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Violeta Galagarza: Choreographer
Friends, Acquaintances & Contacts
Kristen “Kroosh” Crusius wrote a post the other day about what’s going on in her “Friendiverse”… her universe of friends. Her post reminded me that I had intended to comment about Robert Scoble‘s videos about how social networks’ “friends lists” really work.
Part I of Social Graph Based Search. 14:41 minutes.
Part II of Social Graph Based Search. 15 minutes.
And a bonus round III. 6 minutes.
I didn’t get around to writing that post because I’ve been incredibly busy for the last two months.
I think the term “Friends”, as automatically used by several social sites is an unfortunate and misleading label. This is especially true when there are no other choices. You’re forced into a binary system…. Accept or Decline… Yes or No… 1 or 0… My-Friend or Not-My-Friend. Unfortunately, as Scoble pointed out in his videos, reality doesn’t work like that. There are different levels and flavors of relationships between people. Business relationships, Family relationships, Intimate relationships, Adversarial relationships… I think linkedin has it right with the generic term “contact”. How many ‘contacts’ do you have? They’re not (your friends) by default, nor are they (not your friends) by default. Still, in linkedin, there are several types of business relationships, including people that you have worked with personally… people you have not worked with personally, but you trust whomever recommended them to you… people you have not worked with and you have no professional recommendations for, but you vouch for them as a person, so you are happy to recommend them to someone who’s looking to fill a position…. people you have no intention of recommending to anyone, but you will still accept them as a contact… people that you are in contact with specifically so you can set them up with other people….. ALL of these are thrown in together under the title ‘contact’.
Because of the misnomer “friends”, some people have selected this to mean their ACTUAL friends and will only add people that they actually know. Here, I agree with Scoble’s assertion that this is an incorrect usage of social networks. How are you supposed to expand your circle of CONTACTS or “sphere of influence” if you limit yourself on the internet to only the people you know IRL? How are you supposed to learn about new people that might have similar interests or ideals if you deny them connection to you? What’s the point of being on a social site if you’re only going to get in touch with the same people you’re already in contact with? I think that if they had levels of acquaintance on these sites, a lot more people would be connected to each other, because the categories would make sense to them. You would be able to see at-a-glance what level each person had placed their contacts on, and make a better assessment of their actual interaction with each other.
Looking at it from the other direction… It’s not fair that someone that sends you a friends request out of the blue has the exact same status as someone you collaborate with or work with or highly respect or go out for drinks with or climb mountains and eat pancakes with. Both the random person and the IRL friend are marked down as “Friend”. There’s no meritocracy. Even with facebook‘s relationship qualifiers, that’s a SECONDARY trait. It’s like having everyone in your military with the rank of ‘Private’, and you have to go to each Private and ask them what their actual importance is in order to determine who out-ranks whom. No. It doesn’t work like that. You can tell from the bars or whatever emblem on their shoulders who’s running the show and who’s going to be digging the trenches.
In the absence of actual distinctions, I think the best approach to accepting/rejecting social site “friends” is innocent until proven guilty, not the other way around. It’s always a good thing when you can see the applicant’s friends list in order to tell who might know them that YOU know and whose judgement you trust. When I know certain people don’t like jerks, and those people are “friends” with someone, I’m more likely to take my ACTUAL friend’s word that this other person is cool. That would seem to go against what I was saying earlier, because what if my friend is using the same “innocent until proven guilty” style that I am? :) I would be accepting an untested “friend”. However, checks & balances will come into play. If the untested person actually interacts with the community, they’ll start getting “reviews” which will help you decide whether you want to keep them as a friend or not. Ultimately, the circle polices itself.
I was thinking about Kroosh’s “Friendiverse” yesterday, while I was watching Drew‘s live stream from PodCamp Philly. It’s a much more intimate format… giving personal, “hand-written” recommendations of places to go, people to see and things to do. I saw many people from MY Friendiverse on Drew’s stream yesterday… Kathryn, Eric, Jackson, Jonny, Steve, Grace, Charles… and ran into others in the text chat who were also watching the stream.
