Craig Newmark Rules Rule - golden insights from the internet’s most pleasent man
by Gil Rosen
Live from the Globes Internet and Communication Conference, I just had the honor of hearing Craig Newmark - the man who started and still runs Craig’s list. What an amazing man!
During his talk he didn’t make any revolutionary statements, yet his clear, modest, focused and pleasant manner cut through the fuss, buzz and trash we hear all over. A few golden nuggets:
1. Feel and follow through
2. We take no advertising…no advertisers to make happy.
3. I’m the George Costanza of the internet
4. Listen and try hard to so something about it
5. I refused banner ads - didn’t feel right…I was happy and making enough money…
6. Twelve years later…I do full time customer service
7. We trust our community and they respond in a trustworthy way
8. Treat people in the site in the same way you want to be treated….
9. we don’t take money….we owe no debt.
That’s it. I realize now that reading these statements doesn’t seem like a big deal but the “Craig Package” the way he speaks and delivers is admirable. If you think about it, this is a perfect analogy to the success of his site. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, its totally simple, totally honest…and hugely successful. Makes you think!
Gil Rosen
Track with:
The iPod Generation dance
by Gil Rosen
The video you are about to watch is very special:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOXoplVTcfY
I didn’t plan on take this footage or write about it, but it turned out more than post worthy. What you are witnessing is the first time my son has ever used an iPod. As you can see, for him its bliss. A simple, innocent, unpretentious, pure moment where beat meets mind and mind moves body. That, in itself, is probably of no interest to anyone but myself, so why do I care to put it here and write about it? Well, encapsulated in this moment are a few notes that represent how far we have advanced and how backwards we still are:
1. Past sharing = take a vinyl to a friend and play it. No piracy issues. Today = filetype? zune? iPod? player? protected? criminal?
2. Past song=song. Today Song=song/rintone/truetone/mp3/wav/drm/vidclip/cover/bitrate
3. Past music capacity = house shelf space. Today = disk space = $ dad will pay for next iPod.
4. Past 1000 songs = truck. Today 10,000 songs = pocket.
5. Past music = moving parts. Today music = on the move.
6. Past sharing = serenade. Today sharing = P2P
7. Past selling point = city center. Today selling point = planet earth.
8. Past phone = speak. Today (mobile) phone = another music player.
9. Past download = garbage in the house. Today download = music from net.
10. Past (corporate) promotion = Top of the Pops. Today (self) promotion = myspace.
11. Past recommend = talk to friend. Today recommend = something.web20.com
There is no doubt we have come a long way. A very long way. The biggest open issues remain compatibility and legality. The fact that 30 years ago it was easier to go places and “just play a song” whereas today it turns into a techno_legal symposium is mind boggling.
Over time this absurd will be resolved. By the time my son will be my age he will be able to continue to do what everyone should when listing to music - simply, innocently, unpretentiously, purely… dance!
Gil Rosen
Track with:
Internet Radio Will Kill the Government Star
by Gil Rosen
Tuesday April 17th 2007, 4:38 pm
Filed under:
web 2.0,
Convergence,
freedom,
social,
business,
Gil Bio,
sharing,
internet radio,
galileo,
web radioIn my humble opinion headlines such as ‘The death of web radio?” or “The last days of internet radio?” are nothing but the opposite of what will turn out to be the actual result. If I had to give a 10 year outlook, my guess is that the government agency behind this current farce (CRB) has more to fear about its long term existence than web radio does. And that is (probably) the very reason it has chosen the weakest rival possible to try to prove there is a reason tax payer money funds their activity.
This was their last mistake. The nail that will seal their coffin. Ten years from now when the whole DRM / Copy Rights / Royalties issues will be solved using a completely private, voluntary and extremely efficient systems - historians will view this current battle as being the one that lead to the turn around in public awareness. Talk about choosing your battles right….not!
If they raised the royalties by so much as a penny, they would have made much more. If they could actually develop a business model that makes sense that would have even contributed something. But greed and power have caused greater empires and ceasars to fall and this will be no exception.
The public has awakened, the battle may seem lost, but its far from it. No government agency or corporate bureaucrat can stop a swell of change like the internet is creating. Not in radio, not in TV broadcast or elsewhere.
What is the end game for this? Kill the Internet radio? In an early stage industry there is so much more money on the supply side. Do us a favor, get your act together and create the opportunity. Wanna talk about making money? Get music actually heard, then tax the royalties from referrals to Amazon and iTunes. That makes so much commercial sense. This is synergy. This is convergence.
If you stick to this greedy pricing structure then you would ultimately:
1. Collect less taxes
2. Drive media outside the territory / industry
3. Get everyone to focus beating the system rather then on working with it
4. Lower incentive to develop technology, services and probably future royalty eco-systems.
Government wrath has never done any good other then get more conscripts in a time of war. Even then if it fights the right/just wars people will volunteer.
In 1610 the establishment didn’t like the fact Galileo published an account of his telescopic observations of the moons of Jupiter, using this observation to argue in favor of the sun-centered Copernican theory of the universe against the dominant earth-centered Ptolemaic and Aristotelian theories.
In 1614, from the pulpit of Santa Maria Novella, Father Tommaso Caccini denounced Galileo’s opinions on the motion of the Earth, judging them dangerous and close to heresy. Ultimately landing Galileo under house arrest.
In todays terms exhadurated royalty increases are the equivalent of putting internet radio under house arrest. Its not day light execution but the target is supposed to fade away.
I got a news flash for the bureaucrats - Father Tommaso Caccini won the battle but lost the war - you will too!
To learn more and and voice your opinion go to www.savenetradio.org
if you are still not convinced, read Tim’s plea (Pandora’s founder)
Gil Rosen
Track with:
Mobiode - Mobile Surveys Made Simple
by Gil Rosen
Before you read this post be so kind as and take our quick test survey on your mobile. Simply surf to:
de.mobiode.mobi
Before pointing out that “this can easily be done on the web, why the hell is he sending me to my mobile?”, bare with me, this has educational value. My only disclaimer is that proper use of the system would also mean receiving the link directly on your phone, but I guess the cost of sending messages was a factor.
