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Alexander van Elsas's Weblog on new media & technologies and their effect on social behavior

new media, social behavior, Internet, TV, mobile, social networks, human behavior, family, friends

Freemium is better than FreeNovember 17

A few interesting posts drew my attention this morning. First there was Dave Winer who predicts that on-line advertisement will be dead. Not because it will completely disappear, or that it’s growth will slow down considerable. But because it will be replaced by something more valuable, commercial information. Interesting thought. I’ve always felt that on-line advertisement only makes sense when the advertisement itself has value to its user. Dave takes that thought one step further and explains why commercial information is more relevant.

Erik Schonfeld at Techcrucnh shows statistics that advertisement growth is grinding to a halt. He uses the results of the 4 major advertisers (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL) to show that growth is slowing down considerably. Together they still create a staggering $ 8,2 Bln revenues per quarter, but what would interest me is to know the total market value right now. It would most likely show that more than 90% of all advertisement revenues are generated by these four companies. Why there are so many startups still executing the free advertisement based business model is beyond me.

Chris Anderson explains about the metrics behind a business model I like a whole lot better, Freemium. In this business model you provide most of your service for free and

5 dangers of social mediaNovember 13

Few people seem to realize or care about the dangers social media brings to our lives. Our online habits are changing rapidly from a closed, private behavior towards an open and sharing culture. While this brings us lots of good, it seems to me we are still very naive about its possible dangers.

Let me provide you five dangers that arise due to our changed online behavior. These dangers should make us realize that when (not if) we move into an era where data becomes currency, we will need to develop better privacy and security measures to go along with that. There are many more dangers that can be thought of, but I’ve just picked 5.

1. Identity theft

Stealing another person’s identity is easier than you think. We are not aware of the information we share on the web. And we often do not realize that Google never forgets. We can find names, birth dates, family members, school and work history, and much more on anyone. We can find e-mail addresses, credit card information, and from there we can get access to bank accounts and identity information. Honestly, it doesn’t take a genius to steal a person’s identity online. Right now this often has financial repercussions (people buy stuff on your credit card), but the consequences may be more severe. When important aspects of our lives are moved online identity theft can do u

Kevin Kelly’s vision for the future of the web calls for immediate actionNovember 10

I just watched Kevin Kelly’s presentation at the web 2.0 summit in San Francisco. He talked about the web in ten years from now.  A few quotes from his presentation (watch it here, it’s great):

• Evolution: Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the web 6,527 days ago. In that period we saw: linking of computers (the net), then linking pages (the web), sharing links, the next phase will be linking data
• Sharing data feels intimate, we are entering an era in which we will share data. Every object we make (even physical) will have data in it, and it will all be part of this web -> the database of Things
• In the next 6,500 days of the web: it will not be the web only better, it will be something entirely different
• There will be one machine, everything will be part of it. The web will be its OS. If information is not webbized it will not count. Everything is always on.
• Extreme dependence, we will feel something is amputated when we are not connected.
• We will have an extension of ourselves on the web. If all my data is on the web, who am I?
• We will have a new feeling for the value of the collective.

Kevin Kelly always makes me think. I like the way he tries to describe the effect of having everything recorded and shared online on our human lives. It feels scary and exciting at the same time. There are some possible consequences of his predictio

Obama proves that there is nothing more powerful than an engaged communityNovember 5

I’ve been watching the news around the election of Obama. On TV and the web. It’s a big thing. Even in the Netherlands the news was on tv all through the night and it brought a lot of emotions. I send and got a lot of SMSes from American friends that were overwhelmed with joy when Obama was declared the winner of the elections.

I felt his victory speech was amazing. Obama shows great leadership when he talked about similarities instead of differences. Hope instead of fear. He is not trying to divide but to unite. He will face some of the most difficult problems any president could face. A financial crisis, 8 years of war and neglect of the home country. But somehow he will manage to get the United States back on track, restoring hope to those that lost it during the Bush administration. The evidence is already there. Just look at how he won this election.

I believe Obama, unlike McCain or the rest of the republican party, managed to do something that no other Presidential candidate could have done before. He managed to set fire to communities. He brought a message of hope and he manged to let others take that message and mobilize the American people. We see the power of communities on-line in our web 2.0 view of th

How 475Bln customer views can lead to ZERO valueOctober 17

Advertisement: What a waist

I noticed a TechCrunch article this morning talking about lay-offs at one of the top 5 advertisement networks Adbrite. It’s always sad when a company has to let people go, but that wasn’t really what drew my attention. It was actually this part:

There is a silver lining to the layoffs, or at least for those who still have a job at Adbrite: The company will now be cash flow positive and profitable, CEO Iggy Fanlo and Levine said in a phone conversation. The company had gross revenues of $32 million in 2007. He won’t discuss current revenues, other than to say it continues to grow, and that October will be a record month.

[stuff deleted....]

Adbrite is a top five advertising network according to Comscore. They sell advertising for 70,000 websites and serve 1.3 billion ad impressions per day.

I may not be a top financial expert, but if these numbers are anywhere near the truth then we can conclude that one of the top five advertisement networks makes ex