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About David Jacobs

David is a freelance gun for hire skilled in many areas of new technology including: Blog writing, video and audio podcasting, social media, content marketing, website production, and training. Email david@davidajacobs.com or call 503-427-8860 for more information.

The Incredibly Short Sighted Movie Industry

May 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment

movie-tickets-popcornI don’t ask for much, but I want what I want. My daughter and I were to have a movie night and we decided we wanted to see Iron Man, the original 2008 movie. I hop on iTunes and find I cannot rent the movie, only purchase it. I don’t want to purchase it, I just want to watch it one time with my daughter. Interestingly enough, you can rent Iron Man 2. Her second choice was Captain America which you cannot rent either. I could not rent Iron Man on any system I had acces to including Amazon.com.

Why can’t I rent Iron Man, which is a four year old movie? What in God’s name are you protecting and why is this movie more valuable than Iron Man 2 which was just as good a movie? Here I am, willing and happy to give you some money so I can watch the movie I want to watch one time. Why won’t you take my money? If you think I will break down and just buy it, you’re sorely mistaken. Would you like to know what does happen?

People who are not tech savvy curse your name and go away angry. I didn’t know it was such good business to anger and frustrate your customers. Talk to the music industry about how that worked out for them. Tech savvy people will head straight for a not so hard to use website and simply download a copy. They will get to watch the movie they wanted and you will be out the money. Either way, that’s a stupid business proposition. It’s been proven time and time again; if you don’t give people what they want, you will turn them into pirates. And these are people who would have been more than happy to give you money to get the movie legitimately.

So please, again, tell me why I can’t rent Iron Man?

Filed Under: Blog, Marketing, Technology, Video/Social TV Tagged With: , , ,

Disney Video Is A Winner

May 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

disney-video-betaFile under: Why did this take so long. Disney has released a portal site for kid-friendly video. Obviously, Disney itself has a huge wealth of content to draw from but they also include a nicely curated YouTube section. This alone could be a Godsend for parents who are worried about letting their kids loose on the unrestricted YouTube.

For young people nothing is hotter than video these days so this site makes so much sense for Disney. It’s a great example of a large brand using elements of the social net to great effect. The only thing I see missing are links to purchase the source content. The Disney Video site is a place I can see kids spending a lot of time on which keeps them connected and engaged with the brand.

Filed Under: Blog, Content Marketing, Video/Social TV Tagged With: , , ,

The Coming Bandwidth Explosion

May 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

FibreopticIt’s been building for years, and now it appears we are nearing a tipping point that will result in a massive explosion in Internet traffic. A great article here from Ars Technica about how the Net will cope. Of particular note, I found these statistics amazing.

  • One-third of the world’s population is on-line
  • Global IP traffic increased eightfold in the past five years and will quadruple by 2015.
  • Video is the primary driver of the data glut. Video is now the largest type of Internet traffic surpassing peer-to-peer file sharing.
  • Videoconferencing is the fastest growing business application.
  • Mobile Internet devices will soon outnumber the people of earth, reaching 10 billion by 2016.

Lots of work is being done to meet the demand from more undersea cables to the Internet 2 project. None of this surprises me as I have been working and monitoring the Internet space for years. I get especially frustrated with wireless companies who complain of the data use on their networks and now have put data caps on all their services. Clearly, they have not been able to keep up and the advent of the Smartphone took them by surprise. For technology based companies, they have not been very forward looking. Especially ironic is the fact that it is here in America where we invent most of the technology that drives the Internet and yet we are the country far behind in our own Internet infrastructure. We hardly have the fastest and most advanced Internet speeds in the world. The bandwidth explosion is coming; I hope we’re ready.

Filed Under: Blog, Technology Tagged With: , , ,

Wither Yahoo

May 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment

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I’m an old school internet guy. I remember the days well before Google when Yahoo was king. Yahoo was the first major big time Internet success story. Now, so many years later another Yahoo CEO is gone and the company appears as though it will be lead by a wall street hedge fund.

Yahoo is like a once great race horse, now out of its prime and injured. Someone needs to put it down. It’s time. There are a few valuable assets left like flickr which should be responsibly sold off to live another life.

But Yahoo needs to be done. I don’t want to stand by and watch it continually get brutalized. Say goodnight Gracie.

Filed Under: Blog, Technology Tagged With: , ,

Google Hangouts On Air Spells Trouble For Ustream

May 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

hangouts-on-airUntil now, Ustream..tv has been the king of online streaming video. The Ustream platform has been solid for years and, for the most part, devoid of serious challengers. Until now. Enter Google.

This week Google launched Hangouts On Air for all of it’s Google+ users. Hangouts are online video chats for the Google+ social network. Until now, Hangouts were limited to 10 participants and video chats were not recorded for later viewing. Hangouts On Air provides a true live broadcasting capability with virtually unlimited viewers and in addition, Hangouts are recorded and posted to YouTube for viewing later. This puts Hangouts on par with other broadcasting systems like Ustream and Justin.tv. Of course Ustream.tv has more features, a more mature platform and user base, but whenever a giant fish jumps into a small pond, it’s going to create big splash. Another big advantage for Google, Hangouts On Air are already connected to your growing social network on Google, whereas Ustream.tv does not have nearly the social network features.