What you experienced took me 5 minutes to set up.
Mobiode lets you create a survey and publish it in seconds. This is not new. The neat thing about Mobiode’s service is the following:
The surveys are adapted to WAP and therefore allow you to distribute the survey/poll to any mobile. This way you can reach your customers outside of their usually PC settings.
And on top of this:
1. Its extremely easy to set up the survey
2. There is a basic account that lets you publish one survey at a time for free. Not a money back guarantee. Not a 30 day trial. Free.
If this weren’t simple the whole package would not be worth it. While Mobiode doesn’t look as smooth or schique as 37signals, the execution is just as simple. And it makes all the difference.
I opened an account in seconds. Created a survey. Sent it (to myself first) and then to friends and collected the stats. No hassle, no complications, no ‘read the fine print’ - just did it.
The ability to connect to your users on their mobile and gain feedback in such a simple manner is of high value.
I recommend taking a look.
Gil Rosen
Track with:
5Min.com - Great Use of Your Time!
by Aner Ravon
Always had the urge to spread the word on how to draw a perfect Superman? Or perhaps you’re looking to make your first steps as a DJ? If you love teaching or if you simply want to learn something new everyday without breaking a sweat then 5min.com is the place for you.
5Min.com is a new place for sharing short user generated video tutorials. The concept is stunningly simple and powerful; Video sharing networks have not captured that vital niche and expert networks are limited mostly to text. 5min.com jumps on that gap and covers it with style.
The destination itself is well categorized and designed. It is populated with pretty high quality content despite launching only a few days ago. The features demonstrate good depth as well. The tutorial creator lets “tutors” add textual storyboards and the Smart Player (really shique!) offers “students” the ability to view parts in slow motion, frame by frame and so forth. It’s very easy to envision quick spillover to YouTube and MetaCafe channels and to personal blogs and websites. It is also a great place for guerrilla marketers to pitch their goods. Clearly huge potential.
The founding team is comprised of Ran Harnevo, Hanan Lashover and Tal Siman-Tov. Ran also serves as CEO.
Who said fun cannot be serious? Enough said, go check it out!
Aner Ravon
Track with:
Joost is a World Wonder Facing a Huge Roadblock
by Aner Ravon
I have Joost on my computer and it’s practically a new world wonder. Finally, a TV app that looks great and works even better. The user experience is absolutely flawless - sexy, simple, cool. It blends the benefits of TV and Computer interaction very well and the quality of the video itself is the best I have seen. Even the inserted ads don’t look intrusive, perhaps because we are all so used to ad-raping by network TV by now. These folks are doing something right.
But will it succeed? I see one, huge, problem. It can’t be used at work! And what is the only place left without TV access? That’s right. Work!
Let’s take a look at the successful viral apps of the last decade - Instant Messaging, P2P File Sharing, Skype, Blogging. All have one great thing in common - we can safely use them at work. I am not referring to IT security because most of us couldn’t care less about IT security. I am referring to job security. The ability to play hookie without getting caught. IM and Kazaa could simply run in the background and consume very sporadic attention. You can download a file and write a post without drawing the attention of your roommates, or worse, of your boss. And you can minimize all in a split second if someone walks behind your back.
Can you do that with Joost? Nope. TV is TV. It takes up your attention and it’s intrusive to the environment. Wearing headphones is possible in some places, but then the detachment from the environment is so complete one cannot really sit back and enjoy without keeping an eye on the door. This practically means Joost will hardly be used at work but at home. Except that at home we have a great alternative already - a 30+ inch TV with gazillions of channels.
Which means the premier target audience, for now at least, are kids playing in their room behind closed doors, assuming they have attention span left to squeeze between MySpace, TV and PlayStation. While I don’t underestimate the huge potential of that target audience, I don’t think it’s up to par with the wide audience and virgin attention span IM, Kazaa or Skype enjoyed.
Then again, Joost has all the right ingredients. P2P technology is definitely mature enough for Video on Demand. You couldn’t ask for better founders - both in terms of technology and of marketing. We are all really, really tired of outdated TV content distribution models and Joost will have no trouble at all getting a first time look by any reasonable user.
They should be smart enough to have a plan for that problem too. I am just curious to see what that is.
Aner Ravon
Track with:
Mark Cuban Has It All Wrong
by Aner Ravon
I may be just a tad over my head here, but Mark Cuban is taking a problematic stand in the Viacon - GooTube charade.
In my previous post I wondered about the sense behind this suing. It didn’t take a prophet to predict high satisfaction from the Mark Cuban front and the prophecy indeed came true.
In his You Go Viacom! post Mark Cuban praises the old litigators. That’s no surprise. His criticism of Google’s self righteous de facto piracy has very often gained my sympathy as well.
What I didn’t appreciate is the patronizing rational this time:
it never ceases to amaze and amuse me how little understanding of the content business, or the business world in general that many in the blogosphere have.
Let me provide a simple scenario for you.
HBO. HBO charges a monthly fee to subscribers. If someone can watch an HBO show on Google Video or Youtube, even if its divided into 1,3 or 6 parts and re assembled into a playlist, they have far less incentive to subscribe or retain their subscription(s).
HBO in turn, syndicates those shows to cable networks. As an example, A&E paid a reported $2.2 million dollars PER EPISODE of the Sopranos. If the content is available online, do you think maybe it might reduce the value to A&E and HBO of the Sopranos ? And that’s before we even get to overseas syndication. Youtube and Google Video have a great deal of popularity overseas because in many cases US shows are not as readily available. Online international viewing reduces the international revenue opportunity.
Then of course there are DVD sales. YouTube downloads every video right to your PC. Google Video not only downloads to your PC, it provides the option to convert it into a PDA format including the iPod.
So tell me why it makes good business sense for HBO to let users post the content they sell for a ton of money ?
