ArtMap

Google and Intellectual Property

2005-09-21T19:14:00.000-04:00

I had a lunch yesterday in Manhattan with a colleague named Sophie Wade and we talked amongst other things about the growth of Google, a popular topic these days. Sophie is on the executive team of Not Traditional Media, which is a company started by John Bernbach and Martin Puris (John was a Director of Omnicom, an executive at DDB and the son of the famous Bill Bernbach and Martin started the well-known agency Ammiratis Puris.)

Google has grown to be an incredible behemoth of an organization, and still has the most favored nation status as companies go. Perhaps that is because most Americans tend to love the underdog. But at a $87B market cap, they are no underdog. So what's the real story?

Today on my very favorite radio show, WNYC's Brian Lehrer show, they were coincidentally discussing that same topic. I called in and asked John Battelle, the founder of Wired Magazine what he thought about Google facing issues with intellectual property and copyright issues. Click here to listen. Scroll down to "Soul Searching". (My question is about the 15:00 minute mark, but the whole interview is worth listening to.)

The reason I asked the question is because Google indexes a lot of data through mining through billions of other people's websites. Sophie and I were talking about whether Google would quickly move into other areas other than Ad Words monetized through aggregating and indexing data, or become more or a media portal like MSN, AOL or Yahoo! Companies like these, as real companies have to, license content for legal and business reasons. For example, the financial data at finance.yahoo.com is licensed, and Yahoo! pays good money to do so.

Google on the other hand, simply lists that information as far as I can tell without paying, yet they are the destination of choice. Will this create problems for them as people get worried about their data being effectively monetized by Google without seeing payment in return? Google was recently criticized for scanning books so that online readers could have access to that information. Publisher's complaints were that Google would make money from authors work without having permission to actually index and make that information available. It is true that Google is by far the most trafficked site on the internet. By indexing all of this data, Google becomes the direct source of our perception of all things searchable. Without getting into a discussion about the taxonomy of data on the internet and it's limitations, it could be argued that we as consumers of information have given Google an incredible power and it would serve us well to be careful with giving that "attention" away.

Another area of concern for Google that we faced when I ran AdCritic.com, was using other people's content for review purposes under what's called "Fair Use". With video.google.com, one of the services they provide is to allow any person to upload your video content. The idea being that unique niche content can be made available for fee or for free. Google has plentiful bandwidth on their video servers, so they absorb the cost, and you upload your video - and if you choose, you can monetize the sale of that video if people are interested enough to pay for the video of you training your poodle to bellydance. I'm not sure it's enough to suggest that the digital signature "yes I agree I will not upload someone else's copyrighted video" will work.

But don't get me wrong: this all very fascinating, and Google has done some amazing things. Their company page talks about their philosophies as a company, and besides getting to bring the dog to work, it seems like a really cool place. The question is, will they be able to adapt and remain a progressive and just company, or just become another 800 pound gorilla?

The Katrina Flood in New Orleans

2005-09-08T13:52:00.000-04:00

Watching the images on MSNBC.com and CNN.com video was heart-wrenching. Quoting a source I heard today "this has ripped the bandage of the seeping wound that America has been hiding - the urban poor and the growing gap between the rich and the poor".

It seems evident that the response time was unacceptably slow and the federal government here needs to be held accountable. Let's hope it's a wake-up call to the Bush Administration to stop the tax cut. Things have run out of control, and a higher power has said "the circumstances have changed. You cannot do this tax cut." It will kill this economy and reinforce what was revealed during this whole crisis - inequity. As Kennedy "There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction."

It got me thinking about Canada. I know this would not have happened there. I just could not imagine it. It's part of our culture in Canada to be concerned with the society at large.

I was very interested to see this news article today from the CBC, and ironically also heard it on Fox News while I was working out at the gym:

Louisiana senator: Thank you Canada
Last Updated Thu, 08 Sep 2005 07:12:44 EDT

CBC News
A Louisiana state senator has praised a Canadian search and rescue team. Senator Walter Boasso said a Vancouver-based team reached St. Bernard parish five days before the U.S. army got there.

"Fabulous, fabulous guys," Boasso said. "They started rolling with us and got in boats to save people ... We've got Canadian flags flying everywhere."

The suburb of 68,000 people was initially ignored by U.S. authorities who were scrambling to get aid to New Orleans. Boasso said floodwater in his parish is still 2.4 metres deep in some places.

