Bambi Francisco

Data and Internet culture

I had the opportunity to moderate a panel with Yahoo's Usama Fayyad, Google's Peter Norvig, Ask.com's CEO Jim Lanzone, and Quigo CEO Mike Yavnoditte. This panel discussion could have gone in many directions. The one that would have been most fascinating to me would have been one that was most philosophical. Unfortunately, that's not what the audience would have wanted. But after the panel I did ask the panelists to comment on what the data says about society. Here's what Norvig said via email:

"The data says our society is very diverse, with many interests and much knowledge.  It also says that some of us lie and cheat, that some of us are lazy, and some are industrious.  Since we don't ask people their age, we don't know anything for sure about generations, although we can guess by, say, that the younger generation is doing more searches than their parents."

How do you think the Internet is changing culture and society?

Floyd Landis presser, other Tour racers

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Since Floyd Landis -- 2006 Tour de France winner -- remains in the news, I thought I'd share one final video montage from my tour of Tour de France. The first clip is of Landis. I managed to sneak into the press conference on July 10, 2006, at which Landis announced his planned hip replacement. This is well before his disastrous 16th stage performance and heroic comeback during the 17th stage. I never got to meet Landis while visiting the hotel where the Phonak team was staying during those stages of the race, but from what my group and I observed, he seemed down to earth and likeable. We were rooting for him to win. And, I am still rooting for him, despite allegations of doping. We all want heroes; those who defy the odds and are celebrated for their strength to endure. It would be a shame if he's found guilty. If the B sample turns out to uphold the A sample finding, I'd just like to know whether EPO or other forms of doping raise testosterone levels. It's still unclear to me from public reports what factors can raise the ratio of testosterone levels to epitestosterone. (Now, Justin Gatlin - reigning Olympic and world 100-meter champion - tested positive for high levels of testosterone. From baseball, soccer, cycling, etc., it just doesn't stop. I just hope Tiger Woods isn't next.)

OK. Enough about my view on these unfortunate sports scandals, back to the tour...
On that same day, my tour group (run by former racer Marty Jemison) also managed to meet a number of other riders there, including Michael Boogerd from the Rabobank team. Two days later, I would watch Boogerd tirelessly break wind for his teammate Denis Menchov during the 11th stage. Menchov won that stage, with Levi Leipheimer and Floyd Landis less than a second behind. I also have a shot of Phil Ligget, esteemed cycling pundit. I later would come to know about Ligget's flare for words when my riding buddies said I was a "cat amongst the pigeons," as Ligget would say. Since Marty rode the tour many times, and was twice U.S. National champion, he knew Ligget well. I also included shots of the 100 mile, Stage 9 Bordeaux to Dax day. This is the day we rode the entire stage. It wasn't so bad since it was all flat. It was a great day of riding, but I believe we averaged just over 30 kph while the Tour riders clocked in at probably 44k. Finally, the last few shots were taken during Stage 12 in Bagneres-Luchon. Here's where we meet the riders at the start of the race in the VIP tents where they prepare for the start. I'm not much of a groupie, but I played the part along with my tour riding buddies, who couldn't get enough of these guys. I have shots of me with Phonak's Axel Merckx, AG2R Prevoyance's Cyril Dessel, Discovery's Jose Luis Rubiera (aka Chechu), Saunier Duval-Prodir's David De La Fuenta (who won the king of mountain polka dot jersey), and Credit Agricole's Thor Hushovd, who's done the tour 6 times, and is a noted sprinter. Enjoy.

YouTube's 'clip culture'

YouTube CEO and co-founder Chad Hurley said his video-sharing site is encouraging what he calls a "clip culture."

In an era of limited attention spans and abundant choices, his assessment of society as online video comes of age is right on the money. These days, as television networks are attempting to redefine themselves with costly, long-form productions just to maintain their audiences, let alone grow them. YouTube's short-form and low-quality audience-generated videos are attracting about 20 million unique visitors a month. The average video length viewed is 2 1/2 minutes long, said Hurley. Changing the way society behaves is a big feat in and of itself. But it's unclear whether YouTube can make a living doing so. Today, YouTube gets money from banner ads. It's also struck a deal with NBC to promote that network's shows. When I asked Hurley what else YouTube can do for the major networks, he said that the site can be a platform for all the video that's typically on DVDs, such as behind the scene takes and bloopers. Hurley and I chatted after his panel at the Always On. One obvious way for YouTube to make money -- before burning it all away on delivering the video for the world -- is to place 5-second post-roll advertisements on those 100 million video clips being viewed each day. Yet Hurley doesn't want to do that. To me, inserting advertisements into the videos seems inevitable. Auctioning the placements in the video ads is a business process that also seems inevitable to me. Another model is to get sponsors for groups. Yet another is to either get paid by marketers when users recommend certain products.

