Ah. It's so good to have ya'll back! :)

Okay, I bring limited, focused perspective on edge-conomy, as it applies to the Internet video world, so check out Web Video, Move Over, Amateurs
The money quote from that piece is "Blinkx's Chandratillake says advertisers will pay $60-plus per 1,000 views to incorporate their ads alongside professional video content."

In contrast, I was at FICCI-Frames 08 these last few days. Lots of BS all around, and of the 70-odd panelists I heard, exactly 4 of them had a vision of the future. Of the other 66, there was a lady from MSN Video who was touting $25 CPMs on MSN video, and how Microsoft is working hard to create a compelling entertainment destination out of MSN Video, filth flarn..filth flarn.

Here's the juice: Blinkx is edge. Microsoft is core. If you read my post on why Microsoft-lady didn't know what she was talking about, you will see that there is a fundamental lack of understanding of the opportunities, business models, paradigms, and economics that exist at the edge.

People find it easier to narrate a core-strategy, than to convince folks about an edge-strategy. Trust me on this.....right from media folks, VCs, and tiny content distributors, to small-time film-makers who ask for minimum guarantees, there is ZERO understanding of where the game is being played today: at the edge. I deal with it day-in, day-out. Educating such people is a bitch, but I can't bend over either. Because if I do, I know my business won't see the light of March '09.

Is it business as usual? Sure, because that's what people are comfortable thinking about.

Is business as usual going to take us anywhere? Definitely not. Business-as-usual is losing ground.

- Consumers are becoming producers by day and distributors by night.
- Attention is not brand-driven, but niche-driven.
- Relevance is not social, but personal.
- Platforms are turning into communities. Communities are becoming societies.

Here's the biggest one of them all: the last-mile problem turned into the 10-foot problem, which turned into the 10-inch problem.

The edge is under our very noses, dear friends. How could you miss it?
 

Oh, and some of us take this edge-stuff pretty seriously: I have a Chief Edge Officer.

And a company I recently talked to with over 140,000 citizen journalists across the globe, has a Chief Facebook Officer, and a few others that I can't remember right now.
 

You write the loan, you hold the paper - where and when did they forget that? In the days gone by, before credit reporting, you went to a local bank wher they knew you, and if you got a little behind, you either told them first, or the bank manager would call you before a default.

Now, they who write the loan don't hold the paper, and the intervening parties, like the mortgage brokers didnt give a crap, as didnt the ratings agencies, as didnt the regulators.

You people have no idea how deep this goes - we have banks that are refusing to lend overnight (LIBOR) to each other!
 

To back this piece, and for those who ignore that the economic landscape is collapsing, globally, exponentially - read article from the WSJ: it's probably the most important article that you didn't read last week. (full WSJ article here and from the WSJ here (requires subscription).
 

i understand the vibration of the times quite well, from both a metaphysical and a pragmatic perspective

and it is interesting that those most vested in existing economic and political power structures are the last to know what is happening

do i see alternatives emerging? i don't. i think chaos is necessary, because in order to change, people will have to give up their self-concpet and self-identity, one of the hardest things to do in the world. it will simply take new blood to create systemic change.

the challenge of this blog for me is not your understanding and your stated opinions, it is what you are holding back, perhaps saving the meat for paying clients, if you have them. This makes discussion of the pragmatic difficult. Not enough action steps here.
 

I fail to understand the reasons for financial stocks posting positive gains for this week (31st March - 4th April).
Technically speaking, writedown of $280B is expected for the current subprime crisis and only $180B has been written down till now.
Another ~40% is still remaining. There hasn't been any good news for the past whole month, UBS wrote down $19B, jobs are down, C, MER, BSC, JPM are cutting down staffs, some in the non-investment banking sector.
Yet, the stock of C is back at pre-Feb levels and the mood seems to be upbeat???? How come the losses are not reflected in stock prices? Is it just me or are the traders controlling this rally.... Critics argue saying "The price is already reflected in the stock".... NO, the real price got reflected only in certain stocks such as NEW (now bankrupt) and BSC ($10/share). The mess still needs to get cleared..... or maybe I am just plain dumb.....
-ANurag
Disclaimer: I own PUTS for C