Month: January 2007

Bob Metcalfe invented Ethernet way back in 1973.

Before that, he worked on ARPANET, the forerunner of the Internet.

In addition to being an under-geek, Bob is also a master salesman.

Let me quote something about Bob from Emanuel Rosen’s excellent book "Anatomy of Buzz."

"Bob Metcalfe, father of Ethernet and founder of 3Com, told Scott Kirsner how young MIT engineers often came to him for advice.

After they go through his six-story town home in Boston’s Back Bay, many of them say something like "Wow! What a great house! I want to invent something like Ethernet."

At this point Metcalfe has to sit down and explain, "No, I don’t have this house because I invented Ethernet. I have this house because I went to Cleveland and Schenectady and places like that. I sold Ethernet for a decade."

OK, with that as a background, listen carefully to what Bob has to say about video and salesmanship, especially in the post script at the very end of the interview. Profound stuff.

YouTube…it’s not the only free video hosting site in the world, but it definitely has the highest profile.

Everyone from Chevrolet to Warner Brothers to Paris Hilton is in the game.

What’s the appeal of YouTube to these big bucks promoters? Are there any guerilla-type YouTube "secrets" us little guys can use to get more promotional bang from the service?

Yes there are…

Continue reading “YouTube Adventures”

Subscriber Dan Buglio point this one out to me…

BabyTV.com

It’s the newest project of the BabyUniverse.com, an Internet conglomerate which describes itself as "the leading content, commerce, and new media company in the pregnancy, baby, and toddler marketplace."

Not a bad place to be. New parents spend A LOT of money.

They don’t have much choice about it either and the new babies keep coming – thank God.

The site has a lot of bugs (at least with my Firefox-Apple set up), but I like where they’re going with it.

It offers articles, video on demand, and what they call "Baby U-Tube" which will let folks upload their own videos.  I think it makes a TON of sense to offer produced content and user-provided content.

What I’m not sold on is the need for 24/7 streaming "live" TV which they also offer. Then again, maybe it’s a relief for mom’s to just turn the set on and watch without having to make a decision. Lord knows that’s how people have been conditioned to interact with TV and radio.

I guess technically it’s no big deal. Just line up all the programs you want to stream and push start and there’s your live TV. I still have a visceral memory of hosting a radio show and appearing on television programs.  A very hand on, big overhead undertaking. But with "Live" Internet TV, you probably don’t need a soul other than someone to keep an eye on the server from time to tim.