Topic: Coworking and the new world of work
Links referenced on this show:

• Jelly Coworking
• Coworking Blog

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On this podcast, I talk about kids and technology, specifically related to my experience with my daughter. I explore what it means that kids are getting so involved in online virtual worlds like Club Penguin and Webkins.

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This is the relaunch of The Connected World Podcast. Here I recount the story of how I got from my discovery of technology and my original Apple II to where I am today, striving for a career in new media. This podcast should provide the background information important to understanding where I am coming from as we take the wild ride that is new media together.

This is a two way street. I don’t want to talk at you, I want to talk with you. Please give me your feedback. Send email to theconnectedworld@gmail.com or call the phone line at 206-203-1387.

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It’s a very encouraging day as CBS figures out how to be effective on the Internet. The network will spread its content over 400 sites by the fall.

“CBS is al about open, nonexclusive partnerships,” CBS Interactive president Quincy Smith said. “Just CBS.com is not the answer” to reaching viewers, he added, so the network is devoted to going out where the viewers are, not forcing them to CBS.com.

This runs counter to NBC, who is creating a social network on their site. There are already too many social networks as it is, why do I want to join NBC? As CBS has figured out, you cannot assume to be the be all, end all site for your customers. You have to reach out to them, where they are on the net. A huge bravo to CBS!

Smith added that the network may reach out to fan-site producers to program CBS’ Web-site content. He cited a fan clip he admired: a digest of every season of The Sopranos in seven minutes, now available on YouTube. That clip might be too long, violating guild contracts and causing rights issues, but the network might take such an example and create a version running two minutes, he said.

I don’t know who put what in the CBS water cooler, but it’s working! Bringing in fans/customers to help build website content? Wow, pretty amazing. Now we still have networks, including CBS’s other half Viacom, trying to sue the pants off everyone, but it’s an encouraging development nonetheless. Let’s hope others take notice.

Technorati Tags: CBS, NBC, Socialnetworks

File this under bad ideas. Destined to fail. ABC will produce a TV series based on the caveman last seen in the Geico insurance company commercials.

“Cavemen” will revolve around three pre-historic men who must battle prejudice as they attempt to live as normal thirtysomethings in modern Atlanta.

You’ve got to be kidding me. Too many ad men and marketing wonks in the same room, enamoured by the smell of their own poop. I don’t know how else to explain it. The series is written by Joe Lawson who is the advertising copywriter behind the caveman ads. I would rather see a late night talk show hosted by the Geico Gecko.

After several years of toiling Bittorrent is finally releasing something productive. Bittorrent is the latest P2P file sharing technology giving the music and movie business headaches. But unlike many of the other P2P networks that came before it, Bittorrent is also widely used for completely legitimate purposes as. Many software companies, for example, are using it to distribute updates to their code. In 2004 Bram Cohen organized Bittorrent as a company and received venture money to further develop the commercial potential of the technology.

Now Bittorrent is unveiling a video store with movie and tv shows available for rent or purchase. Unfortunately, Macintosh users

take it in the shorts again as they will use a Microsoft based DRM that will not work on Macs. Cohen and co-founder Ashwin Navin have spoken out against DRM before, noting that it creates many problems for them as a company and most likely encourages more piracy than it stops. In order for online media sales to reach their full potential, we either need a fully cross platform DRM solution or we need to drop DRM altogether. Some have called on Apple to license their DRM technology Fairplay. Even if they did, however, it’s not likely that Microsoft will adopt it and support it in Windows just as Apple does not support Microsoft’s DRM in OS X. By far the easiest and best thing is to remove DRM from the equation, but the current generation of entertainment industry management cannot get their heads around the idea. It could take a new generation of management, one that has grown up in the new media world and that has a better understanding of it to finally kill DRM.

By far the most groundbreaking network when it comes to new media and the Internet, Disney/ABC is reporting that it’s experiment in delivering TV content on their website via a streaming player has been completely successful. Advertising in the player for the first and second quarter this year is sold out and Disney is looking to expand its on-line digital markets even further.

Disney Chief Exec Robert Iger

“We think it is increasing the pie of media consumption” rather than cutting into TV ratings or DVD sales, he added.

Finally, someone who gets it. Maybe Steve Jobs is having a positive influence on what could be considered an old dog media company. I wish nothing but the best for ABC and Disney. Their continued success will put more pressure on all big media companies to keep pace in the fast changing new media landscape.

I used to be a Netflix subscriber, but canceled last year. I like the idea, but I never seemed to have the right movie at the right time. Sometimes you have an urge to see a particular movie but after a day or two in the mail, the mood has passed and you’re on to the next thing. I want immediate access to any movie at any time. That’s what makes the old school movie rental shop work; you can fulfill your movie urge right away.

Online access to movies should provide a similar experience, so the Netflix “watch it now” feature for immediate streaming of a movie should be just what the doctor ordered. Unfortunately, in its current first gen form, it’s close but no cigar. For starters, there are only 1,000 movies available for streaming, not nearly enough. Second, no Macintosh compatibility. Third, no download available, it’s only a stream. The movies come with a heavy dose of DRM anyway, so why not let me download the title and have a few days within to watch it? This would also make it more compatible with home entertainment digital media boxes that let you watch digital content stored on your computer on your big screen tv. And with movies, that’s certainly what you want. A stream is just not as convenient.

Nobody has gotten it right up to this point. Amazon Unbox also does not support Macintosh but at least supports downloads with a time limit and has reasonable rental pricing. If you have a portable device that supports Windows Media Player, you can even take your movie on the go. Pretty cool, but no iPod of course. Speaking of Apple, the iTunes store now supports movie downloads but on a purchase only basis. I need a rental option because there are many movies I want to watch but not own.

When oh when will someone pull it all together and make something that really works. If the movie industry would stop the kvetching over content protection and start thinking of how they can best serve their customers, I don’t think piracy will be a significant problem. Give people a good service with reasonable pricing and they will be willing to purchase. iTunes music store proves this.

I was following a link on Google News to an article on Forbes.com about Microsoft and RSS. On the page was a video player that started playing video with sound right after the page loaded. I have always hated these self starting videos, especially ones with sound. I don’t need that going through my office when I’m just trying to read an article. To make matters worse, this video box had NO stop button. I couldn’t shut it off. Best I could do was lower the volume. There was so much advertising and junk on the screen anyway, it was almost impossible to find the article. That’s the last time I ever go to Forbes.com.

First it was Kazza, than Skype. For their next trick, Internet TV! These guys have a knack for knowing what to do next and they always do it well. I’m excited because I love the prospect of tv delivered via the Internet. I don’t know how these guys are going to pull it off with iTunes and all the networks wanting to do their own thing, but I wish them best of luck.