New Ways To Create Revenue Online - The Broadband Content Opportunity
January 31st, 2008
What a mouthful, it's a worse name than techludd. It is actually the title of an event run by crea8ivity on Tuesday of this week. Now, if you've looked at their site you may see where I'm coming from when I say that the majority of the content is utter "Business Bullshit". Which kind of gave me a correct view of what the event would mostly be like, mind you there were positive points too.
After some brief introductions Tom Loosemore took the stage to deliver a talk Welcome to the New Digital Era. From the start it wasn't particularly interesting for someone that has seen the internet before, albeit I do think he'd just drawn the short straw on this one and quickly showed his smarts in the parts that strayed from the presentation topic. Especially the one about being more open about data services and apis, we can build more beautiful software, only if we become good web citizens. Rock on Tom.
From the BBC Emma Somerville talked to us about some of the different projects they were doing on the web and also some different strategies they had applied. That's all well and good, but you are the BBC. Doug Richards would later point out that we all don't have a radio and tv monopoly and can't benefit from such free and available advertising. He had another beautiful thing to say that "The BBC should not be the monopoly producer of creative content it should be a monopoly consumer of content from outside bodies." wow, wouldn't that just shake up the industry in the UK.
We then got a talk about the New Digital Innovators from Northern Ireland from the project director of crea8ivity. This was to introduce one of the main reasons behind the evening which was the demo of a couple of companies that the crea8ivity initiative had funded. I believe they each got slices of a tasty £1 million pie and the rest was put into launching the crea8ivity project. Enough history. Here are the list of projects that were displayed on the night;
- Edcast Medical
- StreamOn.net
- Sonic Academy
- Awash on the Web
- Constant Comedy
- iGolfPro
- Dark Water Studios
Okay so one of the companies StreamOn, provide the systems for Edcast Medical, the Sonic Academy and Awash on the Web. They've done pretty well out of the initiative bagging all those projects, I just can't get over the fact they're selling "streaming video web solutions" when they are not offering streaming video solutions, it's progressive download. There's a big difference, please internet stop bastardising this definition. My other main gripe is their use of Microsoft Publisher which means wmv videos, if you can't be bothered to deliver your content in universally acceptable formats (flv anyone?) then I and a lot of other users probably can't be bothered to watch it (YES I CBA installing a wmv player!).
The three clients of StreamOn definitely need to discover the power of free, there's no way I would sign up to any of those sites just based on first impressions. What I wanted to see on the front pages of each of them is a big freakin teaser video, then you might capture my attention enough to make me fill in the form. By requiring registration before a user can derive that there may be any potential benefit from a site you put up barriers to entry, you need to show them what they're missing.
Check out Constant Comedy great site, great idea made me laugh. They may be going places.
Dark Water Studios fair play lads, how you managed to build a game development studio in Derry. Perhaps I will never know as you guys were swamped after the talks. Great to see.
There was this iGolfPro thing there as well, it seemed pretty cool technology but it really didn't have anything to do with the web at all. Fail.
So that's the new digital innovators from Northern Ireland not to be harsh but none of them are the next google, Constant Comedy and Dark Water Studios have a good chance of making it into prime time. I'd love to see the rest of them be successful too but they'll need to change some things first.
Back to Doug, it was really a breath of fresh air to hear someone just go for it and say what they really think. I can't even remember all of his keys to success but that's not important, the important thing was to hear how passionately he talked about doing amazing things with the web. One girl asked a question, she basically wanted to find out how she could have some private time to give him a business pitch. I think she almost died when Doug made her stand up and give an elevator pitch to him in front of the entire assembly. Fair play to crea8ivity for getting such an interesting speaker to an event in Belfast.
So to round up it was great to see at least something happening locally in the web space even if it wasn't exactly what I wanted to see... A lot of the event felt like being in high school during a sex education lecture by a teacher too old to be having never mind talking about sex without making those younger than them feel horribly uncomfortable. That's what it was like hearing Crea8ivity talk about the web. Too many suits, too much back patting for a job well done and not enough really getting to know people. Crea8ivity you did a fair job putting this together but you have no hope in building successful online business in this new social web if you cannot create real world social networks. You need to drop the business bullshit and maybe next time you get such a large chunk of money you might consider investing in some of the more interesting grass roots entrepreneurship initiatives happening in Belfast that you don't know about (I'm talking about OpenCoffee & The hopefully soon-to-make-it-to-Belfast Coworking).
