Nay's Two Cents

YouTube, Sony and copyright issues

noreply@blogger.com (Nay James) — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:29:00 +0000

YouTube, Sony and copyright issues

I recently read a blog from Ted.com entitled, “ How YouTube thinks about copyright” by Margaret Gould Stewart.

The first thing I noticed about Margaret Gould Stewart was that she speaks in a monosyllabic tone, which immediately made me think she was going to be boring or at the very least hard for me to follow. However that was not the case because once I began to listen I quickly realized the content of information she had to share was extremely interesting and timely.

Margaret Gould Stewart inspired the audience by speaking on a topic of interest that has touched or been introduced to each and every persons life in the audience. Even for those individuals who had never personally used YouTube they had at some point in time been exposed to a viral video from YouTube.

She spoke about how Sony detects when the public has illegally copied their music/video and how they go about determining whether there’s a match. She spoke about how Sony can detect this match regardless of how many different changes are made by the copier. This is true even when there is poor sound quality; if they use just a portion or have degraded audio or video quality. Sony does this every time a video is uploaded and they are able to detect it because they compare each upload against all the references in their database. They do this each and every time a video is uploaded to every website including YouTube, which is over 20 hours of video every minute. Upon finding a match, they compare over 100 years of video uploaded everyday, which, according to Stewart would be like 36k people staring at 36k monitors each and every day without so much as a coffee break.

The speaker overcame adversity by stating that instead of blocking the illegally copied video Sony, the rights owners, allows the copy because they may potentially benefit through additional sales. She then went ahead to speak about Chris Brown’s video “Forever” and how it dropped off the charts last year until a couple uploaded their wedding video using the song, which eighteen months later got over 40m additional views. Instead of Sony blocking it they put advertising on it and links from it to ITunes and the song went back to number four on the ITunes chart.

The speaker taught me how and why companies like Sony allow amateurs to borrow video and audio from them without blocking or causing a great ruckus. The Chris Brown video inspired over $20k to end domestic violence and the wedding dance became so popular it was parodied on a television show on NBC called, “The Office.” By allowing choice through rights identification Sony received additional sales revenue. It helped me realize that if I have content that is being uploaded by YouTube users I should register through the content id system so I can have the choice of how that content is used. It also helped me realize to think carefully about the policies I attach to that content because by blocking reuse I may be blocking new art forms; audiences and possibly revenue streams.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/margaret_stewart_how_youtube_thinks_about_copyright.html

Full Sail Universities Entertainment Master’s Degree Program

noreply@blogger.com (Nay James) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 22:20:00 +0000

Full Sail’s online Master’s degree is achieved through an accelerated program that is obtained within a twelve-month procession.

This blog is going to give an overview of the classes and the many skills obtained through participating in this online educational environment.

Following is a list of classes taken in sequential order from the beginning of the Master’s program until its conclusion:

Media Literacy and Research Methodologies is the first class taken within the Master’s program at Full Sail. This class, basically, gives the student an overview of how to master the online environment. It is also where students begin to learn how to research different media figures, companies, and create a review based on their research. Full Sail’s online environment is setup so students have assignments due on the same days each week. For example, since the week begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, students have discussion assignments due every Wednesday and 2-4 additional assignments are due by Sunday evening at 11:59 p.m. (eastern standard time).

During each week students have a plethora of activities to complete that include: eBook assignments, lectures to read, blog posts to enter, interviews to watch and also each week students are responsible for attending a Wimba session with Instructors that can be viewed live or on the archive. From the very beginning, Full Sail students know they are going to be extremely busy gaining their education. This class also teaches students how to juggle work, family responsibilities, and play. Students that attend Full Sail University are more than equipped to handle several irons in the fire at any given time.

Executive Leadership is the second class taken within the Master’s program at Full Sail. This class teaches students the correct way to go about making decisions. It gives students an outline to follow with regards how to go about making meaningful decisions “the first time.” It teaches different styles of leadership and gives definitive ways to measure success. Students are encouraged and taught many pieces of information during this class however the ones that stood out the most to me were to:

Show humility and do not be afraid to try it again.

Slow down and ask questions.

Not be afraid to operate at the edge of chaos.

To have a love of making decisions.

Ask but do not be afraid to listen.

Do not hesitate to get some help.

