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Cal Evans
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4 months ago
in 1. Small Feature Set 2. Good API 3. Profit! on Mashable - The Social Media Guide
Yes but they have yet to figure out the profit angle. Several things have been proposed, my favorite is charge large companies who want access to the public time line. However, I've yet to hear anything form them directly.
I think there are plenty of opportunities for them to passively profit from the network in a massive way, the simplest way to begin would be to leverage existing ad networks. It might not generate huge profits for them but it would be a start and it would not require them to start charging their existing user base.
There have been a plethora of blog posts over the last six months asking "How much would you pay for twitter" and honestly, I'm not sure I can answer that. While twitter is important to me now, it wasn't 2 years ago and if enough people drop off of it because they charge, it won't be important to me anymore. So it is difficult for me to directly put a price tag on twitter.
On the other hand, if they start charging anything significant for their API usage, they will kill the ecosystem they have built around themselves and thus kill a huge chunk of their value to any potential suitor. They may be able to get away with a Google model of pricing their API usage so low that most garage startups can afford it but then does it actually pay for the overhead of the management?
So while twitter is a useful service, monetizing it is going to be difficult in practice. I hope they move slowly and course correct quickly when they find that something doesn't work.
IMHO, etc.
=C=
I think there are plenty of opportunities for them to passively profit from the network in a massive way, the simplest way to begin would be to leverage existing ad networks. It might not generate huge profits for them but it would be a start and it would not require them to start charging their existing user base.
There have been a plethora of blog posts over the last six months asking "How much would you pay for twitter" and honestly, I'm not sure I can answer that. While twitter is important to me now, it wasn't 2 years ago and if enough people drop off of it because they charge, it won't be important to me anymore. So it is difficult for me to directly put a price tag on twitter.
On the other hand, if they start charging anything significant for their API usage, they will kill the ecosystem they have built around themselves and thus kill a huge chunk of their value to any potential suitor. They may be able to get away with a Google model of pricing their API usage so low that most garage startups can afford it but then does it actually pay for the overhead of the management?
So while twitter is a useful service, monetizing it is going to be difficult in practice. I hope they move slowly and course correct quickly when they find that something doesn't work.
IMHO, etc.
=C=
1 reply
1 year ago
in Today's impulse purchase (Scripting News) on Scripting News
Hope you like it as much as I like mine. That is when my daughter @ college isn't using it to watch things we Tivo.
1 year ago
in PHPWomen: A site for women programming PHP on Joseph Crawford
@Chris,
How does poking fun at the practice of having beautiful women in your booth just to attract the male conference attendees by dressing guys that look like me up in T-Shirts and calling us booth babes make this a sexist site? (Have you seen me in a T-Shirt? It's a joke...I say a joke, boy.)
=C=
proud to be a charter phpwBB!
How does poking fun at the practice of having beautiful women in your booth just to attract the male conference attendees by dressing guys that look like me up in T-Shirts and calling us booth babes make this a sexist site? (Have you seen me in a T-Shirt? It's a joke...I say a joke, boy.)
=C=
proud to be a charter phpwBB!
3 years ago
in 2006/04/05/jumpcut-more-video-mashups/ on Mashable - The Social Media Guide
Hi Pete,
The business model jumpcut needs to pursue (IMHO) is the semi-pro or pro-sumer market. Refine their editing tools a bit, allow someone to upload their footage and do off-line editing. Off-line in the traditional video editing context of not using an expensive editing suite. In traditional video editing you (used to, it's been a while since I've done editing) piece everything together in a small closet called an off-line suite. It has crappy equipment and smells like feet but it's cheap and you can do all the grunt work there. You come out of the process with an Edit Decision List (EDL) that can be fed into the switcher in the on-line suite. Then you just load up your tapes, flip the switch and pray to god that it works.
What if Jumpcut allows for A-B rolls, some transitions and effects available on most switches. Instead of a finished video though, you had the option of submitting all of your footage and your EDL to a partner of theirs that has an on-line suite that is not 100% booked.
