4 posts tagged “steve ballmer”

A New Kind Of Dear John Letter: My Response To The Newspaper Industry's Attack On Fair Use

Apr 8, 2009
Post a comment

By Dr.Chris A. Heidelberg III, Publisher & Producer

This article was an email that I sent to John Murrell of Goodmorning Silicon Valley. John took a courageous stand by suggesting that he hopes the newspaper industry does not succeed in discouraging fair use which has been severely damaged since the DMCA of 1998. I suggested that the DMCA and the Telecomm Act of 1996 with its deregulatory approach created media companies that were not only too big to fail, but they were too big to be true watchdogs of the republic and the result was a Congress that did not read these laws in too many cases and a Congress and a Presidential Administration that has worked in concert to consciously or consciously to weaken free speech rights,

AAAS 2007 Annual Meeting Plenary Lecture: Larry Page

The Internet is the one true hope to shine light on these issues but it is being attacked by dying industries, like the music and print media industries, that continue to operate with a 19th century model instead of working with companies like Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft that are utilizing a 21 century business model. The Associated Press and other print outlets are leading a copyright campaign that closely resembles the dreaded RIAA and MPAA campaign of suing customers. Instead of creating a better mousetrap they are suing to get the horse back in the barn that can never fit the horse again. His response will follow my email that I sent yesterday.

2_full.jpg

John, I loved your story today and I know that it takes a lot of courage to disagree with the boss. The real problem of media consolidation is in part why we are in this poor transition period. Once you get a bunch of conglomerates owning more than 7-7-7 or 12-12-12 the result is that we have the news and editorial policy being in the hands of increasingly fewer folks who often have short-term thinking and profits in mind. The 1918 ruling will not help them when they essentially abandoned it by allowing links and re-posting for years before this uprising by the AP within the past 2 years. Fair use will not die under the Obama Administration because of the fact that he was a Constitutional scholar.If these folks had thought about making bloggers affiliates who can assist them in generating traffic, this would be a smarter model and it would enable them to spread their advertisers out to the micro-level.

Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace, Version 2.0

Lawrence Lessig

Newspapers should consider themselves social businesses in the model of Muhammad

Eric Schmidt, Web 2.0 vs. Web 3.0

Yunus' Social Business and the Future of Capitalism. We really need great reporting and logically written editorials regardless of the viewpoint. The real problem is one of ideology. We made a decision nearly more than 30 years ago that capitalism is more important than the democracy and it has wounded both capitalism and democracy. If the press had been doing its job and critiqued the former administration as it is justifiably critiquing this administration maybe just maybe we would be in a better economic position because we would have some of the money spent in the war in Iraq to bailout ordinary Americans, small businesses and yes the newspaper industry. The newspaper industry is paramount to the future of the republic, and if the industry

Prof. Lawrence Lessig Explains Creative Commons Licensing

does not learn how to partner with the online companies I few it will become irrelevant like the music business is becoming. The perfect analogy for this current fight between Google and the newspaper industry is the music industry versus Apple, Google and other online companies. The newspaper industry simply does not understand the Internet because it is still stuck in a 20th century based mindset, and when one does not understand a new industry one has to partner with leaders in a new industry to move one's content.

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates Together: Highlight

If I were in charge I would immediately call in Google, Apple, Amazon, Yahoo, Time Warner, Comcast, SprintNextel, Verizon, Quest and Microsoft and I would transform my content to digital content that would be downloadable, entertaining packaged and even serious in an NPR mode. We already know that NPR radio is the walking case study of a successful old medium that transformed itself through podcasting into a successful new media product on the web. Now this will

Ballmer: "advertising, advertising, advertising!"

not be easy it will require the

A Closer Look At The iPhone

newspaper industry to exercise patience and re-train its commentators and reporters into virtual personalities and reporters. It would be a more personalized version of the news that could include all of the news. If they try to monetize, local TV on the web will literally eat their lunch because they already understand video and audio better than many publishers. This is ironic since many publishers own TV properties. The bottom line is that this convergence transition is killing the old newspaper industry so that a more vibrant multi-media based newspaper industry will replace it. Believe it or not, once the transition is completed the newspaper industry will eventually become dominant again once it learns to transform itself into the digital media that it was destined to become. I will be posting this on my blog for my class at Loyola College in Maryland because I think the publishing industry is making the same mistake that the music industry has made and this is terrible for us all as citizens where the printed press was the only industry that was given full Constitutional protection in the First Amendment.

