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Beyond the day and long overdue (compiled from Steve Rubel):
"This is a sad time for the web. It´s as almost somber as the time
just before the last bubble burst in 2000. I was working in PR with
dot-com startups at the time and the way I feel now is how I did back
then. I wish I didn´t, but I do. Something needs to be said. Even if no
one listens or cares what I think. [...]
The bubble really began in earnest on October 9, 2006 when Google bought YouTube. That´s when every person with an entrepreneurial itch woke up and smelled the hype and money. Prior to then, startups were more focused on the entrance, not the exit. But the Google YouTube deal and many others that followed really opened up the floodgates to money and it changed the attitude of the web. [...]
The endless dot-com parties are back. So are the countless trade shows/conferences that regurgitate the same "new paradigms" the last 10 events did - with no end in sight. [...] I don´t speak at or attend very many Web 2.0 conferences anymore. I don´t have the heart for it. I would be stirring the big pot of Kool-Aid.
Let´s face it, we´re skunk drunk and it´s because of money. It´s almost like we all need to enter Betty Ford Clinic 2.0 together. This time, it´s not stock market money but private equity, M&A, VCs and to some degree the reckless abandonment of logic by some advertisers who are perpetuating what is sure to end badly when the economy turns. Hubris is back. [...]
I miss the days of 2004 when the class that includes Flickr, del.icio.us and others started. They really were about changing the web, not making a quick buck. [...]
Most of the rest of today´s net startups are only after the almighty dollar and while that´s capitalism, it saddens me because it has done little but breed hubris."
For new subscribers only Shutterstock has launched the "first short-term subscription product in the industry", available until Nov. 11th and offering 35 HR images for €32/$39.
Purchasers have full access to Shutterstock´s image bank and can download up to five images every day. The special subscription has a term of seven consecutive days from the date of purchase, including one weekend.
Continue reading "Commitment-phobic? Shutterstock launches "short-term" subscription test product" »
Brit-owned US celeb news agency Splash News bought the Kaplan archive which includes 4,000 videos. Splash proprietor Kevin Smith said: "Video is the great buzz word in our industry now, with publications waking up to the potential of moving footage on their websites. Splash generates between 20 - 60 video clips/day, but our library was sorely lacking depth. Kaplan fills that void." Digitising/keywording/uploading the tapes to Splash-Video will take two months.
The long awaited new italian collective website about photography and photojournalism just started:
Potere Fotografico - Dalla parte del Fotoreporter
(The Power of Photography - from the view of photojournalists)
Pino Granata is one of the contributors. The first post is named "Noi e la Fotografia".
The Photo Industry News section starts with "C'è poco da festeggiare": "Corbis, la mega-agenzia di Bill Gates, nei giorni scorsi ha fatto un bel party. Per celebrare le esequie di Sygma, e dei reportage di qualità."
Even readers not familiar with the italian language will quickly understand the subject.
Continue reading "Potere Fotografico: The Power of Photography" »
