4 posts tagged “television”
By Chris A. Heidelberg III, Ph.D.
As Apple CEO Steve Jobs presented the new iPhone yesterday in San Francisco, I had a "eureka moment" where the impact of the iPhone has really impacted two of my favorite things higher education and entertainment. For the purposes of being contrarian I will deliberately start with the field of entertainment.
Despite the fact that there is a real fight between Apple and NBC, the iPhone and the iPod Touch have enabled television viewers to view NBC, MSNBC, and USA Networks programming for free. NBC willingly gave up $15 million dollars in iTunes revenues from Apple because they wanted variable pricing from Apple which insisted on the old $1.99 download model (Apple, 2008; NBC, 2008). Ironically, Apple has begun offering variable pricing to the movie industry now, so maybe the two companies should mend fences for the sake of consumers. For NBC, this is really a lose-lose proposition because NBC and Fox just started the HULU network online to distribute their television and cable shows online (Apple, 2008; Hulu, 2008; Fox, 2008; NBC, 2008; Newscorp, 2008).
The iPhone changed the debate in favor of Apple because even iPodTouch owners can view NBC content for free rather than downloading. NBC may have created more iPhone and iPodTouch owners who can view NBC content and save money during tough economic times. The fact that many young viewers of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann are becoming very politically active and are tech savvy has benefited the Obama Campaign which has relied heavily on podcasts, blogs, YouTube and the Internet to campaign and to raise record campaign donations from ordinary Americans. The fact that the new iPhone will operate on AT&T's 3G network which will make the device a fully functional convergence device with less problems than its predecessor which operated on the notoriously slow EDGE network.
The iPhone and competing devices will make it possible for new entertainment content that can air on iTunes,
Amazon, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, and the Zune Marketplace. Smaller content creators now have outlets for their program offerings, and major networks can also air programming on the third screen first and wait for programs to get popular before airing them on USA, MSNBC or NBC. The iPhone and the iPod have been critical to transforming the political process and the entertainment business from a revenue generating and a pure entertainment perspective.
However, the iPhone and the iPodTouch has already impacted the biggest entertainment business of them all: higher education. If higher education can extend the best parts of its NCAA model to the academic side, it will create a business that will rival the major networks, publishers, and music content providers. Furthermore, this organization would also be a major online player too, since most of the people from the tech world have higher edudational roots.
Finally, the most important reason that higher education will change higher education is the delivery of content. Apple delivers more digital content than anyone in the world, and the company has created a future gold mine with its free podcasts which inevitably will be branded with ads from NCAA corporate sponsors on the academic side. The day will come when Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon will all benefit from residuals of ads placed strategically within podcasts. Apple's new iTunesU has been extremely successful in its first full year of operation.
Did you hear that sucking sound? That is the
sound of big media publishers screaming when colleges begin to create
their own digital publishing outlets that will enable professors to
teach and publish online simultaneously.
Administrators are going to
have problems with the whole tenure process since they love hiring
adjuncts on the cheap! The real question becomes this: what will they
do when the first academic rockstar professors are born! Even if they
win the intellectual property war, which is not a given, many
professors will simply jump ship and sign better deals with
universities because of the new crop of intellectual property
attorneys. Stay tuned because I hear a storm coming!
Now that's edutainment!
Well now that my holiday vacation is officially over, it is time to get back to work my friends. I really like what Apple is doing with the Macbook Air product. I am sure that the movie and music industries will love it because it prevents the ripping of DVDs and CDs. The Macbook Air has been critiqued by many because it does not allow one to do these very things. However, this machine was not designed to do that, it was designed to be a different kind of machine for people who hate carrying around heavy laptops for meetings, for travel and for college. The MacBook Air also offers colleges and universities a chance to distribute content through iTunesU via iTunes without having to worry about infringement issues that have seen many universities sued by the music industry. The fact that it is so light and stylish many women may buy one to supplement their PCs or their existing Macs. I say this because I witnessed a similar thing occur in the late 90's when lighter digital cameras and pro-sumer cameras began being rolled out by Sony and other camera manufacturers who made a business decision to appeal to this valuable market. All one has to do is to witness what Apple did by creating multi-colored iPods and smaller versions of the iPod like the mini and the nano.
On another front, I loved the fact that the iTunes Store has added movie rentals from all of the major studios at reasonable prices. I think that Apple should offer a movie subscription plan too, if they want to solidify their position in this market and take on NetFlix. Apple should consider offer subscription plans for music and television shows as well. It will be free money, and it will still give folks and option to buy. In fact, subscribers may be more interested in buying after viewing or listening to a movie, a show, an album or a music track. If Apple is going to remain customer driven it will have to do this.
