YouTube Enclosure

As the second half of the year is well underway now I got to thinking…

What is the most memorable creative from the first half of 2006?

It’s always difficult to pick just one, but this Star Trek campaign by Rogue for G4 is definitely on my short list. The effort gets high marks for being both LOL funny and smartly strategic in its attempt to make a long in the tooth brand relevant to a new and much younger demographic.

The spot above with Spock giving his perogative on the karaoke machine could be the best of the bunch, but other spots in the campaign are equally good as we find the Enterprise crew in a coffee shop, on a version of Cribs and rubbing lotion poolside.

All are worth a viewing if you have a minute. Congrats to the team who put it all together.

Some very smart and successful people are forecasting the demise of traditional broadcasting. There are now conferences formed around the idea that broadcasting as we know it will soon be history. Should our reliable and trusted neighbor, the local broadcaster, really be worried about their future?

Perhaps. But like the old saying goes, crisis contains both danger and opportunity.

Over the course of the last year or so I’ve found myself in conversations with a variety of traditional radio and tv broadcasters. While each of these encounters came about for a different reason, they all brought back great memories. My media roots were formed in the production departments of traditional local broadcast stations all over Texas and I still remember the “this changes everything” feeling that filled the studio when we started streaming our first station on the web about 10 years ago via an early version of AudioNet. (even a diehard Spurs fan has to give Cuban props for that one)

For these reasons and others there will always be a warm place in my heart for the dedicated local broadcaster working hard everyday to serve their community of license like no one else can. And then you wonder…

Will our cities and towns of the future one day be without a need for the traditional local broadcaster we rely on today?

Looking at the history of how new technology has impacted the media industry the odds are slim that your local broadcaster will disappear like the 8 track tape anytime soon. On the other hand, the chances that the role and profile of the local broadcasters in your community will shift in the near future is something else altogether.

Is it happening already?

The broadcasters I spoke with during this time would tell you that “crisis” is too strong a word for the current situation and that they have time to figure it all out considering that revenue generated from their traditional spot inventory is pretty good right now. One even boasted of a record top line despite a shrinking audience. Record billings from your sales team is usually not the symptom of a crisis.

But even if we accept their somewhat rosy scenario as reality, a common theme was clearly present in all these conversations — the local broadcaster in search of ways to reengineer themselves to more effectively compete in our rapidly changing media distribution landscape. That is surely not breaking news to you if you’re working in or following the broadcast industry, but as my company has recently been focused more on other distribution platforms their insider’s view did help paint a more current picture for me of what is actually going on, today, in the tactical trenches of the old guard electronic media.

You could boil this challenge facing the traditional local broadcaster down to this fundamental question:

How can the traditional local broadcaster not only survive, but thrive, in the emerging new world of the disruptive broadcaster?

After letting that question and our conversations incubate together for a while, a strategy for how the traditional local broadcaster can conquer the disruptive broadcaster emerged.

Become one.

—

—

Obviously many savvy local broadcasters started moving in this direction a long time ago propelled by their own initiative, acumen and appreciation for creative destruction. Kudos to those industry leaders who “get it”. But even today when you look across the hundreds of local radio and television markets it can make you wonder why some traditional local broadcasters appear to remain complacent, or have simply farmed out their new media to others in what sometimes come across as mostly hollow efforts.

Let’s also take a moment to recognize that some of the individual themes presented in believe didn’t originate here and that these types of acronym based strategies run the risk of littering the atmosphere with nebulous promises and consultant doublespeak. Believe strives to avoid those things, but may come up short from time to time. Still, the hope from this keyboard is that believe can make an original contribution by pulling these concepts together into a unifying catalyst that might inspire and empower those hesitant traditional local radio and tv broadcasters across the spectrum (and local newspapers too) to enthusiastically embrace the exciting opportunities ahead.

If you’re a small broadcast group or an independent local broadcaster you may find believe to be the most beneficial. One of the core philosophies here at Content Developer is to identify open source tools and techniques and believe stays true to that by offering solutions that aren’t built upon huge new investments. It’s more about changing how you think about your assets and reorganizing them accordingly. You may not have the deep pockets of your major consolidated broadcast group competitors, and the good news is you don’t need them. The opportunity to create your best possible future is at your disposal, if you’re ready to take that next step.

To capture the essence of what believe is really all about, I’m reminded of a recent lunch with a couple guys from a local television station. While enjoying our stir fry, one of them agreed that change is happening in their industry, but he thought that it was going to take 10 or 12 years still before they were really going to feel it. Well, I half agree with him. It is going to take 10 or 12 years, but that clock started ticking with that first Audionet stream a decade ago.

If you’re interested in reading more, you can download the believe strategy paper here. (5MB PDF) The first draft of the paper was put together in April of this year with an edit and revision in June. That is the version being made available online today.

Images used are part of the Eyewire Photodisc Motion Library, now a part of Getty Images.

tags: radio; tv; disruptive broadcasting; viral video; viral marketing; broadcasting; Post- Newsweek; KSAT; KABB; KISS; Cox Radio; San Antonio; Clear Channel; WOAI; KTSA; CBS Radio; KAHL; KMYS; Sinclair Broadcast Group; IPTV; U-verse; HD Radio; NAB; TAB; Video On The Net

In between the coffee beans and frozen foods you can now shop for AT&T‘s new IPTV product U-verse at the HEB San Antonio 39 #463 at Blanco and 1604.

With U-verse entering the grocery store shortly after Pocket Communications set up shop there, is HEB sticking its toe in the consumer communications technology retail distribution water?

YouTube Enclosure

A sneak peek at the latest from VALVe, first shared at E3 Summer Expo. Worth a look, both from a computer gaming technology standpoint and as inspiration if you’re looking for ideas on how to use viral marketing to build buzz for an upcoming release.

That is the suggestion of telecommunications consultant Tomi Ahonen as reported by Moneyweb.

If you’re a fan of the documentaries Startup.com and Control Room then you won’t want to miss this presentation from Jehane Noujaim recorded at this years TED Conference. The passion shared here about filmmaking and its promise to accomplish big things is good stuff.

A quick VideoEgg player viewing tip — If you click on the VideoEgg logo in the bottom right corner of the player it will launch full screen. Video quality holds up remarkably well. (Better than YouTube?)

Nice bit of well placed sponsorship here as well from BMW to support their Ideas Are Everything branding strategy.

tags: Pangea Cinema Day

Cingular Ad on AmericanIdol.com

In some earlier posts we’ve been looking at how the small to medium sized Content Developer can use open source SMS Text Messaging to deliver content to mobile devices.

SMS can be a solid strategy for getting your content into the hands of a mobile audience. But how can the Content Developer make is easier for your mobile audience to communicate back to you?

One way is by getting your own Common Short Code.

A Common Short Code (CSC, Short Code) is one of those four, five or six digit codes that content providers use to make it easy for a mobile audience to text messages back to them.

American Idol uses Short Codes to help collect votes. Fox Sports Radio lets you send text messages to their in studio hosts via their own CSC. Those are just a few examples of the way Common Short Codes have quickly moved into the communications mainstream. Many would even argue that short codes are now the first choice way to respond for the younger demographics many advertisers crave to reach.

Alright, we get it. Short Codes are the bomb. So how exactly do you get a Common Short Code of your own to help you build relationships with your content’s audience?

In the United States, Common Short Codes are administered by the Common Short Code Administration.

According to the CSCA, leasing your own code will cost you $500 a month for a random code and $1000 a month for a custom code. A three month minimum is required.

But just leasing the code doesn’t get you there. You’ll still need to negotiate agreements with each of the wireless carriers to activate your short code. And approval is up to them. Here is how the CSCA explains the process:

Each participating wireless service provider must decide for itself whether or not to accept the routing of your CSC within their network. Wireless service providers will make their decision based on a number of criteria, including i) the content provider; ii) their experience in working with you and your partners; iii) the type of CSC application; iv) the amount and type of promotion of the CSC; v) the estimated message volumes; vi) the timing of your CSC; and vii) the number of other CSC applications in implementation.

Still interested? Apply for your own Common Short Code today.

You can WHOIS Short Codes to see who the owner is and there is a US Short Code Directory to search for content owners short code.

Coming soon I’ll be looking at some third party solution providers that are trying to reduce the number of these hoops you need to jump through to use common short codes to communicate with your mobile audience.

The beginning of a new month feels like an appropriate time to spend a moment talking about the new look here at ContentDeveloper.com.

Over the last few weeks Content Developer has moved from the 700 pixel wide two column look it started out with 18 months ago, to a brief stop last week on a 800 pixel wide 3 column design, to the now 940 pixel wide 4 column design where I think we will stay for a while.

The main reason for the brief stop at the 3 column design was my own personal difficulty in kicking the 800X600 screen resolution user to the curb. Well, kicking to the curb may be a little hyperbolic since the 800X600 user can still access Content Developer just fine, but now they have to scroll a bit left to right to see everything.

Many developers and designers are also apparently still struggling with this 800X600 question.

Choosing the highest value adding minimum user spec to serve as your design baseline has always been an important first step for many online projects. Developers thankfully were able to toss the 640X480 user overboard many moons ago and for the longest time all the projects I’d been associated with usually settled in at 800X600 as the generally accepted bottom rung of the user ladder. That’s a comfortable position to defend and continues to make some sense seeing as how even Windows XP Professional x64 still defaults to Super VGA on a fresh install.

