Go Bag July 6, 2012

Amazing video: Technology brings Tupac back to life at Coachella – The brilliance technology can bring to art.

Higgs boson in plain English, and why it’s so important – To Higgs or not to Higgs… the video will help!

Kiss goodbye to your productivity: Google just brought 8 trillion LEGO blocks to Chrome – We are never to old to play!

The $6 million man-made floating island – Waterworld 2.0

Google Glass and the rise in outsourcing our memories – It’s all in the eye of the beholder

By 2020, We Still Won’t Live in Smart Homes [STUDY] – What’s the first smart device you’d buy for your home?

Hey Hollywood, Check Out Activision

Hollywood had the Holy Grail once, but a conniving little fiend called technology took it away. First came TV, then VHS, then DVD and now, the Internet. While these new mediums (save the Internet one, so far) brought vastly more income to Hollywood, they also shattered the entertainment biz’s Holy Grail revenue model.

A long time ago, in a time far far more simple, movie studios collected money from every individual that saw a film, every time they saw it. In the age of cinema, you paid every time. Down deep in Hollywood’s lizard brain, that model remains the ideal. The entertainment industry’s rights value-chain (geography, release windows, DVD region encoding, bizarre digital differentiation, streaming, download, tablet, PC, mobile, etc.) are all attempts to simulate the original model: getting paid per product, per person, per view.

It been pointed out repeatedly that Hollywood is terrified of every new distribution medium that comes along, all the way until the point when the new medium ends up making them more money than the last. The Internet is no different. Hollywood is certain this technology will be its undoing.

Enter Activision, with what appears to be Hollywood’s new Holy Grail. Not only does it have a franchise that,  umm … pwns anything Hollywood has created since Star Wars–Call of Duty: Modern Warfare–it has also found a way to charge for content by individual user.

With Call of Duty Elite, Activision’s genius strategy to make sure Microsoft (read: Xbox Live) is not the only party maximizing recurring revenue, the most crucial content cannot be shared. CoD Elite is an add-on to the game, giving subscribers exclusive early access to extra game content. Specifically, new multi-player maps–the gaming equivalent of a popular illicit stimulant in rock form.

Activision is brilliantly exploiting online gaming and interactivity to foil free-riders. Unlike previous versions, the multi-player maps are tied to a gamer profile and cannot be shared with other users. Needless to say, customers are not pleased but it is not stopping them from subscribing, in droves.

Hollywood should take note. Activision seems to have discovered the secret of using digital to increase revenue and they are doing it without law suits, DRM or lobbyists. The are doing it with awesome content and compelling add-ons.

-Josh Mortensen

You can follow Josh on Twitter @razzmuzzen

Tags: Call of Duty Elite, Hollywood, Josh Mortensen, movies, online content, revenue models, rights value-chain, video games

Guest blogger Maisa Dabus serves up Malmo & Media Evolution

Maisa Dabus, @maydbs

I say “Sweden”, you say..? Yeah, I thought so… Let me stop you right there!

Forget all about the obvious keywords popping up in your mind about this country as you knew: a lot has been happening in Sweden and you might have been missing out!

Many will have this overnight feeling, but the truth is, Sweden has been catching up, in this almost sneaky way for some time, and a city called Malmö (third biggest city in Sweden) is no longer only known as the 30-minute-ride-train to Copenhagen city.

Malmö has a bubble that is about to pop, exploding with creativity, young and fresh talent shaped as entrepreneurs, who are eager to create, deliver and change, at least a little thing or two, in an attempt to make the world better.

I’ve been spending some time at MINC – which I dare to call the hottest spot in Malmö for entrepreneurship – and to meet the cool, creative, making-it-happen kind of folks – and it’s not surprising to find so many interesting projects taking off.

I had the pleasure to hang out with the Media Evolution team this week for a couple of days. Media Evolution is in its seventh year and focuses on the future of media and discovery of new business opportunities. The Conference (formerly known as Moving Images) attracts people from film, games, web, publishing, learning, tech and music.  The organizers have been preparing Media Evolution The Conference coming up on August 24 and 25th and I’m nothing but impressed with the quality of the event in every single detail: from the speakers choice to the website design. I briefly interviewed Martin Thörnkvist, in between tasks, great music and crappy coffee, about the so waited event:

Maisa: You’ve been organizing Media Evolution The Conference from scratch. Carefully selecting the best speakers, location and the details together with the Media Evolution team. What can people attending expect?