I'll be following up tomorrow with a couple of more positive points on how we can boost the web and creative industries in Northern Ireland.
18 Responses to “New Ways To Create Revenue Online - The Broadband Content Opportunity”
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February 2nd, 2008 at 11:53 AM
Dave fwiw even Akamai (who do Amazon's video) don't provide Flash/FLV streaming yet, they reckon the exposure isn't high enough for the best flash codecs (h.264 etc.) yet as it's only latest version; and recommend you use Windows Media.
Also fwiw while hardly properly integrated Flip4Mac isn't bad. It's when you have horrendous site's like u.tv's video player which i can't even get to work through Parallels that you have real issues with WM formats!
February 2nd, 2008 at 01:32 PM
Akami do offer streaming yes not via flash but their reasons are more likely down to licensing costs than anything else. Flash is installed on over 90% of all internet connected computers thanks to the youtube effect. Distribution of the ability to stream h.264 will take a year or two, in the meantime companies can gracefully degrade to flv instead of h.264 making it a completely viable possibility.
Flip4Mac is not going to be on your average user's computer, you can't launch a product in WMV and target a mac audience until this is built into osx.
February 3rd, 2008 at 09:13 PM
Typical Northern Irish response...
Knock everyone without EVER doing anything of any significance yourself....
You seemed to be enjoying the free wine and nibbles and doing your damnedest to suck corporate cock/get yourself a job/life from what I witnessed.
You wanker
February 4th, 2008 at 06:44 AM
Kevin,
If you read I don't knock everyone, in fact there is a lot of praise.
"I'd love to see the rest of them be successful too but they'll need to change some things first."
In which I'm referring to;
Anyway, good luck with Sonic Academy.
February 4th, 2008 at 07:42 AM
Kevin:
You response actually made me laugh. Not quite out loud, as it wasn't that funny, but funny enough.
I thought such attitudes got left behind in the playground, but evidently not.I know which comment I would say was a typical Northern Irish response...
February 4th, 2008 at 03:24 PM
Wow. Lovely attitude, Kevin.
Far be it from me to tell you what to do, but here's how grown ups deal with disagreements: they argue their case and they don't call people wankers! Unreal, but good to know what kind of people are behind Sonic Academy.
February 4th, 2008 at 04:51 PM
Kevin, that was kinda funny but totally uncalled for. David was cutting through the marketing bullshit of the evening to get to the nub of the matter from a web users point of view. I largely agreed with his points, which I thought were balanced by being both positive and negative and clearly his personal view. You childish name calling is unworthy of you. Darryl
February 4th, 2008 at 05:09 PM
Wow Kevin, it's a real skill to make yourself sound so ridiculous. You've got the knack.
With an attitude like that I can't see you managing to direct any company to anything more than a complete failure.
February 4th, 2008 at 09:39 PM
Out of interest Kevin, how much money did you get from the public purse for your website? How much are you making from all the advertising an sponsorship on the site? And will any of your revenues be used to repay the taxpayer?
Pot. Kettle. Black.
February 5th, 2008 at 02:57 AM
I love when NI businesses are critisized even slightly and their directors go ape-shit. It's so satisfying.
Firstly Kev, you look like a complete moron by replying in such a way- totally unwarranted. Such a response says to me that he's hit a nerve, and considering the article is quite balanced, that's bonkers behavior- something more akin to the shine board.
Secondly, David sounds like he actually knows what he's talking about- for someone to take this much time and go into such detail about this kind of area of website video delivery, I would take what he says as constructive criticism.
By the way, in my experience, the wine and nibbles (fuck me, nibbles?? what the hell has this to do with video downloading?) at these events tastes like pish, so I doubt it was enjoyed all that much.
February 5th, 2008 at 10:15 PM
David
In hindsight my remarks were OTT and for that I apologise.
There are a few points that have been raised that merit a response/discussion (including some of David's remarks about how the creative industries can be boosted).
Like many people in NI involved in the creative industries, we try our best and myself and the rest of the guys at Sonic have struggled to get to where we are today. We have been pretty successful at getting ourselves out there and securing money (not funding! - DETI's Broadband Content Initiative was a competitive procurement process). Our success to date speaks for itself but that in itself is enough grounds for criticism in this lovely country of ours...