Now some of those who are so self absorbed in net culture and have no idea how the real world works might think that all of this leads to more viewing and consumption. Maybe it does. Maybe for some shows, like those on broadcast TV, it really does help to have as much promotional video for the show, even to the point of full episodes available both on YouTube and Google Video. There are definitely situations where it could help a show gain viewers and increased sales of DVDs. All of which has nothing to do with whether Viacom or any content provider should let users upload video.
I have a secret for you. ITS EASY FOR END USERS TO UPLOAD video to Youtube and Google Videos. ITS EASIER FOR THE CONTENT OWNER to do the same thing.
Hold it Mr. Cuban! You maybe smart but we aren’t all stupid. I first intended to re-battle the argument (posted a comment), then I saw a much better comment than mine, one that I agree with 100% and that is worth sharing in whole:
Mark, I think you’re a smart guy but I think on this issue your are myopic. Everyone who doesn’t have their head jammed up their portfolio doesn’t care. This is purely an issue for people who are already rich who want to exploit their IP to become richer. Real artists are happy when people see their art.
If you make money on a business model which relies upon withholding your content from the masses your model is over. Maybe there is money to be made by fighting content-sharing for another decade (maybe a lot). In the long run the more you get your content out the better. There are a lot of people out there who can get it for free who will pay for it especially when they know the companies they are dealing with are not the corporate equivalent of retarded whores. I honestly think people should go out of their way to download corporate music rather than buy it because the RIAA is such a dastardly organization.
…
Peace and keep posting
Roland
Loved to have said it that well myself.
Aner Ravon
Track with:
7 Questions to Viacom about the Google Suit
by Aner Ravon
For those of you who missed the Viacom vs. Google suit
1. How did you come with $1 Billion? Is it the highest number you could think of? A random exponent of 10? And why such a neat number? why not $3.141 Billion? or $2.71 Billion? or simply $GOOGOL?
2. Do you realize what kind of damage this may cause to the MTV brand among young people who actually love music?
3. Are you going to sue gazillion of video sharing sites? Go back to film? Stop technology?
4. How many start-ups have just lost their funding because of this lawsuit?
5. How many artists can be funded by the fees of your legal team alone?
6. What is the magic number for settlement out of court?
7. Is Mark Cuban happy? [Apparently yes!]
I’d like to quote Om Malik on this:
I have argued in response to that comment that Viacom Inc. could have done something about this a long time ago, but didn’t and basically are using this lawsuit to paper over their own incompetence.
Here is proof: Viacom’s MTV vs YouTube traffic and visitor comparisons. See for yourself, who really missed the boat here! (Data Source: Compete.com) So why sue now? My guess is that they have been reading Google’s SEC filings and trying to figure out how to get some of those billions sitting in the bank!
Do us a favor guys, stop listening to your lawyers, solve it some other way for all of our sake.
Aner Ravon
Track with:
Fontip & The power of Shnick-Shnack
by Gil Rosen
Shnick-Shnack is not a word you’ll find in Webster or in Wikipedia but it should get there soon. In one of my recent trips to Europe, someone quoted a big shot CEO for one of the leading mobile operators as saying early in 2000 that “ringtones are shnick-shnacks” or in other words “irrelevant” OR “not significant” ….yada yada yada, 7 years later, they have generated a multi-billion dollar industry.
The context of the conversation was one of humbleness. One should not dismiss what seems like a shnick-shnack service at a wave of hand, with a dismissive ..“…this will never catch on…” attitude. Sometimes people want shnick-shnacks. Sometimes shnick-shnacks let you get personal, express yourself. Fontip is just that kind of thing.
Simply put, Fontip provides what’s called FMS or Font Messaging Service (yes…you ain’t a startup unless you invent a new abbreviation). Using Fontip’s mobile client every mobile user can send colorful text messages combined with jumpy icons and crazy slangons. Its kind of like
incredimail for SMS.
Is this shnick-shnack of what 
Incredimail is another perfect example for a shnick-shnack service. Do you really need it?No. Does it solve any technological barrier? No. Is it innovative in a way that can’t be duplicated? No. Yet these are ‘VC type’ questions. People have psychological motivations and drives and look for services that answers such needs regardless of passing the ‘investment benchmark’ checklist.
If Fontip is first to serve the need to personalize sms’s and does it well, there is no reason why it can’t be a huge success. Making communications personal (and cool) has landed Incredimail with a huge install base with around 50 million client downloads!
Will Fontip follow suite? I’m no prophet but there is no reason why they shouldn’t. There is no reason why out of the billions of SMS users there will not be enough ‘personalization’ freaks that will go ahead and down load it.
Competition may come from the handset providers, with them creating built tools or similar services, but with such a wide audience there should be a room for them all.
Is this another 7 billion dollars shnick-shnack market, probably not, but the power of shnick-shnack has surprised before.
Gil Rosen
Track with:
The death of the Mobile Operators’ Closed Garden and the Dawn of the Smart Pipe
by Gil Rosen
3GSM was overwhelming - Any trade show that takes you more then three straight days to walk through is. From system integrators, content providers, enablers, device manufactures - the industry has indeed matured.
Out of the hustle of such a big event, there is one mega trend that I’d like to focus on - the death of the closed garden and the emergence of the smart pipe.
To understand why this is happening I think we need to quickly examine the role of the ‘Garden’ and see how it came to be in the the first place.
Many Internet years ago, when the world wide web had just started reaching mobile devices, when such devices were few, when they were expensive and of with horrible quality of service - mobile operators felt obligated to fill the default Internet home page with mobile adapted content. This, in turn, was supposed to have given users a good enough reason to surf from their mobile. The mobile content market was non existent and there was simply depth for users to find their own content. In addition, the companies providing mobile content were inexperienced and scarce. WAP was a techie buzzword, but all consumers got was a poor and slow experience, very much inferior compared to what they were getting used to on the PC.