Ultimately, I’ve been inspired to focus more time & energy on the upper echelon of my own personal Friendiverse. In the game called “keeping up with the net”, it’s very easy to miss out on telling the people that matter to you how cool you think they are. :)
Bill Cammack • New York City • Freelance Video Editor • alum.mit.edu/www/billcammack
BillCammack shoutout on JetSetShow! :D
W00T! :D BillCammack shoutout on this week’s JetSetShow. 5 minutes into the program! :D
DatingGenius would like to thank Zadi & Steve @ Smashface Productions! :D
Also featured, an interesting and cool-looking project from Brandon Fletcher called “Date Unknown”.
251-070704_LeeMorettiTheUpwelling
MasamiBillShow 000 – Intro
MasamiBillShow
Blog: http://billcammack.com/category/masamibillshow/
Show: http://masamibillshow.blip.tv/
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/ReelSolidTV
Twitter: http://twitter.com/BillCammack
Bill & Masami know each other from New York City, but Masami’s currently in Japan.
MasamiBillShow is about staying in touch with each other from half a world away…..
MasamiBillShow is visually formatted to utilize subtitles / captions by dotSUB. You can go to http://dotSUB.com, upload a video and then transcribe it based on timing cues. Once that’s done, your friends, family or anyone else can go to the site and translate your captions into lots of different languages.
Michael Smolens, Founder & CEO of dotSUB explained to me that one of the goals of transcribing and translating videos is to create increased understanding and hopefully communication between people that speak different languages. Currently, only people who speak the language that the video was created in can get more out of it than the visuals…. and that’s assuming that they aren’t hearing impaired. MasamiBillShow is captioned and will be transcribed in each blog post.
And now….. on with the show! :D
Thursday, April 12, 2007
MasamiBillShow
ReelSolidTV Episode 38: KR3Ts “2:12″
Violeta Galagarza’s KR3Ts Dancers get biz for 2:12
Nat
Necessarie
Jay-J
Valentine
2007 Broadband Emmy Awards
NATAS + MySpace = 2007 Broadband Emmy Awards
National Television Academy press release
LOS ANGELES – January 8, 2007 – MySpace, the world’s leading lifestyle portal, and the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, presenters of the coveted Emmy® Awards, today announced they have joined forces to honor premium broadband content on the Internet. MySpace will serve as the exclusive online partner of the Broadband Emmy Award submissions, empowering video producers and filmmakers to submit self-generated content for consideration through the official MySpace Emmy profile at http://myspace.com/MyEmmy.
The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences debuted its first Emmy Award for content distributed via broadband and portable delivery last year and honored creators in four categories. This year, The Academy will triple the number, honoring creators in 12 categories in four content areas: Entertainment, Sports, News & Information, and Public & Community Service. In addition, high school students are eligible for the National Television Student Awards for Excellence for broadband-delivered content in all seven student categories. Read entire NTA press release…
Now THIS is going to be interesting. :D
[Full Disclosure: I am a NATAS Emmy Judge as well as an International Emmy Judge]
There are several ongoing debates within the community of people and groups who make videos and post their created content on the Internet. One of them is “what is and what is _not_ a video blog”. There’s another debate about videos posted in “closed” environments vs those posted in ways that make them accessible to whomever happens to be searching the net for video content. A MAJOR debate is what aggregators should and should not be doing with RSS feeds from either content creators or hosting sites.
Yet another daily debate is “what is QUALITY content?” or perhaps “what makes a show popular” or “what makes a show _good_”. The problem, IMO, with making distinctions about what constitutes a popular show is that depending on where you look and how you look at it, shows that get similar amounts of hits can be spun to look like either one is more “successful”. There is no agreed-upon site that can actually track site date consistently and accurately.
This makes sense, because there’s no bottleneck… Meda that goes to the internet goes straight out. It doesn’t have to go through EPs, producers, editors, quality control, legal, studios, stations, channels, local distribution points, cable boxes, televisions. There’s nowhere you can go and say “this show delivered 80,000 units through here and that show delivered 50,000 units, so the first show has more viewership for this period.
