Author: BrianR

Matryomin

A description of this wonderful music by YouTube user sasayakanaru:

This electronic musical instrument is called “Matryomin“. This was developed by Japanese musician [Masami Takeuchi] ,made by the base of “Theremin” and Russian dall “Matryoshka“.The interval and the volume are controlled by holding up the hand in the antenna in the dall, and changing the distance of the antenna and the hand.

Big hat tip to Billy Sugarfix for sharing this with us on his blog.

Leon_Theremin_Playing_Theremin Leon Theremin playing his invention the Theremin

Tips for the MSM on How to flirt with Bloggers

A few suggestions for the Main Stream Media on how to flirt with bloggers.

1) Hold meet and greet events with bloggers After work hours. Weekends work too.

2) Buy bloggers food and drinks.

3) Pick carefully the names for your events. Don’t use the word ‘Ascertainment’. ex. “Triangle Blogger Community Ascertainment” Have you ever met anyone who wants to be ascertained?

4) Don’t call your event a conference if it isn’t open to the whole public.

5) Important: Be as open and inclusive as possible. Don’t leave anyone out by not getting the message out. Bloggers will take it personally.

6) Don’t use e-vite. It sucks.

7) Be very honest early on about what you want from Bloggers. We are not free labor.

8) Most important: Treat bloggers as equals and with respect. The era of consumers and passive viewers is over. Put links to us on your website. (Like WRAL did.)

Hat tip to Bora and to Paul for his funny response to NC-17 weirdo blogger “Ascertainment” invite.

Creativity + Fans x Love = Money

Recently I wrote about the News and Observer’s use of YouTube video on their blog of a Duke game on ESPN. I think its very cool and hope more MSM websites adopt this practice. But my ruminations deal with the legality of this practice among for-profit business. Especially when copyright owners, like university athletic programs, don’t allow fans to take video of their events. I think the differentiation between broadcast video and fan video needs to disappear. At least from a promotion standpoint. i.e. When a fan makes a video of an event they do it out of love not profit. That passion translates into good free event promotion.

Let fans share video and pictures they take of college sports. Encourage it even. You’ll be glad you did later.

Here are a few of my comments on Ed Cone’s blog when this issue was brought up in December 2005. Please read this blog post by Ed Cone for more context.

Dec 19, 2005
(1) “They should encourage fan videos and pics then give them a place to share it…If UNC and the ACC can’t understand this now they’ll have some hard lessons to learn about new media in the near future. The number of these small video cameras will only increase plus younger fans will EXPECT to be able to use them. Banning them would create bad publicity, FAST.”

Dec 19, 2005
(2) “I think it’s important to point out that Ed’s video or others like it aren’t a replacement for real TV coverage. Nor are they ANY real financial threat. I love watching college basketball and wouldn’t watch little vids instead of a higher rez version. These small vids are viral advertisements. A type of social activity that basketball fans, young and old, can enjoy. When you give a community (ie ACC basketball fans) a common activity that layers on top of another (ie following the tar heels) you have a very strong synergy. Creativity + fans x love = money.”

Hat Tip to Ed for the link .

Will the iPhone have Flash?

This ZDnet article says that a Wall Street Journal article, behind pay wall, quotes this dude Avi that the iPhone will have flash. (Check out Avi Greengart’s iPhone First Impressions article) If true that’s a really big deal. Independent phone app development via the Safari mini web browser could be really innovative.

I’m saving up the $ for a iPhone… but all this wait is giving me second thoughts. That Nokia N800 is might sweet looking. As far as independent app dev goes Nokia’s Linux based OS kicks Apple’s ass! (so far) The Maemo development community is diverse and successful. Check out all the applications already available for the Nokia 770 and 800.

Analyzing Campaign Video Distro Strategies

Matthew Bernius a Visiting Professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology (I checked the RTI directory for confirmation) has written a interesting blog post about the video Edwards and Obama are using online. Its called a tale of two candidate’s video distribution strategies and it compares and contrasts the two candidates use of online video. He also links to our response to the Edward’s announcement video. Here is the part I’d like to comment on.

These examples highlight an interesting problem for candidates: while YouTube offers tools to manage posting comments, you cannot control what content your page links to. In going to “where the people are,” you leave yourself open to direct commentary from the people. Counter-commentary may be located directly beside your stumping. Contrast this to Brightcove’s promise of control, an interface that does not link directly to intertextual documents. Additionally, even when you find commentary on Brightcove, it is coming from established sources. While you might get criticized it is coming from the media, rather than the people you are trying to reach.

