News Judgement - or complete lack thereof

Oh, the dichotomy!

A snippet from this morning's CNN editorial conference call notes:

[discussion about Myanmar/Burma]
"we need to continue to do story to build outrage."

Meanwhile, in the Los Angeles bureau, CNN's cameras, live trucks, reporters and producers are camped out in front of the L.A. County Courthouse waiting for the details of a closed door hearing involving the one-and-only Britney Spears and her ongoing child custody issues. A private family matter made embarassingly public by the media. I did mention it was a closed-door hearing? Like vultures waiting for scraps.

Meanwhile, half a world away in Myanmar... wait - K-Fed's here? He's wearing an eye-patch??

If creationists read the newspaper, they'd be freaking out about this....

From the AP:
Austrian judge: Chimps aren't people

"He's now got a human name — Matthew Hiasl Pan — but he's having trouble getting his day in court."

Animal rights activists in Austria are campaigning to have Pan, a 26-year-old chimpanzee, legally declared a person.

The legal battle dates back to February, when the animal shelter where Pan and another chimp, Rosi, have lived for 25 years filed for bankruptcy.

From the article:

Organizers could set up a foundation to collect cash for Pan, whose life expectancy in captivity is about 60 years. But they argue only personhood will ensure he isn't sold to someone outside Austria, where he's protected by strict animal cruelty laws.

The animal rights group has been pressing to get Pan declared a "person" so a guardian can be appointed to look out for his interests.

Group president Martin Balluch accuses the judicial system of monkeying around. "It is astounding how all the courts try to evade the question of personhood of a chimp as much as they can," he said.

NINE INCH NAILS Frontman Says His Record Company Is Run By 'Thieves'

From the article:

"It's a very odd time to be a musician on a major label, because there's so much resentment towards the record industry that it's hard to position yourself in a place with the fans where you don't look like a greedy asshole. But at the same time, when our record came out I was disappointed at the number of people that actually bought it."

Unless you used to work in the music industry, or have a great understanding of new media, it's often hard to understand why there is so much backlash against major record labels.

Trent Reznor manages to explain the problem - both from the perspective of being an artist - as well as music fan.

read more | digg story

Google Lunar X PRIZE

The X PRIZE Foundation and Google Inc. today announced the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a robotic race to the Moon to win a remarkable $30 million prize purse. ..to land a privately funded robotic rover on the Moon.


We have the technology; we've had it since 1969. Once the cold-war ended - and by extension, the Space Race - so too does it seem that real innovation in the area of space travel also slowed.

Yes, we have the ISS (International Space Station), but it's continued deterioration further underscores that NASA's mission has gone off-course and that the exploration of space greatly needs an infusion of new energy and new ideas.

The original Ansari X-Prize paved the way for the notion of "space tourism," by nurturing the concept of sub-orbital flight for the masses, which will hopefully be a reality within our lifetime. The Google Lunar X-Prize could do the same for civilian travel to the moon.


read more | digg story

Netizens offer new take on news

A leading research house compared the news coverage and popularity from three user-edited news sites including Digg to the the traditional news media and found the two mediums to be radically different. The traditional news media tend to focus on issues such as war, immigration, finance. Web news is more interested on console wars or what Paris or Britney is up to.

The original BBC.com article doesn't indicate that so called reader-aggregated news is replacing traditional journalism or for that matter, mainstream editorial decision making - but it does offer some interesting insight into the tastes and preferences of those who use the Internet as their main source of news.

read more | digg story

Album Artwork for iTunes

My geek-tendencies laid bare...

For some reason, music on my iPod just feels incomplete unless it's got artwork attached to it. Thanks to this web-site, now you can find FULL SIZE, hi-resolution artwork that you can attach to your songs in iTunes and in your iPod.

Check out this site: http://www.thejosher.net/iTunes

Sure, iTunes will sometimes do this for you automatically, but not necessarily at this resolution. Now, you can enjoy these images in all their 1425 x 1425 glory. It's not a complete library, mind you - you're subject to what Apple has on file.

It seems like no matter what the format, vinyl LP, CD or digital file - the artwork will always matter in music.

Meanwhile the guys that designed the GORGEOUS cover to "Axis: Bold as Love" are rolling over in their graves.

