My intention to live blog and microblog the nextMEDIA conference were dashed by the almost total lack of Internet connection and only one power outlet in the place. The venue CiRCA, is not appropriate for a conference. I've been here before for a conference - or rather unconference, CaseCamp - and the novelty of being in a trendy nightclub (complete with S&M figurines) was cool but the novelty wears off when one is spending an entire day here, let alone two days in a space designed for clubbers to bump and grind rather than sit and learn. Symbollically, the S&M figures were covered up today so as to not offend the less-hip conference go-ers. Waiting almost an half an hour in the cold to get in to then register started the day out for me in a grumpy mode, but fortunately I was able to recover due to the caliber of speakers. Grade A line-up of speakers with reps from YouTube, eBay, Google, CBC, Nokia, Rogers, Canwest, comScore, the infamous SuicideGirls.
The conference was sold out, so much so that quite a number of people didn't even get a seat. There seemed a better mix of people - young and old, content creators and marketing types, men and women - than at most Toronto Internet or tech events.
The theme of the nextMEDIA conference is monetizing digital media . A great topic as having lived through the first dot com bubble I was wondering how these web 2.0 darlings were going to make some money. As the opening keynote speaker, Shelly Palmer, declared the Internet is good at creating value, but not so good at creating money from that value. (There did seem consensus that no one could figure out how Twitter was going to make money.)
If there were common points from today's presentations, it would be that it is possible to monetize digital media and industry-standard metrics for digital media are needed. Regarding the latter, the term engagment was used a lot. While most bandied it about as the holy grail of digital media, Palmer pointed out that this terms means different things to different people due to various ways of measuring this and until we can agree on a common definition it is hard to sell deals based on engagement. Thus we are left with metrics such as impressions or click-throughs that may not work for us.
Some of the tips for monetizing aren't that earth-shattering: affiliate marketing, storefronts, transactions, corporate sponsorship, advertising.
Interestingly, the keynote was to be "Economic Meltdown: Will 'Free" Save the Future" but Palmer changed topics as that one was "too depressing". While some of the digital media projects presented today, whether cool mobile apps or online television, are really excited both from a consumer and insider perspective, I would have like Palmer to have addressed the topic. Having lived through a collapse of online advertising dollars, I am curious who and survive and how.
Vancouver's Lat49 announced today that it has partnered with Topix - a top three online newspaper destination behind only the New York Times and USA Today (comScore, July 2008). Topix adds yet another premium site to the lat49 publisher network which has grown significantly in the last couple months thanks to partnerships with HotPads.com, ZipLocal, HomeZilla, and the Travel Ad Network.
“Topix has the widest hyper-local footprint on the Net,” said Keith Ippel, President and COO of lat49. “Their content is targeted, yet spans news, events, sports, travel, and real estate—all of our major verticals. We’re pleased to be able to offer Topix even more ways to monetize their content.”
"Interactive local content is integral to Topix" says David Galvan, VP of Business Development. "Lat49 gives us a way to further engage our users by offering advertising as content within our local maps. Their focus on relevant advertising, branding through local, is a perfect fit with both our audience and our business model."
Topix's 6 million unique visitors per month will help put Lat49's mapvertising solutions on the map.
Lat49 was developed by Vancouver-based IDELIX Software Inc., a company that specializes in technologies for visualizing, presenting, and... [more]
Topix is the leading news community on the Web, connecting people to the information and discussions that matter to them in every U.S. town and... [more]
Gary Symons, former CBC journalist and the CEO of Vericorder, was on hand at the 24th Angel Forum at the SFU Harbour Centre today promoting his vision of a truly portable, rugged and wireless field recorder for audio recording. Vericorder's product is a portable device that integrates with an ordinary cell phone, making it completely portable, and costs only $500, contrasting with expensive, bulky field kits currently in use that cost upwards of $5,000.
The device will also encrypt raw audio (using a system called TRAC, or True Audio Redoring) so it can't be tampered with avoiding legal problems. However, the device will be able to edit whil ein the field, as well as post audio. Besides broadcasters, Vericorder is targeting podcasters, freelancers, and citizen journalists with their basic recorder, priced at $250. The professional version will be available on the Blackberry and the iPhone through app stores.
