Friday, April 22, 2011

Greenpeace Video moves beyond the hype toward social impact


This fragile Earth deserves a voice. It needs solutions. It needs change. It needs you.

This Greenpeace video for earth day is a striking, purposeful example of social media for the good cause. Now allow me to get political on earth day…

As Republican Congressional members seek to destroy and demonize the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] by supporting legislation that would block the EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act, take this time to get the truth, not the facts.

The truth, The Tea Party Congress has dismantled EPA rules that protect against industry destroying our country with greenhouse pollution, mercury, coal ash, and mountaintop removal. By a veto-proof margin, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to prohibit Clean Water Act limits on pesticide pollution of lakes, streams, and rivers. Lobbyists for industrial agriculture polluters are cheering the measure which would bar the Environmental Protection Agency from requiring farmers or companies to comply with the Clean Water Act when using pesticides on or near water sources.

The truth, America's future cannot be shaped by the Tea Party, they’re fabricated and odious agenda is aimed at creating a class divide that would relegate millions of Americans to Second-Class Citizenship. Theirs [the tea party] is a neo-fascist movement to limit the legal rights, civil rights and economic opportunities for working class Americans, while at the same time destroying our environmental protections for the benefit of big business. The GOP and their Tea Party henchman have already begun the disenfranchisement of millions by injudiciously stripping the EPA of the ability to protect us from polluters who are poisoning our land, air, and water. Fight for the Environment. Fight for your rights. Fight the power.
Anthony Chiles

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

With YouTube, Advertisers Need More LeBron, Less Dogs on Skateboards But will original content spark an identity crisis?


Earlier this month the buzz via The Wall Street Journal was that Google was preparing to pump $100 million into video subsidiary YouTube, all of it targeted at the creation of original programming and premium "channels" featuring recurring, made-for-YouTube Web series.

Sources familiar with the discussions dispute the dollar amounts reported and, in particular, what the money will be used for. But if the company’s investment in programming is anywhere near that, it's a whopping sum (though admittedly less whopping than the $100 million Netflix invested in Kevin Spacey's House of Cards) and represents a new frontier. Reaching it will require YouTube to navigate a challenging road: all that money may buy original content, but it also earns them one heck of an identity crisis.

Can the site stay true to its roots in user-generated content, or does that run the risk of scaring off advertisers on the new channels? Or will YouTube gradually transform itself into a premium video destination like Hulu? Plus, but with fives times the audience? Can it be both?

Online advertisers say there’s no question the site as it exists now has some real benefits (that audience, for example) but that it can be a tough sell to clients. "There are growing pains at YouTube. You need to retrain people to come to the site for premium content," says Dan Goodman, co-founder of Believe Entertainment Group, which is producing LeBron James’ full-length animated series The Lebrons for the site. "The large majority of video on YouTube … most advertisers wouldn’t want to be around," says Rich Kim of Rubin Postaer & Associates. "It's going to take time."

Google's hope may be that with enough premium programming, it can drown out the user-generated noise. As Goodman put it, "Once you [start to] have great content on YouTube, it does get you past the dogs on skateboards."
D.M. Levine  Adweek

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Twitter reportedly considering offering brands Facebook-style pages


Twitter could soon offer brands dedicated Facebook-style pages on the microblogging service, opening up ways for advertisers to deliver tailored messages to their followers and serving as a central hub for companies to coordinate campaigns, Marketing Magazine reports.

Sources close to the subject have said Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and President of Revenue Adam Bain are championing the idea as one of the many plans it has to monetize the service. Providing advertisers and brands with more additional ways to interact with the Twitter userbase, adding to the existing Promoted Trends and free company accounts.

Weeks back, Twitter introduced the Quick Bar to its official app – which was quickly renamed the “DickBar”, after the Twitter CEO – aimed at increasing visibility of promoted topics on Twitter. The move was aimed at increasing interaction about hot topics on Twitter but also to highlight sponsored trends that otherwise may have been missed. It was pulled no more than a week later.

Having failed with its attempt to monetize existing services on its platform, Twitter is looking to create new revenue opportunities, turning its attention to an idea that has proven popular for rival Facebook.

It would be interesting to see how Twitter implements its new feature, should the rumours be confirmed. With the vast majority of users utilising the official website, the company can simply include links to new pages set up by brands. However, many active Twitter users have begun to make use of applications that utilise Twitter’s API – providing a consistent appearance and functionality amongst third-party apps would be instrumental in helping branded pages succeed.

Twitter is faced with the difficult task of introducing features, including branded pages, that help monetize its platform, whilst appeasing its users – something it has traditionally struggled with in the past.

Twitter has declined to comment on its advertising plans but has noted that ‘strong interest’ from brands is a key reason behind why it is looking to set up a UK office.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

President Obama Takes It to Ryan and the GOP



There's no reason for the establishment to fear me. But it has every right to fear the people collectively -- I am one with the people. Huey P. Newton...

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Timelapse Flight Video Captures Aurora Borealis

If given a whole row to themselves in a flight from San Francisco to Paris, most people would just sleep. Not this passenger, who set up his Canon 5D Mark II digital SLR camera on a tripod and attached a timelapse controller.

When he pointed his 16mm-to-35mm lens out his airplane window, the result was this remarkable timelapse video of his 11-hour flight.

Taking that Great Circle route above the polar regions, the video flies us through the aurora borealis, giving us a look at those spectacular northern lights.

Also remarkable is the fact that the Air France flight crew allowed the use of that bundle of electronic devices throughout the entire flight. At the end of this video, you’ll see the rig with which he snapped the 2,459 shots — one approximately every two miles. After the flight, they were edited together along with a few judiciously placed iPhone pics shot along the way.

By the way, you don’t even need to be flying that far north to see the northern lights — once on a night flight from Montréal to Detroit, I could see the aurora borealis out of the right side of the plane during the entire trip.