News aggregators
(such as Yahoo! News, Google News and Drudge Report), search engines
and portals have long been the leading sources of traffic for news websites.
Search engines, particularly Google, have grown in importance as sources
of traffic for Broadcast Media and Print category websites. Print news
websites received 29.7% more traffic from Google in March 2007 than
in March 2006, and Broadcast Media sites received 35.9% more traffic
from Google in the same time period. [...] ..., search engines are now
more likely to be the first step for Internet users in their search
for information about breaking events. - Hitwise
Given the ever increasing
appeal of online video, and the need to translate this content into
sales, Google-YouTube will impact every element of the industry.
- Broadcasting & Cable
YouTube's growth has
not begun to slow yet this year. Hitwise traffic data shows that the
market share of US visits to YouTube has increased by 70% when comparing
January 2007 to May 2007 (this only includes site visits, not streams
or streams from views on embedded videos). In comparison, the market
share of visits to a custom category of 64 other video sites increased
by only 8% in that period. As of May 2007, YouTube's market share was
50% greater than those 64 sites combined. - Hitwise
"Broadband video
commercials will experience their breakthrough in the coming years.
This will create tremendous opportunities, but also threats, for old
and new media companies. At the same time, search advertising will lose
market share, which may pose a strategic challenge for Google, the Internet
advertising market leader," - Karsten Weide, program director,
Digital Marketplace: New Media and Entertainment
Lets face it:
In our increasingly networked world, the vast majority of media
content simply cannot be kept away from its audience. Publishers
can no longer create more demand by injecting artificial scarcity
in other words, by attempting to control distribution. Thats
how it used to work when media was simply a product: as a content
creator, if you did not have distribution you were literally
nowhere to be seen or heard. That is how the major record
labels ended up controlling 80% of the worlds music market:
they controlled distribution. And production. And promotion (via
radio). And pricing. Everything.
Today, in our world of Googles, Facebooks, YouTubes, and iPhones,
all content is just zeros and ones, and trying to prevent its leakage
is simply futile. There are countless potential points of leakage
in the pipeline of production, packaging, distribution, marketing,
and promotion now, Friction is Fiction, indeed!
Today, distribution
(legal or not) is simply a given, and it is attention that is getting
scarce. We are witnessing a complete reversal of Media 1.0, when
we had plenty of available attention after all, supply was
limited but severe limitations in distribution (e.g., shelf
space, shipping, storage, radio frequencies, and TV channels).
Music, films, TV shows,
radio broadcasts, books, and other content now becomes available
to a global audience immediately after it is published (or quite
literally, released) for the very first time. The nature
of digital content is to flow to wherever gravity will take it,
and trying to stem that tide would be like telling the ocean to
stop making waves.
Today, the good old,
safe and simple old way of charging by the unit (be it CDs, DVDs,
a la carte downloads, or premium TV channels) feels seriously illiquid.
Ask anyone under 25 years old and they will only snicker at the
thought of buying a CD! Their capacity for media consumption is
only limited by their available attention - many Digital Natives
may download 10,000 songs only to actually listen to a total of
40 or 50 per month.
New Ecosystem: Media 2.0
To prosper in this new digital media economy, we must support a new
ecosystem built on giving the users easy, cheap, and unfettered access
to content. We need to woo the users, not barge in pitching pieces
of fancy plastic or copy-protected media files. These Digital Natives
are much more likely to first opt-in to a comprehensive digital service
(yes, including wireless), and only then buy a physical product. Furthermore,
packaged media isnt off the table; its just not the first
course anymore. If you dont offer some free or rather,
feels like free starters, theyll eat elsewhere.
Therefore, we must
create media ecosystems that will simply give the people formerly
known as consumers (i.e. those that no longer just consume
but also interact and create, themselves) the official green light
to do what they would do anyway serve themselves from this
wealth of content whenever they want, wherever they are, and in
whatever manner suits them. Once they have paid attention in this
way (note the word paid), a content creator or media
provider can harvest a myriad of opportunities. The tollbooth has
moved up the road a bit but this is now a trusted and reliable road
that will inevitably lead to the monetization point. Put the tollbooth
too early and 95% of digital travelers will turn around and look
for other ways to get there!