VeriCorder Technology is dedicated to bringing trustworthy, advanced recording and editing technology to the “Smartphone” and PDA marketplace. [more]
Big news earlier this week when Canwest Global Communications Corp announced initiatives to reduce their annualized operating costs by approximately $61 Million. The move translated into 560 layoffs - about five per cent of the company's workforce through voluntary buyouts, attrition and reductions. Canwest management pointed to the current economic environment as well as the structural challenges in the conventional television model as the reasons why.
Interestingly, CEO Leonard Asper stresses in the announcement that Canwest is still eager to transform into a multi-platform media company and build its audience using digital media.
"Having completed an assessment of our Canadian operations and, after careful consideration, we are implementing a number of initiatives that will provide savings that will allow us to better compete in the current economic environment, without compromising our core products and services,” said Leonard Asper, President and CEO, Canwest. “It will not impact our strategy to invest in growth media like digital online, mobile and specialty channels.”
I'm not sure why Asper felt the need to assure shareholders and employees that the operating cost reduction wouldn't impact their digital media strategy... until yesterday.
Word on Vancouver streets is that NowPublic is about to be acquired by Canwest. While a NowPublic acquisition may not seem like a significant transaction, keep in mind that Canwest's current market capitalization is a paltry $80 Million - down from $700 Million only one year ago. NowPublic raised $10 Million in venture capital in July of 2007.
This rumour may have legs. NowPublic Co-founder Len Brody has advised Canwest in the past.
Canwest is Canada's leading international media company. Representing a portfolio of world-class brands, the Company creates and distributes some... [more]
NowPublic is a participatory news network which mobilizes an army of reporters to cover the events that define our world. In twelve short months,... [more]
Professors might scoff at the herds of students wandering campus with those signature white iPod earbuds, but starting this semester at the University of British Columbia, those students may have been learning. This fall, UBC joined Apple's iTunes U program , wherein school content is made available for free download through their own section of the iTunes Store . Files can be restricted to enrolled students-only, but the majority is available free to all.
"If you are a student, you probably don't know how to find UBC web content because it's spread across university websites... We know students use iTunes, so this collects what UBC has and takes it to their environment," says Alfred Hermida, who helped to pioneer the British Broadcasting Corporation's (BBC) news website as a journalist before joining UBC in 2006.
Other Canadian institutions doing the same include the University of Western Ontario, the Banff Centre, Queen's University, and Université de Montréal. UWO also started this semester and doesn't have any lecture content up, but has used it for other content like convocation addresses, school news, and recordings of student council meetings. Pacific Northwest schools on iTunes U include the University of Portland, Pacific University, and Seattle Pacific University. In total, over 75,000 audio and video files are hosted on iTunes U from 150+ institutions in the US, Canada, Australia, Ireland, and the UK.
It's great to see schools embracing new technologies, and that they can be presented in a way that's accessible to both instructor and student. Students get learning materials through the media player that they probably already have installed. Instructors are given an easy platform on which to host their content; UBC's page provides basic audio recording and editing instructions using free software. And everyone gets the benefit of all the free educational content available through iTunes U.
Yesterday on Canada.com, Peter Hadekel wrote about a Montreal startup that is helping Big media achieve the holy grail - convergence. Print, broadcasting, the Internet, or wireless - delivering content and advertising to all these audiences has been difficult to date. Convergence was the inspiration for BCE Inc.'s acquisition of The Globe & Mail and CTV and led to AOL's takeover of Time Warner in the US.
In Montreal, entrepreneur Yves Eric Laliberte is on the front lines of the convergence phenomenon. His company, StreamTheWorld, provides audio and video web-streaming to media companies. StreamTheWorld's customers include 1,000 radio stations that stream their programs live on the Internet - Laliberte claims that is about 60% of the North American radio market.
The company also serves newspapers like Montreal's La Presse and publishers like Chicago's Tribune Co. who are eager to put video clips online to supplement their news coverage and draw both readers and advertisers. Laliberte also notes that among StreamTheWorld's client list is CBS and ESPN.
While many convergence-inspired deals like the ones above have failed to pay off in profits, StreamTheWorld is making the best of the convergence trend. They currently employ 60 and expect to do $7 Million in revenue this year.