He said residents of the outlying parishes had to mount their own rescue and relief efforts when Hurricane Katrina struck last week.

The U.S. government response to the disaster has been widely criticized. Some politicians and editorial writers have called for the resignation of top Bush administration officials.

Boasso saved his praise for the Canadians and their quick work. "They were so glad to be here," he said. "They're still here. They are actually going door-to-door looking in the attics" for people to rescue.

The Stone Reader

2005-08-29T13:30:00.000-04:00

Watched a great documentary - in the middle of the night tonight. One of those nights where I simply couldn't sleep, so I decided to put in this DVD that I got from the local video store. The movie is called "The Stone Reader"

The movie is done by a documentary film maker from Pennsylvania who reads a book in 1972 and can't get through it. Years later, he picks up the book off his shelf (which is by now in tatters), and falls in love with the writing. Intrigued by his read, he seeks out a new copy of the book and can't find one anywhere or even to see if the author wrote anything else. The book is out of print, and the author is mentioned nowhere.

Over the next 2 hours, the filmmaker takes us on his quest to find this author, interviewing writing colleagues, editors, agents, and all the while talking about old books.

The story reveals a few interesting points. One, great classics which were hits in their day are often out of print and hard to find. Two, writers often create hits and then never go onto write anything again. Why is this? The journey of the film tries to answer that question.

Today's blog entry is brought to you by Abe Books :)

The Roundtable of Elders

2005-07-30T10:02:00.000-04:00

Last summer I was fortunate enough to be asked by Victor Chan of the Asian Studies Department at UBC if I would help executive produce a webcast of the Dalai Lama's visit to Vancouver.

One of the most important events was the "Roundtable Dialogue", a discussion with the Dalai Lama joined by Dr. Jo-ann Archibald, Professor Shirin Ebadi, Rabbi Schachter-Shalomi and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, with Bishop Michael Ingham as moderator. The Roundtable luminaries examined the topic in the light of their diverse experiences with peace and reconciliation, emerging democracies, environmental stewardship and struggles for social justice. The topic of the discussion was "balancing the heart with balancing the mind."

My interpretation of the event was that this is really about emotional intelligence. You can be the most intellectually bright person, but disconnected from emotion or heart.

I was honored to be able to broadcast this fascinatingconversation. Watch the "Roundtable Dialogue" archived webcast here. The actual website for the visit is here.

The meaning of Aletheia

2005-07-24T16:33:00.000-04:00

In 1995 I entered the intermedia program at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I had just completed two years in the studio art program at Capilano College.

That summer, a friend asked me if I was interested in becoming a contributing writer for a new music magazine he had started called Euphony. The first catch was that they wanted to profile a sculptural piece I had done in the magazine, and then they wanted me to start writing on the visual arts scene in Vancouver. They decided they wanted to profile an installation I did rather than the sculpture piece, because I had composed music to the series of projected slides.

Euphony's focus was primarily music. They were one of the first groups using what was to become Real Networks audio player. This gave Euphony the ability to allow viewers of the site to both read music reviews, and simultaneously listen to the songs of the band. According to later discussions in the Georgia Straight and elsewhere, bands were actually getting discovered by labels in Los Angeles through this little site. It was a great new way for music producers to see the context of the band in a meaningful way (through reviews etc) and then check out the music. Admittedly, the sound quality wasn't very good, but nevertheless, you got a chance to experience the sounds through the Internet. Of course, we take all of that for granted now.

One of the things that strikes me from that time was listening to a friend of mine who was one of the first Internet users (yes, even before Al Gore). He was using the earliest Mosaic browsers (and Pine, Tin etc) to search for areas of interest on university usenets. For him, he was fascinated with theology and religion - so he was able to read progressive theses, essays, articles and academic discussions etc. that were before unavailable to him.

However, he pointed out that a lot of the articles he read as the Net became more populous were becoming watered down. It was getting to the point, he demured, that you couldn't tell what was the truth and what was not the truth. 'How do you filter through all of this?' became his major complaint.

Aletheia is a greek word that means "truth". It's also true that Heidegger (whose reputation as an intellectual supporter of the 3rd Reich does not impress me) coined aletheia as a term in communications meaning "the powerful interplay of revealing and concealing that shapes a humanity's destiny". During my time at Euphony, I had the idea of creating an online magazine with friends and calling it Aletheia. Hoping that as artists, the detached observers of society, we would attempt to decipher what was real from what was not. An idealistic task no less.