I have been involved in the creative industries since I was 16 and know the struggle that it takes to get on your feet (I did the Invest NI Start a Business Programme, got a loan from the Prince's Trust, borrowed money off friends family etc). But I believe that if it's made too easy to start a creative (or any other type of) business, it will attract the wrong sort of people and be counter productive. Survivors and people with tenacity are the ones who make it...
We don't believe in standing on the sidelines sniping and talking about how things could be done better - you only achieve doing things better by actually DOING them...
Also - anyone who knows me, knows that I am less into business/marketing bullshit than most people. However, we have had to realise that it's a necessary part of the world of business - which hey, is what we're all in this for - being creative is great, being creative and broke is not so good, so you have to be business minded too. Yes - the event had loads of business BS, but it was necessary for the stakeholders - DETI/Invest NI/Momentum etc, as not everyone thinks about things as "creatively" as we might. The business bullshit has a place...
Also - we're humble enough to admit that we haven't got things right with our site. We're a bunch of musicians who are trying something new and we've still got a lot to learn. We've spent 18 months working on it solid, with my staff throwing everything they have at it and I make no bones about defending their efforts...
We got £220k of government funding which is a matter of public record. We spent the money very wisely - bought our own broadcast quality camera, lighting rig etc. We're not a business where there is loads of money sloshing around but we are trying - and that, in my eyes is what counts. We employ people, thereby contributing to the economy - and will be recruiting again soon, thereby contributing more to the economy - which is what the Broadband Content Initiative was ultimately about...
All of the advertising on the site is free to manufacturers until we build a relationship with them! So we're not making any money from advertising on the site...
BTW - I think the idea of a Digital/Creative Hub in Belfast is a great idea and would love to be involved. Just as long as it doesn't mean standing around chatting about things and actually involves getting things done and benefitting us all.
February 6th, 2008 at 12:07 PM
Kevin, I appreciate your more detailed analysis! I know you and your team have been working hard over the past few years - you deserve all the success you get. Darryl
February 6th, 2008 at 05:42 PM
Kevin, no problem.
It's great to see creative things happening in Northern Ireland and people like yourself actually getting out there and doing something. I'm a fan not a critic but being an idealist at heart I can't help spotting the opportunities to make things even better.
You're right it can't be made too easy to start a business but the suits over here could take a lot of inspiration from Silicon Valley. Having had some really interesting conversations with Venture Capitalists out there, they just get it you don't have to explain what the internet is or how there may be money in it. I remember a time when bodies like Invest NI would hear nothing of investing in small local technology based companies.
Business bullshit has it's place in Ireland now but I think it should be confined to the past, as I said Silicon Valley gets it. In this day and age you don't need a business model to do something awesome take twitter for example, when I chatted with their founders last they didn't have a revenue model and quite frankly didn't care, money was not an issue. That is such a refreshing attitude to have from their investors. Planning is essential, but plans are worthless, twitter will find their revenue model and make loads but in the meantime they are focusing on making something awesome.
There is a lot of interest in building a digital & creative hub in Belfast, it's about time it was made a reality.
February 6th, 2008 at 06:37 PM
Phew, what a debate. As the Editor of the crea8ivity.com web site (and, by definition, author of most of the, as you put it - "business bullshit" - on the site) I suppose I have to weigh in (I don't really actually - it's just good to see though provoking debate). Firstly David, my wife thinks you are very handsome (she's looking over my shoulder and spotted your pic...but that's another matter, and I'm not sensitive about such things). But, more importantly, I think it's important that we collectively focus on the "business" aspect. If digital content businesses can't make money then there is no end-game to all of this. Creatives won't be attracted to the digital format. All this debate will be worthless.
Northern Ireland is a tiny place but there is every opportunity that we will see success stories emerging. The infrastructure is here and a lot of talent. However, there needs to be a collective focus on what works alsewhere and then improving on it here. And, in many respects, creating viable business models is not rocket science.
The remit of crea8ivity is to communicate the NI success story - beyond the 2 exemplar companies - to a local and international audience. There is a lot on the site about social networking, the importance of Web 2.0, blogging platforms etc. We always need to strike a balance in terms of content - there's no point having raging debates on streaming video formats, thereby losing most of our audience. But the visitor figures prove that the site is working.
I wasn't at the Science Park event myself - so it's difficult for me to comment on your criticisms. But I did send out evaluation questionnaires. Most who attended (and respondend) seemed to value the fact that it afforded a great networking opportunity. Nearly all rated the event as good or excellent.
