Digital Rights, anyone?

In a recent post by Erick Schonfeld of Techcrunch.com, it is interesting to note that despite the pervasiveness of online lifestyle that we enjoy now, there are concerns which we need to look deeper at, such as...

"The Right to Use and Reuse Content: Consumers know that digital copies of songs, words, and videos are qualitatively different than physical copies, yet copyright law treats them the same way. When the economics of scarcity no longer apply, consumers start to behave differently. They copy and reuse content in unforeseen ways. The pendulum has swung so far that normal consumer behavior has now been criminalized. The concept of fair use needs to be updated and clarified, while still balancing the fundamental right of copyright holders to profit from their creations.

The Right To Control Digital Property On Your Own Device: Possession may be nine tenths of the law, but digital devices don’t follow that rule. When it comes to digital property, who owns what is ill-defined. This can become especially complicated when content is tied to a specific device. If I download a digital book to my Kindle or an app to my iPhone, Amazon or Apple (to pick on them again) have the ability to pull any content from my device without notice or permission. Even if I’ve paid for the content in question. Copyright law and DRM technologies are so intertwined and confused that both consumers and companies could benefit from clearer rules of the road.

The Right To The Free Flow Of Information: Internet service providers, especially those who benefit from public rights of way, should not be allowed to discriminate against information by data type. Debates about Net Neutrality can get bogged down in discussions about content filtering, packet prioritization, and backbone peering rules. But the issue here is basic access to the Internet and all the data that it contains. Data is information and artificial limits on what kinds of data can flow through the Internet’s pipes can amount to a form of censorship.

The Right To (Some) Privacy: For the most part, the expectation of privacy is dead on the Web. But the privacy of certain types of information (health, financial) will always need to be protected. Federal guidelines for how to protect consumer data is preferable to a hodgepodge of industry and state regulations that are currently failing us. (Who wants to book a room at the Best Western?) Privacy laws are also inconsistent in the physical and digital worlds. The Bork law, for instance, makes it illegal for physical video stores to share my rental records, but iTunes or Amazon could sell my digital video or music purchases without running afoul of the law.

The Right to Control Your Digital Identity: And what happens when the “content” in question is your own digital identity. Who owns that? The answer should be that you do. Congress is certainly interested in this issue, and wants to make sure that online advertising networks don’t abuse their possession of your identity data to bombard you with ads. In fact, Google and Yahoo, have been making preemptive moves in an attempt to stave off regulation. But politicians may want to take a closer look at the EU’s privacy directive, which has been in effect for more than decade. Citizens should be able certify that the digital identity associated with their name in a given database is in fact theirs and to revoke access to that identity information on a case-by-case basis."

Will this be possible in the Philippines? If our legislation was able to make E-Commerce Bill into a law, why not something like this. Of course, with the proliferation of the many so-called "scandals" I believe that this will be helpful to provide more protection to our online life.

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Big Leap in our Elections

According to the Commission on Elections recent announcement and I quote,

"As of August 12, sixty percent (60%) of 5170 precincts in the entire Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has already transmitted results of the elections.

For Maguindanao, 95.2% of the total number of precincts has already transmitted poll results. It was followed by Shariff Kabunsuan with 91.01% and Basilan, 69.53%. The other provinces have slower transmission namely Lanao del Sur (52.67%), Tawi-Tawi, (39%) and Sulu with 27.07%.

Vince Dizon, Spokesperson of Smartmatic-Sahi added that we are almost complete with the transmission of the elections results from Maguindanao. Transmission in 17 municipalities has already been 100% completed while the rest have already reached the 95% level. The speed has accelerated significantly after a few hours after the closing of the polls.

Definitely, there are still many areas where we can improve the automated system as we prepare for the 2010 elections."

This, despite the on-going conflict in nearby areas in Mindanao, we can now look forward that the 2010 elections will have a major improvement than our previous elections. That instead of waiting for the result for months, we can hopefully expect the results much faster.

Whether the cha-cha will push through or not, I believe that the computerization will help us to lessen the frauds and other malpractices.

