Flicking through this year’s Webby Awars winners, I’m a bit baffled by the people’s voice for the employment category. Yes, Monster’s new career site looks a lot better than it did. And yes, it’s tweaked some of its features. But no, what they’re doing is not exactly ‘new’.

I’d say VisualCV – one of the other nominees – comes much closer to actually innovating on the recruitment front. But as people and voices go, Monster probably got a fair share from its truckload of employees.

I gave 8tracks a big thumbs up in the music category (didn’t win), and I love IBM’s Wordle (won ‘best typography’; something I’m definitely going to use more often – see image below).

(photo silly chair monster by massdistraction on Flickr)

When Coolblue’s entrepreneurs were still young and budding, they got phone calls from customers who wanted to come and pick up their gadget from the attic-based office. So now they’ve built several places for potential customers to grab hold and get an actual feel for what they’re looking to buy.

And what gives? The number of online orders from the area codes surrounding the stores is growing. So instead of cannibalizing on more cost-efficient online business, the offline store-fronts lend it a helping hand.

Source: NRC Handelsblad, 11th january 2008, p. 15

(photo coolblue by allyBrown on Flickr)

How do you sell authenticity when there’s no such thing?

Have a look at this 15-minute talk to see how you can be (un)true to yourself and (not) say what you are. Or, how you can produce fake fake, real real, real fake, or fake real.

Interesting, especially for those working on sustainable entrepreneurship, because Pine’s two-by-two can help you re-evaluate who you are and what you’re trying to accomplish (a process The Necessary Revolution also talks about).

And for us Dutch, he’s as entertaining as he is painful. If we think we’re authentic in comparison to ‘you Americans’, have a look in the mirrow: every square meter of The Netherlands is manufactured – most of it made look as if it had always been like that.

To summarize, for successful entrepreneurship in the experience economy, you have to stick to 3 simple rules:
- Don’t say you’re authentic unless you really are;
- It’s easier to be authentic if you don’t say you are;
- And if you do say you’re authentic, you better walk the walk.

(photo Carol Channing Certificate of Authenticity by zoomar)

Internet Service Providers are done enticing consumers with mere access

The clever ones transform themselves into Content Service Providers, or as Playlouder will have it, MSP’s.

From their website: ‘That’s right, PlayLouder is bringing yours truly the first ever Music Service Provider! Raaaaaaahhhhh! Which basically means you will now be able to share and download music with your mates and virtual chums all over the UK, without worrying about Mr Big beating you with a truncheon, nicking all your cash and throwing your miserable ass in chokey.’

What makes it so great – ‘you dear music lovers’ – is that together with a broadband connection, the lucky citizens of the UK can now gain access to thousands of legal music files, free of Digital Rights Management (what’s DRM?).

And how, in Conservative Music Mogul’s name, do they do it? They’re paying royalties to the record companies for activities previously unlicensed and unlawful. ‘Neat eh?’ I should think so (if not for the idea, then at least for pulling off such a deal).

True business model innovation, and it comes packed with a fair amount of witty laughter. I’ve already e-mailed the good people at Playlouder MSP, begging them to come over and connect us deprived citizens of the Netherlands.

But they let me know we’ll have to sit our miserable Mere Access Provision for the time being.

Read more elsewhere

Playlouder seems to grab a bit from all of Eric Bun’s Five inspiring Business Model Innovations in the Telecommunication Industry, which is a good overview on what’s happening in the ISP industry.

And, for some stick on how not to approach this – on both ISP and the music industry fronts, have a look at The Register’s Andrew Orlowski: How to Destroy the Music Business. It talks of blanket license free proposals of €1, per year – per household, and how such measures would destroy any incentive for consumers to pay for better-than-almost-free ‘value added services’  (check out more recent, related articles at the bottom of that post).

Finally, read Wikipedia’s article on the analogue hole to find out what the photo at the top wants to convey about the futility of DRM (and don’t get your hopes up, because it’s not about porn).

(photo Radio At The Edge Session on Digital Rights Management dan taylor)

Recently hosting its second annual Crunchies, TechCrunch invited the Internet community to choose 2008’s winners.

Listed below are three of the lime-lighted web services and tools in the selection. My own criteria: usability and looks.

1 – Cooliris – winner of ‘best design’.

Transforms your browser into a lightning fast, cinematic way to discover the web. Search through thousands of video’s, images, and other visuals, via a plug-in ‘wall’.

