Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Gaga wears Daniel Palillo (video)



Impressive I must say. Here is an interview of Daniel Palillo in his native finnish.

[YouTube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly8pj6c_BrY]

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

New Office

We have moved. To new office space in Central Helsinki. Museokatu 44 to be exact.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Strategy In Online Video Syndication

While many video publishers seek the widest possible distribution of their videos through an embeddable player and Media RSS, some, like HealthiNation and Virgin Media, are using a syndicated player which is placed on specific sites.

Controlling the "off domain" strategy is important for many publishers: Some are cautioned about where their videos will appear, often reflecting the concern of advertisers. For others there are rights issues with their content.

So what is the difference to Embeddable players?

With a traditional embeddable player, people really think about viral syndication where a consumer sort of takes the video and embeds it maybe in their personal blog or MySpace page or something to that effect. What we've found is a really effective strategy for content owners is for them to build sort of trusted relationships with distributers--be it very large portals like AOL Video or niche websites that have a really valuable audience. For them to build that relationship with them and to package specific content that they deliver, you know, through a platform like Brightcove, directly through those websites. That really becomes a safe environment for them to build audience off of their own web properties.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Great slides about Social Media

[slideshare id=2005829&doc=wtfissocialmediapgedition-090916075838-phpapp01]

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Nearing the tipping point

In this blog post, Jason Glickman, CEO of Tremor Media tells us how we are nearing the tipping point with online video advertising. The point where Online Video is becoming a major part of the media mix.

Yes, online video has garnered enormous buzz – and venture investment dollars – but the medium has yet to secure much more than a sliver of the $65 – $70 billion advertisers spend annually on television spots.

Until now.

Now I would not be so bold as to call “time of death” on the television model. In fact, with all due respect to Julia Louis-Dreyfus, I think reports of TV’s death are greatly exaggerated. Viewership is as high as it’s ever been and the medium will (and should) receive the lion’s share of advertising dollars now and in the near to mid-term future.

But I do believe that when we look back years from now, the period starting from the third quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of 2010 will be remembered as the turning point for online video advertising.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Beginning of Time

Poem

lips
The pedals of flowers are vain
Even roses do sting and cause you pain
We sat through the blossom
just waiting for the wind of change

The sun cast the last light of day
moon arrived, chasing the blinking ray
We still sat on the couch with a stare
thinking of the moment, is this really so rare

The feel, the touch on your knee
felt like a thousand years, nothing to spare
The fairness of your skin and stare
bought me to sting myself without care

That night didn't bring me to you
still separated by the distinct cove
The moment set ground on the play's set
telling our story, the story of love

Friday, September 18, 2009

Time tested

Poem

lips
I want to remind you
of the time I saw you back then

You had your pink scarf
I was late...and I'm never late

Your smile, your lips
Your eyes, are so perfect

Had never seen anything so pure
Had to have you or to die in vain

In time you said you love me
Those words make me so peaceful
Therefore I love you

Test of Time

Poem

lips
I've always wondered when will this moment come
The test of time, a test for some
To find the flaws in perfection
thats what we face in the end...well...some say.

Night and night you feel nothing
and my pleas count to fuel the feel
Though I've promised to hold my breath
for you until the death

This happened before, with the precious stone
far far away from my current home, so I've seen it
The flaws get sour and never heal
and my love you are lured away by this 'cool' little thing

Hide your face forever
to dream and search again
I will love you forever
And never search again

Sunday, September 06, 2009

Short film for Finnish Catwalk

I did direct a quick short film that was played as opening for a fashion show here in Helsinki. Zero Budget, 4 hours of fun in the forest and few hours of editing. Simple, effective and we gained very good feedback on this. Have a look.




Sunday, August 16, 2009

Flow Festival 2009 Helsinki

Art Review

Flow Festival 2009 is fucking amazing. Never been in Flow before and I'm surprised of the quality. Finally an event organised in Helsinki has the similar quality as a whole as what I used to in London. 3 days + 1 special concert by Kraftwerk. Full of art, design, good food, and great soul and electro music! and its just 5min from my apartment! Best ones, Nitin Sawhney and Fever Ray coming tonight
[gallery columns="2"]

Friday, July 03, 2009

Mårten Mickos on effective teams

Academic

I am reposting a great summary of team building, expecially for executives. By Mårten Mickos of MySQL.

