Today I have seen two stories about how Hulu is blocking anonymous Proxies. The reason Hulu is doing this is to block international web content. This is a problem that Amazon, Vudu, and TiVo has run into in the past. This is a problem with international licensing. Pick a show, Fringe for example, and look at its international broadcasters. If someone can get this show on the internet for free, these broadcasters will pay a lot less for them.
The said truth is that all content is worth less that it used to be worth. The problem is that the money made by content providers is also going to be reduced. Ad revenue is going down and putting up walls will not help. Getting content in front of people is what will make content producers money. The first content provider who realize this can stake claim in the next world of content. Not realizing this could ruin companies like the ways newspapers have ruined their business model.
Today I noticed that I have more that 1.5 million views on Flickr. I crossed this number about a week ago. This blows me away. I know that this does not mean that 1.5 million people have seen my photographs. I have no idea how many people have seen my photos and no good way to estimate. I still know that they have been viewed 1.5 million times.
This number blows my mind. I know that I have a lot of views because I post a lot of photos. Still, people keep on coming back to my photos. People keep on looking at them. I think this is cool. When flickr started if you told me how many people would view my photos I would not have believed it.
I just wish there was a way for me to make money with my flickr stream. I wish I could use a pro account and sign up for ad serving. I wish there was a way for me to cash in. For now I will have to settle for watching my views go up.
I have been looking at flickr stats since it has been added to flickr. I was hoping it would tell me something about my photos that I did not already know. I was hoping I would get a good idea where my views come from. I now have a good idea where my views come from. Below are the numbers as long as Flickr shows them:
Every other site is less that 1%. It would take about 5000 views to get to 1%.
At the time is an image of my stats. You can see that big spike. After looking at those big spikes a few time I came to a realization. Those big spikes do not come from a single photo getting a lot of view. It does not come from a lot of photos getting a higher than average number of views. Those spikes from from many photos getting one extra view that day. That just amazes me.
I have 8,600 hundred photos on flickr. On an average day I get 1700 views over 700 photos. I will get a spike where I get 9000 views over 5000 photos. It is just like lots of photos go an extra view.
I am finding that my photography is defining the long tail.
I understand the idea that the customer is always right, but I am shocked at how entitled some users are. They feel offended that flickr would stoop so low as to offer video. Of course everyone knows that video is the least common denominator on the internet.
If they do not like a feature, don't use it. I think that Elkit in Wonderland said it very well.
I get that you may have no use for this feature, but I don't get the part where you want to forbid it to everybody just because it's not *your* thing.
I know people have very strong feelings about flickr, but you need to give it a chance to grow. I get it that at this time just about every internet user has a favorite site that has been ruined by change. Everyone has a story of a site that used to be great but changed and never recovered.
My problem is that people have not given video a chance. Instantly they said all the idiots from youtube would flood over here and destroy Flickr. They have not even used the feature. Months ago when I first heard rumors of video I did not like the idea, but I think flickr has done a good job with it. The 90 second limit seems to be a great idea. They are long photos and not short video blogs.
Now lets see if there is any change. I trust the flickr staff not to screw this up. I just wished more users had that kind of faith.
Gapingvoid did a webcomic about why he deleted his twitter account. This is interesting to me. Lately I have been less active on my blog. I know this has to do with being engaged. I spend a lot of time with Kate. Even when I am sitting at my computer, I cannot just whip up a good blog entry. It takes time and a lot of effort. What I want to say is just not on the top of my head. It takes a little drilling for me to get to.
I have a twitter account. It is an interesting communication tool and it is worth using for me. It just not the same as a blog. I spend much of my time just deleting messages. Most of the time I am using it on my phone. While it is entertaining, it really makes the rest of text messaging less useful to me.
Twitter at its best feels like a really good short blog, cutting through all the crap. The problem is that is rarely feels that way. Most of the time it is just people talking too much. It seems like less worth my time than reading blogs.