Let go of our ego.

Project and Team Management is the third class taken within the Master’s program at Full Sail. This class begins to prepare students for putting together their own business plan. How? By having each team of five or more work towards putting the pieces of a business plan together. Each team is given an RFP (request for proposal). The teams then answer the RFP by coming up with a fictitious name for their company, finding non-profit organizations to work with, locating investors and celebrities, scouting out locations and vendors for the event. The business plan is hands on and done in real-time in that students are required to actually make calls and find out prices and information regarding the non-profit and celebrities they would be working with.

Business Storytelling and Brand Development is the fourth class taken within the Master’s program at Full Sail. In this class students are required to focus on the brands of other companies and how they are marketed. Research is done on companies like Apple, Oprah and Microsoft. Students learn about brand identity and how important it is for a company’s brand to speak for what the company does. Students also learn how to market and advertise their companies through storytelling. One of the many ways that are researched is blogging.

Entertainment Business Finance is the fifth class taken within the Master’s program at Full Sail. In this class students learn how to put together, read, understand and use a pro forma, straight-line method, weighted average cost of capital, profitability index of investments, depreciation, amortization schedules, ROI (return on investment) and break-even analysis. Students begin researching top-level stars like Jay-Z and Madonna’s earnings and where they come from. Students’ even research one of the most popular ticketing agencies in world, Live Nation. Students at Full Sail learn to read, understand and use Yahoo Finance, the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500.

Negotiation and Deal-Making is the sixth class taken within the Master’s program at Full Sail. Students begin to research case studies of contract negotiations. Some of those researched are:

Conan O’Brien negotiates with NBC

Paula Abdul negotiates with “American Idol”

Lebron James negotiates with the Miami Heat

Students are given a current and actual case to study and negotiate. The negotiation process entails the students role-playing the parties involved in the case study and getting the best possible deal for all parties involved. This class teaches students to come out with a win-win instead of focusing on beating or coming out ahead of the other party. The class focuses more on developing lasting business relationships that allow the parties involved to benefit as equally as possible as this promotes those healthy types of interactions.

Product and Artist Management is the seventh class taken within the Master’s program at Full Sail. In this class students research artists and find something the artist is known for. For example, the singer Ne-Yo is known for wearing different styles of hats. When students find the artist that interests them they put together an investor pitch that includes financials that begin with startup capital and end with how much of a return the investor will get on his/her monies.

Advanced Entertainment Law is the eighth class taken within the Master’s program at Full Sail. This class takes students behind the scenes of the law and how it affects the artist as well as the management team. Students study, discuss and practice defending various companies and individuals in cases of intellectual property, endorsement contracts, trademark and copyright law, infringement, CAN-SPAM Act and many more. Students research court cases and discuss things that could have been avoided and are taught how to copyright and trademark business names and logos. During this course, students are also required to locate entertainment lawyers within their cities and interview them for their blog posting.

Entertainment Media Publishing and Distribution is the ninth class taken within the Master’s program at Full Sail. As in the other courses, students are extremely busy as they learn to put together treatments for television, movies and film. They practice writing query letters to shop their businesses; they contact and interview executives at television networks for their blogs and study digital and traditional ways of publishing and distributing their work. Lastly, students are taught how to protect their creative content from piracy.

Digital Marketing is the tenth class taken within the Master’s program at Full Sail. This class teaches students how to market themselves on and offline. Students learn how to make quick response codes (a.k.a. qr codes) for IPhones; how to track visitors to their blog; how to add Google sitemaps to their blogs and websites and add surveys and questionnaires to their sites for customer feedback. Students are encouraged to research companies similar to their own and check those company’s demographics, how many visitors they receive per day and how long the average visitor stays at their sites.

While in class, students researched videos that had gone viral and how and why they may have reached viral status. They researched blogs that had large followings and discussed why so many people were drawn to that particular site instead of others. Students were also required to put together complete digital marketing proposals listing outcomes and the different ways they would use to measure success.