Martin Thörnkvist

Martin Thörnkvist: It’s gonna be two days with 40 speakers divided in three tracks. The speakers come from all over the world to share ideas from their technological, behavioral and entrepreneurial experiences. It’s also important to not forget that we there will be 600 participants that will discuss the future of games, TV, music, communication and other forms of media.

Maisa: This year, the conference will offer three tracks: Who’s Next?, Man & Machine and Creation. How will these topics be approached and presented to the attendees?

Martin Thörnkvist: They will all be introduced by a keynote speaker (Moeed Ahmad (Al Jazeera), Amber Case (Geoloqi) and Bill Drummond (The KLF etc)), then there will be four 45 minute sessions led by a curator that has invited two more speakers to dig deeper into the specific subject. Also, for the for the participants that feel like they already know quite much about the topics in the sessions and we will arrange round table discussions that dig even deeper into the subjects.

Maisa: As I understand, for the first time, The Conference will be completely held in English. Why this change?

Martin Thörnkvist: Two reasons. (1) we feel that there’s a lot of Swedish companies and people with great ideas who we wanted to build a platform for; and (2) we felt that our conference, after seven years, was better than many we visited in Europe or in the US and wanted to enable internationals to come join us.

Maisa: Which professionals and from which industries would you consider to make the best out of attending this conference?

Martin Thörnkvist: Most of the participants at the conference are either executives or creatives at media companies. They’re representing all kinds of media industries, everything from games and TV to web agencies and mobile.

Maisa: And last but not least, why Malmö? What is it about Malmö that is getting people curious enough to travel from all over Sweden and Europe?

Martin Thörnkvist: The city is big enough to be home of a great music and art scene and small enough to have a start up scene where you bump into people by accident who are always willing to spare an idea or share experiences. It makes people want to found media companies here. There is a lot of them for a city this size: http://www.mediaevolution.se/en/members

Ready to enjoy all the fun? It’s not too late to register, here!

See you there!

About Media Evolution The Conference – Malmö, Sweden (24-25 August)

For the seventh year we invite you to come to Malmö, Sweden, to explore the future of media and discover new business opportunities. The Conference (formerly known as Moving Images) attracts people from film, games, web, publishing, learning, tech and music.

During two days we will discuss who our future audiences are, the technology we communicate with, and how we create and consume media. These matters will be treated under the headlines: Who’s Next?, Man & Machine and Creation.

The list of speakers include Moeed Ahmad (Al Jazeera) Bill Drummond (The KLF etc), Amber Case (Geoloqi), Naveen Selvadurai (Foursquare), Yancey Strickler (Kickstarter), Björn Jeffery (Bonnier), Luke Williams (NYU / frog design) and Måns Adler (Bambuser).

The Conference puts you right in the flow of the present media evolution and points an inspiring finger into the future.

Register today -> http://mediaevolution.se/theconference/

–

Our guest blogger is a social media and blogger who hails from Brazil, but finds happiness in Sweden. Maisa Dabus and you can follow Maisa on Twitter @maydbs

Tags: Al Jazeera, Amber Case, Bill Drummond, Geoloqi, Maisa Dabus, Malmö, mans adler, Martin Thornkist, Media Evolution, Naveen Selvadurai, Sweden

Who Are We Talking To?

New beta on the block, WhoIsLive aims to make every webpage a “real-life” social experience by allowing you to see who else is looking at the website you are currently on. You then get to chat with them, whoever they may be. I find this idea equal parts thrilling and anxiety-inducing. Can’t we just surf alone?

Call me agoraphobic, but isn’t one of the nice things about the Internet not having to talk to strangers? Now, I like social media as much as the next guy (a statement that only holds because I live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where the next guy is likely to be a social media guru of some sort), but I am concerned that socializing is becoming the focus of our Internet experience rather than a sidebar. Reading an article should be about the article, not about the other strangers staring at the article elsewhere in the world.

Ironically, WhoIsLive is literally a sidebar, but it represents our increasing obsession with sharing. Actually, it goes beyond sharing. WhoIsLive represents our obsession with creating communities, even (or especially) amongst strangers. This is an understandably human and probably an anodyne predilection, but it raises some questions. Chief among them, who are we talking to?