1. The team members ask each other "How can I support you?"
2. The team members hold each other accountable while also allowing each one to show vulnerability.
3. The team practices open and authentic communication.
4. The team arrives at key decisions together through discussion, debate, and synthesis.
5. The team has fun.
6. The team members see success of the whole team as the best form of success.
7. The team operates at a strategic level and empowers the organization around them to make and execute operational decisions.
8. Each team member builds his/her own teams following these principles.

And there is an implicit characteristic number zero (which should be self-evident): 0. Each team member individually follows Drucker's eight practices for effective executives.

Some observations and further comments on the team practices:

Item 1: In a great executive team, all executives help each other, and they engage in the broad management of the business and not just in their own area of responsibility. This cannot happen if there is a team member with a supersized ego. So by defining this practice, we are also saying no thanks to people with egos too big to fit inside an effective team.

Item 2: There is a virtuous circle in all of this (and a vicious one in the opposite scenario): When each team member does his/her job, trust emerges between team members. When there is trust, you can admit and show your vulnerabilities and weaknesses. When you can admit your weaknesses, you are also bound to improve. When you improve, you do your job better. When you do your job better, more trust ensues.

Item 3: It could be added that this practice is both about communication inside the team and outside.

Item 4: How a team arrives at decisions is a very important issue. Note that it says "key decisions" -- non-key decisions can be made individually or at a lower level in the organization. Arriving at a decision "together" means that everyone will be heard, dissent will be encouraged, pros will be weighed against cons, and so on. But it does not mean that it is a democratic decision or a decision by consensus. At the end of any decision-making process in a corporation, there will be a single responsible decision-maker (many times, but not always, the CEO) who will have to make the final call. But during the process, he/she will engage the whole team and build up better insights, common understanding, and broad commitment, no matter what the ultimate decision will be. Many times in such an open decision-making process, new ideas emerge that shape the ultimate decision.

Item 5: Fun means genuine fun, not superficial fun. Fun doesn't require money, great surroundings, great food, or great wine. We have nothing against those things, but at the end of the day they are not vital for having fun. They only add luster to something that it is fun by itself. Fun happens when human beings interact on a plane deeper than what they are used to or what they expected.

Item 6: It takes a lot to get a team in a condition where overall success is more rewarding than success of any given individual. But when it happens, it is an amazing feeling for all involved (and for all who are observing from around), and it produces better results.

Item 7: Teams need to not micromanage the world around them, but to build layers of managers and teams that can run the show.

Item 8: Building a team is very difficult, but also incredibly rewarding.

My hope is that these practices can be useful to those who build executive teams. I have seen, participated in and built a number of executive teams in my career and I know firsthand the turbo boost a company gets from having an effective executive team. The one we built at MySQL was unique in this regard, if I may say so myself. I am very eager to hear comments and suggestions for improvements on this text. Please send them to

Despite Recession, online video is growing 40% in 2009

In Beet.TV interview, American eMarketer Senior Analysist David Hallerman, believes that online video is becoming a very important medium for advertising. He calls for longer content, thus there could be more ads.

“Overall, online video advertising will grow at a 40% clip this year and for the next few years, outpacing most other ad mediums, Hallerman said to Andy in the interview.

That increase would bring online video ad spending to $1.1 billion this year and $4.1 billion by 2013. Other estimates place total spending at a smaller amount: media agency Magna projects Web video will corral only $699 million this year and won’t reach $1 billion until 2011.

Despite the different projections, researchers agree that Web video will remain a rare bright spot and continue to outpace other mediums. But, the recession is still affecting Internet TV, and its growth this year is well below last year’s more than doubling of dollars, Hallerman pointed out”.

Well… in CityVice we wholly agree, thou the growth will also come from more focused short-form content. Relevancy is the key word.

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Advertisers are following Online Video space

peace

A Helsinki based media agency Dagmar, wrote about the use and future of online videos and web-tv. According to them, currently videos are the faster growing advertising platform online, with a market of $4,6 billion in US by 2013. European figures are very similar, as Tekes forecast (in finnish) online video to have €6 billion by 2013.

