LIskula Cohen's Odd Defamation Lawsuit

So this is interesting. Model Liskula Cohen is suing Google to get them to release th name of the person who owned and posted to a Blogspot presence called Skanks in NYC. skanksnyc.blogspot.com

This Daily News article will give you some of the whys and wherefores of this case.What you don't find there you can find in the Ars Technica piece here.

Now, the lawsuit puzzles me because Skanks in NYC is not what you would call a very popular bog. In fact, the blogger has made only 5 posts at the location, according to the post counter on the site. A quick trip to Quantcast confirmed what I expected -- that the site is not generating much in the way of traffic -- not enough to make data from their panel readable or reliable.



One would presume that comments like this, on a blog visited by four or so people, and I am guessing three visited by accident, might be better left to decay into invisibility in search engines and the like.

Instead, by suing, you will find if you Yahoo her name as I did that there are tons of articles and links -- chiefly relating to the LAWSUIT.

Now, what the blogger said was pretty insulting stuff. I won't repeat it here -- you can visit the link above if you are a prurience lover. But I am surprised at the strength of this reaction to a couple of blog posts. And I have to believe that Google will spend heavily to retain the anonymity of the blogger. That would seem an important principle to fall on a sword for.

But let me ask another question. WHy do you suppose the blogger cared this much about Liskula???

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

What's G! OK I'll Bite...

Cool Iris - A Leap Forward in Web-TV Convergence

The convergence of web and TV is a topic frequently discussed, with both devices making significant steps in the other's direction. Cooliris is a fascinating new service that takes web experience to another astral plane, transforming a menu of video content into a 3-D theater of TVs that are fun to access and when click provides a remarkable full screen viewing experience.I am not doing justice to the service, so here are some screens from their slide show demo:









Heck, so seeing is believing, so I give you two UGC videos of the Cooliris service and its broad feature set:





As with most such services, there are even ways to customize the appearance of your video wall, changing colors, angles, and the like.

In order to use the Cooliris service, you need to be visiting a Cooliris enabled site. But that's fast becoming a pretty big list from major soc nets to leading video sites including YouTube and Hulu.

Advertisers can get deeply in the mix. They offer three forms of sponsorship:

COLUMN ADVERTISING
Cooliris inserts advertising in columns (three ads per column) next to other media content in the 3D Wall. These ads are format agnostic and can have a zoomed in state that is larger than the thumbnail view. When a user selects content, a 300x250 px image or video ad will appear. A double click on the selected item will expand to a full-screen presentation of the ad.

INLINE ADVERTISING
Cooliris will insert advertising next to other media content in the 3D wall. These ads are format agnostic and can have a zoomed in state that is larger than the thumbnail view. When a user selects content, a 300x250 px image or video ad will appear. A double click on the selected item will expand to a full-screen presentation of the ad.

SPONSORSHIP OF DISCOVER CHANNEL
Cooliris will create a new, time-limited, sponsored channel in Discover. Upon launch of Discover, the user will see a branded wall with a customizable background, logo, and content provided by the advertiser. Content is fully customizable and can link to an external website, including an e-commerce destination.

It appears to be all user activated, which must do wonders for the appeal of the platform. It'd be interesting to see some data on how consumers interact with this stuff. For advertisers the service also offers reporting that gives you the key viewership measures.

It's cool, especially if you are a videophile. And the ad options could provide a whole new set of contact points for markeitng messages to reach consumers.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to write.

MixedInk and the Crowd Doc!

Now here's a product I totally believe in. And yet also find a little scary, though for reasons that relate to my control freak nature, not because of flaws in the concept. MixedInk allows large groups of people to collaborate on a single document.A few months ago I wrote about a service called Zoho, but that solution is geared to small teams, typically less than ten people.

MixedInk is geared toward groups larger than 10. As Jason Kincaid described in his post on the company...

