ethanbeute

Marketing | Environment | Culture

Category: Media (Page 7 of 8)

video, photo, photograph, photography, broadcasting, internet, social media, interactive, music, sound

Giving Them Away for Free

May 13, 2010 /

I produce a Flickr photo stream.  I periodically go through it to delete photos at which no one has looked.  Right now, there are about 2,200 photos up.  I set up a little widget here in the left column that randomly grabs and displays a photo from the stream.

Over the couple/few years I’ve been putting up photos, I’ve received eight or ten requests from proper publishers seeking permission to use one or more of these photos.  Several of them are web-based guides.  One was a publisher of lake, river and stream maps.  One was a publisher of books and videos about weird and interesting things across this great nation.

I’d forgotten about that last one … until yesterday.  I received a box in the mail; I could tell it contained a book by its size, dimensions and weight.  I figured it was a book about Google Analytics that I ordered a few days ago.  Instead, it was Weird Colorado!

Weird Colorado, Weird U.S., Weird US, Mark Sceurman, Mark Moran, Charmaine Ortega Getz

Weird Colorado

My brand new, hardcover copy is personally inscribed with thanks and appreciation from “my pals,” Mark Sceurman and Mark Moran.

The Weird U.S. series has been around for years.  In addition to national and state-focused books, they’ve produced videos that aired on the History Channel.

Weird Colorado is written by Charmaine Ortega Getz.  At some point, they scoured the web for photos for inclusion in the book.  They came across some of mine.

They emailed to request permission to use my photos from Picketwire Canyonlands and Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument.  These areas were included for ancient rock art, sub-oceanic history, dinosaur footprints and fossilized plants, animals and insects.  They ended up using two of each (pages 46, 47 and 59).

These four photos are not among my most “interesting” according to Flickr; I’m glad they were useful to someone.  Here’s one of them – detail of a fossilized tree trunk at Florrisant Fossil Beds NM:

Fossilized Wood at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument

Fossilized Wood at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument

Though every photo in my Flickr stream is copyrighted, they’re free for the taking from a technology standpoint.  All sizes of every photo are available, from thumbnail through original size (approx 3,500 x 2,600 pixels).

I suppose I could try to track people down and attempt to recoup my share of any commercial gains.  Instead, I’m giving them away for free.

I tag every photo extensively to help people find them.  It’s fascinating to watch analytics on photo views and traffic sources.

Here are a few reasons why:

  • It’s produced 100% from personal passion
  • It does me no good to hoard them, hide them or lock them down
  • For those who use them, I expect they’ll remember where they got them and perhaps link back or let me know
  • Legit publishers will request permission and provide appropriate photo credit, acknowledgment and linking (and sometimes even the finished product!)

Related hopes include:

  • I hope people will enjoy some of the images as much as I do
  • I hope people will connect through imagery with the beautiful and interesting things in the world around them
  • I hope people will be inspired to go outside and maybe shoot some photos

My photo stream is generally outdoors-oriented.  Photos go up in specific groups or sets based on a trip, an outing or a shoot.  They’re always dated and tagged.  They’re up in reverse chronological order.  (Related music note: I strongly favor albums over singles).

I’d love for you to use an image as a desktop background or any other application you see fit.  Please share with me if and how you use an image.

Here are some of my most viewed and most commented photos: 

http://www.flickriver.com/photos/ethanbeute/popular-interesting/

Here is Weird U.S. at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weird_U.S.

iPad to Save Magazine Publishing?

May 11, 2010 /

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to see Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired magazine, present an idea at Ad:Tech San Francisco.  He’s also the author of The Long Tail and Free.

Anderson seems to have a strong vision and strong voice for what’s going on and what’s happening next.

Chris Anderson Wired Magazine AdTech Ad Tech iPad publishing

Chris Anderson sees a future for magazine publishing; it's all about the tablet.

His idea involves Wired, Adobe, Apple’s iPad and a healthy future for magazine publishers like Conde Nast (Wired, Vogue, GQ, and loads more).

He’s presented this idea for a few months now, so I won’t belabor it.  Instead, I’ll share my version of it in bullet-point form.

