Vlogging: Why this is the next "killer app"

Two weeks ago, I profiled LCN Technologies, a company that's on the 'cutting edge' by providing low-cost, high quality ("HD quality") technology for those that "get it" and recognize that live, internet broadcasting will prove to be what sets competitors apart.

For pundits, "pontificators", or simply corporate-arena presenters,  these tools are a must have. Its that simple.

For those that "vlog"--(which incorporates either canned or live video within a blog), the content becomes that much stickier, and real time, is well, real time.

Aside from LCN, there are actually few credible vendors within the space. Another is Silicon Valley-based Dyyno, which is sponsored by two leading Venture Capital firms--and my bet is that they'll be gobbled up by Google before they even bother to do a second round of venture funding.

Although Dynno's technology is somewhat different that LCN (Dynno requires broadcasters download an executable file while LCN does not), and its cost to implement and administer (licensing fees) is higher than LCN's, its presentation strikes at the heart of what we're talking about.

The real bet however is predicting the actual number of "celebrity" bloggers, corporations and media outlets that will leverage the technology in 2010. My conservative guess is that it should be in the tens of hundreds, if not thousands.

Cashing in on Twitter? Or Opting Out...One Man's Tweet is Another's Twit

Twitter, now almost as ubiquitous a name as Google, is apparently coming into its own (for those who own a slice of the private company), and has struck open source deals that will allow for advertising messages to be imbedded within all of those tweets that so many people are (purportedly) subscribing to.

I'll admit that I did sign up to follow the tweets of a few of my pundit friends, and I'm only glad that I turned off the "alert via txt msg" button, otherwise I'd have to cancel my cell phone service entirely.

Of course I believe in the concept of leveraging social networks to promote consumer products. And of course, I'm influenced by what my friends are buying in the course of making my own purchase decisions. Well, sort of.

But now that Ad.fly and others are making it easy for my 'friends' to insert advertising messages within their tweets, do I really buy into it? Do I really want to be cluttered with messages, knowing that my 'friends' are exploiting ther friendship in order to make money from me?  What does this say about the social contract, that we, as 'friends' have made with each other?

OK, I'm jealous;  unlike Ashton K., or Larry K., I don't have 1 million+ "followers". I only have a few hundred or so. Most of them prefer to go to this blog, or one of the others that I've become famous for.  How many of them are going to appreciate knowing that I'm getting paid to pitch my favorite toothpaste, or my favorite burger joint?

And what happens when the FTC decides to enforce their stupid new rules about blogger disclosures, and single me out for promoting a product on my tweets without including a disclaimer? I won't be happy. But its safe to bet that big time bloggers that have friends in Washington won't have to worry about this. Does Eliot Spitzer tweet?   

Live Web Broacasting: The Marketers Magic Elixir

We try not to harp incessantly on ideas that we think make sense—and even if I’ve always been a strong proponent of the power of live Web broadcasting for pundits, experts, consultants etc., whose respective audiences are bored to tears with "WebEx" presentations, canned videos, or other communication apps that can best be described as "Old Media" in the age of New Media application, I had to jump back into the blog to pound the table yet again.


In the past two days alone, the NY Times has profiled four unrelated stories that profile the rapid emergence of web-based video-conferencing/broadcasting, and in the past week, there have been two major acquisitions of makers of web-based video conferencing tools.


Below links provide 2 of those stories.


Given the fact that these ‘tools’ are coming into their own insofar as broadcast quality, pricing and flexibility, I’d respectfully suggest that Mark Prince at LCN Technologies (http://lcntechnologies.com) has been well ahead of the curve—and the most recent version of LCN’s “broadcast platform” is exactly the type of technology that should be leveraged by a wide variety of pundits, experts, media wizards, etc.



http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/business/media/11adco.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=tv%20news&st=cse



http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/logitech-breaks-into-videoconferencing/?scp=3&sq=logitech&st=cse