More importantly, like all Filipinos, we need to be vigilant as this 2010 election will be critical if any form of our government will be successful or not.

reference: http://www.comelec.gov.ph/

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On Online Ads

Last August 19, 2008, Josh Chasin of comScore.com, amplified the impact of online advertising these days and I quote:

"Online display advertising works. At my company, we have done hundreds of studies demonstrating the ROI of different kinds of online advertising. In one case study recently presented, we found that, among consumers exposed to a campaign, click-through accounted for only 10% of subsequent site visits and 14% of incremental dollar sales volume; view-through — consumers exposed to the campaign but who did not click on the ads — accounted for 90% of eventual site visits and 86% of incremental dollar sales. In other words, gauging the effectiveness of this campaign based solely on clicks would have missed 90% of the sales impact.

Online advertising drives offline sales. Sometimes people forget that the Internet is not a self-contained ecosystem. We can’t ignore the extent to which online advertising can drive offline sales, something else that can’t be counted with clicks. Using our panel and our ability to link it to offline databases, we have been able, time and again, to quantify the impact of online advertising on offline sales. Even for search advertising, wherein one might be tempted to believe the majority of effectiveness accrues in-session and via click, we have observed that 83% of the advertising impact on sales is either latent (sales on subsequent user sessions; 20%) or offline (63%.)

Search and display work better together. Another thing we’ve found is that when an advertiser runs a search and a display campaign simultaneously, the impact (as measured by lift versus a control group) of exposure to both search and display is greater than the impact of search alone or of display alone; in fact, impact of search and display together exceeds the sum of the effects of search and display impact individually. In other words, there is a synergistic effect; add two and two and you get five. And not surprisingly, much of the incremental sales generated by the combined exposure group occurs offline.

Display ads online are at least as valuable as display ads offline. Television still commands a significantly greater share of ad dollars than the Internet, at higher CPMs. In my last column, I noted that online ads that can be empirically tied to conversion tend to have greater perceived value than ads whose primary impact is measured by awareness, recall and other brand-building metrics. So let me make this point: the impression generated by one consumer watching a given spot presented within long form online video, in full screen mode, is at least as valuable as an impression delivering the same spot to the same consumer on traditional TV. (I would argue that the online impression is probably more valuable because it is likely to also reach the kind of younger, more tech-savvy and harder-to-reach consumer that is increasingly difficult for traditional TV to deliver.)

As we develop new ways to dedicate on-screen real estate to delivering captivating, engaging ads, whether via banner, rich media or emerging formats, I fully expect online display advertising to become an increasingly important component of the media mix. We don’t require a click-through from a magazine ad or a TV ad or a newspaper ad or a radio ad, and all these impressions are valued by advertisers. Impressions online should have at least the same value, wholly independent of the direct linkage to a click. The opportunity to generate that action online is a profound value-add, but let’s make sure that we properly value the ad before we overlay the value-add. Advertising can have immediate effect, but it can also have quantifiable mid-term effect, and profoundly valuable long-term branding effect. And that is as true for online advertising as for any other medium."

Though as indicated by yugatech.com in his recent post, online ads here in the Philippines is still in its infancy and only the biggest names such as inquirer.net got the biggest chunks of this revenue.

I just hope that as more and more bloggers come to mature and gain prominence, our local companies will look into this as a medium to reach more tech-savvy customers.

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Innovation According to Sir Kawasaki

This is a very interesting topic about innovation, according to Sir Guy Kawasaki who is a VC based in California and has the following ventures: Nononina and Garage Technology Ventures.

Just take note that this is almost an hour presentation, but is a worthwhile topic!

Please check out on his site, http://www.guykawasaki.com/, and definitely, you will learn a lot from the Guy!

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Square Watermelon, Anyone?

In a recent blog by Dave Knox, "Lessons of the Square Watermelon", it is quite interesting to learn that sometimes we can still think out-of-the-box to improve on something which we normally considered as normal or something that we take for granted already.

Like in the case of the watermelon which some people in Japan were able to make this into square shape. And that's really great!

