Digital Media Insights

Social for Distribution

2010-05-08T08:24:00.000-07:00

I trust editors less and less. I trust programmers less and less. I've taken control of my own programming, and read fewer reviews than I ever have before.

A big part of this is trusting services like Flixster, and to a lesser degree my social graph on Facebook, and the public consensus on Twitter to filter out all the different media that exists in the world.

Social is a new discovery model. Whether it's a high score on a casual game, or a quick snippit comment from a friend, this has changed the way that I discover content.

As Facebook makes the OpenGraph available on any device with an Internet connection, there is going to be a new battle. Service providers will become dumb pipes, and will have to find innovative ways to build applications and new experiences for the Web 3.0 age.

I'm wondering what services are making great use of the new social discovery model and can make the OpenGraph a key part of the user experience.

The Changing Online Landscape in your Home

2010-04-12T08:08:00.000-07:00

It's become clear that home is turning into a new battle. As platforms like Android and Microsoft seek to be a part of your in-home experience, it's become clear that there are few ways to manage it easily.

One thing that I've been thinking about a lot has been the idea of a configuration tool for your devices. There are services that make it easy to find and install updates, but few to manage your services similar to the online interface from boxee.net, an interesting new project in the digital home space that lets you turn any PC into part of your digital home.

As profiles evolve on the web, the web will become infinitely more useful in managing the services which include content, communities, and communication tools like mail and messaging. But devices still have a ways to go before the advent of a broadband data connection will make them behave more like a PC.

My predictions are:
1) Devices will have logins that will let you register them right when you purchase them
2) Setup will only require setting up the data connection
3) Communities and other settings will come from applications like Mail, Social Networks, and your ISP to be relevant as soon as you turn on the power.

The Participatory Election

2009-04-21T16:58:00.000-07:00

Media is about getting together, establishing a relationship, and aligning your goals. An example of this was the Obama election campaign where the team did an amazing job of bringing the candidate closer to his voters, mobilizing them in ways we've never before seen.

So now comes Gavin Newsom emerging as a challenger to former EBay CEO Meg Whitman. What is untraditional about this approach is that Gavin broke the news to his Twitter followers and Facebook fans in addition to announcing via traditional media. It is an aggressive mood in this challenging economy. Says Newsom, "It's Official - running for Gov. of CA. Wanted you to be the first to know. Need your help."

This is a sign that everyone is seeking some semblance of control. The era of "Spin Journalism" has led to numerous misstatements in the past, and elections are no exception, often employing Spin Doctors as key communications officials. Newsom is capitalizing on his popularity challenging many of the fragmented ideologies that have divided the state of California, and has been using social media to establish a new type of rapport with his constituents that we did not see before Obama.

The rise of Twitter and Facebook has been impressive to watch. The growth of both services in engaging users, establishing relationships, and becoming platforms for messages has helped the popularity rise rapidly. What is different is that while Facebook has a suite of tools targeted towards brands, including celebrities, to build relationships with large followings, Twitter has actually enabled some to create relationships, conversation, and dialog within its growing community.

In this election for California's Gubernatorial race, I fully expect that new tools will be used to collect feedback from voters, mobilize them throughout the process, and engage individuals, especially the new class of Millenials who are empowered, idealogical, and are not too shy to voice their opinions with the tools and platforms that have evolved from blogging, MySpace, YouTube, and now Facebook and Twitter.

For a look at a post from powerhouse bloggers at TechCrunch, take a look at this link.
http://bit.ly/8LojF

How my profile changes everything

2009-01-26T09:33:00.000-08:00

It's true. I have a profile. I've been an avid user of social media over the past decade as new tools have come out to help me stay connected with people. The profile that I have helps me stay connected with people from elementary school through my working professional life today.
My profile has different meaning depending on who is looking at it, who is following it, and who is interacting with it. Brands have a difficult time distinguishing from my preferences as a professional and as an individual. I use multiple email addresses which establish my identity.
The Media world has not figured out the way to deliver targeted messages to me which compel me to respond. Perhaps new places like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook will give them the right engine to fine tune their messaging. Until then, it will have to rely on me finding offers related to me as an individual and interacting with the ones that make sense.

Participation and Web 3.0

2009-01-04T17:13:00.001-08:00

Media is changing today because of new technologies which allow people to participate with one another. There are plans to allow users to access programming in new ways from their phones, televisions, and PCs.

YouTube and other sites such as the social networks of MySpace and Facebook highlighted new ways for campaigns to reach and mobilize young voters, allow them to voice their sentiments about the current issues, and spotlight new ways for traditional broadcast journalists to take pulses of the current issues. This allowed pollsters to hit the target issues more focused than ever before.

