In a recent Media Post article yesterday, Steve Smith gives another jab at the mobile video industry- Lets Give Mobile Video a little Push.  However, even though I am a mobile guy myself, I have been quite frustrated with the lack of true delivered content online.  Well, I have looked at the $8.99/month on Netflix and I am avidly scouring to find good movies to watch on Hulu, but the world of mainstream movie media going online has yet to begin.  What will it take for this revolution to begin?  We saw the problems that surfaced in the TV industry between National and Syndicated TV over the major upheaval between Conan and Leno, but with broadband now so prevalent, and some shut-down of services such as Limewire and now the debate over Bittorrent, It makes you really wonder why the MPAA and other organizations are not taking this “horse by the reins” and moving forward with a better model for more distributed cross-channel media in the 21st century.  As it is 2010, how much longer will we have to wait to get proper available new titles and shows to be launched multi-platform. We saw how effective cross media distribution started to work for the Olympics in Vancouver 2010, as well as the World Cup 2010.

Will we need to wait for Steve Jobs to bring all of this via the Apple storefront?  Will it become Amazon’s next mission over eBooks? …Or will it take more file-sharing to just get this Industry so antagonistic and pissed off in order to make change?

As we can see in the advertising space, Hulu is clearly leading the charge with Ads served, but I feel for myself that users would be willing to pay for a reliable convenient service, even with some advertising like Hulu.   Look at what Jeff Bezos, CEO Amazon has been able to achieve with Amazon and the Kindle.  His goal is to get every book available with a 60sec search and download lead time.  They were able to get 600K titles in 33 months.  It should makes sense that we would be seeing this today for all media.  Where is this real giant to make this happen?  Google’s  Youtube just increased the upload lengths to 10minutes, but we need that one-shop-stop of 100’s of thousands if not Millions of movies…. Will Google Video and Google TV in the end be this answer for bringing this all together?  Well the alignment with the Hardware companies has in someway started to attack right in the gut of it all… Having this possibility from the get go right in the box might push users to drop those media cable payments only for more of these online subscription services?

As I have just relocated 50/50 to New York City, I have been subletting a space and do not have a TV.  It has been refreshing to be able to do everything online, but now and again I would like to kick-back and watch a new movie without having to go out and get the DVD ( or go to the theaters and pay $5 for Popcorn).   When I use Hulu, my choices are rather limited and I seem to be browsing through so much stuff from the 1990’s and older, that my interest level has dropped to zero.   Not much of a catalog for the 21st century.   Here is a snap-shop of what comes up in Action and Adventure titles in Hulu…. not that much leading edge stuff ( good, but not great as far as I know what they could do!)

So I then thought to try Netflix… for the $8.99 a month they do seem to have a bit better selection, but still they advertise with  21 leading titles, but this is really it! … Did not entice me to want to get locked into that payment scheme yet until I can feel that they are on-top of getting the best stuff, all the time.

I guess spending the $10~15 at the movie theater is the only real way to see the latest and greatest.  I beleive having a strategy that works along side the DVD releases could possibly be the way to go.  As Computer screens are getting better and better like true TV sets and TV sets are now becoming computer screens, why not have the same kind of pricing structure for starters that mimics the rental DVD business.   I know Netflix and Hulu guys are working hard at this everyday, but just making the movies available at the same price point would not only eliminate the need for me to either drive to pick up a DVD or even pay for the mail back and forth.   It would not only be convenient and add a bit more liquidity in choice that would most definitely bring more distribution and volume….. and think of how green it would be to not expend all that Gasoline.  I am not sure of the carbon footprint between a video stream and a ride to the local Movie Theater, but I would guess it is much less.  I guess the fear is still too great to digitize everything do to piracy, but is this not happening anyway. Does not take long to rip and upload a DVD that has been hacked these days. If Steve Jobs has shown everybody in the music business and the mobile application world that getting stuff out there in an easy and effective way to consume, users would be willing to pay…. We all know he is driving a low cost structure, but does it have to be so low to begin with. Get the stuff out there at the same standards and see what happens!

I feel that it is about time for not only a “little push” as Steve Smith says, but a ” big push” and gripe from consumers to bring us to the 21st century with all the content online and mobile.

Liz Gannes, published an article on NewTeeVee in 2008 decribing that by 2010 we would see 25% of all traditional TV viewers go Online to watch TV…. so is 25% not enough to kick start this revolution?   We are all waiting…. at least I am.

Users love their iPhone Accessories! Is Motorola strategy right to go negative? ( Recent blast by Motorola on NO Jacket Required!)

When iPhone4 launched, I could not stop thinking how much this design aligned to the thinking of a small device that could be mass-configured with changeable covers.  In many ways it is what Modu wants to become!  As I was a lead architect back in the 90’s when Nokia had the mass personalization effort around changeable covers,  we debated as to what would hold true in the future of personalization.  The mobile world has come a long way since the 90’s, but if you have a chance to watch Frank Nuovo on Charlie Rose in 2000, you will see clearly that Nokia had painted a very good picture of what was to come in the future on personalized experiences. Frank was a thought leader 10 years early…

What I beleive has happened is that we have evolved this  unique opportunity of two different types of devices.  Of course there is the personalization of the services and the overall internet, but I am referring to the Hardware aspects of personalization.  Mixing hardware with Fashion.

1) Devices that have hardware that is designed with fashion in mind that target a certain demographic. Multiple colors of the device, target look-n-feel to meet a certain market segment.   ( Mainly this has been the latest thinking of Android HW manufacturers, RIM, NOKIA, Microsoft)

2) Devices that are skinned down simple designed basics that then offer a chance for mass-customization via personalized accessories ( APPLE, MODU)

While Google Android, Nokia and RIM have gone down type 1),  Have a look at the recent announcement of Motorola with Android blasting Apple because they have a cover and used the Antenna issue as a way to market their products.   In many ways, I beleive this is unique approach as blasting them based on a feature, but why kill the Jacket?  As well, Nokia has recently abandoned the concept of simplicity with changeble covers ( Even though they invented it) to build full design elements to target certain demographics.   Then look at Microsofts KIN.  They build hardware to target a certain demo ( young students) and we saw where that went…

On the other hand we have two unique companies, Apple and Modu.  That are building out a strategy of a simple elegant product that is small and that is a starting block for massive personalization.  Yes, users can have the product on its own as it stands alone in its beauty, but how it fits into the accessory ecosystem is a key part of the overall product strategy.

I was sitting in a cafe recently and across the table from me was a police officer from the NYPD.   He was playing with his iPhone while waiting for his lunch to be served.  The beauty of all of this was that he had a very unique leather, urban with rubber jacket on his device! It matched his personal style and his needs.  iPhone’s basic design can reach everybody and then they have the ability to not only personalize the overall look, while still keeping the product small, but the user can as well customize the screen.    We will see Jackets of all kinds…. Metallica Jackets, New York Yankee Jackets…. Ferrari Jackets, as well as Company Jackets…. so what is wrong with the Jacket?

Even though Apple designed a product that was as small, simple and clean as they could go, with a fundamental beyond-physics strategy of embedding an antenna into the body of the product ( nobody had ever succeeded with this really in the history of mobility) they were bound to take criticism and it was a risk!  But in my mind a very amazing risk in that having this kind of simple product as a base to a variety of other accessories and architectures is an avenue to hardware personalization as a means of fashion.   They pushed the envelop to get the size as small as it could go with such a large screen and keeping the product very thin.  Having the antenna in the body was a very difficult and yet impossible challenge, but it was a method for getting the smallest product possible potentially.

I personally think the view of personalization and small framed designed products with ability to add accessories  is a  key driver to real Fashion statements, mass-customization and mass end-user adoption.   The very simple strategy like in the case of Apple that can scale to build its business for starters, is key as part of this thinking.   I think bringing the Press over the Jacket was potentially the wrong thing to do in the long-term….  Apple should highlight more about the opportunities for customization over the fact they pushed the envelop a bit too far with Antenna design.

