The Upside of Social Media

If you've read any of my earlier posts - you'll know that I've always had mixed feelings when it comes to social media.

On the one hand, it's a huge time-suck and it's easy to get distracted and spend useless hours updating your status(es), profile(s), and all responding to others' messages, opening cool links with YouTube videos in them, etc.

With so many social media outlet clamoring for attention - you also have to check multiple services with multiple logins - and then try to keep track of all the "friends" (or "followers" or whatever) you have on each service - and then post relevant stuff to that particular site.

Which site do you check most often? Where should you invest your time? If you have a Facebook, Twitter, Plurk, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Plaxo, MySpace and Yammer accounts (which I do) - who the hell has time to check/update all those sites? Even with aggregation tools, it's a nightmare.

Every time I watch Twitter feeds live - I feel like I'm watching the matrix of humanity just like in the movie.

So, I've started to focus a lot of my attention on a couple of services: Twitter and Facebook. Just those two are enough for me at this point! Even then, I have a fairly large number of "friends" on Facebook - but it's nice to read the interesting status updates, browse other folks' pictures and just keep in touch with people.

There are a lot of sad moments, happy moments, silly moments and basically everything in between. I don't comment on a lot of the posts - I mainly just "lurk" - but there are some people who could just really use a bit of encouragement now and then - so I'll post a comment (or snarky remark!).

I don't know about you, but I feel a bit impotent writing "You're in our thoughts" or "You'll make it, don't worry" or some other equally dazzling comment. I mean, I really hope that person gets it worked out or that things turn around for them - or whatever - but it just feels like a store-bought card versus a hand-written one.

You never really know if what you said was even read - much less if it even helped the other person.

So, I've been sort of lax in my commenting of other people's status updates lately - but all that is going to change.

You see, this weekend I was on the receiving end of those comments - when Brenda went into the hospital with a heart attack scare (she's fine - heart is OK). Beyond the incredible support of our family (shout out to Theresa, Julie and my mom!) - the number of caring, thoughful posts on the status updates were something that really helped me out.

In the long hours sitting and waiting (and waiting, and waiting, and waiting!) - I was able to update my status multiple times - and would find myself checking back every 10 minutes to see if anyone responded yet... and 90% of the time - someone did.

It feel really good to know that others were out there lending a sympathetic ear and offering their encouragement and support.

It was beyond just what they said (which was really encouraging) - it was the fact that they took the time to read my status update (among the 100's they have in their News Feed) - and then took the time to formulate a response.

It really made a difference to me - and was very moving.

For those of you who don't have a Facebook account yet - sign up at Facebook.com - and if you are on Facebook - look me up: facebook.com/bobcusick and "add" me as a friend (there's no "acquaintance" or "some jerk" buttons, unfortunately).

Once again, I want to THANK all the Facebook folks who responded to our situation over the weekend from the bottom of my heart.

Microblog: Online Video Coolness

Like we all need a way to get more advertising... but there's a company out there that has a very cool technology that allows people to put "stuff" into existing videos.

The company is called Innovid and they've managed to figure out a way that allows advertisers (or content owners) the ability to add product placements, in-video billboards, interactive hotspots, a synchronized overlay (synched to the contents), and a synchronized "bug" (those little pop-ups that you see on TV that promote an upcoming show for example).

They have a cool demo that shows how they replaced the white walls of a room with a graphic that wraps around it - and even a demo that shows an interactive "pong" game - while the content is still playing in the foreground!

How it works: It seems that they store some meta data about the video - and then layer content into the video when it's played - while keeping the original video untouched. This allows advertisers and content owners the ability to target different products/games/billboards to different demographics.

Very interesting stuff! I foresee the day when this type of technology will infiltrate more than just broadcast sporting events - but will work its way down to the YouTube generation looking to make some extra scratch.

America 2.0

All I can say is "WOW." I literally just finished listening t0 president elect Obama... sorry - I mean President Obama give his inaugural speech. Man, is he a terrific orator!