In its most basic form,
this challenging new economy of selling attention will
require a highly intelligent yet easy and efficient flat-rate system.
The goal is to get most users to accept or rather, expect
these payments as something akin to a totally acceptable
toll (but not tax!) to enter this superhighway of media
and entertainment. This is similar to how Americans have accepted
bridge tolls as a fact of life a long time ago, or how most Europeans
have accepted their obligatory payments of public TV and Radio license
fees. Having said that, I think this toll will be so well hidden,
dressed-up, and bundled that it will feel no different from todays
practice of accepting software licenses with a quick click on the
checkbox but more on that later.
The clinching argument
for a full embrace of the principles of the Attention Economy in
Media is that most of us are much more likely to quickly explore
new content and, provided that its great content, engage
with it if we can get it on our already subscribed
for digital networks, portals, or communities. Of course this
kind of build-in engagement then creates the network effects that
every media company wants to tap into, as well. For example, if
Facebook could offer music based on a flat-fee-per-user license
that can easily be wrapped into other offerings and therefore be
more or less invisible to us, then all of us Facebook users will
be simply a click away from trying new music in a comfortable, trusted
and fully shareable environment.
This dramatic lowering
of the exploration threshold (which is not to be confused with a
flat-out commoditization of content more on that later) is
absolutely critical to the Media 2.0 ecosystem. Thats because
creating hundreds of millions of explorers of new content is the
indisputable starting point for all new content commerce, and only
a flat-fee system that covers every user on any network allows us
to achieve this kind of liquidity. Beyond that, rest assured people
will still buy the plastic or a la carte digital offerings. Exposure
drives attention drives revenues!
Whats more
and this is very important for a unilateral adoption of any flat-fee
system the uniformly accepted flat fees will, in fact, be
paid on our behalf in the not-too-distant future. Why? Because every
telco, every operator, every online portal, every social network
wants attention in order to monetize their other offerings, and
good content is guaranteed to get that.
As soon as the incumbent
rights holders are woken up from their blissfully disconnected hibernation
and finally get around to providing the required licenses, snagging
a loyal and appreciative customer for a low monthly fee that also
covers his basic use of music (and media!) content will simply become
a customer acquisition expense and ad-supported feature. This is
a dream come true for the media purveyors of the future search
engines, advertising networks, digital network operators
as well as for many hardware and software companies.
Just imagine a next-generation
iPod-like device with built-in access to feels-like-free
music services, video clips, or movies; or a PSP with built-in,
auto-updated game and TV clip subscriptions; or a Nokia phone with
hundreds of recordable digital radio channels. That would create
true liquidity and generate mass-market audiences (not to mention
a huge pipeline of up-selling opportunities). And it would immediately
be apparent that feels like free services would be just
the very beginning of media consumption, not the final destination
(as a good many of todays still seriously disconnected media
executives are fearing): the very tip of the iceberg of the users
lust for content.
So why exactly will
so-called Big Media license its content to such a device
or service? The answer is simple: because we, as the newly recognized
and seemingly omnipotent users, are worth a lot more as active users
than we are as inactive bystanders, to any and all players in this
ecosystem. Our attention is their lunch. And at the same time, our
inattention nukes their quest for control. Our clicks have brought
The End of Control and media providers urgently need another
way of getting into our wallets.
Whats more, as
active participants those Net Generation users create mountains
of user data, product feedback, and marketing information, and that
creates many new advertising opportunities, as well. We click and
therefore the providers of media are able to know what goes on in
the network. Whats more, we even contribute our own content,
be it as prosumers and amateur producers, remixers, commentators,
playlisters, or just as supernodes of recommendation
or active netizens. In many instances, we the users
actually are the content - note the success of MySpace, eBay, Wikipedia,
etc.
The rise of the Attention
Economy in media does not just bring about The End of Control, it
also brings light to what I like to call the twilight zone of content:
those very large catalogs of music, films, TV shows, and books that
have been out of distribution or out of print for a long time, and
that languish in the archives as if theyd never been created
in the first place. What better revival of their work can any content
creator hope for? Soon, they will finally be able to harvest substantial
and recurring revenues via these flat-fee subscriptions (be they voluntary
or built-in via public levies), in addition to the revenues flowing
from integrated, intelligent, and highly customized advertising formats.
