NY Video 2.0 has grown to over 1,500 members and 500 are expected to attend Monday’s presentations when five start-ups each get five minutes of stage time to wow the audience. Some Video 2.0 presenters have become successful, some have disappeared (it would be nice to re-visit some past presenters to see how they have fared).

More “money people” are attending these meetings and the web video space is maturing. I’d like to see interactive, highly visual presentations that showcase the best talent and technology that New York has to offer.

Monday, May 19, 2008 at 6:30 pm

Hilton - New York
1335 6the avenue, Murray Hill Room
New York , NY 10019

Presenters:

• EkkoTV - Andrew Sternthal, Co-Founder & CEO
• Vusion - Grover Righter, VP Marketing
• BestTV - Oded Felled, Founder & VP BD
• Magnify.net - Steven Rosenbaum, Founder & CEO
• Adotube - Joshua Winograd, Chief Revenue Officer

Sponsored by Level3, Sunshine Suites. Co-hosted by Streaming Media East 

Related stories:

• NY Video 2.0 Comes Of Age, April 1, 2008 PRBlogNews
• NY Video 2.0 Finds the Perfect Venue, January 30, 2008, PRBlogNews

Loren is having big success with his new puppets. He moved quickly from Shel Israel to a hippie drippy paranoid Dave Winer, to an overzealous uber geekoid Robert Scoble.  He’s shooting impromptu videos and bunking with Jason McCabe Calacanis and Mike Arrington but the new standard of A-List social media cache eludes those two icons - they still don’t have puppets representing them on 1938Media.  

So, why would we possibly pay for 1938Media videos that we have grown accustomed to seeing for free? Three reasons off the top of my head:

1. Loren needs the money. There has to be some way to monetize this creative font that amuses so many of us. I pay 99 cents for a bag of potato chips. Loren is worth that. Would that be ‘per-video’ or a time subscription?
2. Support the puppets. Hey, the Shel Israel puppet is probably doing better than the real Shel right now. If I was Larry Ellison I would give the puppet stock options and sign him to a non-compete. Does that puppet have an agent?
3. Let’s go off the deep end. How far would Loren go if he was behind a walled garden? I’ll pay to see the really good stuff … and it doesn’t have to be “Geeks Gone Wild.”

I spend a lot of time these days tripping around the incredibly rich and diverse New York theatre scene. Still, I flip on Jason’s Place just for kicks sometimes and think, wow, now this is entertainment. The web is desperately hungry for good, original content. There must be a way to encourage that with a little moolah.

But NY1 never grabbed the essence of the news in New York.  After 12 years NY1 still seems like a quaint experiment and “quaint” is not how you want to characterize New York news. The days of Weegee scrambling after curbside shootings may be over but this is New York - we need some outsized personality with our news, especially in the digital age when TV viewership is shrinking.

Well, NBC has announced that it is launching a 24 hour cable TV station devoted to New York news. The bigger news behind that announcement is how they intend to do it.

From NYTimes: “NBC’s plan calls for rebuilding Channel 4’s newsroom and melding its content closely with the new channel, as well as an existing locally oriented Web site and video displayed in places like gas pumps and taxi back seats. NBC will even take WNBC’s name off the Web site, wnbc.com, simply calling it NBC New York. Local news will still be shown on Channel 4.

The reason for the this “content-centric” approach is simple: we are getting more and more of our information from a variety of sources - for the first time people are getting more of their news from the web than from print or television.

This trend will continue and accelerate, and it radically changes the dynamic of how public relations services are conceived, packaged and delivered.

Related News: Bloomberg LLP plans expansion of news services. Norman Pearlstine, former top editor of Time Inc. and The Wall Street Journal,  joins Bloomberg as Chief Content Officer.

Rough day? Put it in perspective. The day before he was assassinated Martin Luther King gave a speech in which you are certain he knows he will be killed shortly. You can see it in his eyes, hear it in his voice, he carries it in his body. He’s been to the mountaintop, seen the promised land, he is ready to be taken.

The next day Robert Kennedy has to deliver the news of Martin Luther King’s death to an audience in Indianapolis. He quotes his favorite poet, Escalus, recounts the death of his brother, and asks for understanding, love and compassion between all people.

See videos of MLK & RFK and the rest of the story in MLK & RFK Brothers in battle

Today, I received the following comment on that post, a testimony to random acts of kindness and the long tail of the blogosphere. In the post I quote Escalus.

Thanks for posting this brief and thoughtful summary. It seems every year NPR posts a reminder of these brave acts and a search on Escalus brought me here.

Trickster Makes This World may be the Koran of the PR business but Slikstr mocks the web 2.0 phenom with such aplomb that it took a while to figure out it was a big goof on social media. A “customer generated company” looking to raise $2 million in backing, with a vague business plan and a slick video pitch - seemed real enough. To spoof without insulting is a talent that escapes many of us, including some in the audience who nervously laughed when they realized the joke was them - all of us really.

Matt Feldman of neovids.tv presented Slikstr like Philip Marlowe if he was 20 years younger, born 50 years later, and was determined to be a macher in the space where the web and video and entertainment converge - the space we would all like to live in.  

Slikstr has positioned itself as the world’s first user-created and -controlled company in the world and, as such, is poised to usher in a new generation of web-related businesses. - from the Slikstr business plan

The question is - can you make money in that coveted video-web-entertainment triangle? Consider Damon Wayans’ big move to web TV and his belief that Hollywood-caliber talent has a big growing market on the web.  He calls “his legacy” Wayout TV, a multiplatform production company that has been incubating shows for the internet. (See Madison + Vine story).

