Note, the following are not direct quotes (unless there are actual quotation marks) but rather an attempt to paraphrase what was said. Enjoy!

YouTube’s Reider, in talking about content, stated that "commercials are content." She asked the audience if they agreed, but got little verbal response from what I could gather. She then pointed to the Microsoft Xbox ‘jump-in’ videos on YouTube as an example. In the broadest sense, I guess I’d have to agree that commercials are content…

Hirschhorn, from Sling Media, stated that major media has put way too much time and money into fighting user-generated content as opposed to figuring out how to track and monetize it.

Finally, there was much discussion about news websites being completely unwilling to send visitors off their sites by embedding hyperlinks in stories that lead to other websites. This has long been a pet-peeve of mine and seems to go against the very nature of the Internet. In my mind, the bottom line is if you create valuable, interesting content, people will not only come to your site, but they’ll return, even if you send them off to check-out someone else’s related content. It’ll be interesting to watch how this particular issue evolves over time…

Comments

]]> http://www.webpronews.com/ad-tech-content-is-king-again-keynote-2007-04/feed 0 http://www.webpronews.com/cbs-playing-on-the-digital-field-2007-01 http://www.webpronews.com/cbs-playing-on-the-digital-field-2007-01#comments Wed, 10 Jan 2007 21:42:13 +0000 Mike Sachoff http://www.webpronews.com/?p=34325 CBS plans to continue its relationship with new types of media. CEO, Leslie Moonves in a keynote address at CES in Las Vegas outlined plans for the media company. He believes CBS can continue to be relevant by changing with the times and further embracing new technology. He dismissed the perception that CBS was old media. ]]> CBS plans to continue its relationship with new types of media. CEO, Leslie Moonves in a keynote address at CES in Las Vegas outlined plans for the media company. He believes CBS can continue to be relevant by changing with the times and further embracing new technology. He dismissed the perception that CBS was old media.

“There’s no such thing as old or new media anymore. We’re just media,” Moonves said. The company plans to continue to use Web sites, blogs and Internet video to increase their number of viewers as well as engage the audience.

They are working with YouTube on a project called “15 Seconds” where viewers post their 15- second message on YouTube and CBS will select the best videos to be broadcast on the network. The first video will be shown before the Super Bowl on Sunday, February 4.

CBS also has plans to create a “Star Trek” destination in the virtual world of “SecondLife“.

They will also test technology from Sling Media that will enable users to share television clips and post them on a site to for friends to view. CBS hopes that this could increase ratings for certain shows.

If somebody spends the time to take 20 clips from ‘CSI Miami,’ I think that’s wonderful,” Moonves said. “That only makes him more involved with my show and want to come to CBS on Monday night and watch my show. And we’re going to get paid for the clips this guy takes off our air as well. It’s win, win.”

Moonves went on to say,” Some technologies will work, others will not, We learned a lot watching what happened to the music industry with Napster, and we’d like to avoid those mistakes.”

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit | Furl

Mike is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.

Timeshifting lets us turn flows into stocks, the ultimate in convenient consumption.

Placeshifting has been used to describe turning a media center into a hub accessible anywhere. Sony, Orb Networks or Sling Media all fit this mold and the meme accelerated at CES. It presents an interesting quandary for vertically integrated Cable, which is granted legal monopolies according to geography and intellectual property. The convenient consumption of Placeshifting well serves our increasingly nomadic lifestyle, if we can afford it.

As such, I have also heard the term used to describe services for global tribes, the ethnic networks that span the globe. Even in the context of Moroccans consuming homeland media 24/7 while living on the dole in Germany, destined for cultural isolation. Now I personally think this is a good thing, as odds are there is more cross-cultural exchange than if everyone stayed in their homeland, but regardless people and cultures will continue to be on the move.

But lets extend this concept. Say you are a business traveller stranded in Wichita. You may be able to get your daily dose of the Daily Show, but is that enough of the creature comforts? Nah, you head for your favorite retail brands for the convenience of consistency. Latte at Starbucks, Lunch at McDonalds. For now, that’s not the best you can do, although you long for your trusted barista and burgers at the Peninsula Creamery.

Seth Godin pointed out the Walmart Paradox today, in which suppliers long for choice beyond the short tail.

The answer is to tell Walmart to go away. Toy companies are beginning to discover that they can’t win this game. The answer is to find a new and better and more consistently profitable way to launch the remarkable stuff.

But you are still stuck in Witchita wanting to consume something Walmart doesn’t sell and with one one to trust otherwise. So you log on and find a way to have your friends help without them threatening to timeshift you. We are not quite there yet, but social media like blogs and social networking services will become convenient enough for this kind of Placeshifting.

Which brings me back to brands. Leading brands don’t blog, or encourage their employees to blog, as the perception is a loss of control is not worth risking convenient consistency. But they are listening, even to posts like these. So the big question, in my humble opinion, is what happens when brands owned by a network are worth more than the brand of a single firm? When choice in placeshifting, for example, is as easy as choices in your own neighborhood. Wouldn’t you want your employees to be part of these conversations, just like they are when they come in your stores?

Ross Mayfield is CEO and co-founder of Socialtext, an emerging provider of Enterprise Social Software that dramatically increases group productivity and develops a group memory.

He also writes Ross Mayfield’s Weblog which focuses on markets, technology and musings.