StreamTheWorld is a rapidly growing media streaming technology and services company that was founded in 2005. We currently provide streaming video... [more]
Calgary Technologies 9th Annual Tech Showcase packed the house last night at the Alastair Ross Technology Centre (ARTC). This year’s event highlighted over 40 local Technology Companies, and proves that even during turbulent global economic times, Calgary’s technology sector is diverse, growing, and always up for a party!
This year’s Tech Showcase had a new attraction – Pitch Corner. Six exciting companies took centre stage to show off who they are, what they do, and why it’s cool. Each company had 7 minutes to deliver their presentations, which included demos, graphics, prototypes, bells, whistles, and even some PowerPoint. Democamp Calgary’s fabulous Sarah Blue MC’d the Pitch Corner, and helped presenters keep their cool amid some interesting technical challenges.
Presenters included:
Also new this year, the soothing sounds of Jazz! As you sipped a glass of chewy Shiraz, or in my case a cold Traditional Ale, the Rick Climans Jazz Trio could be heard above the noise of the 400+ attendees. There were some great networking opportunities (Calgary’s Mayor, Dave Bronconnier, even made an appearance!) and I’m sure there are many people scrambling this morning to follow up on the contacts made last night!
Calgary Technologies Inc. (CTI) works with entrepreneurs to help them accelerate the success of their technology company, and looks for... [more]
Share the web as YOU see it! You can add notes, drop speech bubbles, place stickers and more on top of any web page and share your Tynt with... [more]
Psyko Audio Labs is developing headphones for computer and console gamers. The technology delivers highly accurate directional audio so that you... [more]
Our goal is to inspire the world to learn. But that inspiration must start with you. Be inspired. And let that inspiration flow through everything... [more]
Tonight was without a doubt our best DemoCamp ever here in Edmonton. With six fairly solid demos, nearly 150 people in attendance, and no technical glitches in sight, it’ll be hard to top DemoCampEdmonton4 but we’re certainly going to try! It’s just amazing to see the community grow like this – thanks to everyone who came out.
Tonight we had six demos:
It wasn’t planned at all, but all of the products that were demoed tonight seemed really polished. The interfaces were all slick and professional looking!
I think my “demo of the night” goes to ODIL’s Surveyor. I really like the interface, and the application itself seems pretty solid for something so early-stage. ElectionBuddy and Edistorm also had great demos, and have lots of potential. I think PureInbox could have been a great demo, but unfortunately we didn’t get to see much of the app itself. The History Books was entertaining, but as I said on Twitter, it seemed like something that came out of a few late night domain name purchases. Grant did a wicked presentation, showing us eight different projects that his Flash design firm has been involved with. He was definitely the most captivating presenter.
Tonight was also the first public announcement for Edmonton Code Camp! It’s going to take place on Saturday, November 29th at the MacEwan campus downtown. You can find more information here, and the domain will be http://www.edmontoncodecamp.com (working through some DNS issues currently). We’ll share more details soon.
The venue worked well again this time, and once again I had Free Wifi going (though it could have been a bit more reliable). I live-twittered the demos, which you can find at Twitter Search along with updates from others in attendance.
I think lots of people like DemoCamp just for the networking opportunity afterward, and again we had a full house at The Windsor Pub. Was great to see a bunch of new faces in the crowd too! Thanks to Smibs for sponsoring tonight’s event.
If you’d like to be notified about future DemoCamp and BarCamp events in Edmonton, sign up for the mailing list here.
See you at DemoCampEdmonton5!
If you were trying to find something to do before DemoCamp Edmonton 4 tomorrow evening, look no further! Digital Alberta will be hosting an iPhone networking event and Kelly Marples, an Applications Consultant from Rogers, will be on hand to talk about:
The presentation starts at 5:15pm in common's area in the Computing Sciences building at the U of A. the same room as DemoCamp. Here are all the details:
Digital Alberta iPhone Presentation
Wednesday, October 29, 2008 at 5:15pm
Computing Sciences Building, University of Alberta
DemoCampEdmonton4
Wednesday, October 29, 2008 at 6:30pm
E1 017, ETLC, University of Alberta - map
Come learn about the iPhone, then find out what local entrepreneurs are up to. More info here.
I know there are a few events taking place at the same time (VenturePrize Seminar Series, for instance) so if you’re unable to make it to DemoCamp, don’t worry! We’d still love to have you out for “beers and cheers” after. Check Twitter to see where we’ve gone. See you then!
