Warning -  this post gets a little zen

It took a great deal of courage for TechCrunch’s Mike Arrington to publish his Some Things Need To Change post chastising the digital rat race that he, in part, has helped to fuel. He concludes:

I’ve decided the right thing to do is take some time off and get a better perspective on what I’m spending my life doing. I’ll be taking most of February off from writing, and decide what the best future for me is while sitting on a beach somewhere far away from my iPhone and laptop.

I applaud Mike and others like him who are taking this moment to consider what their role can be in moving the planet and the global community forward and out of this global depression. It’s a new era of responsibility that begs the question of each of us - what am I really doing? (more…)

Take an hour out of your life and watch this important video. It’s an excellent overview of the evolution of new media’s impact on human interaction. It highlights the role that YouTube is playing in the development of Fan Fiction (a somewhat inaccurate yet my current preferred euphemism for User Generated Content). If you’re short on time, skip to the conclusion at 45:15 and listen to Lawrence Lessig’s take on the cultural inflection point that we have communally reached due to the connectivity and access provided to us through digital distribution.

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The first real instance of the ubiquitous, mobile web on a consumer-friendly handset is the Apple iPhone 3G. It’s a game-changer and a technology market-mover. We all know that. But as we also know, what drives technology development and adoption more than anything else is porn. Just as users will always find ways to get their porn, smart technology companies will find ways to provide and monetize it.

But how does one find free porn video content on the new iPhone? You can’t find it on Youtube, which comes native as a featured applicaiton, and some of the better-known adult streaming sites like Youporn, Redtube, Eskimotube all serve their content for free, but in Flash video, which isn’t supported on the iPhone.

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Today, Safran Digital went public with the details of our partnership with Xbox. In particular, we’ve announced the directors for our slate of original web video pilots, which launch this fall to coincide with Xbox’s user-interface redesign.

The directors involved include James Wan (Saw, Death Sentence), David Slade (30 Days of Night, Hard Candy), James Gunn (Slither), Lucky McKee (May), Andrew Douglas (The Amityville Horror) and Marcus Nispel (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th).

I’m extremely proud of the filmmakers and their camps, the deal we’ve put together and what I believe it represents for the future of digital content economics. (more…)

Heard a familiar parable today and thought it applies nicely to the conundrum of web-video and digital disruption:

Two campers are relaxing around the fire, intoxicated from a long meal and lots of beer. All of a sudden, a young, hungry, bear appears. The two campers look at each other. It’s clear that they’re about to become bear food. The first camper starts to lace up his shoes. The second camper says: “what are you doing? You can’t outrun the bear!” to which the first camper responds: “No. But I can outrun you.” (more…)

My recent post “Economic Constipation and Digital Malnutrition” was an attempt to critically analyze Mark Cuban’s provocative May 4th post entitled “The Ala Carting of Video on the Net - Will it lead to disaster?”.

Incidentally, it was my most trafficked day and much to my surprise, I received a comment from one of my favorite bloggers, Hank Williams, who writes the influential whydoeseverythingsuck.com?”

Mark’s post has sparked a debate that has spilled over from the circle of web video bloggers into a broader conversation. Next week I’m in New York for the Advertising 2.0 event and plan to bring Mark’s position, and my rebuttal, to the panel on which I’m speaking. (more…)

Few things are as ominous as waking up to the sound of gushing water coming from your basement. When the sun has barely risen and you find yourself, in pajamas, pre-caffeination, next to your wife, broom in hand, ankle deep in a flooded laundry room sweeping waves of what you should have been showering in out into the backyard, you have to ask yourself, “How did I get so lucky? To whom do I owe this pleasure? What did I do to deserve this?” (more…)

Wrong. Very wrong. Unless you like train wrecks. The disconnect between the actors’ guild and the studio positions on new media is one of the major issues gumming up the current (non)negotiations. The AMPTP / SAG talks aren’t getting the kind of press outside of LA that the widely covered writer’s guild strike received, but the concern amongst the theatrical and TV creative communities is widespread. Casting is dead on life-support, actors are at home (not David Lawrence), studio projects are on hold and an agent friend of mine said he is telling actors that “their job is to call their SAG reps and demand that the union give up their losing fight and close a deal.” (more…)

Given that I’m just wrapping up my first week of blogging, thought this article from today’s New York Times was of interest. I can see how the blogger lifestyle can be problematic especially if you’ve just launched a company and have a full-time job. I’ve been giving this a lot of thought and plan to write about my reflections on Week One in a post later today. But first I’m going to go for a run, nibble some rice cakes and schedule a preemptive angioplasty.

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They say that the path to wealth is through writing and I believe them.

It makes sense. If you can write put your thoughts on paper then the value of your ownership goes from something ethereal to something tangible.
They also say that being left-handed is an economic advantage. That makes less sense, but then I met Steve de Souza and I was convinced.

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