Ego was (and still is) another factor. Yes, pure ego. Mobile operator executives believed (some still believe) that the mobile Internet should not be free as the “PC” Internet. The basic “rational” was that since they controlled the ‘gateway’ already they could and should control the content. This attempt is similar to what AOL has done very successfully for a long time - provide your subscribers with a content portal through which most of the content was consumed.
Most users have supposedly basic needs and when information is prearranged for them - they supposedly just use it, many times being unaware of the rich world beyond the fence. In the regular (PC) world it would be unheard of to have your ISP control your content but in the mobile world it became the de-facto reality.
The accumulated result drove many operators to try and develop in-house content divisions whose sole purpose was to fill the portal with content and services. Since part of the problem was the scarcity of the content, this was a necessary evolutionary step for the mobile Internet to develop. Someone had to get the snow ball rolling.
Today, I believe, the snowball has reached its critical mass ad guess what? People want more. Almost all new devices come with Internet connectivity, screen quality is good, connectivity fast/er, mobile content is abundant, mobile applications easy to install, WAP is rich, an open mobile billing ecosystem is in place, there is an understanding that the mobile web is different (more passive then active), services and sites have developed accordingly and most importantly users are getting more sophisticated. They actually know how to reach the web, save bookmarks and change default settings, all in all leading to the maturity level required to change the closed garden model as we know it.
My argument is not that the portal is dead, but that it can no longer be closed. Operators must focus on two major and parallel agendas:
1. Provide users with selected, popular, edgy content through the portal - a good example is mobile TV. Mobile TV broadcast is not mature enough to be outside the portal.
2. open the portal and work hard on partnering / enabling third party, independent, niche content/service providers serve users directly. Let users roam the mobile Internet world and reach places that are far from the portal as could be - and actually promote it. When more users will roam free, the more they will understand how to use it better and increase their data consumption, overall benefiting the mobile operators more then anyone else.
The almost incredulous statement I am making is that there is such a thing as mobile Internet. There isn’t! The mobile device is only a terminal. The Internet is the same Internet only viewed by a different lens. Its the years of indoctrination that have led most people to perceive them as two separate universes.
For several years now I have heard Mobile operator executives fearful of what they call becoming a dumb pipe. I don’t know who invented this word, but the psychological association in it has made the industry paranoid of what can be (and in my mind should be) the modus operandi for making loads of money - and its far from being dumb.
Becoming a pipe that effectively channels content while creating adequate processes for billing, content delivery and quality of service assurance (and a ton of other things) is very sophisticated, far from dumb. Dumb is thinking you rule the world. Smart is understanding your users want more choice then you (as an operator) can ever supply. Happy customers and loyal. That is the focus.
Focusing on loyalty through openness and wide selection of added value service, whether in house or external, is the right challenge ahead. Trying to win ground by holding on to something that is not yours is a battle all ready lost.
Gil Rosen
Track with:
The Wow Stopped Yesterday
by Francois Depayras
The marketing genius who picked out “Vista” must have been looking at this definition: a far-reaching mental view: vistas of the future.
It is, after all, a pretty good name.
Right after though, was the following definition: a view or prospect, esp. one seen through a long, narrow avenue or passage, as between rows of trees or houses.
A week ago, high from caffeine and the arrival of a newly purchased PowerBook Pro, I decided to use Boot Camp to install Windows on my Mac (gasp). Now, now, prior to a slew of negative comments, I am not a complete Mac-head. I love my ThinkPad and its bulbous battery allowing for hours of fun-filled Excel exploration while flying to gay Paris.
Having learned from previous mistakes, I started with a gentle installation of Windows XP SP2. Smooth, done in 45 mn, works like a charm (I won’t go through the install procedures, they’re explained elsewhere and it’s not the topic). 5 gigs of space taken out of 20, I was close to fitting my 17gig of email (yes, the IT guys love me). Feeling gutsy, I erased XP and installed Vista.
Hot dog, this UI looks better than my beloved OS X??? Yes, yes, I can see the touches of genius here: the slick start-up and login screen, the dark toolbar with a very elegant background. Wait, are these good looking icons I see? Well, well… someone’s been learning.
Checking the hard drive size, this bad boy clocked at a hefty 17 gigs! It’s good to know that America is not the only thing that’s obese nowadays.
After getting a few blue screens of death and missing drivers (Boot Camp does not support Vista yet), I was impressed enough with what I’d seen – and a sucker for running the latest and greatest – I upgraded the Thinkpad… The IT guys had not heard from me in a couple of days and I figured they were getting bored without my antics.
Installation went without a hitch. Desktop looked good. I started noticing the blatant OS X parts.
Signed up as an administrator. Kept it clean with nothing but MS Office 2007 (oooooh, larger icons), Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, ActivePDF and Quicktime. That’s it. Pretty restraint.
Then it started.
Outlook Web Access wouldn’t work anymore (wait, it’s “normal” to see an “X” icon in the compose window with IE 7… Ok, so there is a patch. Alleluiah. I’ll download and run it.
Neuuuuh, not so fast my fearless friend. You could be a phenomenal foe and need to run this as an administrator (I guess that’s what it means because the error message was actually: “THE REQUESTED OPERATION REQUIRES ELEVATION.”)
My karma must be shit for Windows to tell me I need to elevate myself.
Not a problem, I’ll change the user setting. Nope, already an admin… Mmm, let me check online. Oh, I see, it’s quite simple really: one only has to right click on the application and select “run as administrator” to watch the install, er… fail.
Alternatively, you can easily access the Command Line Interface and install as admin from there. Right then, like whistling in the shower. Expect for the slight disadvantage of HAVING TO RUN A COMMAND LINE INTERFACE TO LAUNCH AN .EXE!
Remember the joke on Windows 95 = Macintosh 1984, yeah, I thought that was funny too. Well, here we are with Vista (don’t be shy, read the definition above once more and let it soak in) and we’re back to CLI. I can’t tell you the joy of running an application through that puppy. Yeah, who needs a mouse? Finally, it told me that my 30 free gigs weren’t enough storage to install the hotfix.
