Online Media Cultist

Mark Cuban wrote a piece last night about “the failings of Internet video and the expectation of free content,” which references a Bernstein Research report called And Now for the News…The Emperor Has No Clothes.” Cuban’s premise is that “the a la carting of video on the net” will force video production budgets to be slashed and video content quality dumbed down, which will only benefit “Google and Youtube and black and white hat SEOs.”

This is an interesting and complex topic, and no one really has all (or even many) of the answers right now, but I find some flaws in Cuban’s thinking.

Let’s walk through this. Cuban’s initial premise is:

* Consumers won’t pay for content on the web, so it will have to be ad supported. - Is this true though? Over the last month, I’ve paid for music and video on the Internet, purchasing both through the iTunes store. The content was high quality (a great 2007 album by The Hives, and episodes of Lost that I had missed) and the price was right.

Consumers will of course be savvy in setting the barometer on what they will and won’t pay for. Most people though will be willing to be subjected to some form of video advertising.

Then we have:

* [Video content] will have to be ad supported, and it won’t be ad supported - Cuban is arguing that video content producers won’t be able to make money back on video advertising that it will take to create video content. This is a tough one, but it makes a number of assumptions. It assumes that video is being produced for web distribution (only?), and that the revenue model is based on some form of video advertising.

There are a number of ways, however, that things may work differently, in whole or in part. Video could be a branding vehicle to drive eyeballs back to television or elsewhere, or it could be a “loss leader” in an effort to get people to purchase video.

Cuban is right in stating that “a la carte” consumption on the Internet is exploding traditional methods of media consumption. In other words, people would only pay for the cable television channels that they wanted if they could, but they’re forced into paying for expensive packages at present. The print newspaper and music industries are flailing because people can purchase “a la carte” or get the content for free online.

So Cuban is looking ahead to see how the television and movie industries are going to deal with these same issues when it comes to video.

The short answer that anyone can say for sure is that it’s both an exciting and chaotic time for media creation, distribution, and consumption. I would argue though that in the end it’s a great thing because people are able to get more of what they want and how they want it than ever before.

Here are a number of other factors that I see playing out in the years ahead:

* Television will compete with the Internet for a long time - The opposite is of course true. However, if seven or eight million people watch a show on broadcast TV or one or two million watch on basic cable, no one blinks an eye. These numbers are astronomical when compared to numbers of people watching any one show online. That means that television – and that includes premium channels like HBO and Showtime – will be producing high quality content for the foreseeable future.

And really: the last decade has perhaps been the best in the history of television. The Sopranos. The Wire. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Dexter. Lost. The Shield. Great shows are managing to be produced. One could argue that the proliferation of cable TV helped to drive this “golden age.” So as a devotee of great TV, I’m confident that that won’t change anytime soon.

* Producing and distributing “high quality” video content on the Internet is still very new - New web enterprises like Funny or Die and web-only shows such as Prom Queen are voyagers on a brand new ocean. Television has been around for decades, so of course many of these newer efforts are going to look and feel awkward, as production budgets and episode lengths are tinkered with to meet brand new economics.

This will get figured out though. Here’s the thing to remember:

* People love to watch video on the Internet - So people will figure out a way to make money on it. Sure, there will be some of the “dumbing down” and SEO plays that Cuban fears, but there can and will be a way for high quality shows to find an audience, and for that audience to help drive revenue for the content producers.

* The video advertising industry is still brand new - Pre-roll, mid-roll, post-roll, sponsorship, banner ads, companion ads, takeover ads, ad overlays, hypersyndication. These are all brand new tools for video publishers to play around with to find the model that will be acceptable to viewers and will make the most money. If it sounds confusing, it is. But there are hordes of hyper smart folk working on the equation even now. There’s gold in them thar hills, if you follow.

Production budgets, content type, and content length will all be experimented with wildly for many years to come. And over time, expectations and norms for advertising and monetizing online video content will evolve and mature. Let’s remember that a decade ago, online advertising wasn’t respected as a way to make money!

* Creative destruction - If nothing else, the Internet is a powerful force that is still only beginning to shape our daily lives. We’re only a few short years into widespread broadband cable distribution, which is driving the mad wild rush of video consumption.

