YouTube Update Shows You The Hottest Scenes In Your Videos

Google today announced updates to YouTube Insight’s analytics, adding a new feature, “Hot Spots”, that shows you the hottest scenes in your videos and also what’s not so hot. 

The Hot Spots tab in Insight plays your video alongside a graph that shows the ups-and-downs of viewership at different moments within the video. Google determine “hot” and “cold” spots by comparing your video’s abandonment rate at that moment to other videos on YouTube of the same length, and incorporating data about rewinds and fast-forwards.

When the graph goes up, your video is hot: few viewers are leaving, and many are even rewinding on the control bar to see that sequence again. When the graph goes down, your content’s gone cold: many viewers are moving to another part of the video or leaving the video entirely.

In the example above, you can see that many viewers are not impressed with the dance moves of Michael Rucker, Associate Product Marketing Manager at YouTube; they’re leaving the video at a faster than average rate almost immediately after the video begins. But the longer the video goes on, the more people tend to stay, generating a hot spot at the end of the video.

This features should be a useful tool, especially for people that post videos frequently, because it will let you figure out which scenes are the “hottest” and edit future videos to keep people more engaged.

It could also be used to A/B test different versions of videos. If you’re not sure which edits are more effective, you could upload two versions of a scene or entire video and see compare drop off rates.

Apple Threatens To Kill iTunes Store Over Music Royalties

Fortune reports that Apple is threatening to kill the iTunes Store over music royalties. 

The Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, D.C. is expected to rule Thursday on a request by the National Music Publishers’ Association to raise royalty rates on songs purchased from online music stores, like iTunes, from 9 cents to 15 cents per track. 

“If the [iTunes music store] was forced to absorb any increase in the … royalty rate, the result would be to significantly increase the likelihood of the store operating at a financial loss - which is no alternative at all,” notes iTunes vice president Eddy Cue. “Apple has repeatedly made it clear that it is in this business to make money, and most likely would not continue to operate [the iTunes music store] if it were no longer possible to do so profitably.”

At this point, Apple’s stance seems to be little more than saber rattling. Apple is quickly moving to diversify the iTunes store beyond music. While the digital video market is slow to take off, Apple has another hit with its App Store.

McCain Backers Prefer TV To The Internet

John McCain’s supporters prefer to get their news and entertainment from television, while Barrack Obama’s supporters tend to be “media generalists” who get their news and entertainment from assorted media platforms.

A new study by media agency MediaVest found that 65 percent of voters are paying more attention to the presidential election campaign than they did in 2004 and that 50 percent plan to increase their election-based media use through the election.

Other interesting, but puzzling factoids:

• 96 percent want “fair and impartial news and information”, while
• 75 percent want the media they use “to fit their own political viewers and outlook.”
• 91 percent want their news “detailed and in-depth,” while
• 60 percent want it “quick.”

Overall, the study found that the Web is still not trusted for political news and information as well as traditional media. 

via AdWeek 

Image: Steve Rhodes

Chris Brogan’s PodCamp Starter Kit

Ever wish there was a PodCamp in your area?

PodCamps are fun, free or inexpensive events for people interested in blogging, social media, social networking, podcasting, video on the net and new media, in general. 

They’re also a chance to meet a lot of other cool podcasters. You might even end up in the greatest photo ever. 

The idea of setting up a conference for dozens of hundreds of people is daunting, though. To help, Chris Brogan, who along with Chris Penn pioneered the PodCamp unconference concept, shared his tips for setting up your own PodCamp, calling it the Quick Podcamp Starter Kit:

