Reason why content is still not the King

Content is not the king because content creators don’t own the content pipes and content Warehouses.

This is supposed to be good times for online user content creation, online video, bloggers as nanopublishers hoping to make it big, niche-content owners and the growing members of Content World.

They also take solace from the works Chris Anderson’s Long Tail Idea and James Suroweiki’s Wisdom of Crowds. They believe their time has come. Maybe not.

In a conference call to discuss the impact of new technology on creators of content, Bear Stearns has done a detailed presentation on ‘Why Aggregation & Context and Not (Necessarily) Content are King in Entertainment.

It explicitly warns that ‘value in the entertainment supply chain will shift from the creators of content to the aggregators/packagers of content’.

Here’s my analysis on why we won't be kings:


1. We don’t own the content pipes: The owners of internet infrastructure and the Telcos take a big chunk of all business.

2. We don’t own the pacakaging and distribution warehouses: Companies like Google, Yahoo, AOl, Youtube, and others get a big chunk of the content packaging and repackaging business. To add, Google adsense is making Google richer at a faster clip than content providers and advertisers.

So, what’s the way out?
IMHO, we will grind it out.

If we want to make t big online, we must keep our costs low, create good content, wait for the long run – for a time when it is possible to stream live, high quality, multi-channel, multimedia content to every household in the world. That is when hopefully, the power of the packagers, repackagers, and pipe owners will subside.


Related story at Paidcontent

posted by Pramit Singh @ 3:12 PM 0 Comments

Bypassing Internet censorship: A roundup

First, news about the latest anti-web censorship tool.

Psiphon is a new Web censorship 'bypass' tool developed by researchers at the University of Toronto, Canada. Psiphon is able to go around government censorship of the web, according to researchers. It will be released on 1 December.

Reporters Without Borders lists 13 countries that it accuses of suppressing freedom of expression on the net, including Syria, China and Vietnam.

Psiphon works on P2P networks. When a net user in an uncensored country downloads Psiphon, his/her computer then becomes an access point. Thus, users then give their friend circle a unique web address, login and password, using which restricted users can easily browse the web through an encrypted connection to the proxy server.

Problems with Psiphon's solution: A Digg user points out a loophole with Psiphon – he says:

by publicizing an SSL proxy as such, isn't this Canadian company just opening themselves up to backlash from the Chinese government? Sort of like what Napster did? Everyone and their brother was using IRC, and then Napster came along and made it simple for any doofus to go out there and download pirated music. This looks to be the same sort of concept - only instead of the **AA, they'll be pissing off the Chinese government.

Now let's do a roundup of resources for bypassing Internet censorship:


1. HOWTO bypass Internet Censorship
(last updated 2006-09-14)


2. How to disable censorware? (Parental controls, etc)


3. List of Anti-Censorship Proxies


4. Popular proxies
Anonymouse.org
Pkblogs.com

5. Downloadable software to bypass censorship (Like Psiphon)
Use Tor


6. Wikipedia’s detailed look at Internet Censorship


7. Wikpedia’s detailed look at Proxy Servers

8. Net censorship: How to bypass China's Great Firewall
Richard Clayton, a computer security researcher at the University of Cambridge, claims to have devised a way to penetrate " the Chinese wall" by ignoring the reset TCP packet returned by Chinese routers to maintain connection. Mr. Clayton says that if those packets are discarded instead of being returned as expected, then the firewall becomes utterly ineffective.

(Via Boing Boing)

posted by Pramit Singh @ 2:29 PM 0 Comments

Looking for the ideal Digital Executive

Ever since the internet revolution boomed in the 1990s, companies around the world have gone in search for people who are comfortable with all that new terminology, ‘paradigms’ (a much hated word ) and the relentless pace of change.

Earlier, the hunt for ‘digital savvy’ talent was the domain of all companies, but this time around the media companies feel most threatened by the Web 2.0 changes – the users getting charge, the rise of online news and online video and so forth.

The New York Times writes on the issue and posts a mock advertising:

Seeking Executive to Tame the Digital Future

WANTED Digital media genius to guide a nimble — or at least we like to think we are — media giant through transformation from analog to digital in all its gory glory.

JOB DESCRIPTION To take all the stuff we produce for other formats, like TV or print or film, and figure out how to shovel it onto the Internet in a way that makes money.

QUALIFICATIONS The ideal candidate might also have ideas for ways to make a few dollars online that don’t directly stem from our so-called traditional media businesses. (You know — like that whole user-generated thing that the kids are doing. P.S., loved the video clips about how Mentos and Diet Coke mixed together create a chemical reaction — maybe we can turn it into a prime-time special or a theme park ride financed by these brands?)

COMPENSATION Pretty sweet for as long as you last.

RETIREMENT BENEFITS Well, don’t plan on it.

I think talent is a trial and error thing.

Google does the talent thing the best, in view of many. The media companies may do well to follow example and practice the 80-20 rule (20% of time on digital media experiments), small teams, etc.