I called my shrink.
I talked. He mainly listened.
It felt good.
He told me to update my version of Windows before doing anything I might regret. Then he hung up because he was on a VoIP line and downloading a file that was sucking his bandwidth.
I updated (there were 8 updates within 10 days of the release) knowing full well this wouldn’t change the problem but needed some fresh air. The screen went black and asked if it was ok if Windows Updater was unresponsive. I didn’t find the F U button combination, so I clicked on “yes”. It crashed.
After that, I added Firefox to my list of apps, just so I could run Outlook Web Access. Ironic
Ctrl+Alt+Tab doesn’t do much either. I haven’t been able to stop a crashed app yet. It‘s cool though; I actually like rebooting: it’s my favorite part of the OS.
I could go on. The “blackening” of the entire screen each time some communication with the outside world happens asking if “I allow”.
“Windows need your permission to use this program.”
“Windows need your permission to continue.”
Why do I prevent pop-up windows on my browser if I get even more in my OS?
You can thank the User Account Control (UAC) for this, which basically transforms any administrator into a de facto user. Whhhhhaaat? Ok, thankfully, it’s fairly easy to turn off, once you know about it.
And that is my other gripe with the OS. I haven’t opened a manual in years but there are so many choices and funky details going on, I’m not comfortable with the basic functionality.
Yep, the Wow starts here. It’s taking me twice as long do tweak things in the control panel (good luck finding your way there) and I don’t understand half of the “features” – which is a bummer because I’ve always pride myself in being so computer avant-guardist and quite nifty for a non techy. Guess Microsoft finally wanted to show guys like me who was the smartest. Well done, boys, well done.
I like the icons and the 3-D thingy when doing an alt-tab. Interestingly, that’s the type of details that enhances the experience. It’s a shame that a fruit-named company has been laughed at for focusing exactly on enhancing the user experience for the past 20 odd years.
Bottom line? Love the icons, boys.
And the theme.
Kicks ass.
Really.
Francois Depayras
Track with:
Conference mania – the tree holocaust!
by Gil Rosen
I am hectically preparing for 3GSM in Barcelona next week. A great venue by all standards. As a presenter, there is a mountain of collateral to prepare - the service overview, the technical white paper, the content provider offering, the mobile operator offering, the stand background, the poster, the this, the that.
So here I am trying to do what most people do before a show and then it strikes me what a waste it all is. We all know but hardly admit that most of these papers will be thrown away or at best looked at very briefly. And what do we do about it? Nothing.
This stupid (sorry, couldn’t find a better word) march of industry clones that exchange papers from one hand to the next and on to the closest waste basket. We often even deliver the paper overseas and back into our offices and then throw it or put it on some shelf to stand there as a silent testimonial “we were there” … but rarely look at it again. The one or two times we do take another look is come preparation time for the next show – then we pick it up and see what interesting ideas we can use for this year’s show – and so the paper parade continues and no-one is shouting that the king has no clothes.
It’s not that the information within is useless, it has some (limited) value. That too is usually filled with empty promises and a stack load of buzzwords. That I could take. But why for heaven’s sake do we need to kill so many trees in the process?
The same info, the same sheets should not leave their original electronic formats. They should stay on websites, PCs, USB drives, you name it – put please do not print it.
We can be very critical of our politicians for not doing enough to save the world BUT WHAT DO WE DO ABOUT IT in our closed garden? NADA.
I would like to see the first mobile / web / telecom etc. tradeshow pick up the challenge and declare – PRINTABLE MATERIALS ARE BANNED!
Simple and to the point. It will not harm the venue quality, even help it. All these carry-on bags are useless. You want to give me something – tell me where to look it up online, transfer me an electronic file. Anything but paper.
It is we that are destroying the forests in Brazil, not someone else! Its about time we put an end to this killing spree.
Gil Rosen
Track with:
What’s Behind Steve Jobs?
by Aner Ravon
Like many of you I read Steve Job’s thoughts about music today.
I, for one, do not understand why he wrote this letter.
Steve Jobs main points can be summarized to the following bullets:
1. DRM is stupid.
2. It’s the labels’ fault
3. Apple cannot solve it
4. Apple will embrace a DRM free world, but for now will stick with the existing model.
5. If only the labels were all outside Europe.
And the point?
You could argue that Steve Jobs is trying to push the labels into a DRM free world. Such a world would definitely help Apple go beyond selling a lame 3% of the music on their iPods alone.
You could argue, but I doubt it. There are much more effective (and cleaner) ways to work with the labels then writing a naive letter. Steve Jobs is anything but Naive, so there must be a different motivation involved.
My guess is that:
1. Apple has taken a lot of heat and Steve Jobs is trying to gain “cheap popularity” by bashing the big labels.
2. Apple is renegotiating music distribution rights and these are PR tactics.
3. Steve Jobs wishes to highlight the fact Zune won’t work with content from iTunes.
I agree that the labels are rearranging chairs on their Titanic, who wouldn’t, but I think the solution is with the proliferation of direct distribution models (MySpace) and with independent, smaller labels who will realize the opportunity they have. If Steve Jobs really wants to change the world he should encourage artists to sign with DRM free labels.
Aner Ravon
Track with:
Is Angel Club Membership the New Status Symbol?
by Aner Ravon
I got a call from my accountant today. A nice guy, the accountant that is, but generally not one I enjoy getting phone calls from. Personal care taking was never my forte and I always feel way behind the curve. This call was different though. It started with the usual chit chat, then he started inquiring about the new company I have recently joined. Hmm, I thought to myself, he is trying to land us as customers! fair enough, let’s listen!
Sure enough he pitched his “new start up package (very good one, contact me for details) It’s what followed that made it interesting.
“Are you looking for an investment? ” - he went straight to the point - ”We have a new angel club that specializes in early stage start-ups and I’d like to set you up with our members!”
