Friday, February 26, 2010

Happy 100th Birthday to the Boy Scouts

Congratulations to America's Boy Scouts, a wonderful American Institution.

John W. Scherer
Video Professor, Inc.
Reach me at ceo@videoprofessor.com or follow me on Twitter: @VidProf.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Got Mobile? The video floodgates are about to burst.

I’m going to do my best to translate tech talk to people talk as I comment on some research released by the folks at Cisco. You can read it here, which has an additional link to more tech info.


The bottom line is, according to writer Sarah Perez, is not that the mobile web has a future but just how big is that future. It appears to be huge. (Not that there was any doubt as one person who posted about the article noted.)

Traffic on portable devices increased 160% in the past year alone and according to the Cisco study is expected to increase 39 fold by 2014.

We are becoming a nation of big screens at home, and small screens on the go. But wherever we go, we want content on demand.

All this is getting noticed by consumers because it’s win-win for them. More and more mobile devices, PDA’s and iPad-like devices will be flooding store shelves in the big box stores. Competition is good for consumers.

But those of us who market everything from computer lessons to car parts are already making use of this new and rapidly growing pipeline. The biggest demand will be for mobile video and this isn’t just here in the United States. The demand is world wide.

Nations like Iran and China are working hard to “narrow” the pipeline and what comes through it. But technology will trump ideology.

That’s a good thing.

-John

John W. Scherer
John is CEO and Founder of Video Professor, Inc.
Share your thoughts and ideas with John at ceo@videoprofessor.com
Follow me on Twitter: @VidProf

Monday, February 15, 2010

Teens Text, We Tweet.

The folks over at the Pew Internet and Life Project have been studying how we communicate on Web 2.0.


They found some interesting facts. I wasn’t surprised that communicating online is a multi-generation thing these days, but there are generational differences in how we do it.

What Pew found:

• Teens tend to text while older generations are more likely to use Twitter®.

• Blogging is on the decline for those under 30, but people over 30 are blogging more. Blogs are popular in business, hence mine each week.

• Sites like Facebook® remain popular with the younger generation but more and more “Boomers” are connecting on Facebook as well.

All of the above remain a work in progress. There are no experts as we’re inventing all this together as we go along.

Regardless of method, wireless interconnectivity is growing and will continue to grow. There are many ways to do so and different sites ranging from Facebook to Twitter to LinkedIn® offer young and old alike ways to catch up, make new friends and even market themselves or products.

I came across an interesting description of Social Media Networks from Mike Hanbery of Hanbery & Hanbery, ) a Denver-based marketing firm. Mike posts,

“The Office, The Water Cooler and The Bar: A Tale of Three Social Networks

Here’s a real easy way to think about the cultures of the “big three” Internet social networks: LinkedIn is the office, Facebook the water cooler, Twitter the bar after work. Source: Swift Kick Blog.

A pretty good description if you ask me. (He posted this on Facebook by the way.)

Remember that famous line from the movie “Cool Hand Luke?” The boss of the prison camp says to Luke (played magnificently by Paul Neuman,) “What we’ve got here, is failure to communicate.”

They didn’t have PDA’s back then. Not that ole Luke likely would have used one.

As always, a word to the wise: Once you post something via Twitter, Facebook or whatever, it’s out there. Forever. The good thing about the ‘Net is everyone has access to it. The bad thing about the ‘Net is everyone has access to it.

Look both ways before you cross the digital highway.

-John
John W. Scherer
John is CEO & Founder of Video Professor, Inc.
You can reach him at ceo@videoprofessor.com.

Monday, February 08, 2010

Should Super Bowl be a Saturday Night Special?

Another Super Bowl is over, and millions of bleary-eyed people are showing up for work this morning, if they haven’t called in sick. But congrats to the Saints who've gone from "Who Dat?" to "We Dat!"


Super Sunday. Eat, drink and be merry. Not so good on Monday. I wonder if anyone has done any productivity, or lack thereof, studies about work the day after the Super Bowl. I did hear one analyst on the radio say this morning the cost is in the millions.

I was listening to Mike & Mike in the Morning on ESPN before the game, and they raised the idea about moving the Super Bowl to Saturday night. It seems to make a lot of sense. Let’s be honest, people party hearty during the game; it’s become a tradition. An unofficial national holiday.

I think a Saturday night game would actually be good for both fans and the teams. Certainly sports bars would get better business if people had the next day to recover. (Remember, always bring a designated driver.)

Long as I’m on the subject, do we really need a four-hour pre-game show? It’s not like there hasn’t been wall-to-wall coverage the weeks(s) leading up to the game.

So that’s my idea. Shorter is better for the pre-game and let’s make the Super Bowl a Saturday Night Special.

Sunday you can sleep in, or better yet, go to church and ask for forgiveness for over-indulging the night before!

I’m just sayin’ …

John
John W. Scherer
John is CEO & Founder of Video Professor, Inc.
You can reach him at ceo@videoprofessor.com.

Monday, February 01, 2010

NASA, Inc?

We have a magazine exchange here at Video Professor. Once someone has read a magazine, instead of tossing it, they share it.


Digging through the box, I found and read the January 2010 edition of Popular Science. The cover story dealt with the commercialization of space travel.

Several companies led by Richard Branson, uber entrepreneur, and Burt Rutan are offering commercial space travel. Still pricey but the line for flights is a long one.

Meanwhile, NASA fiddles and faddles. NASA is a bad mix of politics and science. As said in the movie “The Right Stuff,” “No bucks, no Buck Rogers.” There also seems to be no direction or definitive goals set for the agency either.

Commercial space vendors are soaring while NASA is running out of shuttles and ideas. Soon we’ll be hitching a ride with the Russians just to get to the space station.

If you have a spare $25 million or so lying around, the Russians will actually fly you to the space station. Not so with NASA. Heaven forbid they actually try and make money from space.

The commercialization of space is nothing new, and it’s creating international partnerships. The television programs you watch are transmitted from satellites launched, in many cases, on American Atlas-Centaur booster packages with Russian Proton motors. Many commercial rockets are transported to Cape Canaveral aboard Russian-designed Antonov AN-124s (think the C-5A Galaxy on steroids) flown by a Ukrainian air transport company.

Do you believe the Cold War is over?

The bottom line is that if you have the cash, you can go into orbit.

Is it time to turn over the space program to private enterprise or for NASA to operate as a for-profit entity? Just think what Apple® or Google™ would be willing to pay to have their logo on the shuttle.

Competition means progress. Competition produces results. Free enterprise does the best job of it.

Space isn’t just for Buck Rogers anymore. It’s for anyone with the bucks to get there. The list grows every day.

John
John W. Scherer
John is CEO & Founder of Video Professor, Inc.
You can reach him at ceo@videoprofessor.com.