So, finally, Mark Cuban asks: will it lead to destruction?

Yes. And that destruction will clear the way for what’s next.

There’s no one more interesting to read, in looking at the future of technology from a consumer standpoint, than Mark Cuban.

Case in point is a recent piece called IntraNets vs InterNets, in which the Blog Maverick speculates that the future of the Internet is actually… not the Internet, but Intranets, “a contained network managed to optimize the performance to meet the needs of the participants on the network,” which can theoretically provide download or “throughput” speeds vastly higher than what is currently possible over Internet connections.

Applications built on these Intranet platforms could then in theory be far more complex than web-based applications:

Ive sat with several of these network providers and what I’m telling them, and I think they are listening and following through, is to offer a platform or intranet applications. A platform for applications that confirm that the user and application host are on the same network, or possibly even on the same network segment. Make 100mbs or higher throughput a guaranteed service level to that application.

When that happens, people a lot smarter than me will come up with applications that blow away anything we are seeing now. I dint care if you call it Web 10.0 or whatever, but the reality is that the applications we will see then will be amazing.

Another must read when looking at the (nearer term) future of the Internet is Scott Karp’s Publishing 2.0. I’ve been following closely of late an in depth exploration of how newspapers are scrambling to increase profitability in the online space. Each day provides a fascinating analysis and proves out Scott’s theory that the current standardized online advertising model doesn’t do justice to the current online publishing marketplace.

It’s an exciting time, and we’re lucky to have minds around like Cuban and Karp who are several steps ahead of the conventional curb.

Jack Lail over at Random Mumblings was kind enough to nominate OMC for something called the Thinking Blogger Awards, which is sort of an ongoing meme where bloggy folk nominate five blogs they dig and that get their cranium cranking.

According to Jack – who is the managing editor/multimedia for The Knoxville News-Sentinel – the awards date back to February 11th of this year on The Thinking Blog, which kind of makes sense, I would say!

So, without further adieu, these people make me get my think on:

1) Tony Hung at Deep Jive Interests. Tony delivers provocative and original ideas with regularity, which is saying a lot given the noise and clutter and talent out there. He also tends to cover a lot of the topics that I’m most interested in!

2) Scott Karp at Publisher 2.0. As I’ve written before, Scott provides an intellectual and philosophical perspective on the massive changes going on in technology and media and the convergence of traditional and new media.

3) Mark Cuban at Blog Maverick. While many people know Cuban as a guy who made a lot of money in tech and then went on to buy a basketball team, he’s one of the most original and outspoken people in the blogging game today. This guy is several steps ahead of the curve, particularly in terms of where video and television and the distribution of content is headed.

4) Jason at Webomatica. Webomatica is a fun and interesting site that covers online media with a good healthy portion of pop culture for good measure. The good ideas are aplenty over there, which is why it’s essential reading for me.

5) Steven Cohen at Library Stuff. Full disclosure – Steven is an old friend of mine (he grew up on my block on Long Island!) that I bumped into at a conference a few years ago. He’s also way out on the bleeding edge of what’s new and hot in online media. You want new tools, apps, websites, and cool things you can do with the web, Library Stuff is all over it.

According to Jack, The Rules are as follows:
1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.

You knew that Mark Cuban would come out swinging on this one.

In a piece entitled You Go Viacom! the Blog Maverick ripped into “Gootube” (one of his favorite current targets) for being complacent and basically setting itself up for the massive $1 billion lawsuit that it’s now looking at from heavy hitter media company Viacom.

Cuban uses the example of HBO programs to explain the case from the standpoint of television content providers, noting that the reported $2.2 million fee per episode that A&E paid to syndicate The Sopranos would be far devalued in a world where the hit show was easily available via YouTube.

Cuban ends on an ominous note, writing, “Google may not know it, but they have already lost,” on the notion that entertainment companies are if nothing else superior in bending copyright laws to their needs.

While my opinion is just one more blogospheric whim in a sea of speculation, my hunch is that Viacom is looking to cut an advantageous deal here, and the $1 billion number is simply bluster and a means to gain leverage. This is not the age of Napster, the music industry in particular is in mortal danger, and entertainment companies will not be able to use the legal route forever as a last stand against the Internet wave.