So where is MODU in all of this?  I would image these Israeli’s are in the labs looking at the smallest iPhone killer Android device that could be configured or skinned with multiple accessories.  They have done done the small match-box route…. why not the Android with a large screen thin route like Apple?  This would be a very interesting competitor of Apple!

Frank Nuovo, ex-Chief of Nokia Design,  talks about mobile devices as “Objects of Desire” and he personally moved down the Fashion route with his move to run design over at Vertu.  In my mind,  this architecture of design personalization and mobile  has really taken form and that these simple products with less buttons and objects of design can now grow toward multimedia rich and configurable products along with the hardware configurations.  Apple is clearly on the right path as a vision,  lets see if this media and the antenna challenge is not big enough for them to get pulled off this strategic path?

In this latest Press-Release, new research shows that at this slice in time mobile for the online retail world is a reality.  Having  your Smart Phone  with you on-the-go now is not only a guide to price comparisons and m-Commerce, but a way to get great recommendations and reviews at your fingertips.  If you have a e-Commerce site and you have not built out a mobile strategy, that you are getting left behind.

——————

[ Press Release]

Three-Quarters of Online Retailers are Dialing Up Mobile Strategies, According to Shop.org/Forrester Research

Washington, June 29, 2010 – Consumers’ increasing appetite for mobile applications is driving online retailers to speed up their mobile marketing initiatives. According to a Forrester Research Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) study produced in partnership with Shop.org, the National Retail Federation’s digital division, nearly three-quarters (74%) of online retailers either already have or are developing a mobile strategy. One in five boasts having a fully-implemented mobile strategy in place already. The survey of 109 companies is part of “The State of Retailing Online” research series, which provides eBusiness professionals with an annual industry benchmark for marketing and business investment and activities.

“It’s imperative for online retailers to stay on top of what their customers want and these days it’s all mobile all the time,” said Scott Silverman, Executive Director, Shop.org. “Mobile commerce has tremendous potential and will no doubt grow to become a significant part of overall sales volume in years to come. Whether to increase customer satisfaction, grow their brand or drive traffic and sales, online retailers are in this game to stay.”

“Mobile investment is modest now, but we see that it will pick up in the future, especially among the biggest brands that have already invested significant amounts in their mobile operations,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, Vice President, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research, and lead author of the report.

Earlier this year, Forrester forecast US online retail sales to total $173 billion in 2010. According to “The State Of Retailing Online: Marketing, Social Commerce and Mobile Report,” Web retailers with mobile strategies:

•    Are investing in features that support the cross-channel experience. Product and price information, store information, and coupons to support the in-store experience are among the most popular features that retailers are offering consumers.
•    Have varied level of investment. While respondents anticipated spending on average $170,000 on their mobile sites this year, large multichannel retailers are spending several times that amount, while smaller online pure plays on average are investing much less.
•    Are experiencing modest gains. Retailers reported that their mobile browsers at this juncture are generating a little less than three percent of overall site traffic and just two percent of revenue.

Marketing and Social Media

Tried and true marketing tactics such as paid search, email and affiliate marketing command the biggest percentage of an online retailers’ marketing budget. According to the report, retailers are spending nearly 40% of their marketing budget on paid search.

Retailers are finding value in social media marketing, but the ROI for driving online sales remains murky. Listening to customers is the most significant objective for social tools according to respondents, with 80 percent of retailers reporting that they are pursuing social strategies to experiment and learn. And while 28 percent noted that social marketing has helped grow their business, direct sales from social tactics are not widely measured.

“The State of Retailing Online: Marketing, Social Commerce and Mobile Report” is available to Shop.org members and can also be purchased directly at www.shop.org/soro. Forrester clients will be able to access the report as part of their subscription service one month from publication.

About Shop.org

Shop.org, a division of the National Retail Federation, is the world’s leading membership community for digital retail. Founded in 1996, Shop.org’s 700 members include the 10 largest retailers in the U.S. and more than 60 percent of the Internet Retailer Top 100 E-Retailers. It’s where the best retail minds come together to gain the insight, knowledge, and intelligence to make smarter, more informed decisions in the evolving world of the Internet and multichannel retailing. Shop.org programs and activities include benchmarking research, events, and networking communities.