I'd also like to share the following which Dave noted in his blog and I quote:

There are a five lessons that you can take away from this story which will help you in all parts of your life. Here are a few of them:

1. Don’t Assume: The major problem was that most people had always seen round watermelons so they automatically assumed that square watermelons were impossible before even thinking about the question. Things that you have been doing a certain way your entire life have taken on the aura of the round watermelon and you likely don’t even take the time to consider if there is another way to do it. Breaking yourself from assuming this way can greatly improve your overall life as you are constantly looking for new and better ways to do things.
2. Question Habits: The best way to tackle these assumptions is to question your habits. If you can make an effort to question the way you do things on a consistent basis, you will find that you can continually improve the way that you live your life. Forming habits when they have been well thought out is usually a positive thing, but most of us have adopted our habits from various people and places without even thinking about them.
3. Be Creative: When faced with a problem, be creative in looking for a solution. This often requires thinking outside the box. Most people who viewed this question likely thought they were being asked how they could genetically alter water melons to grow square which would be a much more difficult process to accomplish. By looking at the question from an alternative perspective, however, the solution was quite simple. Being creative and looking at things in different ways in all portions of your live will help you find solutions to many problems where others can’t see them.
4. Look for a Better Way: The square watermelon question was simply seeking a better and more convenient way to do something. The stores had flagged a problem they were having and asked if a solution was possible. It’s impossible to find a better way if you are never asking the question in the first place. Always ask if there is a better way of doing the things that you do and constantly write down the things you wish you could do (but currently can’t) since these are usually hints about steps you need to change. Get into the habit of asking yourself, “Is there a better way I could be doing this?” and you will find there often is.
5. Impossibilities Often Aren’t: If you begin with the notion that something is impossible, then it obviously will be for you. If, on the other hand, you decide to see if something is possible or not, you will find out through trial and error.

I hope this will inspire all of us!

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Childhood Inspiration

Now that Bill Gates had officially transferred all his functions to his successors in Microsoft recently, it is indeed a new chapter in his life with focus more on philanthropy and a new vision to change the world.

I then realize that his success story was such an inspiration to me. How he lived his geek life at an early age, how he started with his pals Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer, and how they were able to change our world through software.

I remember...

I was 13 when I first dreamed to have my own computer. In that year, my father bought us a Casio computer which you have to connect to a television (as your monitor) and can program using BASIC language. I did some basic programs such as password and simple graphics. Also, you need to connect it to a cassette player to save and retrieve the program.

At 15, I studied COBOL programming (the youngest in that class).

At 16, my father bought us a PC-AT 286 with 5' 1/4" disk drive, a small harddisk and a colored monitor. This helped me learn more about this technology and the opportunities it can give to someone like me.

At 17, I took up Information Technology course in a state university and dreamed of having my own software company. During college, I was given the opportunity to compete in a graphics competition and was invited to lecture this technology to a graduating class.

At night, I had a teaching job in a computer school in Manila, where some of my students were already twice my age.

In my early 20s, I became involved in computer training, in putting up a technology events startup, in putting up a computer service business, and now into technology blogging.

I may never became someone like Bill, at the very least, I am still involved in something where my passion leads me.

Like Bill, it was my choice to pursue a little different path than most of my peers.

Like him, I will never stop dreaming.

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"Fresh New Ideas"

"I get a lot of fresh ideas and these are very enriching."

This is one of the best things that I have learned from my recent interview with Mr. Federico "Dickie" Gonzales. As one of the leading personalities in the area of technopreneurship and innovation in the country, Dickie is someone who:

• * is very active in leading the annual Philippine Emerging Start-ups Open (PESO Challenge) as President/CEO,
• * is providing consultancy on the design of technopreneurship training programs, workshops and business plan competitions,
• * is a prolific mentor and advisor to technology start-ups,
• * is also active in the cultivation of entrepeneurship in the country as the Executive Director of the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship

He took up Mechanical Engineering at the De La Salle College and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology through a grant by the Ayala Foundation. His 2-year MIT background gave Dickie the engineering and technology foundations for his current passion in technopreneurship.

Upon his return in 1972, he became founding chair of the IE Department, Dean of the Graduate School of Business and as EVP of the Professional Schools, all within the DLSU community.

Some of his recent collaborations and activities are:

• * Morphlabs' Morph Code - this is to help Filipino entrepreneurs and technologists bring their innovative Web 2.0 ideas to life,
• * Ayala Tech BootCamp - to address society's problems and opportunities by developing new and innovative technologies,
• * BusinessWorld - has a column called "Jumping the Curve"

With his love for sharing ideas, he is now involved with the following institutions:

• * DLSU - College of Computer Studies (on Technopreneurship)
• * UP - College of Computer Studies (on Technopreneurship)
• * Asian Institute of Management (on Innovation Management)

For Dickie, his contributions is to "excite people to bring out upfront their ideas." Like he wants to see the winners of the PESO Challenge to make it big in their respective markets and also assists those who are in need of mentoring.