A stunning way of flicking through search-query results to find that one perfect image. Just downloading the thing had me awestruck: a beautiful visual guide, with arrows and messages to guide you through a 1-minute getting started.

2 – Wuala – ‘best international start-up’ runner-up.

Download the Wuala application, publish your videos, photos, and other files heavy-on-the-bytes files, and share them with whomever you want.

A quick, easy, free way to get things out to people you’d never be able to send via e-mail – and much more user-friendly than Yousendit (http://www.yousendit.com/). Like mane, this is a ‘freemium’ service that’ll give you 1GB for free. To get more storage, you can dish out your credit card.

3 – Sliderocket – in the running for ‘best design’.

A slideshow presentation web-abb, fusing Apple’s Keynote functionality and visuals with the resources of the Internet. Incorporate audio and visuals from the web, and access and present your show from any computer connected to the web.

For nothing, you can create, manage, and store 250 MB’s worth of your slides. For money, you can of course do more.

Have a look at all of the categories and contestants, and see which services and companies won what, by clicking here.

(photos
- The Crunchies 2008 by Laughing Squid

- cooliries screen shot by natashalcd

- wuala_9 by solider

- sliderocket by virgosun)

In its recently published report, TNO – Dutch public institution working for the applicability of scientific knowledge in government and industry circles – concluded the following: access to a wide range of cultural goods increases out well being, simply because most of us would never have bought our downloaded content.

File shares are financially unable – or plainly unwilling – to buy many of the things they’re enjoying via p2p networks. And getting stuff for free obviously makes us feel nicer than not getting the stuff at all.

But before we’re made to believe that companies should be losing their money for a public cause and an economic externality – even when both of them are nice side effects, the report’s researchers also found this: people who download music and film are buying no less than people who don’t.

Gaming company Electronic Arts admitted last year that ‘every Bittorrent download doesn’t represent a successful copy of a game, let alone a lost sale’. This report goes one step further: file sharers visit concerts and buy games more often than those who don’t.

And while the Netherlands’ entertainment industry continues to suffer losses in the order of €100 million per year, consumers are spending an estimated €200 million per year more because they have free access to not-so-free content.

So now its official: the industry’s arch nemesis is a very successful marketing tool. Yet, as the report will have it (of course), within the music industry it’s the lesser-known bands that profit the most from file sharing.

To me, another sure sign of a playing field in transition. While most big and established companies are slow to recognize that bygones should be bygones, the smaller, newer ones see opportunities in the web. Instead of whining about it, they’re discovering how they can monetize on the Internet as a non-exclusive distribution platform.

And let’s not forget about us consumers, and how this report will make us feel even better than we already did. As dxtr says in reply to Torrentfreak’s post on the subject: ‘Wow! I never knew that I had been contributing to the growth of my country’s economy since age 10! That is so cool!’

More

• Read the original Torrentfreak post on the report by clicking here.
• Read the full report (142 pages – and in Dutch), register and  download it for free by clicking here.
• Read how EA’s view on piracy is changing – and how they’re trying to emphasize the non-piracy prone aspects of their games, by clicking here.
• Check dotbejamin’s ‘Failing Industry’ post, which accompanies the picture shown above ().
  

Five-minute audiovisual teaser for Open Content

We stole and re-arranged some inspiring thoughts as we saw fit; I put them into sound and images.

To watch, click play on the screen below; for plot and (management) summary, read on.

What to do when your content can be infinitely copied by anyone with access to the Internet? How can you add value to your content when it’s be found anywhere, for free? Where’s the business in open content? How can you make it work for you – instead of against. How can users make open content work for you?

Summary

Today’s world is one of super-abundance: digital and/or digitized content will be found, sooner or later, by anyone prepared to look for it on the web. So what does this mean for people working with content?

Many – across different industries – are starting to realize that sealing it up, fighting something that’s turning into common practice, is futile. But the clever ones are seeing opportunities.

Actively freeing up content, dropping it into the web for everyone to see and share, hugely increases your potential audience. Better still, a small part of that audience is very eager to become a partner – or co-creator. This part fills in the blanks, places context and conversation around your content, passes it on, and adds value for thousands or millions of others in your potential audience.

Free doesn’t mean it’s being given away -  only that someone else is picking up the tab. And it doesn’t stop there. There are ways to turn your end-users into clients again; the trick is to build something around your content, something better than free.

(photo opencontent by jlori)