The partner, takes all the footage, queues up the EDL and processes your video. The end result can then be downloaded or they could give you the option of burning to DVD and snailMailing it to you.
Jupmcut charges for the pro-sumer account, the on-line suite charges for the studio-time and Jumpcut gets a cut of that too.
The key is automating the entire process. Given that digital video suites are the norm now, I'm betting that there's a way to do this without humans getting involved.
This isn't for Aunt Barbara cutting together her home movies but there's enough independent film makers and wannabe's out there to make this a lucrative revenue stream.
Anyhow, my $.02...I'll crawl back in my hole now.
=C=
The business model jumpcut needs to pursue (IMHO) is the semi-pro or pro-sumer market. Refine their editing tools a bit, allow someone to upload their footage and do off-line editing. Off-line in the traditional video editing context of not using an expensive editing suite. In traditional video editing you (used to, it's been a while since I've done editing) piece everything together in a small closet called an off-line suite. It has crappy equipment and smells like feet but it's cheap and you can do all the grunt work there. You come out of the process with an Edit Decision List (EDL) that can be fed into the switcher in the on-line suite. Then you just load up your tapes, flip the switch and pray to god that it works.
What if Jumpcut allows for A-B rolls, some transitions and effects available on most switches. Instead of a finished video though, you had the option of submitting all of your footage and your EDL to a partner of theirs that has an on-line suite that is not 100% booked.
The partner, takes all the footage, queues up the EDL and processes your video. The end result can then be downloaded or they could give you the option of burning to DVD and snailMailing it to you.
Jupmcut charges for the pro-sumer account, the on-line suite charges for the studio-time and Jumpcut gets a cut of that too.
The key is automating the entire process. Given that digital video suites are the norm now, I'm betting that there's a way to do this without humans getting involved.
This isn't for Aunt Barbara cutting together her home movies but there's enough independent film makers and wannabe's out there to make this a lucrative revenue stream.
Anyhow, my $.02...I'll crawl back in my hole now.
=C=
3 years ago
in 2006/03/10/crazy-egg-is-crazy-delicious/ on Mashable - The Social Media Guide
Pete,
It's not about you being right, hell your usually right. What's amazing is that we agree your right. :)
Hiten,
I look forward to seeing the new features in action.
=C=
It's not about you being right, hell your usually right. What's amazing is that we agree your right. :)
Hiten,
I look forward to seeing the new features in action.
=C=
3 years ago
in 2006/03/10/crazy-egg-is-crazy-delicious/ on Mashable - The Social Media Guide
Ok, I'll have to say that after playing with this for a couple of days now I am truly impressed. I've even recommended it to a friend of mine who I think should partner with crazyegg to combine their services. (IMHO, it would be a killer app)
Of course the 10 clicks a day I get on my site (9 of them me, checking links) isn't a really good test but it was enough to show me what goes on.
There are a couple of things I'd like to see.
1: IP filters. let me add a list of IP addresses to ignore. (In my case, that would eliminate most of my traffic but I could see the real clicks instead of just me poking around the site.)
2: Some way to integrate the heatmap with my other stats tracking package. II personally use awstats. It would be nice to find a way to be able to jump between that and the heatmap so that I could look at 2 different versions of the data.
3: More than just one page. Ok, I hear you this is a 'premium' account feature and I'm just a lowly beta-leach. But it would be nice to be able to put in my URL, have crazyegg grab screen shots of all the pages and then as I get clicks on different pages, let me see the different heatmaps.
4: Find some way to handle dynamic pages like a blog. Ok, the day after I set mine up, I changed themes. It would be nice if crazyegg.com could detect that things have changed, grab a new screenshot and where possible, integrate the old data. (because with my blog, the top and sidebar stay pretty constant, it's just the middle that occasionally changes.)
Anyhow, I hate to disappoint Pete because he expects me to be the naysayer but I gotta say I really love this system. My wife (the lovely and talented Kathy) works at a design shop. I'm recommended to them that as soon as this comes out they get a corporate account and track the properties they create for their clients.