I just realized that Blogger allows you to add tags to blog posts.

Actually, I must give credit where it’s due and that belongs to my online pal and fellow member of Blogcritics Magazine and The Mondo Project, Mat Brewster. I’ve seen tags appear on blogspot blogs countless times, I’m sure, but absolutely assumed that they were part of some fancy plug-in that was not for the likes of me.

Part of my reintroduction to blogging from my own site on Blogger (as opposed to writing exclusively for BC, which I did for about a year) is that I’ve been able to better tune in to how bloggers are organizing themselves and their information, promoting themselves, and building audience.

This post is a bit of an experiment. Since I started posting here regularly since the first of the year, I’ve noticed that the majority of my traffic comes from the following sources:

* MyBlogLog: A great networking site for bloggers, it also helps to bring in some traffic.

* Techmeme: Great great source for following current tech and online media stories and the conversations springing up around them. I’ve been able to hit this page a nice number of times, and have brought back some visitors because of it.

* Blogcritics Magazine: Cross-publishing at the old battleship BC absolutely has a positive effect on one’s “home site” bottom line.

* Search traffic: mostly Google.com, but drips and drabs from Yahoo!, Ice Rocket (I think mentioning Mark Cuban’s name helps, which is indeed worthy of another experiment!), and Google Blog Search.

Search traffic is that great randomizer. If you can pull lots of it, you can sail off to Tahiti for six months and still have rip roaring traffic stats when you get back. If you don’t, it’s a grind-it-out battle to itch and scratch each reader home for supper.

This is somewhat the topic of a raging debate of the online moment, with entrepreneur and provocateur Jason Calacanis setting off fireworks with talk of SEO (search engine optimization, or rigging one’s code to harness more search engine traffic) being “bullshit” and a swift and immediate blowback from the likes of Neil Patel following, who challenges Jason to allow him to increase his own traffic “by a minimum of 10 to 20% after 30 days of putting my changes into effect” with promises of no shady dealings on route. And it seems Jason has accepted – the great SEO throwdown is on!

In any event, without being shady (I know so little about code that this would be very difficult anyway!) and as openly as I can, I’ve placed a nice number of wide ranging links and references here that hopefully add up to nearly a coherent whole.

I’ve listed the following blog tags as part of this post: blogger, blog, blogs, google, search, SEO, ice rocket, mark cuban, google blog search, techmeme, mybloglog, blogcritics, jason calacanis, neil patel, page rank

So the questions are: did I “optimize” this post by writing a decent piece and linking out to fellow bloggers and engagers in the online conversation? Or will dropping a deluge of tags at the bottom help auto-magically bring home some visitors? Or, perhaps, did none of this pile up to a hill of e-beans in the vast vacuum of the blogospheric realm?

I’ll report back the results, and look forward to your thoughts.

Growing up on Long Island, it was my daily ritual to grab whatever part of Newsday I could get my hands on to read during breakfast. These days, I have my laptop and while I do a cursory scan of the news headlines (and typically get a shot of politics via ABC.com’s The Note), it’s the online media blogs that have emerged as the places I spend most of my reading time.

Compiling a Top 10 list was both easier and more difficult than I thought it was going to be. My favorite of favorites were quick plucks, but near the bottom of the list it got rough going as to who would make the final few slots.

This list of course reflects my own interests and passions, which include: online media and the web 2.0 world in general, blogging-as-profession, the blogosphere, social news, social networking, the MSM-blogospheric convergence, start-up culture, and online entrepreneurship.

I’ll try to update this list over time to see what additions and changes may be warranted.

#1 - mathewingram.com/work - Mathew Ingram
Ingram, a technology writer with The Globe and Mail in Toronto, combines the best elements of journalism with the best of the blogosphere, making for a smart, interesting, and opinionated take on news related to a wide range of online media- and tech-related issues. I find I most often agree with Mathew’s takes, which occasionally are controversial, so more than anything this is the case of an online publication that perfectly suits me, the reader. That more than anything is a wonderful endorsement of the blogosphere and online media as Long Island (and, now, Pasadena) is a long way away from Toronto!

