media
Things you can learn from Google on how to redesign your industry for the web
Have you ever heard Google’s [VP of Product Design] Marissa Mayer talk about product design? Great stuff. From a recent interview with Michael Arrington at this year’s Le Web. Pay attention to this question (about 12min in) about google news and redesigning journalism.
If we invented news today as a delivery channel for journalism, through the [...]
the music industry is only a $22 billion or $23 billion business worldwide. You can easily calculate how much it would take for all users to raise enough money in the network to pay for this.
I’m torn about this, the future of old old media in the digital world. What should we do with all the old and wonderful dead forms of media, culture, journalism that we used to print on flattened wood pulp, or encoded as 1’s and 0’s but shipped around by truck(!) on laser engraved spinning and [...]
Smartest idea they’ve had in a while
The Motion Picture Association of America has tried any number of tactics to fight piracy, but its latest scheme might actually prove useful to movie consumers on the Internet. The group is supposedly working on a new website that will offer information on how to find legit sources of movies so that users won’t have [...]
And then there was one, Warner Music drops DRM
Following EMI, and Universal, Warner is the next and now second-to-last major label to drop digital protections and offer it’s whole catalog of digital music DRM-free though the Amazon media store. This is a big win for Amazon and one wonders if Itunes will follow.
The lone holdout? Of course, the company that practically invented the [...]
Goodbye DRM, you won’t be missed
“The slow death of digital rights” – The Economist
Radioheads success is just the latest signal that DRM is dying a welcomed if unanticipated early demise.
“iTunes Plus DRM-free tracks expanding, dropping to 99 cents” – Ars Technica
There’s now no reason to buy any other kind of music. I just thought I’d point this out.
And of course, [...]
And the crowd says Yaaar. How Hollywood is losing the War on New Media
On Monday, it started with a few scattered pranksters shouting Arrr at the opening screen of the film premiers at this year’s Toronto International Film festival. By week end the meme had caught on. I just caught the best part of it mid-yarrr, but I love this piece of film I shot, of the screen [...]
Owen Wilson & Media Sensitivity
Not business or tech related, but I am amazed at the MSM/tabloid coverage of Owen Wilson’s suicide attempt. The metro today paper yesterday in the celebrity BUZZ (buzz in huge letters) section, the headline read along the lines of Owen Wilson SUICIDE attempt confirmed. With the word SUICIDE called out in giant pink letters complete [...]
The Robotification of Usability Design
1998-2000 Human to web interaction, Web Usability, Human factors. The great bubble of Web-enabling networked databases and applications – like Online Banking, Amazon.com, lets sell pet food online etc. (eBay never heard of usability)
2001-2005 Website to robot interaction design, the golden age of Search Engine Optimization
2004-2006 Human to Human and social web interaction, funny how [...]
Has Facebook killed blogging?
Have you noticed the blogosphere growing quiet? The pros and the a-listers and the corporate blogs are still at it as strong as ever. But tumbleweeds blow through the empty feed folders of personal friends. Flickr too is fading away. Maybe it’s just summer and we’re all outdoors, as we should be, instead.
But I [...]
The Science of Hits and why you can’t pick them
New research shows us the old adage “I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like” – is just not true. We don’t know much about art -or- what we like. A recent study shows that intrinsic quality of a work (in this case a song) is at best a 50% predictor [...]
Thomas Purves
is a technology designer, futurist and sometimes entrepreneur living in the great city of Toronto. Thomas not currently available for hire (though you are always welcome to try).