Shop.org is a part of NRF’s Mobile Retail Initiative, which serves to lead the industry in the implementation and dissemination of mobile related best practices and standards.

About Forrester Research

Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) is an independent research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology. Forrester works with professionals in 19 key roles at major companies providing proprietary research, customer insight, consulting, events, and peer-to-peer executive programs. For more than 26 years, Forrester has been making IT, marketing, and technology industry leaders successful every day. For more information, visit www.forrester.com.

© 2010, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Forrester is a trademark of Forrester Research, Inc.
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It was announced earlier this week that Facebook achieved their 500M User base worldwide.  In addition, it has been stated that there is about 100M of those users that are accessing Facebook via their mobile devices ( about 20%).

Moreover, when we look at the opportunity and potential for mobile, the global  market subscriber base has topped 5Billion strong thus indicating that Facebook is still only about 2% of the worlds marketplace for Mobile Social Media (or MoSo).

Repeatedly, Facebook has been one of the most downloaded Applications on the iPhone, Android, and even Blackberry devices with the amazing statistic of over 50% of all usage of content on the mobile tied to social media.   As the mobile experience has also been “coined” to be very location centric, there is another converging category called Mobile Local (or MoLo).   This is tied to Mobile Search and Location Based Services on the go.  As the Geo API has been made available via many application frameworks, it has also been available via certain browsers to bring Location-context to websites and web applications.   Twitter has included a location API recently to  their suite of unique modifiers for Twitter Search and the Geo API has been a strong debate in the developer community surrounding the iPhone in general for location based advertising.

( Picture and Statistics from Hitwise)

So with 98% of the Global Market in the Mobile Social Space and the amazing growth of Mobile Location Based Services, it is apparent that there is a new opportunity for the next Billion Dollar Company in this combined MoSo or MoLo…… or should we say MoSoLo.   The quiet battle ensues between the several mobile location based social networks such as Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt, Brightkite, Socialight,  and a variety of others, but they are still all less then 10M users, thus validating it is early days for MoSoLo.

Creating a compelling experience for end-user’s to “share their location”  for not only their friends but for a unique engagement with brands is now at a very interesting crossroads of growth and evolution to the next killer app ( or massive money making app- mmm ) .   Companies like Nokia, Google, Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo have all been putting up billions of  dollars  into this new contest for the next holy grail of advertising and social media, but it seems like  this MoSoLo end-user mind share is with  these new nimble start-ups at this time

Skyhook wireless, a company that has been strong in providing location information as an API for developers,  handset manufactures and Operators had recently released this “heat map” of  real time location interactions.  It will not be long before the heat map itself may be sliced and diced into different behavioral segments for real-time viewing.

Imagine seeing clusters about town of where people that tend to like the same interests or are connected to you are gathering around town at a certain point in time.

So by 2012, I would not be surprised to see a new player, jump out of the blue and take this next wave of MoSoLo or will Facebook be able to take a big chunk of this remaining 98% of the  pie?

In Cooperation with MEF, ADObjects, Inc brings in the valuable overseas experience from Japan in m-Commerce as part of the International Guide on m-Commerce.  ADObjects, Inc provides leading edge consultancy services in the areas of mobile marketing and m-Commerce as well as building revenue generating partnerships with overseas companies looking toward market entry into North America. This guide has comprehensive examples and case studies from both leaders in Japan; SONY FeliCa and Entermotion.

FeliCa is a contactless RFID smart card system by Sony in Japan, primarily used in electronic money cards. The name stands for Felicity Card. First utilized in the Octopus card system in Hong Kong^[1], the technology is used in a variety of cards also in countries such as Singapore and Japan.  One of the key global operators to launch and bring FeliCa to the market was NTTDoCoMo. NTTDoCoMo’s m-Commerse Activities date back to the Early 20o5.   Brands such as McDonald’s and Seven-Eleven have fully utilized FeliCa for m-Commerce in Japan respectively.