Business Plan Development is the eleventh class taken within the Master’s program at Full Sail. During this class, students are developing their own business plans, which are unique to their businesses. Students use all their knowledge gained over the degree program and begin implementing it. This formal business plan is started and consists of the following main headings:

Executive Summary

Market Positioning Summary

The Marketing Plan

Operations

Financials

Technology

Products and Services

Accomplishments and

Appendix

Final Project: Business Plan is the twelfth class taken within the Master’s program at Full Sail. In the final class of the degree program, students put the finishing touches on their business plans. When students have completed the main and sub headings of the final business plan it consists of 25-30 pages and covers all information needed to assist the student in obtaining funding.

Once the business plan is complete students develop an elevator pitch, which teaches them to talk with someone in 30 seconds or less and give them a complete overview of their company and what it offers. Full Sail students are then encouraged to put together a Keynote or PowerPoint presentation that can be shown to potential investors along with an executive summary with each taking no more than 5-8 minutes of time.

In the final week of this course, students are required to complete a reflection assignment and write about all the courses and what was done in each, put together a final blog post that looks toward the future and elaborates on current and future trends within the entertainment and discuss any accomplishments or plans they have for the future.

With a hands-on curriculum like this, it is beyond doubt that Full Sail students are put in a position for success!

Experts Views on the Value of Business Plans Pt. 2

noreply@blogger.com (Nay James) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 22:48:00 +0000

One of the suggestions from Susan Ward I plan to incorporate in my business plan is making sure when I write it that it’s written with the investor in mind. For me, this means thinking of all the many details that need to be explained; considering the questions an investor might want to have answered and answering them within the body of the business plan. This will help me to keep the investor front and center in my mind when developing my plan. Following this suggestion will also help in paying more attention to detail and making sure I peruse my business plan with an eye for what may or may not be missing.

Another suggestion made by Ms. Ward that I plan to implement is that even though we write our business plans in the beginning when starting our business it is vital to the success of our businesses to re-write the plan as often as the business changes. As each goal of my business plan is met, I plan to re-write that portion/section outlining new goals and strategies that require implementation to propel the business to the next level of success.

Although originally feeling as though I would not utilize a business plan because of not looking for investors I know realize that the business plan can play a different role in the startup of my company. For example, as suggested by Ms. Ward, I now plan to use the business plan as a way of defining and testing the feasibility of my ideas. I know realize that by using it in this capacity it will help me plan out my thoughts and goals and save me a great deal of both time and money because it will allow me to see the disconnects within my thought process. Using the business plan in this respect will also assist me in visualizing where changes must be made. This will maintain I am moving forward in a positive direction instead of getting bogged down with nonsense.

I agree with the experts that have come before me when they say the most important section of my business plan to an investor will be the “Management Section.” I believe this to be true because my business will be a startup and it will be very important to any interested investor to see that I have the forethought to put all the right players together to successfully get the business off the ground and providing an income. This ensures the investor that they will have a good return on their investment. If the investor is happy then the investee will be happy too.

Experts Views on the Value of Business Plans

noreply@blogger.com (Nay James) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 01:44:00 +0000

Susan Ward is an expert who writes for www.about.com and has both her master and bachelor degrees in the field of education. Susan has been writing about business and business plans since the late 1990’s and has been published many times. She is a trained workshop presenter and has been fortunate enough to put together course materials that were used by school districts.

Susan encourages that when writing a business plan it should be prepared with an investor in mind. It is also her recommendation that as your company grows, over the years, so your business plan changes with it.

Susan states business plans are a definitive way of testing the feasibility of your idea. Writing the business plan out can save you a great deal of time and money because it will show disconnects within your thoughts. It will also help you to visually see where changes must be made. Writing out your business plan may help you realize it needs to be dumped, so you can move onto the next, before you get too far into it.

Susan believes the business plan gives your idea the best possible option for success because it will help you to cross your I’s and dot you T’s and stick to the written sequence of going forward with your business plans.

According to Susan, if capital is needed for the startup of your business, the plan is the only thing accepted and considered by financial institutions. Business plans also help attract investors. Putting the business plan in their hands will give them something to take away and peruse while making a financial determination.

MaryAnn Shank is also a business plan expert. MaryAnn has some advanced and edgy technological ideas of how to go about getting investors interested in your company.

According to MaryAnn her job was to sift through the many piles of unsolicited business plans sent in. She says out of them all she only chose 2-3%. MaryAnn said she looked for the ones that had that spark of inspiration, commitment and hint of true genius.

