Monthly Archives: June 2009

Record labels are still searching for ways to earn money online and they may have stumbled upon a service that could bring them back into the value chain: it’s called “Vevo”. Universal Music started the site and they have already gotten a corsortium of the major labels to sign up.

Itunes has proven that there is still a market for downloading music singles. But it has also proven that people still love to watch music videos – and that they are willing to pay for them! Since MTV became a reality television show rather than a music video channel, there aren’t many places these days to watch high quality music videos.

That’s where Vevo comes in. Vevo is a music video site. It will host music videos from the major label, top grossing music artists. Universal plans to host music videos on its site and to complement the content with exclusive interviews, reality programming and live performances.

This time the music labels are not licensing and restricting content but making it all available in one easy to find space. And once they get a critical mass of users, they will be able to bring in the advertisers and start making big bucks again.

This model just might work. The videos on youtube are usually low grade and low quality. Vevo could ensure access to high quality and exclusive content. If it can pull it off, users may come en masse, and the music labels may finally be able to insert themselves back into the value chain.

Here’s an article detailing a bit of what’s to come…

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Since the advent of the digital age, society has become obsessed with being connected. Connected to information. To music. To media. To the thoughts ideas and opinions of other users. Basically, we all want to be plugged in and actively contributing to the colossal forum of activity that is the world wide web. Moreover, not only do we want to be connected, we want to be connected to what we want when we want it, with no unnecessary steps between our screens and precious information or entertainment we seek. However, with increased information sharing comes increased anxiety. If you are connected to information from countless strangers, who is connected to information from you? Moreover, what happens to that information once you send it out into the www forest? We all know the feeling: Should I enter my birthday this site? Is this credit card payment page really secure? Who else might see the content of this email? Opera has displayed a keen understanding of the world’s insatiable desire for customized connectivity, as well as the paranoia that such a luxury generates, with what may be the next “reinvention of the web: pre-launch web browser Opera Unite. What makes this browser different then other web browsers? Essentially, everything. In short, Opera Unite is designed to directly link the personal computers of users operating on browser, regardless of what operating system is being run on each individual PC. Such a dynamic would mean users could share files and information directly with one another, without the need for a third party or any kind of additional and common software. Moreover, Opera is encouraging developers to create their own applications on top of the browser, thereby facilitating a the ability to customize individual user experiences to a much higher degree. Another interesting outcome of directly linking users computers comes in the promise of increased control. Currently, individual’s personal computers are merely gateways. Information is sent out of our gateways to server that acts as the “hosts” of the Internet. Therefore, our word, photos, emails, etc. are not actually delivered to the “fabric” of the Internet, but rather to these servers. Opera Unite claims to change all that. By directly linking the computers of individual users, Opera Unite promises a much higher standard of privacy and the ability to control the sets of eyes and ears plugged into your most sensitive information. Check out the full story here:http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/16/that-reinvention-of-the-web-thing-opera-was-talking-about-its-called-opera-unite/

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Job hunting on social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter has grown even more popular since the onset of the current economic crisis. As unemployment rises and job availability decreases, more people are looking beyond conventional methods to find a job.

Social networks can provide multiple advantages over conventional job search tools. They can potentially provide the most current and accurate information on job availabilities. For example, an employer can send out an update on a new job opening to Twitter subscribers. These job seekers would receive much more relevant and up-to-date information than searching through a head hunter. Social networks also provide a promotional outlet that differs from conventional outlets in that there is more room for creativity and personalization. Job seekers are given a unique opportunity to express themselves in different ways and can promote strengths that typically go unnoticed. This would obviously benefit employers as well. Social networks provide useful information about potential employees that was never available in the past.

This last point relates to the disadvantage of social networks. Social networks can provide so much detail, it is difficult to selectively keep some information private. For instance, an employer can learn about a job seeker’s friends, activities, social behavior, political/religious beliefs, personal photos, etc. Without careful editing, a social network can easily ruin a potential employment opportunity.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/12/news/economy/social_networking_jobs/

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For the past 10 years, I have frequently visit an online discussion forum called Fatwallet.com to search for potential deals, purchase advise, as well as information about current technologies.

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Gov Schwarzenegger wants to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in state spending each year.
He says converting to online study will also help keep pupils more up-to-date. From the beginning of the next school year in August, math and science students in California high schools will have access to online texts that have passed an academic standards review.