You learn best by doing it.

posted by Pramit Singh @ 2:26 PM 0 Comments

The Future of learning is collaboration and co-exploration

This page on social bookmarking site Blinklist is running a collaborative learning experiment for students of BUS301 who contribute readings and resources for their class on Sustainable Business.

There are many more similar examples on the web. This is also good for people who want to teach themselves to get together and create similar ‘Learning Rooms’.

posted by Pramit Singh @ 2:16 PM 0 Comments

How Youtube is good for brand managers

The Ogilvey PR blog has this to say about ad people and brand managers still struggling with getting value out advertising on Online video sites like Youtube:

3. Video is canned and therefore reasonably controllable. Brands can report to internal executives that they are involved with 'social media' without having to actually enter a two-way conversation.

posted by Pramit Singh @ 2:10 PM 0 Comments

Cellphone=WellFone

Textually asks whether the cellphone is misnomer. The coming trend is that of multipurpose handsets that can effortlessly switch between all of wireless networks - cellular networks, Wi-Fi, and WiMax, a longer-range broadband network.

Why don’t we get a new name for cellphones? I doubt whether people will go for a new name as we are used to cellphones.

Nevertheless, I suggest WellPhone. I know it is lame, but ‘W’ stand for all things Wireless.

What do you think?

posted by Pramit Singh @ 2:08 PM 0 Comments

Three ways how Digg and Google are similar

1. Google is champion of the search cum online advertising world, without spending a dime on content creation. Digg is champion of the ‘new’ online news without spending a dime on content creation.

2. A typical Google search shows lot of trash, some part due to manic SEO guys. Digg shows up lost of useless stories because on manic cabals.

3. Google often disappoints content providers and advertisers who have spent time and effort into producing content but who don’t get the desired results from the weird auctioning system of adsense. Digg doesn’t benefit any site from the resulting traffic spikes. The server gets down and there is no adsense click, adding to the misery.

posted by Pramit Singh @ 11:45 AM 0 Comments

India Tanking Part 2: The Education Chronicles

Did you know that India is one of those ‘rare’ (we Indians love this word) countries where our ability to get a job diminishes by the degree we get?

A primer on the state of higher education gives us some priceless nuggets of data :

- College graduates suffer from higher unemployment rates - 17 percent in the 2001 census - than high school graduates.

- A Mckinsey report says that only 10 percent of Indian graduates with generalist degrees were considered employable by MNCs, compared with 25 percent of engineers.

- There is vast gulf between the education quality of elite colleges and all others. Parents will attest that not getting into one of India's most elite educational institutions can be a crime. While MNCs and other big firms take the crème for 6 figure salaries, rest of us have to struggle to make ends meet. It doesn’t help that major institutions like the IITs and IIMs also take heavy government funding. Critics say our government is funding the talent for MNCs.

- The Elite institutions teach leadership and communication skills, which is not done at most other places. They also give students better exposure – meeting prominent people, lectures from experts and so on. At most, the local goon/politician will speak at your regular college. Elite colleges get their students to read books, find clubs, go backpacking, stage plays, make a movie and stuff. More on books, later.


- 50% of all Indian college students are taught in non- English languages, which bars these students from the high-end labor market, unless they have paid extra for English and Soft-skills classes.

- We don’t teach our students the ability to solve complex problems, to negotiate and to look for creative solutions.

- Most of our teaching stock lack world-class pedagogical training. Our teachers want us to meek and obedient. They want us to be parrots. They don’t want us to discuss things, to debate stuff. They want us to be good at learning things by rote.

They go by Peter Drucker’s maxim: The ass is the biggest organ of learning. The more you sit, the more you learn.

- Did you know that curricula at most of our colleges haven’t changed since Nehruvian times? If someone says, ‘Nehru, who?’, I don’t blame you. We have 24 hour call centers (and those damn Call Center Cabs), Infosys and what not, but we don’t have a liberal, evolved curricula yet.

- Most of the higher education institutions have funding crunches. Nehru’s socialist legacy is hurting our education. Many colleges are also bankrupt because they can’t charge students higher tuition fees. Libraries are neglected. Compare the photographs of MIT’s library and a regular Indian College library, and see what I mean. In Delhi, students will eat at MacDonald’s and spend on parties; students are so spoilt that they won’t move without their bus passes. Well, that’s another aspect of our education – no one teaches accountability and responsibility here.

- We still believe in big government. We will only allow private education institutions if they are (1) funded by a politician, (2) Pay the babus on the side.

No wonder, Television has become a big teacher. It teaches us how to speak English; it is our only source of literature; it is our Emily Post; it is our college, our escape.

[Declaration: The writer comes from one of the ‘non-elite’ colleges.]

The India Tanking Series Part 1: What's wrong with our economy?

posted by Pramit Singh @ 4:58 PM 0 Comments