Happy New Year
This has been a fast-paced year in the online world, with major innovations and tons of new start-ups vying for their shot at riding the “Web 2.0”-wave. 2007 was also ripe with cut-throat competition, mergers and acquisitions, not the least of which include Google’s 3 big headlines:
- Google-DoubleClick Merger largest price tag in Internet Ad M&A history… how much would you pay for a billion eyeballs?
- Google attempts to make the web more open, yet entirely under their control
- Google Android & Open Handset Alliance attracts much interest, but will it get any real support?
- Facebook’s botched Beacon Launch, and Subsequent Apologies for ill-received Beacon Launch
- Microsoft’s Launch of Silverlight, intended to rival Flash and Adob…
- Yahoo’s move into the web desktop space through acquisition of Webm…
- MySpace finally goes Mobile with Ads & features
- Despite Much Criticism and Disappointments, Apple finally launched its much anticipated iPhone
- EVERYTHING else magically goes Mobile
- Interactive and Targeted Ads become all the rage once more
Anything here sound familiar? That’s probably because, if you have any kind of memory at all, then it is familiar.
As Web 2.0 start-ups continue to roll in the dough, many argue that the wave of VC investments may inevitably lead to another bubble and/or burst, however we here at BC$ see the strength of web services and web applications beyond the current hype and potential over-valuations.
Looking ahead to 2008, there are some clear patterns which are developing (apart from the seeming existence of a bubble-like formation). In the future, we see the following as being facts that any web start-up can not afford to ignore:
- The social aspect of communication on the web (which was almost non-existent in Web 1.0)
- The importance of Video (which was impossible in Web 1.0 due to sluggish broadband rates)
- The fast and intuitive retrieval of information as an enabler to the web (arguably kept the web going after Web 1.0 bubble burst, but much harder today in the face of user-generated content)
So, to top it all off with the Writer’s Strike – the effects of which may change the landscape of digital media distribution forever – it’s been an interesting year to say the least… and we are proud to say that we will be releasing an early Alpha of our own approach to answering the very real problems posed by the above issues facing the web today.
We leave you now with another interesting news headline, as the NHL will become the first professional sports league in North America to simultaneously broadcast a regular season game through both regular Television services and Broadband Internet (stream-able through its website). Click the banner below for more info… and STAY TUNED FOR BC$ in January, 2008!!!!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
The staff at BCmoney MobileTV would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Be sure to checkout the results of our SecretSanta swap at XmasListz, our holiday Facebook app.
We hope everyone enjoys their holidays, no matter what their background or beliefs!
PS: We’re taking a short 1-week hiatus on development and will be back strong in the New Year.
We are not alone!
Togetherness seems to be the underlying theme of the ongoing struggle between the WGA and the Entertainment industry. We want each and every one of the striking writers out there to know that we support you, 100%. We hope that you do not give in to the pressures applied by the powers that be, and that you can some day receive the renumeration that you deserve from the industry. It’s a matter of principle, and this is why you fight.
We also want to remind writers that in this digital era where consumer electronics have become increasingly advanced, professional editing and production software has become increasingly accessible, and the web has enabled sharing of content at an unprecedented scale through social networks and multimedia streaming, you truly have the bargaining chip in this debate. As such, we encourage struggling writers who are heavily effected by the dispute to seek out and utilize online video services as an outlet for their creative abilities. Please, SHARE YOUR IDEAS WITH THE WORLD! We are here for you, as always, and are no less interested in viewing and making use of the content you create.“Striking Writers Take Logical Next Step: Web Shows”
You are not alone, we salute you!
It doesn’t just have to be through BCmoney either, even if its just your own personal blog, a videocast you’ve started, independent writers’ effort Funny-or-Die, YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo Video, Amazon Unbox, AOL video, Metacafe, Dailymotion, Veoh, Brightcove or any number of the other major online video service offerings. We urge you to continue to put your creative content out there, by any means necessary! Keeping your talents inside would be the biggest shame of all.
On our end BCmoney is ever working to ensure that you will have a fair and equitable system at your disposal for online content distribution. We are working along with academics in the field of analyzing social networks and the relationships between them and content consumption. If all goes as intended, we will have a platform through which you can be renumerated appropriately for your content, whether that be based on the number of views or the scale of the distribution, the number of times it is shared, or, the number of times it creates revenues for advertisers. To all the academics out there studying Semantic Web technologies or analyzing social networks, keep up the good work, you are indirectly helping us to reach our ultimate goal.
“On Facebook, Scholars Link Up With Data”
We are not alone, you are helping us and you don’t even know it!
Testing the site’s embedable player
Success… IT WORKS!!!
And with that, we’re finally live. What better for a first Blog post than the classic “Monkey Falls out of a Tree” video? This was the clip that launched a million others. It first appeared on the net in 2001 and made a cameo in Austin Powers as he learns “what the internet is for”.
Enjoy the video and hope everyone likes the site.
Bryan
The Writers’ Strike: A Digital Media Boon?
“Social media in particular could benefit from this trend. The hardest part of finding something worth watching online is sorting through the crap. The best way to sort through the crap is to let the community dictate what gets views. And the medium best equipped to do that is social networks. ”
Here is a nice article about the implications of the prolonged Writers’ Strike by OnlineSpin analyst Joe Marchese:
http://blogs.mediapost.com/spin/?p=1190
BC$ = Behavior, Content, Money
The goal of the BC$ project is to raise awareness and make changes with respect to the three pillars of information freedom - Behavior (pursuit of interests and passions), Content (sharing/exchanging ideas in various formats), Money (fairness and accessibility) - bringing to light the fact that:
1. We regularly hand over our browser histories, search histories and daily online activities to companies that want our money, or, to benefit from our use of their services with lucrative ad deals or sales of personal information.
2. We create and/or consume interesting content on their services, but we aren't adequately rewarded for our creative efforts or loyalty.
3. We pay money to be connected online (and possibly also over mobile), yet we lose both time and money by allowing companies to market to us with unsolicited advertisements, irrelevant product offers and unfairly structured service pricing plans.