Sony Online Service − More App Store Validation

Last week Sony announced an upcoming service to link their devices to a store filled with Sony content and downloadable apps.  Another move by a big media player suggesting the success of devices and platforms lies in their relationship to social content and applications in addition to traditional programming. 

Behavior and expectations have been changed forever and consumers now demand choice, control, and convenience from their media devices.  When they can’t get it from one platform, they migrate to another that seamlessly delivers what they want.

These moves confirm what those of us working in the ITV space have suspected for many years.  People want to engage with relevant content more deeply in a way that is simple, immediate, and contextual.  I’m watching my favorite TV show but wondering what the weather will be tomorrow.  Can I just push a button and get the answer now?  I’m participating in an on-line auction.  Do I have to sit at my computer to monitor the action?  Can I get notified no matter what device I’m using?  More and more the consumer is opting for devices that offer a connected experience that makes these types of features possible.

I was interviewed last Friday by Simon Applebaum for Tomorrow Will Be Televised, and offered thoughts on app stores for TV.  Listen and let me know what you think.

M. Ellen Dudar

Chief Product Officer

FourthWall Media

twitter.com/fourthwallmedia

Bing not likely to outbid Google for news

In the latest wild idea to save newspapers, the Financial Times is reporting that Microsoft would pay publishers to prevent Google from linking to their stories, so as to drive more traffic to its Bing search site. The idea, which merits high marks for creativity, seems most unlikely to get off the ground. Here are the relevant facts: :: Approximately half of the

Carnage continued in Q3 newspaper sales

Contrary to disingenuous happy talk from industry leaders, the third quarter brought absolutely no relief to the relentless dive in newspaper advertising, as total sales fell $2.5 billion to bring the year-to-date decline to nearly $7.9 billion. With three months to go in the worst year ever for newspapers, the drop in sales in the first three quarters of 2009 is roughly equal to the combined

Polls apart on charging for content

With the issue of charging for online content the hottest topic in publishing circles, polls are popping up everywhere purporting to divine consumer sentiment. But they unfortunately are all over the map. Thus, the surveys are providing neither guidance nor comfort for publishers as they agonize over whether or how to charge for the valuable content they have been giving

Health, wealth and sex sell best on web

Health, wealth and sex are what sell the best on pay sites on the web, says the author of perhaps the most comprehensive survey to date of interactive revenue strategies. After systematically surveying 550 subscription and membership sites, Anne Holland, who is best know as the founder and former proprietor of the popular Marketing Sherpa website, reckons that American

Warren Buffett, Business '51, returns to Columbia to chat with students and Bill Gates

By Gabriela Hempfling

Published: November 13, 2009

On Thursday, the world’s two richest men visited Columbia.

Bill Gates, who founded Microsoft Corp., and Warren Buffett, investor-at-large, told students that the worst of the recession had passed. Speaking in Roone Arledge Auditorium, they shared their optimism with students in the Columbia Business School and Earth Institute. Buffett graduated from the Business School in 1951.

At the town-hall-style event, CNBC’s Becky Quick moderated a dialogue between the two billionaires and roughly 700 students. Before the discussion began, Quick noted the context of the event. “I do know that these are unsettling times in the economy and the markets and there is a lot of uncertainty in where we stand,” she said. The event was to be broadcast on CNBC as a segment titled “Warren Buffett and Bill Gates: Keeping America Great” on Thursday night. [CNBC Video below and alternate link here]



Neither Buffett nor Gates acknowledged any of this uncertainty. “The economy is sputtering, but we are still at the beginning,” Buffett said. With his recent purchase of the Burlington Railroad, the single largest acquisition in history, Buffett put firm support behind that idea. “The railroads are cost-effective and environmentally friendly; each one supplants 280 trucks,” he reasoned. “If America has a core future, railroads have a core future, and I am willing to bet a lot of money on it—about $34 billion.” . . .

Continue reading the November 13, 2009 article from Columbia University's the Columbia Daily Spectator . . .

Read the eye, the weekly features and arts magazine of the Columbia Daily Spectator . .

Warren Buffett, Business '51, returns to Columbia to chat with students and Bill Gates

By Gabriela Hempfling

Published: November 13, 2009

On Thursday, the world’s two richest men visited Columbia.

Bill Gates, who founded Microsoft Corp., and Warren Buffett, investor-at-large, told students that the worst of the recession had passed. Speaking in Roone Arledge Auditorium, they shared their optimism with students in the Columbia Business School and Earth Institute. Buffett graduated from the Business School in 1951.

At the town-hall-style event, CNBC’s Becky Quick moderated a dialogue between the two billionaires and roughly 700 students. Before the discussion began, Quick noted the context of the event. “I do know that these are unsettling times in the economy and the markets and there is a lot of uncertainty in where we stand,” she said. The event was to be broadcast on CNBC as a segment titled “Warren Buffett and Bill Gates: Keeping America Great” on Thursday night. [CNBC Video below and alternate link here]



Neither Buffett nor Gates acknowledged any of this uncertainty. “The economy is sputtering, but we are still at the beginning,” Buffett said. With his recent purchase of the Burlington Railroad, the single largest acquisition in history, Buffett put firm support behind that idea. “The railroads are cost-effective and environmentally friendly; each one supplants 280 trucks,” he reasoned. “If America has a core future, railroads have a core future, and I am willing to bet a lot of money on it—about $34 billion.” . . .