Update:  http://nyvideo.org  is now a portal to the Meetup site, the Ning has been deactivated.

RELATED: Jan 30, 2008 PRBlogNews: NYC Video 2.0 Finds the Perfect Venue

- photos of Webster Hall by Mark Rose

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Well, Loren Feldman, who has been unmercifully and hilariously mocking Shel on 1938Media for the past two weeks now owns ShelIsrael. And he’s replaced him with a puppet. Not surprisingly, the puppet of Shel is much more entertaining than Shel himself. In fact, I was on the floor, on my side, gasping from uncontrolled laughter watching the video below.  Shel finally found his purpose in web 2.0 - he is the inspiration for great video theatrical parody.

I have to say that what has disturbed me most about Shel is that he is one of the most notable instigators of the mealy pseudo British term kerfuffle which, in Brooklyn terms, means ‘kick in the balls’ but in polite British circles might mean ‘how dare you drop a cookie in my tea.’

YouTube Directvideo link

What is really funny is that now Feldman owns shel@shelisrael.com and someone named ShelMaster was been imitating the real Shel Israel, leaving comments on 1938Media, threatening retaliation, although he links back to ShelIsrael.com. The pupeteering of Shel Israel.

The catalyst for this sudden rise in Shel Israel mockery is the launch of the new dreadful attempt by Fast Company to enter new media with Israel as old wheezing geezer. How long before they pull the plug on Global Neighborhoods  or do we really have to survive weeks of a thrilling series on “PR measurement”?

The Life Aquatic with Shel Israel

YouTube Directvideo link

SPECIAL BONUS VIDEO

Shel Israel Interviews the Construction Worker in the Village People

YouTube Directvideo link

See PRBlogNews post on last meeting: NYC Video 2.0 finds perfect venue.

March Demos:
CBS Interactive - Sean Tice, Web Producer
PermissionTV - John Zahner, Senior Vice President
SeeToo - Yoav Ilan, Co-Founder
Review Basics - Mike Grushin, Partner, CTO
NeoVids.tv - Matthew Feldman, Co-Founder & Producer

When?
Thursday, Mar 27, 2008, 7:00 PM

Obama bounces, Hillary flattens.

Retired Gen. Tony McPeak, an Obama surrogate, compared Bill Clinton to Joe McCarthy at a rally in Portland, Oregon. James Carville said the Richardson endorsement of Obama “came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out for 30 pieces of silver.” More incoming every day as McCain acts Presidential in jaunts around Europe and Middle East with the ever-fawning Joe Lieberman at his side as Clinton-Obama turns into a rock-em-sock-em bare knuckles fight to the finish. 

Hang the PR Guy That’s what former Governor Eliot Spitzer tried to do when we first reported on “TrooperGate” last August in the PRBlogNews post Free Darren Dopp - NY Gov Flack Takes Fall. According to a NY Times story released this evening Spitzer was deeply involved in trying to discredit New York State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and he expected to sacrifice his PR guy to investigators. “Dopp is suffering for Spitzer’s sins. The Flack is not that expendable, and loyalty is not that cheap,” we wrote last August.  The incident was an early indicator that Spitzer was out of control - a “spoiled brat” as Bruno referred to him.

Peter Shankman gets coverage for himself in The New York Times (“In Helping Journalists, a Publicist Helps Himself”) by plugging reporters into his growing network of sources. See the newly launched HelpAReporter (could this put ProfNet out of business?).

Loren Feldman has the killer instinct, with a playful edge. When he gets hold of Jason McCabe Calacanis or Robert Scoble or Juila Alison or Seesmic he’s like a cat with a mouse. He likes to play around with his prey before administering the coup de grâce.  Poor Shel Israel. He probably thought he had a nice gig with Fast Company interviewing web 2.o marginal celebs. See video below for Loren’s first shot at Shel and Fast Company and see 1938Media for hilarious follow-ups including “Fast Company Puppet Theater.”

YouTube Directvideo link

(more…)

There is one big difference: Digital communications and new media have opened up new distribution channels for PR and require a new set of skills from savvy PR people. Clients are beginning to realize the powerful ROI possible through creative online communication programs. Online communications is redefining the PR industry. Traditionalists, bigger agencies tied to old methods and operations, will suffer greater during a recession 

WPP is trying to cash in on the PR 2.0 move. WPP is listed in Wikipedia as “one of the world’s largest communications services groups.” Among WPP’s PR holdings are Hill and Knowlton, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, Burson-Marsteller and Cohn & Wolfe.

Sir Martin Sorrell (left, with finger raised), CEO of WPP,  singled out the positive impact “new technologies” are having on WPP’s public relations operations, due to increased demand from clients for “editorial publicity through fast-growing new applications of new technology such as MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, Flickr and Wikipedia,” Sir Martin wrote in his year-end update for shareholders.

Huh? Editorial publicity to Wikipedia? I thought Wikipedia was supposed to be an accurate, objective source for information, not a malleable online flack catcher. 

Anyway, Sir Martin is following the money. Traditional public relations practices can be more time-consuming and less effective than digital PR that takes control of the creation, packaging and distribution of news and information. Distribution is the key. With the Internet distribution is free and only limited by your imagination. It takes time (billable hours) but there is no barrier to entry into the global info marketplace.

During a recession maximum value-added becomes becomes the prime motivator in the engagement of services - especially a service as intangible as public relations. 

Related, see: Media, Interactive Services Propel WPP Growth: Social Nets Prove A Boon For PR, Not Advertising from Online Media Daily.