Cadbury Guerilla Marketing - Dairy Milk Gorilla Ad (VIDEO)

Cadbury has come up with a new gorilla marketing campaign. The 90 second Dairy Milk video doesn’t feature chocolate once, not verbally or visually, until the very last second. Instead, the video is focused on a gorilla playing the drums and rocking out to Phil Collins. (Quite possibly the best drum fill recorded in the 1980's)

Reportedly, it cost the UK-based chocolate maker 6.2 million pounds to produce.

The question I have is -- is it a man in a gorilla suit? Is it a puppet? Animatronic?

BMX Vert Finals @ X-Games XII

I managed to score VIP access to the X-Games in L.A. this weekend.

After taking in some Moto-X, I made my way to the giant vert ramp to catch the Finals in the BMX Vert Competition.

I was a witness to history at Simon Tabron from the UK pulled off the first-ever back-to-back 900's ever in competition. Despite this AMAZING feat, Tabron only placed SECOND the final.

You can only imagine what his fellow Brit Jamie Bestwick was doing on the ramp that allowed him to take home the Gold...

I took a bunch of photos with my cell phone. I'm an idiot for not thinking to bring something more substantial. You can check them out here.

Happy Birthday to ME!

What a weekend!
Good surf, good friends, good food and great times.

See some of the evidence here.

Best 14th birthday I ever had!

Much Ado About Nothing...

With news outlets and the paparazzi dutifully assembled outside of the L.A. County Correctional Facility in Lynwood, California, the unintentional queen of all media Paris Hilton made her grand exit in front of a live, international television audience early Tuesday morning.

If history so chooses to refer the socialite's exodus as a circus, then Hilton is the undisputed ringmaster -- leaving those of us in the media looking like clowns. Seriously.I'm pretty sure Hilton is the only inmate that has ever been released from prison with such a spectacle.

Sashaying down the walkway as if it were a red carpet, Hilton gave high-fives to the gathered crowd and ran into the arms of her mother, who gave her what would have been a heartwarming hug if she had bothered to actually get out of the SUV she was riding in.

No matter. The crowd ate it up. Photographers, both still and video, bum-rushed the vehicle to try and get a closer look. For our part, both CNN and CNN International broadcast the big moment live.

More than 5 hours later, I'm still wondering exactly "why?"

Behind the scenes, the levels of coordination and consternation leading up to Hilton's release were on par with some of the bigger news events I've covered.

In CNN's spartan Los Angeles bureau, our best-laid plans for wall-to-wall Hilton coverage were completely upended when a massive wildfire near Lake Tahoe forced us to move many of our resources to that area in order to report some actual news.

We've been reporting that Paris has been claiming that her experience in jail has changed her, that she wants to be a better person. Apparently, that doesn't include having the decency to just go away.

Meanwhile, Paris is enjoying a good night's sleep on some very high-thread count sheets. We're reporting that, too.

Fast feed nation

We not only live in a time where there is a ravenous appetite for media, with audiences salivating over the ever-increasing choices on a menu.

We're also living in a time when audiences want their media faster. In a morning panel on the final day of Digital Hollywood, the discussion turned towards the speed with which these seemingly endless options get to the audiences. Issues with broadband and high-speed Internet connectivity remain at the center of a lot of these discussions.

Having the option to order from the menus of 40 different restaurants is a great thing, but if you can't get that food delivered hot and fresh to your door, what's the point? (Yes, that's an an overly simplified argument, but the concept is the same.)

Consider this: Throughout the conference, I met with companies who were eager to show me demos of their product online. With the vast number of vendors on site, you can just imagine how much traffic there was on the hotel's wi-fi connection. Too many signals competing for access ... and suddenly nobody has access and your extremely cool demo has gone cold.

Everyone is trying to figure out where the next great Internet video or music story is going to come from, but how they're going to watch that show or download that song depends so heavily on how easily the audience connects to it.

All video, all the time, is a great thing for people to look forward to -- just as long as you can get access to the network to actually see it.

