The myopia of the Valley

Robert Scoble just rips apart the NewTeeVee conference as missing the boat. And, while he might have a few points on his list of 40 ... he forgets the audience, those that are going to come to the conference.

Is the audience for this conference the more advanced veterans, or is it for the new audiences (and, well, corporations) that are trying to figure out (still) what to do in all this new media, including the NewTeeVee world?

The post, in essence, was written for the Valley bloggers and vidcasters, but not the rest of the country. This past week was the Forrest Consumer Forum in Chicago - almost every new media person should have been there (including PR firms and advertising firms) and see what is understood and what is not understood by companies that are trying to get social and new media. If you want a better take, check out the Forrester Blog for the conference, Jeremiah Owyang' blog, what the blogosphere said, or even my posts - it showcases what is and is not clicking out there, and how companies are and are not getting it, but still trying.

We can sometimes forget that when we are in the Valley (or, well, why I am in Chicago right now, and looking beyond the Valley community to others).

For me, the NewTeeVee conference schedule looks great. When I was at a firm, I'd recommend it to clients that are trying to get a handle on what is going on out there, as well as clients that tangentially touch upon online video.

But, before we rush off to commend a company like Kyte.tv - a UGC channel that speaks very little to me, as I primarily love my television programming. And, before the Valley goes nuts over that one ... read your own Twitters on Heroes or Battlestar Gallactica or any other hot show right now. We can all pretend to be too cool for old media ... but are still there for certain instances of appointment television.

And, that's what we need to remember in the Bay - those cheesy flyover states have a lot of power and a lot of pull. And, they are the hardcore communities we are trying to reach and get to use our stuff.
Comments
8 comments
  1. Jeremy: even you, in this post, are thinking too US centric. Kyte is aimed at Europe and Asia where most people use mobile phones, not PCs. Go to my Kyte channel today and see why that's important.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hee - never been accused of being overly-US centric, but that works. I like Joost because it has great content, real content, that I cannot find anywhere else. And, I am still slightly bullish.

    I get the video upload, mobile phone part of it - but do people really want to watch that much UGC? What's popular on YouTube - UGC or, well, content taken from professionally produced sources?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for introducing yourself. I really like your posts - helping me see the conversations going on out there. You guys who have been in this for awhile are probably bored with the same topics again and again, but, for newbies like me, they definately help.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Teri. That's my point - it's not for the old people, but for the newbies.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jeremy,
    Thank you for your critical post. It's always good to face another opinion.

    Kyte.tv never aimed to 'replace' traditional TV. professional productions will always exist.
    Even I do watch TV every once in a while.

    Please let me answer your question that was:
    "but do people really want to watch that much UGC?"

    kyte.tv satisfies different benefits than professional TV productions do:

    1st benefit
    Private usage!

    You are right, most of kyte.tv's channels won't be appealing to the masses!
    However, it's very appealing to your friends and your family, or readers of your blog.
    Take me as an example, I am working in San Francisco, my origin however is Switzerland.
    Through kyte.tv, my Family & Friends can always follow what I am up to. They can see videos, pictures etc. on my kyte.tv that is embedded on my blog.
    They can participate my life, even live when they catch me producing a lifestream from my mobile!
    They can see what concert I am watching, or where I am skiing or, as just happend, how my new apt. looks like!
    This kind of UGC is not relevant to you, but this is really relevant content to them!

    2nd benefit:
    Additional content for fans of professional TV shows!

    Imagine, how cool it was if you could watch & chat about 'behind the scene content'. You could exchange with other addicted people about what's going on in the next episode!
    Kyte.tv is a perfect enabler for something like this.

    3rd benefit
    Community management!

    (Semi)-Professional Artists such as musician could deliver additional content to their fans. Imagine, how cool it was for a fan of a big rapper, to see how it looks like behind the scene?
    Even cooler, when you could catch this famous musician in a chat!
    All this fosters your stickiness.

    I could tell you even more benefits...

    Please let me know what you think!

    Also, I would like to invite you for a personal demo!
    Let me know, simply send an email to feedback (at) kyte (dot) tv

    Cheers,

    Marius

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Marius,

    I don't deny the value of Kyte.tv; it was a response to Scoble's comparison to Joost. You cannot compare the two, as they are vastly different.

    ReplyDelete
  7. this is very intresting article!

    ReplyDelete
  8. "Thank you for your critical post. It's always good to face another opinion. " - this is very good opinion.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment