Technology, Media and Celebs Meet at Rosh Pina Festival

A gathering of international speakers from US and European media industry, startups, technology companies, interactive agencies, investors, TV stars and executives is taking place in Rosh Pina, Israel, on 5th-8th of November.

In the last 8 years, Rosh Pina Festival was all about the TV industry, positioning itself as the place to be for executives, creators and business people.

This year, Ami Giniger, head of Taya Media Group, the main organizer of the event, decided to extend the festival to digital media – and cover the effects of technology on the international media market. As a part of this change, Yossi Vardi became co-chair of the event.

Therefore, I was thrilled when asked by Taya to be the principal organizer of the digital track. For me, it is like being a kid in a candy store – creating an international conference in the topic I am so passionate about. Though require a lot of heavy lifting (and if you follow my twitter you know that), it is an exciting role, and I am happy to say that we are going to have an amazing event, with speakers from the local, US and European media and digital industry, research companies, and a lot of innovation and startups. And, yes, a lot of TV starts and celebs (let’s face it, geeks are cool, celebs are…. at least as cool…)

Some of the speakers are well known in the Internet TV circles – we managed to get Mike Hudak from blip.tv out of his lavish NYC offices to the stages of Rosh Pina, as well as Robert Millis. Jeff Pulver will talk about disruption in the media industry. But that’s not all. IDC Research will present NBC’s Internet strategy, ESPN will present its multi-platform activities, H3G will present mobile TV case studies,Newtek‘s CEO, Jim Plant, will discuss live broadcasting,  and we are expecting some exciting presentations from Microsoft.

We decided to add a lot of innovation to the event. Therefore, after every panel, we will present a startup that is changing the media landscape. This angle makes the event the place to be for startups, investors and VCs.

Please email me for more information (kfir@pravdam.com). If you are interested in blogging about it, let me know, and please tag all relevant content with the following tag: Roshpinafestival08

Feel free to join our Facebook group as well. 

Stay tuned for more info about panels, speakers and cooperation opportunities.

NYC – Everyday There’s a Netowrking Event

Image by John Federico via Flickr

Though here on vacation, I am taking the opportunity to meet new and interesting people in NYC video and social media industry. Lucky for me, there are good people who are making it much easier:

- Jeff Pulver is hosting another legendary breakfast this morning

- Yaron Samid is hosting a NY Video 2.0 event tonight (thanks Bill!)

- Though I don’t participate, I hear that PdF is a great event as well.

The local community is so vibrant, that you just can’t miss a thing. Also met some very interesting and smart people one on one – details soon.

If you are coming to one of these events – come and say hi!

As soon as I return to Israel, I’ll return to regular updates of this blog…

Om Malik Opens NTV Station – The Best of Web Video, Facing Challenges

Om Malik anounced a new venture today called NewTeeVee Station, an editorial driven guide to online videos:

...NewTeeVee Station is your guide to online video, pointing you to hot new memes, following the emerging stars of the web, and just generally indexing this new entertainment medium. Whereas in the past we covered online video shows like Ask a Ninja, Obama Girl andWallstrip from a business perspective, now we’re also reviewing content for content’s sake…

….NTV Station features editorial reviews of online videos written by a team led by Liz Shannon Miller, who comes to us from Variety and the Daily Reel. We eliminate the static and bring to you videos that are actually good — but also the stuff that’s so bad it has everyone talking… When you visit the front page of NTV Station, you’ll see in one glance what’s hot at that very moment. Our editors monitor the online video universe and refresh the site with new videos throughout the day. A special widget developed using the VodPod API allows you to scroll through all of our past video picks….

I am a big fan of sites trying to make some sense of all the videos out there. In a past, I wrote a hotly debated post where I asked when would someone create an online HBO equivalent, and gang all the best video shows to one site. This is a form of content discovery in my opinion – a way to bring the best videos to my computer screen. Would Om answer my prayers?

Challenges ahead

Value

There were several initiative in this area, one of them was Jeff Pulver’s Network2.tv. While N2 was aiming at being a definitive guide to all episodic video on the web, it seems that Om’s effort is a mix of being IMDB and an editorial driven site, that does some filtering for the audience. What I am missing here is a clear value proposition, or, in other words, what exactly should I expect – the best videos? The hottest videos? All the “good” videos?

Definition of Quality

One of the trickiest issues in the world of online video is the definition of quality. How can the editor in NTV know what’s good for me? Though philosophical in nature, it is a major challenge, that I’d love to hear Om’s opinion about.