It reminds me of the story of the architect who built a beautiful building with a courtyard in the middle. He had the courtyard landscaped, put in benches to sit on but did not page any walkways. This puzzled the owner of the building. 6 months later, the architect came back to the building with his crew. The courtyard was now crisscrossed with paths that people took to get across it or to the benches or to wherever they were going. The architect had his crew page those paths because it's where the people wanted to go.
Crazyegg.com is an excellent tool for any designer to help them figure out what people are really doing with their designs.
IMHO, YMMV, etc.
=C=
Of course the 10 clicks a day I get on my site (9 of them me, checking links) isn't a really good test but it was enough to show me what goes on.
There are a couple of things I'd like to see.
1: IP filters. let me add a list of IP addresses to ignore. (In my case, that would eliminate most of my traffic but I could see the real clicks instead of just me poking around the site.)
2: Some way to integrate the heatmap with my other stats tracking package. II personally use awstats. It would be nice to find a way to be able to jump between that and the heatmap so that I could look at 2 different versions of the data.
3: More than just one page. Ok, I hear you this is a 'premium' account feature and I'm just a lowly beta-leach. But it would be nice to be able to put in my URL, have crazyegg grab screen shots of all the pages and then as I get clicks on different pages, let me see the different heatmaps.
4: Find some way to handle dynamic pages like a blog. Ok, the day after I set mine up, I changed themes. It would be nice if crazyegg.com could detect that things have changed, grab a new screenshot and where possible, integrate the old data. (because with my blog, the top and sidebar stay pretty constant, it's just the middle that occasionally changes.)
Anyhow, I hate to disappoint Pete because he expects me to be the naysayer but I gotta say I really love this system. My wife (the lovely and talented Kathy) works at a design shop. I'm recommended to them that as soon as this comes out they get a corporate account and track the properties they create for their clients.
It reminds me of the story of the architect who built a beautiful building with a courtyard in the middle. He had the courtyard landscaped, put in benches to sit on but did not page any walkways. This puzzled the owner of the building. 6 months later, the architect came back to the building with his crew. The courtyard was now crisscrossed with paths that people took to get across it or to the benches or to wherever they were going. The architect had his crew page those paths because it's where the people wanted to go.
Crazyegg.com is an excellent tool for any designer to help them figure out what people are really doing with their designs.
IMHO, YMMV, etc.
=C=
3 years ago
in 2006/03/02/esbn-the-answer-to-the-microchunking-problem/ on Mashable - The Social Media Guide
This isn't quite the same thing as encrypting my blog post and only allowing you to un-encrypt it if you have the right software, OS or political leanings.
This is DRM (if it can be considered DRM, I guess it can) done right. It's unobtrusive. It does not prevent the end user from time or space shifting and it does not lock the end user into any proprietary, vendor owned, hardware or software. Now, give me Music DRM like this and I'll buy every time. until then I'll keep buying my singles via iTunes and then burning/ripping them or my albums as CDs and ripping them.
=C=
This is DRM (if it can be considered DRM, I guess it can) done right. It's unobtrusive. It does not prevent the end user from time or space shifting and it does not lock the end user into any proprietary, vendor owned, hardware or software. Now, give me Music DRM like this and I'll buy every time. until then I'll keep buying my singles via iTunes and then burning/ripping them or my albums as CDs and ripping them.
=C=
3 years ago
in 2006/02/26/comagz-and-why-citizen-journalism-sites-get-it-wrong/ on Mashable - The Social Media Guide
Nir,
Ok, I finally found the Register link. I was foolishly looking for it on the home page thinking that I needed to register with CoMagz, it seems that the paradigm you are going for is I register with each magazine. (Can I register once and then log into the magazine I want to? Single login would be much better)
I digress, I've been doing some thinking about news, content and the whole Media 1.0 vs. Web 2.0. A lot of it sparked by this discussion. I think you may be onto something but I don't know if it's where you were originally headed.
