MediaBizBuzz for March 3, 2008: Envisioning The Future: "Yes, We Can" Contesting Cynicism

Last week saw Google stumble due to its new quotquality scorequot fix the stock markets flatline and the Consumer Confidence Index at its 15 year low Even Warren Buffet weighed in on the state of things putting his stamp on an end to irrational exuberance ABC rolled out a TiVokiller Comcast packed the seats for its FCC field hearing and SAG cried foul over AFTRA backing away from a joint resolution Next up Will the Pellicano trial eclipse the Phil Spector mistrial Juxtapose these grim tidings with some glad ones As Jack Myers was filing ongoing dispatches from the TED Conference watch a few of its recent sessions HERE which purported to ask quotThe Big Questionsquot Google showed a little of its old self The Do No Evil one as it rolled out its Project CARE Initiative in San Francisco providing homeless folks with permanent phone numbers and voicemail Lest you wag your finger at this Audacity of Hope think how much communication has been part of getting a job finding an apartment staying in touch with your loved ones The challenge we face over the next year is not merely how to navigate during an economic downturn but how to ferret out the opportunities that have been hidden in plain sight only when the Boom has been lowered have they become apparent Take for example the Academy Awards The Media from Tom Shales and LA Weekly39s Nikke Finke to Dick Cavett and our very own Shelly Palmer assaulted the telecast and they were aided and abetted by its dismal ratings But Integrated Media Measurement sleuthed that only 237 of Oscar viewers had seen any of the five nominated best pictures That suggests that there is posttheatrical money to be made and that perhaps these films should have gone wider Sidebar Perhaps illustrating what New York Magazine has termed the Undulating Curve of Shifting Expectations the Diablo Cody backlash has begun Not that we condone this sort of thing but doesn39t SNL39s Andy Samberg look like Angelica Huston as a 197039s Soviet shotputterThat Monday saw Comcast defending its quotnonthrottlingquot of traffic its broadband network practices if you will at an FCC field visit at Harvard Law School Unexpectedly the crowd learned that the cable titan could count the MPAA NBC and Viacom among its allies While it39s not a shock that the MPAA would laser in on piracy NBC and Viacom threaten to undermine their online audiences in exchange for shortterm strategic alliancesamp160 BusinessWeek provides a standard clinical account while Valleywag captures the more provocative nature of the event reporting that it will need a doover at Stanford since there was a near riot For those who question our presidential primary process Tuesday night was a vindication MSNBC39s telecast of the Democratic debate in Cleveland Ohio was its highest rated show ever higher than Dateline39s To Catch A Predator with 78M viewers 500000 streams and 58M pageviews It39s easy to be dour as advertising dollars seem to be trending away from television but the competition for both engagement and accountability is already incubating innovation Even as buyers at the upcoming Upfronts are proceeding with caution Lenovo39s David Churbuck tells us all we need to know about GoogleTV EMarketer surveys the explosion of online video looking at a range of data from Nielsen Online Zoomerang Market Research and internally While it suggests a robust future Media Contacts and comScore file a joint report with nuance revealing a chasm between heavy and casual online video viewers 841 minutes viewed monthly by the top 20 6 minutes by the bottom 20 If anything it39s a marker that this industry39s in its infancy While Google upgraded its version of Windows Office in the Sky Microsoft is strongly hinting that it39s about to get in the game Silicon Alley Insider would rather see it buy Salesforcecom than continuing fight on for Yahooamp160 GigaSpace39s Chief Marketing Officer Geva distinguishes between cloud and utility computing making a compelling caseamp160 that IT is about to undergo a tectonic shift That said paidContent39s Rafat Ali is dismissive of Yahoo39s launch of Yahoo Buzz and Open Search as derivative of Digg and Google respectively referencing BusinessWeek39s Catherine Holahan assertion that what the beseiged portal needs right about now is quotfresh ideasquot Ali39s colleague Staci D Kramer tries to uncork Yahoo39s Advertising Public Exchange or APEX here but it39s still largely under wraps That said advertising blog networks continue to be the flavor du jour with Glam landing 846M in venture capital and Technorati indicating an interest in doing likewise Let39s not single out ABC for its decidedly retrograde response to disintermediation it39s also rolling out Squeegees the first of its onlineonly shortform sitcoms While TechCrunch found it lame I thought that it being that humor is wholly subjective deserved to find its audienceamp160 This is an inelegant comparison here but consider once hapless iTunes As of this week it39s the 2 music retailer the Avis to WalMart39s Hertz While BusinessWeek split its coverage of TED between a participant and a sour grapes nonattendee many of us were able to view sessions as they were being posted or at least learn about the presenters and their ambitious visions While MIT39s SENSEable City Lab has nothing to do with the event it carried its spirit Here39s a video of Global Encountersamp160 Using ATampampT data it visualizes the ebb and flow of Internet traffic as it courses between New York City and the rest of the world It39s something to behold This Year39s Upfront Events When Are TheyFind Out at JackMyerscomJack Myers Commentary From TED BusinessWeekcom Comments on TED are Misguidedamp160amp160amp160amp160

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MediaBizBuzz for March 3, 2008: Envisioning The Future: "Yes, We Can" Contesting Cynicism

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Jerry Weinstein

"About That with Carl Mayer:" Alaina Donnellon (Episode 10: Political Spending) - By Carl Mayer

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MediaBizBuzz for March 3, 2008: Envisioning The Future: "Yes, We Can" Contesting Cynicism

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Jerry Weinstein

"About That with Carl Mayer:" Alaina Donnellon (Episode 10: Political Spending) - By Carl Mayer

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