Google President, Eric Schmidt

Jeff Jarvis wrote a very stinging commentary prior to Schmidt’s talk. I couldn’t agree with him more.

Schmidt began his talking by saying,

I’m here because I want to talk about newspapers, information and the American Dream. Why is America so wonderful, why am I here, because of Freedom of Speech. Without Freedom of Speech, there can be no effective democracy. Without Freedom of Speech, there can be no, if you will, policing of the elites that dominate so many countries. America is a great idea precisely because it can change.

I started paraphrasing a bit for good measure.
Innovation and new inventions change the world and create jobs. The future will be technology driven. This will help to create the high paying jobs. As innovation and business success occurs and wealth is built in the background of Freedom of Speech.

He talked about the desparate need for transparency. If people had known about the pending economic crisis, they would have listened. Schmidt basically said that the media didn’t do a thorough job without saying it.

Redefinition of the newspaper of record, the one that records what is happening in your life, the local newspaper. It’s a national stage, a global stage, a business, stage. We have to reinvent what the paper means in this new environment.

Of course, I’ll have to make the time to listen to the rest of the speech. I just wanted to give you an incentive to do the same.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

, this is the link to a New York Times article about movie piracy.  Look, this is really simple. The movie industry needs to learn from the music industry.  Stop promoting movies in advance without giving the consumer immediate access. Let the crowd do your marketing.  Some people will be more than willing to pay say $1.99 to download the movie to watch it one time.  The low cost structure is working wonders on iTunes.

Studios can still release the movie in theaters and on DVD, just do it simultaneously.  You can still do a limited VHS copy as well for the laggards if they are you target audience. (Hey, for the first time in world history five generation are living. Each is a niche and of course there are thousands if not millions of niches in within.) Most people want to be honest, give them a chance to do so.  Each area is a niche and aggregating movie, DVD and online sales will at least be more than what they get when the movie is bootlegged.  This is really a no brainer.

The arrogance and ignorance of studio executives is laughable as well.

Eric Garland, the chief executive of the file-sharing monitoring firm BigChampagne, called the widespread downloading of “Wolverine” a “one-of-a-kind case.” “We’ve never seen a high-profile film — a film of this budget, a tentpole movie with this box office potential — leak in any form this early,” he said.

From the aforelinked NY Times article

When American Gangsta came out in 2007, it experienced unprecedented bootlegging. I realize in Hollywood’s mind, it wasn’t an “A” list film, how could it be with Academy Award winners Denzel Washington AND Russell Crowe in the film? Yes, I’m being facetious.

We all have to be willing to learn from everybody. Nobody is beneath you anymore. To ignore a lesson, just because it wasn’t packaged a certain way is insanity. I guess that’s why so many other industries, news included are doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results. When local news teases a story, it is googled and there is no need to watch. Weather can be gotten from weather.com. Traffic can be gained any number of ways. All industries need to be awake and relevant.

I digress, for the movie industry, there is still an audience and most are willing to pay. Give an audience limited choices increases dishonesty. Give the audience more choice and you are more likely to decrease dishonesty.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

, this is the link to a New York Times article about movie piracy.  Look, this is really simple. The movie industry needs to learn from the music industry.  Stop promoting movies in advance without giving the consumer immediate access. Let the crowd do your marketing.  Some people will be more than willing to pay say $1.99 to download the movie to watch it one time.  The low cost structure is working wonders on iTunes.

Studios can still release the movie in theaters and on DVD, just do it simultaneously.  You can still do a limited VHS copy as well for the laggards if they are you target audience. (Hey, for the first time in world history five generation are living. Each is a niche and of course there are thousands if not millions of niches in within.) Most people want to be honest, give them a chance to do so.  Each area is a niche and aggregating movie, DVD and online sales will at least be more than what they get when the movie is bootlegged.  This is really a no brainer.

The arrogance and ignorance of studio executives is laughable as well.

Eric Garland, the chief executive of the file-sharing monitoring firm BigChampagne, called the widespread downloading of “Wolverine” a “one-of-a-kind case.” “We’ve never seen a high-profile film — a film of this budget, a tentpole movie with this box office potential — leak in any form this early,” he said.

From the aforelinked NY Times article

When American Gangsta came out in 2007, it experienced unprecedented bootlegging. I realize in Hollywood’s mind, it wasn’t an “A” list film, how could it be with Academy Award winners Denzel Washington AND Russell Crowe in the film? Yes, I’m being facetious.

We all have to be willing to learn from everybody. Nobody is beneath you anymore. To ignore a lesson, just because it wasn’t packaged a certain way is insanity. I guess that’s why so many other industries, news included are doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results. When local news teases a story, it is googled and there is no need to watch. Weather can be gotten from weather.com. Traffic can be gained any number of ways. All industries need to be awake and relevant.

I digress, for the movie industry, there is still an audience and most are willing to pay. Give an audience limited choices increases dishonesty. Give the audience more choice and you are more likely to decrease dishonesty.

Yesterday, the Editor and Vice President of Audience and Content Development Mark Silverman (who spoke to my students last week) wrote this editorial about the state of newspapers. Today, CNN.Com published this story about newspapers.

The question is who will read the articles about the demise of newspapers? Who will address societal apathy? Who will remind people about the value of the written word and not only give them a reason to read it but the time to do so? So many people are so busy trying to keep their jobs and put food on the table, they do not have time to pay attention to anything else. And when they finally come up for air, they do not want to deal with anything that is intellectually alienating.

This is really a terrifying time in American history, not just because of the terrorists, global warming, environmental issues, people having more and being less happy, the economic crisis and so much more, but also because the very core values of America are being revealed as suspect. The American Dream turned out to be a nightmare and few want to admit that greed was a very poor reason for success. It’s time for our nation to reinvent itself with an agreed upon purpose to avert this identity crisis and realize our true greatness.