Over the past few days, Ze Frank and Andrew Baron have had a bit of a catfight over the actual viewers of Rocketboom. It began in Ze’s “the show” two days ago, and was quickly countered by Andrew Baron. The story was picked up in the blogosphere, and was covered by video blogging heavyweights like Robert Scoble.

Today, Ze has updated his site with a full-on offense against Baron’s points, outlining statistics, hypocrisy, and where the current audience measurement technology just isn’t up to snuff.

This is an interesting battle indeed, and it does confirm that “the show” ends March 17, 2007. Ze, you’re killing me!

Since video cameras were put into cell phones, there has been a natural interest in creating films with the cell phones. There’s even a dedicated film festival called “CellFlix“, with the winner receiving a five thousand dollar prize for the best cell phone movie!

This is certainly interesting territory. As we becoming increasingly mobile, and cell phones become more like personal computers, we’re going to see content created specifically for them - and why not create content for a phone with a phone?!

Digital Producer has an interesting article chronicling some efforts to create “cellflicks”. This is an interesting medium, and though it isn’t one that I choose to work with, its certainly a niche that can’t be ignored!

Via DVGuru

Cory Doctorow recently made a statement that struck a chord with me:

“Conversation is king. Content is just something to talk about.” via

This is an intriguing statement, because, for so long, I’ve thought that content was the critical element. Cory raises an interesting point though - if stranded on a desert island, you chose to bring a DVD library over a group of friends, you’d be labeled a sociopath. He’s right, content is just something to talk about. Content spurs conversation, effectively crowning conversation as the new monarch.

How do we create a good conversation though? How do we engage our readers, listeners, viewers?

There are many ways to do this. The big media companies are starting to realize that conversation is king as well - they’re creating tools for us to hack up their content (as I’ve covered before), which spawns all sorts of discussion about the media itself. They’re afraid that these mashups will remove the focus from their original creations; they’re just realizing that these have the opposite effect — they put the spotlight back on.

The secret project I mentioned a few days go involves conversation, quite heavily. In our meeting about the project today, the team and I came up with an even more exciting way to keep the conversation up, and I’m extremely excited about it. I think you will be too.

In the meantime, why not start a conversation yourself? Comment below or email me (editor [\at/] youmakemedia [\dot/] com). I’d love to hear from you!

In a press release today, Sony and Google announced a partnership that will put Sony’s videos on Google. Notably, Google Video is referenced by name only once in the press release - is this intentional (hinting toward GooTube) or do they feel that use of Google Video is implied? /end rumour

Also interesting is this bit:

SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT and Google will also work together to create a groundbreaking new service that will allow music fans to access user-created music video content featuring certain material from SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT’s library of recorded music, while at the same time respecting the rights of artists and copyright holders.

They’ll be monetizing via AdSense (it’s referenced earlier in the press release). It’s great to see that user-generated content is being taken more seriously however I’m curious as to where this leaves YouTube now that Google has gotten to Sony first. Obviously if Google buys YouTube out, they’re in the clear, but if not that’ll leave the community at YouTube hanging.

Edit: TechCrunch notes that a similar deal with YouTube was announced today, and that the WSJ and NYTimes are reporting that an acquisition could be announced as early as today.

YouTube also announced deals with CBS and Vivendi Universal. As I noted in a previous post, CBS used to be buddies with Google Video (they sold content, notably Survivor, on the service) so this is shaping up to be a very interesting weekend for internet video.

MasterNewMedia.org has an article talking about ownership of media in the age of the participatory culture.

This is a fantastic area of debate, and one that has become more and more confusing to follow as the participatory culture, where “You” Make Media, has been embraced. The article cites parts of licenses in sites such as YouTube.com where they reference their ability to use your work all over.

For me, this isn’t the interesting side of the debate. I think we’re going to see some interesting legal battles in the future, surrounding around who is the actual owner of a work if many people contribute to it. One would at first thing this is a concern that Open Source software would have figured out, but they aren’t commercialized so it’s not an area they need to worry about too much (when it comes around to splitting up the payments).

Video podcasts such as Ze Frank’s theshow are based heavily on user-created content (for example the recent mashups of the “Ray” song - Ze fans know what I mean). Ze makes money from ads in theshow. Put two and two together - there may come a time where disgruntled fans ask for something in return.

I can’t see this happening in the immediate future but I have no doubt that time will come unless groundrules are laid out now, establishing who owns what. Is it the creator (almost always yes if it’s commercial, but not always if the entity is community-driven)? Is it the most active fan?

Who knows?

Not me. Not quite yet anyway.