All these forecast and market researches echo what CityVice has been building on. We have some great news to tell you in soonish. We have come up with a great solution for the market, for media, advertisers and media agencies. Here are some points from the studies:

Online videos are perfect way to continue the advertising campaign shown on TV. One point to note however; most of the spots used in traditional TV does not work perfectly online. So for advertisers it is important to tweak the online ad according to needs. CityVice has the best knowledge on this data, so get in touch. :)

- 20% of 16-25 years do not own a TV.
- 40% of 16-25 years are watching TV & videos mainly online
- Online has much better tracking and reporting tool, therefore more meaninful advertising.
- Brand Lifting value is exceptional in online videos
- Click Through Rates in CityVice network is 4.5% - 5%, Interaction rates massive 40%.
- TNS Gallup has started a video tracking service. We are not familiar with this...yet that is :)

So overall online videos are booming, regardless of the recession times. CityVice is there for you, serving the needs of online video.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

2009: The year of Re-Designing the Content Business

Business

The disruptive force of the Internet has finally hit home. A quick look at some trends in this context:

* Newspaper revenues are seriously down (25% in some cases); and magazines and other print media are severely challenged, as well
* Digital music revenues are still going up, overall, but very very very far from enough to stop the free-fall of the recorded music industry, in general (approx 20%, globally, would be my estimate for 2008) *pennies for $$, see below
* DVD sales are declining, worldwide, prices are falling, too - and this will only accelerate next year
* Online video views and audiences are up a lot - but so far pretty much everybody has trouble making any real money with online video

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Ad survey

Business

Brightroll's Video Advertising Report 2009 on Q1 is released.

Some findings:

* 87% of agency executives plan to spend more of their online advertising budgets on video in 2009
* 71% of survey participants view online video advertising as a complementary medium to television
* A majority of respondents estimates CPM prices to be at their lowest, and 20% thinks the price of pre-roll will drop to half what it is today
* Prices of pre-roll continue to fall (early Q2 data suggests this trend will continue)

BrightRoll's average CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions) numbers from the industry at large confirm the trend:

* Average pre-roll CPM: Q408 vs. Q308 – down 12.5%
* Average pre-roll CPM: Q408 vs. Q407 – down 25.0%
* % of Campaign Revenue from Pre-roll: Q109 (80.6%), Q108 (63.1%)

The drop in CPM pricing "could be a good thing," because cost may have been limiting growth, TechCrunch observed. If they come down further, say to $7-9 instead of $20, they'll give TV commercials, which range between $15 (primetime) to $50 (niche, targeted cable channels).

In addition to cost (27%), 31% of agencies cited "lack of targeting capabilities" as a factor limiting online video ad growth. Some 18% said online video has limited reach, and 12% cited ad format limitations. Just 7% thought it was held back by poor inventory quality.

Both pre-roll and in-banner ads were regarded as preferable units, with one out of two respondents saying their use of one or the other depended on the situation and advertiser goals. Reasons for their preference, according to the survey, are guaranteed impressions, overall engagement, and noticeability.

The most surprising finding of the survey was the lack of data and effort around video advertising efficacy; 87% have not performed any in-house research around their online video campaign efficacy.

Asked what they would want to know if they were to conduct research:

* 39% would explore the impact of online video advertising on offline purchase behavior
* 36% would explore changes in purchase intent / brand lift
* 25% would measure efficacy vs. television advertising

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Video Viewing Exceeds E-mail Use, Nielsen Reports

Business

GraphReblogging from Beet.tv: Visitors to video sites now exceeds users of Web-based e-mail, according to a report released today by The Nielsen Company. The study reports on monthly unique visits to various Web sites and online applications.

Video passed e-mail monthly unique visits in 2007. This number is not the total number of e-mails sent or received or videos watch, just monthly visits to the e-mail or video sites.

text

Digitytöt Making Waves

Visuals

digitytot

Digitytöt are one of CityVice's projects, in which we take care of the video production. You all know Diggnation? We’re creating our own except that it’s pink and pretty. Helene Auramo, CEO of Zipipop, and her friend Sanna are Digitytöt (tranlates into Digitalgirls from Finnish).

It’s going to be lots of pink, giggling, partying and some interviews with the local start-up stars. We are already being featured in ArcticStartup, Digitoday and some blogs such as Tuhat Sanaa and Maurelita's. Good times!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Work Harder AND Smarter

How about this article as an inpiration for Entrepreneurs. Are you a Lifestyler or a Hustler?

Me? I’m a hustler (aww, yeah!). I escape 9-5 by working 8 to 8. I work weekends. When I’m not working, I’m thinking about work. Sound bad? Maybe we have different ideas of what work is. Work has no negative connotations to me. It’s equally rewarding as it is inspiring; equally exciting as it is relaxing. I always have my eye on the prize: making things better all the time for our company, for our community and for our customers. It’s not that I have no life, hustlers are expert life-multitaskers. They recognize that ideas or opportunities can arise at any time, and they’re always prepared. Ever seen Gary Vaynerchuk speak or watch WLTV? Hustler. Ever notice how Marc Ecko always has 100 things going on at a time? Hustler. Hustlers work smarter and harder.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Online video consumption rising!

