44 Comments on thursday march 16, 2006 : special feature
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Greetings RB!
John has a valid suggestion in regards to the ads, by spacing them at a longer intervals (not too long though) it will create a lasting impact, after all this is only the begining, and it is only a begining.
Cheers!
I’ve had to speak in front of people a few times so I really felt for you. I read a survey that said that the two things a majority of people fear the most is 1)public speaking, 2)death (in that order). You both did great.
I would like to be a spike someday.
interesting speech about the spike for the masses.
however, I’m wondering what came out of this conference as a whole… what more can be said?
Amanda?
TEACHER, TEACHER…
Do I have to raise my hand or can I just GO?
Your Friend,
Eyeball
PS
Methinks the commercials are a drag!!!!!
TOO MANY TYPOS…so I shall post again
——
So Drew what you said was basically what Andy Whorol said ages ago, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes. The kid with the cat vlog…so what if nobody watches for 364 days???? Who cares about that 1 day. So it’s cute. The christmas lights were cute. So blah, blah, blah, There are millions of blogs and now I don’t know how many thousands of VLOGS.
The real issues hunger, war, alienation, healthcare, real life issues are still and won’t be addressed because some vlog said something profound.
It just ads a visual perspective to a story that’s all. Like Zappa said, if you look at yesterday site I posted, it’s all about words.
Just words.
You guys work because you found the right formula and let’s face Amanda’s talent brings the show home.
If you had some ordinary-looking lame anchor type, RB wouldn’t be what it is today and you wouldn’t be in Austin or in the news every other second day.
Those spikes will go unknown and un-noticed by the majority. Who has time? Unless your a fat ass and sit at your computer all day.
Yes it’s great B-man can talk to or comment to K-man in Transylvania, but I could do that before with email- in the whole sheme of things what does it all mean.
More segmentation, more alienation, more individuation, more self centeredness…
I’m not saying it’s bad, don’t get me wrong, but it ain’t earth-shattering…all this new tech stuff is getting people to be alone with their toys–with no real interaction.
I personally don’t want to live in a virtual world.
Amanda, I was hoping you’d mention my name in your speech, I’m so disappointed.
You guys are having fun, getting paid for it …. that’s what counts. Do what you like when you like to. And have fun creating and earning a living.
Another thing, there are too many spectators out there. At lest you guys are creating. I like that…
What the F^%^%^K did I just write??? I have no idea.
I just want my Buddha Boy back!
My fever is reaching an all-time high.
Amanda:
Will you make a longer movie featuring the ideas and philosophy of G.I. Gurdjieff - and you could dress up like a man - or not.
Or cast and produce ‘The Master and Margarita” - and podcast it so that I can take some medicine and yell at the cat?
“smallest is the new big”….this makes me very happy really
Andrew Baron: who the hell do you think you are to cross in front your camera??? perhaps you think you are the Big Andrew Baron, remember “small is the new big”
We all write because we love Rocketboom and watching it evolve. Keep at it.
Long live the Blogosphere..
My only question for Rocketboom is why don’t you use Expression Engine for comments, like they do at the JWalk Blog. No double posts etc
You were giving your all in that workshop but the audience seemed very non-responsive. At least a chuckle or two from them would have been nice to show that they appreciated your technical know-how.
Chuck Olsen, remind me to talk about the normal distribution with you sometime!
PS, Amanda is hot and unlike so many hot girls, goes way the hell out of her way to look goofy and, dare I say, ugly. That is one confident hottie!
I posit that from the viewpoint of the ‘average Internet user’ (who lives in a temperature controlled closet at the International Bureau of Standards in Geneva by the way), the importance of a set of content with a common theme (e.g. underwater basket weaving) is inversely proporional to the size of the total Internet audience for that content, to some power k.
So importance = i = 1/t^k
where t is the total audience size for the content, and k > 1.
As this gives a power law distribution it is asymptotic, meaning i (importance) never decays to 0 (this is the long tail).
Therefore I propose that whether my cat Tiddles had Tasty Tuna or Chicken Chunks last night for dinner is always of *some* importance to somebody!
Andy.
I posit that from the viewpoint of the ‘average Internet user’ (who lives in a temperature controlled closet at the International Bureau of Standards in Geneva by the way), the importance of a set of content with a common theme (e.g. underwater basket weaving) is inversely proporional to the size of the total Internet audience for that content, to some power k.
So importance = i = 1/t^k
where t is the total audience size for the content, and k > 1.
As this gives a power law distribution it is asymptotic, meaning i (importance) never decays to 0 (this is the long tail).
Therefore I propose that whether my cat Tiddles had Tasty Tuna or Chicken Chunks last night for dinner is always of *some* importance to somebody!
Andy.
The past week or so has been fantastic. Be careful, you’re climbing up and off the long tail…
You guys are an inspiration to me! My Video blog can be seen at unzappedtv. If you have any suggestions for me I would appreciate anything. You guys are great and deserve to be where you are!! Great cast today!