I have several news sources that adequately filter content for me already. (mashable, techcrunch, theregister.co.uk, slashdot.org) They do a good job in their own respective areas. What I need now is something to fill in the gaps. That's where CoMagz come in. If I could setup a community "Magazine" for Nashville, TN or for my kids' school then members of those communities could share or create news. here's the kicker though and the part you are missing. I want this as an RSS feed. I get all my other news via RSS and go to the site if 1) I want to read the entire article or 2) I want to participate in the discussion. I want the same from CoMagz. I don't want to visit your site every morning just to SEE if there is news out there. I want my programs to do it for me. Also, feeds for different scores would be helpful. Like on slashdot. I don't read comments below a 3. (yea, sue me, I'm a snob) Give me an RSS feed for my CoMagz.com/Nashville with only stories that rated in the top 25%. (or were rated a 5 or however you are handling the ratings) Then, if the blurb for the article sounds interesting, I'll visit it, maybe even participate int eh discussion and once a month, I'll even click a link on one of your ads. :)
Anyhow, enough rambling. I'm going back to surfing.
IMHO, YMMV, etc.
=C=
Ok, I finally found the Register link. I was foolishly looking for it on the home page thinking that I needed to register with CoMagz, it seems that the paradigm you are going for is I register with each magazine. (Can I register once and then log into the magazine I want to? Single login would be much better)
I digress, I've been doing some thinking about news, content and the whole Media 1.0 vs. Web 2.0. A lot of it sparked by this discussion. I think you may be onto something but I don't know if it's where you were originally headed.
I have several news sources that adequately filter content for me already. (mashable, techcrunch, theregister.co.uk, slashdot.org) They do a good job in their own respective areas. What I need now is something to fill in the gaps. That's where CoMagz come in. If I could setup a community "Magazine" for Nashville, TN or for my kids' school then members of those communities could share or create news. here's the kicker though and the part you are missing. I want this as an RSS feed. I get all my other news via RSS and go to the site if 1) I want to read the entire article or 2) I want to participate in the discussion. I want the same from CoMagz. I don't want to visit your site every morning just to SEE if there is news out there. I want my programs to do it for me. Also, feeds for different scores would be helpful. Like on slashdot. I don't read comments below a 3. (yea, sue me, I'm a snob) Give me an RSS feed for my CoMagz.com/Nashville with only stories that rated in the top 25%. (or were rated a 5 or however you are handling the ratings) Then, if the blurb for the article sounds interesting, I'll visit it, maybe even participate int eh discussion and once a month, I'll even click a link on one of your ads. :)
Anyhow, enough rambling. I'm going back to surfing.
IMHO, YMMV, etc.
=C=
3 years ago
in 2006/03/02/newsvine-launches-phew/ on Mashable - The Social Media Guide
Mark,
Nothing wrong with targeting geeks if you admit that. /. has been doing it for years. (Poorly of late, but they have been doing it.)
But I disagree with you. As a geek, I have very little interest in newsvine. The front page looks like a newspaper. Great for people looking for old-media paradigms but it's not how I like my news. The stories are a wide variety of topics, again like a newspaper. I prefer focused sites. I read this and techcrunch for my daily dose of Web 2.0, /. for my dupes and TheReg for my geeky humor. if I want world news I generally go to foxnews.com or news.google.com. So I'm not sure why this only attracts geeks.
As a discussion site, the Jury is still out on that. Right now it looks like it's been 'mashabled' (masshed?) so many people read about it here and have gone to it that it's not even loading fully. So I'll wait till things slow down before I can truly test their interface.
IMHO, YMMV, etc...
=C=
Nothing wrong with targeting geeks if you admit that. /. has been doing it for years. (Poorly of late, but they have been doing it.)