While I am all for the cost saving initiatives Gov. Schwarzenegger is trying to implement. I cant help but wonder if this may further disenfranchise some economically disadvantaged students. What happens if a student does not have a computer at home, or does not have access to the internet at home. Will he or she be given a computer or will they have to do all there studying at school.

In spite of this, I believe if all students actually have access to theses online textbooks, it perhaps can spawn a reinvigorated zeal for education and academic excellence within the student body.

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MySpace announced today it will cut its US workforce by 30%, which represents about 400 employees.

This move comes just 2 months after a new management has taken office, appointed by Rupert Murdoch. News Corp. had always stated that MySpace was “very profitable”, whereas it is no secret that its competitors have yet to post meaningful profits. Still, Mr. Murdoch had expressed for some time that MySpace was oversized staffwise relative to its peers. We note that MySpace will retain 1,000 employees in the US, which is higher than Facebook’s 850 employees.

We have discussed in class how MySpace was losing grounds to its more recent and “nimble-footed” social network competitors.
According to data from Nielsen, online traffic on MySpace in April dropped 31% year on year. The network has today 130 million registered users, vs. 250 million for Facebook. A year ago, MySpace was still ahead… the fall has been spectacular.

Therefore, the lesson is the following : for all the talk about how social networks revolutionize the way people interact with each other and how they affect traditional media… they eventually remain bound to the same rules as traditional businesses: they have to make money, and when they don’t, they downsize and restructure, just as General Motors does….

MySpace’s new management team is headed by Owen Van Natta, a former Facebook executive himself. Does that mean that MySpace is going to try and merely replicate / adapt its competitor’s model, or on the other hand does this move signal the Company’s determination to gain back its creativity and dynamism, which ultimately will be its growth drivers?

Time will tell!

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Confession….
I do not use Twitter, I do not tweet, I do not want to tweet. I feel like a dieing breed, but I’m not so sure. I am not anti technology, or even anti social media, I do have a Facebook account and occasionally update my status and like it. But for some reason I just have not jumped on tweet crazed bandwagon.

Is it that I am already too old? I’m 31. Does that put me out of the demographic?
Who exactly is the demographic? I’m sitting at a table of three 31 year olds and one 22 year old. None of us tweet. I know this is a pathetic sample size, but I wonder if just as rapidly as this twitter crazy developed can it or will it die out too?

Pet Peeve…
Well over 45 year old congressmen and women, newscaster, and other “celebrities” raving about their tech savvyness as evident by the amount of time they spend tweeting and asking people to follow their tweets. I’m jaded, I know. It just feels contrived, as if they just read some self help book like “How to look cool to young people 101″.

Silver Lining…
Ordinary people who tweet about relevant current news events and natural disasters.

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After reading Hanah’s post on dis intermediation within health care services, I was reminded of my trip to Ugnada last Christmas. In Uganda, as in many sub Saharan countries in Africa a medical doctor is not required to obtain a prescription or to buy what in the US would be considered prescription strength medication. There are many reasons for this, but the two most commonly sited reasons for this is that doctor visits are cost prohibitive for many citizens and that trained doctors often do not want to reside in the more remote locations.

Although there are many risks involves with self diagnoses, in these situations the possibilities of dis intermediation through the internet can actually be life saving. In addition, the apparent dis intermediation can actually serve as a way to increase traffic to qualified doctors. Patients can learn to recognize symptoms that can be treated and cured by medical professionals.

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Facebook began offering vanity URLs last week. Unnoticed by many Facebook users their URLs were actually a strange mix of geeky numbers, i.e. www.facebook.com/profile?php.id=98765432. But now Facebook, much like twitter will allow its users to customize their URLs with whatever name they choose.

For me this is another interesting diversion from the clear identity base that Facebook was founded on. Initially, Facebook was restricted to users with a .edu address. Because of this, the majority of people on Facebook used their actual names. This trend of using ones actual name to some degree has continued inspite of Facebook no longer requiring the .edu address. With the advent of Facebook vanity URLs I wonder if Facebook will head in the direction of other online social networking sites with users hiding behind aliases.

I actually thought it was a strength and a distinguishing factor that Facebook users identify themselves by their actual names. It adds a measure of accountability to users actions online.

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