so I can decide that I want to watch a specific show, and half an hour later start watching it. Not perfect, but better than P2P experience. Also, I easily find shows iTunes store, so I am not wasting time. I bought $50 worth content in two months. Not bad isn’t it? The only annoying point is that rented movies are viewable for 24hrs - which is very lame. I am working long hours, so is my significant other, and we tend to watch films at night, sometimes falling asleep in-front of the computer. Therefore, we sometimes see movies over several days. This limitation is extremely annoying - and I hope Apple will change it soon.

Part Three - The Moral Dilemma

Then I fell in-love with Californication. After downloading the pilot and couple of season 1’s episodes fI became a fan. When I told my friend about it, he looked at me as if I am a loony - ” Why don’t you download it for free?” well, I said, I like the speed and simplicity of iTunes. “Ok, so I would download for you, and you could watch it whenever you want”.

So, this is the essence of the whole story isn’t it? iTunes’ value proposition is providing legal content, ease of use, and certainty in content quality. Would I pay for this service, when a free alternative exist?

I can speak only for myself - and say that yes, iTunes service is worthwhile paying for, even if I can download content illegally with almost no chance of legal action against me. It is a fact that in two months I paid iTunes more than I paid to my cable or satellite provider in two years. This is because iTunes is providing me the content i want to see in lower rate, and smarter business model, than my local VOD provider.

TV networks are shooting themselves in the leg by not allowing me to buy their content in a simpler way. They are losing money because of that. I can understand why they are doing that - but I can’t agree with their views.

Guys - let me pay you - at the end of the day you will make more money and happier customers.

And for the cable operators and VOD providers, here is a tip - price your service in comparison to iTunes, and not other VOD packages. This is the future - and if you won’t wake up - you would not be a part of it.