I am not sure if I stopped twittering I would write or read more blogs. Twitter is like a lot of web 2.0 things, I like it, but I will it was more useful.
I have been thinking about how much free media there is out there right now. Between Podcast, Free video websites, blogs, and YouTube you have thousands of hours free programing out there. This is only staying with legal sources also. I spend a lot of money on media every year. Between cable, emusic, going to movies, and all the rest of media I buy that is a lot of coin.
I have been thinking about just not paying for media anymore. I am thinking about going with all free sources. There are sites that give out free mp3s like Daytrotter. I can attach a computer to my big TV. I can watch podcasts, full TV shows on Hulu, clips from TV shows on Comedy Central's Website. There are even some professional podcasts out there.
I am not sure I could do this. I am not sure I could give up my cable television more than anything else. Having a TiVo Series3 makes having digital cable pretty cool. Without digital cable I only get one digital channel with antenna. It sees like a waste.
Maybe 2009, when I am saving up for something special, I will be able to get rid of all my pay media.
A few years ago, when web 2.0 was a new term and not beaten into the ground, an Apple Engineer told me that Apple does not understand the web. His example to me was iTunes. At the time he told me that he wanted iTunes to be more like Flickr and less like a retail store.
At the time I remember him being right. As time has gone on, he has become more and more right. I feel that iTunes is a good program, but it is missing the chance to be a great program. It is missing the chance to be a true music portal. It is missing the chance to be a true media portal.
Over the past couple of months I have really be into podcasts. The problem is that I use three different computers, My laptop, my desktop, and my work computer. WIth iTunes now I have three different lists of pod cases. A different lists on each computer. iTunes is an internet system. I should be able to have a single podcast list no matter what computer I am on. Even if I do not have all the podcasts set to download on each computer.
I have an account on iTunes, but there is very little I can do with that account. Instead of creating a killer web app, Apple has create a store front. Many people might say that is all they need to created. If Apple created a killer web app they would have a way to increase their sales. It would be easy to see the benefit of sharing my iTunes collection with my friends. Being able to share information with myself would be a great tool. Now I have the same podcast on one than one machine.
I really think the web is the future. Software is going to be replace replaced by services. Hardware needs to take advantage of those services. Apple is both a hardware and a software company. They have made an incredible comeback over the last couple of year. I think they are leaving a lot on the table by not understanding the web.
Lane Hartwell is pissed off at people stealing her photos, or at least infringing on the copyright. (Yes I am one of those people who think theft and copyright infringement are two different things.) There are items on Scott Beal's Liquid Squid and Like it Matters. I wonder if people like me make it harder on people like her. I know that I am not a great photographer. I am no where near Lane Hartwell in skill or talent. I am the kind of person who does not police his photos. I am the kind of person who does not know if people use my photos. Only once have I ever dinged a website for using a photo of mine without telling me. I had them add my name because I wanted to help the person who was in the photo.
I wonder if the web has made photography less valued. I wonder if so many people are willing to give it away for free, does it make it easier for other people to take? I am wondering if it is something that cannot be avoided because of the way other copyright holders act.
A friend send me a link for a site that takes random Family Circus comics and adds random Nietzsche quotes. I think this is one is very funny. It is a great idea. I think there are lots of comics that could use this kind of treatment. I know the Family Circus is easy because the text is not part of the cartoon. I wonder what The Far Side would look like
The other day I did a search for how many dead blogs are there? I am interested in this because I have been looking at old Sad Salvation entries. There are lots of blog entries I point to blogs that are no longer there. That made me think about dead blogs and extinct blogs. The difference between the two are is that dead blogs are still sitting there in cyberspace not being updated, extinct blogs are missing from cyberspace. I know I am making up these terms. I feel that dead blogs and extinct blogs are different from each other and should be seen that way. If you have better terms for these things let me know.