Business

videoPeople watching online video in the U.S. now watch more than three hours per month, according to new data from Nielsen Online.

In February, video usage was 169 minutes on average, but in March, it rose 13 percent to 191 minutes, Nielsen said.

Also growing fast: the total video streams viewed increased 9 percent from 8.9 billion to 9.7 billion. And the number of videos per user grew 7 percent from about 70 to 74.

Since the number of minutes per user is increasing at a faster rate than the number of videos per user, that means people are gradually moving to longer and longer videos--from 2.4 minutes in February to 2.7 minutes in March.

Google's YouTube continues to dominate the category, with 5.5 billion videos and 89 million people using the service in the U.S., Nielsen said. Hulu is in second place with 348 million videos and 9 million users. Yahoo is in third place with 232 million videos, but it's got more users than Hulu, about 25 million users.

Friday, April 10, 2009

A Good Pitch

[slideshare id=811429&doc=canaanentrepreneurspitchworkbookpoptech-1228358648663549-9]

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

8 key trends and some foresights for the next 5 years

Academic

LeonhardI'm becoming a bit of a fan of Gerd Leonhard. Gerd’s work focuses on the Future of Media, Content, Technology, Business, Communications and Culture, and he is considered a leading expert on topics such as Web/Media 2.0, social networking and social media, cultural changes due to disruption by new technologies, copyright vs. technology issues, online content commerce models, media convergence, mobile entertainment, entrepreneurship, the future of advertising and branding, future planning, digital content strategies and next-generation business models.

In his latest post on MediaFuturist he gives an amazing rundown of future development within media. Here are the key points, please read the complete post.

1. We will soon see the emergence of many different kinds of iPhone-influenced Netbook-like devices
2. Very cheap or free wireless broadband - at fairly high speeds, i.e. at least 2MB / sec
3. Collective blanket licenses that legalize and unlock legitimate access to basic content services via any digital network
4. Fuel-cells and other next-generation mobile energy sources are a certainty
5. Completely targeted and personalized advertising
6. the core economic business models - of newspapers, magazines, CDs, DVDs and books will be completely re-written
7. Today we pay to go online and connect; in the future we may end up paying for the luxury to go offline
8. Travel 2.0: alternatives to 'actually going there'

Sunday, March 29, 2009

The Future Of Music And Media

Academic

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.2289851&w=425&h=350&fv=clip_id%3D3596445%26server%3Dvimeo.com%26autoplay%3D0%26fullscreen%3D1%26md5%3D0%26show_portrait%3D0%26show_title%3D0%26show_byline%3D0%26context%3Duser%3A1409904%26context_id%3D%26force_embed%3D0%26multimoog%3D%26color%3D00ADEF%26force_info%3Dundefined]

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Dream and Search Forever

Poem

lips
Hide your face forever
dream and search forever

Open your eyes, open your mind
proud like a god
trapped in yourself, break out instead
beat the machine

The look in the eye of the storm, say what are you afraid?
Smile, your eyes are the ones that meet me half way
The drops, cries, open your eyes and see
We are searching and dreaming forever

Hide your face forever
dream and search forever
night and night you feel nothing
we have to believe in what we feel

Take the first step to the unknown
Freeze the air like you do
Where my words weight a ton
but hardly ever come out right

You are the perfume in the air
I am the utopian craftsman

In that moment I will love you forever
And never search again

Venture Cup Final

Business

CityVice is selected to be one of the 10 finalists in Venture Cup business plan competition. This is great news and actually I don't really care if CityVice wins, the publicity this generates is what I'm after. Be ready, we are preparing to come out strong!

Friday, March 13, 2009

Better Than The Best

Poem

Why oh why are we looking for control?
There is nothing you can do
The chaos theory will prevail!

Why oh why are we looking for love?
There is nothing you can do
The love will find you eventually!

Why oh why we say something is the best?
You can't rank it like that
The best is something given your heart into it!

Monday, March 09, 2009

Young Adults Giving Up TV in Massive Demographic Shift

Business

videoReblogging from Beet.tv: Online video is replacing television for consumers 25 years and younger as part of a dramatic demographic shift. Watching video on a personal computer is becoming the principal way young adults consume video.

