www.dpingram.com

Cisco plans to come out a big winner as broadband video explodes, noting that “companies are still grappling with how to generate reliable revenue from content that is largely free and often littered with copyright-infringement land mines.” The obvious profit path is to sell intelligent gear, keeping in mind Cisco’s self-admitted plan to support the incumbent vision of a two-tiered Internet replete with “Tollways.” The other way is by walking up and punching Microsoft and Alcatel in the mouth, as they push closer to the consumer and offer IPTV solutions of their own (having bought Scientific Atlanta, KiSS and Arroyo Networks).

OA is here

Another mobile social network that’s currently in preview mode: ImThere was created by University of Missouri-Rolla student Benjamin Roodman and attempts to connect members around events like concerts, film festivals and parties.

Users start by completing a profile page, and ImThere helps you meet new friends by showing you local users with similar interests. You can then build a network of friends, list events, post reviews on venues, artists and events and - of course - post pictures and comments to the site via your mobile phone. Like most of these services, you can send a text to request information from the site: text “NowThere” to see a list of local events, for instance. ImThere is focused on music, providing an artists section that lists upcoming shows. Look out too for “There Codes” - an easy way to keep track of information on ImThere via your phone. You can, for instance, text “INFO” to an email address containing the There Code to get that event information on your cellphone.

Sites like Groovr and ImThere are so impressive that easy to imagine them attracting a decent number of dedicated users.

Other mobile social sites include JuiceCaster, Wadja, Zemble and Socialight and all the nominees in the Mobile Social Networks category of the 2006 Socnet Awards.

OA from Pete Cashmore at Mashable is here

New report from ZenithOptimedia forecasts massive online ad growth.

Here are some takeouts…

Its been said that there is no point in launching a generic video sharing site now, since YouTube is too dominant. That’s not totally true, since YouTube’s policy is to reject two types of content: violence images and porn. PornoTube is among the companies that spotted the second opportunity, while it seems that LiveLeak is becoming the place to view the violent clips of war, conflict and death.

LiveLeak got a boost on Friday when UK Prime Minister Tony Blair namechecked the site in a keynote defense speech, saying, “Take a website like Live Leak which has become popular with soldiers from both sides of the divide in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Operational documentary material, from their mobile phones or laptops, is posted on the site. These sometimes gruesome images are the unmediated reality of war. They provide a new source of evidence for journalists and commentators, by-passing the official accounts and records.”

OA by Pete Cashmore is here

Here is an excellent article written by Fred Stutzman entitled Social Networking in 2007 on how the social networking space (SNS) will evolve in 2007. Here are a few snippets…

- The average person can only actively use two profiles;
- OpenID will become huge integrating across SNS.
- Niche social networks will emerge where there are underserved markets, but that may not be enough to guarantee success.
- Established communities will go social (listing Ebay, Amazon, Wikipedia, Motley Fool, New York Times).
- Community will emerge around shared experience, sharing experience around videos in YouTube.
- People cannot be tied to one network - they have to be able to roam and participate in many areas. The profile will have to be transportable - not locked away in the forum profile or home page of an SNS.
- Sn will NOT go mobile in 2007, its too early
- SN must get less complicated, not more complicated

DI> Most relevant for me is the reference to profiles becoming portable. I happen to think it will go further than that with people wanting their content to be portable. Why spend ages uploading my ’stuff’ to several different UGC and SN websites. Why cant I publish it once, then just reference it in the multiple UGN and SN sites in which I participate??? D

Jason Dowdell, of Marketing Shift, writes….

No where does user generated content have potential for greater impact than in local search. People who live in a neighborhood are the best qualified to provide information and keep it up to date, but it has been slow going so far.

Yahoo has been adding UGC to its Local site, include allowing people to update listings, submit reviews, photos, and ratings, (per SearchEngineWatch although for some reason the participation from the user community has been tepid at best. I’m guessing that because there are so many options (Google, InsiderPages, CitySearch), that users are splitting up their contributions, which results in a less than comprehensive service anywhere.

OA is here

DI> I propose the reason that takeup from the user community has been “tepid at best” is not because of all the choice, as Jason suggests, but because Yahoo and others still want to exercise editorial control. On Yahoo etc you can suggest a change, but it still all gets funnelled through their editors so you dont see your change immediately. With no immediate ‘reward’ we’re less likely to take action. The fear of innacurate updates and vandalism that drives Yahoo et al to insert editorial control is exactly the same fear that Nupedia had before they became wikipedia. It shoudln’t work but it does. Its down to a simple principle that its easier and faster to clean up (or revert) the vandalism than it is to commit it. So, Yahoo is going some way, but its not far enough. Open up editorial control to the users, you may be surprised what you get.

AOL partners with Napster

AOL Music Now bites the dust as customers are transferred

AOL Music Now will roll its 350,000 paying subscribers into Napster. AOL has ditched its own music service in favour of Napster’s rival subscription platform. AOL set up Music Now after buying Circuit City Stores’ online music business in 2005. As part of the deal, AOL will advertise Napster on its free AOL Music site.

Napster is also considering a buyout offer after a third-party expressed interest in the music provider. Napster chief executive Chris Gorog confirmed that the company is involved in “multiple conversations”.

Napster was originally a pirate peer-to-peer service offering copyrighted material for free download before being shut down in July 2001.

The company was bought by Roxio in 2002 and reopened as a legitimate music retailer in 2003.

OA by Matt Chapman, vnunet.com is here

The results of a study into the adoption of social media have been released by Massachusetts University.

The results prove that social media is coming to the business world at a faster rate than many anticipated. It was undertaken “to see if there was a difference in the knowledge and usage of social media in companies selected by growth rate rather than revenue.”

Respondents were from Inc. Magazine’s Inc. 500, a list of the U.S’s fastest-growing private companies. The report surveyed marketer’s familiarity with six prominent social media (message boards, blogging, podcasting, online video, social networking, wikis), and the importance they placed on its inclusion in their marketing strategy, along with which they were currently using.

Of the 121 Inc. 500 respondents, 66 percent felt that social media was “somewhat important” or “very important”.

Social networking was one of the most recognized of the six choices of social media at 42 percent, followed by message boards with 38 percent. Despite that, message boards were being used the most, 33 percent, and not social networking which was being used by just 27 percent. The difference in usage may correspond to a relative lack of knowledge of implementation of social media, whereas message boards are now becoming the norm.

OA by by Helen Leggatt is here

Here’s a bit of fun…

There is a new app called Izimi (its in private Beta at the moment so you cant actually get to it) that lets you serve any file or content DIRECT FROM YOUR own machine. There’s no need to upload stuff to anyone else’s servers, no need to buy hosting, and no need to use stuff like Photobucket.

Here’s my little test…

John Wood is…

MySpace is announcing the launch today of “MyState of the Union“, a video contest where entrants express their views on the state of America and where it should be headed. The nominees will be selected by Former Senate Majority Leader Dr. Bill Frist, former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta and political bloggers Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of DailyKos and Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online. MySpace users will vote for the winner, who will be announced on January 22nd - a day before the annual State of the Union address. The prize is an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, DC. They’re also providing buttons to post to your profile page and the videos are hosted on MySpace Video.

It’s one of many contests launched recently by MySpace - others include the Stand Up or Sit Down Comedy Challenge and The MySpace Impact Awards. The site also launched a political campaign in September called Declare Yourself - another commendable attempt to get young people interested in politics. Meanwhile, YouTube has launched countless video contests over recent months - YouTube Underground, the Southwest contest and many smaller competitions like Real Housewives.

AO is here on Mashable