#2 - The Jason Calacanis Weblog
Jason Calacanis is fun to follow. Former CEO of Weblogs Inc. and “relauncher” of Netscape as new styled social news engine, Jason is for the moment an “Entrepreneur in Action” for Sequoia Capital. He also can’t help but write brief, passionate, and decidedly outside-the-norm opinions on a wide array of subjects. From following his blog babies from Weblogs to strategizing the LA housing market (no easy feat!) to making an impassioned blogospheric plea regarding the Genarlow Wilson case, this is a must read blog for ambitious bloggers and online media cultists.

#3 - TechCrunch - Michael Arrington
TechCrunch has become something of the daily online newspaper for all things web 2.0. This is the preeminent place to find out what start ups are up to and what moves the big guys are making in the online space. Arrington is opinionated and occasionally self-inflated, but the information that he pumps out day-after-day makes TechCrunch an absolute must to stay afloat in the 2.0-ish rapid currents.

#4 - Mashable! - Pete Cashmore
Mashable! has evolved into a TechCrunch for those interested in social networking and the massive changes going on in that space. No one else keeps up with the dizzying myriad of social networking, widgeting, and third party add-ons like Cashmore and Mashable!

#5 - ProBlogger Blog Tips - Darren Rowse
Yet another must read for bloggers, this is Blogging 101 for bloggers who are serious about increasing readership and making money from self-publishing online content (extremely difficult feats, both). It helps greatly that Darren is relentlessly positive and upbeat and provides a steady stream of tips, updates, and strategies for the blogging life. He’s also deeply enmeshed in the community side of things, which is certainly leading by example!

#6 - BC Magazine – Sci/Tech - Phillip Winn, Daniel Woolstencroft, Steve Wild, Raoul Pop, Diane Kristine, Bruce Kratofil, John Vaccaro, and many others!
I can’t leave out my brethren and sistren over at BC Magazine’s Sci/Tech section. Each day you can find a great variety and diversity of news and opinions on the tech and online media worlds.

#7 - How to Change the World - Guy Kawasaki
On his about page, Guy boils down his entire mission statement to two words: empower entrepreneurs. And that’s what each post gives you: tightly focused advice on how to reach the next level, whatever that might be. Again, I must gravitate toward positive and forward-thinking personalities, and Guy is nothing else if this. Inspirational and practical stuff both.

#8 - Publishing 2.0 - Scott Karp
Scott is unmatched in shedding “web 2.0″ and the current state of online media in a philosophical and intellectual light.

#9 - Blog Maverick - Mark Cuban
Self-made millionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is delightfully blunt and compelling on a myriad of subjects, from the massive repercussions of the shift from TV to the Internet, to why men shouldn’t wear ties, to how NBA referees should do a better job, and that’s just for starters!

#10 - Deep Jive Interests - Tony Hung
I discovered Tony through a recent guest blogging stint on ProBlogger, and he’s quickly become one of my favorites. The good doctor goes deep on all aspects of blog-world, from the blogger v. journalism debate, to the use of widgets, to linkbaiting, and onward.

Honorable Mention
There are many, but I’ll hold to just two:

* Micro Persuasion – Steve Rubel
* Mapping the Web - Aidan Henry

Update: None other than Mathew Ingram was kind enough to point out to me that I mistakenly labeled the great Scott Karp of Publishing 2.0 as Steve, not Scott. Sorry Scott!

I was in the dark about it myself until I read Mark Cuban’s brief coverage of it over on Blog Maverick.

I then quickly swung over to Blogcritics and picked up on the great Sal Marinello’s coverage:

…the horrific story of how Genarlow Wilson, a then 17-year-old high school football player, was sentenced to 10 years in prison without parole for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl who admittedly initiated the act.

Wilson was an outstanding student who was his school’s homecoming king; he was a hard-working kid and a football and track star who was on the path to attend an Ivy League school. Everybody liked him. He never got into any trouble.

Now, as his future has been robbed from him, he rots in jail. Doing hard time with hardened criminals.

Everyone messes up from time to time, particularly when you’re young. A 17-year-old having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old at a party may not be something to tell the grandkids about later in life, but it’s certainly not something to command hard prison time for.

The people of the state of Georgia should demand that Genarlow Wilson be freed straight away.

You can find an online petition here.