Every Company is a Media Company

A little more fun before we dive into creating your own blog and becoming social media black belts. This is an example of how a funny video can spread quickly across YouTube, blogs and social networks. I found it on Facebook, liked it, shared it and embedded it in about 60 seconds.

Whether its geek humor or a critique of the country’s healthcare system, the average person has more potential power and influence than entire media networks had 15 years ago. Today, every company has to become a media company, telling their own narrative, just as every person has to learn how to tell their own story.

Here’s one story – a funny one – of Alan Becker demonstrating his chops through “Animator vs. Animation II”:

A Bit of Context on The Power and Promise of Social Media

JHU students: welcome to the Fall 2009 class for Using Social and Digital Media. As you are thinking about the client that you will choose to explore social media through this semester, I thought this video might help provide some perspective on the power and promise of social media. Enjoy.

History of the Internet – A Video Retrospective

Interesting video about the history of the Internet – from batch processing to the applications we hold so dear today:

Google CEO on Charlie Rose – Predictions

Google CEO Eric Schmidt was on Charlie Rose last week, answering a wide range of questions about the future of search, privacy, advertising, mobile, cloud computing and content.

Quick summary: Everything will be mobile, mobile will be a much better experience and Google will be able to match you with the precise content you desire, when, where and how you want it.

TechCrunch has the full transcript.

Here’s the video of the interview:

1981 Video About Reading the Newspaper on a Computer

This is a true classic – a 1981 news report from San Francisco’s KRON about a new experiment conducted by the San Francisco Examiner newspaper to see if people would read the newspaper on a home computer.

At the time, home computers were rare and expensive. It took 2 hours to download the paper, at $5 per hour. And what you got was black type on a green screen. But some people were excited about the potential.

The kicker of the story was a guy selling newspapers on the corner, with the announcer saying he didn’t need to worry about his job anytime soon. Twenty-eight years later, “anytime soon” is here.

Louis CK on Conan – We are Spoiled by Technology

Hat tip to Mike for forwarding this video to me. It is comedian Louis CK on Conan talking about how spoiled we are by technology. I couldn’t agree more and often fall victim myself to the kinds of critiques he lays out in his diatribe. I am completely and totally spoiled grandparent-to-their-first-grandchild style by technological innovations.

As an early adopter, I can sometimes be quite forgiving of the little glitches in new technology, but it sometimes takes more breaths than Phelps to do so (pool or pic? You decide). I want bigger, better, faster, cheaper, more efficient, save my life in a way I did not know I needed to be saved every day.

And I want it now. Veruca Salt would be ever so proud. In fact, I am writing this post in Word because I am on a plane wishing that Alaska already had its in-flight Wi-Fi up and running as teased on the brochure. Then I could post from the plane. As it is I have to type, save and then transfer. So much work.

Click through the picture to watch the video on Videogum:

John Cleese Talks about Twitter

This is a very short video, but it is classic John Cleese and just too funny not to share.

Here is John Cleese talking about Twitter: