SHELLY PALMER REPORT: Television Disrupted: newsclipper.org

Scott Boyarsky Director of Program Management at the Walt Disney Internet Group called me to chat about an extraordinary website called newsclipperorg It39s extraordinary for a bunch of reasons which I shall explain but the most interesting part of our conversation centered around a simple unavoidable truth newsclipperorg does exactly what you or I might do with publicly available content amp8211 they just do it so well you wonder if it39s legalIn my book Television Disrupted The Transition from Network to Networked TV I spend a good deal of time discussing the probable futures of quotnetworkedquot television In a networked environment the content publisher is supposed to benefit from a onetoone relationship with the content consumer At least that39s what39s supposed to happen The promises of networked media distribution are numerous and they span a continuum from practical to hallucinogenic There is the promise of instant transactions the promise of better censusbased metrics the promise of programming customization the promise of contextual relevance etc etc etcOne of the best understood techniques for distributing onetoone media experiences is RSS Really Simple Syndication This is the methodology used by bloggers podcasters and more recently video distributors to enable their content to be embedded in or linked to other peoples websites You can think of RSS as the ability to syndicate web content Now in the book I talk about the way RSS might be used to distribute and channelize video to create a custom viewing environment It could be recommendations from friends playlists from colleagues feeds from selected sources or a collection of clips assembled by a professional program director When you get a minute like the moment you39re done reading this go to httpnewsclipperorgWhat you will find there is simply fantastic You choose a subject such as politics entertainment business health or sports Or you can choose a network like CNN ABC ESPN CBS or FOX What you get are pristine video clips served from their respective content owners You can also choose special interest feeds like Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton or simply select to view the most recently posted or the most viewed clipsWhy is this video aggregation site different from all other video aggregation sitesWell first of all it39s not a video aggregation site It39s just a bunch of feeds that are arranged for you in exceptionally easy to understand groups When you select ESPN for example you get a list of recent clips from ESPNcom You can add them to your personal playlist or just view them by clicking Choose quotElection 2008quot from the quotSpecialsquot pulldown menu and you39ll be treated to a list of electionoriented clips from all of the major news organizations that newsclipperorg channelizes Newsclipperorg doesn39t store the video nor do they ask for or need to ask for anyone39s permission to do this For all practical purposes it39s just a linking siteThere is one little issue though there39s no advertising on any of the videos None on the site nope nada nothing zippo zilchHow come Well newsclipperorg is simply looking at RSS feeds from major content publishers and pointing you to their content They strip out any of the code that points to advertising and simply bring you the programming The only way to prevent this would be for content publishers to quotbakequot commercial messaging into their videos But that would not let them properly traffic advertising on their own sites And it would also allow content to expire which is not a good idea Nobody needs to see a commercial for a Columbus Day sale on October 31stUnlike QuickSilverScreencom and other linking sites that feature pirated content newsclipperorg points you to publicly available feeds featuring video hosted and served from the legal rightsholder39s servers The site is remarkable in that it fulfills its marketing promise perfectly quotCome to newsclipperorg and get video clips from major news sources in a clean easy to use online environmentquotHere39s the scary part If you take the playlist you create on newsclipperorg and add your own advertising via RSS and put the whole shebang on your own website or blog you will in effect become a customized targeted video site with network quality news clips selling your own advertising with no way for anyone to know that what you are doing is illegal The content publisher will know but only if they see your site Consumers won39t have any idea that the advertising they are seeing is not the advertising that they were intended to seeThis gets complicated and messy By itself newsclipperorg is a harmless tour de force in programming prowess and organization skill However out of context or in the hands of an untoward individual the site enables a bit of hijinks or at worst something approaching grand larcenyAbsurdly all of the content publishers who are featured on newsclipperorg gleefully feed their video content via RSS By definition anyone can read the feed and see the videos Of course the idea was for consumers to see the whole feed with advertising intact OopsShelly Palmer is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group LLC and the author of Television Disrupted The Transition from Network to Networked TV 2006 Focal Press Shelly is also President of the National Academy of Television Arts ampamp Sciences NY the organization that bestows the coveted Emmyamp174 Awards He is the ViceChairman of the National Academy of Media Arts ampamp Sciences an organization dedicated to education and leadership in the areas of technology media and entertainment Palmer also oversees the Advanced Media Technology Emmyamp174 Awards which honors outstanding achievements in the science and technology of advanced media You can read Shelly39s blog here Visit Shelly39s website at wwwShellyPalmerMediacom or reach Shelly at shellypalmernetCheck out the Shelly Palmer Report archive

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SHELLY PALMER REPORT: Television Disrupted: newsclipper.org

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