Entermotion is one of the leading Japanese coupon and mobile marketing platform companies in Japan.

****************

Today, MEF North America Launches M-Commerce Guide to Drive Customer Acquisition, Retention and Conversion

• MEF values global mobile media industry at $36bn globally
• 53% of consumers have a propensity to use their mobile handsets for financial transactions*
• One out of every seven minutes of media consumption today takes place via mobile devices**

The M-Commerce guide is the first output of MEF’s M-Commerce Initiative led by an expert committee of members and written through consultation with leading industry players to engage, educate and evolve the potential of mobile. The guide is designed to help brands, content owners/producers and retailers better understand how to leverage the mobile device to drive customer acquisition, retention and, most importantly, conversion.

While the definition of M-Commerce includes a broad range of categories, for the purposes of this guide, we have limited the definition to include the following:

• Digital content, goods and services purchased and delivered on the mobile device (in channel services) as well as tangible products purchased through the handset but physically delivered (out of channel products)
• All forms of commerce whether paid for or ad-funded/sponsored.

Mobile banking is not included.

The guide has been authored with the leadership and invaluable support of the following MEF member companies: 2ergo, ADObjects, Billing Revolution, Boku, engage2mobile, Impact Mobile, Inmar, KPMG, mBlox, Motorola, Netbiscuits, Nokia, Polar Mobile, Playphone, RIM, Samsung, Sybase365, Synergy World, T-Mobile and Zong.

The guide has been published with the kind support and sponsorship of Impact Mobile, Inmar, KPMG and mBlox.

Download the Guide
To see the press release

As I was watching Adam Lambert sing at Nokia Theater last night, it was not surprising to see the sea of lights from all of the mobile phone display’s  from the back of the hall.  Everybody seemed to be videotaping the show.  Now with the latest phones with the 5M ~15M Pixel Camera’s, controlling what is being recorded in high-quality to share is just going to get more and more difficult.  An Artist like Adam that puts on an incredible show is so tempting to record and share with your friends from your new iPhone 4.0. So what do Content Companies do?

1) I did notice that the overall event was being shot in High-Definition Video… So release a DVD for sale?  How long before that gets uploaded and shared? Sell other merchandise instead and make all content FREE?

2) Prevent people from bringing their mobile phones into events?  It reminds me of the lost umbrella room at Tokyo station, all lined up in order of date and train for pick-up? Will clubs need to have honeycomb shelves holding 10’s of thousands of phones like a cloak room?

3) DRM? This never seemed to work.

4) Better policing by the likes of Google on highly-trafficked User-Generated sites like YouTube?  Well this did not work for Viacom….. both sides have valid points, but with all the ads wrapped around the content, these seems to be some justice is sharing that revenue with the content owners and publishers in some form.

Google has loads of technology, that if a company like Viacom can prove to Google that the content was their content, should they not be paid a share of the revenue that Google is generating from it?   I do understand the reasoning and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and the rights of the end-users to share, but for a company that is making profits via other means such as advertising, etc… surrounding the content, there must be a better mechanism to create a win-win for the original rights holders depending how the rights are set-up.

…. or I guess it all goes such that the publishing industry is just going to have to live with FREE, and all money comes from live events?  All Artists now need to become an Adam Lambert, Metallica, U2 or Lady Gaga to draw a crowd and profit in Events.  So Sell Viacom stock and Buy AEG or the local T-Shirt Merchandising company that has just gone public ? Is this the answer?

**************************************

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 24, 2010 – 8:02am.

San Francisco - Google (NASD: GOOG) was handed a major legal victory on Wednesday, as a federal judge granted summary judgment to the company in the $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit filed against YouTube in 2007 by Viacom (NYSE: VIA). U.S. District Court Judge Louis L. Stanton agreed with Google’s argument that YouTube is a service provider as defined under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and is therefore entitled to “safe harbor” — such that it cannot be held liable for copyright infringements committed by its users.

