The program for IL2008 is now up online. Once again in Monterey CA, October 29-31, Internet Librarian has a great line up of speakers for workshops, conference sessions, and keynotes — see below. Monday, Oct 29 — Lee Raine, Pew Internet & American Life Project on 2.0 & the Internet WorldTuesday, Oct 30 — Joe Janes, iSchool, U of Washington on Reference 2.0Wednesday, Oct 31 — Hallowe’en — bring your costume!Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land on Future of SearchLiz Lawley, Rochester Institute of Technology, Lab for Social Computing (she’ll be wearing a costume!) on Gaming, Learning & the Information World.

Interesting to hear Martin Nisenholtz, SVP, Digital Operations from the 156 year old New York Times talk to the Streaming Media conference in NYC. He talked about their first video in 1999, How to roast a chicken, and how they partnered with cable TV to do documentaries and then gained more skills through a venture with Discovery. In November 2005 they set up their own digital operation as a pilot to extend the Times journalism, and it has now become part of the newsroom. The department has grown to a large network of journalists who have cameras and videocams in many parts of the world. They produce about 100 original pieces per month and have had many award nominations. Consumer response has been good: “I love learning by seeing & hearning”, “good quality & sincerity”. Most reporters are accompanied by a video specialst but the skills of the reporters are developing which creates more opportunities for video journalism. The NYT is developing the personalities of some of their reporters online, like David Pogue on technology. Check out Pogue’s amusing “Blackberry Magic”. I loved Martin’s quote, “Web content is part of the big swirling conversation”. Definitely.

Interesting to hear discussions at Information Today’s Streaming Media conference focused on user generated content, digital rights management and copyright. To hear that companies are worried about copyright and working on audio and video fingerprinting. Dimitry Shapiro, CEO, Veoh Networks in LA said that the old adage “content wants to be free” is illustrated by the user-generated revolution where people want to express themselves for social and political reasons, not to make money, even “beer money”! And this is the platform that is changing the world.

BTW, Veoh’s website says this is what they do — Veoh is a Web site that’s headed for your TV. It’s also the name for a suite of applications for collecting, publishing, and watching a vast selection of HD-quality video programming. Veoh is a diverse, virtual community of indie publishers coming together with their new audiences. And it’s also a few offices in Southern California full of entertainment industry insiders, outsiders, and technologists.

Libraries have known for years how to target the interests of their clients and grow communities with similar interests. That’s the holy grail for many types of companies today — finding the user base, the niche target markets — and they are looking at behavioral targeting. James McQuivey, VP, Television & Media Technology, Forrester Research, commented that more engagement measures are needed for websites but that it is absolutely true that if you have video on your website, people will spend more time there.

I look forward to hearing Martin Nisenholtz,

Continue reading Our Worlds are Converging

Here at webcom Montreal Kate Trgovac of reInvent! Communications. Her blog. As she says, Second Life (SL) is not a game like World of Warcraft but a virtual environment, a metaverse or 3-D immersive environment. It is an economy where avatars roam, build relationships, try on different personas, shop & perhaps experiment with fashion, explore, learn (English classes), work (guides, customer service), celebrate (weddings, parties), hmourn (Virginia Tech site, etc. SL is a platform for creativity & co-creation — if you can imagine, you can create. As a marketer you can partner with residents and businesses. She’s now showing her home in SL, a meeting, a party (AOL), a reading, etc. Average age on SL 30, 72% over 25, 34% over 35. 58/42 male/female split, 100 countries represented. 76,000 premium residents (they pay) although 5.1 have registered. Last month, $7,251,903US was exchanged – wow, a real economy. Currency is Lindens which you can buy, sell, earn and convert to US dollars.

So how do businesses use SL. First, to create a buzz. But need a plan beyond that. Other opportunities: new marketing channel:* Telus store front, can buy a headset for avatar (see what captures attention, so good for experiementation with new products)* Sears, sells kitchens and you can change to see what you like and then order & have delivered to house (not avatar’s house)* American Apparel, can buy for avatar and get a couple for real life store

gather customer feedback:* Starwood, avatars can wander and use

Continue reading Second Life for Business?

IBM tops the list of corporate sites on Second Life according to John Brandon, writer, author & former IT manager. IBM has 230 employees actively involved and almost 2 dozen islands. Other sites include: Pontiac, Sun Microsystems, Dell, Reuters, Cisco Systems, H&R Block and Best Buy Geek Squad. For more check out this IT World Canada article.