I admit, my accountant was the last person on earth I expected to hear that from, so I naturally went silent for a few seconds in shock. Finally I came back to senses and wondered about whatever drove him into that type of venture. After all, he always reminded me of a pacemaker, not of an entrepreneur. Turns out his customers are the classic type of angel investors and since he has developed intimacy with their finances, what could be more natural than opening new investment paths for them? And who wouldn’t want to belong with an angel club?
I told my partner about it and he wasn’t surprised. He was also approached by his attorney, dentist and plumber. Each one is leveraging their respective intimacy with a wide variety of customers in order to help increase returns and hedge risks. It really got me thinking. I have much more to say about it, but I have some forms to fill out now. My son’s kindergarten teacher is setting up “Bob the Hedger”, a promising new hedge fund, and the deadline for submission is tonight. I’ll keep you posted!
Aner Ravon
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Design-geneering the iPhone [and a poem]
by Gil Rosen
iSee thy iphone and iThink
Will my iWallet weather in iBlink
iDream thy iPod iHave will stretch
and into an iPhone will iMiracle create
Hey Steve iHope, iDream thy truth become
iDesire thy iPhone to be my one.
iHope thy wait will be iShort
iPatience can not uphold
Oh thy iPhone what have you done
An iChild and iDiot I have become
When you look at the iPhone, whatever you think about it - one thing can’t be ignored:
THE DESIGN IS NOT JUST THE SURFACE, ITS IN THE TOTALITY OF THE PRODUCT.
Noone can escape that notion. Just like fractals, the closer you look, the more evident the design DNA is.
Take the Motorola razor, the winner of numerous design awards and undoubtedly the phone that saved Motorola. The design of the clam shell is unique, the phone’s dimensions are impressive but when you look beyond the skin its shortcomings are in abundance - Motorola have failed to expand innovative physical design to the other ‘parts’ of the phone. Motorola traditionally deliver one of the worst graphical user interfaces of any mobile phone on the market today. There is a total disconnect between the shell (literally speaking) and the inside.
The revolution that Apple brings to the mobile phone industry is its TOTALITY, and its not ‘clam’ deep.
I sometimes look at the Razor with all its awards and think that Motorola might have fluked it.
Why? because it was inconsistent with anything they did in the past, because ever since they did it, their biggest innovation has been to change its colors, because its all about the clam and not about the GUI. It’s a very good design fluke.
Is the iPhone a fluke?
All of the lame prophets (myself included) of the iPhone imagined an iPod with a keyboard. We took two existing bricks (phone and music player) and imagined how they looked after a head on clash.
Apple’s approach was different. To come up with what we see today there must have been such a revisit to the whole concept of the cell phone, that the WHY’s must have been flying left and right. Why keyboard, why right, left,center key - why, why, why. And when the pieces were put back together (with talent of course) the outcome is as great as the guts it took to do it.
Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and company had more resources and time to focus on phones and yet what we see every year is an iteration on the year before. And when they do come up with something innovative (Razor shape), its good enough for them, they’ll take care of more innovation next year/release/model. They (mostly) treat mobile phones as plastic commodities that need better screen resolution and memory for the next release. in contrast and much like the iTune-iPod symbiotic relationship, iPhone is not only about the inside and out, they planed a whole eco-system.
Apple has yet to prove the iPhone is a big seller, have yet to prove its reliability as a cell phone, have yet to prove their sustainability in the mobile industry - that is in their future. What they have proved is that design and engineering should be and are meant to be one of the same. That separating the two creates less than perfect results.
Design is not king - Design-geneering is.
Gil Rosen
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What Start-Up-ists Need
by Aner Ravon
I have very recently joined a new start up in the field of personal media. I won’t talk too much about it because it’s still a bit early to talk, but you can check out my updated linkedin profile. I am obviously very excited about it!
As a start-up-ist (”entrepreneur” is so overused…) I really enjoy good guidance and even criticism. There are many blogs that provide good (and free) advice, but very few of them provide first hand case studies. I keep going back to Nisan Gabbay’s Start-Up Review, an excellent blog and a must read for start-up executives. It features relevant case studies with a lot of insight, as opposed to a “do this and don’t do that” laundry list.
This week the featured piece is about Grouper.com. I have personally been visiting Grouper from time to time but was not aware of their history. Grouper managed to change their technology and business around, compete and win on 2 parallel fronts and score an $65M exit to Sony. Oh, and they have done it all with no more then $4M in total financing.
True perception of reality, rational analysis and good execution skills make decision making easy. I certainly draw inspiration from the companies Nisan features on his blog.
Aner Ravon
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Bubble? say “natural selection, stupid”
by Gil Rosen
Deadpool, fuckedcompany, bubble bubble bubble…say “natural selection, stupid”
That sums up what I have to say about all this deadpool mania. This start up is closing, the other one is cutting down, the third is cutting costs….”oh my god, the burst is imminent”.
My theory is that if everyone is raising money, hiring, launching successful ventures, making money, listing on the NASDAQ, showing double digit CAGR year after year….Then we are in La La land and the end is probably near.
However, when unsuccessful ventures close down, cut costs or simply loose to a better competitors - that is what I call natural selection. Using Wikipedia, it sounds like this:
“the process by which individual organisms [replace with: companies ] with favorable traits [replace with: features/ service / community] are more likely to survive and reproduce [replace with: spin off / grow / make money/get bought by Google ] than those with unfavorable traits [ replace with: bad execution / unlucky].
Natural selection is healthy. It makes sure that players that are there in the long run are the better ones. It makes sure that the ones that have been around make adjustments to the everchanging enviroment and not sell you the same thing over and over.
So say thank you to all those ‘deadpools’, they made the ones who are still around probably a notch better.
Gil Rosen
Track with:
wallop? Walleap!
by Gil Rosen
Whether it was their intention or not, the “GUI statement” is a defining theme for the new Microsoft spinout social network.
Every flow, from the registration, navigation to the opening of a new window, is different than what you have been used to. For the first few minutes I felt like I landed in widget land. I am not implying this is bad, it just takes a while to adjust to.