Adobe business development chief Bill Rusitzky thinks that for many young adults 25 and under, there is a greatly diminished interest in watching television as video consumption is shifting dramatically to the PC, he told me. He says that as this population grows, there will be a big change in media consumption patterns over the next ten years.

While the nascent online video industry is figuring out business models, a big demographic shift is on our side.

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Crossover of Senses to Helsinki?

Visuals

cos-logoI graduaded from LSBU Arts Management course on 2006, which is one of the best arts courses in Europe (officially rated). Arts Management students from London South Bank University (LSBU) have been presenting high quality, innovative events for the last ten years. Featuring a wide and diverse programme and benefiting from a skilful group of tutors, the Art Management events have received high acclaim from artists and audience members, as well as professionals in the industry.

Given this strength of quality and reputation, people are often surprised to learn that the events are an entirely non-profit operation. But it's true. Each member of the group contributes his or her talents entirely out of personal passion and out of the desire to enrich the cultural terrain of the community.

Some videos in my portfolio

Now to continue the heritage and a project that was running 2007-2008 Crossover of Senses, I am thinking of bringing it to Helsinki as well. The idea is simply to mash up two different disciplines together. Do you have any ideas which to mash up?

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Sex in High School

Love this quote on a Videoplaza blogpost of their CEO Sorosh Tavakoli. So true!


“Online video advertising is like sex in high school: Everybody talks about it, nobody really does it and the ones doing it are pretty bad at it

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Home in 2040

Academic

There was an interesting article in Tekniikka & Talous webzine in Finland about a design vision of a home in 2040. Below is the English translation.

vision 2040

”I wake up in my multiroom box and go from the bedroom to the bathroom. When I return through the same door, bedroom has turned itself into a kitchen, as my home will guess that it will the step in my morning routines.

The breakfast is already made. I spread the table wider with my hands and look around. I'm in a Parisian cafe. With a gesture of my arm the view changes in a safari scene. I pick up a banana, peel it up and throw the rubbish on the table, which instantly drops it into the waste disposal system.

I go to work at a wikibar, which is at the street level of my condominium. At the wikibar, I go to the brainfloor, which stimulates my senses and wakes me up for thinking. At the workconsole I will save the intuitive created thoughts and continue to the team working space. My colleagues are gathering there as well.

Our ideas are displaced on the walls, the space will listen to us and saves all the new thoughts from the brainstorming.

We have a break at the bar, where I get a new idea. I go the information display, which does offer me more info about the subject. After the break, our team goes to simulationroom to have a look at the plan, product or project would look like when completed.

After work I go to the condominiums meeting space. I will meet my family and friends, pick up an apple and sit by the river under a blue sky. In reality the meeting space is part of the series of rooms, but with display systems and mirrors, it looks very realistic outdoor space. In our room its spring, though elsewhere it could winter wonderland or a tropical sunset."

This is a vision of architecture engineering student Juuso Kangas about living in 2040. He is a member of the group which won a Finnish award for future visions.

The core idea around the vision is "metamaterial", in which the material will mold into the needs of the user guided by AI. Bedroom will become living room and the bed becomes a couch. The design sculpture becomes a table.

Metamaterial creates a wealth of opportunities. In the future, shops are not selling pieces of furniture anymore, but codes for materials that creates certain shapes.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Staggering Teenage Online Habits

Business

videoI repost this info from a great blog site of Flypaper.tv. Go the flypaper post for links to more in depth data of the surveys.

Telegraph.co.uk reported that Teenagers spend an average of 31 hours a week online, according to a study by CyberSentinel. The study interviewed 1000 teenagers, all between the ages of 13 to 19 years. In addition, Paidcontent covers a music-related study around youth, which asks: would you rather go without sex or music?

Below we gather a few key statistics, in the hopes such insight helps us cater to our customers in more profound and effective ways.

Internet Habits Per Week (CyberSentinel):

* 3.5 hours communicating with friends on MSN

* 9 hours spent using Chat rooms, forums, MSN, and social networking sites such as Facebook to communicate with friends

* 1 in 4 teenagers polled admitted to regularly chatting with strangers online - the majority of whom think it is harmless

* 2 hours watching videos on YouTube

* Over 1hr is spent looking at cosmetic surgery procedures

* 1.5hrs are devoted to family planning and pregancy websites

* 1hr 35minutes spent on diet and weigh loss websites

* 14hours per week are spent surfing the net un-chaperoned

* 1hrs and 40 minutes browsing sites for pornography (If you do the math that equals 87 hours per year!)