I really am hopeful that he is able to execute on the promises and hopes that he has fired up. I hope and pray that he will be able to really cross the aisles of not just the US Congress, Senate and House - but to also cross the divide that has been created with the rest of the world.

It was really amazing to watch the coming together of people just flooding the Mall in the Capitol. All ages. All faiths. All colors. All Americans.

Even here in the office - we tried to get one of the video feeds going (to no avail) - but we were able to get a live audio feed from an ABC affiliate news station here (KNX News Radio 1070 am). I was able to get the audio feed on my laptop and pumped it out through my desktop speakers so we wouldn't overwhelm our own LAN 0r saturate our ISP with everyone having their own desktop feed.

It was almost like those pictures you see of people gathered around the radio back in the days before television. We were all listening - no one spoke. No one was checking email. No phones were ringing. It was really an almost surreal experience.

President Obama talked about a wide range of topics - including building out infrastructure, helping the poor, warning the crazies, and elevating science and technology back to prominence. However, one of the lines that really struck me was when he said:

To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West - know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist. (emphasis, is mine)

President Obama laid out what he sees as the most critical path to America's problems. He is an incoming leader that has a road map:

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act - not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together.

We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.

Personally, I believe that it IS possible. We CAN pull together, weather the storm, re-invent ourselves and come out stronger and are all issues that need to be addressed by our country at some point in time.

Yes, I believe America can be re-made. It's America 2.0, if you will. Not tomorrow. Not the next day. Maybe not next year. Maybe not during his first 4 year term. But we WILL do it. There is really no other option.

He seems to "get" the fact that technology and social media are an important part of the process - because his process is about PEOPLE, and PEOPLE communicate with each other using technology. I'm not just talking about YouTube and streaming audio. It's more than Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. It's the "old" technology of television and over-the-air radio. It's the technology of providing speech text in advance to all the news outlets. It's the fact that he has people that even give a crap about communicating using ALL mediums all at the same time.

There's a spirit of a level playing field in terms of communication. There's a spirit of a level playing field in terms of common goals, dreams and ideals. It's up to all of us to transform the vision, goals and dreams into reality. Godspeed!

This Just In: Music Industry Greedy

It may or may not come as a surprise, but the music industry is out for your wallet - again - I mean still. It seems that the unlocked MP3 game isn't making them as much money as they expected hoped for will settle for.

So, they have a new latest-and-greatest idea: "Let's RENT songs to people." Yep, now they want to the be Hertz or Avis of the online media world.

Now that you can finally (through huge fits, starts and lawsuits) actually buy DRM-free music and listen to it, download it and *gasp* burn it to CD - they want to turn the model on its head. The only downside is - people will have to think it's a great idea and actually use the "service."

The premise here is that people don't really want to "own" music - they just want to listen to it. So, let's give them a way to "buy" (the rights to listen to) a song for ten cents each. Then, we'll put it into a "locker" for them - and they can listen to that song as many times as they want.

As long as they're online.

Yep, no rights to download to anything, no rights to burn, no rights to nothin' - just to listen to it via a browser. And, after you've ponied up the cash - you can just hope that the company (Lala) will be there a year from now. If not, then thanks for the cash - sorry, you're S.O.L.

Does this sound nuts - to anyone other than me?

Apparently not to Warner Music Group - who quietly invested US $20 million into Lala late last year (2007). At that time they also agreed to put printed advertisement for Lala into 25,000,000 CDs in exchange for the right to greater ownership, and the good folks at Lala have managed to raise a whopping US $34.7 million in funding.

So, will people go for it? I hope not! What kind of half-baked idiot would pay ten cents per tune when there are other services like Napster, Imeem or even YouTube? If you only want streaming - there are all-you-can-eat plans for under US $13 per month - that's the same as "buying" 130 songs on Lala.

It's a pretty stupid idea, if you ask me. I think people want to actually buy their music and and do with it what they would do with any other type of purchased music: download it, rip it, burn it AND play it on their computer. If you're not one of them - or just have money burning a hole in your pocket - here's a secret URL you can use to check it out for yourself.