Generations

Last evening, I was fortunate enough to participate in a round table discussion concerning the challenges facing multi-generational workforces. This dialogue is one of a series hosted by Gerry Dick and sponsored by Ice Miller centered on the different attitudes and aptitudes of baby-boomers vs. Gen X'ers vs Millennials.

I was born in 1979, which puts me right on the dividing line between Generation X and Generation Y. I didn't grow up surrounded my computers, but I grew up as our Interconnected World did. I was the only representative that fell outside of the Boomer generation. On top of that, MediaSauce is an organization that wouldn't exist without broadband, and thus we are predominately comprised of a younger citizenry. This detail put everything into a unique context for me. While most of the participants focused on the clashes they feel with integrating and educating the young talent that joins their organization about the way they operate, we most often feel that strain when more established and experienced professionals join our ranks. In our world, focused so intently on new and emerging technology, it is often people with less time in the actual workforce who have more experience with the tools that we rely most heavily on. Because of this, the common situation is flipped on its head. It is the Millennials and young X'ers that hold the technical wisdom that the others must work to understand. At the same time, the Boomers offer great wisdom to direct the application of these new endeavors.

The point is, in an industry that relies on the power of brilliant ideas put towards achieving relevant goals, diversity of background and wisdom is the key to success.

Digg Falls on Its Sword

For those who don't know, Digg.com is an original Web 2.0 heavyweight/phenomenon whose general purpose is to help its users collaborate about what's most hot and/or important all across the web. Basically, if i think something is interesting, I "Digg" it. The links, stories, and sites that the most people "digg" move up the list and get the most attention.

On May 1, they had a truly defining series of events and they rose to the occasion. A user posted a link to a site that provided the crack to make it possible to pirate/copy HD-DVDs of films. The link quickly rose in the rankings and Digg was slapped with a take down notice. They reacted as any growing business might, by agreeing with what the big boy tells you. However, when they complied, the users had an immediate backlash and continued to post more and more links to the crack. Basically, they used Digg's technology against itself.

"Today was an insane day," founder Kevin Rose wrote on the company's blog last night. "We had to decide whether to remove stories containing a single code based on a cease and desist declaration. ... But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you've made it clear. You'd rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company."

When your whole purpose is to give people a voice and foster collaboration, they're going to get pissed when you tell them what they can and cannot say. Most honorable reaction from Rose--it will be interesting to see what happens in the courts because as we know, when the entertainment industry sees a new technology, they always react with fear and litigation.

Viva la revolucion!

More.

Joost Goes Live

The platform that may well prove to be the culmination of the inevitable convergence of the web and and the media outlet formerly (and formally) known as television officially launched. Before even moving out at beta, they have 32 national (now international thanks to the web's reach) advertisers on board and paying for a variety of different forms of ads to an audience that doesn't even exist yet. It's a no-brainer, though. Joost, developed by the guys who last did Skype, has done a great job of signing content deals with a laundry list of providers, most recently Turner Broadcasting (including The Cartoon Network's Adult Swim and CNN), Viacom (who is currently suing Google/YouTube for $1 billion), along with programming from Hasbro (Transformers, GI Joe, etc.), the NHL, Sports Illustrated and Sony Pictures Television.

This site is a monumental step. They will get a lot of eyeballs to take a look at content that will be from both traditional sources, and custom entertainment created specific by/for advertisers.

Learn about the advertising here.
Learn about the content here.