  • The tablet is the “third great platform” (PC > phone > tablet)
  • The tablet is permitted by the movement of of storage and computing/processing off the local machine and into “the cloud”
  • The web lowers barrier to entry and eliminates scarcity so competition is wide open
  • If the tablet goes rich and dynamic, traditional media may once again be able to deliver their skills in a commanding way
  • Wired/Conde Nast is working with Adobe to establish new publishing process
  • They’re seeking the efficiencies of digital, but with the pricing of analog – need a new economic model to survive, tablet era provides opportunity to create new model
  • Magazines provide the height of production value – layout, design, photos, etc
  • HTML and browsers limit the reproduction of this rich experience online – the magazine is lost in translation
  • At present, Wired magazine and wired.com are produced and sold by two separate groups
  • In a new future, digital can be designed and sold in parallel with print, simultaneously
  • Same thoughts, same people, same process
  • Print, portrait and landscape displays all laid out at once
  • It can be made to be worth paying for, not “less than print” like HTML/browser reproduction, but actually more
  • For the first time ever, Anderson sees a 21st century magazine business

I don’t have the knowledge, foresight or even interest to judge whether or not the tablet will, in fact, become the third great platform.

I support the production values argument, but the web has proven “good enough” for most people.

I also feel strongly that new economic models for publishers based in yesterday’s media must be developed.  So many people take such great pride in not watching TV, not reading magazines and not subscribing to newspapers.  Example: “I just get my news from Google.”  Meanwhile, a disproportionately high portion of their media consumption online is provided free by television-, magazine- and newspaper-based publishers.  This can’t go on forever.

So: good luck to Anderson, Adobe and Conde Nast – I wish healthy futures for all content producers, especially ones pushing forward production and display.

HP Slate (their tablet) versus Apple iPad: engadget

Verizon and Google team to make tablet: gizmodo

Another take on his keynote speech: Mobile Marketer

Chris Anderson’s blog: The Long Tail

Chris Anderson on Twitter: chr1sa

Video Demo of Wired Magazine on iPad

iPad Billboard high over Union Square, San Francisco:

Apple iPad Billboard over Union Square, San Francisco, California

iPad Billboard over Union Square, San Francisco

Facebook Project: Neighborhood Community Page

May 6, 2010 /

For fun and for the love I have for my neighborhood, I started a Facebook “Community Page.”  It’s called Ivywild Neighborhood – Colorado Springs.  Please check it out and consider clicking “Like.”

Sign at Tejon, Cascade, Ramona and Cheyenne Boulevard marking the neighborhood

Ivywild Neighborhood - Colorado Springs

I seeded it with about 50 photos I shot on a morning walk this week; I grouped them loosely into themes.

My primary hope is to represent the many things I love about our neighborhood.  The neighborhood is more than 100 years old; it’s got mature trees and lots of character.  We’ve got a great Indian restaurant (Little Nepal), a family pizza joint (Panino’s), a fantastic brewery (Bristol), an innovative culinary experience (Blue Star) and many other fine establishements.

My secondary hope is that neighbors, visitors, local businesses, realtors and others might start posting stories, photos, reviews and other info about my ‘hood.

We’ll see how it goes …

Visit the page here.

A New Low at High Speed

April 23, 2010 /

In case you were not yet aware: the US lags other developed nations in broadband and wireless infrastructure and services.  Our federal government is currently working on a National Broadband Plan to try to catch up – or at least to get into the game.

Sascha Meinrath, director of the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative, criticizes the plan.  Meinrath says it’s “like entering a race and saying: ‘Let’s go for last place.’”  His organization is cited as the source of this info:  a 100-megabit broadband connection costs as little $16 per month in Sweden and $24 per month in Korea.  Meanwhile, service only half as fast costs $145 per month in the U.S.

Here’s a not-so-pretty picture from CNet News and the Communications Workers of America:

The US trails other nations in internet speeds

The US trails other nations in internet speeds

So, South Korea is among the leaders.  I’ve already taken an extremely indirect route to my point, so here’s a quick sampling of their many achievements in communication technology:

This leadership also comes with problems.  As illustrated in Frontline’s Digital Nation series, internet addiction among Korean teens and 20-somethings is a serious problem.  Kin to a young person falling off the face of the earth for a few days on a heroin bender, they disappear for great lengths into video games and virtual worlds by way of high-speed internet cafes (PC Bangs).

Now … a completely new low:

In Virtual Reality, No Child is Left Behind - by Greg Garvey

In Virtual Reality, No Child is Left Behind - by Greg Garvey

Here it is: a South Korean couple let their 3-month-old girl die of starvation, neglecting her in favor of raising a virtual child in a nearby internet cafe.  The real infant was fed once a day between “marathon sessions” in a “fantasy role-playing game.”  According to a police officer, the couple “seemed to have lost their will to live a normal life because they didn’t have jobs and gave birth to a premature baby.  They indulged themselves in the online game of raising a virtual character so as to escape from reality, which led to the death of their real baby.”