User Interface

Last but not least, user interface is one of the biggest challenges in online video today. Looking at the current interface of most video recommendation sites, one would see the same scroll down page with x amount of videos. This interface works for YouTube, but in my opinion should be improved. NewTeeVee is built as a blog, and as such it is well designed. As a video interface – not so good IMHO:

1. Almost one-third of the screen is dedicated to promotion, ad space, and other money making machines.

2. Viewers need to scroll down in order to see recommended shows.

3. Video player is covering a small amount of the screen – while it is supposed to be the dominant experience

4. Users need to click at least twice to start playing a video

My belief is that online video interfaces should be, well, video interfaces. I’d like to see a site with a dominant video player, where users could navigate and find the best videos for them. This way, the video experience is the dominant one, and not the textual interface.

I hope that Om will be successful in this project – the web certainly needs one!

Watch Out Rupert!!!

First Read

 

Image via Wikipedia

- Jeff Pulver gives advice to college graduates

-Cult of Mac has new details about the new iPhone – or not…

- blip.tv hosts some of Revision3′s shows

- MacVideo has an amazing interview with Walter Murch, The Godfather editor, about Final Cut and Avid

Have a great day!

If you see an interesting story that I should refer to, please email me

First Read – Media Headlines, Stories, and Recommended Sites

Recommended Reading

Avid’s product manager, started to blog, a move towards transparency from a company that is facing many challenges in the market place. It will be interesting to see how it evolves.

LA Times has a great piece about Michael Eisner’s new web series, Foreign Body (a prequel to Robin Cook’s book) and the company behind it. Here are more details about Eisner’s philosophy

Futurescape has an interesting post about interactivity in online video and its effect on the creative process.

Jeff Pulver thinks I’m wrong.

New In My Feedreader

Jamima Kiss’ blog at the Guardian

Have a great week!

Why Twitter Shouldn’t Charge Super Users

Robert Scoble asks if Twitter should charge super users, a concept raised by Om Malik. For those of you who aren’t using this service – it is a much hyped notification platform that I wrote about in the past.

Well, NO. Twitter shouldn’t charge super users such as Scoble because they the soul of the service and its best promoters. When Scoble, Pulver and others use this service, they attract cutting edge users and social media addicts – the early adopters of new technologies. Charging them for usage will diminish its popularity.

Is there a business model for Twitter? Open and honest, the only way I see Twitter making money is if they create an enterprise offering. Currently there is no major barrier of entry for twitter competitors. Twitter is a young, unstable platform, and any attempt to charge for it in its current state will be a huge mistake.

Please Don’t Touch My TV

Is TV dying, or is it just a hype?

Last Friday I attended disrupTV, an “un-conference” for media technologies that I helped organizing. The event was organized by Nir Ofir and Rafael Mizrahi, hosted by Yossi Vardi and Jeff Pulver, and was the first “un-conference” on this topic in Israel.

In one of the presentations a question was raised – what should change in TV today? The usual statements about death of TV where told.

I had an unpopular opinion: nothing is wrong with TV, please don’t touch it.

What is Televison?

TV, in its purist meaning won’t change. TV is a winning format. Good stories told in 22, 45 or 60 minutes slots is a great invention. Especially when channels realize the power of story again, and let masterpieces such as “The Wire” go on air.

And you know what? The last thing I want is an interactive experience while watching high quality shows. I don’t want to buy the bottle of wine people are drinking on screen. I just want to be entertained. So please, don’t touch my TV

The TV set

The TV set is a different story. Yes, the TV set will change. Eventually it is just a screen. I am certain the new capabilities will be introduced into the TV SET, as a device. Most of them will fail, as companies will face UI issues again and again. However, smart TV sets and appliances, such as AppleTV, has a disruptive nature that is much more profound than adding interactivity to shows. AppleTV, iTunes, and competing services are breaking the value chain of the TV industry. This is the real issue.

Changes will happen

AppleTV and iTunes enable users to buy content directly from the producers. This is a major shift in power, as channels are no longer the sole distribution method of TV content. I will drill down to this issue in my next post.

Where is the money?

There are 3 main domains that will continue to change the market, and could provide financial gain to the ones who would master them:

1. On demand experience – when programming losing force, and consumers are moving toward personal viewership experience, on demand platforms will role the media world in years to come.

2. Content Discovery – following the previous point, content discovery, the ability to find the right content for the viewer, becomes an increasingly important need. Programing is a very primitive content discovery method – we know your demographics so we will push you the right content. As mentioned before, this method is losing ground. New technologies should solve this issue in a better way.

