Technology as Part of the Game

At the NY:MIEG breakfast on sports earlier this week, the NFL VP for media Glenn Adamo reacted to an AOL sports blog manager's call for release of more video for longer (NFL rules limit it to 45-second clips for no more than 24 hours) with a few reasons for the NFL restrictions, including:

- NFL.com wants the inbound traffic, and there's tons of stuff for fans there. They don't want the traffic dispersed on a million other blogs and sites that haven't paid for rights.
- Fox and others paid many millions (altogether more than a billion, I believe) for rights, and it wouldn't be right to let just anyone get clips and use them at will. Adamo referred at one point to clearing the sidelines of the 35-40 camera crews who amassed for some games for local news and other broadcasts, because it was getting out of hand..
- They don't want to show too much – especially live – because they don’t want to sway the game.

Interesting point, considering a day later we had the New England Patriots paying a big price for videotaping signals from opponents during a game. Adamo also talked about a former Jets coach who complained mightily about an NFL broadcast that replayed a mic'd coach talking about a play by its code ("XYZ 123" or somesuch) and then showing the play being run for a touchdown. The coach complained, Adamo said, that he now had to change the play because everyone in the NFL now knew what it was.

But is restricting the flow really the best technique in an omnipresent media age? Think of the hassle of policing every possible shot, all the different ways someone can gather and disseminate video and audio. If the Patriots got caught, how many others are doing similar things but being more crafty?

Why not let media be part of the game? If you know your opponents are going to try to steal signals, you might fake them out with fake ones. In baseball, catchers change their hand signals when there's a runner behind the pitcher on second base, and coaches consistently throw in fake instructions to batters with hand signals. Why not let the fans get more involved, let more video flow, generate more excitement, strategy, fantasy football, games and the like? Imagine all the moves that could be made. And with that involvement would come, potentially, more audience and more advertising dollars, more promotional opportunities. I realize I may be out of my league, here, and intend to talk to Adamo and others about this for a column I'm writing for Jack Myers Media Business report. But it's a thought.

Social Networking: It's Not About the Technology

I love when the chief of a tech company says it's not all about the technology. Positioned by the moderator as the geeky tech guy at a NY:MIEG breakfast on sports and new technologies, social networking company KickApps CEO Alex Blum said:

"It's not all about the technology. It's about people coming together around common themes, and interests."

Yep, that's pretty much the definition of social networking -- but with technology as a huge enabler, making possible connections that aren't possible without it. Technology filling what Alex called an "innate human need." ('Course, we could also say Google isn't about the technology, but about the need for people to find stuff. But that's a whole 'nother issue.)

The Wall Street Journal for Free

Couple folks were handing out the WSJ print edition near Times Square on Thursday, and I'm told more folks were due to be out Friday.

Brightcove Follows in Feedroom's Footsteps, Sort of

Brightcove is giving up on developing its video portal - and the ad dollars that it hoped would go with it - to concentrate on building up its other online video technology services, says AdWeek reports (via PaidContent). So, instead of getting you and me and our aunts and cousins to put up our own videos, they're going B2B, if I read it correctly.

The FeedRoom awhile back decided awhile back to go the enterprise route -- looking for corporate clients, rather than just media companies. The rub, FeedRoom execs told me, was that once media companies gained enough expertise and knowledge, they would bring their hosting and video file and asset management in house, and would no longer need FeedRoom. Very hard to grow the business with that kind of churn. (Of course, the same could eventually happen to corporate clients -- they could bring their media in house -- but so far, FeedRoom says it's doing very well for them.)

Google Maps May Violate Privacy in Canada

As if Google doesn't have enough privacy issues to worry about, now it looks like Canadian officials think Google Maps, which can show people well enough to ID them from above, may violate Canadian privacy laws.

UPDATE: Google Plants Itself Behind International Privacy Framework

Why You Don't Have Free Speech in the Workplace

Prof. Bruce Barry of Vanderbilt U. paints a scary picture in his book Speechless, about how fettered speech is in the American workplace. Then, again, if you're running a business, can you afford to have everyone saying whatever they want?

Here's a video interview of Bruce about the book, under the auspice of NY:MIEG's Bill Sobel. I was the interviewer. Video is via TVMainstream.com.

Garfield's 'Jihad' Against Comcast

43 comments piling on with Bob Garfield's on how he was abused by Comcast's service department in trying to get their "triple-play." (One is mine on ways he might launch his "jihad.") Can any company do this kind of thing, anymore, if people won't suffer in silence?