Internet Tech Boston

Earlier this month, I attended SummerMash Boston with a few folks from PermissionTV. The folks at Stickam were holding interviews with attendees and streaming live on Mashable. Well, they’ve finally gotten through the backlog and have posted the recorded sessions on their site. Below is the discussion that I and Craig Daniel, my cohort in the PTV engineering team, had regarding our favorite Video 2.0 company – PermissionTV. I  think that the PermissionTV video player is better than Stickam’s, but I guess I’m just a “company man.” What do you think?

I was happy to learn that LiveAutographs, a client I’ve worked with lately, was featured in a TechCrunch blog post by none other than Michael Arrington himself. What is LiveAutographs? I’ll let Mike explain:

LiveAutographs [is] a site that sells celebrity autographs that are guaranteed to be authentic – because they take a video of the celebrity writing the autograph and message and post it on their website.

That’s right, when you view the video of your favorite celebrity autographing event, you’re experiencing the power of online video in your hands. That’s PermissionTV’s slogan, for those of you who aren’t already in the know.

OK, so LiveAutographs is not the next internet revolution. But, it’s a fun idea and a smart use of online video. More importantly, when Mr. Arrington gets his personalized William Shatner autographed “I Love TechCrunch” T-Shirt, he’ll be “testing [PTV!] software.” Do you think his next post after that will be about PermissionTV?

In a recent article on ReadWriteWeb.com, Josh Catone describes the data from a study by PubMatic that shows online ad prices are coming down.

The report found that ad prices (based on effective CPMs) in April across all sites fell an average of 23%. This was most acutely felt by large sites (over 100 million page views per month), led by social networking sites, which saw eCPMs plummet 47% from March to April. Medium-sized web site monetization was essentially flat, while small sites (less than 1 million page views per month) saw modest gains month-over-month.

The article goes on to suggest that a possible reason for the slow down could be residual affects of the current problems with the US economy. Of course, this is a valid hypothesis and the overall economic woes probably are playing a large part in everyone’s reduced spending – from gas, to milk, to corporate online advertising.

Could it be possible that another reason for the drop in ad prices is that organizations simply aren’t getting the ROI on traditional text ads? Catone does point out that the study “didn’t differentiate between display and text ads.” The definition of “display ad” can be pretty broad, but I’d like to suggest that what he’s getting at, is the difference in performance between your standard run-of-the-mill text ad vs. a newer style video advertisement.

I’ve been a big proponent of the next generation of online video – especially as it relates to online advertising. Traditional online ad models aren’t working anymore – and studies like the PubMatic are starting to show the data that will prove it out. A recent April 23rd article by Melissa Chang of The Industry Standard describes three online video formats for the future and how they are proving to be more effective than traditional text ads. Do you think that this recent data from PubMatic suggests that advertisers are starting to pull their money from internet ads the new interactive video formats allow for Cost Per Action models?

Dan Tynam of PC World online recently wrote an article describing The 10 Most Disruptive Technology Combinations. He describes “10 marriages of technologies that have shaken the digital world over the last 25 years.” At the end of the article he lists 5 things he’d like to see disrupted. There, in the list at #3 is:

Rich Media Ads on the Web: If we wanted to watch commercials, we’d be sitting on the couch in front of Oprah. Stop with the swirling, scrolling, popping, video ads; they’re not working.

Of course, he’s talking about the ubiquitous pre-roll. The take-over or overlay ad that flies in and demands you watch it or hunt and peck for the tiny little “close” button to get rid of it. At PermissionTV, we’re working on ways to disrupt that technology – to take it to the next level. Instead of locking the user into a passive experience they don’t want in the first place, we’re imagining a Rich Internet Video Advertising experience that allows people to get an engaging experience that’s actually relevant to them.

I’ve blogged about our concept of Video 2.0 before. I guess I really do enjoying working for a company that is striving to change the way people experience the web. We’re not interested in the status-quo and that’s alright by me. I guess it’s alright to the folks at PC World too.

Last Wednesday, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra performed in Pyongyang, North Korea. Daniel Wakin of The New York Times reported:

It was the first time an American cultural organization had appeared here, and the largest contingent of United States citizens to appear since the Korean War. The trip has been suffused with political importance since North Korea’s invitation came to light last year. It was seen by some as an opening for warmer relations with the United States, which North Korea has long reviled.      

Immediately after this historic event, the New York Philharmonic had the video footagesent to my company, PermissionTV, for post-production editing and transcoding for playback on the New York Philharmonic’s web player - also built by PermissionTV. The concert was covered at length by traditional news sources such as ABC World News, CBS, and Fox. Fans of the Philharmonic were also interested in the event, as shown by some of their blog posts here and here.

It’s exciting to think that I had a very small part to play in such a groundbreaking world event. The folks at PermissionTV who designed and developed the video player did an amazing job. For a guy who never would watch a Philharmonic event online or off, I can’t take my eyes off it. As the internet moves more and more toward the Video 2.0 era, I’m looking forward to working with more varied clients, like the New York Philharmonic, that bring rich video experiences online for all to enjoy.