There is an interesting observation going around these days that says “more information will be created in the year 2009 than in all recorded history up until that year”
Of course this creates a great deal of rubbish that one must sift through in order to find a nugget of something valuable. Figure it out. How many people do you know who you would say are experts on something? How many people do you know who come from a place of experience to truly offer a valuable opinion?
At the center of this information overload is the internet. Admission is cheap and open to just about anyone. There are no qualifications. You don’t even really have to be very literate, and yet you can post your thoughts and opinions on any subject you wish. It doesn’t matter if you have almost no experience or indeed no experience. If you can turn a phrase well or can appropriate a well turned phrase, so much the better.
And this dear reader is the problem.
Places like LinkedIn offer the opportunity for people who answer questions to gain “expert” points, but that would mean that the person asking the question would have to pick your answer as the best or one of the best. The problem is that there is a difference between an appropriate answer and the most popular answer. This type of system is also used to pick the winner of “So You Think You Can Dance”, which through its own admission delivers America’s Favorite dance and not necessarily the best dancer. Given that many questions are raised due to some sort of “ignorance” or lack of knowledge o the part of the person asking, it’s hard to believe that in most cases, this same person would actually know the best answer they received. Answers that may be out of their comfort zone, politics or religion may get the old thumbs down.
This type of system doesn’t foster truth or honesty, especially when people consider that everything they say and do on the internet is available for public scrutiny. Most live in fear of saying or doing something that may hurt them in the future. I’m sorry but you can’t have this apartment because 7 years ago in a chat room you said something bad about Obama or perhaps you follow the “wrong” group in Facebook.
In a way it reminds me of the old Twilight Zone episode starring Billy Mumy. He was a little boy who could will things with his mind. He could make people disappear or turn you into a cartoon or a lamp. And he had a whole bunch of people he held prisoner in this big house. All they could do was say “That’s really good Anthony” “You done real good”. Apparently he could tell if they were thinking bad thoughts about him.
Thus, the problem with our information these days is that we get a lot of it from people who really and truly aren’t qualified to be giving opinions and/or the information is highly tempered by the need for it to be “positive”, inspiring or at the very least make its giver look good.
Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad), says “A lot of people are afraid to tell the truth, to say no. That’s where toughness comes into play. Toughness is not being a bully. It’s having backbone.”
Lots of information out there, and most of it not worth the price of the ram chip it was created with.
It would seem that rather soon, enough B.S. meters will go off and new ways to establish pecking orders, validation and verification will come into play. We currently have a great deal of control over which information we get to see, but soon we will have ever more control. In short my good friends, a system (systems) will come into play that will make sure another Perez Hilton can’t ever occur.
Until then, I would take everything with a grain of salt. Google people, places and things to get a better sense for the information that’s out there and pay careful attention, because these days words are appropriated and mixed up slightly and land on another website or 300 other websites.
It takes a little work and in some cases may require you do some independent thinking, which could give you a headache. You will be better off if you dig deep and don’t take things at face value.
According to a Pew survey, 62% of Americans who use the Internet, watch online video, while only a little over 45% surveyed said they were active in social networking. Compare this to a survey taken in December of 2006, where the percentage of respondents who routinely watched online video was only 33%. That’s tremendous growth in less than 2 years.
The Pew report indicated that among Internet users between 18 and 29, 89% viewed video on line, and 36 percent responded they do so daily. Up from 16 percent in 2007, currently over 35% of all U.S. homes report watching an online video. 23 percent of those who watch video online have connected their computers to their TVs, with a breakdown in the category of 29 percent of males and 16 percent of women
The weakened economy has also played a strong part in the growth of online video, with many now choosing to give up costly cable or satellite premium subscriptions.
And while viewing online video isn’t a major aspect of online social media sites, when you consider that online social sites like Facebook feature large quantities of videos, the numbers of individuals who watch online video are perhaps even greater than the studies may indicate
eMarketer predicts that online video consumption will increase by a minimum of 33% over the next 5 years, reaching a saturation of 88% of all U.S. Internet users and an overall saturation of 59% of all U.S. homes. That’s an increase from 2009 from 144 million to 188 million in 2013. Personally, I think that some unforeseen changes in technology and large corporate business models may leave these numbers in the dust, putting the number of regular online video viewers well over 210 million by 2013. We’ll just have to wait to see whose prediction is closer.
But even as online video grows more and more popular, many reports, including a recent one from eMarketer indicate that few are willing to pay for online video content.
“It is difficult to imagine the public tolerating a return to paid content for video genres that are currently ad-funded,” said Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the report.
It is possible that some niche video, including specialized training and preparatory workshops, adult content and a category described as “ultra premium” content will be able to work on a fee-for-service basis, but it is wholly unbelievable that anyone would be willing to pay for the bulk of content one know finds so prevalent on Hulu, YouTube and many other sites. Even as we speak, some pay-per-view sites that offer contemporary television programs and movies online for minimal fees are seeing that for the most part, the business model simply isn’t viable. Someone may pay a dollar or 2 out of desperation to see the season ending episode of Prison Break, but it’s not a sustainable, growth invoking model for profitability.