Tools such as Twitter, Facebook, and Meebo, along with web widgets from companies like ClearSpring and Gigya allow medias to push updates frequently and interact with audiences of customers and partners. New platforms from companies such as Lithium Networks help brands virtually test market new products without having to invest in a full product development cycle prior to releasing products.

Participation will highlight several issues, among the key ones will be identity. Standards are required in order to make sure that a users identity is consistent across sites requiring login. Competition will be fierce, but the standards that win in the online world will most likely be used to help media companies and service providers tailor their services to individuals instead of households. Currently, the target services include OpenID, OAuth, Facebook Connect, MySpace ID, Passport,and Google FriendConnect. Each has a set of challenges but eventually will most likely coexist with one another and allow users to ultimately choose their service.

Rules for BD in an Online World

2008-12-18T10:37:00.000-08:00

Today's world of BD is pretty cluttered. I've decided to document my history of successfully managing partnerships for the long-term in today's connected world.

In this blog, I'll start to talk about the partnerships, prioritizing them, identifying potential decision makers, and creating long-term growth opportunities.

In my world, I've worked with media companies, technology companies, startups and corporations, mobile companies, and Internet companies. I've created messaging that goes back to the core values of a product or service and gone out to evangelize it, trying to bring innovation to the world.

Stay tuned for more as I get ready to write more about my life journey of becoming a BD guy in the Valley and what has and hasn't worked for me.

Too many messaging options flying around....

2008-11-06T12:19:00.000-08:00

I am an avid messager. I message through IM. I message on Mail. I message through Social Networks. I message on my mobile phone. I've just now realized how difficult it is to have a single thread of communication with friends.
Today, my voicemail buzzes. My phone buzzes. The message light comes on. I have no way to manage all of this or centralize this view.

I have started to realize that the options for things to viewing messages is as important as creating a message, sending the message, receiving the message, and then the cycle starts again.

With this new era of messaging, I can now send video messages, but I still need a single box to view it. Without thinking about the business model, I think that there has to be a way to centralize private messaging between individuals without broadcasting out unforeseen information to the public.

18112007119xm4.jpg hosted at ImageShack.us

2008-10-05T17:05:00.001-07:00

Visit normliang's (my) ImageShack profile

Quickpost this image to Myspace, Digg, Facebook, and others!

What is social media for mobile?

2008-06-15T01:25:00.000-07:00

I've been involved in a lot of things over the past year and a half, but the biggest one that I've been engaged on has been the thought of social media in mobile.
First, this should be broken down in three pieces.
1) Connection to the social network
2) Connection to the media services in mobile
3) Destination sites to manage this content
Blogging is social media. These are my thoughts meant for sharing. With that being said, I think that it's a bigger phenomenon that people are finally capturing and sharing the content from their cell phones. Regardless of quality, it's clear that there are a lot of pieces that should continue to move forward.
Higher quality pictures and video are now possible in mobile, and new content management pieces are everywhere. New ecosystems are emerging with the social networks, operators, handset vendors, and destination sites trying to see how to create the best possible user experience for the widest range of people.
I think that before social media become a phenomenon in mobile, media itself is ready to make new things possible for everyone in the very near future.

Social Media is a funny thing....

2008-04-20T22:08:00.001-07:00

So the online world is a funny place. People rely on updates as their lifeblood of information about what I'm doing, where I am, and what's new in my world. The funny thing is that my network is a combination of life and work, and it's becoming increasingly difficult to separate it out.

Since I've joined the online world again as Director of BizDev at Photobucket, it's now becoming apparent that the content that I generate - in posts, in pictures, in video - are the ultimate way for people to see what I'm doing. But with my schedule, it's becoming difficult to manage.

I think that these days, it's easiest for us to realize a few things -
Social Network posts are not always an indication of what's happening in my life
Convenience is at a premium, and it's difficult to plug off if you're addicted to social networks and social content
My profile is not everything about everything

I'm hopeful that one day, the idea of profiles is tiered, and we'll be able to set different levels of access/viewing to my profile. At some point, it would be useful so that people who should know about my personal life have visibility to anything that I post on it. And for people in my work life, they can just see my professional profile and activities.

Until then, I guess I'll stick to censorship and start keeping multiple profiles....

It's been awhile since I've been here

2008-02-16T08:57:00.000-08:00

It's been some time since I've updated anything here with lots of changes.

It seems that the new Open Economy is created to help companies enter into new spaces together. With APIs and developer communities now available from all angles, smaller companies and developers now need to choose where they spend their time based on interests and return.