To me the trade off of not being able to control people’s response to your message is a fair one. The fact is the Internet and personal publishing (text, audio, and video) has radically transformed global communication, permanently. You can not stop people from sharing their opinions, online or otherwise.

Some old school campaign advisers and PR folks may think that the main stream media has the loudest final word on truth about politicians. Wrong. Perception is an important factor. Word of mouth effects perception more than traditional media. Why? Trust. People don’t trust corporate media as much as they used to.

The democratization of communication has let loose a giant amount of opinions and facts hereto unavailable to so many people. It balances and counterbalances the spin corporate media has on it. The Internet give us choice and teaches us how to be responsible media users. (previously known as media consumers)

Our future will be full of interesting “battles” between main stream media and the media maker “hordes”. If we look at the math I think its obvious that the billions of users-producers will win over the thousands of traditional media producers. Whether the content is good, bad, fair, or unfair the shear volume of content will tip the scales on who we trust.

So why shouldn’t new political candidates WORK WITH the people who will make media and vote? Working with people builds real grassroots campaigns. Right now Edwards is running a netroots video campaign and Obama isn’t. Your analysis may vary.

Hat tip to Ruby for sending me the link.

Please use Twitter

Twitter is a cool SMS spam service… uh I mean a neat way to SMS, aka txt messaging, a bunch of people at once. Sorta like CC: for your phone. Of course you can directly message people. Yes you can control who sends you a text. So spam really isn’t an issue. (yet?) Having a cheap unlimited text plan for your phone doesn’t hurt.

What I really love about Twitter is staying in touch with people. In my busy life sometimes a phone call is too much or not necessary. Just a gentle nudge of text info to my phone keeps me updated.

Right now a few of friends on Twitter I’ve only met once and another who is a friend of a friend. Interestingly they all live in California. So I get to hear about the cool techie things they get to-do and the wonderful sounding lives they have. A bit voyeuristic but without the eye candy or intrusion. This is totally opt in or opt out. For both parties.

So… PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, all you people who read my blog, and actually care enough to comment on it, JOIN TWITTER then friend me! So I can read about your wonderful goings on and feel that much closer to you. My Twitter handle is BrianR.

Thanks Friends.

Barrier to try Linux Lowered Significantly

Ubuntu and Debian Linux both have EXE files you can download to your Windows computer to install Linux quickly and easily. It appears that this install creates an image file and doesn’t attempt to repartition your hard drive. It also allows you to dual boot your operating system. VERY good news for beginners. If this process really works then the only excuse you have now not to try Ubuntu or Debian is lack of hard drive space.

Hat tip and big ole’ curtsy to Justin for the links!

N&O, ESPN, YouTube, and The ACC

I read the News and Observer college basketball blog ACC Now. Todays post called The final 12.7 seconds contains a YouTube video of the end of the Duke vs Clemson game on ESPN. (see image bellow) Quite a nail bitter. Last minute bucket by Clemson player Hamilton tied the game 66 to 66. I really appreciated seeing this video online because I missed the cool live moment. (Plus I’m a Carolina fan and really only care about the Tar Heels.) 🙂

But this “convergence” moment by Main Stream Media intrigued me. Something happened here that would have corporate lawyers in a giant tizzy just a year or two ago. Maybe they’re still concerned about this, I don’t know.

What would concern lawyers about YouTube video on the N&O site?
The use of copyrighted material that this media player, as far as I know, does not own or have rights to. (if there is a notice of permission on the site I missed please let me know.)

YouTube video on the N$O
Click on image for larger version.

Here’s what happened with this simple blog post. The News and Observer, owned by The McClatchy Company, has a video captured by YouTube user goheels88 on their for-profit website. The video is a copyrighted product of ESPN and the Atlantic Coast Conference. Not to mention the rights of Duke University and Clemson University. You have one media outlet profiting, capturing eyeballs for ad revenue, by leveraging the copyright of two to four owners.

Is posting a YouTube video like this on the N&O site legal?

I hope it is. Its very possible that YouTube, now owned by tech giant Google, has licensed video clips from ESPN that are captured by YouTube users. Or maybe lawyers believe that any content still publicly available on the YouTube site is fair game. Bloggers do it so why can’t businesses?

If all these corporate entities have reached an agreement then I applaud them. If they have just decided its stupid to sue each other when this video promotes everyones interest then I congratulate you. Any way you look at it this is a watershed moment in the commons of information.

Please do me a favor N&O, send goheels88 a case of beer for capturing that video. He’ll need it when the Tar Heels demolish Dook in a few weeks. 🙂