General purpose productivity tool
I admit I’m a Getting Things Done practitioner. A couple of years ago, while finishing up grad school, trying to get Kingpin back in gear and Xprove off the ground, I picked up David Allen’s book. Juggling all that while finishing up construction on the house and playing the role of Mr. mom as my wife concluded her studies, I was desperate to get more organized. But I didn’t think I wanted to join the GTD cults of 43 folders and Life Hack. Seriously, these people write as though getting organized in an end unto itself instead of a means to a saner existence.
For a guy like me who kept my weekly calendar on Post-Its under the monitor, and not seen the floor of my office beneath the piles of folders, papers, and tapes, GTD is kind of freaky in its adherence to order. There’s a very very fine line between OCD and GTD. Yet I’ve been able to make it work for me. I’ll admit that I don’t always clear my inbox every day, and when something lands in the “Sometime” folder it’s the professional equivalent of “I had a great time. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
After two years, I’ll never go back to the messy, disorganized office. I no longer fret over possibly forgotten tasks.
The only shortcoming of the GTD system for me has been that I’ve never been able to find the right software tool on the Mac to implement Allen’s system. There are a few hacks out there, but nothing simple and intuitive enough for me to choose over Allen’s paper and folder system – until now. OmniGroup has released a public beta of OmniFocus. Give it a try.
Avid to unveil new strategy, bails on NAB
Of course it’s not news anymore. Avid’s forgoing the 2008 NAB show floor. The full announcement is here.
The company said it would reveal the full details of its 2008 [strategic] plan to the public in February, which will set the stage for a blitz of new user-community initiatives, technical support programs, highly-personalized events, and innovative product announcements throughout the year.
Like other frequent NAB attendees, I found the palace intrigue surrounding the decision more interesting than the actual decision. And the palace intrigue wasn’t really that interesting. I won’t miss Avid on the show floor, and don’t know anyone who will. I can’t remember the last time I actually learned something new at the booth without buttonholing an Avid exec. Booth demos are merely musical versions of the press release.
For two years in a row, the typical attendee could sit through the complete Interplay demo and have no idea what value Interplay would bring to his or her organization. Like the Popeil Pocket Fisherman or a set of Ginsu knives, Interplay seemed to solve all problems but no one knew how.
Most of what Avid does well doesn’t lend itself to simple explanations against the cacophony of the NAB show floor. 2006 attendees’ ears are still ringing from the at first catchy, then quickly irritating cover of “What a Wonderful World” Apple used in 2006 that drowned out every conversation in Nevada.
That an attendee remembers the soundtrack, but not the plot says that maybe NAB has outlived its usefulness as learning environment. Maybe Avid’s ahead of the curve.
If Avid uses the resources spent on NAB to develop better products and establish better relationships with its customers, it’s a good move. If it’s merely a cost-cutting maneuver that brings customers an off-Broadway version of the Vegas show, then it’s a wash.
There are risks to this approach.
- When you’re not at the party the other guests are given the opportunity to explain your absence. We’ve already heard folks declaring this move as a harbinger of Avid’s exit from the NLE business. In light of Final Cut Studio’s recent success, it’s easy to believe Avid might be throwing in the towel. Had Avid done this two years ago, or waited until it had regained some momentum in the NLE space, this move would be easier to peddle to the masses.
- NAB is expensive and Avid appeared to spend more there than anyone except Sony. To some this will lead to speculation that Avid’s running out of cash. Many are speculating the company is up for sale. (I’m not. Word on the street is that a group of investors wanted to take the company private earlier this year. If the company was on the block, more would have come of those attempts.)
- Avid might appear less interested, not more interested, in connecting with customers. As Apple continues to push its message of democratization of the means of production, smaller Avid customers may be lured to Final Cut.
It’s a high risk strategy, but now is a time for bold moves by Avid. If it can gets its story out more effectively with roadshows, and if it can divert engineering resources away from the annual artificial NAB deadline to allow for more reasonable development cycles, this could be a great move. Otherwise, it’s just window dressing.
It’s going to take more than improved communication regain momentum for Avid. The total marketing approach needs to be revisited. Pricing strategy needs to be re-examined. While Media Composer can command a premium, it’s not a $4,995 value for enough facilities to justify the price. Adding to Avid’s marketing challenges, Composer’s hobbled sibling, Xpress Pro doesn’t match up as well against Final Cut Studio in a battle of the bullet points.
The line needs to be simplified. Avid must find a way to get Media Composer in the hands of independents. One solution would be to sell Composer’s high-end features a la carte possibly lower the base price of Composer to somewhere around $1,500, sell Animatte, ScriptSync, and other specialty features separately. A full studio solution needs to be developed. Adobe’s phone should be ringing. After Effects and Encore run on both Mac OS and Windows. A little bit of metadata exchange can go a long way towards generating some buzz.
User-generated is so yesterday
Another buzzword bites the dust. Business Week’s Catherine Holahan has a nice piece on the trend away from user-generated to professionally produced web video content. Go figure. Folks would rather watch Jon Stewart than cats on toilets. Put that way it seems like stating the obvious, but there are companies learning the hard way.
