Will Cell Phone Video Recorders and Handheld Projectors Cause Mayhem and Joy?

When the iPhone 3Gs came out, YouTube noted a very fast uptick in the number of mobile videos being posted to the site.  It doesn’t hurt that one can post with just one click directly from the iPhone.  While not the first phone able to do this, it is certainly one with a large and fast-growing user base and while they are leading the way other makers will be forced to offer similar features soon.

Now, add to the mix the emergence of powerful, pocket-sized video projectors that can operate on battery power and project images the size of a large-screen TV onto any flat surface. Still in their early stages, these projectors will improve over time and it can’t be long until anyone with the equipment can beam billboard-sized video onto the wall of their choice.

Now, combine these two devices and try to imagine the possibilities:

1) A major riot breaks out in a big city.  Someone sees an act of police brutality. They film it with their phone and then, before you can say “hey, you” the footage is beamed onto the wall of a building for the whole crowd to see.

2) A group of people are waiting in line for tickets to a new film.  A young filmmaker gives those in line a preview of his own latest work, beamed onto the side of the cinema itself. For free.

3) More scary, advertisers arm workers with short video ads and ask them to walk around town and beam them on any wall near a crowd.

I could just keep going and going.  I don’t even want to think out the new laws that will be created and the absurd policing to follow.

And we haven’t even discussed just beaming it live…

JK Wedding Entrance Might Save Chris Brown’s Career

If you listen to groups like the RIAA, they will tell you that people using songs in their videos with express written consent and a high license fee will be the death of music.  RIAA and labels like Universal Music have gone out of their way to police sites like YouTube and block or ban anything using a copyrighted song they can claim to own.

Of course, this sort of behavior actually results in endless negative impacts including pissed off fans and even pissed off artists who actually like to see their music used and shared and recognize the huge potential upside of not behaving like a law-suit junkie.

The most recent proof of this comes thanks to the biggest web meme of the month, the JK Wedding Entrance (below) featuring, without permission, Chris Brown’s song, “Forever.”

Instead of doing what, say, Universal Music does, which is to force YouTube to mute the music track, it appears that Chris Brown and his label, Zomba (a part of Jive Records) has instead embraced the video and created a direct link to the buying of the song on iTunes.

The result?

The wedding video now has a direct link to buy “Forever,” which, despite being released last year, is now in the iTunes top 10. Brown’s own attempt at a viral video, a recently released apology video for the Rihanna “incident” which he calls “inexcusable,” has been viewed more than 2 million times. As BlogPulse shows, July buzz about Brown and “Forever” reach almost as high as blog discussion that occurred around the time of the assault.        LINK

4Chan Versus AT&T Highlights the Perils of the Digital Age

According to a number of sources, AT&T’s DSL internet service is blocking access to the very popular 4Chan forums.

Users of AT&T’s DSL internet access across many states in the US are reporting that they are being blocked from the infamous /b/ message board in what appears to be an act of internet censorship by the phone company. This started today Sunday and no one has yet been able to get any official confirmation out of AT&T as to why. Moot, the founder of 4chan, has confirmed AT&T is filtering/blocking the site.        LINK

Now, aside from the sort of “big question” of why would AT&T block a website in what seems to be a pretty clear violation of the FCC’s net neutrality rules, there is something much more interesting happening.

There is the very real danger, as shown in the snips below, that the 4Chan community will exact some sort of revenge on AT&T.  Not only that, but the general consensus seems to be that, were the global telecommunications giant that is AT&T actually go to battle with 4Chan, the money would be on 4Chan to win handily:

Predictably, the 4chan crowd is already mobilizing both inside and outside of their online community. AT&T didn’t just open a can worms, they dove headfirst into a den of vipers, and this will be very interesting to watch play out.       LINK

Not coming out with a clear and concise explanation just looks bad, and seems to be stirring up 4chan folks to make a statement — something AT&T almost certainly does not want. AT&T may be able to tap your phones, but getting on the wrong side of 4chan seems like a bad, bad idea.     LINK

One wonders if anyone over at AT&T even considered the potential threat of a counter-response from the 4Chan community.  In fact, one has to wonder if any of these corporate giants realize how much the power has shifted to the consumer.  Look at what happened to United Airlines after they refused to fix a broken guitar.  Many are blaming the very popular YouTube video “United Breaks Guitars” for a rather substantial drop in share-price.

