Seth's Blog: NBC and missing the point about power

Over at Seth Godin's blog, another typically pithy post, this one about the NBC/Apple iTunes fall-out. (Another of my favorites is Nonimpactman Makes an Impact, aka "Zero (as in footprint) is the New Black".)

"For fifty years, NBC's major asset was that there were only three TV networks. That meant that all other things being equal, there was a 33% chance you'd tune in. They had a partial lock on attention. TV Guide was important, but it didn't have enough power to make or break a network.

Welcome to the new age, guys....

This is the major scramble of this generation... who gets permission to talk to the consumer, to represent the consumer, to determine what's hot and what's not. If all three of these players gain power, my guess is that content providers will provide content to all three. On the middleman's terms. If you're not listed, you're invisible."

Seth's Blog: NBC and missing the point about power


http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/2123/21414439

Focus the Nation

I just blogged over @ http://thefutureshistory.blogspot.com about Focus The Nation. I'll save the commentary I included there (check it out if you like), but I did want to note FTN here @ the EQBlog for obvious reasons: leveraging the web for sustainability. Get involved!

Focus the Nation:

"Focus the Nation will culminate January 31, 2008, in the form of national symposia held simultaneously at over a thousand campuses, places of worship, businesses, and other venues across the country. On that day, each Focus the Nation team will invite local, state and federal political leaders and candidates for office to come to campus and participate in a non-partisan, round-table discussion of global warming solutions. US Senators and members of congress, state representatives, mayors and city councilors, all will be receiving dozens of invitations to speak about global warming, from over a thousand institutions nation-wide. Every campus will also vote on their top five national priorities for global warming action, producing a campus-endorsed policy agenda for the 2008 elections. (click here for audio/video about Focus the Nation)"

Welcome to Appropedia - Appropedia: The sustainability wiki

Welcome to Appropedia - Appropedia: The sustainability wiki

I've been creating my own wiki over at http://byrnegreen.com/wiki
My intention is part CV?Resume, part list of resources for helping people "meet the challenges and realize the rewards of going green."

I was excited to come across Appropedia, a wiki focused on Sustainable Technologies. I am adding it to my google bookmarks, an my list of links on the byrnegreen wiki.

Soooooo many initiatives. Keep up the good work all!

Pearl Jam responds to censorship on AT&T Blueroom

The Band's statement regarding the censorship at Lollapolooza this weekend is--characteristically--laser sharp. I especially appreciate the tie they made from this issue to the greater cause of net neutrality (see below). To quote them quoting Neil Young, "Keep on Rockin' the Free World" and keep supporting Net Neutrality and Independent Media!

The band's statement was quoted in this eonline article:

"This, of course, troubles us as artists but also as citizens concerned with the issue of censorship and the increasingly consolidated control of the media," the band wrote. "AT&T's actions strike at the heart of the public's concerns over the power that corporations have when it comes to determining what the public sees and hears through communications media." Pearl Jam noted that the incident showed the need to protect "Net Neutrality," ensuring that telecommunications companies treat all content equally instead of giving preference to partners or those willing to pay more.

"If a company that is controlling a Webcast is cutting out bits of our performance—not based on laws, but on their own preferences and interpretations—fans have little choice but to watch the censored version," the band said.

===

The band released this clip of the censored and complete versions of the performance. See for yourself:

(nice scoop Beryl)

Geni | Webware100 : Cool Web apps for everyone

The Top 100 Web 2.0 services. No real surprises, but a nice collection of apps to peruse.

Geni | Webware100 : Cool Web apps for everyone

Talk about leaveraging 2.0 for sustainability:

green maven continues to get props for its use of google co-op to search the green web. this time it's from the mighty google themself. see google's list here

the brain child of network and technology mastermind (and my dear friend) k.joey shepp, fellow greenMBAers (of which i am an alumnus) and others share a hive-mind for the green web. as greenMaven editor/contributors, we add sites to the search query by tagging them as we surf the web.

early this year, the site was named #9 in TIME's top 25 web sites of 2006, although it had only launched weeks before the endo of the year. that is here:

get a widget (here) for your page and help spread the green web.

"Green Maven makes searching for all things green as easy as using
Google. If you search for socks, you get organic socks. If you search
for cars, you get hybrid cars. Our mission is to make it easy for
mainstream to go green."-Joey Shepp, founder of Green Maven

Empowering Democracy with Aggregation

Using new-media to empower movements is one of the most exciting applications of 21st century communication technology. The internet creates the potential to communicate, but it is the applications being developed that give us the ability to do so.

Presently, Equilibrium Media is researching the very best applications from the leading edge of these technologies to fulfill our mission: To inform and entertain the shift to a global culture of sustainability. While "sustainability" is often interpreted to mean "ecology", the truth is the political sphere is equally--if not more--important, because the ecological strains we face are caused by political concerns being played out. (See China's stance on Green House Gas emissions.)

So, empowering democracy--and our collective ability to lead society in a desirable direction--is an important application of this technology. One offering we will certainly be implementing on WWW.EQ.TV is Splashcast, and a great application of their player is the ability to aggregate videos into one channel, as is the case with the SplashCast player below that contains all the videos in all the candidates’ offical YouTube channels.

We will certainly be using this to empower our own users to share their own creations--original and aggregated--on their profile pages, and potentially as EQ content creators. Additionally, we are looking into using this to publish some or all of our professional content. For now though, check out the channel below, and head on over to Splashcast to see more of what these folks are developing.