Judge Stanton noted that, while Google may have been aware of copyrighted content uploaded to its site, it has no way of knowing whether the uploads were authorized.

The judge said that the “burden is on the owner to identify infringement,” and gave his seal of approval to the current system for dealing with the issue, whereby copyright owners must notify service providers like YouTube and request that works uploaded without their permission be taken down.

“The present case shows that the D.M.C.A. notification regime works efficiently: when Viacom over a period of months accumulated some 100,000 videos and then sent a mass take-down notice on February 2, 2007, by the next business day YouTube had removed virtually all of them,” Judge Stanton wrote.

Viacom intends to appeal the ruling.

“We believe that this ruling by the lower court is fundamentally flawed and contrary to the language of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the intent of Congress, and the views of the Supreme Court as expressed in its most recent decisions,” the company said in a statement.

“We intend to seek to have these issues before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit as soon as possible. After years of delay, this decision gives us the opportunity to have the Appellate Court address these critical issues on an accelerated basis.”

“This is an important victory not just for us, but also for the billions of people around the world who use the web to communicate and share experiences with each other,” Google vide president and general counsel Kent Walker wrote on the company’s blog.

“We’re excited about this decision and look forward to renewing our focus on supporting the incredible variety of ideas and expression that billions of people post and watch on YouTube every day around the world.”

In a recent post by the Harvard Business Review with a statistic released by a global McKinsey survey, Management, R&D, and strategy account for the largest projected global talent shortfalls, which differ significantly from nation to nation. In China, for instance, 28% of respondents say their companies have the greatest difficulty recruiting management talent, compared with only 13% in India, where managers are much more concerned about finding R&D specialists.

I have been working quite closely with R&D teams in India and overall it has been very satisfying. It does however, take a lot of time with the negotiations back and forth, but if you find the right team, I highly recommend it.

Here are some more information from the Survey.

This post will include my overall coverage of the event.

( Starting at 1pm PST)

The Big Apple goes internet crazy next week with over 150 events scheduled and on the other coast Apple launches its iPhone 4.0 at WWDC.   This is an exciting week if you have Apple in your name… ADObjects, Inc will be covering Internet Week.

INTERNET TAKES OVER NEW YORK CITY:  MORE THAN 150

EVENTS SLATED FOR INTERNET WEEK NEW YORK, JUNE 7-14, 2010

Third Annual Festival Celebrates

NYC’s Leadership in Digital Culture and Commerce

www.internetweekny.com

New York, NY (June 2, 2010) – The third annual Internet Week New York will host over 150 events between June 7-14 at the festival’s first-ever headquarters at Chelsea’s Metropolitan Pavilion and at dozens of locations throughout the City.

A complete schedule, released by organizers today, reflects both the rise of New York City as a new tech capital and the festival’s emergence as a top annual gathering for Internet leaders. The diverse slate of programming for Internet Week New York, presented by Yahoo!, includes everything from panels, conferences, and educational events to art installations, live performances and parties.

Serving as a hub for festival-goers, the first-ever Internet Week New York headquarters will showcase technology demos, art exhibits, panel discussions, product launches, lounge spaces, and a host of other activities.  The headquarters is hosted by presenting sponsor Yahoo! and official sponsors HP, Pepsico, Microsoft Expression Studio, IAC, Southwest Airlines and Aquent.

The headquarters will also host premiere conference events, including the Yahoo! Provoke Summit with a keynote by Ze Frank and IAB’s Innovation Days with AoL’s Tim Armstrong. Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV, Josh & Chuck of HowStuffWorks, and other Internet personalities will also present live shows and conversations throughout the week.

Internet Week New York headquarters passes are available for purchase ($10 for Monday through Thursday access) at http://www.internetweekny.com/attend/expo-pass.

Beyond the headquarters, organizations such Time Warner, IAC, The Onion, mediabistro, and Guest of a Guest, will present events at venues across the city, including The Times Center, NYU, CUNY, Galapagos Arts Space, the Jane Hotel Ballroom and The Knitting Factory.