James Riley Resume 2005

2005-07-24T16:14:00.000-04:00

James Riley

1 Olive Lane,
Ridgefield, CT
06877
Home (203) 438-3710
Cell (203) 644-2852
Email: james.riley@artmap.net

References:

I met James four years ago as part of a project I was heading up at Saatchi & Saatchi. James was involved with AdCritic.com at that time, which was covering the event, which included many advertising industry, trade press and clients of Saatchi’s.

My initial impression of James was quite favorable based on his pleasant personality and courteous, but persuasive salesmanship. Interestingly, this initial contact was via telephone and email. I had the same reaction when I later met James in person.

I have found James to be smart and strategic, a strong marketer. He is a passionate and strategic thinker, whose conversations have always added value. I believe he would be a great ambassador for any company or industry.

Sincerely,
Tim Love
President Global Business
Vice-Chairman, TBWA Worldwide

James was instrumental in helping Ad Age work through the decision and negotiations to purchase AdCritic.com - a business we are extremely happy with. His knowledge of digital media business models and savvy in advertising/marketing impressed me and I enjoy meeting him from time to time to discuss the state of the industry and the changing media landscape.

Regards,
David Klein
Publishing and Editorial Director
The Ad Age Group
dklein@crain.com
312-649-5320

Biography

James has held senior positions (President, COO, CEO titles) of several private & public companies, all delivering Media and IT-based solutions. He is currently is on the advisory board of technology start-ups and is most recently the CEO of Event Reach, a software company that licenses ROI-based measurement tools built on mobile computing platforms for event marketing agencies and clients such as Jack Morton, Microsoft, and Mercedes-Benz. Considered a pioneer in broadband’s early days, James served as President and Chief Operating Officer of AdCritic.com and was instrumental in both AdCritic.com’s meteoric rise as a leading consumer marketing services company and its successful sale to Advertising Age. AdCritic.com attracted a client list of over 100 advertising agencies and advertisers and was recognized as Yahoo Internet Life’s favorite site for 2 years. In 1999 and 2000, James was the CEO of a successful streaming media and interactive agency working directly with leading Hollywood producers and content creators. In 1998/99, he worked for Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, Washington, in the Digital Media Division and MSN. Charged with advancing the portal for Windows Media, James’ marketing and business development efforts helped the site become one of the leading video portals today. As a management consultant, James has worked with clients such as Softnet Systems Inc, a half-billion dollar publicly-traded broadband services corporation, advising them on marketing, content strategy and deployment for a wireless hotspot business in over 36 airports in the U.S. He has twice executive produced live webcasts of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, including the first ever broadband webcast of the spiritual figure in a speech given from the Los Angeles Coliseum in 2000.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

· Technology and Digital Media Marketing
· Business planning and management
· Fortune 500 Client Relationships
· Team management
· Consumer research (research and writing capability)

· Integrated marketing
· Technology analysis
· Online consumer behavior
· Wireless device content

PROFESSIONAL

Event Reach, LLC South Norwalk, Connecticut July 2003 - present
Position: Founder, Principal, CEO

· Founded and developed extensive product line for this event marketing software and services company
· Development of business model and plan, strategy, market planning, business development and financing
· Clients include Mercedes-Benz, NBC, Microsoft, Jack Morton, Bank of America
· Developed extensive financial forecasting
· Provide expertise and guidance to team of 4 developing marketing software and research strategy for event marketing technology solutions
· Thought leadership in the industry working closely with event agency alliance The Experience & Event Marketing Council focused on measurement initiatives, introduced Advertising Age as partner to TEEMC

In Motion Technology Vancouver, Canada September 2002- present
Position: Advisory Board Member

· Develop business models for wireless content within In-Motion service
· Research market competitors in wireless content and services verticals
· Name and define brand of service for specific markets i.e.: “Concierge” powered by In Motion
· Create extensive trade show demo with specific content providers
· Define and provide insights on statistics, demographics and market numbers
· Provide analysis and feedback on current In Motion business plan and financials
· Help develop funding strategy with granting bodies and local investors
· Strategic relationship building

ADCRITIC.COM, Vancouver, Canada December 2000 – March 2002
Position: President/COO