One needs to consider two things when you are building:
1) Who are you servicing?
2) What interest do you serve?

The rest of the ideas/dreams about users and revenue will come. Some people will develop in this open economy simply because they can. Others will develop because there is a real opportunity to break into some new space with creative new applications...

For the companies making the decision to release an API and establish a community, it's simple. Tap into the creativity of a pool of passionate users and developers who can find new spaces that a company can't otherwise serve. However, it's up to the community to decide the roles and responsibility of the companies services which they build upon.

So I challenge those out there to consider the following:
Are we (the companies) trying to find new spaces?
Are we (the companies) trying to encourage innovation and in what way?
Are we(the companies) educating our community on all the different ways they can build new applications/services?

Just wait. I can't wait to see where the web is headed....

Long time, no speak

2007-10-09T21:50:00.000-07:00

There is lots going on in the world right now.
It rained in September in Silicon Valley. And the electronics industry is beginning a new shift.
In the world of wireless where I work, lots of trends are starting to emerge.
The first is the concept of tiered networks. A network can be defined as an interconnected group or system.
Common attributes bring people together, and there is one massive network formed on top of the World Wide Web. This evolution of the telecommunications network now carries much more data than just voice. Over this, we are immersed in a world of digital content like voice calls, video conferences, email, instant messages, photos, music, and video.
The new layer of this network is the one of communities. It adds a human element to the concept, hence companies like Cisco becoming the "Human Network."
The second concept in this world of human networks is that they create value. Advertising, premium subscriptions, and other services are now running on top of this network where people can connect to one another around the world.
The third concept in this network is the ability to manage many types of content via feeds in a widget. These widgets are not blocks manufactured in the factory. Rather, these widgets are small applications that allow you to quickly access relevant data. Whether that data is personal or meant for the world, we are just now starting to see the value of being able to break things apart and host them with many services running together.
Stay tuned for more....

Mobile Webification

2007-08-16T22:37:00.000-07:00

Recently, the topics of the mobile web have become very popular.
I've had some time to digest the iPhone, its browser, and ability to handle tasks.
I've realized that I want things faster on my phone, even though it has a slower network connection. I, like many, am accustomed to being able to instantly know that email is there. I found myself pacing when it took an additional 30 seconds to download a larger mail through the email client on my smartphone.
The answer of course, seems to be to increase the speed of the connection. With many devices now carrying a wi-fi connection, there are a whole new range of features designed to make my phone react faster to alerts while saving on my wireless phone bills.
I am learning to slow myself down and accept wireless performance. I can't help but think that there should be a whole range of tools designed to improve the experience of being entertained, communicating with others, and organizing my personal information.
I believe that it is up to developers to find solutions as these phones become easier to program for. I believe that mobile developers will be empowered by platform features that should allow them to integrate services and deliver them as exciting features of devices for years to come.

The Mobility Dilemma

2007-05-19T11:45:00.000-07:00

Everywhere I go, it seems that I can't access everything that I want for one reason or another. Whether it is my corporate Instant Messaging, my personal Instant Messaging, or watching the videos and music that I want, it just doesn't seem that easy.
The first problems are around what content I'm allowed to copy. All I know is that at some point, I've paid for content (mostly), and that I want to get it off my laptop or PC onto my MP3 player or even better, my phone.
I want to take the single device to the office, park, gym, use it at home or in the car, and be an example for seamless mobility. I just don't think the experience and the platforms are there yet.
So what can we do? Most importantly, we can develop common platforms so that it isn't so hard to create the applications that will allow us to achieve seamless mobility. Then, we might actually make some progress and be able to carry around nothing more than a drive and log in from anywhere to whatever we as consumers might want to do on the web....

The evolution of what?

2007-05-14T22:57:00.000-07:00

Consumers are faced with enough choice. Product managers are forcing themselves to innovate along unnatural curves created by the Web 2.0 craze, an influx of fresh capital, and an incredible amount of talent that is willing to push the edge.
I have spent a lot of time looking at the evolution, but what are we trying to evolve here? The evolution is simple - product and technology companies are now moving from their own closed door policies to one of open innovation.
In the model of closed innovation, focus groups and studies are created before a product manager goes to develop their product specification. This model relies heavily on product managers as the "super user" and does not show much to the consumer.
In the model of open innovation, many insights are pulled together from the real world and product managers must factor all of these in while defining feature sets. This model relies heavily on communities talking to one another and a product manager advocating ther requirements.
Technology moves at a blinding pace, but it is clear that snap decision making is becoming more autonomous with better information and collaboration happening in the marketplace.
I can't wait to see what products and services are in store for us in the next few years. Already, our devices are starting to think for us, telling us what we need to do and when we need to do it. The question of the day is - is this what people really want?

Networked Innovation

2007-05-08T16:25:00.000-07:00

I spend a lot of time with the electronics industry and the people who improve our lives everyday with innovative products.
What I have come to realize is that the greatest ideas are simple ones with a single goal - to make people's lives better. Whether you are talking about Web 2.0 services, the latest home electronics products, or the ultimate mobile device, it rings true.
The concept of Networked Innovation is nothing new. As networks around us get faster and the services that are carried on it begin to increase, life is supposed to be getting easier by having these devices connect directly to network services.
Let's test the logic here. A digital camera lets you take and store pictures until you can get back to a computer, where you can email, upload, and print your pictures over a network. An iPod lets you listen to music and organize your music collection when you are on the go from a PC connected to a network. A TiVo lets you store programs to watch later, without living your life by the electronic program guide, scheduling recordings from a PC connected to the Internet. And the PC seems to be the hub of everything.
Innovation for the consumer is headed back towards the PC because it is the single thing that is connected to a network, easy to program, and can interact with a number of devices.
A new trend is emerging, allowing products to stand on their own two feet. Every device is connected to a number of networks, but each of these networks has their own set of rules.
Each set of rules is set by the people who use it, and this is the heart of the Web 2.0 trend, and will remain with us through Consumer 3.0.

Is Web 2.0 just about collaboration?

2007-04-19T11:50:00.000-07:00

So, I've just spent a few days being blown away by the great insights the Web 2.0 community had to share. It's clear that this is more than just a passing fancy, but what was more impressive were the sheer numbers of people who want to understand how this applies to everything about computing.
It started with the notion of shared services in the cloud. While many companies are looking at this, the challenge of building a data center that can scale with amount of information managed in the Internet is unimaginable. People are talking about billions of dollars to be spent!
More importantly, there are different parts to consider in the cloud that change the way an application is managed. Think of your device as the input point. This can be your laptop, a cell phone or smartphone, and even your television. All of these devices have a way for you to save data, whether that be pictures, blogs, or movies and video clips.
Today, I can connect from my PC and post a blog pretty easily, but it still isn't easy to do from a mobile phone, and I could never do it from my TV without having a PC connected to it. The idea of collaboration means that I have the option to view, edit, and manage blogs from anywhere.
Web 2.0 services are clearly here to put the power back in the hands of the people, making it easier to edit content making it look professional and finished and creating a dynamic user experience to be shared with friends and family around the world.
We can certainly start by understanding the web. Now it is up to service providers and consumer brands to figure out a new generation of products that will take advantage of all of these powerful features.

Welcome to Consumer 3.0!

2007-04-08T22:10:00.000-07:00

There are too many things happening in the world today. I've kept my thoughts to a number of meetings over the last year, and witnessed many trends emerging before our very eyes. From the early days of the Internet and Web 1.0, to today's digital entertainment experience with mashups, Web 2.0, and nearly every other buzzword for convergence that we can find, people are overwhelmed with choices.
This year has already seen the announcement of the Apple Phone, Apple TV, Sony's Playstation 3, Sony's Home, an online social experiment, and this is only the beginning. The Internet is proving to be the greatest playground for a host of new services, whether they are broadcast, streaming, download, or Peer to Peer, people are being given new tools to personalize their entertainment experience.
The PC is only the start. From the early days of the PC, and the decisions to make it a platform instead of a device created and maintained by a single company, it has spawned a new range of services enabled by applications on the browser. As the browser continues to mature, it has the ability to change the way we access things on mobile phones, televisions, and even our cars.
From the launch of YouTube and MySpace leading a new generation of explosive entertainment options for the consumer, it is changing the way that we use content, manage content, and access content on nearly anything with a screen and a network connection. Video is leading the pack of a new wave of Web 2.0 companies, but it's only the start. Video is the richest experience because it combines picture and sound together. Add interactivity to it, and you get gaming, an industry that has matured over the last thirty years from a few pixels on a screen to the incredible multimedia experience on today's video game consoles like Sony's Playstation 3, Microsoft's XBox 360, and Nintendo's Wii.
Join me here as I continue to talk about the emerging world of digital media, the entertainment experience, and the trends that are transforming the battle for your entire home.
The future of entertainment is opening up, and a radical new ecosystem will emerge before our very eyes bringing companies together to establish a platform for the digital basics.
After all, it's just photos, music, and video.