I had the pleasure of seeing Mark Cuban speak recently at BlogWorld Expo. One of the topics he covered was an interesting assessment on why YouTube hasn’t yet fully monetized the potential ad space on the site. Fortunately Mark has laid out his point previously in a blog post.
The fundamental business issue in claiming protection behind the DMCA is that it requires Youtube to not know what videos are on its site. Unless an uploader is copyright owner that has signed a deal with Youtube giving them knowledge of the videos they will be uploading, by law Youtube can’t have any idea what videos are on the site or where.
Think about that for a minute.
How hard is it to sell advertising around content when you have no idea what the content is ? Its impossible. Its like selling advertisers a lottery ticket , and we all know how good an investment a lottery ticket is for the ticket buyer. For some reason the media seems to think that there isn’t advertising on Youtube because of advertisers fear of User Generated Content. Thats not it. Volume impressions are still sellable. As is volume video. There is a huge market for mass video. Unfortunately for Google, they take a huge risk of liability from the DMCA in generating revenue next to copyrighted materials they don’t have permission for. So to play it safe , they don’t sell advertising around videos they don’t have licenses for.
Interesting. Always seems that the real story is so much deeper than what we tend to hear, eh?
My gag reflex has caused me to throw up a little. Why you ask?
I was reading a recent issue of Entertainment Weekly where they were reviewing the latest Carrie Underwood album. You may remember Carrie from her rise to fame via American Idol. The review talks all about “slick production” and “glossy latest”. Personally, those terms tend to turn me off of the music they’re referencing, but Entertainment Weekly gave the album a B+ rating. OK…
Here’s the line that did me in (and really made me wonder why I’m still reading this magazine):
“Underwood is touting Carnival, several tracks of which she co-wrote, as her return to country roots.”
OK, maybe this will make me sound like the old guy at the end of the street yelling at the kids to “get off my lawn!”, but… remember the days when musicians were embarrassed by the fact that they didn’t write their own material? Sure, some amount of music has always been “manufactured”, but when did it become a claim to fame that you actually co-wrote several tracks of your own CDs?
14 open positions on the Job Board!
Online Community Manager, Zazengo (virtual)
Games for Change Community Manager (New York, New York)
Community Manager: SF Bay Area (Financial District, San Francisco, CA)
Community Support Manager (Needham, MA)
Social Media Marketing Intern (Little Elm, TX (Just north of Dallas))
Online Social Community Specialist (Vancouver, BC)
BlogCatalog/Social Interaction Design (San Antonio)
Community Server Developer (Vancouver, WA or Palo Alto, CA)
Online Community Producer (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
Web Content Producers (Online)
Manager, Online Community, Yahoo! Video (San Francisco, CA)
Yahoo! Sr. Manager, Customer Experience (7584) (Sunnyvale, CA)
Yahoo! Sr. Marketing Manager, Community Products (6328) (Sunnyvale, CA)
It’s a cheesy tradition, but one I love: taking time to think about the things we’re thankful for on/around Thanksgiving. Of course I’m thankful that I made it to Year 1 with the baby toddler girl, and I’m thankful that I’ve been able to build a successful new business with a great client list since July. But I wanted to point out something else I’m thankful for today: Social Media.
That’s right, Social Media. As you likely remember, I want to change the world, and I strongly believe that doing “social stuff” is a way to do that. Don’t believe me? How about this video that I found through another blog (my new favorite, One Man’s Blog) that he embedded in his blog entry from a video sharing site where it was digitized from the cop car camera. The video is long, but truly worth watching. It shows a traffic stop go from start to taser in 2 minutes, 37 seconds. It shows a cop dangerously and illegally inept (he refused to read the “perp” his rights despite multiple requests). It tells a story that in generations past would never have gotten past the word of the cop, and would never have gotten outside the bounds of the local city. Yet, here I am states away being able to take a stand on this kind of citizen treatment. Pretty amazing.
(And don’t forget – the real lesson here is not to drive through Utah. They’ll taser your ass AND your pregnant wife.)
UPDATE: Looks like the Utah Highway Patrol has gotten some feedback about this incident. This is on their home page:
Thank you for your concern regarding the use of a taser by a Utah Highway Patrol Trooper in the Uintah Basin. The Department of Public Safety appreciates your comments, concerns and most of all your patience. Right now we are taking all appropriate measures to investigate and review the circumstances. We can assure you that we are doing everything possible to look into this incident in a fair and impartial manner. A proper investigation takes time and we would ask for your patience. The purpose of this process is to determine if the Trooper acted appropriately.
The deployment of any taser by our Troopers is a serious matter. Every Trooper who works for the Highway Patrol and carries a taser is required to complete a certification course on the use of this non-lethal weapon. We continually train our officers on use of force issues and more specifically the use of a taser. We appreciate the public awareness on this issue and are committed to answering the questions and concerns of the public we are dedicated to protecting.
It’s a bummer they don’t already have a blog in place – a discussion about this issue would be welcomed, and that would be the perfect outlet to do it. As it is, this sounds like PR driven legalese more interested in covering asses than in solving clearly showcased problems.
Nice.
(Please excuse me while I gush, off-topic for a few minutes)
As amazing and bizarre as it seems, yesterday marked year one of fatherhood. In the last few months especially, she’s really become this amazing little person. She’s walking, trying to talk, and developing quite the attitude.
The first year was fantastic, and I hear it only gets better from here. It’s going to be quite a ride!
Jake McKee is the Chief Strategy Officer and Ant Wrangler at Ant's Eye View, a customer experience strategy practice focused on helping clients escalate their customer experience. With a rich background in customer collaboration, online communities, and fan groups, and Web development, community management, and product development, Jake helps organizations understand how to act like groups of people, rather than soulless money making machines.