1. Are there more than 10 podcasters or videobloggers or bloggers in your area? If yes, then you can probably do a PodCamp.
2. Make a wiki. We use http://pbwiki.com . Easy cheesy to edit.
3. List your PodCamp with a tentative time frame up on PodCamp.org 
   • Remember that there are six rules listed on the page to make it an official podcamp.
4. Blog that you’re going to do it.
5. Ask for co-organizers. Assign them very specific tasks.
6. Find a venue. This is way harder than you think. 
   • Room for ___ people (it’s your event. How many do you want?) 
   • Wifi
   • A/V gear (unless you can get a sponsor to give you some)
   • Food costs - Some places charge 3x the venue costs for meals
   • If you can get a corporate venue, that often works the best
7. Seek sponsors to cover costs. 
   • Be very clear on what they get back for their money. 
   • Make sure this includes link love on the web. If you can, ask others to also blog about the sponsors.
   • Be very open about who will come, what type of people, and how the sponsors will interact.
8. Decide whether to charge for attendance (something nominal).
9. Delegate to the volunteers such that everyone knows what they own.
10. Hold a great event and write about it for years.

If you’re not sure about doing your own PodCamp, you can go to one of the upcoming events and see what they are all about. There’s a list of planned events at the PodCamp site.

YouTube Updates Video Uploader, Increases Size Limit To 1GB

YouTube has announced an updated video uploader and bumped up the maximum file size for uploads.

A random sample of YouTube users have already been using the beta version.

YouTube is opening up the streamlined uploader to everyone; just login to your YouTube account and click this link to opt in.

The new video upload tool includes these cool features:

• You can enter in your video’s metadata (title, description, tags, etc.) while the upload is processing.
• Upload multiple files at once, without downloading a plugin (separate progress bars will display for each file).
• The file-size limit for uploads has been raised from 100MB to 1GB.

The updates help keep YouTube competitive with other video sites.

Developer Frustration Growing with Apple

Application developers certainly need some assurance whenever they spend money and time for their creations. According to Jason Snell, the editorial director of Macworld, Apple Inc. is now lacking the transparency that the developers need. Aside from that, the company also does not have enough clarity as well on how they would reject or approve applications that will be available on the App Store. These are the applications that would work on the Apple devices such as the iPod Touch and the iPhone. Jason Snell said that these factors may lead the developers to a point where they would just walk away from creating iPhone Apps.

complete article

Support Pandora – Call Congress Now

If you like Internet radio  and Pandora then It’s time call your Congressman, to tell them you want them to vote for HR 7084.

Here’s the notice from Pandora’s blog.  If you want more background on Pandora, check out our interview with Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora.

CONGRESSIONAL EMERGENCY!!!

Listeners we need your help… NOW!

After a yearlong negotiation, Pandora, artists and record companies are finally optimistic about reaching an agreement on royalties that would save Pandora and Internet radio. But just as we’ve gotten close, large traditional broadcast radio companies have launched a covert lobbying campaign to sabotage our progress.

Yesterday, Congressman Jay Inslee, and several co-sponsors, introduced legislation to give us the extra time we need but the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), which represents radio broadcasters such as Clear Channel, has begun intensively pressuring lawmakers to kill the bill. We have just a day or two to keep this from collapsing.

This is a blatant attempt by large radio companies to suffocate the webcasting industry that is just beginning to offer an alternative to their monopoly of the airwaves.

Please call your Congressperson right now and ask them to support H.R. 7084, the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008 - and to not capitulate to pressure from the NAB. Congress is currently working extended hours, so even calls this evening and over the weekend should get answered.

The central congressional switchboard number is: (202) 225 3121

Or to look up your representative, visit: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml

If the phone is busy, please try again until you get through. These calls really do make a difference.

This is a fork in the road. Only massive grassroots opposition will keep us from another 50 years of top 40 radio. It’s time to take a stand and break the stranglehold of broadcast media on radio.

Thanks so much for you ongoing support.

Tim

Founder, Pandora

Richard Stallman On Avoiding Ruinous Compromises

Twenty-five years ago, Richard Stallman announced his plan to create a free operating system called GNU. Since then, Stallman’s work has had a massive influence on the world of free and open source software, software that powers much of the Internet. 