I found an blog post about dead blogs that points to an article about dead blogs. I think that both of these things are pretty interesting. There is no shame that the rate of growth of blogs has slowed. I think we have not entered the second phase for blogging yet. I think the story of blogs and the impact on society is far from over. I think that is the important thing. Even if there are a lot of dead blogs out there, what matters is that readers still find blogs to read.
Everything on the web should be permanent, but it is not. There are hosting fees and URL registration fees. If you do not keep those things up your blog will go away even after it is dead. The information can be lost. Now my blog points to sites that are no longer there.
Now, everything comes with a blog. Almost Every social network site has a blogging feature that goes along with it. Sites from MySpace, Last FM, to OK Cupid have blogs. I cannot create enough content for the blogs I already have. There is no way to create a new blog for every site I sign up for. As web 2.0 kicks in, a new phase of blogging is going to start. I think that this blogs are going to different than the last generation off blogs. I think the users will be less invested in them and they will go dead at a much faster rate. I also think there will be a lot more private friends only blogs with social network sites.
I think we will see more changes if micro blogging like Twitter catches on. I think we will see a different level of blogging. I think we do not know what changes that will bring.
Even if there are a lot of dead blogs, blogs are not going away. Even if the rate of growth of blogs have slowed, it does not mean the change created by blogs is going away. The promise of blogs is that anyone can get their message out there. If you are good enough people will read you. I think the Huffington Post is a great example of how blogs have changed the world. Arianna Huffington and Kenneth Lerer did not have to create a magazine or get a show on a cable network to get their message out there. I think this revolution will not end even if the trend of everyone having a blog ends.
“The barrier to get into the industry is so low: you need a video camera and a couple of people who will have sex,” Mr. Fishbein said.
My guess is the culture of web exhibitionism does not help either. People are willing to show a lot of themselves on the web. It is not a big leap to showing them shelves doing adult acts. It is like Girls Gone Wild without the middle man.
I have yet to see the social networking site around pornography. The kind of place where you can let all your friends know what kind of pornography you like and meet people with similar tastes. I know this site is coming some day.
For years the story was that pornographers were the only people making money on the internet. Now the pornographers making money on the internet are eating into the profits of pornographers making adult films. I wonder if the internet had reduced the value of pornographic films. Is the new distribution system changed how the whole industry works?
On the Sunday edition of the Mercury News there is a tease banner of 'Who Is Reading Your Blog?' The story is in the Perspective section. The column is about how people are obsessed with who is reading their blog, looking at their photos, watching their video, and visiting there myspace page. Views are one of the main currencies of the web. The numbers of views you get is the amount of attention we are getting.
I do not worry too much about who is reading Sad Salvation. I figured out a long time ago that I am a not going to be an A, B, or C-List blogger. I have always seen myself as a K-List blogger. My technorati rank is around 400,000 and I do not see it going up anytime soon. For whatever reason, I do not appeal to a mass audience. I know that people are reading it because I am getting comments from time to time.
I am obsessed about views when it comes to Flickr. Views are my main driver. I care that my median view does not drop. It has been slowly climbing this year. It seems to be stuck between 40 to 38. I have a group for photos that I think should have 100 views. For some reason I get the most reward out of people looking at my photos.
There is one quote in the story which I found interesting.
One concern, however, looms on the horizon for all those creators: In a world where everyone is busy churning out videos, blog entries, and podcasts (and counting the number of people who tune in), do we run the risk of having no one left to watch?
Yes, I spend much more time working on Sad Salvation than I do reading blogs. I spend much more time working on my photos than I send on looking at other people's photos. I am more focused on me than I am on other people. I guess that is part of why I like being a blogger.
Yahoo no longer trying to be all things to all web users
Yahoo announced that it is closing their auction site. According this this article it is getting killed in the space. My guess is that this has something to do with the Peanut Butter memo. I think it is a good move to get out of businesses you are not really competing in.