Indeed, his experience and passion of bringing technopreneurship in our country to the next level is very valuable. Especially for those who aspire of making it big.

additional information: http://www.morphlabs.com/, http://www.ayalatbi.org/

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It's a Numbers Game!

Now that Microsoft had walked away with its almost 4-month old $ 47.5 billion acquisition bid on Yahoo, its stocks had risen today (10:27AM ET) by almost a dollar (or $ 29.88) while Yahoo had stumbled to $ 24.24 compared from $ 28.67 last Friday.

And the real winner for this acquisition game is the Big G (Google), wherein, its stocks rose from $ 581.29 last Friday to $ 593.75 today. Though the Big G was not part of the negotiation, but they were the real reason and target of Microsoft.

For one to understand more of the developments beyond the noise, here's an interesting numbers game which is the based on a 10-year comparative stock market value between the three tech giants:

The highest value that Microsoft (MSFT) got was $ 58.72 in December 24, 1999. It took them almost 21 years to reach this since they were founded in 1978.

The highest value that Yahoo (YHOO) got was $101 in January 7, 2000. It took them almost 6 years to reach this since they were founded in 1994.

The highest value that Google (GOOG) got was $ 715 last December 7, 2007. It took them almost 9 years to reach this since they were founded in 1998.

From another perspective, I'd like to share the most recent ranking which the 3 giants got from Alexa.com now and as follows:
* Yahoo.com - 1
* Google.com - 2
* Microsoft.com - 14

Interestingly, Google.com was # 4 the last time I checked it, while Yahoo.com was # 1, Youtube.com (of Google) was # 2, Live.com (of Microsoft) was #3.

Now, my best guess is that Google can replace Yahoo as the number 1 website in the world anytime soon - in terms of traffic rank, pageviews and market reach.

More on this in our succeeding posts.

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Mobile Ads: The Next Frontier

Among the latest developments in the tech sector today which got my interest is from Ben Kunz of BusinessWeek.com entitled "The Real Threat to Google".

From his article, I would like to emphasize one main point - that Google's biggest threat may not be Microsoft or Yahoo, but may be Apple!

As the on-going takeover bid by Microsoft on Yahoo seems to be taking forever, Google is doing everything to further dominate the web advertising and making its OpenSocial as a standard platform for social networking sites.

Aside from this, the Big G "wants a say in what fits on that tiny screen" when it launched Android late last year. Many thought that Big G is preparing to launch its own mobile phone, somewhat similar to the iPhone of Apple.

Now it's much clearer that the next frontier for web advertising will come from mobile devices. As Ben pointed out and I quote,

"It was Apple (AAPL), a frequent Google collaborator, that tipped the trend. Consumer use of mobile Internet in the U.S. has longed trailed Asia and Europe, where standardized cell networks made it easier for handset makers to produce gadgets that tap the Web at blazingly fast speeds. But in the summer of 2007, Apple rocked America by launching the iPhone. The computer maker wasn't the first to put the Web on phones, but for many consumers, the iPhone made the experience more robust.

Almost two-thirds of Americans have had some experience with mobile Internet use, and the adoption trend is most pronounced among teens and young adults, according to Pew Research Center. About 60% of adults 18 to 29 use text messaging every day, compared with only 14% of their parents. Nearly one-third of young adults use mobile Internet. This is the future, because people take their media habits with them as they age."

It may really be the next thing about the Internet. That more and more devices will have more of the Web - news, email, chat, social network and even web apps. And definitely, mobile ads will also be there!

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Carefully and Promptly

This is just the start of the year, yet, the atmosphere is already heating up.

In the online advertising market, in particular, it is growing at a very fast pace from over $40 billion in 2007 to a projected $80 billion by 2010. Expectedly, advertisers around the world will double their spending on the Internet during the next three years as more people get their news and entertainment on the Web and mobile devices instead of television, radio, newspapers and magazine.

But there is another recent story which can probably change the technology landscape of the future - Microsoft and Yahoo! versus Google.