MaryAnn insists that writing a great business plan is the only option because a mediocre one just won’t do. With her 20+ years of experience, MaryAnn suggests putting together an online business plan. Yes, this means setting up a site specifically for your business with all the bells and whistles that calls for.

Bells and Whistles may potentially include:

1.Pages linked so potential investors can muddle through at his/her own leisure.

2. Maybe a sitemap to speed up browsing.

3. Graphics.

4. Videos showing your business in action.

5. Patents.

6. Introductions from some of your key people.

7. Short video introducing a strong advisory council/board.

8. Product; office; and staff photos.

9. Industry and local publication articles.

10. Testimonials

MaryAnn states that as the owner your number one job is to sell the product and what better way to show you are an expert at that than by taking the time to put it out there for them to see.

MaryAnn also takes into consideration that site logs will show when you’ve had a visitor enter his/her password thereby allowing to you make phone contact while the business plan is still fresh on their mind. This will also give you the opportunity to answer any questions they may have.

Although this may take quite a bit of time to put together it sounds as if it could be extremely profitable and definitely worth it in the long run.

I look forward to seeing you “WOW” investors with your online business plans.

Sources:

www.about.com

www.ezinearticles.com

Oprah's Social Media Engine

noreply@blogger.com (Nay James) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 00:06:00 +0000

The brand I am most interested in duplicating when it comes to social media marketing is Oprah. The reason I chose this brand is because its social media advertising answers questions related to what they are about, what they’ll be doing next and how to contact them (the places/channels they can be found.)

Oprah’s online presence seizes your attention with a succinct message that builds expectation and encourages visitors to pause, read and take some action for more detailed information.

When it comes to having a good online presence many things must be evaluated. Such as:

1. Have you conveyed how people can get in contact with you?

2. Is your mission statement displayed letting people know what you do and why?

3. Are benefits displayed through product, service or trustworthy information?

Oprah does all these things superbly through the utilization of many social media options including video, blog, forum and tweets.

Towards the end of 2010, Oprah announced the end to the “Oprah Winfrey Show” and the beginning of a television network affectionately called OWN. Oprah’s new television network, OWN, promised to tie the knot between traditional and social media in a way that would motivate and initiate people having a say in what is viewed on television.

Over the last couple of years, it has been exciting to watch Oprah. She has been able to leave her life in front of the camera and take a behind the scenes roll. During this time, she has been keeping her fans happy by continuing to keep them updated on goings-on with Harpo Studios thereby ensuring we are on the edge of our seats watching what and how she does the next “big” thing. For anyone that goes to her site, they are going to stay and visit for a while because there are so many interesting things to read, watch, write and listen to.

There is nothing I would change because from what I have seen she is well on her way to OWN success as long as she continues to engage audiences with more than the occasional social media tweet.

Digital Technology and Television

noreply@blogger.com (Nay James) — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 19:28:00 +0000

The digital landscape has become a major influence in the television and film industry. In many instances, digital technology has helped marketers increase their return on investment by helping them improve spending and advertising effectiveness, customer experiences and leads on Internet, television and mobile channels.

Digital technology has allowed us to combine reaching mass media with reaching its targeted market and many times this is done in real-time. This has resulted in being able to target well-defined, large scale audiences in many ways utilizing very personalized content. We experience this personalized service through many social media outlets, for example, Facebook, Myspace and LinkedIn.

Because of inputting personal information into these sites, companies are able to offer this personalized ad experience. What comes to mind is use of television site, Hulu. Hulu tracks our use and online preferences in a way that enables them to offer a very personalized advertising environment.

While displaying ads, Hulu asks your preferences on the top of the screen asking if you like or dislike the ad experience. If you click “like,” Hulu keeps track of the response and will offer more advertisements along those same lines providing us with advertisements that interest and enable us to see things that truly apply to our personalized interests and everyday.

This type of advertising is good for both advertisers and viewers alike. This type of advertising also has the potential of promoting lower costs and improving the targeting of ad spots. Having the right targeting tools allows us to have both an informative and seamless television experience.

With this type of television marketing we can potentially:

1. Determine the demography of our audience. This includes not only age and income but interests as well.

2. Search for programs that match interests of our target audience.

3. Only market during the time our audience is watching television and only to the station they are watching.

4. Know how many watched our ads, and when and what they did to get to the site.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcRld4BRg2M