Thursday, October 25, 2007 Registration:
18:30-19:00, Conference: 19:00-21:15
Make your reservation
and book online Ticket
Corner
Where:
Info.nl,
Sint Antoniesbreestraat 16, 1011 HB Amsterdam [Next
to Nieuwmarkt] The conference
language is English.
The
speakers are
Nils Rooijmans, Head of Search and R&D, ilse media
Search
Culture
Mario de Vries, Business Consultant, Triple P Any resemblance with real life is purely coincidal
Rocco
van den Berg,
Head
of Business Development & Licensing, Endemol The Netherlands The increase of serious video channels
Arjen Kamphuis, Futurist,
Owner, KMPHS Futureshock - Dealing
with rapid and fundamental change
Canadian Entrepreneur,
Peter Sandler, President of Therapy Products and Inventor of the E-V
Sunny Bicycle developed the first all Solar electric bicycle driven
completely from power derived from the Suns Rays.
The E-V Sunny Bicycle
has light absorbing Solar panels built right into the Wheels, creating
continual power from the Suns Rays, and maintaining a constant
charge to the batteries. The bike is propelled by a 500 watt front
hub motor.
The variable speed
electronic controller drives the bike to speeds of up to 30 kilometers
per hour. Overall weight of the bicycle is 75 lbs. and comes with
17 amp hr. batteries and a built in battery charger.
This years survey clearly shows that global venture capital
investment continues to move forward, even if the movement is incremental.
VCs are being cautious as they enter new territory, both in terms
of the percentage of assets managed that they allocate to foreign
investment and the number of deals. Since different countries and
regions present their own unique challenges, more experience in
working through a deal, plus more experience on the ground through
local partnerships, may well give foreign investors greater confidence
as time goes by. But, it also makes them recognize how much - both
financially and operationally - is involved in investing overseas.
The survey also shows that, both domestically and around the world,
the U.S. remains the nexus of entrepreneurial activity and talent.
But responses to the survey indicate that around the world entrepreneurship
is not only burgeoning, but that the ideas and talent in regions
far from home are attracting foreign investment. [...]
Clearly, U.S. venture capital today and in the near future
will retain its eminence, but VCs will need to make the necessary
adaptations fundamental to succeeding in a global market. As venture
capitalists develop global networks and gain more experience and
successes outside their home country, comfort levels and investment
levels will likely continue to increase, Jensen concluded.
.wearIT@work
wearIT@work
was set up by the European
Commission as an Integrated Project to investigate Wearable
Computing as a technology dealing with computer systems integrated
in clothing.
The following advantages are expected: First of all an improved
productivity and flexibility of workers shall be reached. Second
an increased safety at work and a decreased pressure towards automation
is aimed. All this will allow a simplified access to enterprise
information and lead to faster group decisions. Furthermore new
information technology products will be introduced into the market
based on the pilot applications developed within wearIT@work.
Wearable computing
facilitates a new form of human--computer interaction comprising
a small body--worn computer (e.g. user--programmable device) that
is always on and always ready and accessible. In this regard,
the new computational framework differs from that of hand held
devices, laptop computers and personal digital assistants (PDAs).
The ``always ready'' capability leads to a new form of synergy
between human and computer, characterized by long-term adaptation
through constancy of user--interface.
Prof. Steve Mann,
University of Toronto, 1998:
Wearable computing
is a kind of extension of your body that allows you
to perform extraordinary tasks. Something that you
never could do using only your body.
It is like becoming a super-hero: you can be in more
than one place at the same time...
Wearable computing researchers have discovered ubiquity!
The extension idea
is useful for understanding the real implications of wearables
in work contexts. A wearable computer is an extension but a superlative
one. For example, it can be an otherwise ordinary piece of clothing
but with integrated communication functions. And what would this
be useful for? Well, safety at work could be improved by allowing
us to communicate our position immediately in case of problems
or danger. This is a vital function if you are a fire-man or other
rescue worker putting your life on the line every day. Productivity
could be improved by allowing the factory worker easy access to
distant information sources almost immediately, thereby allowing
him to solve problems on the spot and save time.