But I disagree with you. As a geek, I have very little interest in newsvine. The front page looks like a newspaper. Great for people looking for old-media paradigms but it's not how I like my news. The stories are a wide variety of topics, again like a newspaper. I prefer focused sites. I read this and techcrunch for my daily dose of Web 2.0, /. for my dupes and TheReg for my geeky humor. if I want world news I generally go to foxnews.com or news.google.com. So I'm not sure why this only attracts geeks.
As a discussion site, the Jury is still out on that. Right now it looks like it's been 'mashabled' (masshed?) so many people read about it here and have gone to it that it's not even loading fully. So I'll wait till things slow down before I can truly test their interface.
IMHO, YMMV, etc...
=C=
3 years ago
in 2006/02/26/comagz-and-why-citizen-journalism-sites-get-it-wrong/ on Mashable - The Social Media Guide
I visited coMagz. They need a lot of work on their interface. Their concept, while an also-ran, could find a niche with those users who enjoy traditional metaphors for their content. However, in the 2 minutes I spent on their site, I found out that I was supposed to sign up but couldn't find out how. I was told I needed to setup a magazine for my community (Nashville, TN) but couldn't find the SETUP YOUR CoMAGZ button. So like other sites before it, I moved on to something a little more friendly.
I like the repackaging of ideas in different metaphors because it allows each of us to find one we are comfortable with. However, if that's their only value-add then I don't see this service as having any legs.
IMHO, YYMV, etc.
=C=
Naysayer in residence.
I like the repackaging of ideas in different metaphors because it allows each of us to find one we are comfortable with. However, if that's their only value-add then I don't see this service as having any legs.
IMHO, YYMV, etc.
=C=
Naysayer in residence.
3 years ago
in 2006/02/24/bunchball-and-the-universal-blog-widget/ on Mashable - The Social Media Guide
Pete, Ouch!
Rajat, I'm watching bounceball.com. Let's see some great things. (and FWIW, Pete's comments on a Universal widget are spot-on) And I really like your "developer's game" to show developers the events and actions available. cool idea.
=C=
Rajat, I'm watching bounceball.com. Let's see some great things. (and FWIW, Pete's comments on a Universal widget are spot-on) And I really like your "developer's game" to show developers the events and actions available. cool idea.
=C=
3 years ago
in 2006/02/24/bunchball-and-the-universal-blog-widget/ on Mashable - The Social Media Guide
Pete,
Not to be the resident naysayer because I really like bunchball.com and hope they make it but how is the mentality of “launch first, business model later†different form the 2k tech bubble?
Google is a bit of a different animal. If I remember my Internet history correctly (and I'll admit I could be wrong here) Google started off as a research project to find a better way to index the web than keywords. By the time it moved out of the research phase, they were pretty sure they had something that people would use and eventually pioneered the little ads on the right hand side of the page. (When everybody else was embroiled in the controversy over selling search placement.) It is true, as far as I know, that they did not specifically have a business model but they had a concept and a reasonable idea on how to monetize it.
Yes, selling some sort of advertisement on the game itself will work for the moment but that space is becoming crowded quickly. We already have Firefox extensions that allow us turn JavaScript on on a per site basis, how log before we have one that will block Flash at will? Or worse yet (from the perspective of bunchball) something that can remove the links form the Flash before it displays? Not terribly far fetched.
Again, I'm not dissing on bunchball.com, I'm just concerned that we are in for another run-up to a bust. I'd hate to see the tech industry hit another 4-5 year slup because we didn't learn the lessons of the last bubble.
Speaking to the bandwidth issues as this is an issue I'm familiar with, if I were bunchball.com I would look at partnering with a CDN. I've not measured the weight of their files but even a moderately large file, if it gets popular on myspace.com, could swamp their service provider. (I've been there and done that)
IMHO, YMMV, etc.
=C=
Not to be the resident naysayer because I really like bunchball.com and hope they make it but how is the mentality of “launch first, business model later†different form the 2k tech bubble?