A better virtual mousetrap

During my first morning at the Digital Hollywood conference, I'm struck by how often the terms "social networking," "MySpace" and "YouTube" are slipped into the conversation. Even developers on the bleeding edge of technology are trying to figure out how to move beyond the shadow of these two "Web 2.0" giants.

There is no shortage of bright, enthusiastic software developers attending this conference who are trying to best these virtual beasts by building... well, a better beast. Or at least one a similar one. And therein lies one of the problems.

One of the reasons that sites such as MySpace and YouTube have become so successful lies simply in the fact that they were incredibly easy to use. Duplicating that kind of success much more complex. While everyone is scrambling to be the "next" MySpace or YouTube, there is a tendency to forget the idea that nobody is asking for the "next" version of either of these sites.

Now, if a developer were to create a product that vastly IMPROVED on that experience for users, they might have something.Instead, what you find is a lot of companies creating the tools for companies with web-sites who want to be like MySpace - who want to take advantage of the "community" aspects of social networking and put them to use as a means of promoting their own content. The problem is, if the content you are trying to create a community around isn't compelling, your social network will be anything but.

Social networking sites such as MySpace work because their users drive the conversation. Some would argue that site has suffered since News Corporation took over its operation and made that conversation more commercial. Still, at it's core - the user is the focus - and its the user's choice of content that makes the conversation interesting.

The key to the "next" MySpace is realizing that we don't need "another" MySpace. But we might be interested in something better.

How do you want your entertainment?

Lights. Camera. Confusion.

The weeklong Digital Hollywood conference in Santa Monica, Califonia, is an exploration of what could be next in terms of digital delivery of entertainment. Software and network developers have gathered together to display their wares in an attempt to offer solutions to the distribution questions nagging at the entertainment business. The industry wants to expand and improve the way it offers movies, music and shows to you, and these developers are trying to present ideas. But I say "could be next" because, while the developers are claiming to have the answer, nobody is really certain of what the question is.

While everyone -- both studios and software developers and sites -- agree on the importance of digital distribution, none of the players are really sure just how best to serve their consumers.

During a panel discussion focused on film and TV distribution, one of the key topics was user expectations. Panel members pointed to the success of Internet-driven businesses such as Netflix, which are able to offer nearly any film imaginable within 24 hours, versus some of the purely digital distributors such as CinemaNow, which have a much smaller inventory of titles.

And while these sites all have relationships with the various studios, that relationship is tentative at best -- and clearly favors the studio's desires, not necessarily the desires of the consumers.

Consumers want what they want. They don't really care about the software tools that help them get that movie or TV show. If users go to a site to find a particular title and can't find it, they will simply go and search for it elsewhere. If they find that particular title but it only works on their PCs but not on their iPods, again -- they'll inevitably find another way to get that content.

So what's the answer? It depends on what the question is ...

How to say Fuck You in Spanish

You've got to love diplomacy.
This was reported earlier today on CNN.com:

In response to Condoleeza Rice's call for a democratic transition in the communist nation of Cuba after the fall of Fidel Castro, president of the Cuban National Assembly Richard Alarcon said,

"I wish that some day there will be a democratic transition in the United States, that there will be a regime change in your country, a change from war to peace, a change from arrogance, and for this kind of interfering in everybody's affairs, and looking back a little bit at home and ... facing the real problems that Americans have."


Coma mierda, Condoleeza! Arriba!

Things that don't matter, but somehow do...

Incredible amounts of energy, effort, coverage and stress have been invested in the following nonsense today:

Lindsay Lohan and her D.U.I/return to rehab/21st birthday party.
Rosie O'Donnell's departure from "The View."

Meanwhile, Iraq war protester Cindy Sheehan decides to end her efforts... and gets labeled as an "attention whore" for it.

Excuse me?
Anyone?

Now, back to American Idol...

Happy Birthday to Jean

We celebrated Jean's birthday last Thursday in Vancouver with pints around 11AM... as you do.

Actually, it was just me drinkin' the pints. She never touches the Guinness. But in fairness, I did start the day with an hour of weights and cardio at the gym so I kind of earned it.

The Vortex

This was how I spent last Sunday in Atlanta preparing for a major presentation for the people who manage CNN's digital platforms. Cold shots of Wild Turkey and Shiner Bock beer from Texas. Yee-haw.