Sincerely,

Eric Schmidt on Yahoo and Microsoft

Dr. Chris A. Heidelberg III

Below the is John's response to my email.

Hi Chris,

Thanks much for sharing your thoughts. What you're envisioning has a lot in common with what Google's Eric Schmidt talked about to the AP conference today (http://www.siliconvalley.com/latestheadlines/ci_12094522). I believe such an outcome is possible, but I still worry whether the finances will hold out long enough to evolve without losing some valuable institutions along the way.

Best,

John

Microsoft Moves For Long Haul; Apple Needs To Take Notes, Pt. 4

Oct 28, 2007
Post a comment

SQPN Special Report - AppleTV: A First Look

By Chris A. Heidelberg, III, Publisher & Executive Producer

    The cloud based iPhone with cellular service would be a blow to telecomms, who definitely want to control the web, because the iPhone would be an open phone and allow Apple to be independent since Microsoft has said its not bidding on spectrum space so that means that Microsoft will be working with the telecomms and cable firms. Apple should allow third party applications and reserve the right to approve them all just like Facebook does and end this stupid cat and mouse game. This is wasted energy. Apple has been in the phone business for less than six months and is acting worse than Microsoft and the worst telecomm over opened iPhones. The deal with AT&T has helped AT&T with its horrible EDGE service and Apple is getting its image killed trying to battle their own customers just like the music and video industries. Now isn't that ironic, Apple the maverick pro-consumer brand is acting totally corporate? I am an Apple fan but you cannot make this stuff up, its real. Apple needs to modify that deal or prepare for the day that deal ends quickly because Apple needs a 3G phone and it needs a better network.

    Besides let AT&T enforce the open phone issue. It's their phone lines they know what people are doing and they should kill phone service of people who decide to go open or dare I say sue. Obviously, if a phone goes open, the other telecomms could kill the iPhone on its line. There are only two companies left how hard could it be. However, this issue points out how important it is for Carter Rules to be extended to cell phones so that the US can join the rest of the world with open phones and cheaper prices and more access. For readers who do not know the Carter Rules forced phone companies to allow people to buy their own home phones or opened phones from non-AT&T approved manufacturers before the split of AT&T in 1984 when everyone paid monthly fees for phones I know it sounds so 20th Century but this is how it was until a manufactured sued after the phone companies used the same excuse the Apple and many telecomms used about the device being bad for the network. Ha! The courts did not buy this line then and people are not buying it now and Apple needs to stop carrying water for AT&T, who I actually like better now, Apple is just a manufacturer. You don't see Research in Motion, Motorola or even Nokia doing this with their popular lines of phones like the Blackberry, the Razr or the Nseries. Apple needs to tell AT&T that this issue is hurting Apple and will hurt sales for everyone and take AT&T to court eventually while developing a truly open 3G phone. Apple was right to want control over its phones the telecomms do not make phones and should not be allowed to dictate any more to consumers with closed phones which are not legal in most European nations. Can the US please get with it, do you know we are barely in the top twenty as far as being fully digitally connected and we do not have HD yet either? South Korea is number one if you are interested,