As AndyBob demonstrated, an infinitely long tail will always cover more area (or volume, depending on the level of metaphor) than a giant head. Given the finite population of the planet yet the theoretically infinite amount of subjects that people can come up with, the spikes can only get so high, but the length of the tail can go on forever. So, even without spikes, I’d opt for the tail (i.e. Amazon) as opoosed to the head (i.e. Barnes&Noble. It could be that I’m just anti-conformist.
Also, I agree that subtlety can go a long way in advertising. Just by mentioning things briefly in the main segment of RB, you’ve convinced me to use Firefox and del.icio.us, and renewed my interest in planning a trip to Austin. Based on the brief coverage you gave the actual city this week, there are probably a few viewers out there who will visit Austin who wouldn’t have thought of it otherwise. Well, maybe the crazy dancing from last year helped a little, too. On the other hand, although it’s a lucrative proposition, I’m not thinking of selling ATMs anytime soon. But that could be because I like my present job too much.
Lonely,
Although I totally see your point, sympathize with Amanda, and whole-heartedly agree with you, I think your sarcasm may be falling on deaf (or overly-excited) ears. I can’t speak for Andrew and Chuck, but probably for most guys, those types of comments are always welcome. I used to host a certain highly-trafficked chat room for a certain giant corporation, and accumulated a small groupie following. Some of them exhibited, in retrospect, stalkerish behavior. I can’t say I found it offensive or insulting, and most guys I know probably wouldn’t have, either.
C’mon guys - Amanda appears to be losing out in the vote fest contest with the mobuzztv presenter Karina… check it out and have your say before the contest closes tomorrow night…
To sumarize:
Long tail, good. Not sure if its anything financially or philosophically sustainable (big words) but worth noticing. The drawback is that to take advantage you have to be pretty large, (Amazon) although a place like Abe Books is a pretty cool example.
Ads: ehhhh. I’ll vote shorter and sweeter. Exposure is exposure, but quality and creativity, (not necessarily in that order) get the job done.
sorry posting to this page is a little strange but the link is…http://jeremy1.wordpress.com
It sounds to me that you guys are describing a situation that can be understood in some detail by a state description similar to many branches of physics. For instance, scientists trying to detect rare particles from space would know that they have seen a particle collision when the height on the Energy graph jumps up from it’s lowest value. Of course, the particles in question are rare, so it pays to have more detectors pointed in more directions. Then each has it’s own state (or heigt on the Energy graph) and a graph of your detectors’ states might look like the graph Mr. Baron was standing in front of. Each vlogger and podcasting is a detector, and the number of people suddenly interested in that vlogger is the energy.
You guys are Soooo geeks. Amanda, I wasn’t sure if you were a geek or if it was just an act. But I think you are one. Drew, on the other hand, it took me about .1 seconds seeing you talk to know you were a geek.
You were loving on geekdom today. It was almost embarrasing how ‘I am so great V/Blogs are so great Technology is so great’ you were today.
Well…you are great. Keep it up. But don’t brag too much.
I personally feel that the whole world should be ‘All access’ and I often get quite unreasonably upset that I have to live within the confines of whatever the world’s infrastructure happens to be on any given day. Seriously, why can’t I go to the rings of Saturn again?
True freedom is being able to do whatever you want, when you want, where you want (of course that’s a little impractical, but the closer we can get all of humanity to that ideal w/out doing anything bad, the better)
The internet is good in that regards (blogging, amazon, long tail, google, etcetera)
Have a nice day!
J.W. you can go to the Rings of Saturn or the Delta Nebula this very minute. But only if you use ONE THING:
It’s called “Imagination”
No tech toy or virtual program will ever replace that infinite tool called your mind, no matter what you’re told by hi-tech pundits.
Lonely,
Well said. I’d have to agree, again.
Lonely Geek: I agree strongly with your first comment–”Guys, imagine how you might feel if you got 10 comments like this every day” It’s way past time for men to respect a person who is doing their job or simply living their life without interfering constantly by sexualizing situations by their comments, stares and such. Someone who fascinates you or excites you can be a private experience without it interfering with your relationship with that person or that person’s job or daily tasks.
In other words, I agree wholeheartedly with you very well put comment, Lonely Geek.
Dammit, no more TRiM !!!
Wow, some great comments thus far! I really liked this RB. Living elsewhere, not America, this 4-5 minute video was plenty enough to bring me back to the big bad US without getting on a 747! However, the thing about a 12 year old kid in China and an American kid…hmmm…perhaps in Hong Kong…however in the middle of China…not sure about that…(and I know Amanda said it on the tip of her tongue…)
Would have loved to be there (Apple Austin); information might travel at a gigabit a minute, however the human body only travels as fast as the pilot at United Airlines can push the thingy in the cockpit…not sure if I am going to vloggercon…Will RB be there???…we all wanna know…
Sorry, I have a complaint about your new widescreen videos. My complaint is that the videos themselves are still 4:3 aspect ratio, with black bars on top and bottom.