I am not sure getting rid of your photos business is the best move. I know that you also have flickr. It is possible that different users what different kinds of tools. I love flickr, but it does not seem to be about the same idea as yahoo photos. If you kill one tool for another, you might end up losing more users than money you are saving. I think making these two tools one business unit might work better than only having one tool.
I will admit that I do not know what all those additional resources could do for flickr. If all the photo resources go over there, you might be able to get something great. It will be interesting to see what happens at Yahoo.
The New York Times has a buying v. renting tool on their website. It does a pretty good job answering a question I have had for a long time. Of course I get a little depressed when I use this tool, but that is part of living in Silicon Valley.
Today in the New York Times I see an article that asks, Is it too late to bring civility to the Web? All I can say is that some people need to get over themselves. It is sad that this question even needs to be asked. I would hope there is not a need for a code of conduct. I would hope that bloggers can conduct themselves, but if they cannot we might just need a code of conduct.
I want to say that if you comment on a blog, the person who owns that blog has the right to delete your comment, no matter what. The owner of the blog can delete your comment if they do not like the comment, think you use too many comma, or just don't like your last name. The blog owner is not stepping on your right to free speech. Your right to free speech is your right to link to that entry and make your blog post. that is where your right to free speech is.
I use a system where the comments only last three months anyway. I have always thought that comments are extra. They are an add on to the blog. If a comment is really good I will add it to my blog. I know that lots of people disagree with me.
One of my goals for 2007 is to get 200,000 views for my flickr photostream. I know that is a kind of sad goal, but I am obsessed with flickr. Part of that obsession is how many views my photos get and how many views my photostream gets.
I just figured out that I need to average 350 views per day to get to 200,000 by the end of the year. I know that this is not about averages. Events like Maker Faire and Comic Con spike my views. I need to get as many views out of those events as I can. As long as I can find cool photos, the pub about those events do the rest.
This feels strange because I feel that I can do very little about getting more views for my photostream. I know what having my photos in groups get more views for my photos in general, but I cannot predict how a specific photo will do in a specific group. It is the same thing with blogging a photo. I can never predict how blogging a photo will effect the view count.
I have been reading about how NBC Universal and News Corp want to dethrone YouTube and Google as kings of internet video. I think this is pretty funny. I have the feeling that people at NBC and News Corp have no idea what makes YouTube successful. Google did not even have a good idea so they bought them. I think Hollywood thinks they can dictate what will be successful. I think that would be a big mistake. I have some advice for this new site. I know that Hollywood is not good at taking advice, but I will give it anyway.
1) On the internet Short is Big
There is a line from the story that jumped right out at me.
When it launches in the summer, the new venture will feature thousands of hours of full-length TV shows and videos for free on AOL, MSN, MySpace and Yahoo shortly after they appear on television networks.
The networks have to remember that there is more than one way to show the same show. When it comes to shows like The Tonight Show, Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, Family Guy, make sure you cut the shows into segments. It is often single joke of segments that people want to see. If there is a really funny skit on Saturday Night Live, let me see just that skit. Don't make me see the whole show to see it. This is why the Daily Show has been so popular on You Tube.
2) Viral is King
To be honest, the networks do not do a good job at getting me to watch network shows. They also do not do a good job of getting me to network websites. Let me do an exchange table for you.
1 conversation about a clip on the internet = 10 emails about that clip 1 email from a friend = 10 friends blog posts 1 Friends blog post is = 10 Strangers blog posts 1 stranger blog post is = 10 mentions in the media 1 mention in the media = 100 promos on TV.
As much as the promos during the Daily Show tell me to visit their web site, it takes people telling me about "The Internet is not a Dump Truck" for me to visit it. A friend telling me I will like something carries a lot more weight than some network shill telling me it is really cool.
The other important thing about Viral Marketing is that the public decides what is good. The site just puts the clips up and people get to make up their mind. The problem with network TV is that people feel they have no input into the programing. The site just needs to give the users the tools to decide what to watch.
