YouTube Becomes Big Business

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It's one of those hoary old sayings – it's been around for maybe two whole years now – that while the Geezer Generation of passive consumers watched network TV, the Net Generation of cool participators go on YouTube and do their creative teenage thing. But it's no longer either/or. A few recent milestones highlight how YouTube is changing.

First, Avril Lavigne pipped a homegrown video to be first to 100 million viewers and now "six of the 10 most-watched videos of all time are straight music videos."

Second, CBS has reached an agreement with Google to show full-length TV shows on YouTube.

Third, Tina Fey's Sarah Palin sketches for Saturday Night Live have been watched more times on the Internet than on TV. Says the Associated Press:

There were 10.2 million people watching the season-opening "Saturday Night Live" when Fey first appeared as Palin, with Amy Poehler portraying Hillary Clinton, according to Nielsen Media Research. These days, that's a good-sized audience for prime-time, let alone late-night, TV.
Another 1.2 million people captured the episode on their DVRs and watched within the week. Through the middle of last week, NBC estimated that it had streamed the skit … Continue reading

How Long Will This Post Survive?

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Will this post still be here on November 1, 2008? Definitely. I'm not going to remove it and I don't see anyone else doing so.

Will it be here on November 1, 3008? Surely not.

So how long will be here? My guess is about 10 years but I'd be interested in your guesses too. 

When it goes, how will it go? The most likely cause of deletion is that I stop blogging and Six Apart deletes my blog. Right now I pay them $5 per month for hosting this blog, and if I stop paying them they say "After cancellation, you will no longer have access to your website and all information contained
therein may be deleted by Six Apart. " I would guess that I'm unlikely to want to blog for more than a few years. I've been doing it for — pause for quick look up — nearly three years, and regular readers will know I have to pause for breath even now. I don't think this post exists anywhere else; a search for whimsley on the wayback machine shows nothing, so that would be it.

Do Six Apart actually go round deleting the blogs … Continue reading

WikiBollocks: Tapscott DigiDemocracy Hype Shock Horror

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Don Tapscott gets it all wrong about  the "Net Generation": 

[T]he new generation is turning into a political juggernaut that will dominate and change U.S. politics in the future. ..  They have at their fingertips the most powerful tool for informing, organizing and mobilizing. What's more, they know how to use it effectively, by communicating directly with each other, instead of waiting for orders from campaign headquarters.
And they won't settle for politics as usual. Having grown up digital, they will want to be involved in the act of governing by contributing ideas before decisions are made. What's more, they'll insist on integrity from politicians; if politicians say one thing and do another, they'll use their digital tools to find out, and spread the news.
Along with possibly being a decisive factor on Nov. 4, afterward they'll shake up the business of government. No matter who wins, the new president will have a tiger by the tail.

Lots of young people are voting for Obama & Young people use the Internet => The Net is giving rise to a new era of participation and blah blah blah.

If he had waited a day and watched the Canadian results he … Continue reading

Blogging for the Man

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I recently volunteered for extra work for no extra pay, so my day job now includes blogging. Not interesting to most people who read this, or indeed to anyone not intrigued by the mysteries of BlackBerry programming or data synchronization with the occasional smartphone-market comment thrown in. But it's here anyway.

And for more compulsive volunteering, you can watch my attempt to get people to vote for the admirable Cindy Jacobsen as our local candidate in the Canadian election here.

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Letter to the Globe and Mail

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Dear Editor,

On today's front page we learn about the sad killing of a Canadian soldier in Afghanistan, with a poignant photograph and personal stories. 

On page A13 a single small paragraph in the "In Brief" section tells us that NATO forces killed two Afghan civilians. There are no names, no pictures. Not even the age or gender of the victims.

Tom Slee

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