A few notes from my brief first impression:
1. Taking a brave GUI direction has its hitches. I once got totally lost in my lateral browsing trip and since there was no traditional use of the browsers’ back and forward keys it was hard to get oriented. I finally pressed “home” and had to guess my way back to someone else’s page. Suggestion - if you are doing an application that is totally based on flash provide a ‘path memory’ or some other type of ‘bread crumb’ mechanism.
2. Free form windows do provide freedom and personalization options that are beyond the boring drag and drop options offered by Netvibes or other me2.0 website around, but in extreme cases there were so many of them (widgets) open that i got dizzy (or maybe I’m getting old).
3. First time run - an often underestimated process was thought of very well, maybe too well. I got to the stage where I wanted to just start and the website still took me by hand from one point to the next.
4. Eco-system - bought myself a nice background for 0.40 Waller cents. I could see this picking up. If Second Life got people buying virtual real estate for money why not here
5. Advertising free environment - in the words of Kozmo Kramer “Its very refreshing..”
6. Question - what’s the plan for mobile? i think all social networks today need to plan for mobile access and interaction. Mobile is part of our life - it needs to be part of my social network.
My recap is as follows:
I have personally been part of many projects that wanted to take a leap, planned a leap, sketched a leap but eventually just didn’t do it. There are always 1000 reason why not - “people are not used to it”, “the CEO doesn’t like it”, “we don’t want to be first”, “its great but lets do the regular version and leave that for future versions (which are never done), “lets do the funky design in a special tab we’ll call “the lab” and on and on - you name it, the excuse exists.
What I really like about Wallop is the guts! The guts to try something new, the guts do to it all the way and not half assed, the guts to leave advertising out and build a whole eco-system/marketplace before they have critical mass, the guts to create a currency (Wallers), translating to the bottom line of the guts to do what you think rocks and go all the way.
To often these days we see great companies that churn out mediocre products because consensus had to be reached up in the management clouds. This could very much have been the reason for spinning out of Microsoft.
Being bold will not however buy you success, just like a party, the success of a social network is not all about the surroundings…but rather “Who’s in da’house” - The setting is great…lets see who they invite.
kudos to Karl, Sean and the rest of the team, this is a rocking start - good luck!
Gil Rosen
Track with:
5 Reasons For Why 2006 Was a Great Year
by Aner Ravon
Now that we are officially in 2007 it’s time to take a retrospective and nostalgic look at the year that has just ended. I loved 2006. I’ve been waiting for such an eclectic, romantic and fruitful year like this one forever, or so at least it seems.
Here are my top picks for what made 2006 the year it was:
1. YouTube. Cynicism, criticism and skepticism aside, YouTube is rapidly redefining global journalism. And it’s totally not just about bloopers. If you missed Saddam’s execution or if you need a few more Borat highlights - YouTube is where the good old editors can be bypassed. MetaCafe et al are great, but the historic landmark rightfully belongs with YouTube.
2. MySpace. This is a trap because I personally can’t stand MySpace. I personally trashed MySpace a few times in this blog. Still, I can only admire what MySpace has become for music. Independent talents do not need to kiss some pompous A&R ass anymore and they have MySpace to thank for that!
3. Zoho, Clarizen and yes, Google too, that have finally begun to transfer office apps from the monopolistic hands of Microsoft to the world wide web. It’s only the beginning, but Gates and Balmer sweat and for a good reason.
4. Open source, Linux, FireFox, mySQL, PHP…. whatever the old schoolers claim about the negative impact of “free”, there is more money for us in a competitive environment then in one controlled by Oracle, Microsoft, SAP and IBM.
5. George Michael’s 25 Live tour. At the age of 43 and after 25 years in the business, George Michael remains one of my favorite muzes. You can make serious music and real serious statements without taking yourself too seriously. Hey Sting, watch and listen!
Aner Ravon
Track with:
Reclaiming the Beta
by Gil Rosen
I can’t explain the EXACT reason for writing this post NOW but I’ve had it with the Beta label abuse. Beta used to have a meaning, it marked the beginning of something. It set your expectation level, gave a good young company a break. Actually, I do know…I read the completely uninteresting post in techcrunch about google’s new employee stock option plan …yada…yada…yada….what it made me realize is that “Hey….you ain’t no start up anymore…”.
I run a start up…I have a less the 20 people on board…I am scrambling for funds, when we release a version, its a beta. But google…???…sorry…GOOG, your all grown up now. Yes, you are super cool and your apps rock!…I love gmail, gtalk, calander, picasa…the lot, really BUT please do me a favour, if Gmail is beta…then my first release is preAlpha. There isn’t a letter in the Greek alphabet to describe the stage I’m at with my service if Gmail…a 2 year old (even more) or Google news are still Beta’s. Be brave Google…don’t worry, I will hold your hand…move on (and don’t give me some sh@@#$ about it being a legal reason)
Let me and the other young, new, rough entrepreneurs and our new ‘failing services’ reclaim the beta badge for real. And when we are all grown and mature I promise to move on. Honestly I will…within two years or an IPO …whichever comes first
Gil Rosen
Track with:
Best DRM is no DRM
by Aner Ravon
Is the industry finally starting to wash off DRM? Let’s hope so! DRM cannot EVER work for a few simple reasons:
1. It can’t really stop piracy
2. People find the linkage between track source and MP3 player annoying and unfair.
3. Apple (and Microsoft?) are abusing it to protect iPod (Zune?) sales and not to create a market for music.
The Red Herring reports that iTunes sales have peaked and are now dropping fast. the picture is not better outside iTunes, as noted by the Wall Street Journal:
“Digital track sales held steady at 137 million songs in the second and third quarters of this year, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That’s a slight drop from the 144 million sold in the first quarter”…
Eric Garland, chief executive of BigChampagne LLC, which tracks peer-to-peer traffic, says more than one billion songs are traded over those networks every month. “It took iTunes several years to reach that particular mile marker,” he notes. “The pirate market — if we considered that a market — would command better than 90% of the online marketplace.”
