Over the weekend, I had an exchange with another colleague of mine about a great online video that was an hour long (for those of you interested, it’s about How and Why Ideas Spread in Social Media). My colleague mentioned that the video would be much more “viral” if it were shorter and better edited. I did not disagree, but also argued that SOMETIMES, if something is important to you/your career, you need to invest the time and the effort to learn about complex insights and wisdom. And, in fact, it is perhaps those who do take the time to watch and listen, who may come out ahead.

Now, I’m the CEO of a publishing technology company, BookRiff, and I teach Social Media Strategy & Marketing and Social Media Monetization at the University of British Columbia. I firmly believe that BOTH long-form and short-form content have their places. That said, I am always surprised at the expectations of many people who believe they can quickly become “experts” or “gurus” because they can get bite-sized pieces of information quickly and efficiently.

Perhaps I am just an “Old Fart”, who has spent many, many hours reading, listening, watching, and networking. Maybe I’m missing something in the “New School Way of Learning”. But, I do believe that sometimes we simply have to put in the time and effort. For some, it will be spending hours using the new tools and coming to their own conclusions. For others, it will be spending the time reading others’ summaries and lessons learned. In either case, I do believe that there are few short-cuts to climbing the mountain. The paths may be different, but in the end, they all require a certain investment of time, money, and effort. Whether you choose to spend your time, money and/or effort is purely a personal choice. But, thinking that everything can be internalized and distilled down to 140 characters is probably not the answer either!

What do you think?! Am I just an “Old Fart” who’s hoping experience, thought, and analysis still count for something or am I simply missing something in the “New School Way” of communicating, building relationships, and learning? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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Much like Apple, Amazon is building an ecosystem around digital content and the Kindle eReader. But, unlike Apple, Amazon is betting on digital content not the hardware. It is well known that Apple makes more significant margins on hardware sales and not as much on iTunes or its Apps Store. (I haven’t seen any figures yet for the iBookstore.) Amazon seems to be following a different approach and is betting on its Kindle/Amazon Stores to be the revenue drivers. (I guess it is similar to the HP printer model, where profits are generated from the consumables and not the hardware.)

Given Amazon’s leadership position in the ecommerce and online shopping space this makes perfect sense and it will be interesting to see if there comes a time when the Kindle will even be sold at a loss (people are already saying that it’ll be $99 within the next year).

Both Amazon and Apple are playing to their strengths and I look forward to seeing how these business models pan out in the coming months! Will it be an Amazon vs. Apple world? What role might Google play with the launch of Google Editions? Can B&N or Kobo come from behind?

What I do know is that exciting times are ahead and I am thrilled to be a part of this amazing publishing transition!

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I am extremely excited by BookRiff because they have developed a solution to a very important (and fundamental) issue facing media today, namely: How can consumers use media as they wish, while also ensuring that content owners get paid?! BookRiff answers this question quite elegantly and simply.

Essentially, BookRiff is a technology platform that allows consumers to mix content from virtually any source–published books, websites, and their own files–to build custom compilations called Riffs. Think of Riffs as “Mixtapes of Text”. Each time a Riff is distributed, all content owners and contributors get paid. BookRiff’s technology manages the authoring, bundling, licensing, attribution, and payment details for each of these custom compilations. That’s pretty powerful!

To provide a little history, BookRiff was initially incubated within Vancouver-based D&M Publishers, one of Canada’s largest independent publishers, and was recently spun-off as an independent venture.  I have been “dating” the company for a couple of months and we mutually decided it was finally time to “go steady”! I am thrilled that President of D&M Publishers and founder of Bookriff, Mark Scott, has entrusted me to drive BookRiff’s future success! We already have some great partners and plans in place and we are building a phenomenal team! Do stay tuned for more exciting announcements in the very near future!

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On the Web, value is not created primarily by either content or distribution. Users create value out of content through the use of tools that enable them to do something with the content, whether it’s to move it, share it, reformat it, store it, discover it, mash it up or embed it. What the media companies most sorely lack is not sufficient content or adequate distribution but a workable mechanism for capturing a fair share of the value users are creating for themselves. Ultimately, media companies need to become not distributors or content owners but enablers.

At Donat Group, we often have this conversation with media clients — both large and small. It is always interesting to propose a scenario to them in which neither the content nor the distribution have significant value and to see where the conversation meanders. When we present our model of Audience Engagement Value, most clients are initially quite surprised. (I know this sounds like B-School/Corporate-speak, but bear with me ) What this all boils down to is the fact that today’s audiences (however you define “audiences”) want to do something with content — theirs, yours, it doesn’t really matter.

So, the real questions on the table are: What is that “something” you’re going to let them do?! And, is there perceived value to them in doing that?!

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Starting tomorrow, I will be holding several off-site strategic planning sessions for my company and I’m really looking forward to hearing the creative ideas from my staff! Clearly, I want to my company to succeed financially, and at the same time, I want to foster an environment of extreme creativity and exploration! It’s been proven time and time again that without a strong creative vision, a sustainable business model is hard to achieve.

So, it’s time for me to put the “how” aside for a few days and start thinking about the “implausible”! I once worked for a president, who asked us all to be BODACIOUS in our goals! I really like that word and I think I just might borrow it

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However, beyond what’s mentioned in the article, I firmly believe Vancouver has the huge potential of becoming a major vortex for Digital Media and naturally, technology is an essential component of that! With its unique combination of technology, culture and entertainment (games, film & TV), Vancouver has the talent and expertise to bring all these industries under one magnificent umbrella and really position itself as the Digital Media center of the future!

There are lots of people contributing to this vision and all I can say is that it’s an exciting time to be part of this phenomenal Vancouver team! I’m doing my part to make this happen and I truly look forward to seeing this vision realized!! Stay tuned…

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Machinima (muh-sheen-eh-mah) is filmmaking within a real-time, 3D virtual environment, often using 3D video-game technologies.

What’s most interesting about Machinima is that it allows participants in 3D worlds to capture their activities, either as proof of bragging rights or to allow for post-mortems or reviews to occur after an event has been completed.

It suddenly hit me today that much of what we enjoy about digital social media is the ability to capture important social interactions or thoughts that previously were intangible and could only be recalled by our memories and only from our perspective!

How amazing is it that we can now go back and review that exact exchange, really see what others said or did! Talk about empowering tools for personal growth and professional development! Now that’s powerful!

This may seem quite obvious to many of you ! But, for me, it provided a new perspective on these latest social media tools; I realize that the ones that bring me the greatest value are the ones that allow me to capture my “intangible experiences”. That’s the power of capturing!

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I was very fortunate to connect with several bright, sharp and visionary people and am still digesting all the nuggets of wisdom that were doled out. It’s going to take a while before completely internalizing all that I heard.

I must admit that I am always most interested in the question of “What’s happening with ‘Business’?” All I can say is the only consistent answer I heard was: Change! Awesome!! Changing business models mean lots of new opportunities and challenges, and, of course, lots of uncertainty! I thrive in uncertainty!

As a teaser, here are a few of the “nuggets” that have me stewing:

• Social Capital and its role in the Social Media Economy
• The Importance of Micro-transactions in Social Media Monetization
• The Importance of Social Experiences to ALL media businesses
• Synergizing the Mob
• New Leadership and Organizational Models
• Agile Business Planning

Unfortunately, I don’t have any concrete answers right now; lots more thinking to be done! If you’re interested in batting around some of these ideas with me, do send me a note!

In the meantime, I’ll try to catch up on my email backlog and recharge my battery before my week begins…and, for all my US colleagues and friends, have a great Memorial Day weekend!

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