I recently attended the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) conference in Las Vegas where I took the picture above. It was absolutely mesmerizing seeing that many screens altogether. People were standing around staring at it in silent wonder.
I attended the meeting to find out what new technologies have been developed for delivering video (live and pre-recorded) over the web and I wasn’t disappointed. I was able to set up an online television station for VisionTrust for only $50. Of course, I’ve been too busy to do anything with it yet, but still…it’s cool and I’ll let you know when it’s “up”.
I’ve also been watching the Facebook “dance” with its users with great interest. You may or may not know that they keep changing up their security settings making it difficult for users to know what we are and are not sharing. This week they demonstrated that they actually listen to their users by changing things (not all, but many) back to give their users more control. The problem they have is that their users (most of us) are not their customers. We’re simply the audience that every marketer on the planet wants to reach so they will continue to find themselves at cross-purposes with what we (the Holy Grail of audiences) want and their business model (which is advertiser and application based.)
Right now Facebook is like a giant buffet we’re all eating at – and it’s tasty and good – but they keep moving the food around. Most people don’t seem bothered by this or by a deep-seeded need to know what secret ingredients they’re putting in our food. As for me – I’m keeping a close eye on it.