Anyone following the video space closely is probably down at NAB in Las Vegas this week. One thing that I’ve mentioned to friends before is how well Jeremy Allaire has marketed his new video startup Brightcove since he launched. Continuing in that vein, he announced at NAB that the long awaited service will exit its invitation only status and be made available to the general public. Why announce via a press release when you can do it in front of a captive audience…

The video space is rife with competition. But so many of the other players have just trivialized the marketing side of their business and let Brightcove steal the show this year. Certainly Jeremy has a great pedigree but what he really learned over his years of experience is how to package a concept and sell it effectively.

The media is part of the product launch. You have to have a media strategy and you have to be a compelling story teller. Writers want to hear stories so they can write better stories. If you can’t tell a good story, then you leave it up to them to screw up your story for you. Frankly, this is why many companies end up getting new CEO’s when they outgrow their founders. The founders are often techy but they look and sound like shit in front of a crowd. They can’t tell cohesive stories. They don’t appreciate that evangelizing your business is partly about entertaining people.

Jeremy is telling people about the future of entertainment. At least that’s what you think. Really he’s like the little Geico gecko who entertains you while you’re watching a commercial. You almost want to watch it. And I applaud him for getting every marketing detail just right. You almost feel like the Brightcove story is a success story before the company has even really launched. I’ve made this observation before. Some have responded by saying that this kind of limelight can’t carry you forever and that’s certainly true. But it sure does give you a leg up on the competition. Tell stories. Great stories. People who listen apparently seem more likely to be good customers.

I was reading this article about a kid named Benedict T. Casnocha who is just 18 years old but is already hanging out with VC’s in the Silicon Valley who like him just because he’s smart and is a great bet for the future. He’s just 18. While he’s going off to Europe for a year after high school, apparently the VCs can’t wait for him to come back so they can bankroll his next idea. He does seem to be a very good writer and has a evolved viewpoint on the world for someone so young.

Some tidbits:

“I fully embrace the notion of compassionate capitalism and believe that every company should allocate 1% of their profits, employee time, and pre-IPO equity to charitable purposes.”

“Most amazingly successful people are called “brilliant” when in fact I think they’ve mastered the art of facilitating other people’s brains.”

“Coming out of the conversations I feel reinvigorated to lead, to live, and to pursue happiness with a vigor unaffected by the ultimate outcome. It is, after all, about the pursuit. It is, I would argue, the most important pursuit of all.”

This guy is a thinker and one to watch.

I was reading recently in Business Week that there are some interesting bargains to be had for those considering an out of the ordinary vacation home. The Croatian coastline is incredible and you can buy a new apartment there for $50,000. In Puglia Italy you can get a new three-bedroom villa with sea views and a pool for under $300,000. Slovenia is up and coming. Check out http://slovenianproperties.com/ for some english speaking listings. Pretty interesting notion…

The very conservative Fox News reports tonight that President Bush’s approval rating is as low as 33% according to several polls. The main reason those polled gave for their dissatisfaction is “the war in Iraq”.

I can’t say that any of this is very surprising to me.

There has been a lot of news lately about rising gas prices again. Some Americans report that gas is nearly $4.00 per gallon in certain parts of the country. I think this is a fascinating discussion because for years, Europe has somehow learned to cope with gas prices that are nearly double what they are here in the States. In August of this year, gas costs $7.00 per gallon in Amsterdam. In London it was something in the range of $6.00. The Greeks get off lightly with gas just slightly over $4.00 per gallon. Interestingly, European per capita consumption of gas and diesel stood at 286 liters a year in 2001, compared to 1,624 in the US, according to IEA figures.

Perhaps higher gas prices ultimately forces people to consider alternate ways to get to work? Perhaps higher gas prices make some folks in Europe decide that going for a jog would be a better way to spend time that cruising the strip in their pimped out Hummer H2. Perhaps higher gas prices will cause less gas consumption which in turn could cause less harm to our planet.