One after another, online video sites that have long showcased such fare as skateboarding dogs and beer-drenched parties are scaling back their focus on user-generated clips, often in favor of professionally produced programming. “People would rather watch content that has production value than watch their neighbors in the garage,” says Matt Sanchez, co-founder and chief executive of VideoEgg.
Like the early days of desktop publishing, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Craft still matters. Just follow the money. Does American Express really want its ad seen next to this?
Professional content grabs significantly more [advertising] money. Blinkx’s Chandratillake says advertisers will pay $60-plus per 1,000 views to incorporate their ads alongside professional video content. They’ll pay around $7 to associate with user-generated videos, depending on the piece. And some brands have shunned user-generated video outright for fear of being unwittingly associated with videos that make their brands look bad.
It won’t be long until the social networking craze is debunked. You know things have gotten out of hand when Pepperidge Farm gets into the social networking scene. Someone, apparently with a straight face sold the company on the “Connecting Through Cookies” concept. From today’s NY Times article:
The campaign, with a budget of $2 million to $3 million, includes a public relations initiative, a survey of American women on the topic of friendship and print advertising.
The campaign is indicative of the efforts being made by mainstream marketers to take advantage of the growing ardor among consumers for online social networking.
Now I realize that $3 million in pocket change to Cambell’s Soup, but you really have to wonder who’s minding the store in the marketing department. Pepperidge Farm engaged the services of Sally Horchow, co-author of “The Art of Friendship.”
To curry favor with consumers, “brands are realizing they have to do a lot more than making something that tastes good,” [Horchow] added. “Connecting on a personal level with people makes your life better.”
Read it again. Aside from the fact that brands don’t realize anything, this has got to be crazier than anything anyone said with a straight face during the dot-com years. No, folks… Pepperidge Farm makes cookies. All they have to do is taste good. No one yearns for a social experience from their Mint Milanos.
Facebook, MySpace, and Art of the Cookie… take cover, the social networking bubble is overdue to burst.
Adobe CEO steps down
From the Wall Street Journal:
Adobe Systems Inc. announced a surprise change to its top leadership at a critical time, as the software maker begins to adapt to new ways that people are using the Web.
The company yesterday said Chief Executive Bruce Chizen will leave the post at the end of this month, to be replaced Dec. 1 by Shantanu Narayen, currently Adobe’s president and chief operating officer. Mr. Chizen will serve the rest of his term on Adobe’s board until the spring of 2008 and will act as an adviser to the company until Nov. 28, 2008.
The group think is that the change in leadership is a sign Adobe is trying to speed its migration from shrink wrap to web apps. As video applications and content are among the most bandwidth and resource intensive, we’ll be among the last to see the fruits of such an endeavor.
IPTV delays continue
Nice piece on Businessweek.com, I Want My ITV. Nothing in it is earth shaking to video pros, but it’s a nice roundup of the main characters – cable, broadcast, TiVo, and the studios – along with some mention and explanation of Apple TV and Amazon’s Unbox.
Want to know why IPTV is unknown to the masses? The answer’s in the numbers.
But what’s holding up the transition from network TV to networked TV is that any company with a little piece of control in the way things work today is unwilling to jeopardize its power and revenues until it becomes clear how the new model will pay. Every time you hear about some product that sounds great but just has one strange limitation, follow the money to understand why. Hollywood worries digital downloads could lead consumers to stop buying $24 billion of DVDs annually, and broadcasters are nervous about the fate of the $185 billion-per-year TV advertising kitty. So studios and networks alike limit how long programs are available on Web sites or restrict the shows that play on various devices.
With that much money on the line, it’s no surprise players are moving slowly. There’s more to the story, though. The real cause for the delay is perceived lack of demand in America.
Most regular people still haven’t viewed their first TV clip on a computer screen. But a survey by the Conference Board-TNS shows that 16% of American households with Web access now watch full TV broadcasts online, double the number from a year ago. And visitors to parts of Europe and Asia can see how far behind we are in personalizing our TV experience. Speedy, reliable broadband access in those regions can deliver richer video service, and because providers face real competition, they have to add Webby services to television as a selling point. Today, some 60% of all households in Hong Kong watch programming delivered over the Internet to the TV, says researcher Parks Associates. From a hotel in Seoul, I can click to do my banking on TV. A couple of friends I know live on the frozen tundra of Canada; even there, I can play games or get onscreen score alerts of favorite sports teams.
The growth rate might seem impressive, but it will hit a glass ceiling. Broadband in the US doesn’t compare to broadband in Europe and Asia. A typical 1 to 3-megabit connection shared among a few PCs in the household, won’t deliver adequate performance to satisfy on demand needs.
To gauge demand for IPTV, learn the behaviors of Verizon FIOS users as they get used to their connection. I suspect devices like Apple TV that have failed to catch on with all but the Engadget crowd will do fine once the wait times for content diminish.
