Archive for March 23rd, 2007
The New Campaign Era of ‘Hillary 1984′
Not since the last presidential election, when a Bush supporter photoshopped John Kerry and Jane Fonda together, has a digital mashup created outside the aegis of an official campaign had a media impact like “Hillary 1984″ (AKA “Vote Different“). It can probably now be considered a watershed moment in campaign media evolution — “Swift Boating 2.0″ if you will. Even more than the official campaign vlogs, user-generated content could prove to be the story of the 2008 campaign.
Earlier this week, the mysterious creator of the spoof on the landmark Superbowl spot for the Apple Macintosh was revealed by a team at the Huffington Post. Turns out it was Phil de Vellis, a now former employee of Blue State Digital (which got its start as the web team for the Howard Dean campaign). Arianna even got Phil to write about the experience in a piece for the Huffington Post. If you’re into reading about how Huffington got the scoop, Jeff Jarvis, who’s covering the online video beat for the campaigns at PrezVid, wrote up the story of how the online sleuths uncovered the truth.
That Was Fast: Apple TV Hacks
Just a couple days after the Apple TV ceased to be a figment of the imagination and started showing up on shipping trackers, hackers worldwide have already begun to explore and expand the device’s functionality. Of course, what does it say about the device that it ships so hobbled it can be upgraded by hobbyists in a matter of hours?
A Gizmodo reader has done what Apple should have done months ago, when the device was announced — expand the hard drive. In this case, they managed to triple the internal storage to something more in keeping with a box you could fit four iPods in. And if you think it’s incredibly complicated, Make Magazine offers a guide to cracking open your Apple TV in four easy steps. Then it’s just a matter of shoehorning an aftermarket drive in there.
NewTeeVee Gets a New Look
Welcome to the brand-new NewTeeVee!
Three months ago we started this project with little more than an orange-tinged GigaOM design and an imperative to create ‘the Variety of online video.’ We had high hopes but also quite a bit of doubt about whether we could attract a community of readers. Though we loved every minute of it, it took us a little time to get comfortable in our own skin.
Today, we launch a new skin for the site, hoping to bring a little more spark to our page. Using your feedback, our wildest dreams, and the formidable skills of designer Nicolò Volpato (who previously impressed us with his stylish take on Om’s personal blog), we tried to reflect the visual nature of the topics we cover. RSS readers, we hope you’ll click through for this one.
We were also fortunate to have the able assistance of Spencer Miles and Mark Hall of Remixation and vod:pod, who helped us with the core concept of bringing video to the forefront of the site.
Last but not least, we welcome two new contributors: film critic Karina Longworth, who will be writing a weekly review of an online video show, clip, or movie, and Craig Rubens, who will be helping out with news items and occasionally lending us his film making/video-blogging chops. Look for their first posts next week.
IFILM, Soapbox Consolidate & Retrench
Amidst all the hubbub about frontrunner YouTube’s legal troubles and wannabe front-runner ‘NewCo’, smaller sites are taking their disappointing developments under the radar. In the last day, news got out that Viacom’s IFILM will be folded into the website of its brother property SPIKE TV, and MSN Soapbox has backed out of its public beta period.
NewCo: Nuts and Bolts from an Insider
Yesterday came the announcement NBC Universal and News Corps are teaming up on online video in an effort to rival YouTube, recruiting Google’s top competitors as distribution partners.
Upon hearing early details, we were initially impressed by how open the group seemed to making content widely and easily accessible. Since then, we were able to round up an executive closely involved with the (frustratingly as-yet unnamed) project to tell us more about whose technology is going to be used, expanding on official details released in a joint call Thursday.
CDN Startup Limelight Files for IPO
Limelight Networks, a Content Delivery Network provider that competes with companies like Akamai, has filed its paperwork for an initial public offering. The company will be listed on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol LLNW, and hopes to raise up to $201 million according to the filing.
Alarm:clock reports that Limelight posted losses of $3.7 million on revenues of $64.3 million. The IPO is being underwritten by a number of investment banks including Goldman Sachs, which has already invested $130 million in the Phoenix-based company’s latest equity round.
Clients include Amazon, Brightcove, iFILM and MySpace. In an appearance on MarketWatch with Bambi Francisco last January, new CEO Jeff Lunsford talked about the “wave of content” that’s surging through the series of tubes, and the necessity to provide reliable high speed connections for video, music and game download services.
Mossberg Should Lead Copyright Fight
Call it a Walter Cronkite moment — in his widely read technology column, the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg Thursday issued a digital call to arms, telling the U.S. Congress that it’s time to pass laws to straighten out the digital copyright mess that’s keeping us from downloading video without fear.
While we add a hearty hear, hear to the Mr. YouTube-goes-to-Washington tenor of Uncle Walt’s missive, we can’t help but wonder if it wasn’t Congress and the general communications regulatorium that got us all into the mess in the first place. Instead of just asking for new laws that may never come (and will be messed up if they do), why can’t Walt lead the way in an active manner, by turning his videocam on elected officials and getting them to explain on the record what they are or aren’t doing to solve the problem?
Friday Vid Picks: GodTube
Don’t think I didn’t notice the news about GodTube this week. It’s all about the niche content here at NewTeeVee. I’d be happy to pick videos from PornoTube, but sadly I need a reason more newsworthy than “Dude, boobs!” Not that religion and sexuality are in any way mutually exclusive, contrary to what you may have heard. Personally, I’m waiting for HeracleTube or SocraTube for my metaphysical online video fix.
So what is GodTube? Chris Wyatt, CEO of GodTube, explains the site to Martha MacCallum in this Fox News segment. Wyatt is apparently a Hollywood veteran, and explains that there is a ‘manual’ approval process for clips that includes opinions from ‘theologians.’ Which, based on a scan of the site’s channel listings, are entirely Christian (the only non-Christian themed channel is titled “Militant Islamic“).
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