At the very least, perhaps rising gas prices will stimulate consumers to put pressure on corporations to finally deliver alternative methods to propell our four wheeled wonders down the road. I’m certainly not a fan of rising gas prices. But, somehow all of this felt inevitable after I watched Mad Max for the first time. I doubt our generation will see a day when we start to run out of petroleum altogether but some would argue that this is exactly what’s going to happen to our great grandchildren.

One thing you can be sure about. I won’t be buying a Hummer any time soon. Then again, I wouldn’t have bought a Hummer even if gas were free. Hmm, that’s another story isn’t it…

Sometime back, I wrote that I was beginning to have health problems. More than any other time in my life I felt horrible. Heart rate all over the place. Insomnia. You name it and I had it.

So, I decided to try regular exercise and healthy food. I cut every morning coffee. I cut pizza. I cut Diet Coke. I cut hamburgers. Pretty much anything bad got replaced with something good. For the last week and a half I’ve eaten salad and tuna for lunch. Breakfast was a protein shake with a bunch of fruit in it. Dinner is typically fish and some red wine. Each morning I go to the gym at 6:30. I return at 7:30.

I’ve only been doing this for a week and a half and every ailment is already gone. I really can’t believe it. I get up earlier than I usually like to but I return home at 7:30 and feel much more energized than I used to when I woke up at 7:30 or 8:00. Quite honestly, I am simply amazed that any of this made any difference in such a short period of time. Further, my tolerance for stress is probably double what it was a week ago. That was also unexpected.

This has turned into something of a little experiment. I’m going to continue a fairly strict regime for another 30 days to include daily exercise and no junk food whatsover. I suspect I’ll drink my beloved red wine during the weekends but other than that I’ll pretty much stick to a plan. I simply want to see what will happen. I know that all of us have been told that exercise and a healthy diet are best for us but I never really tested the theory in an extreme way and in a very compressed time period. This is going to be very interesting.

So today it was announced that Disney CEO Michael Eisner has been part of the whopping $12 million investment in Veoh Networks. The company started back in August 2005.

Why? This is about delivering a TV experience over the web. The future of the Internet is pretty damn exciting. As more telcos roll out true IPTV service to the home as an alternative to cable and companies like GridNetworks quietly work away on alternative methods to get true HD video to your house over your internet connection I’d say the future of media consumption is going to include a hell of a lot more choices than the number of channels currently on your line-up. Five years from now, you’ll have access to tens of thousands of channels.

Then we have a whole new set of problems but for now this is a lot of fun to watch

This article about a guy trying to trade a red paper clip for a house reminds me of the kid who started the MillionDollarHomePage. Now that he’s got an upcoming show on Good Morning America it could very well be that the quality of his “trades” could put him that much closer to actually getting a house from his paper clip and vision.

Apparently it’s not what you know. It’s not who you know. It’s what you REALLY want to believe in. Great story.

Just click on the photo tab and view the images on my site or view them directly on Flickr here. There are some good pics in here. Love the one of Webster and Trish and the Devo lead singer. Great weekend!

Since last Thursday, I’ve been down in Las Vegas to join some friends who were attending the CTIA show. I suspect most folks already know that this is the largest wireless convention in the world. Anything that has to do with the mobile industry goes on display here each and every year. But there is one thing about CTIA that I’ve noticed relative to other technology tradeshows. Take CeBit for example. Sure its big. But its boring.

In this case, Microsoft held their party in the Ferrari dealership in the bottom of the new Wynn hotel. On my arrival I played in a poker tournament sponsored by Glu Mobile. Last night, I attended the Maxim (magazine) party to celebrate their 100th published magazine. Ludicris gave an unannounced show. And with Las Vegas as the backdrop for all of this, you could say that the whole scene is just pretty over the top. As it is, the Vegas vibe is sort of like one big glitzy cruise ship anyway. I’m not sure how much business really gets done at these shows. Yet companies spent millions on this one. I’m not seeing this kind of energy or grand spectacle in other tech sectors. No doubt about it…mobile is pretty hot and it’s a lot of fun to watch.