On top of that, there are several ways to get data from a site. If someone goes to my web site, they might view a page and then not view the video. They might open the page but not read anything on it at all. They might bypass the main page because they linked to a permalink for one post. They might not hit my site’s pages at all if they subscribe to my videos in RSS. They might not hit the RSS more than once if they are downloading the videos and watching them offline. So… if one site uses page hits to judge popularity and another site uses video downloads, they’re going to see things completely differently, even looking at the exact same site. If you have to have a particular widget installed to count in the rankings, you can forget it entirely as far as accuracy. Anyone who hits the site without being “part of the program” doesn’t count in the stats.
Anyway, I doubt the 2007 Broadband Emmy Awards will have anything to do with page hits and downloads. The Emmys in general are about quality content and quality production values. That’s what makes this contest interesting. MSM (Main Stream Media) is now getting involved in putting clips on the internet in mass quantities. All of a sudden, there are videos on MySpace with laugh-tracks. :/ All of a sudden, a “new” show appears with 30 episodes uploaded on the same day! :/ Reading the eligibility requirements for the MySpace contest, “Repurposed material originally produced for traditional media is not eligible”. That’s good, because cutting three minutes out of a professionally produced, shot and edited piece shouldn’t put you in position to compete with someone that made their video specifically for the internet. That doesn’t mean the internet piece isn’t well done or professionally produced, but it’s apples vs. oranges.
The first category open for submissions is “Entertainment”. It’s open right now, and “News & Documentary” opens on Feb. 26th. They both close on March 26, and finalists will be notified in April.
As usual, make sure you read the fine print in contests or even when you choose a hosting service to upload your videos to. Check out these terms of service in The Rules of the MySpace My Emmy contest:
By entering the Contest, you grant Sponsors a perpetual, fully-paid, irrevocable, non-exclusive license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of, distribute, display, sub-license, exhibit, transmit, broadcast, televise, digitize, otherwise use, and permit others to use and perform throughout the universe the Material (including without limitation, the underlying intellectual property therein to the extent necessary to exploit Material) in any manner, form, or format now or hereinafter created, including, but not limited to, on the Internet, and for any purpose, including, but not limited to, advertising or promotion of Sponsors and their services, all without further consent from or payment to you. The completion, expiration and/or termination of the Contest shall not affect Sponsors’ rights regarding Materials or Sponsors’ other rights hereunder. Sponsors shall have, forever and throughout the universe, the right to use such Material in any manner as determined by Sponsors in their sole discretion, including without limitation, the right to make changes, alterations, cuts, edits, interpolations, deletions and eliminations into and from such Material and the right to package such Material with those rendered by other Entrants in connection with the exploitation of such Material, all without further consent from or payment to you.
That’s fantastic! Look how progressive those terms are! Throughout the universe! :D Wow! They must know something we don’t know about pending space travel. Anyway… here’s the link to the Broadband Rules from MyEmmy.TV. If you’re willing to pay the $400 entry fee, you can skip all the TOS shenanigans and soul-selling.
The MyEmmy.TV page also includes the Judging Procedures & Criteria:
JUDGING PROCEDURES AND CRITERIA:
Content, Creativity and Execution are the primary standards for judging. Each criterion is given equal weight.
Judges will focus on the clarity of presentation of information, as well as the visual impact of the entry. Judges can also give weight to the entrant’s utilization of “broadband†capabilities, (e.g., interactivity, and viewers’ choice of images). Although any entry originally produced for “broadband†transmission is eligible to compete, the more the web’s capabilities are demonstrated in the production, the better the chances may be for winning.
Advocacy and presentation of strong points of view are eligible for award consideration. “Self-published†work by individuals as well as production entities is also eligible for consideration.