So is advertising sponsored video the answer? With the vast number of online channels that are and will be competing for dollars, relatively few will be able to see any level of success. My guess is that an occasional upstart may pop up here and there, but with the studios and television networks mega dollars and enormous tentacles, they should be able to stay a step or two ahead of most of the pack. As we start seeing increased bandwidth, better video and more complex and quality online programming, we will see advertising as a vehicle for paying for such programming become the viable choice. However expect online advertising to continue to change and develop as does online video. Interactive video, that allows one to click on screen to find out details about the car the hero is driving or the shoes the sexy siren is wearing will become more and more commonplace. One will be able to watch a video and while watching click a few times to get to a website that will enable them to buy one of the kitchen devices featured in a “Top Chef” style show.
And speaking of Top Chef, programs like Top Chef and Project Runway seem to be able to take in-program advertising to the next level, with seemingly every moment and every shot of each show featuring some branding opportunity for a product or service. As Madison Avenue melds with Hollywood to become what is known as “Madison and Vine”, we have seen increasing use of in-movie and in-TV show advertising, even when the product placement isn’t as obvious as an interactive opportunity to buy Oxyclean. (God rest Billy Mays soul).
For years, advertisers have negotiated to have “so and so” wear “such and such’s” shoes or for a box of Cheerios to be a prominent part of a couple of scenes. Just think James Bond’s Aston Martin. In the novels it was a 1933 Bentley and on screen, it’s been an AMC Hornet, Jeep, Bentley, Audi and lots of other makes and models. Go online and you’ll find just as many people calling the Omega Seamaster watch the “James Bond watch”.
As we migrate our habits towards watching more video online, I think that a combination of traditional 30 second and perhaps 15 second spots, coupled with presenter ads, along with in-program advertising and interactive advertising, will form the core income streams to support our viewing addictions. The future looks bright just so long as you don’t ask the viewer to pay for their video outright.
I have a dream job or you might say dream jobs. I could find myself on any particular day writing a couple of radio commercials, performing the voice of a maniacal zombie and then ending it off by working on a viral video.
I also love the fact that so many of my clients and fellow creatives have become my friends. Not all of the work is a “dream job”. Lost files and temperamental clients of clients, who change their minds halfway through production are a few of the pitfalls. Then there’s the folks who love what you do, but want it at half the price of what you want to charge. And there’s lots of other pitfalls and quicksand traps that one must maneuver around, to the point where one feels a little like the guy who sweeps up after the elephants at the circus. “Hey, I’m in Showbiz.”
Every now and again you get lucky. I have a bit of a fan out there named Tony. He’s founded a few million dollar businesses over the years and he’s on his way to another. I worked for him quite a bit back in the old dot com days when he had a little site called egreetings.com. Smart thing about Tony is that he knows when to hold em, knows when to fold em and knows when to walk away. I produced a bunch of talking greeting card promos for him and also worked as the voice talent on quite a few. An afternoon might have me going from the voice of Santa to a rabbi to the voice of a devil to Uncle Sam. Those were fun days when I often thought I get paid to do silly voices. How lucky am I?
Well it’s a few years later and Tony is at it with www.Lexy.com, a very cool site which is currently going through a face-lift so it may not look like much. They have a deal with www.4info.com and it’s all about putting audio content out into the netosphere. Lots of interesting content, from ongoing baseball score updates to breaking news and you can access some of it through your regular old reliable computer or get it served up to you on your cell phone. Any good old cell phone works. There’s lots of options and lots of cool things to pick from. Some of it you can get both on your computer or cell phone.
Somewhere in that cacophony of choices is me, better known as my alter ego, the Governator Guy. Governator Guy was born from me doing one too many impersonations of celebrities over the phone for Tony. One day I gave him my Schwarzeneger impersonation doing some crazy kind of riff about boxers vs. briefs.
A short while later, Tony asked me if I would record one of these rants of me playing the Governator Guy. Tony played them for the folks back at the office and he said that one person passed a can of Coke throgh his nose that he laughed so hard. I only hope that others will enjoy listening to these as much as I do making them. They are officially called Lexy Casts and they range from about 90 seconds in length to almost 3 minutes.
My job is to get 5 episodes written, recorded, edited and uploaded per week. I’m not sure exactly what to say they are. They can be silly, sarcastic, parody, simple storytelling, topical, irreverant, sensitive or insensitive. You be the judge. Go sign on to www.Lexy.com or 4info.com and you can listen to the first several up there and then Monday through Friday, each day there will be a new episode. Today I posted an episode entitled “Bullwinkle saves the Day”.
Or you can listen to episode 1 here and if you like it, head on down to Lexy or 4info, because that’s the only way you’ll be able to hear future episodes. We’ll see how it goes, maybe we’ll have some real celbrities do some v.o. on it. Maybe we’ll have a contest to let other folks do some impersonations or even contribute by writing a script.
Governator_Guy- BuyaBobblehead episode 1
And the Governator Guy has lots of friends.In the coming weeks he gets visited by Tattoo, Richard Nixon, The Ghost of Chef and many others.
If you shoose to listen to them via your phone, you can press 2 afterwards to leave a comment for me or the folks in charge of Lexy. If you have ideas for characters you’d like to hear or topics or any feedback at all, we’d love to get it.