There is a reason that chat rooms are not as popular as they once were. Mainly, it’s because we have better ways of talking to people online, be they more civil, less anonymous, better organized or more exclusive. Unfortunately, I get more than a whiff of “chat room” when I explore WhoIsLive. I’m not sure what is gained other than immediate, unfiltered conversation, which was the chat room’s main draw, and with that comes a lot of noise. Imagine looking at the front page of The Huffington Post with every other viewer voicing their opinions in your sidebar. Would you rather that or tweet your savviest friend for his or her opinion?

Between the noise and the over-socialization, WhoIsLive seems like it will be more distracting than it is helpful. Ultimately, I think WhoIsLive will find its audience and do well. I suspect that audience will be comprised of those with dilettantish tendencies and Internet sociologists, but there will be an audience none the less. I also suspect I won’t be anywhere to be found.

- Jason Oberholtzer

Tags: Chat, Chatroom, Chats and Forums, Huffington Post, Internet, Middle East, social media, Web page, Web-Based, Webcam, WhoIsLive

BBC App, Where’s the News in That?

This weekend I eagerly downloaded the new, international iPlayer app from the BBC. In the back of mind, I was wondering if this would be the first real challenge to my cable subscription.

I live in Holland, where, albeit an hour out, I can watch BBC1 and BBC2 via cable. I can listen to all BBC radio stations over the Internet and even watch the one minute news updates and video via their website. All good stuff, however, the iPlayer led me to believe I would have it all in one place, all in my control. No such luck.

As the surprise wore off, the reality dawned that there is absolutely no news on the BBC international iPlayer. I looked and looked again, thinking it must be there someone, but it wasn’t. But it makes no sense not to stream the BBC News channel! Not only would it get me using the app more but it would bring the experience more in line with my expectations.

Working with operators in the chaos of going OTT, I appreciate the complexity surrounding programming rights and creating services for multiple platforms, devices and markets, and I think the BEEB have done a fantastic job with the iPlayer UX. Their catalogue is impressive and the price point reasonable, however, I remain baffled as to why there is no news.

Boasting record profits (The company’s 2010/2011 annual review shows a double-digit rise in headline profit – up 10.3% to US$255 million), the company is bound to reap rewards from taking such classics such as Absolutely Fabulous, or top properties like Top Gear and Doctor Who (with more than 11.8 million fans on Facebook) online, and I for one will be watching to see where they go with their multi-screen strategy. However, something is still missing, so I will be watching, and waiting for news.

- Vanessa Vigar

You can follow Vanessa on Twitter @Vigarv

Tags: Absolutely Fabulous, BBC, BBC iPlayer, BEEB, Doctor Who, Facebook, Holland, iPlayer, iPlayer UX, OTT, Top Gear

What We Can Learn From Supermarkets

Analyst firm Canalys projects that mobile apps will generate $7.3 billion in revenue in 2011 from downloads, in-app payments and subscriptions. And they expect that number to double to $14.1 billion in 2012. As huge as these revenue numbers are, a big opportunity is being missed. With a little more thought and understanding of retail psychology, I believe those numbers could be considerably higher.

In a high tech mobile world it may seem a little dull to draw inspiration from the humble supermarket chain. But if such immensely successful examples of retail genius exist, wouldn’t it make sense to explore the various ways the same strategy could provide a monetization masterclass for mobile applications developers?

There are few companies better at selling physical goods and services than supermarket chains. They offer a vast array of products and services, creating an in-store shopping experience (with seemingly minimal effort) which sells massive volumes of both necessity and impulse purchases, generating billions of dollars in sales in the process. The customer experience has been refined to an art form—intelligent product placement and subtle but precise special offers cater to all demographic groups while still feeling targeted.

Personally, I am the world’s biggest sucker for such deals and frequently end up spending at least 10% more than I plan to when I do the weekly shopping. Over the course of 10 months this could increase my spend by over $1500! Surely it must be possible to replicate this success within mobile applications.

However, a majority of application developers seem to lack even the most basic understanding of retail psychology when they craft their monetization strategies. Limited availability of end user profiled data should not be an excuse for only using the most basic Freemium model.