What all this means for your business is video continues to grow in new and different ways. It’s a force you will not be able to avoid soon. What kind of video content could your business provide on these platforms?

Filed Under: Blog, Social Media, Technology, Video/Social TV Tagged With: , , , , ,

Apple Looks At Multi-User Support For iOS

May 8, 2012 By

iPadAnyone with a family or a pesky significant other knows multi-user support is an absolute must for iOS devices like the iPad. We have one iPad in the family and it’s shared among at least three people. The real bummer is apps like Twitter or Facebook because you have to maintain a login which has to be changed every time someone different uses the iPad.

Finally Apple is looking at support for multiple users on iOS and it cannot come fast enough as far as I am concerned.

Filed Under: Blog, Technology Tagged With: , , ,

Reality TV Comes To Silicon Valley

April 24, 2012 By

Silicon Valley RealityThe television landscape is awash in reality tv as it has been for years. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, Bravo is bringing it’s brand of “reality” to Silicon Valley. A new show to be called “Silicon Valley” will follow the exploits of several type-a personalities as they do business in The Valley. The series is being produced by Mark Zuckerberg’s sister Randi and is already catching flack from some in the valley who think the show will make them look silly. Ya think?

The only thing i’m surprised about is that it took this long. Unfortunately, they’re going to have to bend reality pretty hard on this one as anyone who has lived in the valley knows. It’s no Jersey Shore. People take their dogs to work, stare at computer screens all day and talk geek. The show would have been much better if done during the Internet boom days when people got millions of dollars for an idea scribbled on a napkin, literally. Paper millionaires were being minted daily, and then, just as quickly, poof, it was all gone. Now that was drama.

Filed Under: Blog, Culture, TV/Entertainment Tagged With: , , , , ,

Google Changes The Rules Making Content More Important

April 19, 2012 By

ContentToo many times, when I hear people talking about Internet marketing they are mostly talking about search engine optimization (SEO). Companies are obsessed with search ranking on Google, often ignoring other forms of social media marketing. SEO experts have been raking in the cash as well selling companies their fancy tricks for climbing the search ranks. I don’t necessarily have anything against SEO per se and I do reasonable  SEO on Connected World Media projects, but it’s not the complete story.

The party is about to end, however, as Google will be changing their algorithm to compensate for “over optimized sites”. This penalty for overly SEO’ed sites will level the playing field, giving sites with great content a better shot at ranking above sites with not as good content but great SEO.

It’s a constant fight between Google and those that seek to artificially manipulate results. Google’s job is to help customers find what the are looking for in the most pure sense possible. It’s always been about the content and this new change is going to make that even more true than ever. Rather than paying thousands of dollars a month for SEO wizardry, companies will be forced to focus on the content. Real, honest, authentic content. It’s about time.

I have always been more interested in content and the strategy that surrounds that content than SEO tricks. Give me a call at 503-427-8860 if you would like help getting your content strategy in order. In the meantime I would recommend reading Content Rules by C.C. Chapman and Ann Handley. This is one of the few new marketing books that focus on content and content strategy exclusively.

Filed Under: Blog, Content Marketing, Technology Tagged With: , , ,

Cha Cha Changes

April 19, 2012 By

changeYou may have already noticed the changes here at the website. I once again changed the WordPress theme, because, well, I have a commitment problem when it comes to WordPress themes. Plus the Genesis Framework I use keeps coming out with great new themes.

The more substantial change, however, will be in the content and focus of the site. This has always been a more personal site and I have treated it much like a laboratory for my experimentation in blogging and social media. I have enjoyed this creative space and I still believe it’s valuable for everyone to have a sandbox to play in. Excuse me while I mix my metaphors. The problem is the lab doesn’t pay the bills and the bills need to start getting paid.

The site will now focus on my professional passions and generating freelance work. There will also be some affiliate advertising too. Rest assured, any product that I recommend or link to is something I fully believe in and think you will gain great value from. You can see from the sub-menu the kind of areas I will be writing about.

Does Connected World Media still exist? Yes, but this site is focused on more transitory and smaller freelance work rather than the larger projects and longer term relationships Connected World Media seeks.

If you are ever interested in working with me, please see the Hire Me page or give me a call at 503-427-8860. The email is david@davidajacobs.com

Thank you and I hope you enjoy the new direction.

Filed Under: Blog

The 5 Most Horrifying Bugs In The World

April 16, 2012 By

Giant HornetYou think you’ve read and heard about some scary stuff? You’ve not read this article I found on the 5 most horrifying bugs in the world. Make sure you read it all, don’t skim. The devil is in the details, as they say. If this article doesn’t completely freak you out, well, you’re made of stronger stuff than I. ‘

Thank goodness many of these bugs don’t reside in the United States where I live. If He is supposed to be a loving God, why on earth would God create such crazy animals? I’m sure there is some larger purpose in nature, but damn.

My personal favorite is the Japanese Giant Hornet. Nothing like flesh-melting poison in your eyes.

Excuse me why I go watch a show about happy, furry bunnies or something.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: , ,
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