These are just two examples of the ways wearable computing can
make the workplace safer, more comfortable, and more productive.
Many more workplace applications are waiting to be developed.
Business Cases
Emergency Rescue
The wearIT@work solutions for the domain of emergency response
aim at providing the following benefits:
Reducing the risks
for emergency forces through timely and adequate information
services and consequently better informed operations
Faster and richer
acquisition and communication of information
More robust communication
and awareness
Faster interventions
leading to higher rescue performance and reduced material loss
Optimization of
resource usage and consequently cost reduction
Improving the
capacity of fire-fighters to assess their situation, bodily
condition and surrounding team members
Enhanced monitoring
and control of interventions
Support for automatic
or semi-automatic reporting
Facilitating post-intervention
debriefings and analysis
Healthcare
Physicians and nurses equipped with wearable devices and adequate
software systems will have access to all available patient information
at any time and any place in the hospital. This would:
Enable the mobility
of medical stuff;
Provide on-time
access to needed information through connections to the clinical
server. Added audio and visual functions would increase the
usability of the documentation;
Context sensitivity
will improve the quality of the information and prevent patient
mix-up.
Insure consultation
with remotely located medical experts in critical situations;
Increase the quality
of communication through audio-visual support.
The wearable computer
will be furnished with suitable and non-obstructive input devices
(e.g. speech recognition) and displays (for example a see-through
head-up display or a flexible screen display which can be fixed
at the coat of the physician or nurse).
Mobile Maintenance
The maintenance operators will be equipped with a Maintenance
Jacket, with integrated wearable technologies in it. This complex
and innovative device would improve the above scenarios in the
following ways:
Enabling operators
mobility and free-hand working;
Supporting advanced
content and knowledge management functionalities;
Providing on-the-job
access to needed information through connections to the documentation
server. Added audio and visual functions would increase the
usability of the documentation;
Integration with
available information systems to check the availability of tools
and materials, to verify the ranges of important task-dependent
measurements, to give access to trouble-shooting data bases
and on-board systems;
Automatically
adapting all the information provided to the operator to both
the current task and the user profile, in order to obtain a
personalized support;
Generating automatic
reports and sheets and distributing them to experts and team
members;
Increasing the
quality of communication amongst team members and with remote
experts through audio-visual support;
Providing for
simultaneous decision support in critical situations;
Enhancing work
quality by adaptive advice in critical phases;
Adapting to the
context (environmental parameters, on-site measurements through
suitable tools, etc.) in which the operator is working;
Facilitating the
maintainers movements within the job field and the collaboration
through user location and navigation functionalities;
Facilitating the
operator-system interaction thanks to innovative, multimodal,
interface.
Production
The maintenance operators will be equipped with a Maintenance
Jacket, with integrated wearable technologies in The production
staff (workers, technicians and managers) will be provided with
During the WearIT@work project, with adequate, easy-to-use mobile
clients (PDAs, WebPads, Wearable PC etc.) to allow a real-time,
context sensitive information access at each location in the enterprise
(office & shopfloor) via wireless communication technology
(WLAN etc.).
The information presentation
on the mobile client will be easy to understand for all types
of users and will improve the workers capabilities with the mobile
provision.
For Plant Managers
of:
fault position;
responsible person;
estimated repair
time;
costs caused by
standstill.
For the Service Technicians
of:
identification
of broken components;
bill of materials/
maintenance procedure;
depot availability
of spare parts;
repair manuals/
CAD drawings;
tele-conferencing
facilities with specialists;
fault documentation.
For the assembly
worker of:
display of assembly
simulations on mobile device;
email-based audio
commentaries from assembly workers to designers.
The recent announcement that Google will digitize the holdings of
several major libraries sent shock waves through the book industry
and academe. Google presented this digital repository as a first step
towards a long-dreamed-of universal library, but skeptics were quick
to raise a number of concerns about the potential for copyright infringement
and unanticipated effects on the business of research and publishing.