MixedInk is taking a different approach to collaboration, allowing users to draft their documents using a Digg-like voting system. Instead of constantly editing the same document, users are invited to submit their own versions, which can then be voted on and rated by their peers. As they they read drafts submitted by others, users can mouse-over the passages they like most and incorporate them into their own submissions (the system will also suggest popular passages as you write using keyword detection). Over time, the most popular passages and versions float to the top until the entire group is satisfied and voting ends.

The piece goes on to say that Slate is a charter user, allowing their thousands of visitors to create a collaborative Inauguration speech. So I thought I would use that as an example and serve you up some screens and comments










As you can see, the system essentially compartmentalizes sections or chunks of content people have submitted, and the collective audience votes on which option is best for a particular chunk of the document. The two levels of participation will add significantly to uptake of this concept since there are people who like to participate deeply, and those who want to be heard but with less time and creative commitments.

I found it compelling and addictive. First, because I love words and ideas, and second because the design is so pleasant and intuitive. Submit, read, vote, it's all pretty darned rewarding and entertaining. based upon the activity level I saw on the Slate site, it appears as if the concept is compelling to more than just me.

MixedInk just launched to the public, and it seems to be pretty robust and nonbuggy, which is a refreshing change from the coterie of 2.0ey crap that comes out of the gate broken and incomplete. Thanks for getting things more or less right before going public, MixedInk!

Back to how this jibes with my control freak nature. Would I like using this service extensively? Hmm, I think...that depends. Am I futzing with your doc, or are you editing mine? Your document belongs in this platform. Mine is better served by me retaining absolute control. ;-)

Seriously, MixedInk is positively nifty, and you should go RIGHT NOW and check it out.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Animoto Makes Your Home Office MGM

As the video revolution continues, more and more people are getting in on the act of production. But there really are skills to making a strong video presentation. Or at least there used to be skills required, until Animoto came along.

Essentially, Animoto is a superb video editing technology that takes your images and music selection and weaves them together into a marvelous looking piece of film. The editor actually analyzes your components in order to match images to beat, and a host of other aspects of making a strong presentation. Here's how Animoto describes their technology:

The heart of Animoto is its newly developed Cinematic Artificial Intelligence technology that thinks like an actual director and editor. It analyzes and combines user-selected images and music with the same sophisticated post-production skills & techniques that are used in television and film.

Animoto also offers a fairly extensive library of music you can use if you don't have the track you want.

Here's the promo vid:



It's a great service, and one that is sure to improve the quality of the average vid on YouTube et al.Get vidding today at Animoto.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Get Satisfaction: A Bold New Way To Get Answers and Feedback

You know your in trouble when the customer service organization of a company or a site assigns you a job ticket. Like, HELLO, I don't want my question answered in the order it was received. I wanted it answered now, thank you very much. And if you have so many issues that you need a job ticket process, well I am not sure I want to do business with you.

Now, flip that nickel over and see the issues facing product people and marketers. There are all these thousands or millions of people forming impressions and stating them to the world and the person that often has the most difficult time finding out what they think is the person that can actually make a difference in the product or in the user's experience.

Get Satisfaction changes the closed, inefficient, and insular customer service process by creating a forum where people and companies can ask questions, get answers, and share opinions about products and services.

And it's easy peasy to play. Check out this simple visual explanation:



What's really cool about the service is that employees can join and help companies make a more positive impression. Now, they could be paid to participate, or simply feel like evangelizing for your offerings.

Companies can feature a "feedback" widget on their site to alert consumers to the Get Satisfaction offering -- a feature that is sure to add both to GS's membership and in overall good feelings from customers.For example, on the day I visited there were 11 active Apple employees answering Qs such as this:



I absolutely loved my visit to the site, and even asked a question about a service I was disappointed in! The site offers a sense of communal wonderfulness that I liked -- the idea that we are not all alone on the Sprint "help" line about to encounter someone that hates their job and has no training or means of actually helping.

And imagine the possibilities of a company asking for feedback on a new product or concept. Actually hearing from actual users in real time. Incredible!