Nick Carr provides a thorough analysis of the decline, including the following:
“A new survey by Forrester Research provides further evidence that iTunes sales may have peaked… It found that iTunes purchases grew rapidly between April 2004 and January 2006, from 2 transactions to 17 transactions per 1,000 households. This year, however, the trend reversed, and sales actually began to slow. According to Forrester, “the number of monthly transactions declined 58%, while transaction size fell 17%, leading to a 65% overall drop in monthly iTunes revenue.”
This doesn’t stop Apple from sticking to DRM policies that prevent people from playing tracks outside their iPod or iTunes. However Apple’s motivation is not to promote music but to protect iPod sales. With MP3 players and cellphones becoming iPod comparables, Apple has been holding back the music business.
But it can’t work. As if tracks are not copied left and right with DRM. Fighting piracy should first deal with the motivation.
DRM are like government regulations. Healthy markets don’t need them, broken markets vacuum them in. Once their introduced, so is an extra motivation to bypass them. While the intention is to protect from abuse, in reality the regulator usually end up choking the market and protecting the abuser.
Perhaps the key is simply with competition stepping up. EMI/Blue Note records and Yahoo appear to be taking a little step in the right direction. The Jazz subsidiary of EMI has began experimenting with selling unprotected MP3 tracks, releasing singles from Norah Jones’ new album to the general public without digital protection. Unlike tracks sold on iTunes, these tracks can be played anywhere -computer, iPod or Cellphone - and can be copied by and distributed to friends.
A first step en route to realization. The solution is not with DRMing the old economy but with realizing the new economy. ”New” models, such as “all you can eat” subscriptions, value add packages and advertising are simply a much better fit.
Adds David Goldberg, Vice President and General Manager of Yahoo Music:
“For Yahoo, the deal with EMI represents another step in a long-running effort by David Goldberg, the vice president and general manager of Yahoo Music, to persuade recording companies to abandon their insistence on anti-piracy software. Mr. Goldberg publicly floated the proposal at a music industry conference in February, but initially found few takers.
His reasoning: Anti-piracy software on music isn’t helping the industry because the same music is already available without copy protection on CDs and through Internet file-sharing programs. What’s more, many consumers don’t like the limitations that copy protection imposes on how and on which devices they can listen to their music. If DRM benefits anyone, Mr. Goldberg argued, it’s technology companies like Apple, because it makes it trickier for consumers that have made hefty purchases of digital music through iTunes to switch to non-Apple music devices in the future.
“It just isn’t working,” he said. “It’s not solving piracy. It’s not helping consumers: They view it as a tax.”
And Nick Carr notes how the whole market has been choked:
“The Forrester study provides other clues that, while iTunes may help promote iPod sales, it’s been no panacea for music companies or musicians. Rather than being a central source of new music for consumers, iTunes’s business is dominated by occasional impulse purchases”
Need I say more?
Aner Ravon
Track with:
Social Media - Dawn of Chaotic Marketing?
by Gil Rosen
For me, as a marketer, the words “Chaotic” and “Marketing” must not be juxtaposed. I like to quote Drew Neisser of Renegade Marketing’s mantra, which is “know thy target audience”. Therefore, the logical conclusion is that spreading your message in a chaotic manner can not be good marketing practice.
However, an article I read today in the NY Times, “Hottest Ad Space in Times Square May Be on Tourists’ Cameras“, suggests the opposite - that we are at the dawn of a Chaotic Marketing era. Let me quickly recap the essence of the article:
The sequence goes like this:1. Times square has become hot property for event marketing (A.K.A - offline marketing)
2. The zillions of tourists that roam Times Square take pictures and videos
3. Vids, pics and ‘experiences’ get blogged, posted on the “Flickrs” and “YouTubes” Etc.
4. Off line Ad/Event exposure is magnified exponentially to the online audience.
As a general “awareness trick”, this sounds like a brilliant way to get the biggest “bang for your buck” for your advertising dollars. You can also acquire “cool” status for doing unconventional stuff…but is it?? Would an advertiser dare insert a TV ad without selecting the placement? Would an advertiser let a random computer program decide that a beer commercial is to be aired in the morning, in between “Days of our Life” and “Seaseme Street”?? Or in short, can marketing be Chaotic and still be successful?. Why do brands accept chaotic placement when it comes to the Internet when this rule does not apply to other mediums? Are the basic physics of marketing being bent by the new reality of social media?
I don’t believe there is a clear answer yet. We are witnessing many marketing experiments with unclear results. So what if a 14 year old person in the UK saw a clip on YouTube of the MasterCard event - is it relevant?. Will the brand be planted in his subconscious only to come of age later? Was this the audience the marketers were expecting? The audience they pitched for during budget time? Does anybody know the identity of the the online video audience in the first place? The answer is NO - NO and NO.
So why do it…is it really that pointless? The answer is NO!
What we are witnessing is the evolution of social media. The brave few ‘freaks of nature’ that defy conventional marketing and do these “senseless act of marketing” are the ones that are helping shape our future. No less. By spending a few random dollars they are participating in the biggest human social experiment called ’social media’, where the audience is not measured by a ‘people meter’, Nielsen or any other skewed system and where the media belong to the individual. After all, how can you explain the fact they are encouraging people to take pictures of their brand despite the risk of having them posted who knows where?
They are not risking but joining. The social media revolution is happening with or without brands. These brave experiments are just attempts to join the ride. In the long run - these will not be the rules… remember…evolution…this is just a phase. Future marketers in the same space, doing similar things will know much better about the effect of their campaigns. They will know exactly who did what, when and how. A whole eco-system of technology comps and services will catch up and be ready to service them.
A case in point is a very interesting start-up called Collactive that is spear-heading the space of social media marketing. If you are a marketer you should check them out. Like them, many other companies will follow and with the help of technology order will be restored to the marketing space.
‘Cause if you ain’t superman, you ain’t breaking no laws of physics!
Gil Rosen
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