Jean-Noël Jeanneney,
president of Frances Bibliothèque Nationale, here takes
aim at what he sees as a far more troubling aspect of Googles
Library Project: its potential to misrepresent - and even damage
- the worlds cultural heritage. In this impassioned work,
Jeanneney argues that Googles unsystematic digitization of
books from a few partner libraries and its reliance on works written
mostly in English constitute acts of selection that can only extend
the dominance of American culture abroad. This danger is made evident
by a Google book search the author discusses here - one run on Hugo,
Cervantes, Dante, and Goethe that resulted in just one non-English
edition, and a German translation of Hugo at that. An archive that
can so easily slight the masters of European literature - and whose
development is driven by commercial interests - cannot provide the
foundation for a universal library.
As a leading librarian,
Jeanneney remains enthusiastic about the archival potential of the
Web. But he argues that the short-term thinking characterized by
Googles digital repository must be countered by long-term
planning on the part of cultural and governmental institutions worldwide
- a serious effort to create a truly comprehensive library, one
based on the politics of inclusion and multiculturalism.
.Biodiversity
Institute of Ontario
Biodiversity measures
the variation of life shaped through ecology and evolution from
genes to species and ecosystems. Genetic variation plays a critical
role in the ability of individuals and species to respond and
adapt to environmental change while the diversity of species within
and between ecosystems provides significant advantages to ecosystem
function and resilience. One of the ironies of biological research
is that after more than 250 years of dedicated biological science,
the total number of species within any country or region remains
unknown. While we often have a good idea of the identities and
ecological roles of the larger, more charismatic animals (birds,
mammals) the truth of the matter is that most of life is small
(insects, bacteria, fungi) and currently undescribed. Shedding
light onto these lesser known groups is important because all
of the larger groups, including ourselves, depend on these smaller
organisms for some part of their daily natural history.
Within Canada, Ontario is the most biodiverse province and although
most of the northern part of the province is remains directly
untouched by anthropogenic change the ecosystems of the
southern regions of the province are under enormous development
pressures. It is these same southern regions that provide the
habitat for nearly 40% of Canadas endangered species. In
order to answer questions of species identity, genetic variation,
ecological roles and ecosystem processes requires a novel, multi-disciplinary
approach. The diverse elements of such an approach are now fostered
at the Biodiversity
Institute of Ontario (BIO).
Some activities
The BIO
OAC Herbarium is dedicated to plant barcoding research.
The team of researchers, staff and students are focused on barcoding
the Flora of Ontario, tropical taxa and cryptic taxa (hepatics,
mosses, lichens) or plant material (e.g., roots). Many of our
projects are investigating the application of barcoding in ecological
and ethnobotanical research. The Herbarium is responsible for
handling voucher specimens, DNA samples and the accession of plant
barcodes into BOLD for the Canadian Plant Barcoding Working Group
(CPBWG).
The experimental ecosystems
unit oversees a unique controlled environment facility - the Limnotron
- which is the worlds largest aquatic mesocosm facility.
The facility is exploring the impacts of biological diversity
on ecosystem processes.
There is increasing
evidence that we are now involved in a global biodiversity crisis.
Species are being lost at unprecedented rates, and there is little
doubt that this is due in part to the human footprint on the earths
landscape. Some 12% of all bird species, 23% of mammals, 25% of
conifers, 32% of amphibians and 52% of cycads are threatened with
extinction, and the delayed effects of climate change may yet further
inflate these numbers (Loreau et al. 2006). In the face of such
change, an obvious response is to begin to catalogue the earths
diversity (Canadian Barcode of Life Network). Although this is of
critical importance it is also extremely important to understand
what the loss of diversity means for the biological structure and
function of ecosystems. The Limnotron
facility
seeks to address this aspect of the biodiversity crisis.
In collaboration with
a team of researchers, this research program is beginning to detail
biological structures from both pristine and impacted aquatic ecosystems.