So 800X600 is still in the game, but after reviewing some recent data and implementing 4 column designs that seem to flourish with that little bit of extra space on some other sites, I’m finally starting to lean toward adopting the 1024X768 user as the new default minimum spec.

Every project has its own decision process to go through, but should 1024X768 be the new default minimum design spec for browser based projects? And if you do make that leap are you committing that all too common error of putting the interests of designers and developers over the interests of the user?

According to W3Counter.com 800X600 resolution users now account for about 10-11% of internet users.

from W3Counter.com

This is just one source and though their sample size is large it probably isn’t a truly scientific representative sample. Other sources (1, 2) show that it might be a bit low but do suggest that the figure is at least in the ballpark.

That 10%-20% range of 800X600 users is still plenty big enough for a site delivering mainstream content to a wide audience to care about and pay attention to. If I’m building a general audience site designed to deliver information about health care, then I am building with that 800X600 user still very much in mind. But what pushed me over the edge for this site was an acceptance (rationalization?) that the typical reader of blogs about creating content and media distribution is probably not running on that 800X600 minimum spec.

There is an argument to be made that the use of percentages in your CSS design is the answer to this challenge. You can create attractive, clean and functional designs built around allocating your screen real estate with ratios, but sometimes the use of percantages create new viewing inconsistency issues and impose their own limitations on what you can ultimately do.

So despite some still lingering cognitive dissonance I decided to stick with a fixed width design but say goodbye to 800X600. You’ve been a reliable friend 800X600 and we will likely meet again on other projects, but your time may have finally passed for this site.

A couple other additions to the new version of Content Developer I also wanted to mention are the freshened up masthead and the introduction of headlines from other blogs and traditional news sites about content.

These headlines are delivered via that great rss feed splicing and redistribution combo of feedblendr and feed2js. Feed2js now has moved off of its longtime home on the maricopa.edu servers and onto their own site provided by Modevia Web Services at feed2js.org. The announcement on the movement of feed2js also notes that an open source feed2js site will be coming to sourceforge soon.

A couple other indicators worth noting from the W3Counter stats is the still rising market share power of Firefox…

from W3Counter.com

…and the steady 3% market share of Mac users.

from W3Counter.com

Has that Mac market share number changed at all in the last 10 years? Even after all those great commercials?

YouTube Enclosure

I hope you find that the new look here works well for you.

When you live in San Antonio Texas on top of the Edwards Aquifer, water is a subject that simmers on the back burner almost all the time. We do what we have to and take the regular moves between drought and flood in stride. I get the feeling that folks ’round these parts really do care about the topic of our water, but sometimes it appears not enough (yours truly included) to really learn a great deal about it, even when we are now in Stage 1 Drought Restrictions.

Who’s fault is that? A citizen has the responsibility to stay informed, but doesn’t the local governments and ngo’s involved in such critical matters also have a responsibility to communicate these concerns in ways that can cut through the clutter of daily life? The Water Board of Bryan Texas seems to have taken that challenge head on.

pages from a Water Board of Bryan Calendar

By wrapping an all too often dry topic like water consumption in an up to date package like the one above, perhaps more people will actually read the literature that comes from the Bryan Water Board and learn more about the challenges that their city is facing.

Hey, if a box of chocolate covered puffed rice can carve our an identity that helps build relationships with their customers then why can’t a government agency?

One could make the argument that this type of approach might rub some geezers more traditional citizens the wrong way, but still, a moment here to applaud a local government agency with the courage to risk such an approach. We constantly complain that government doesn’t try to innovate, so when a local bureaucrat goes out on a limb and injects some creativity into their area of responsibility let’s make the effort to support their effort.

Bravo Bryan.

via Creating Passionate Users

YouTube Enclosure

Thought the latest report on high speed services released yesterday by the FCC was an appropriate occasion to revisit this viral from The Daily Show.

A couple items stood out in the report, including the total number of high speed lines moving past the 50 million mark and that this is the first time, according to the FCC release, that more additions of DSL lines occurred than cable modem lines. The FCC study reports that during the second half of 2005 DSL added 3.2 million lines while cable added 1.6 million lines. In a world that focuses so heavily on market share and churn, how will the cable industry respond to that reported 2 to 1 growth rate discrepancy? Short term blip or dangerous trend?

While reading the release I learned about a FCC statistics hub known as the The Wireline Competition Bureau Statistical Reports that collects and publishes data from the forms that telecommunications services companies must file with the FCC.

tags: net neutrality