3. Commuinty – Vardi stated that there is a missing link in the community aspects of media consumption. Programming enabled people to gather in a specific point in time and share an experience. On demand viewership killed this aspect. He believes that there is here a potential for new players.

A word for TV executives

Time will tell how TV will change. But please, please, keep producing high quality drama, funny shows and great content. Changes will come, but one thing never changes – there is always audience for great content…

Social Networks For Business – 7 Tips and Tricks

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Many people don’t have time to use social networks. They are too busy with emails, phone calls and face to face meetings, in order to get engaged – whether it’s work or fun. This is a major issue for most people who are trying to use social media tools as part of their business tool box.

I’ve went through several phases in my social media activities, starting with first limited steps in social networks such as LinkedIn, moving to the interactive Facebook, and using the hyper-interactive Twitter. Over time I found that I am investing a lot in communicating, on the expense of being the most effective and efficient in my communication and work. One of the causes of this phenomena is the overload social networks and tools are putting on all of us, with multiple updates and feeds.

Also, the amount of my connections affects my communication pattern as I wrote in the past. Therefore, in the recent months I’ve changed my communication pattern to better fit my needs, and support my other activities.

However, social networks and social media in general provide great business benefits if handled correctly.

In a business, I don’t believe that conversation is the most important thing. Efficiency and effectiveness are the goals of every business, in order to successfully compete in the market.

How can you balance between the social media noise, and the hidden value in its tools?

Here are my tips on how to do that. Would love to hear on how you are doing it:

If you are the ADD type, already involved in more networks then you can handle:

1. Separate leisure and work – you know that time in day when you are not focused? Sometimes you’ll go to Facebook and check what’s going on there, get into a conversation, read some notes, and just go around the network. It is ok – if you decided that you are willing to invest your free time in having fun in Facebook. Would you do something else that is fun right now, not online, if you had the chance? If the answer is yes, then everything is ok. If the answer is no – read a blog or a newspaper to relax your brain. Social networks, especially Facebook and Twitter, can suck you in and make you loose sense of time. And you don’t want that in on working hours.
2. Aggregate feeds from various social networks using Friendfeed or Spokeo – these tools aggregate activities of your connections from different networks in one page. It is very useful, and helps you not only keep in touch with your friends and business contacts, but also find new ones.
3. Kick out spammers from your network – yes, sounds logical, but it is not necessarily done in a consistent manner. When someone sends me 6 useless Facebook apps – it is time to say goodbye. After that, there is less communication overload with stupid interactions.
4. Understand when you want to communicate and when you want to do something else – A good friend of mine told me once, when I was all over Facebook, that there is a limit to the amount of interaction one wants to be involved in. At the time I thought he was dead wrong, but now I see that it is true. I’d like to interact only part of my day, and in many cases I need the ability to concentrate and reach a goal. Twitter, IM, and Facebook should be closed at these times unless they are used for the same task.

If you are not hooked yet, but understand there is a value in social networks for your work, and you want to be effective and efficient in using them:

1. Maintain your social network periodically – once a month, upload your contacts to Linkedin or Facebook and invite relevant people to your circle of contacts. discipline is the secret. You can reduce the effort required by uploading all your contacts to gmail or yahoo mail, and let the networks retrieve the information from there. It takes less time than uploading your address book to each platform separately.
2. Embed social networks activity in your work day:
   • Update your online address back immediately after you return from a conference. Connect to the guys you met as soon as you can. Size and quality of your networks correlates with the value you will drive from it. Foster it.
   • Add your social networks to your bookmarks toolbar so they will be easily accessible. The more you use them, the more they value you get from it.
   • Use social networks as source of information – whenever you have a question, don’t just ask google. Ask your network as well. You will be amazed how much high quality information lies in Linkedin and Facebook.
   • Spend 10-20 minutes of your work day for social networks updates. Go through Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter every morning to see what’s new and who is talking about what. I am doing it with my morning coffee. Friendfeed and Spokeo can also come handy, but go through the sites themselves once in a while.
3. Increase your networks’ value – connect to key people in the industry, thought leaders, experts, key decision makers and so on. The value of network is driven from the aggregated quality of its members, and not only by its size. Invest 30 minutes a week in looking for key people in your network and connect with them. It is worth it.

All those tips are completely irrelevant if you just want to chat with friends. But if you are business oriented user, I hope it would help you to get more value from time spent these social networks.

Thinking About Social Networks Taken by Jeff Pulver