Therefore, although self praise is no praise, we are at least one factor in creating a digital and creative hub in Belfast. The rest, as they say, is up to you.
February 6th, 2008 at 06:48 PM
Just a correction by the way...there are of course 6 exemplar companies and not 2 as per my post above (just a typo on my part).
February 6th, 2008 at 10:38 PM
David
I admire your idealism but it's not how things work!
We're actively looking for investment at the minute and we have a stark choice:
a) go for "smart" money, from an I.T./media savvy investor (there are few (if any) in NI, a few more in ROI/UK and a clatter of them in Silicon Valley). The pros - they understand the space we operate in, know the Net, know the pitfalls ahead etc. The cons - hard nosed muthas, not interested in the intricacies of the local market place etc.
b) go for "local" money. The pros - they're only up the road if we need them, sympathetic to local business needs, kinda know the pitfalls ahead etc. The cons - hard nosed muthas, don't know the space we're in etc.
We've pitched to VCs, business angels - the lot of em... The local investors don't get us (picture me pitching Sonic to a room full of property investors/retired chemists) and the ones who get it are 5000 miles away.
I'd love to walk into a room where the people just "got" us - the fact that they don't is frustrating and funny in equal measure but we're not bitching about it. It makes us think "Fuck it" and strengthens our resolve to get to where we want to be...
The idealism of Twitter et al is the exception rather than the rule. At some point if an investor gets a sniff, it becomes very real and the business BS kicks in with a vengeance. The want to see that you can DO business, network, win business, build relationships! They wanna see you dance!
On an even more basic level, even without looking for investment, the business BS is part of my everyday life cos I've got a Mrs and kids, and staff who look to me to ensure that they get paid every month...
I'd love for it to be confined to the past but you have to make the best of what you've got and get yourself investor ready (if that's what you're after).
NI isn't Silicon Valley and never will be but there is a shit load of talent here. To try to do what we're doing in Sonic anywhere else, just wouldn't be the same.
The crea8ivity event wasn't perfect but it was the best opportunity we've had to show off our stuff. Doing something is better than just talking about it - and having an event that was pretty good was better than no event at all...
February 7th, 2008 at 02:46 PM
Jeffrey, thanks for your response it's really great to see someone from a Northern Irish body join in a public discussion. Respect. Firstly, thanks to your wife... blushes. Secondly my attribution of "Business Bullshit" is not a reflection of your copy, which is in-fact quite interesting. It is that there is so much information on the site and all I wanted was a quick rundown about what crea8ivity is and what the event would be about, the fact I had to spend a good while reading around before I found that information, that's what I mean.
Business is important, I have no qualms with business (in fact it is what I am most interested in), it's only when the meat of the issue is surrounded by all these other bits that don't really add anything to the meat, they just dress it up. As Doug Richard's actually said to someone in the audience that night "What are you really asking? Can you phrase it in a more simpler way?".
In all the events I have attended pertaining even slightly to the internet, I just thought it was odd to have the internet explained and justified at this one. About the criticisms, having high standards set by international events is a lot to live up to. It doesn't mean these events shouldn't take place or that they aren't good, it's that we have so much opportunity for improving. I have actually blogged about these possibilities for improvement
Finally it would be great to hear what the plans for crea8ivity are for the future.
Kevin, It's very interesting to hear your tales of getting funding in Ireland. There are a lot of people in the same boat right now.
February 7th, 2008 at 03:36 PM
David,
Well that's a relief. Glad my copy isn't bullshit. I wasn't actually involved in the organisation of the event - not did I choose the speakers. My remit as part of the 1-year crea8ivity.com assignment is to maintain the site content and also undertake international media relations work. However, I'm glad Doug Richard was such a popular speaker choice.
The project - commissioned by DETI to promote NI digital creativity - ends officially at the end of March. After that it's really up to the industry - including people like you - to move things forward.
Well done to you for encouraging debate. We have an opportunity to make great strides and I agree with many of your points about how to encourage local companies to participate in the global stage that is digital content. I look forward to meeting you soon.
Separately I have received communications from the embryonic NAMAS - the new digital content 'bit' of the organisation that organises the Emmy Awards. They are very keen to identify international members. If you or any colleagues would like details I can pass them on. It's not expensive but it could be a good opportunity for our emerging networks here to start rubbing shoulders with our State-side cousins.