The diverse roster of events includes NY Tech Meetup, the week’s largest public event where over 800 people will see demos from New York’s hottest start-ups, The Webutante Ball, a “prom” for New York’s tech media scene, an exhibition of Facebook portraits at the Art Director’s Club, conferences for food and pet bloggers, geek speed dating, live dance music created by a Nintendo Game Boy, and a crash course in mastering Twitter.  The week will culminate with The 14^th Annual Webby Awards, a star-studded gala honoring the Internet’s best and brightest at Cipriani Wall Street on June 14^th.

“There is a great sense of excitement, optimism, and energy in the New York community right now and that’s reflected in the line-up for this year’s Internet Week New York,” said David-Michel Davies, chairman, Internet Week New York. “The festival is an amazing opportunity to meet the innovators behind NYC’s industry resurgence, share ideas, and find out where the Internet might be taking us next.”

“Yahoo! is proud to be the presenting sponsor of Internet Week New York,” said Mollie Spilman, SVP, Global B2B Marketing at Yahoo!. “There is a tremendous amount of positive momentum in the industry and this week of events is an important showcase of all the progress, innovation and creativity taking place in the market.”

Highlights of the festival include:

Special Events and Parties

• Blip.tv Five Year Anniversary Party – A celebration of NYC-based startup blip.tv’s fifth anniversary. (June 8, IWNY Headquarters)

• IAC’s dumbdumb Launch Celebration — IAC and CollegeHumor celebrate the launch of DumbDumb, the new digital-driven production company co-created by Will Arnett and Jason Bateman in partnership with Ben Silverman’s Electus. (June 10, IAC Headquarters)

• The Webby Awards – Concluding Internet Week New York, the star-studded awards gala hosted by B.J. Novak of The Office will feature winners like Roger Ebert, Amy Poehler, OK Go, and Lisa Kudrow delivering the Webbys’ famous five-word speeches. (June 14, Cipriani Wall Street, Invite Only)

• The Webutante Ball – A celebration of the New York tech scene, including the crowning of the Webutante King and Queen. (June 8, Marquee)

• Third Annual Internet Week NY Opening Reception– The week kicks off with cocktails in the first-ever festival headquarters at Metropolitan Pavilion. (June 7, IWNY HQ)

Industry Conferences and Panels

• Future of Media: 2010 – Arianna Huffington and Dan Abrams are among the panelists debating how the Internet and other digital media are transforming the traditional media landscape. (June 8, New York University Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute)

• GCA Savvian Digital Media Summit — Leading companies and private equity firms in the industry will converge to engage in thought-provoking dialogue. (June 8, Westin Times Square)

• HP@IWNY Kick-Off Event– HP helps commence Internet Week New York festivities with a news conference followed by a conversation, moderated by Mashable and featuring some of the Web’s most innovative minds, about how companies are harnessing the power of the Internet. (June 7, IWNY HQ)

• IAB Innovation Days @ Internet Week - AoL CEO Tim Armstrong and Lloyd Braun of BermanBraun are among the speakers at a two-day conference exploring branded content and the future of TV and online video. (June 8 & 9, IWNY HQ)

• Mashable Media Summit 2010 –A one-day conference focusing on the impact of social media on the news industry, big brands and advertisers, featuring presentations by College Humor’s Ricky Van Veen and The Onion’s Baratunde Thurston. (June 8, The Times Center)

• Twtrcon – Focused entirely on the business use of Twitter, this one-day conference features remarks by Martha Stewart and foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley. (June 15, New York Hilton)

• Yahoo! Provoke Summit – Ze Frank keynotes this event featuring creatives and developers exploring how new innovations and technology are evolving the digital media environment. (June 7, IWNY HQ)

Social Media

• The Art of Social Media- The Art Directors Club and The Social Media Society host an exhibition of Facebook Portraits by Matt Held, including cocktails and live music. (June 8, The Art Directors Club)

• Mastering Twitter Seminar – Experts offer tips on how to jumpstart your social media presence and reveal new ways individuals and organizations are capitalizing on Twitter. (June 8, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism)

• #Promise – The #Promise will explore how social & mobile media are empowering corporate citizenship to create social & environmental change. (June 10, IWNY HQ).