Coke Fails to Block Sprite Blowjob Spec Spot – See It Here!

Just a quick follow-up to my previous Sprite Blowjob Spec Spot kerfuffle post…

While Coca Cola Company has been doing an ok job keeping the ad off of YouTube, below is proof that getting something off the internet is about as easy as stirring your cream back out of your coffee.

That’s via the Russian site TopNews and was the fourth link on a Google video search for “Banned German Sprite Ad.”

I hope Coca Cola is glad they’ve wasted all those resources on a fools errand when they could have been laughing it off and soaking up the free publicity.

Coke Calls Foul on Blowjob Ad for Sprite

As pointed out by Gawker, there is now a somewhat rich history of so-called “spec” ads that get released online and quickly disowned by whatever product was being shilled in such an unspeakable manner:

A spec ad—at least the ones you hear about—is basically an unofficial ad that will never get officially sanctioned by the brand represented. Often because of too much sexiness! For example, that JC Penney pro-teen sex ad that caused such a ruckus last year, on the blogs, turned out to be a spec ad. Ad people make spec ads for many reasons: to audition their work in hopes of winning an account, for ad competitions, or just because they are bored and horny.

The most recent example of this trend is a spec ad for Sprite featuring a popular sexual act.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, the spec ad was very popular and was generating plenty of views and mentions online.  While somewhat inappropriate, it certainly did a good job selling the product.

I’d love to show you the ad but Coca Cola Company, in their great wisdom, had the spot pulled from YouTube for violating copyright on the Sprite logo.

Who cares if the ad was popular are likely to put the word “Sprite” back in the minds of many a horny teen?

This approach of squashing what amounts to free publicity in the form of true fan dedication baffles me and makes it clear that old business models and practices have completely failed to take advantage of the opportunities presented in the digital age.

Giant Boobs, Pig-Faced Men and Shocking Violence – Now That’s a Book Promo

Publishers continue to make small forays into using short videos to promote their books.  This has taken every form from a simple talking head to an elaborate webseries.

According to AdRants, “Champagne-Fueled Jungle” a first novel by James Palumbo, is:

…about a society gone wrong. A society in which reality channel Shit TV (yes, that’s what it’s called) has overtaken the small screen and filled it with “homicidal dwarfs on rollerblades and obese mamas in tutus.” Title character, Tomas, has had enough and with the help of his tommy gun, he hopes to eradicate the world of this filth.

And if that doesn’t sound good enough for you, check out the lavishly animated promo video.  Beware, while entirely in black and white, the violence is quite graphic:

It’s great to see this level of attention and artistry dedicated to a book promotion.  Currently creeping near 4000 views, if just ten percent of viewers go get his book it would seem worthwhile.  Of course, that might be asking a lot from your average YouTube viewer.

Still, the combination of great animation and a violent, sexy story make this a video that could catch on and spread to some potential new readers Palumbo would never reach through traditional marketing.

The CIA, LSD, the Return of Urkel and Still No Viewers

A few years ago, the hot topic was web series being created by Hollywood outsiders.  This was going to be the big revolution where the little guys could finally show the big guys how it was done. After decades of sitting at home and screaming at the TV for being so dull and lifeless, fresh minds and cheap equipment combined with nearly free distrubtion was going to cause an entertainmain revolution.

Well, it didn’t quite happen that way. With a few exceptions such as LonelyGirl15, these series generally came out of the gates fast and fell off the cliff even faster.  Many failed simply because they were not entertaining.  While it is easy to criticize much of what is on TV, it is far harder to produce a superior product.  Others failed simply due to lack of exposure.  After pouring everything you’ve got into making your webseries, there is often little left over for marketing or PR.  Hoping to go viral was, and still remains, the way most webseries hope to find an audience.  This is not proving to be working.

