October 18th, 2004 is the day TV died. That evening, British satellite broadcaster SkyOne – part of NEWS Corp’s BSkyB satellite broadcasting service – ran the premiere episode of the re-visioned 70s camp classic Battlestar Galactica. (That episode, “33,” is one of the best hours of drama ever written for television.)
…SciFi Channel programers had decided to wait until January 2005 (a slow month for American television) to begin airing the series, so three months would elapse between the airing of “33” in the UK, and its airing in the US. Or so it was thought.
The average viewer of the SciFi network is young and decidedly geeky. They are masters of media; they can find ways to get things they shouldn’t have. Thus, a few hours after airing on SkyOne, “33” was available for Internet download. No news there.
…as the Chinese proverb goes, “Many hands make light work.” BitTorrent transforms the creaky and unreliable technology of audiovisual distribution, making it fast and hyper-efficient. BitTorrent creates the conditions for something I’ve termed “hyperdistribution” – a distribution channel which is even more efficient than broadcasting.
That has certainly been the case with Battlestar Galactica. The British aficionados of the series provided torrents for each episode within a few hours of each broadcast. Many fans in the US picked them up and watched them; so did many people in Australia.
While you might assume the SciFi Channel saw a significant drop-off in viewership as a result of this piracy, it appears to have had the reverse effect: the series is so good that the few tens of thousands of people who watched downloaded versions told their friends to tune in on January 14th, and see for themselves. From its premiere, Battlestar Galactica has been the most popular program ever to air on the SciFi Channel, and its audiences have only grown throughout the first series. Piracy made it possible for “word-of-mouth” to spread about Battlestar Galactica.
Author Archives: Karl
Craigslist expands into smaller cities
…The News & Record is closely watching Craigslist and developing plans to defend its market share, said Classified Advertising Manager Catherine Kernels.
“We currently dominate the market and they’re the threat,” she said. “We have a plan that will certainly address it. There are a million different websites that are threatening the market. There’s eBay and Monster, and Craigslist is certainly the biggest monster.”
Similar to its editorial side, which has added editor and reporter blogs to adapt to the demands of the internet age, the News & Record’s classified advertising department now posts all its content online. The newspaper has a dedicated employment classified website called TriadCareers, which is by far the largest listing of job ads in the region, currently listing 821 jobs.
Weekly publications that serve Greensboro boast much smaller classified sections.
Yes! Weekly: National online bulletin board threatens to steal ad revenue.
The article leaves to the end the most salient point: the communities that form on Craigslist sites draw traffic to classifieds. Community is key. Anybody can put up a want ads board. Not anybody can attract a community.
Flickr DHTML: First Looks
If you haven’t heard of them yet – maybe you will
Check out Danko Jones and listen to some of their tunes. They rock. If you don’t have an urge to play air guitar to this – well you don’t. Understand?
Dive Into Greasemonkey
Mark Pilgrim’s latest in his “Dive Into” tutorial series in on Greasemonkey and looks like it will be fun to give a try. Click here to read his intro “What is Greasemonkey?”.
On Critics
You must remember that critics are not interested in serving the public trust; they’re interested in serving themselves. You’re a critic, and you need to pay the rent: there is a sea of other critics out there in the same boat. Some people in that situation will always go against the tide, to try and stand out. Some people will focus on gushing with the popular opinion as cleverly as possible – perhaps their punchy little quote will end up in a big ad in the newspaper, and their notoriety/income will increase.
And there are, of course, intellectuals who align themselves with elitism; they are forced to have disdain for all things popular. Their inability to be objective is indication of how ironically intellectual they are not.
In the end, critics are just people. People with an agenda. You are seldom going to find well thought-out, thorough objectivity in that demographic, no matter what they’re critiquing.
But mostly, there’s the bitter, sad realization that while they can write and scream or praise and jump up and down, they will be utterly forgotten in the annals of history, where Star Wars will not. For all their words and self-important positing, they know they have made no lasting contribution, no great impact. They’ve changed no lives, and shaped no futures. They’re resigned to being wordy because they’ve done so little. Like a fat, lazy sports fan who doesn’t like how Barry Bonds is hitting this season. Beset by jealousy, and ignorance, compensatory self-importance and bluster, they sit at their keyboards, furiously typing, and turn their self-hatred outward, to the very things they long to be part of most.
millenniumfalcon.com – The Official Media Review Links Thread
Dan Gillmor’s Bayosphere premiers, and in local news the Inquirer starts a blog!
I like the name and of course I like the concept 🙂 Check out Bayosphere | Of, by and for the Bay Area.
At Bayosphere, we’re going to create a community fueled by that notion. We will reflect — and reflect on — the news, needs and ideas of the
Bay Area and especially the technology sphere that is the prime
economic driver of the area.
Folks – it’s the “of, by and for” that is key and what makes this so important.
I truly believe old fashioned top down “push” media is going to be pummeled by participatory on demand media. You can count on it. Efforts like Bayosphere will help point the way.
Congrats Dan!
Speaking of leading the way, take a look at my old friends at Philly.com today! There be blogs here!
The Inquirer’s Daniel Rubin has launched “Blinq” and joins Daily News’s Will Bunch’s “Attytood” as two local journalist blogs that really *are* two local journalist blogs. Sad to say that the efforts I’ve seen from other newspapers just don’t feel like blogs to me. Too much sameness, not enough off site linkage, not enough personal voice or openness. I’m looking forward to seeing where Blinq goes.
Common PhillyBurbs, Philadelphia Weekly, City Paper – hop right in while the water’s warm.
JFugue looks like fun
JFugue – Java API for Music Programming, looks real, real easy to use.
Monospace/Fixed Width Programmer’s Fonts
A great list of monospace fonts helpful for text editing and coding.
Blair hit by new leak of secret war plan
Smoking gun memo revealed, and while Blair is in a shitstorm, the U.S. media leaves the gloves off Bush.
Read the memo here.