This drives me to the real beneficiary of all of Apple's new efforts: AppleTV Take 2. Steve Jobs admitted that Apple did not get the job done with the original AppleTV, and he was right. This product needs to be where Apple needs to direct its energies for the foreseeable future because it will act as a centerpiece for all of its offerings because of its storage capacity and its ability to tie the computer, the iPhone, the iPod and iTunes together. Apple needs to create its own original content development line and create exclusive deals with the writers once the strike is settled. This will give the writers a chance to develop, distribute, and produce their own products, so that the studios cannot use their heavy-handed tactics on the industry, on electronics makers, and most importantly on the public.
Two of the best examples of this are Apple's distribution of podcasts, and especially its iTunesU content. Apple has not really begun marketing its iTunesU content likes it need to do because if it did Apple could drive iPod and Mac sales through the roof because of all of the concerned parents who want their kids to succeed in the classroom. The Duke iPod project provides hardcore research on student performance that will only serve to justify parents' buying more Apple products. Now that I have digressed, I will return to the importance of original content and why it is important for the Hollywood writers to cut individual and collective deals with companies like Apple. The writers will not win this strike no matter how great of deal they get unless they create their own content distribution centers on places like iTunes, YouTube, AmazonUnboxed, NetFlix, Facebook, Google Tv and Zune Marketplace. All of these online entities desperately need their own original content that is independent of the studios, the networks, and the cable companies.
Why? Have you witnessed the vendetta that NBC Universal has exercised on Apple by pulling its offerings from YouTube, starting HULU, and cutting a deal with device maker SandDisk which is a good manufacturer but they are not in the Apple class, and they are not where the customers are. The customers reside with Apple, and even a Microsoft deal by NBC will not solve this problem. This is like a manufacturer saying I will not put my products in WalMart because I do not like how they operate. NBC does not understand retail, and it is showing. A basic tenet of marketing is that you have a place or distribution where customers can easily buy your goods. How do you throw aware $15 million in profits, and try to play the pimp game by asking for iPod profits like the music industry tried to do to Apple and they failed badly too? Just because Bill Gates and Microsoft caved into the music industry's shakedown by giving them portions of their profits from their Zune media player out of desperation for any market share does not make the industry behavior questionable. If there was real enforcement by the FTC and FCC, there might have been anti-trust investigation into these kinds of deals. If the movie and music industries want all the profits, they need to create their own devices. Oh that's right Sony is doing that and Apple is still dusting them up royally. HULU and rthe rest of the industry owned sites are digital immigrant efforts from digital immigrant companies who are fighting against digital native companies like Apple and Google who understand digital natives and concepts like ease of use. It will take another decade for them to get it right so that the new blood is in charge. Steve Jobs is not Bill Gates! Steve Jobs is an old school player, a real baller and shot caller as the hip hop generation says. NBC made the mistake of trying to pimp a baller, and they got played. Viacom is trying to do the same thing with Google about its YouTube copyright violations even though CBS has a huge YouTube presence.
The writers are the X factor because they can even out the playing field, sign their own individual deals through a special emerging artists and producers program through Apple. If Apple leads, Google, Microsoft and Amazon will follow! It will provide writers, the true content creators, the opportunity to get paid as producers, and to get their worth. This is America, and its the MLK holiday, so why not have a little justice in the industry for a change. Finally, I will keep advocating that Apple develop its own open social network that could act in concert with an AppleTV network of original content just like Fox is doing with MySpace. Google could handle the advertising, and Yahoo could help with the email and other features. Could you imagine all of the Mac, iPod, iPhone, AppleTV and iTunes customers having their own social network? It would instantly be a game changer, and it may make Microsoft wonder why it spent so much money for the Facebook deal. It would also give Google a chance to fire back at Microsoft for taking its Facebook and Digg advertising business away from it. It would also give Google a chance to become a real player in the game. Remember, Yahoo still has the most viewed online news among key demographics that advertisers love. So Steve what is taking you so long to make this happen? Think different again! Make it happen! You can keep the .Mac for pro users, and save it at the same time! Let's here your take, do you agree or disagree?
By Chris A. Heidelberg III
Well, this weekend the first real shot of the handheld digital revolution will begin with the iPhone which appears to be quite an authentic device. One thing for sure is that it is true convergence because it seamlessly has combined the Internet, the computer, the phone, the television, film, the audio recorder, the still camera and the music player into one small package (www.nytimes.com; www.usatoday.com). Is it the perfect device? No!
However, the initial iPod was not a perfect device and look what it was at that time and what it grew up to become. The iPod was easy to use, easy to charge and it had the fun factor that other music players simply did not have, and frankly few music players have been able to get this basic concept. It is the ease of use stupid! When a product or service is easy to use and it seamlessly functions as it is designed to do people tend to adopt it according to the technology adoption model (Davis, 1989). This is a factor that many tech magazines and professional web journalists keep missing, and it is the point that will cause them much pain when this device becomes an unbelievable success.