Google is a bit of a different animal. If I remember my Internet history correctly (and I'll admit I could be wrong here) Google started off as a research project to find a better way to index the web than keywords. By the time it moved out of the research phase, they were pretty sure they had something that people would use and eventually pioneered the little ads on the right hand side of the page. (When everybody else was embroiled in the controversy over selling search placement.) It is true, as far as I know, that they did not specifically have a business model but they had a concept and a reasonable idea on how to monetize it.
Yes, selling some sort of advertisement on the game itself will work for the moment but that space is becoming crowded quickly. We already have Firefox extensions that allow us turn JavaScript on on a per site basis, how log before we have one that will block Flash at will? Or worse yet (from the perspective of bunchball) something that can remove the links form the Flash before it displays? Not terribly far fetched.
Again, I'm not dissing on bunchball.com, I'm just concerned that we are in for another run-up to a bust. I'd hate to see the tech industry hit another 4-5 year slup because we didn't learn the lessons of the last bubble.
Speaking to the bandwidth issues as this is an issue I'm familiar with, if I were bunchball.com I would look at partnering with a CDN. I've not measured the weight of their files but even a moderately large file, if it gets popular on myspace.com, could swamp their service provider. (I've been there and done that)
IMHO, YMMV, etc.
=C=
3 years ago
in 2006/02/24/bunchball-and-the-universal-blog-widget/ on Mashable - The Social Media Guide
Pete,
What's the point? What will being the flavor of the month on myspace.com get you? To be crass, how do you make money on a universal widget? There's only so much advertising the web can support and it seems these days that there are more advertising companies than there are advertisers. When we reach the saturation point (that point at which people stop visiting pages that are too heavily laden with ads or better yes, as we've done in the past, figure out how to block them from our networks); what then?
The universal widget has legs if they can figure a way to deliver something that is so compelling that people will pay for it. Whether the 'people' in this case are the myspace authors or their visitors.
My personal opinion is that even though bounceball has come a LONG way since their original launch, unless they find a killer app that launches them into the web consciousness, their current model is unsustainable. Unless you program for fun the mantra has got to be "monetize or die". (Gotta feed the rugrats)
All that having been said, the "Postcards From The Edge" is a cool little app and is a step in the right direction. More widget like this and they might be able to break out.
As always, great blog. See ya 'round.
=C=
What's the point? What will being the flavor of the month on myspace.com get you? To be crass, how do you make money on a universal widget? There's only so much advertising the web can support and it seems these days that there are more advertising companies than there are advertisers. When we reach the saturation point (that point at which people stop visiting pages that are too heavily laden with ads or better yes, as we've done in the past, figure out how to block them from our networks); what then?
The universal widget has legs if they can figure a way to deliver something that is so compelling that people will pay for it. Whether the 'people' in this case are the myspace authors or their visitors.
My personal opinion is that even though bounceball has come a LONG way since their original launch, unless they find a killer app that launches them into the web consciousness, their current model is unsustainable. Unless you program for fun the mantra has got to be "monetize or die". (Gotta feed the rugrats)
All that having been said, the "Postcards From The Edge" is a cool little app and is a step in the right direction. More widget like this and they might be able to break out.
As always, great blog. See ya 'round.
=C=
3 years ago
in Is a blog without comments still a blog? on Mathew's comments
Hi,
I hate to be the odd man out but I'm not sure I agree with you. The first blog I read (1999...before they were actually called blogs) http://www.theharrowgroup.com/ never allowed you to comment but it was still a blog and still worth the read.
I'm not familiar with the players in this particular little drama but it would seem to me that a blog, in it's purest form, allows the author to post his thoughts. That doesn't require comments. Anything else, is just an accepted norm. (and did any of us really accept Norm?)
IMHO, etc.
=C=
I hate to be the odd man out but I'm not sure I agree with you. The first blog I read (1999...before they were actually called blogs) http://www.theharrowgroup.com/ never allowed you to comment but it was still a blog and still worth the read.
I'm not familiar with the players in this particular little drama but it would seem to me that a blog, in it's purest form, allows the author to post his thoughts. That doesn't require comments. Anything else, is just an accepted norm. (and did any of us really accept Norm?)