Robots and Monsters

Now this is a great idea for a great cause.

Joe Alterio, a San Francisco artist, is donating his talents as an illustrator to help raise money for the upcoming San Francisco AIDS Marathon.

For $25, you'll get an original illustration by Alterio of either a robot or a monster, drawn to your specification. For $40, you can get two robots or monsters -- or one of each!

Alterio says...

All fundraising will go towards the SF AIDS Foundation, which is dedicated to helping individuals and families afflicted with AIDS in the SF Bay Area, as well as the Pangea Foundation, which finances the global struggle against AIDS, in Africa and elsewhere

To learn more, or get your own robot and monster mashup, check out

RobotsandMonsters.org

Kill Your Television

Saw this on the Slashdot blog today:

"Reuters is running a story on a study that claims "Online video sites that sell shows and movies such as Apple Inc.'s iTunes will likely peak this year as more programming is made available on free outlets supported by advertising." Many channels have wised up to offering their content hosted from their own sites for free — with commercials — to cut out iTunes as the middle man. End result? Predictions that services like iTunes-Video have no future." (eldavojohn)
(Photo: Courtesy Reuters)


I can count on two fingers the number of times I've actually used the iTunes store to purchase either TV shows or movies. I tend to use a fairly good program called PSPVideo Creator to stream DVD's and compress them to the iPod and PSP friendly MP4 format. In fact, unless a DVD is so loaded with DRM that it's been rendered unplayable on my PC, it works for just about anything I have in my collection.

The reality is iTunes has one major edge over web-based network streams: portability. Downloading a TV episode to your PC is fine. Being able to take that episode with you on your handheld device is key. If I want to sit and watch last week's episode of "Heroes" because my Tivo missed it (which would really damage my relationship with it), I'm going to opt to put that content on my PSP and watch it in bed or take it on a plane with me instead of sitting in the same chair I use for nearly everything that's either creatively taxing or work related.

And while iTunes' days as a go-to outlet for episodic content may indeed be numbered, until these other outlets offer up the capability to download that and take it with you (and without commercials), iTunes and similar a la carte sites aren't going anywhere.

The New Frontier

Okay - from the posting title, you'd think what I had to say here was something epic. Sorry.

If you want something epic with the same title, perhaps a good dose of Darwin Cooke's ode to the Silver Age of comic books.

It's nothing short of amazing.




My work however is less exciting. And far short of amazing.

I've taken a new position within CNN's L.A. bureau. Here's bureau chief Pete Janos with the latest:

Today we are beginning a new western region initiative that shows tremendous promise.
We have created a digital team to provide material for CNN’s many digital platforms.
Heading up this endeavor are Sara Weisfeldt and Matt West. They both bring a versatile skill set and passion to the project. They have already begun working on pilots for pod casts, pipeline, and CNN dot com.

The goal here is to take the lead on digital extensions for the CNN networks. Please send any digital platform ideas/concepts/programs you have to Matt and Sara.

And there you go. It's a collaborative effort all the way with very few parameters. It's a little daunting, but pretty exciting at the same time. It's basically whatever I want it to be.

I've got to be honest - I pitched this concept out about 6 months ago. When the original idea seemed to die on the table, I wasn't sure I wanted to stay with CNN. So unsure in fact, I found myself applying for a position with the X-Prize Foundation as their Director of Production.

The interview process there was very exciting and was told the decision was between me and one other candidate.

Coincidentally, at the time that the folks at X-Prize were trying to decide between me and that other person, CNN finally came around and offered me this opportunity. At the time, I was set on leaving and going to join the X-Prize.

Fate had other plans. The X-Prize Foundation chose my competition (something about their having more of an entrepreneurial background and costing less). Either way, second prize wasn't so bad.

I've been at this for a little more than a week and today, I finally came to the decision that I actually like what I'm doing.

I'm working towards a big presentation in Atlanta in about a week and a half, developing several new pilot segments for use on their digital platforms. It's a combination of writing and producing along with project management with a healthy dose of super-heroic innovation. It's been fun.

It should get more interesting in the coming weeks. It's a new frontier.
Without a power ring.



Maybe I can requisition one in the next budget cycle.