Supermarkets don’t work that way; in-store sales are driven not by a static model, but by a fluid one—a combination of seasonal events, timed offers, demographic probability, and knowledge of what’s hot and what the competition is offering. Then, the customer journey is scrutinized and high margin products are placed in “sweet spots” which catch your attention from the time you enter the store to the time you leave.

This model stands in stark contrast to the “one size fits all” strategy of virtual goods and other services, propped up with a bit of blind network advertising that seems boring and grossly unsophisticated. The predictability of Freemium services can be annoying and has an adverse effect on the buying mindset. They are boring and often ignored. Perhaps, replicating some of these supermarket upsell techniques could enliven mobile app market.

Even high profile apps like Foursquare are massively short-changing themselves when it comes to monetizating end user eyeball time. They have a great brand persona, a slick and engaging experience, great social and reward hooks (with Mayorships, check-in leaderboards and badges) and now 10 million users, many of whom (like me) are very active. So where is the revenue source to justify the estimated $600m market CAP? Right now it’s via “special nearby” tabs, many of which are next-to-useless unless you happen to be Mayor. Why hold back? The potential to deliver multi-layer value to partners, brands and the user is immense. You have their eyes, now develop some “sweet spots.”

Incorporating the same sophisticated product placement and special offer techniques used by supermarkets, Foursquare could easily apply numerous special deal layers within the user journey, based not only on location but user profile. They could Optimize UI real estate in the same way supermarkets optimize shelf space to deliver a multitude of well-placed promotions based on the age/sex demographics of people who are likely to visit a location. They could even deliver a variety of promotions depending on what time of day a user checks in. The possibilities are endless and, if deployed in a slick and uncluttered fashion, they could have a significant impact on Foursquare’s earnings potential.

Foursquare is a great example, but I am convinced a more tactical approach to app-based monetization can be applied in varying degrees by most developers. By understanding the profile of the user, analyzing the user journey and deploying a smarter variable upsell strategy within the flow of the application (gaming credits, virtual goods, subscription services, special offers, etc.) there is much more profit to be found in the mobile app market.

You can follow Geoff Casely on Twitter @geoffcasely

Tags: Android, Business, Canalys, Facebook, Foursquare, INQ, Mobile application development, Product placement

Things we learned week ending June 10

Here’s the thing, learning never ends. It’s true what they say, the more you learn the less you know and this certainly applied to this week. We were in Luxembourg this past week interviewing David Schreiberg, a Pulitzer prize winning journalist, former Bureau Chief of Newsweek in Buenos Aires and digital media expert and the man that pretty much has been instrumental in the migration of print to digital media. It was mind blowing.

In an article in Paperjam.lu (in French only) Mr. Schrieiberg says (translated from French): “New media were defined as a reaction to traditional media: it is first media that are delivered in digital form. We are in a transition phase, which will continue for many years, a transformation phase in which businesses must reinvent itself. We are still far from what we see at the moment is that the early stages.”

So after sitting in his grand, post-war four-story brownstone-style home office decorated with a stunning art collection from Argentina, Colombia, Italy and all the places he and his wife (also a journalist) have put pen to paper, I realized that here is what I learned this week.

1. Smart people ignite me. Writers even more so. Being in awe of someone’s ability to put together words that move you is a superb motivation.

2. Content rights will, for the forseeable future, will continue to keep us watching in a walled garden and on the hunt for shortcuts and work arounds. We just wanna watch stuff.

3. Everyone loves to hate the bad guy – Apple is pushing, we bitch about it and yet we don’t stop buying Apple products or using iTunes. We just want content and cool stuff. Humans are that way.

4. Running a company is hard work, getting your work done at the same time even harder. Pushing the envelope so organic growth keeps happening, the hardest.

5. EIB bankers from Finland are negative, closed-minded, this-can’t-be-done know-it-alls. Control – Alt- Delete.

6. Italy’s clean tech scene is rich with technology and innovation that no one really knows about, it’s not all Berlusconi here in Italy.

7. HBO nailed it with Game of Thrones. Sean Bean. Check.  Just call me Khaleesi.

Tags: Buenos Aires, David Schreiberg, Digital media, Game of Thrones, HBO, iTunes, Khalessi, Luxembourg, Pulitzer Prize, Sean Bean, South America, Vital Briefing

SCTE 2009, Cablevision, SeaChange, Green Pavilion & Network DVR

In June this year, Cablevision prevailed in a three-year legal with CNN and other major studios. The Supreme Court decided not to review the case and Cablevision’s remote-storage DVR was deemed not in violation of copyrights. Since the ruling was made, technology vendors and operators have been working hard to deploy a network DVR system.