IMHO, etc.
=C=
3 years ago
in 2006/01/31/my-latest-harebrained-idea-distributed-interactive-photos/ on Mashable - The Social Media Guide
Brian,
Yes. All pictures would have to be encoded in something other than just a native graphic format. I threw out Flash but it could be one of several different options.
Ron,
I would develop it outside of Flikr. Just because it's photos doesn't mean it's their core competency. This is monetizing photos in a way they they might not consider compatible with this system. If we offer to let them be a partner but not 'internalize' it then they can stand at arms length.
Then again, they may love the idea. In that case I want to be hired by them to build the team that builds it. :)
=C=
Yes. All pictures would have to be encoded in something other than just a native graphic format. I threw out Flash but it could be one of several different options.
Ron,
I would develop it outside of Flikr. Just because it's photos doesn't mean it's their core competency. This is monetizing photos in a way they they might not consider compatible with this system. If we offer to let them be a partner but not 'internalize' it then they can stand at arms length.
Then again, they may love the idea. In that case I want to be hired by them to build the team that builds it. :)
=C=
3 years ago
in 2006/01/31/my-latest-harebrained-idea-distributed-interactive-photos/ on Mashable - The Social Media Guide
Rod,
Invite Flickr to play. They already have 'pro' accounts and god knows they have the infrastructure. Let them offer access to this system as another feature.
"Authors, click here to encode your photos". then they could be used in Flickr, tagged, bagged and released into the wild but they could also be put on stock photo sites, P2P networks just about anything. Any site (news sites anyone, images.google.com) becomes a selling surface for the content creator.
IMHO, etc.
=C=
Invite Flickr to play. They already have 'pro' accounts and god knows they have the infrastructure. Let them offer access to this system as another feature.
"Authors, click here to encode your photos". then they could be used in Flickr, tagged, bagged and released into the wild but they could also be put on stock photo sites, P2P networks just about anything. Any site (news sites anyone, images.google.com) becomes a selling surface for the content creator.
IMHO, etc.
=C=
3 years ago
in 2006/01/31/my-latest-harebrained-idea-distributed-interactive-photos/ on Mashable - The Social Media Guide
Pete,
Why not encode the image and menus' etc in Flash? Flash is (by the last numbers I saw) on 98% of all computers. Not sure if it would be droppable on a desktop (I think with some work you could.) but it would be embeddable in any web page.
When a designer (or Stylist depending on whether you read Joel on Software or not) drops one of these encoded images on a web page, they could purchase a (monthly, yearly, one-time) license to use the image. The Flash would then retrieve the hi-rez image for those users on that web site. There are bandwidth issues to be worked out but I'm sure they could be.
This would also give you a mechanism for building the right-click menus to allow you to upsell to the end-users or the web page viewer. Since you could track what web site a 'purchase' came from you could share the revenue downstream. (i.e. sell a poster of an image, SnapFish gets a cut for printing it, the original content creator gets their cut and the web-site owner gets piece of the action) For active web sites like yours the potential is there so that you could get high-rez images displayable on your site AND get paid to do so.
You could also code it so that the web site owner pays a higher fee to turn off all the menus and up-selling so as not to sully their site with crass commercialism.
Again, it all goes back to the infrastructure that the artist uses to insert content into the stream and track it.
it's not fool-proof and god knows there are plenty of holes in it but by-in-large I think it would work. Now whether anyone would use it is another issue altogether. :)
=C=
Why not encode the image and menus' etc in Flash? Flash is (by the last numbers I saw) on 98% of all computers. Not sure if it would be droppable on a desktop (I think with some work you could.) but it would be embeddable in any web page.
When a designer (or Stylist depending on whether you read Joel on Software or not) drops one of these encoded images on a web page, they could purchase a (monthly, yearly, one-time) license to use the image. The Flash would then retrieve the hi-rez image for those users on that web site. There are bandwidth issues to be worked out but I'm sure they could be.