In honor of the 25th anniversary of GNU, Stallman has penned an essay on Avoiding Ruinous Compromises

In it, Stallman looks at some of the compromises he’s had to make to move GNU forward, and how to judge which compromises are acceptable:

The free software movement aims for a social change: to make all software free so that all software users are free and can be part of a community of cooperation. Every non-free program gives its developer unjust power over the users. Our goal is to put an end to that injustice.

The road to freedom is a long road. It will take many steps and many years to reach a world in which it is normal for software users to have freedom. Some of these steps are hard, and require sacrifice. Some steps become easier if we make compromises with people that have different goals.

He pays special attention to what he calls ruinous compromises:

A ruinous compromise is not just a bad influence on others. It can change your own values, too, through cognitive dissonance. If you believe in certain values, but your actions imply other conflicting values, you are likely to change one or the other so as to resolve the contradiction. Thus, projects that argue only from practical advantages, or direct people towards some non-free software, nearly always shy away from even suggesting that non-free software is unethical. For their participants, as well as for the public, they reinforce consumer values. We must reject these compromises even to keep our values straight.

Sometimes Stallman comes across as an extreme fundamentalist - but this essay does a great job of exploring why he thinks it’s so vital to have high goals and to be uncompromising when you need to be.

It’s a great essay - and may leave you asking where you should be less compromising.

How’d You Like Your Internet Connection To Be 100 Times Faster?

How’d you like your Internet speed to 100 times faster than it is today?

The Finnish government has announced plans for universal broadband access across Finland assuring that no person will be further than a mile and a half away from a broadband Internet connection of at least 100 megabits per second (Mbps). 

“The development of that infrastructure is to be guaranteed in a way that all members of the public and companies, regardless of location, will have an opportunity to use information society services,” said Suvi Lindén, Finland’s communications minister.

The Finnish government set the 100 Mbps speed as a minimum, hoping to have gigabit-range speeds by 2015, understanding the economic and social importance of universal broadband as well as the need for governmental leadership in reaching that goal. 

“Data connections are no longer entertainment but a necessity,” said Harri Pursiainen, the permanent secretary for the transport and communications minister. ”Regional, equal communications infrastructure will not come about without state action.” 

Research has shown that users with higher Internet connection speeds are more likely to spend time online and to use podcasts and Internet videos. Finland’s plans set a goal for the country to have Internet speeds that are about 100 times the speed of the average US connection. 

via SpeedMatters

Image: Éole

Free, Open Source App Lets You Download Videos From YouTube & 50 Other Sites

 xVideoServiceThief (a.k.a xVST) is a free tool for downloading video clips from a variety of video websites.

xVideoServiceThief also gives you the ability to convert each video into popular formats, including AVI, MPEG1, MPEG2, WMV, MP4, 3GP and MP3s.

Features:

• Cross-Platform: xVideoServicethief is available for the following platforms:
  • Microsoft Windows Vista, Server 2003, XP, 2000, NT 4, Me/98
  • Mac OS X, 10.3 and 10.4 coming
  • Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, IRIX, AIX, many other Unix variants
• Simultaneous downloads: Download more than one video at same time
• Pause and resume your downloads (some servers do not support pause/resume functions, for example YouTube)
• Free!
• Automatic Updates
• Drag & Drop functions: Drag and Drop the video link directly to the xVideoServiceThief
• Multilanguage: Use xVideoService in your language
• Session Manager: Save and Restore your download lists
• Download Log: Save a list with all downloaded vide (Date + Title + URL)
• Accessible information: xVST has usable information for people with disabilities
• Children protection: Disable adult website support
• Customizable websites: Select which websites are allowed and which websites must be blocked
• Tray Icon functions: xVideoServiceThief can work in background mode
• Proxy server support: Is currently under beta version
• Bug Report: You can help to improve the future versions
• Open Source: The xVST is developed under the GNU General Public License