Digital Media Diva by Lynne d Johnson

11:47 am | 0 recommendations | 6 comments

Wal-Mart Takes on Everyone

Not only has Wal-Mart begun its organic foods push in an effort to take on Whole Foods and differentiate itself from Target, the company has also stepped into the social networking arena.

In order to catch the MySpace generation, Wal-Mart has launched The HUB (School Your Way). The attempt is pretty lame too. Sure "Hubsters" (not joking here) can create their own pages and upload video, but not without parental consent or Wal-Mart review before posting. It's actually not social networking at all. Though youth can create profiles, there's no interaction with other "Hubsters" (except voting on pages) and limits on what can be added there.

Of course we know that it's really a marketing campaign and not a hopeful MySpace killer.

07:06 pm | 0 recommendations | 7 comments

Web 2.0 Raises Ante

When Rupert Murdoch's News Corp bought Intermix Media, owner of Myspace.com, for $580 million last year the acquisition signaled the rebirth of the Internet boom, including its overpriced valuations.

Take for instance the robust investment activity taking place in the social networking space. Facebook, the social networking site for college students has raised $38.2 million; Bebo, a social networking site that's a cross between Myspace and Facebook (with a Skype-powered IM service) recently raised $15 million; TagWorld, a social networking site that includes video chat and a music discovery engine has raised $7.5 million; Tagged.com, a social networking site specifically for teens recently raised $7 million; and even online teen community Habbo raised $7.7 million in a partnership with Movida Group -- a joint venture by SoftBank BB Corp. and Asian Groove -- in Japan.

But it's not only social networking raking in healthy heaps of cash. Consider blog search engine Technorati that raised $7.6 million in its third round of venture capital financing recently.

It's both exciting and scary.

Just last week it was rumored that Bebo turned down a $552 million acquisition offer from British Telecom Group. And back in March, Facebook turned down a $750 million offer in hopes of fetching as much as $2 billion.

Whether they'll be acquired or move toward IPOs, are any of these viral Web-only models going to be worth the stake?

05:26 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

Passing the Torch

Some things are better left to the younger generation. That's what David Pogue felt this week when he empowered his intern, Bart Stein, a 19-year-old Brown sophomore, and ran his "The Next Generation's Take on the New Sidekick" in Pogue's Circuits newsletter.

Smart mentoring move. Stein is Tmobile's intended demographic for this device, and though Pogue is the technology expert, I'd rather have Stein's take on this one. He's more likely to actually use a Sidekick III.

06:26 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

Are You Getting Enough Sleep?

Marcia Conner, managing director of Ageless Learner, a global advisory practice that helps companies and people learn and adapt to new technologies, processes, and information, in her recent Fast Company Learning Resource Center column writes: "According to the National Sleep Foundation, almost 70% of us get fewer than eight hours sleep a night. Only one in ten say sleep is an important part of good health. A full 40% blame watching TV or surfing the Web for not going to sleep before midnight."

Read Marcia Conner's Advice for Executives: Get Some Sleep! to find out how a sleep-deprived life could end up costing you the ability to excel. And be sure to take the Fast Company poll.

07:30 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

Taking Cues from YouTube

Viral video and social networking sites --- often the bane of major brands --- now offer corporations a blueprint of how best to interact with consumers. Brian Morrissey at Adweek today reported that Coca-cola has redesigned its corporate sites, both Coke.com and CocaCola.com, "as brand destinations designed to showcase consumer creativity." Visitors can submit 45-second video spots that will be rated by other visitors. Yet the videos relate to special challenges like "The Essence Of You" and "XYZ Sports," and therefore aren't directly related to the brand. But as Morrissey suggests in his article, it appears as if the soft-drink company has taken a page right out of YouTube's book.

Sounds interesting enough, and might even prove itself a "sticky" maneuver for Coca-Cola. In fact, it calls to mind Fortune Senior Editor David Kirkpatrick's article from last month: "All Web sites are alike," where he says "The Web is one big level playing field of competition for the customer's time and attention. The quality and relevance of the content will be what drives viewers to devote that attention - not whether the host happens to be Coke.com, NYT.com or Disney.com."

If all web sites can do the same thing, then where do we draw the line on what's media and what isn't media? And if new media is truly governed by who controls content, then will corporations one day find traditional media less useful?

04:41 pm | 0 recommendations | 5 comments

Should CEOs or Academics Teach Up-and-Coming Executives?

With a "leaders teaching leaders" model becoming the trend in executive-level training at many corporations, Fastcompany.com columnist, Jim Bolt, Chairman and founder of Executive Development Associates Inc. (EDA), examines the pros and cons in his latest installment "More Than MBAs."

Read more from the Learning Resource Center.

01:48 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

Fast Company on Sirius this Saturday

Fast Company contributing writer Greg Lindsay will appear on Sirius Satellite Radio's Business Shrink (Channel 114) on Saturday, July 8 at 4:30 PM to discuss the "Rise of the Aerotropolis" feature from the July/August Issue.

Be sure to tune in.

06:33 pm | 0 recommendations | 10 comments

Microsoft Readies iPod Killer for Christmas

For five years, the digital media experts at Microsoft have sat by idly as Apple claimed domination over digital music downloads and became the king of MP3 player sales. Microsoft even sat back and watched as other companies like RIO and Samsung introduced MP3 players into the marketplace that were compatible with Microsoft's own Windows Media technology.

Well now the waiting is over.

According to various published reports, Microsoft plans to release a Wi-Fi-enabled digital media player by Christmas. The device is reported to play both music and video that can be downloaded wirelessly, reducing the need to connect players with PCs or Macs.

Though it's still unknown whether Steve Jobs will announce a wireless iPod at next month's Apple developer's conference, it still seems a little too late for Microsoft to enter the game.