3) Give me Something Special
Since you own the show you can give people extra content. A site like this is the perfect place for special features. Behind the scenes, director commentary, extra content, deleted scenes, alternate endings. All of those things you can try out here. As a bonus you can reuse this footage for the DVDs later.
4) User Control is Important
If I was to run one of these sites, I would give the users a lot of power. The ability to link to the content is really important. That is my biggest problem with the Comedy Central site. I cannot get to specific content.
You also need to give users the ability to embed content on blogs and other web sites. This will help your users find and share content. The long tale is all about users helping users find content. Hollywood should not look past that. This is a great way to leverage content.
If I was running one of these sites, I would give the users the ability to upload content. They should be able to upload their content and parody content. Content like Nobody's Watching would be perfect. It would be great to see Nobody's Watching 24 parody next to actual 24 content.
I would even give users the ability to upload my content to the site. If I was running a site for the Tonight Show or Late Night, I would let the users decide what clips should be up there. Let them be part of the action and they will market for you. I think this is one of the keys that makes You Tube compelling.
I know Hollywood will not take any of my advice. I know that the average marketer will not agree with any idea that is not their idea. Knowing all that, I am still willing to give my advice for free.
At Autumn's party we were talking about the back on the day on the web. Some how the conversation came back to my first web site, The Bill Gates Fountain of Dreams. I have not had it up for a while. Autumn suggested checking the Wayback Machine on the Internet archive
I was tooling around YouTube and found a copy of Epic 2015. It is an updated version of Epic 2014. It is interesting to see what they updated. No there is no mention of television at all.
I first saw Epic 2014 back in 2005. They funny thing is that if felt really true back in 2005. That was before I started using Flickr all the time. That was before YouTube or MySpace got really big.
Now I watch this video and I feel like it has to be redone again. I am more confident then ever before that big companies will have a hand in the media of the future. Even if that media is nothing like what it is like today. I think that much of the current media will be able to make the jump.
There is no mention of TiVo or Television in this version at all. There is no mention of Flickr, MySpace, or Google Video. I think that they do not pay enough attention to social networking.
I wonder if we will see a new version of this. If I was writing the next version it would not end with death of the New York Times. I do not think that is the worst thing that can happen. I think it would be much worse if every other news paper in America shut down and all you could choose from was the New York Times and USA Today. I think we are in closer danger of losing all the local media. I think that would be a much bigger problem.
I have been holding onto this story for a while. I found this to be funny. Study finds Web isn't teeming with sex. It still does not say what is making money on the on the web. There are lots of people like me not making any money using the web and producing lots of pages.
I saw this story about how Virtual economies are attracting real-world tax attention. At first this idea seems a little odd to me. It feels like paying taxes on Monopoly money. The problem that the reality is very complex. There are real economies in there. I think this is a problem that can take a long time to figure out. Of course the issues might be totally different by the time they figure out this set of issues might be totally different. I am happy for tax collectors to be in games, as long as they are only collecting from the in-game currency.
I just have the feeling that iPoems is not going to take the world by storm. I am not trying to be mean, but I really think that poetry is dying as a popular art form. It is hard for me to see it as vital in the world today. I do not think there is a clamor for a website like iPoems. There are elements of poetry in popular music like rap, but I do not think that leads people to be poetry fans.
I was at the SFlickr meetup and ... was asking people for a definition of Web 2.0. At first no one could define it. I said that web 2.0 is just tags. The were only one succinct answer, Web 2.0 web sites are focused around user contributed content.
I was struck at how easy that answer was. If I think about the Web 2.0 sites that I use, they are about about user content. Look at YouTube, Yepp, del.icio.us, dodgeball, Upcoming.org, and Flickr. All of the interactions on these sites are about users sharing information. There is nothing to share information about if there is no content.
I think something has changed in the way people have been using the internet over the last two years. About four years ago users started to take control again. Now websites are trying to fine way to give users control in ways that are useful. I think that is what Web 2.0 really is.