Remarkably, empirical generalities in the biological structure of
pristine and impacted ecosystems have begun to emerge (Rooney et
al. 2006). This is where the Limnotron comes in. The Limnotron facility
has been designed to allow us to reproduce certain ubiquitous structures
in aquatic ecosystems (e.g., water colum stratification, sediment-water
interface etc.). As such, the Limnotron is capable of creating small
aquatic ecosystems that can mimic the biological structure found
in lakes. Further, the controlled and replicated Limnotron environment
allows us to experimentally identify how specific biological structures
maintain the sustainability of ecosystem functions. In essence,
the Limnotron promises to allow us to move beyond cataloguing species
and begin to catalogue the functional implications of biological
structure -- an under-explored but critical aspect of the global
biodiversity crisis.
The University
of Guelph Insect Collection had its roots in the insect
collection of the Entomological Society of Ontario, founded in 1863.
It is the oldest insect collection in Canada and was, in effect,
Canada's national insect collection before there was a Canada and
before the establishment of the Canadian National Collection in
Ottawa. Although our current collection of just over 1.5 million
specimens is relatively small by world standards, the University
of Guelph Insect Collection remains one of North America's most
importanct heritage insect collections, and is Canada's third or
fourth largest insect collection. It is the best collection of Ontario
insects, including many irreplaceable specimens of extirpated species.
.Budapest
at Het Ij
ADVERT
De
Passie van de Poesta
Zondag, 14 oktober, wordt in de Amsterdamse Schreierstoren een Hongaars
wijnfestival met verrassende wijnen gehouden. De Schreierstoren
is een prachtig middeleeuws gebouw in het hartje van Amsterdam
t/o het Centraal Station.
In het VOC café staat v.a. 13:00 De Bubbelbar voor u klaar
met de Bubbels van Budapest. In de Herenkamer is een buffet van
de fameuze Hongaarse top chef Lajos Takács met fraaie schotels.
Beneden kunt u ruim vijftig Hongaarse wijnen proeven. Hier kunt
u ook kennismaken met vele soorten onweerstaanbare Hongaarse worsten
en delicatessen.
Het Hongaarse trio SIRASO speelt een mix van Hongaarse en westerse
muziek, aansluitend ( 20:00 uur tot 23:00 uur) draait de beroemde
Hongaarse DJ. Lecsó.
Om 20:00uur wordt het 1e Nederlandse kampioenschap Hongaars tafeldansen
gehouden. (voorronde Nat. Kampioenschappen).
Kaarten a 10,- kunnen besteld worden via info@4-trading.com
Hiervoor ontvangt U een eigen glas en 9 bonnen t.w.v. 6,- www.schreierstoren.nl http://4-trading.com
.Agenda
The
Season Events are on Thursdays
Registration: 18:30-19:00, Conference: 19:00-21:15
October
25 18:30 - 21:15
the
future of Google
and its impact on Media & Entertainment
Location:
Info.nl,
Sint Antoniesbreestraat 16, 1011 HB Amsterdam [Next
to Nieuwmarkt]
November
29
18:30 - 21:15
the
future of Sexuality
Location:
Waag Society, Nieuwmarkt 4, 1012 CR Amsterdam [Center of Nieuwmarkt]
January
31
18:30 - 21:15
the
future of Fashion
Location:
February
28
18:30 - 21:15
the
future of NanoEnergy
Location:
March
27
18:30 - 21:15
the
future of Ecological Architecture
Location:
April
24
18:30 - 21:15
the
future of Money
Location:
May
29
18:30 - 21:15
the
future of Children
Location:
Info.nl,
Sint Antoniesbreestraat 16, 1011 HB Amsterdam [Next
to Nieuwmarkt]
June
26
18:30 -
Taste
of Diversity
Location:
.Club
of Amsterdam Open Business Club
Club
of Amsterdam Open Business Club
Are you interested in networking, sharing visions,
ideas about your future, the future of your industry, society, discussing
issues, which are relevant for yourself as well as for the 'global'
community? The future starts now - join our
online platform
...: http://www.openbc.com/go/invuid/Felix_Bopp2
.Contact
Your
comments, ideas, articles are welcome!
Please write to Felix Bopp, Editor-in-Chief: editor@clubofamsterdam.com