Give Get Satisfaction a try -- as a consumer or a company. You will be very glad you did!

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Minted: May The Best Card Designs Win!

Democratization of opportunity is a big theme of today's digital environment, and Minted, a customized greeting card marketplace, is an excellent example of the concept in action.

The way it works is that artists submit card designs that site visitors can peruse and buy. Similar in some ways to a CafePress, the most popular designs obviously rise to the top, enabling their creators to make a solid living doing what they love to do. And of course enabling consumers to get better card designs than may be available in their local grocery store or whatnot.





I must say, many of the designs are gorgeous, and definitely not things you'll find at the local Gold Crown Store.

But actually, there's room for both sorts of businesses. Minted is geared to orders of multiple cards -- wedding invitations, birth announcements, that sort of thing. And their focus is on custom designs rather than 100% prefab cards.

Prices are in keeping with what one would pay for quality cards -- this is not a company specializing in 99 cent specials. But that focus on a middle to higher end market is an essential component to the model, of course -- the artists -- and Minted -- need to make a living, of course.

I am quite impressed by this service as it offers cards you simply couldn't get anywhere else. And the idea of more creative people being able to make a living on their artwork makes Minted a wonderful concept indeed!

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

I Heart Netbooks

There was an interesting piece on Tech Crunch a couple weeks ago that I have been thinking about since. The premise is that with lower cost netbooks selling well, Intel is suffering. That's because these low cost low tech machines don't need big ass computing power from a top of the line dual core processor. They do just fine on a (much cheaper and lower margin) Intel chip. Here's an excerpt:

That means that for the most part, every Netbook sold is one less Dual Core that Intel can sell at a higher price and higher margin. Which explains exactly why the company has been publicly criticizing the performance of the machines. “If you’ve ever used a Netbook and used a 10-inch screen size–it’s fine for an hour. It’s not something you’re going to use day in and day out,” said Intel VP Stu Pann at an event last year.

Intel also wants to keep Netbooks at 10 inches or less. Some PC companies we’ve spoken with say that Intel doesn’t want Atom chips in devices bigger than 10 inches, and puts incredible pressure on them to keep Netbooks at 10 inches or less.

I had the good fortune to be able to play with a friend's tiny Asus netbook last weekend, and I liked it loads. Yes, there are limitations, but the thing is, I generally don't play twitch games with a bajillion polygon rendering; I don't try to run TV through my PC. I don't use much beyond Word, Excel, and PPT, and would be happy to use stable, lighter facsimiles to save hundreds -- and indeed to be able to open my computer on a plane.

So to me, the real question is, are we at a crossroads where the classic tradeup for more power and speed just plain isn't relevant anymore? When a person's gaming world is solitaire or online bejewelled, and when 65% of what they do on a computer is email and Google, why SHOULD they buy high end PCs? One some level, one could ask the same thing about 60 inch TVs, though. Not necessary, but (for many) pleasant.

I think the PC market is going to be fascinating over the next 18 months. I foresee a giant netbook business exploding at the forefront, and high end PCs doing just fine with gamers and the like. It's the $1000 midmarket PCs that are going to suffer, and suffer bigtime.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Bloggers Going to Prison: Film at 11

The Committee to Protect Jounalists has reported that 45% of the journalists imprisoned are Internet based, meaning that you are more likely to be jailed if you are a digital journalist than a Print or TV one.

See Ars Technica graphic below:



Now I can see a lot of resons for this -- one being that Internet journalism is largely citizen journalism -- without legal departments to censor the skank comments.

But whether explainable or not, it is a troubling trend in that Internet journalism is the only category not dominated in the US by five media giants. Silencing this channel would strike a terrible blow to having a truly informed society.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Digital Marketing Factoid of the Day: Online Universities

Are high tuitions driving more people to explore online universities?

Heather Hopkins's Hitwise blog has the data and viewpoint:



Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.