The past year has seen a vast rise in the next wave of webseries: those being produced by professionals from the world of film and TV.  While still working with negligable budgets, experienced pros are getting together to make their own shows free from the contraints of major networks or unions or guilds.

Two examples of this are out right now.  “Road to the Alter” is a mockumentary starring Jaleel White, once the hottest kid on TV as Urkel on “Family Matters.”  The other is “Operation Midnight Climax,” a highly stylized fictionalization of the CIA’s early top secret LSD research.  Check out sample episodes of both below.

What’s more amazing than the amount of work and time that must have gone into these pieces, is just how few people are watching them.

“Road…” is only averaging 2000 views an episode on YouTube while “Operation…” has yet to crack 500 views.

Now, maybe it isn’t fair to judge the success of a webseries on its number of YouTube views but there is little else on which to judge popularity right now.

Either way, it is safe to say that neither is a runaway success.  This forces the question, what will it take to make a webseries into a popular success.

My money is on marketing.

How Will Major Sports Events Respond to iPhone 3GS Video Uploads?

Here’s a question – what are the major sports leagues going to do about fans recording sporting events on their sleek new iPhone 3GS and then uploading it on the spot to YouTube (or another, less monitored website)?

It’s already happening.  YouTube claims that already half of the mobile uploads last week came from an iPhone 3GS and it comes in addition to fans often updating friends and followers on scores and major plays via Twitter or Facebook updates.

How will the leagues control this sort of fan interaction?  Will they try to ban anyone from shooting a picture or video with their phones?  How will they monitor for this?  What will they do when fans are caught?  And how to distinguish between video being taken for personal use and video being taken for a homemade version of SportsCenter you are your friends have just dreamed up.

This is just one of the many challenges facing those who would like to continue to control the flow of content.  This is a losing battle for the people currently (barely) in control.

Qik and Brightcove May Soon Present “Live From…Anywhere.”

Sure, the terrible violence and politcal unrest in Iran is a tragic and disheartening story, but the “real” story continues to be how social media sites like Twitter and YouTube have been bringing the sad story to the world.

While it remains to be seen what will happen to Mahmoud and company, the writing is clearly on the wall for traditonal journalism.  The “citizen” journalists are rising up and taking reporting of the news into their own hands.  Is it neat and tidy and fact-checked? Not really.  Is it instantly more compelling, engrossing and informative than any half-hour with Tom Brokaw could ever promise to deliver?  You bet.

Of course, what’s been largely missing in this journalistic uprising is live video reports from down in the trenches.

Qik has been providing a service that allows certain cell phone users to live stream to the internet.  While they are expanding the number of devices offering this service, they are combining forces with Brightcove, a very large internet video distribution company, resulting in, eventually, the ability for ordinary folks with cell phones to “broadcast” live over a potentially massive network of sites reaching, theoretically, millions of viewers.  All of this without any satellite trucks or multi-million dollar news-vans.  No FCC, no corporate overseers and no commercial sponsors to placate.

As technology like this becomes more widespread it is going to become harder than ever for anyone to hide.  Imagine the power of not just, say, audiotaping an encounter with a NYC police officer detaining you unlawfully.  Now imagine live streaming that same encounter.

It will be very interesting to see how various goverments react to these innovations.  As Lancaster, PA has proven, the government loves the idea of cameras watching our every move but what happens when the cameras are turned back onto them?

“Aged News” vs. #IranElection

Everyone, including myself, is talking about the stark difference between the mainstream media’s reporting on events in Iran versus the real-time feed of citizens reporting on events via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and FlickR, among others.

Clearly, we are reaching a tipping point, a time after which newspapers will simply not have a significant role to play in the reporting of the news.  Sure, we will always be interested in reading well-written commentary and longer, in-depth explorations of complex topics, but the idea of the newspaper as a place for actual news is becoming laughable.

As I mentioned the other day, my favorite part of the Daily Show takedown of the New York Times was when Jason Jones called said the paper was full of “aged news.” It looks like the term is catching on:

The speed of change is leaving newspapers dead in the water. While some like the Guardian have managed to maintain active blogs on the events unfolding, most seem unable to compete with realtime speed, what use is their aged news when we can’t use it today?  LINK