With the recent $44.6 billion unsolicited takeover bid of Yahoo! by Microsoft, both icons in the technology world but are losing much in the arena of online search, it is indeed a bold step to challenge Google in the Internet universe with more than 50% global leadership and market share.

As stated by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in his letter to Yahoo! last January 31, "We believe this proposal represents a unique opportunity to create significant value for Yahoo!'s shareholders and employees, and the combined company will be better positioned to provide an enhanced value proposition to users and advertisers".

Sure, they can maximize all the benefits of this merger or I would rather say an acquisition, but this sort of urgency on the part of Microsoft seems to indicate that the once-puny online search engine called Google, is still unbeatable and taking more profits than what they both can generate from Internet search and advertising.

In terms of figures, Microsoft had online revenue of $863 million, compared with $4.8 billion at Google. Yahoo and Microsoft together had more than $2.6 billion in revenue, still trailing well behind Google but in a far stronger competitive position.

On the part of Yahoo, "it has been struggling to attract more advertising for quite some time eventhough its Web site attracts one of the biggest audiences, and will have to cut 1,000 jobs early this year." A clear development that co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang really needs to do more and not just to catch up with Google, especially with the reported 23 percent drop in its fourth-quarter profit and a tepid outlook for 2008.

Their reply last February 1 was that they will evaluate this proposal carefully and promptly in the context of Yahoo!'s strategic plans and pursue the best course of action to maximize long-term value for shareholders. It did not specify, however, how long the review process would take and vaguely said “it can take quite a bit of time.”

If this deal will be consummated, it would be by far the largest acquisition in Microsoft's history, eclipsing last year's $6 billion purchase of online ad service aQuantive.

Whether Microsoft with Yahoo! will be successful or not, only time can tell. In the meantime, many believe that Google will continue to dominate the Internet and possibly even in the mobile world with the introduction of their OpenSocial and Android technologies last year.

For me, this will still be an exciting development especially if this will push through. It will also be one of the biggest stories for 2008.

But what's more important is if it will be achieve the following:

• something that will create more innovation and not limiting the competition
• provide better service and competitive to what the others are offering
• lower their costs and integrating their processes, and
• if it will greatly benefit their respective shareholders, employees, partners and clients

So like what an old adage would say, "if you can't beat them, join them."

Expect more developments of this story in the coming weeks...

Sources: Yahoo!, Associated Press, Information Week and NY Times.

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Creative Thinking

In today's competitive world of starting an entrepreneurial idea, it is not just having the common traits (such as vision, passion, time management and investment) which an aspiring entrepreneur must have like you, but you must also possess that creative juice especially when you first conceived and dreamed of it.

As mentioned by Carolyn Campbell, a home-office veteran entrepreneur and writer:

• that initial electric charge of creativity is often followed by bursts of energy that help you complete vital tasks and spur you on to make your business ideas become realities
• rather than being a personality trait, creativity is a way of thinking that aspiring and veteran entrepreneurs can take advantage of to build their businesses in innovative and profitable ways

So whatever business idea that you may have, be it in the field of technology, retail, service, manufacturing or education, you can try applying the following techniques:

• explore creative thinking methods - don't just rely on time-tested means to think creatively, but also to discover areas such as blind alleys to maximize your general maneuverability.
• think like an artist to make friends with failure - like an artist, an entrepreneur can begin a business with different starting methods, thinking of each different version as a different incarnation rather than as a failure.
• let creativity help your business evolve - to realize the strengths that you have and to improve on your weaknesses, an entrepreneur must be receptive to the validity of each of the stages of his own creativity.
• choose a creative theme to help launch and grow your business - this will help you attract attention and create awareness right out of your chute, and continue to expand and reinforce your original idea as your business grows.
• cross-pollinate your creativity - other ideas can sometimes become the greatest enhancers of creativity, where you need to expose yourself to new ideas and thoughts of others for cross-pollination of their own creativity.
• break away from work so your ideas can marinate - sometimes, you can change your environment to spur you on to want to return to your artwork with fresh ideas; that when you sometimes expect it the least, that's the time when you can have breakthrough ideas

So go ahead, think and express whatever creative idea that you have right now, we may never know, this could be a success story in the years to come.

Excerpt from Business Start-ups magazine, March 1997.

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