* 1hr and 40 minutes spent downloading or listening to music

* 33% of teenagers surf the web in the bedroom, while 27% surf in their parent’s study or living room

* Thankfully, its not all fun and games, as these teenagers also admit spending a minimum of 3hrs per week use the internet as a homework and academic resource

SEX or MUSIC?

A recent study by Marrakesh Records and Human Capital shows that:
(Surveyed 1,000 15 to 24-year-olds)

* 60% of young people would rather give up sex than music
* 70% say they don’t feel guilty for illegally downloading music from the internet
* 61% feel they shouldn’t have to pay for music.
* 43 to 49% of the music owned has not been paid for
* The majority think £6.58 is a good price for a CD album
* They also believe downloaded albums should be £3.91, singles 39p

* 75 % have watched a music video online in the past three months
* 70 % bought a CD in the past three months
* 62 % played music on their phone in the past three months
* 52 % have paid for a music download in the past three months
* 45 % have played music on their games console in the past three months

* 67 % think radio is still the best medium for hearing about new bands
* 63 % say they rely on recommendations from friends for hearing about new bands
* 49 % prefer music channels like MTV for hearing about new bands
* 21 % prefer newspapers for hearing about new bands
* 17 % prefer music magazines for hearing about new bands
* 14 % prefer blogs for hearing about new bands

* 38% think YouTube is the best way for exploring new music
* 15% feel MySpace is best for exploring new music
* 8% think Facebook and official band sites are best for exploring new music
* 4% think NME and Last.fm are the least important sites for exploring new music

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Brain Hacking

Visuals

I guess these projects in advertising were inevitable. In a blog run by Taneli Tikka, he explains geniously the way to "hack you brain". Or more perhaps way to fuck up the way brain functions and operates the evolved and learned patterns of understanding the world around. Read the blog post for the explanation.

I wonder how many examples of such there is in the arts? What kind of experiments? There are many I know, most well known maybe Dali using this hacking of brains idea.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Web Real Estate vs. Content

Business

Raising funding in the current economical situation is tough. However,Twitter has raised $35 million from Venture Capitalist. Well done for them for the amazing service that I as well use. Thou this raises some questions about the current state of online business and so called real estate.

For me, working on the online's content side, all the technological development and platform systems with API's are like real estate land. Currently everyone is racking up users as fast as they can, still not aiming to make money from the huge amount of users populating their service. Like Facebook, over 200 million regular users and very low income compared to their size. Obviously there are few examples like Finnish Habbo Hotel, which are actually racking up a solid cashflow.

I think all this architecture building should start looking for more opportunities. Like what to build on this land they have acquired? Technology, or kinda infrastructure is important and a base on everything, though the actual service and monetizing that service is very important.

Just relying on user generated content is not enough, because no one is really not interested to pay anything for it. It is low quality, badly designed and it is not regularly generated.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Dream of Forgiveness

Thoughts

peace

What characterises the human race more, cruelty, or the capacity to feel shame for it. I'm lonelier and wiser now, and I know it isn't cruelty or shame that characterises the human race. It's forgiveness that makes us what we are. Without forgiveness, our species would've annihilated itself in endless retributions. Without forgiveness, there would be no history.

Without hope, the would be no art, for every work of art is in some way an act of forgiveness. Without that dream, there would be no love, for every act of love is in some way a promise to forgive. We live on because we can love, and we love because we can forgive.

- Roberts, Gregory David (2003) Shantaram

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Diving to turn 30

After a lot of work, me and my dear family took a week of to dive at the Red Sea. This was part of the celebration of my 30th Birthday, which by the way is on the same day as my dad's 57th. I say, diving is just amazing. Can't talk enough of it. Here are a few photos.[gallery]

Monday, January 12, 2009

More Online Video Data

videoComscore has announced its latest Online Video findings, with Americans watching 12.7 billion videos in November 2008 (up 34% from last year), watching 87 videos on average per person. Google and YouTube dominated the statistics, accounting for 40% of this online video usage. Fox Interactive Media came second ( 3.5% of video views), then Viacom digital (2.6 % of video views). Hulu topped the charts in terms of duration of video watched (avg. 12 minutes per video, vs. 3 min avg duration of YouTube), but in terms of percentage of video views it placed sixth with 1.8%. We expect this figure to rise exponentially over the year.