I just wanted to tell everyone again that I love mp3tunes. I have been using it to back up my digital music collection. I like it because I have access to all my music from the internet. If the file is not protected, I can play it from a browser. Not only is it a good backup, I can get it from anywhere. I often use it when posting songs to my Vox Music Blog.
There are not that many people using this service. I think that everyone who cares about music should use this service. It is cheap compared to buying hard drives for backups. I am currently the user with the 17th most songs uploaded. The one downside is that it takes a log time to upload music. I think I can get into the top 10 when I am done.
I am so blogging this. I always love this shirt. It is like telling people that the security camera is recording their every move. Yet I did not read one thing on Daemonlip blog from this meeting.
I have noticed that my total number of hits have gone down lately, but so have my totally senseless referrals. This makes me happy. I would rather that people find what they are looking for. They might be interested enough to come back again.
I had a very strange Yelp moment the other day. I was having lunch at my favorite lunch time pizza shop, Giovanni's and the head guy walked up to me. I have been going there for years so we know each other well enough for small talk. I can only assume that he is the owner.
He talked to me about seeing a review I wrote of his restaurant. He said that someone was trying to sell him advertising. He brought up the web page and saw my face smiling back at him. I am happy he liked my review. I gave the place a 4 out of 5.
Before that moment I did not think about my reviews having my face attached to them. This means I should only review places I love or will not go back to. There are some places I do not live, but I go there often enough. I do not think suck a public review would be a good thing. Just something to keep in mind.
I went back to Superdickery.com yesterday. I have spent the last two days in laughing fits. I know that I am an old comic book geek, so the old covers are very funny. The comments are just great. They have added few new galleries. They are worth checking out. You have to see Superman's Super-Hunches
I have been using MP3tunes.com to back up my MP3 collection. MP3tunes.com is a great idea, but I cannot say that it has been implemented in the best way. It takes a long time to upload anything. I have been using it for a few weeks now and I only have 8000 songs uploaded. I cannot just have it upload my whole collection because the tool will crash. I have to chunk off part of my collection and upload little by little. If is not set up to use with big collections. If I have to sync everything back down some day I have no idea what will happen.
According to LockerEnvy.com I am ranked in the low 200s in size of collection. If my whole collection was uploaded right now I would be in the top 20. There is something cool about knowing these stats.
MP3tunes.com currently falls in the category of cool web tools I wish where more useful.
I started this last night. The idea is that I want to make it a place for media reviews. I want it to be my place for things I think about movies and tv. I want to see what other people think about music and art. I just have to find people to go there. If you would like to be invited to post on Super Karate Monkey Fist, just send me a message.
One week into my new web site pledge, I have been able to live up to it. I have published my web log five times in the last week. I have given people something to read just about everyday. It is good that I am doing something that I said I would do. I still have no idea if there is anyone reading this.
I also made some small updated to my other web pages. I updated my link page for the Bill Gates Fountain Of Dreams. I added a links page and a short bio to Senseless Banter. I also made some small layout changes almost all the pages of my web site.
I did not produce much new content to for the rest of my web site. I would really like to add more content to Senseless Banter. I just have not taking the time to site down and write. It seems like my web log is all I have time to work on. I need to take more time to just site and write.
I am looking for a good WYSIWYG web editor. I looking for a good program that handles HTML 4.0 tags. I know that I just just work in the code, but I really do not have any interest in that. I also need some good design ideas. Right now I have no good design ideas.
It you have any good ideas for any of these things, send me a line at earthdog7900@att.net
I have just updated the rest of my web site. I have updated the Web According to Bill Gates page. I got ride of the broken links and the link that had changed to a porn site. I have also added the Senseless Banter Web Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame still needs some work, but I published it anyway.
I have a also made a couple other smaller changes to my web site. I am trying hard to make my web page worth reading.