This means that when I play them on my widescreen monitor, I get black bars on top and bottom, AND on left and right. (Because the computer thinks it’s a 4:3 video, it displays it with left/right black bars, and the video itself has the top/bottom bars.)
Even though the bars are solid black, you would still end up with a smaller video file if you actually encoded them in a widescreen format.
Ok guys, I’m a big fan of RB, so I hate to be the one to ruin the love-fest.
But, come ON people…if you you’re going to talk about something like the long tail, please do some reading and know WTF you are talking about first. All of you guys TOTALLY missed even its most fundamental notion.
Which, while I have your attention, is:
“In many cases the infrequent or low-amplitude eventsâ€â€the long tail-[...]can cumulatively outnumber or outweigh the initial portion of the graph, such that in aggregate they comprise the majority.” (Source: the Infallible Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Tail)
So, it’s a numbers game (more specifically, an integration game - remember THAT?) capturing the notion that the AREA under the front part of The Curve is actually SMALLER than the AREA under the Tail part of the curve - aka. that there are more viewers (users, book buyers, money, etc.) in the TAIL than there are in what looks to be the obvious “big peak” of the curve.
There. I said it. Boom on.
i think that for 40 grand, and your audience that holds a criteria to your work, you have unjustly sold yourself. Please, if you are targeting an audience that upholds marketing standards, have some self respect in the ads you are displaying. If you are not to capacity to create, don’t; wait until you are staffed appropriately to accommidate what could be great for the future of the vlogging community.
Drop the ads all together.
great what u did, 40 k is awesome…and the whole concept of “selling out” is BS. So who cares, there are no real set rules, experimentation is what its all about,right.
You guys’s links at the bottom of the vlog is where the money should be at. Id rather see/hear a few quick lines on some kick ass product or whatever, just as long as the kickass’ness is valid. I mean, why risk selling out.
Juan$$$$$$$Dollah
Despite what we think about the ads, whether we like them or not, no matter how bad or good we think they are, I think for TRM it has been quite a successful not to mention very cheap marketing campaign. From what I understand the message they wanted to get out there is that anyone can sell an ATM, the RB crew has managed to do that in their unique way and the ads have had an impact as evidenced by the continued comments good and bad.
I personally don’t like this set of ads, they make me cringe and feel embarrassed that I’m watching them, but they have had an impact and I now know if I had the inclination, I could go and sell ATMs.
Um, yeah notDrTiki, if you listen to what Chuck said in the segment, and a few of the comments above, that’s what we were talking about. I think we were just trying to avoid the Calculus lecture.
Just found this item.
http://wearethemedia.com/2006/03/13/rocketboom-blasts-into-a-new-era-in-advertising/
I thought the commercials were a great first try. Even though they seemed slightly ackward, and a bit jumpy, it’s the first time advertising has ever done something like this — so of course the “filmatic language” or whatever you chose to call it, will be different. I say keep going for it. It’s unique, I looked forward to each one, I think you all did fantastic work considering its a new form for ya.
It seems that, at least on my computer, the episodes were coming up on the page a day late, as monday becoming available on tuesday, tuesday on wednesday, etc etc… have any idea on whats happening?
“Did you see god”?
someone a little nervous here?????
Amanda, I am one of your biggest fans. Please work on your public speaking….you said Uh and ya know possible 20 times in your short blurb today at Apple.
It really detracts from you intelligence and beauty.
Just a suggestion.
I think Amanda is still a little shakin’ from Steve Brundiak’s house of mistery.
Hey, great show again. I especially liked the bit when Amanda put her hands out and nodded her head enthusiastically on stage. You got the moves baby!
All the best, as always, from dear ol’ Blighty!
hmm does anyone read the comments once the video’s been archived?
The problem w using my imagination to go to the Rings of Saturn are many. Here are a few:
1) I can’t smell, touch, feel, or take pictures of them (yes I know, outer space)
2) I have to make something up in my mind that could and probably would totally suck in comparison to the real thing (if you think -your- imagination beats real life, try imagining the grand canyon, then go there and see who’s version is better)
3) I can’t brag to people or come back with the T-shirt
4) Generally, living in reality is way, way better than living in your imagination
5) I’m an American, I deserve instant gratification for extremely outlandish requests, darnit!
6) Rocket Boom should rule the earth.
7) what am I typing this list for again?
Have a Super Day!
Chuck - ok, I watched again. you are right, the Amazon example DOES get it right. That said, that very specific example was less than a minute of the segment.
Andrew, on the other hand, yammered on for close to 3 minutes with whiteboard and marker in hand, COMPLETELY massacring the idea - “big spikes”, “moves from here to there”…OMG what a mess…if I wasn’t already familiar with the Long Tail, I’d come out knowing less about it than when the segment started.
In the interest of journalistic accuracy I felt an overwhelming need to comment.
Over and out…