All “Broadband†entries/URLs will be viewed at home and judged in one round to determine the nominees and winner. Judging panels will consist of content experts rather than technicians. There will be separate panels for each category, although there may be an overlap with some judges serving on more than one panel. Judges vote via secret ballot using a scale of 10 for the highest and 1 for the lowest rating in each area (Content, Creativity, and Execution), for a total of 30 possible points.
OK… So I see what’s going on now. :) Myspace is holding a contest in which the winners will be sponsored to the official Emmy competition. There are going to be two levels of judging. You can skip one level altogether by paying the entry fee and going straight to http://www.myemmy.tv/ . If my understanding after skimming the official entry rules is correct, as long as you made your content specifically for the internet, any level of professional involvement, time or money spent on the project is fine.
I’ll be interested to see what MySpace promotes to entrance in the actual Broadband Emmy Awards. Let’s see if any of the “mom & pop” user-generated content gets the nod over studio-produced work. I’ll refrain from mentioning any shows that I think could compete favorably… VERY favorably in the competition, just in case my region is involved in the judging and asks me to participate.
Either way, I think both the MySpace contest and the official Broadband Emmy Awards are fantastic ways for content creators to gain exposure and/or accolades. It’s definitely worth considering entering… whether it’s a video that was already done (since March 2nd, 2006) or one that you’re planning up until April 2007.
Bill Cammack • New York City • Freelance Video Editor • alum.mit.edu/www/billcammack
Bennchoumy wins “Go Hard or Go Home†Hip-Hop battle
Article reposted from HaitiXchange.com: [link]
- Related Links:
- Bennchoumy’s MySpace Page
- Da Haitians Are Coming
Creole Hip-Hop triumphs at the ultimate underground Hip-Hop battle. We first met Bennchoumy several years back when he was part of a group called The Shepherds. He has since branched out on his own, and has recently taken home the gold at the “Go Hard or Go Home†Hip-Hop battle held at the Remote Lounge in New York City. While everyone was doing the regular, English, Hip-Hop stuff, Bennchoumy let loose some Creole that most people didn’t understand… and still won.
A judge told him that even though they didn’t understand a word he was saying, they gave him the prize because his showmanship, performance, and skills were absolutely extraordinary.
Bennchoumy believes that there is a future for Creole Hip-Hop in the music industry. Even though people are always telling him to put more English into his rhymes to make it more convenient for the American mainstream, he does not believe that is necessary. He says that Reggaeton took off even though many people do not understand the Spanish lyrics, and that as long as music is good and can be felt, people will accept it.
What Bennchoumy won: Ring tone deal, several mix-tape deals, he will be in several magazine spreads, and cash prize (he would not reveal the exact amount.)
Congrats to my friend, the extremely talented Bennchoumy! Hopefully, we’ll have a ReelSolidTV interview with him soon to go with his HaitiXchange interview! :D
E.M.S.
So Joey and I headed out to the streets of Manhattan last night to see what we could come up with for our new videoblog/show. No “working title” and no plans whatsoever, except to head out to a club and videotape a DJ doing his thing. :D
While Joey was doing his wraps, he ad-libbed about “Eight Million Stories in the Naked City”… I realized this morning that he had spontaneously come up with the title for the show. Regardless of the topic, everything we present is a story… SOMEBODY’S story, or a story about something or somewhere. The first episodes are about night-life, but that’s because it happened to be night when we went out. :D
Anyway….. Welcome to “E.M.S.”, which might stand for…
Eight Million Stories
or
Emergency Medical Services! :D
hahahaha you’ll just have to watch to find out! ;)
B.C & J.R.
Blog: http://reelsolid.tv/category/ems/
MySpace: http://myspace.com/EMSnyc
Blip: http://ems.blip.tv/
Location, Location, Location
Having now placed videos on YouTube, Google Video, Revver, Brightcove, Blip, and Myspace… as well as hosting video on my own site and feeding my podcast to iTunes…..
I’ve come to the conclusion that marketing is more important than location. I purposely didn’t publicize any of the videos that I posted in order to see what would happen on each site. YouTube continues to get the most random hits, but that’s probably because they have the most viewers that are searching for random topics. MySpace had a slowly rising number of views, probably for the same reason.