This would also give you a mechanism for building the right-click menus to allow you to upsell to the end-users or the web page viewer. Since you could track what web site a 'purchase' came from you could share the revenue downstream. (i.e. sell a poster of an image, SnapFish gets a cut for printing it, the original content creator gets their cut and the web-site owner gets piece of the action) For active web sites like yours the potential is there so that you could get high-rez images displayable on your site AND get paid to do so.
You could also code it so that the web site owner pays a higher fee to turn off all the menus and up-selling so as not to sully their site with crass commercialism.
Again, it all goes back to the infrastructure that the artist uses to insert content into the stream and track it.
it's not fool-proof and god knows there are plenty of holes in it but by-in-large I think it would work. Now whether anyone would use it is another issue altogether. :)
=C=
3 years ago
in 2006/01/31/my-latest-harebrained-idea-distributed-interactive-photos/ on Mashable - The Social Media Guide
Pete,
What is needed (for both distributed and P2P) is an encapsulation. Something like a YaHoo Widget, An OS Dashboard thingy or a Microsoft Gadget. (I'm so glad we've moved into the era of technical terms)
Something that wraps a low-med rez version of the photo that will give you the right-click menu no matter what the context. Something that can be embedded easily into a web page, set on a desktop, etc. (Bonus points if it also displays the info in an iPod!) This way artists can distribute their work, everyone can enjoy it but it they want a print, T-Shirt, poster or thong it's easy enough so that they don't consider stealing it.
Second, once you have encapsulation, you need one or more of th photo-printing sites to release an API that allows the wrapper to tell it where to get the original. This way, you don't release the original to the end user. They also need to be able to handle micro-payments. $1.00-$10.00 to the artist plus their printing and shipping fees to the user.
Finally, (and heres where the money is) you need to build an infrastructure that will allow artists to quickly, easily and safely (as in reasonably unbreakable) release these widgets into the wild. Get enough photographers in the system and make pennies per transaction and you've got a nice little revenue stream.
Anyhow, love your blog...read it every morning.
=C=
What is needed (for both distributed and P2P) is an encapsulation. Something like a YaHoo Widget, An OS Dashboard thingy or a Microsoft Gadget. (I'm so glad we've moved into the era of technical terms)
Something that wraps a low-med rez version of the photo that will give you the right-click menu no matter what the context. Something that can be embedded easily into a web page, set on a desktop, etc. (Bonus points if it also displays the info in an iPod!) This way artists can distribute their work, everyone can enjoy it but it they want a print, T-Shirt, poster or thong it's easy enough so that they don't consider stealing it.
Second, once you have encapsulation, you need one or more of th photo-printing sites to release an API that allows the wrapper to tell it where to get the original. This way, you don't release the original to the end user. They also need to be able to handle micro-payments. $1.00-$10.00 to the artist plus their printing and shipping fees to the user.
Finally, (and heres where the money is) you need to build an infrastructure that will allow artists to quickly, easily and safely (as in reasonably unbreakable) release these widgets into the wild. Get enough photographers in the system and make pennies per transaction and you've got a nice little revenue stream.
Anyhow, love your blog...read it every morning.
=C=
Simple answer - not a dime more than it costs me to access my internet. Frankly, I wouldn't pay for the SMS to use it that way (especially not if it's a "premium service" as the canadian telco (forgot name where) proposed it to be.
How much would I pay for twitter related data services is another question entirely. THAT might be worth some money.
Leaving the API open at current usage allotments would seem in twitters best interest. But those allotments are too small for some of the potential uses of the data. charging for more data, faster access queues might make sense, and will probably prove to be necessary as twitter grows.
But is that really where twitter sees their future revenue streams? I think that's only a small part of it. (maybe wrong here) I think twitter has something more significant, more likely to make everybody say "OH! Why didn't I think of THAT" and carry the company to great heights. If it was only tapping the API usage, well....that's not something that I would think it's worth being quiet and secretive about - and they are specifically "not telling".