3.8 Social Media
Social
media refers to any media shared online (e.g., videos, music,
photos, news, etc.). Hitwise reported that “increasedbroadband penetration, combined
with the rise of consumer generated content and
the proliferation of webcams and cell phone and home video cameras have
firmly entrenched online video viewing into the habits of entertainment
seekers in the United States.”1
YouTube
YouTube,
launched in late 2005, is the leading Internet video site. In true
Web 2.0 fashion, the entire site is based on user-generated content. Users
upload videos, and rate and comment on videos posted by other users.
YouTube’s Quick Capture Flash software makes it easy to upload
content directly from a webcam. Users can browse videos by category, tag, or by following “related
video” links. Highly rated videos are featured on YouTube’s
homepage. While many professionals and film students post content on
the site, the most popular submissions are often simple spoofs or home
videos. Because of the viral network effects of YouTube,
these amateur videos can quickly gain worldwide attention.
Users can subscribe to other users’ content, share
videos with friends by e-mail, or embed videos directly into their blogs or other websites. YouTube
addresses privacy and spam concerns by allowing users
to set videos as “public” or “private” and flag
inappropriate material for review by YouTube’s staff.
Less than a year after its official launch, YouTube
was acquired by Google (which had its own less
popular Google Video site) for $1.65
billion. Less than six months after the acquisition, Viacom sued YouTube for $1 billion
for copyright infringement.2 The Digital Millennium Copyright
Act of 1998 protects companies from prosecution due to user actions
if they work in “good faith” to remove offending content.3 However, interpretations of this act vary, and it has become a
point of contention for many companies. YouTube
is developing a mechanism that automatically detects copyrighted material.
Currently, illegal content is removed from the site manually.
Internet TV
Many mass-media companies now offer
full-length episodes of popular television shows on their websites to
tap into the increasingly popular Internet
television market. The average American watches 4.5 hours
of television a day, not including Internet television.4 Sites, such as Joost, Veoh and MobiTV, have emerged as a new
way of watching television. Joost,
for example, uses semantic technologies to help
users find programs that interest them. (See Section 3.18,
Future of the Web.)
Limited by copyright issues, Internet
TV sites must make deals with mainstream networks to offer
their content online. Viacom made a deal with Joost,
allowing the site to include some shows from networks such as MTV, VH1 and Comedy Central.5 As users take back the power to choose what they watch and when,
networks may find themselves making more deals with Internet TV companies.
As technologies continue to improve, Internet TV has the potential to
radically change the television industry. Already, smaller content creators
are able to gain access to worldwide audiences. In late June 2007, MySpace joined the market with its MySpaceTV. With MySpace’s
enormous membership, it could rapidly become a direct competitor toYouTube
and Internet TV websites.
Internet TV allows advertisers to target their markets
more precisely than with broadcast television. Advertisers can use demographic
information, such as location, gender and age, to serve appropriate
ads.
Digg
Digg
features news, videos and podcasts, all posted and rated by users. It
has gained popularity by allowing users to “digg” or “bury”
posts and user comments. Valuable sites, marked by large numbers of
diggs, are moved to the Digg front page where other users can easily
find them. Formulas were adjusted to make sure the “wisdom of crowds” was not
being hijacked by users trying to promote their own posts.6 Sites that are “dugg” and featured on the homepage
typically experience a traffic surge. Bloggers can add Digg
buttons to their sites, making it easy for readers to “digg”
their posts.
Digg
uses collaborative filtering to help reduce spam by “burying”
it (users can vote against posts they don’t like). Users can also
set the threshold of diggs to automatically filter out content with
low ratings. The site was criticized for removing popular posts of HD
DVD security cracks (on the advice of lawyers); however, Kevin Rose (Digg’s founder)
decided to support the crowds and “deal with whatever the consequences
might be.”7 Digg
has additional social networking capabilities;
users can view their friends’ Digg activities and the Diggs of
other users with similar interests. Some Digg-like sites include Netscape, Reddit and Newsvine.
Last.fm
Last.fm
is an Internet radio website that uses
Web 2.0 concepts to make music recommendations and build communities.
The site provides open source desktop software
that can be integrated into most popular music players. Its scrobbling
feature tracks the music users listen to so that Last.fm can provide
users with personalized recommendations. A streamable radio with “discovery
mode” and a network of like-minded listeners help users find new
music. Groups and an events section add social value. The site also
offers tagging and wiki pages for artists and record
labels.
Digital Rights Management (DRM)
Digital Rights Management (DRM)
systems add software to media files to prevent them from being misused,
but these systems restrict compatibility with many media players. Companies
want to protect their digital products from illegal distribution; however,
users want unrestricted access to media they’ve purchased.
iTunes, Apple’s music store, has
been criticized for restricting users’ access to their own music
by allowing only up to five computers to be authorized to play any given
file. However, Apple’s Steve Jobs advocated a DRM-free
music world in February 2007, arguing the greater risk for piracy is in DRM-free CDs, which
make up the majority of music sales.8 CDs remain DRM-free because many CD players are not compatible
with DRM systems. In June 2007, Amazon offered DRM-free downloads from
more than 12,000 record labels, and both iTunes and Amazon
sell DRM-free music from EMI (one of the four major record
companies).9
Podcasting
Podcasting
was popularized by Apple’s iPod portable media player. Apodcast
is a digital audio file (e.g., an .mp3) that often takes on the
characteristics of a radio talk show (though without live callers).10 Much as blogging has made journalism
accessible to everyone, podcasting has introduced a more democratic
form of radio broadcasting. Podcasts are easily created with audio software
and can be played on a computer or portable media player. The files
are posted online at individual websites or distributed via programs
like Apple’s iTunes. Listeners can often subscribe to podcasts
via RSS
feeds. Forrester Research predicted
12 million households will be regularly subscribing to podcasts by 2010.11