Isolated incident or microcosmic glance into the fallout of racing into all things high-speed, digital and virtual?  I think it’s more the former, but with overtones of the latter.  Regardless, this is a new low at high speed.

I’ve blown over a huge topic area on this one.  A few personal notes:

  • I spent much time as a child playing Atari, Intellivision, Colecovision and Nintendo (NES, 8-bit)
  • I find new technology interesting, exciting and challenging; I’m not an early adopter
  • To say that I strongly favor the real over the virtual is an understatement of high order
  • I’d probably be a Luddite if not for the fact that I help feed, clothe and house my family by working in marketing
  • I simply cannot afford to wake up ignorant of trends and opportunities presented by technology

Hopefully, these outrageous stories will give us pause before our perpetual hurtling into tomorrow at high-speed continues.

Note: “In Virtual Reality No Child is Left Behind” (image above) was created by artist Greg Garvey, whose digital work can be seen here.

He Loves to Fly … and It Shows!

April 15, 2010 /

I saw a remarkable piece in the Wall Street Journal yesterday.

Headline:  Abercrombie Pays Its CEO To Jet Less

Right off the top:

  • Any company can compensate its employees any way it sees fit
  • I don’t begrudge a person for using what’s made available to him or her
  • A publicly held company should be held accountable by its stockholders
  • I have no stake in this company

Now to the story:

Michael Jeffries, A&F chief executive since the 90’s, received a $4,000,000 payment in exchange for limiting his “personal use of the corporate jet.”  He’s now limited to just $200,000 of personal use per year.

That’s limiting?  OK, what did “unlimited” look like?

From 2006-2008, “he booked an average of about $850,000 a year worth of personal travel time on the corporate jet.”  In 2008 alone, he racked up $1,100,000 of use.

Let’s break that down in a hypothetical scenario:

  • Let’s use $1,000,000 as the annual use – it’s not too far off the 3-year average, it’s under the 2008 total and it’s easily divisible.
  • Let’s say he uses the jet every single weekend of the year … except for six.
  • Let’s say over those six other weekends, he’s actually on four longer vacations.
  • So: 50 trips total.
  • That’s $20,000 per trip.
  • Wow.

Honestly, I’ve never shopped for personal or chartered use of a jet.  I will say that $20,000 per trip seems a bit high.  Also, my proposed annual schedule of every weekend, plus four longer vacations is a pretty aggressive recreational schedule for the CEO of a company with $3.5B in annual sales; it seems like Jeffries might be more busy than my hypothetical scenario suggests.

In short: he loves to fly – on what must be a luxurious corporate jet – for personal use – a lot.

CEO Abercrombie & Fitch

A&F CEO Michael Jeffries loves to fly ... and it shows!

Brief background:

Abercrombie & Fitch has more than 350 stores, most of them in the US (3 in Canada and 1 each in London, Milan and Tokyo).  You might recognize A&F as the clothing store in the mall in which the male models don’t wear any shirts, the female models are half naked and none of them are minorities.  They also own the Hollister, RUEHL and Gilly Hicks brands and operate more than 1,100 total stores.  They also sell direct by web.  They sell apparel primarily targeted to people under 30.

The A&F brand has been alive since the 60’s and today is rooted in “East Coast traditions and Ivy League heritage” and taps into the “essence of privilege and casual luxury” (seriously, you have to read their self-description in the open of their latest annual report).  It’s been owned by The Limited since 1988.  Here’s a look at their 10-year stock performance:

stock performance, 10 year, A&F, ANF

Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) 10-year Stock Price Performance

Jeffries has presided over a very nice growth story.  If you want to call $1M/yr in personal use of the corporate jet excessive, at least acknowledge that his use peaked during years in which his company was performing.

Today, however, times are tough.  Here’s a brand approach to their problems from Brandchannel.  Here’s an image and financial approach to the situation from MSNBC’s “The Big Money.”

Naturally, then, they’re looking to reduce costs – hence the $4M buyout of Jeffries’ unlimited personal flying privileges.

Questions:

Would a CEO who really cares about the fate of his company accept a $4,000,000 buyout in exchange for dropping his personal use of the corporate jet down to $200,ooo/year?  Why would he not of his own volition simply agree to a cut back?

