All of the apocalyptic headlines screaming at me that the world is falling apart remind me of the hype of Y2K. But while that stunt ended up being little more than an innocuous exercise in hysterical fear mongering, this crisis de jour isn’t just exponentially more historic, it will prove to be a catalyst that increases the value of premium content. (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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Not only does this witty animation do a good job of summarizing the current social network zeitgeist, but the live action shots at the end were filmed in Silver Lake, right down the street from my house!

Tonight I’m going to hear Chris Anderson, Editor in Chief of Wired Magazine, speak about his upcoming book, “Free.” In a previous post I presented my position on the culture of free, the gift economy and how I think it’s driving the quality of content and applications towards amateur hour. It will be interesting to hear Chris address web economics and I hope to engage him in a discussion about what this means for the future of web-based entertainment content.

I’m specifically interested in Google and how they’ve enabled the culture of free online. From my perspective, Google is bad for business. Let me qualify that, bad for business-as-usual (added). By offering everything you need on the web for free, Google has effectively put web-based business opportunities on life support. (more…)

I admire Mark Cuban and not just because he helped me find God. He’s got chutzpah. His basketball team loses again in the first round of the playoffs, he fires his coach and then he goes out and writes a semi-apocalyptic blog post about the disastrous effects of web video distribution.

Cuban is working from Craig Moffett’s report for Bernstein Research entitled “And Now for the News…The Emperor has no Clothes,” which raises real questions about the economic viability of web based video entertainment content. It’s an important report because it highlights the stagnation in web economics that more people are becoming aware of and the future that this stagnation suggests. (more…)

If you’ve been to the San Francisco Bay Area recently you may have noticed that they’re doing major construction on the Bay Bridge. It’s a perfect metaphor for the status of collaboration between the Northern California Tech community and the Southern California Entertainment community - Under Construction. (more…)