Steve Jobs according to several online sources held a meeting to commend his employees and to admonish them in part of the importance of this product to the future of Apple, and then he reportedly promised iPhones to all Apple employees with a year of service or more in July 2007. Love him or hate him, Jobs is the real deal because he gets it! This is why Apple devotees love this man and his products because he gives the customer what they want within reason and creates a business model in the process. Is he perfect no? Who is? He has probably done more to keep the music business from totally tanking despite some self-destructive tendencies when the RIAA, the industry's trade group, began its ill-advised crusade against piracy by suing its customers and future customers. Jobs' response was an open online letter to the music business to remove DRM, also known as digital rights management protection scheme, from music and to take the risk and trust the customer. Thus far, EMI has joined him while the rest of the Big 4 have adopted a wait and see approach while the television networks are making a nice chunk of change from iTunes without having to go the traditional retail route.
The iPhone will set off the alarms at Nokia, LG, Motorola, Microsoft, Sony and everyone in the converged media world to step up their games or become irrelevant, because this product will be improved quickly because of its ability to create updates through the OSX software and it already has the iTunes and YouTube connections. Jobs wants 10 million iPhones sold by the end of 2008. I think that Apple and AT&T could get a major headstart on the competition and even kill one or two competitors with this device and its second generation that will debut in Europe and Japan early next year with their higher rates of broadband penetration and better products. I think the iPhone could sell 15 million if they simply execute the plan and 20 million if they continously improve and fix the bugs and address consumer problems. The second generation iPhone in the United States, however, will probably be the phone that gets us closer to technology nirvana because Apple and AT&T will have learned the lessons in Europe, Asia and the United States and will incorporate these lessons with innovations such as voice, business applications, editing of Microsoft Word, 3G and limited high definition because the entire broadcast, video and film businesses will be forced to finally adopt high definition by law in February 2009. Can Apple and AT&T do it? My vote is yes but it will be tough.
That is my take what is yours. For the record, I am going to get mine in late August for road testing. To my fellow bloggers and journalists who have been so negative: please stop the hating until someone else can get something that is easier to use and integrates multiple features at a significantly lower price. The United States is finally trying to close the gap on our technological divide with Asia and Europe and this is a start that even the Asians and Europeans will have to respect when the iPhone hits Asia and Europe later and Apple improves the product, and you know they will! The iPhone will not be a flop unless Apple and AT&T decide to rest on their laurels and do not listen to their base.
Interview #2 – Welcome back to Edutainment & Convergence! I am your host Chris Heidelberg, and with me again is makeup artist and hair stylist Erin Doyle from . Ms. Doyle has provided her services to everyone from Hollywood celebrities to political figures to film directors.
Chris:
Welcome back, , for our second interview, I would like to talk to you about edutainment & convergence more in depth.
What new media technologies and techniques have you been working with lately and do you see any being able to transfer to higher education? In your case I am also looking at makeup techniques and hairstylists with computer simulations as well, if you use them to transform physical appearances.
Erin:
Well, that doesn't really apply to my work. I haven't had the opportunity to use computer
Chris:
Which entertainment techniques and technologies do you utilize most often in your job and why? Which technologies would you like to use but have not had the opportunity to do so yet? Which technologies do you believe may offer some of the best hopes for the future of education for both students and teachers?
Erin:
:
Well, again, I don't using any technology in my work…unless sending and receiving e-mail counts. I'd love to have a chance to work with the computer simulations for hair or makeup because there are some high-end salons in that have that technology. The computer simulations would have been great when I was in training. For the future, laptops and Ipods are definitely the way to go!
Chris:
Which entertainment techniques do you believe are best suited for transferring to education and please explain why by providing specific examples?
Erin:
:
In training professors to understand how much their image is important in educating their students because students learn more when they have a professor that looks more professional…rather than someone who looks like they just rolled out of bed. As far as techniques go, interactive video… especially for those of us who are visual learners…is the most effective to learn and the technology is already here to make that happen.
Chris:
What skills and technology competencies do you think that modern educators will need to become successful edutainers with students? Why do they need these skills?
:
Erin:
I think I just answered that in the previous question!
Chris:
Since you are the only licensed cosmetologist in this study, I have a specific question on personal appearance as an edutainment tool.
As a professional makeup artist and hair stylist, how important is physical appearance for a professor or teacher in a classroom setting or through a video based class on the Internet or television? Explain.
Erin:
LOL! Again, I think I just answered that in a previous question. I can't emphasize enough how important personal appearance is. Especially as an educator, you need to be a role model, just like kids look up to entertainers and celebrities as role models.
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