When you identify unlimited personal flying as a costly sinkhole for your ailing company, do you take your observation to the legal department to start structuring a deal or do you take it straight to the CEO?

Does your in-house legal team put this deal together or do you hire it out?  Do A&F and Jeffries have separate representatives in the negotiation?  Was it contentious (as in “No way!  $3M is insufficient compensation for limiting my client’s personal use of the corporate jet.  That’s less than the value of his next 3 years of personal use of the corporate jet.” | “OK, how about $4M?” | “Deal!”)?  What were the total legal fees incurred?

What would you make of this whole thing  as a stockholder?  Would there be any way a stockholder would even know about such extensive personal use of the jet?

Bottom Line:

This isn’t some populist rant about CEO’s running out of control.  As mentioned off the top, I find the whole scenario perfectly acceptable, though fascinating in its outrageousness.  I also find it a little offensive from a potential shareholder’s standpoint.

What CNN Can Learn from The Daily Show

April 12, 2010 /

I’ve never been a regular viewer of The Daily Show; we’ve not been cable or satellite subscribers in years.  Since I fanned the show on Facebook, however, I’ve seen one or two episodes a week – embedded right in my news feed.

Observation: the show does a fantastic job of calling out politicians and pundits for changing positions and for all-purpose disingenuousness.

Here’s a recent example:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Say Anything
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

In this clip, Jon Stewart sends up John McCain for suggesting he never though of himself as a “maverick” in an interview with Newsweek magazine.  McCain was begging for this parody; this is the same guy who ran a Presidential campaign ad in 2008 called “The Original Mavericks” and rode around in “The Straight Talk Express.”

Stewart runs through a list of stands on which McCain has doubled back.  Among them:  Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy, redistribution of wealth, intolerance, tax cuts, torture, cap and trade, the deficit, the Confederate flag and others.  To illustrate the first three position changes, Stewart tees up clearly sourced and date-stamped video clips – in the first, McCain takes a position and in the second, McCain contradicts that position.

In his rant on how ridiculous the “never considered myself a maverick” statement is, Stewart refers briefly to his regular modus operandi – tossing to a montage of clips in which the subject talks out of both sides of his or her mouth, generally for political expediency.  In this case, he decides the montage is unnecessary because of how embedded the “maverick” concept is in McCain’s persona.

These montages are a standard tool for the show – and they’re powerful.  They’re smart and useful.  They’re simultaneously hilarious and disheartening.

Regrettably, they’re also partisan, which limits their range and effect.  Michael Steele and the RNC lesbian bondage club incident provided days of fantastic material.  Whether it’s highlighting “ramming-cramming-jamming down our throats” health care debate talking points or using crowd shots from a wholly different event to make a Tea Party look bigger, Fox News is practically a constant stream of content ripe for Daily Show montages.  In contrast, there was a recent segment called “Tenacious O,” which lauds Obama’s incredible accomplishments … what can’t he do … does he ever sleep … “even Jesus rested on Sundays.”  Note: it was quite hilarious with an 80’s themed Obama-Biden montage in the middle.

Under the cover of satire and parody, Jon Stewart and The Daily Show call people out and hold them up for public review.  Scoff at this programming as simple entertainment at your peril; its reach and influence are strong … and young.  Fox News is paying attention (see end of clip).

The “watchdog” is a valuable function in service to an informed voting public.  Fact checking and credibility metering tend to be the province of smaller outfits.  Few large, mainstream media outlets have the willingness or ability to take on double speak so openly, aside from the seasonal reviews of political ads.

While there are many solid news organizations that tackle difficult and complex situations year-round, including corruption, waste and fraud, most outlets tend simply to pick up and cast wide the day’s sound bites and talking points.  If those words contradict what the same source said previously, there’s no criticism or even awareness.  We frequently get rote regurgitation … content providers playing friendly to stay friends and retain access to sources.

Idea: this could be a direction for CNN, who’s getting beaten very badly by both far-right Fox News and far-left MSNBC.  The original cable news network and current ratings laggard, CNN seems to want to hold the high ground with the guise of objectivity, distance and non-partisanship.

CNN, may I kindly recommend devoting some resources to drawing attention to politicians’ and pundits’ double speak, hypocrisies, flip flops and other sleights?

It won’t be as funny as The Daily Show, but it could have more range and broader effect.  It might also be sufficiently entertaining to help your ratings and revenue.

« Older posts Newer posts »

Posts by Category

© 2024 ethanbeute

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