Channels

You'd think I had a lot of time on my hands lately, but in truth I've been quite busy -- just a lot of thoughts popping into my head. I'm getting better at blogging these. Another similar line of thought that I came across today. Inspiration piece number one was a podcast from a speech that Paul Graham gave at OSCON 2005, the next was a blog from Mark Cuban that I found through an article on Slate. The thought was about channels, as in distribution channels. Paul generalized this in such a beautiful way so that it represents exactly what is really happening. Channels are the aggregate of what businesses push towards us. There used to be such a high cost to getting a product to a consumer that these channels were created to add value in the aggregate. In the digital age, the barrier to this entry is much lower, and yet we still see businesses clinging to the traditional model. Why is that? It turns out that there is a lot of power built up in the distribution channels, and they don't want to give up that power easily. That brings me to the article on Slate, which leads us into where this power is. Wal-mart is clinging to the "video window", which is an agreement between them and content publishers to not allow pay-per-view or any other broadcast of content withing 45 days of a DVD release. What this basically adds up to is that this channel doesn't want to compete with other channels for a certain amount of time. Soak this in for a sec, and I think you'll start to see that the tail is wagging the dog. A single channel is making decisions for consumers about which other channels they can use. That is real power. Mark's proposal is to charge a variable price depending on the date of release. This is an intriguing proposal, and I'd like to see how it pans out. I don't doubt that he is going to keep pushing the boundaries of distribution. Good luck, Mark! Another quirk that brought this to my attention today was a song I heard last night. It was at the very end of the E-Ring episode Toy Soldiers. After some digging on the NBC forums for the show, I found the title of the song was Breathe Me by Sia. The fact that I had to dig into viewer comments to get this information is just ridiculous, but that is a topic for another post. I immediately went to iTunes to try and purchase this song. It turns out that the song was only available for purchase as part of an album (Six Feet Under: Everything Ends, Vol. 2). Someone please explain to me why a single song that is basically part of a mix tape only available as a single song? There wasn't even a discount for buying the entire album. Seriously... this is some kind of a joke, right?

Questions

I've read two articles in the past day that had a parallel line to them, and I wanted to connect them here. This first is an article from Paul Graham about Ideas for Startups, and the second is an article from MSNBC about Einstein. The focusing point of both articles revolves around the use of "Questions". Paul poses that and idea for a startup is best posed as a question. Going through the process of answering that question is what leads to a startup, and it often changes direction as you find a better question to ask. All good ideas start with asking a question. Einstein questioned the nature of light as a 16-year-old boy. He wondered what it would be like if you could "catch up" to a beam of light. What would he see? He eventually answered that question, but the question lead him down the path toward Relativity. It's interesting what questions can lead to.

Flock

Ever since I started using del.icio.us I've been looking for a better way to sync up with my browser bookmarks. I've been using Cocoalicious for awhile, and I like that. I especially like being able to post to it directly from within NetNewsWire, but I have to use a PC at work. So, this lead me to Flock, and I'm giving that a go right now. It even has support for blogging directly from within the browser. I'm curious to see how all this is going to work together. It's an interesting concept. Update: I'm going to need to learn some tricks to get the blogs to post correctly from within Flock, but we'll see how that goes.

Google Print

Prompted by Why we believe in Google Print and Publishers Challenge Google's Book Efforts (WSJ - subscription required). Yes, I read them in that order. I have to side with Google on this one. I really thing the advantage of being able to digitally search the full content of millions of printed pages far outweighs the potential downside of possible theft of work. If this were really a copyright issue, then why aren't the publishers suing libraries? I haven't checked, but did publishers try to outlaw libraries when they started? This is really an extension of the concept of a card catalog. If I were doing research today, this would be exactly what I wanted. Come to think of it... whenever I want to know about something, I first type it into Google. If I find enough out of free, online content, then I'm satisfied. But it would be very nice if I also got back information in published works that I could then go check out from the library, or purchase from some outlet or another. What if I could buy a digital copy of that work, at a discount from the printed copy? What if I could take that work and order a printed copy that was published on-demand (ala www.lulu.com). Now I'm starting to see why the publishing industry is so scared of this. It completely rips apart their business model, and they lose control. Let's ponder their model for a minute. Publishers find a few authors, promote them, print a lot of books, push those books into stores, and pay the authors after they make up the cost of printing all those books and promoting them. For a few cases, this might be different, and if I'm really far off, please let me know. The value-add that the publishers are bringing to the table is both the promotion, and the relationships with the booksellers -- not the actual printing of the books, which turns out to be a negative for the author. I believe the search mechanism will actually drive more people towards purchasing books, but publishers would really have to adapt to handle the influx of requests for works they aren't necessarily promoting. If they could handle on-demand printing, then perhaps they wouldn't be so worried, but that would requre significant captial investment. This is the kind of technology that shifts the world. Anytime you do that, people get scared. Change is often feared.

Elizabethtown

I needed this movie just at this moment. The circumstances that start off the story are quite preposterous, but the feeling that Drew has is something that I think a lot of guys can relate to -- at least I can. You have this sense of doubt about yourself because of this mistake you made and then you stood up for the consequences. This mistake then gets stuck in your head and sits there mocking you while you miss out on some very good things happening around you. I can so relate to the moment when Drew is standing in front of Claire and should be telling her not to go, but has this compelling urge to confess his spectacular failure. It's that kind of obsession of failures that I am talking about. Not that it happens a lot to me, or even if it's big; it's just that some things can kind of stick in your head like that. That keeps you from moving on. So, give yourself five minutes to wallow in self-loathing, and really soak up the misery. Then move on. If you get a chance, and are in the right place, ignore the critics and go see Elizabethtown. At the very least, you'll hear a nice soundtrack.

Apple changes the rules on video distribution

iTunes Video Store This is groundbreaking news. Oh yes, this has been talked about, but the deal has now been done. The biggest news from Apple yesterday was the distribution of television shows. This is the toe-in-the-water of digital video distribution over the network, and it is going to change the way everybody thinks about content. Music was an easy first step. The demand was there long before the content was available (at least commercially). Video is in same stage music was only a few years ago. Making individual episodes affordable for consumers to download is going to drive this market. This was the missing piece for many products -- and it's only the beginning. The technology has been there for some time, but a deal had not yet been brokered. The success of the iTunes Music Store gave the confidence to media outlets that this really can work, and their content is safe. This is an exciting time.

Serenity

Wow. I went to see this movie over the weekened, and it was just fantastic. Serenity started with a bang, and just kept on rolling the whole way through. I've been a fan of Firefly since it was on Fox, and so unrightly pulled away from us all just as it was gaining momentum. All of the characters were true to form, and the environment was just amplified for the movie. It felt a little rushed, but perhaps that's because I missed the pace of the series, where there was time for a meal to be shared around the table. While the show had some pieces that were meant for the fans, I think anyone could just jump onboard without too much trouble. Don't let the fan base scare you, it's still good entertainment. All I can say now is, "Thanks, Joss!"