The Cablevision technology is based on storing content on the network service instead of in the home, so if 1000 people want to record NBC’s The Office, those will each be stored at the network facility to set aside sufficient dedicated server space to make individual copies of shows. The studios thought that this remote storage violate copyright limitations. But since the Supreme Court disagreed, the door has been opened for Network DVRs. And we don’t mind, anything to make it easier for us to watch out favorite shows at home, especially without having to delete older ones or record over other episodes, makes us happy!

SeaChange has jumped on the Network DVR train and is highlighting the RS-DVR system at SCTE in response to the demand for time-shifted TV (Yes! We demand it!). SeaChange is allowing operators to deliver DVR functionality without deploying expensive DVR set top boxes that incorporate hard drives. It also provides the household with a multi-room DVR without the need for in-home wiring, saving tons of money compared to traditional set top DVR rollouts. The company says that their RS-DVR is ready for operators to use today.

SeaChange is also sponsoring the Green Pavilion at SCTE Expo, along with nine other companies at SCTE who are getting green. SCTE is shining the spotlight on promoting energy efficient technologies with eh the Green Pavilion, featuring pods with energy management solutions from qualified exhibitors that will improve corporate bottom line and preserve energy resources. It’s about time a trade show makes an efforts to be a little greener. In order to be part of the Green Pavilion, a company has to focus on at least one of three specific areas: powering improvements for facilities and plant, fleet enhancements involving smart routing, and operational upgrades and improvements.

There are a number of things that SCTE has done to make this pavilion “greener” including, creating the booths with recycled and recyclable materials, low energy LED lights to light the pavilion, carpet made with 70% recycled material, 82% reduction in booth shipping weight, and less promotional handouts. Cheers to that SCTE! We hope this becomes a trend with other trade show events, and the trade show waste starts to lessen in the future.  — AC (photos to come)

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• Court Allows Video Recording to Enter the Twentieth Century (stephankinsella.com)
• Later Viewings of Shows on DVRs Brighten Ratings (nytimes.com)

Tags: Cable, Cablevision, CNN, Network DVR, SCTE Expo, SeaChange

Verimatrix focuses on revenue security at IBC09

Operators want to keep viewers at the TV. They don’t want them wandering off back to the Web and messing around with this free for all content that you can get anytime anywhere. So this means companies like Verimatrix have got to give the operators a tool to protect content and yet get as much of that content out to consumers and keep them right in front of the TV where they belong.

According to Yoav Schreiber, senior analyst, Digital Media Infrastructure at Current Analysis, the consumer appetite for content anytime and anywhere is evident in the growth of online and mobile video consumption, which is supplementing traditional TV viewership. And to respond to evolving consumer viewing behavior, operators and content owners need the flexibility to introduce and deliver protected premium video applications and services across both managed and unmanaged networks.

This is where Verimatrix comes in. They have evolved security architecture to meet these emerging demands which in the end lets operators increase revenue streams and retain subscribers. That’s a happy ecosystem.

At IBC, Hall 5 Stand #B45. Verimatrix is showing off its  Video Content Authority System (VCAS™) 3.0 core architecture. Essentially, VCAS 3.0 enables pay-TV operators to offer a more extensive set of service offerings, helping operators attract and retain subscribers who want information and entertainment options in the living room and beyond. — JLH

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• Goodbye, DRM; hello “stealable” Digital Personal Property (arstechnica.com)
• Do You Watch TV While You Surf the Internet? [Reader Poll] (lifehacker.com)
• Cable Companies Appear To Be Screwing Up TV Everywhere (techdirt.com)
• Is Apple the Enemy of the TV Industry? Microsoft Thinks So (mashable.com)

Tags: Digital rights management, Pay television

LeWeb 08 – and love is in the air

Sweet! Finally a conference that is all about love -the elements of love, the semantics of love and have it all tied to the love of entrepreneurship. Only at LeWeb 08. Tattletech will be there hoping to catch a glimpse of all types of love. Loic explains it all in this video!