July 2008 Archives

Cuil a new web search engine has launched today hoping to put a dent in the dominance of Google.   There are some things I like about but others which are not as good.

For the random searches I did, ego-surfing I typed my own name in, it gave me a page from my personal blog within the first ten answers, but it was quite a random entry rather than the front page, a search of 'FTI WA' gave me the Institute but the images attached to entry appear quite a random and often unrelated.

I like the idea of combing the images and text together, but if it's not really hitting the nail on the head search wise, it's doomed.   The minimal layout is quite nice too.   One of it's big selling points that they are pushing is it does not data mine like Google does.

One of the major trends in the mediaverse is the death of appointment television viewing.   The idea that we would rush home to catch a particular show or avoid going out on Wednesday nights because our favourite show is on.  It just doesn't happen any more.

If we miss a show on ABC, it'll be on ABC2 later in the week, or maybe we can see it online.   Foxtel plays things round and round in circles, wait a few weeks 'Friends' will begin again.

Something that is against this trend then is the 'live' online appearances of well known video bloggers.   Here's an example, Charlie McDonnell is one of the best known video bloggers in the UK.   His YouTube viewing audience of his show 'Charlie Is So Cool Like' attracts up to 400,000 viewers per episode.   He's appeared on television on morning TV and The Lilly Allen Show.  

Now McDonnell has begun a new live show on Blog TV, viewers log into a virtual chat room and he appears live.   As Kevin Kelly pointed out you may only need 1000 True Fans to be economically viable as an artist.   Could uber -video bloggers soon start to release subscription based content that their biggest fans would be willing to pay for?

What would you tune in for either online or on television?      

If you were particularly internet savvy, last week you might have caught Joss Wedon's 'Dr Horrible' online.   This sing along comedy from the creator of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Firefly' stars Neil 'Doogie Howser' Patrick Harris and was available for free viewing for just a week.

Now you can buy the show through i-tunes in the US and a DVD release is rumoured to follow.   Is this kind of distribution model going to work?   Let the audience have it for free, generate some buzz, once again this is an example of giving the performance before the pay off, a technique that's worked for everyone from the Arctic Monkeys to Rocket Boom.  

ABC TV has launched their new online catch-up service for television,it's called iview.   If you miss an episode of 'The Bill' or 'The Gruen Transfer' now you can see it online through a streaming service, most shows are available for a week.    It's pretty cool, but might chew up your download limit pretty fast.

Unless of course your with an internet provider like iinet who were quick of the mark to announce that their clients will not pay anything for downloads from the iview site.    

X|Media|Lab is coming to Melbourne next month, everyone I know who has attended this event has raved about it whether you get into the Lab or just attend the conference it gets high praise.

The Melbourne delivery is focussing on the area of DIY television.  

Earlier this year at the AIDC Peter Greenaway showed his innovative new type of work where he brough a Rembrant painting to life through some amazing projections onto the canvas.   At the time he announced that his next work would be a similar process with Leonardo Da Vinci's 'The Last Supper'.

THE GUARDIAN reports on the recent presentation and includes a short excerpt from the work.

Earlier Posts
Still Thinking About Greenaway June 1st 2008
AIDC Peter Greenaway says 'Cinema is Dead' February 26th 2008