• TechMunch – A one-day conference for food bloggers. (June 10, Roger Smith Hotel)

• Social Media Roundtable on Pets– Kristyn Pomranz of I Can Haz Cheezburger and Jason Scott, the owner of Sockington  (a cat with over 1.5 million Twitter followers) discuss the intersection of pets and social media. (June 9, The Center)

Start Ups & Technology

• Microsoft Expressions Studio 4 Launch- Bill Buxton, Principal Researcher at Microsoft and author of the book, “Sketching User Experiences,” unveils Microsoft Expressions Studio 4, design tools for the Web, the desktop, mobile devices, and Silverlight. (June 7, IWNY HQ)

• NY Tech Meetup – NY Tech Meetup will be the largest event open to the public during Internet Week New York. 860 technologists will converge to see demos from some of the area’s hottest, most interesting startups. (June 8, NYU Skirball Center)

• Startup Weekend- Local developers, marketers, designers, and aspiring entrepreneurs gather to launch new business ventures in just one weekend. (June 11 – 13, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University)

• VC and Angel Financing Bootcamp- Entrepreneurs seeking advice on venture capital and angel financing hear from leaders in the field about how to best position their company for a successful liquidity event. (June 9, NYU Stern School of Business)

Arts and Leisure

• Area Mondays– The Onion and The A.V. Club kick-off of a monthly music series with Josh and Chuck from HowStuffWorks and live performances from Anamanaguchi and Home Video. (June 7, The Knitting Factory)

• Gaming & The Arts – The Arts, Culture and Technology Meetup and NY Gaming Meetup explore the intersection of art and games. A performance by musician Luke Silas, who uses a pair of Game Boys to create dance music, caps the night. (June 8, Galapagos Art Space)

• Kickball for Silicon Alley- A kickball tournament for New York City-based startups. (June 11, Chelsea Park)

• Nerd Nite NYC– Nerds convene for presentations on such geeky topics as how to turn Nintendo’s portable video game console into an all-purpose gadget and the history and future of downloading music. The night kicks off with a speed dating for geeks. (June 11, Galapagos Art Space)

• Pop Everything– Bloggers like The Fug Girls, JustJared, and The Superficial go head-to-head in pop culture trivia at this party hosted by BUZZMEDIA and Ustream. (June 9, Pop Burger Midtown)

• Social Climbing – New York City Web companies and start-ups compete in an indoor climbing competition. (June 9, Brooklyn Boulders)

The full schedule of Internet Week New York 2010 events can be found at http://www.internetweekny.com.

The festival is organized by the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences (IADAS), in cooperation with the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting.

Internet Week New York Sponsors include: Yahoo!, Pepsico, HP, Microsoft Expression Studio, IAC, Corbis Images, Aquent, Southwest Airlines, .CO, Rackspace Hosting, AoL, and Motorola.

ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY OF DIGITAL ARTS & SCIENCES

The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences was founded in 1998 to help drive the creative, technical, and professional progress of the Internet and evolving forms of interactive media. An international organization, The Academy selects the Nominees and Winners for The Webby Awards, the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. The Academy is an intellectually diverse organization that includes members such as musicians Beck and David Bowie, Internet inventor Vint Cerf, political columnist Arianna Huffington, “The Simpsons” creator Matt Groening, R/GA Founder and Chairman Robert Greenberg. More information at www.iadas.net.

ABOUT THE MAYOR’S OFFICE OF FILM, THEATRE AND BROADCASTING

The Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting is the one-stop shop for all production needs in New York City, providing free permits, free public locations and free police assistance. The agency markets NYC as a prime location, provides premiere customer service to production companies and facilitates production throughout the five boroughs. Whether production companies are shooting a feature film, a commercial, a television show, or digital content, the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting serves as an invaluable resource to the New York City entertainment production industry.