Microsoft Moves For Long Haul; Apple Needs To Take Notes, Pt. 3

Oct 28, 2007
Post a comment

Bill Gates Steve Ballmer - DaDaDa MS Commercial AVI

By Chris A. Heidelberg, III, Publisher & Executive Producer

    AppleTv has not sold well because the HD, storage capacity and DVR capabilities have not been exploited full by Apple and it has not been marketed properly either. In fact, there are three companies who are actually in business to exploit these three features, and at least one the companies is in Northern California, A social network would ber a perfect place for Apple to market its devices, its brands and its services. The social network could be called the iTunes Network and it could use cloud based applications of iMovie,iChat, iPhoto and Garageband for short clips to get people to buy more Macs. AppleTv would be the Tv network online that shows continues shows with ads included in them with hosts and Apple could also develop original content of its own so that this could turn into an online television network of its own for professional content providers, up and coming content providers, and consumer generated content. Apple's logical partner would be Google because Google can sell all of the advertisements and push its search and YouTube brands. Besides the GoogleTV brand has not set the world on fire and it could benefit as the for-profit version of YouTube where legal user generated content could be sold or rented. If Apple gets these things rolling it can also get its on-demand movie rental service and its movie download business a boost by having independent, old and some features as advertiser based movies.

    Apple could then create a mobi-version of this network for iPhones for people on the go that could run through the iTunes Network and AppleTv. However, the real coup for AppleTv would be when AppleTv ran iTunesU programming through televisions for students and professors with ads attached as billboards, icons throughout like soccer games or through straight up advertising and allow the school to choose the advertising as a revenue generator. Naturally, all of this programming would run through the iTunesStore and the iTunesNetwork and AppleTv. Finally, Apple needs to invest in the spectrum with Google and get its own space on line and partner with Cisco, its iPhone partner, and Intel on creating the cloud based system. Quest, which need a partner any partner to be relevant after being dissed by the government and other telecomms for not working with the government on domestic spying, could be its telecom partner for billing purposes if it decides to enter the residential or corporate side for its computer sales, future iPods with limited calling and iPhones.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Let's Google Know It Will Get Dunked On! Pt. I

Oct 19, 2007
Post a comment

By Chris A. Heidelberg III, Producer & Managing Editor

I really like some of the moves that Microsoft has been making recently. Unlike many people who are Mac guys, I still love Microsoft. You never forget your first love. Microsoft was what I learned when I got into computer technology and Mac helped me extend my creativity. If you look at Microsoft's forays into the device market with the Zune device, Xbox, the Windows mobile deals for cell and smart phones, the Windows Media Center, Microsoft Office and the government deals, Microsoft is already formidable. However, I am looking at the future and I predict that Microsoft is building momentum that will enable them to dunk in two to three years when real convergence has been adopted en masse by everyone, and I am also predicting that Microsoft will dunk with authority in the next five to seven years. In ten years, Microsoft could be back in federal court under monopolistic charges if this plan works too well though. Here is why I am bullish on Microsoft right now. First, in February 2009 high definition television will officially be the law of the land for the entire country and full convergence will sweep the land within two years even for people who hate technology. Second, Microsoft is serious and focused on its online advertising business and it will have a lot of allies in the media business because these businesses clearly resent the power that Apple and Google have amassed as the industry leaders and true creators of this profitable business area. You may have noticed that Microsoft has not been named by any of the entertainment companies in any infringement cases or haggling over prices for online download sales.Viacom and Google are embroiled in a no-holds barred struggle over copyrighted content being placed on Google and alleged lost revenues. Apple is fighting with NBC on the television side, Universal on the music side and entire European nations and economic bodies like the European Union over digital rights management issues and the iTunes and iPod bundling. In fact, the French and Norway have even passed laws, and more may be coming. Microsoft is not out the woods with the EU either on monopoly charges but this is not their first time at the rodeo on this issue and I am certain that they will work out the issues. Check out this article on ZDNet and then come back and check out part 2 of this piece.

Ballmer: Microsoft will dunk on Google…eventually by ZDNet's Dan Farber -- Steve Ballmer was first at bat as the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco resumed for the second day. His best line, and classic Ballmer, was about how Microsoft’s search efforts are going versus Google. “Microsoft [search] is just 3 years old and playing basketball with 12 year olds. It may take until he is [...]