A couple of the sites (I forget which, at this point) only count your video as a “view” if someone watches the whole thing. That’s pretty useless for the types of videos that I had posted, because mine have beginnings and ends. It’s clear that the video is over before it’s actually over, so there’s no real reason to go all the way to the end. That’s because I made the clips as mini-shows and not viral video. They’re supposed to take the viewer through a complete entry into and exit from the world of ReelSolid. That format’s going to be changed for my next show, which I’m working on right now.
As far as revenue-sharing, that’s all well and good IF you’re making videos that people are going to want to watch over and over, like the one where the guy gets his foot caught in the rope swing and gets bashed into the stone wall like Wile E. Coyote. :D THAT’S viral video. That’s video that someone watches 20 times, then tells 20 of their friends to watch 20 times, then watches another 20 times the next day and so on and so on. If you’re not making those kind of videos, the ROI is just about nothing. I suppose you could say that if your “I” is nothing, then you have nothing to lose by putting something on Revver or Brightcove. Some people litter those sites with tons of very short videos and get a lot of hits and make money from them… kudos! :)
Ultimately, I like serving my own videos. I haven’t been impressed with the playback from other services, but that might be because I’m on an older computer and those sites are opimized for dual-core-blah-blah-blah.
My next show is going to be a form of videoblog, so I’ll be changing the site… AGAIN, and moving videos to blip.tv. One of the reasons for this is that Revver and Brightcove are clearly viral video sites, and that’s what they specialize in. Blip’s more geared towards videoblogging, so it seems more ‘natural’ to have a presence there than the other sites. I might make viral versions of the shows, and that would be fine for me to have on these quick-hit sites, but for now, I’m going to focus on the actual content and placing it where I feel it’s part of a community instead of somewhere I tossed it to see what would happen.
Get with the program!
So, how embarrassing is THIS? :D
I put my video on Brightcove hours ago. Way later, I put my video on Revver. Brightcove doesn’t have anything that tells you you need to be approved, but Revver does. Revver approved me in a decent amount of time. I wasn’t expecting it to be that quick, or I would have timed it. It was definitely approved in between my last post and way before right now.
So as soon as it was approved, I checked the status on Revver. I searched for it, and I found it. I played it. So just now, I went to Brightcove, and did a search for “reelsolid”. I found the MySpace video that I had found earlier in the day, before I placed videos on either of the new services. I also saw one more video, so I assumed Brightcove was in the game.
The video that Brightcove found when I searched…….. was on REVVER! :D hahahaha wow. We’ll see if Brightcove catches up tomorrow, but right now, Revver’s looking pretty good! :D
Hip Hop Legends
Tonight, I went to see “New York Legends of Hip-Hop” at the Victory Theater in Times Square. Looooooong-time friends Marjory and Kim Holmes (pictured) were featured dancers, along with Rock Steady Crew and other representatives of Hip Hop culture, essentially from the beginning of it all. :D
Marj, Bill C., Kim Holmes
The show was great! :D Reminded me of ‘back in the day’, going clubbing all night, then hitting ‘Round The Clock or Midnight Express for breakfast before or while the sun was coming up. I’m sure it was even better for people that weren’t aware of or didn’t have access to the culture. Our seats were next to a tourist named Melanie. She was from Sweden or Denmark or The Netherlands, I can’t remember which. We took pictures on her camera, which wasn’t digital, so she’s planning to snail-mail me a copy whenever she develops the film!!! hahaha She enjoyed the show a lot, too.
I made sure I had my kicks, sweats & KR3TS shirt, in case I had to ‘get loose’. :D I had seen Kim recently, but hadn’t seen Marj in ages, so it was great to watch them perform and hang out with them after the show. This is the last weekend of the show, and all the remaining dates are sold out… as they should be, because “New York Legends of Hip-Hop” is well worth seeing… whether you lived through the evolution of Hip Hop in NYC in the streets and in the clubs or you didn’t, but you’re a fan of the style & energy of the culture.