· Assisted in preparing strategy for successful strategic sale of company to Advertising Age Magazine
· Provide strategy for business affairs for the company
· Managed for employees responsible for business development, technology strategy and research
· Develop video-on-demand (VOD) and research businesses
· Provide client strategy for company clients
· Create business plans and financial models
· Lead to success as “highest trafficked internet video site”

Softnet Systems Inc., San Francisco, California February 2001 to August 2002
Position: Management Consultant

· Extensive consulting services to the billion dollar broadband services company Softnet, and their companies Aerzone and ISP Channel for the year 2000
· providing broadband expertise, business strategy, marketing expertise, content development and relationship building
· services involved developing strategic relationships with content creators and distributors, developing key technical relationships with streaming media companies such as Real Networks, Microsoft Digital Media division and Apple Quicktime
· providing knowledge making direction to Softnet senior management to build their media platforms in their wireless, cable and satellite divisions
· executive produced key investor presentation and extensive broadband portal development for Softnet's wireless airport business
· executive produced the first ever broadband webcast of His Holiness the Dalai Lama co-sponsored by Softnet from Los Angeles in 2000
· Webcast in 6 languages, 18 simultaneous streams
· Brought together competing companies Real, Apple and Microsoft who sponsored the webcast

DNS Media/ Hollywood Broadcasting Inc., Los Angeles, CA Dec 1999 to Oct. 2000
Position: CEO

· Worked directly with traditional movie studio clients in Los Angeles
· Developed all the of the broadband portal development for Hollywood Broadcasting, an interactive online content portal lead by CEO Thom Mount, former Universal Pictures President
· Consulted with Mount's million dollar LA Film School, studios and theatre, brought over 15 live shows to the internet in broadband
· translated traditional film and production techniques into the broadband environment of the internet
· Provided Internet and online marketing strategies to production team of 15 Internet producers

MICROSOFT CORPORATION, Redmond, WA November 1998 to August 1999
Position: Marketing/Business Development Contractor (was offered full-time employment prior to becoming an entrepreneur

Digital Media Division (fka Streaming Media Division) - US Business Development and Strategy

· Provide guidance to close deals to increase the adoption of Windows Media player
· Marketing and editorial development for WindowsMedia.com
· Manage relationship between MSN and WindowsMedia.com, including making deals to include newsletters and placement on Hotmail, Web Courier, MSN.com
· Helped grow Windows Media market share to 70% from 30%, and WindowsMedia.com became one of the top internet portals for content
· Identify and evaluate new market segments for technology adoption and generate new opportunities.
· Develop tactics for success

ITV.Net, Vancouver, BC December 1996 to Mar. 1998
Position: Executive Producer & Business Development Manager

· ITV.Net strategic partner with Microsoft Windows Media for Netshow and Windows Media Player
· Focus was to negotiate and close webcast distribution deals with content providers
· Negotiate and close live webcasting events
· Executive produce live webcasting events
· Negotiate and close VOD contracts
· Provide organization and structure to help coordinate live webcast team
· Provided VOD strategy and closed business with and for clients such as PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Sumo Association of Japan, BC Business Summit of 400 BC CEOs

EDUCATION:

EMILY CARR INSTITUTE OF ART AND DESIGN
BFA Program - Interdisciplinary Studies, Marketing, Media
1995-1997

CAPILANO COLLEGE
General Arts, Marketing/Business
1993 - 1996

INTERESTS:

· Architecture
· Art – painting and sculpture
· Cycling
· Travel
· Politics
· Reading
· Child development and growth
· Business and personal growth

The Authentic Career

2005-07-24T13:02:00.000-04:00

It's not just about accomplished individual skillsets and abilities, it's about whether or not people can work together in creating an inspired and creative environment...

This really to me is what distinguishes the notion of 'putting your time in', and having a truly enjoyable and authentic career.

After almost nine years of a mix of consulting, company building and working in large organizations, it seems to me the most important alchemy for success is emotional intelligence and communication within the group. I say that even as an entrepreneur who does it all with a very small team (don't forget then to include your investors, advisors, board members and customers.) You need to have the ability to really empathize, create connection, and be creative to let all those other things shine.

This is why the most detail oriented and capable and accomplished COOs fail to get up to the CEO post. It takes a tremendous amount of social and personal awareness to make a company work organically.

This is a challenge that is kind of my mantra today...my zen koan if you will.