Continue reading the November 13, 2009 article from Columbia University's the Columbia Daily Spectator . . .

Read the eye, the weekly features and arts magazine of the Columbia Daily Spectator . .

Breaking Through Walls

Twenty years ago the Berlin Wall came down ushering in a new era of freedom, commerce, and creativity.  Segments of the wall can be seen all over the world as symbols of freedom and Germany’s reunification.  Pieces of the wall are bought and sold on eBay like trading cards and fine sculpture.  And you can even post your own digital graffiti on The Berlin Twitter Wall.  



These segments, pieces, and graffiti show what people will do when barriers are removed and connections become possible.

Here’s to breaking through!

M. Ellen Dudar

Chief Product Officer

FourthWall Media

twitter.com/fourthwallmedia

Newspaper epitaph: ‘Who else is doing it?’

A year ago, Alan Jacobson, a talented and indefatigably innovative newspaper designer, came up with an idea for a highly targeted, efficient-to-produce and effortlessly viral website that is exactly the sort of thing newspapers need to strengthen their online franchises. After spending many frustrating months trying to interest publishers in his idea, he got a piece of advice from a friend. “

Ugly ethnic profiling tarred Ft. Hood coverage

The news media succumbed to ugly ethnic and religious profiling in their coverage of the shooting last week at Fort Hood. Shame on them. Media executives ought to closely review their coverage of the Fort Hood massacre to develop sufficient organizational discipline to avoid spreading in the future the sort of inflammatory information they irresponsibly aired and published as the tragic

Chicago news co-op starts on a shoestring

While the editors of some notable non-profit news startups pull down hefty six-figure salaries, the founding editor of the Chicago News Cooperative says his pay will be a single digit for the next 12 months: $0. That low, low introductory salary in part is testimony to the dedication of co-op founder James O’Shea, a lifelong Chicago newsman who had a brief tour as editor of the tempest-tossed

Pay walls never may come at some papers

The resolve to charge for most interactive content is dissolving at some newspapers, potentially thwarting the plans of other publishers who still hope to erect pay walls on their sites. Despite determined statements by several publishers earlier this year that they intended to make consumers pay for the valuable content newspapers have given away for more than a decade,

Mga Salawikain (The programmers' way)

Pag may tiyaga, may nilaga.

if (tiyaga.isEmpty) {nilaga.setEmpty( );}

Kung ano ang puno, sya rin ang bunga.

public class Bunga extends Puno

Nasa huli ang pagsisisi.

while(!EOF() ) {
    pagsisisi = false;
}
pagsisisi = true;

Pagkahaba-haba man ng prusisyon, sa simbahan pa rin ang tuloy.

for(int i=0; i <= n; i++){if(i=n) {Prusisyon[ i] = "Simbahan";} )

Ang hindi marunong magmahal sa sariling wika, daig pa ang hayop at malansang isda.

if (x.wika.isMahal( ) == false){
    isda.setMalansa = true;
    x > hayop;
    x > isda;
}

Maliit man ang butas, lumalaki.

while(butas < Long.MAX_VALUE) {
    butas++;
}

Anuman ang gagawin, makapitong isipin.

for (int i=1;i<=7;i++) {
   think();
}

Habang may buhay, may pag-asa.

while(alive) {
}
hope = 0;

Aanhin pa ang damo pag patay na ang kabayo?

public class Kabayo {
    private boolean isAlive;    
    public void feed(Object damo) {
        if(isAlive == false) {
            throw new RuntimeException( "Aanhin ko yang " + damo + "? Patay na ako eh.");
        } else {
            digest(damo) ;
        }
    }
}

Combo: Habang may buhay, may pag-asa.+ Kung gusto, maraming paraan; kung ayaw, maraming dahilan.

buhay = true;
do {
    pagasa = 1;  
    if(gusto == true)
        paraan++;
    else
        dahilan++;       
    buhay = isAlive(); // check if still alive       
} while(buhay) ;
pagasa = 0;

Habang maikli ang kumot, matutong mamaluktot.

while(kumot. length < person.height) {
    person.setPosition( "baluktot" );
}

Oo, inaamin ko, sila ay mga yakal, lawaan, apitong at narra, at kami ay saging lang. Pero maghanap kayo ng puno sa buong Pilipinas, saging lang ang may puso. Saging lang ang may puso!

Puno markLapid = new Saging();
markLapid.setMayPuso(true);
Puno[] philippineTrees = {new Yakal(), new Lawaan(), new Apitong(), new Narra(), markLapid};
for (Puno tree : philippineTrees) {
   if (tree.mayPuso( )) {
      System.out.println( "May puso!");
   } else {
      System.out.println( "Walang puso.");
   }
}

Nasa tao ang gawa nasa Diyos ang awa.

public class Tao {
    public void gawa() {
        ...
    }
}
public class Diyos {
    public boolean awa(Tao tao) {
        ...
    }
}

Ang taong nagigipit, sa patalim man ay kumakapit.

public class Tao {
    private boolean nagigipit;
    private boolean mayPatalim;    
    public void kapitPatalim( ) {
        if(nagigipit) {
            mayPatalim = true;
        }
    }
}