Peter Bennett
Peter Bennett develops iPhone apps and advises companies on mobile strategy through his company Hablantia.com. He was a founder of a publishing business that grew rapidly and profitably, but didn't quite live to see its 10th birthday. In previous incarnations he has worked for the BBC in corporate strategy, and has written management reports on technology issues for the FT.
Report: Pre-Roll Video Ads Not all that Bad
Given how "unacceptable" we were told this would be to viewers, it's rather remarkable how many people are now obviously accommodated to pre-roll ads in videos. From Beet.TV: The vast majority of online video viewers are watching pre-roll and overlay ads, a study released today by Break Media and Panache shows. Completion rates for 15-second pre-roll ads were 87…
EFF Looks at the Big Questions Surrounding Digital Books
At the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a post on what the future of digital books portends for pubishers and consumers: Skeptics should remember that it wasn't long ago that many predicted that CDs would never replace vinyl, and later that MP3s would never replace CDs. You can still find great record stores that specialize in vinyl, but the trend…
Infinite Permutations of the Digital Book
James Bridle discusses the near infinite malleability of digital books. From booktwo.org: Imagine a book that told a different story every time it was opened. The story might change depending on the gender of the reader, or the sex. It might depend on the location of the reader, or the position of the book in time; the time of…
Twitter Faces Ramifications of Not Being Global
Twitter, the microblogging service, has had an uneven rollout of an economic model, and was never able to come to good terms on payments for instant messaging (SMS) through its application with mobile carriers abroad. Consequently, it has limited its instant message functionality to North America. On his blog, White African, Erik Hersman talks about the ramifications when you…
A Vote for One-Use Gadgets
Jeff Gomez, in his series on owning a Kindle, voices a preference for multiple gadgets each doing one thing well: One thing that I don't mind about the Kindle is that it's an extra device. I used to think that I wanted an integrated device — one thing that did everything — and that I wouldn't want to carry…
Smithsonian Advertises Via Bluetooth
The Smithsonian's Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery are sending out Bluetooth tethers to passers-by. From a Smithsonian press release: … this new medium of advertising prompts Bluetooth phone users to opt-in to receive a free downloadable message … Bluetooth-enabled bus shelters, located in Washington, D.C.'s major pedestrian areas, will deploy a silent prompt to mobile…
Kindle Projections, Roadblocks and Sightings
Theresa Poletti from MarketWatch comments on the relative absence of Kindle sightings, particularly in Silicon Valley: The biggest problem is the fact that the Kindle is only available online, via the Amazon.com Website. For many consumer electronics products, potential buyers need to touch and feel the device, to pick it up and play with it, before making any kind…
Game Re-creates Lost Oakland Neighborhood
My hat's off to the release of a superb project out of the UC Berkeley Journalism School that re-creates a "lost" and once vibrant neighborhood of Oakland, 7th Street: There's much more to be done — developing a curriculum so grade school students can use the game to learn about 7th Street and the blues and jazz scene (we got…
Story Development Thrives in the Sports Department
The Associated Press recently commissioned an anthropological study into how youth obtain news information. What struck me most was this reference to something a bit orthogonal to the report — the elements of story development. From Ethan Zuckerman's My Heart's in Accra: … the biggest thing I took from report was the connection between sports coverage and other news coverage….
App Mashes Up Digital Text on Facebook Platform
Digital Texts 2.0 is an interesting application for Facebook that lets you group and share digital material. It's intriguing to see cutting edge development occurring in this space. From the Digital Texts 2.0 about page: Digital Texts 2.0 was undertaken by Dr. Stéfan Sinclair as an initiative to experiment with applying the principles of Web 2.0 to the realm…