Go MarketWatch, and read my Net Sense column for my video interview with Hurley and the rest of the column. Read BF's Net Sense.

Search "inside" the video

Gotuit Media is set to launch Monday a video-destination site for consumers. I know, I know. Yet another video destination site!?! How many more do we need? Clearly, Gotuit's library of 2,200 music videos, independent films, movie trailers isn't that compelling, when everyone else has the same stuff. Most of the content, which Gotuit is licensing, is non-exclusive. But here is where this destination site is different. If you're the type that wants to pinpoint specific action shots inside a
video, then this site is for you. For instance, if you want to watch only video takes of 3-point shots across a number of basketball games, you can do that. No longer are you limited to a few keywords to drill down inside a video. Gotuit's technology allows users to "search inside the video versus for the video," said Mark Pascarella, president of Gotuit. Now, that's unique and compelling to me. For instance, I'd love see all the final last minutes of each stage race of the Tour de France. If Gotuit had rights to this video content, I'd be able to go to Gotuit and see these action shots. 

To read more about Gotuit, go to my MarketWatch Blog: MarketWatch.bambi

Video blogging the Tour de France - first mountain stage

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For those who missed my post on blogs.marketwatch.com/bambi/... here it is again: Tour de France 2006 - ride from the hotel in Luz St. Sauveur up the Col d' Aubisque and Col de Marie Blanque. On this day, our tour group started in Luz St. Sauveur, a quaint little town in southern France. Marty Jemison begins the video by outlining our ride, which consisted of descending for about 12k, and then climbing for about 18k up the Col d' Aubisque, which is about 2110 meters higher. The first descent was pretty sketchy as it was raining and there were many cars on the road. Additionally, Marty - a former U.S. Postal Service rider with Lance Armstrong and who now runs this tour -- isn't exactly slow. Even though he's put on a few pounds since his racing days, he's still above-average strong. After the descent, we begin the climb. I keep up with Marty for a few miles. Eventually, he and three other fast climbers dropped me! No matter, I enjoyed every bit of it - probably because I couldn't see how much climbing was ahead of me (it was cloudy that day). I made it in good time. Here's a shot of me at the top of Col d' Aubisque. You can see the mountains behind me. We then descended down a winding road (fun!) and headed for the Col de Marie Blanque (category 1 climb with 11% grade), where the pro riders would be descending. As you can see, some of my riding buddies were in rain jackets. It was a bit cold and rainy that morning. The weather can also be very unpredictable there, much like San Francisco. It can be 80 degrees on ground level, and misty and cold enough at the top of the Col de Marie Blanque to wear leg and arm warmers and a several layers. Since we are riding the course of race day, we have to make sure we get through hours before the riders, or the police will not let you on the road. (I learned to dodge the police a lot that week). We don't have much time that day to reach the top, so Marty essentially says, "Every man or woman for himself/herself." We all go on our own to attack the mountain with baguettes in our back pocket for lunch, and warm clothes to put on while waiting on the mountain. I make it up to the top where we're handed red and white polka dot t-shirts that represent the "king of the mountain." Marty makes friends with some men from the Basque region. They offered us pasta and wine. Now how often do you get hot pasta and red wine after a grueling climb! We then descend about 3k and find a spot to watch the racers. Here's where the video of the racers are taken. You'll see that first the caravan starts. About an hour prior to the riders coming through a long parade of floats precedes them. They are floats of the many sponsors of the race. The tradition is that the kids working on the floats throw all sorts of swag - hats, gummy bears, water bottles, sweets, etc. Here's a shot of Gary checking out the latest swag. After several days of the same routine, this kind of gets old. Imagine what those on the float feel like!?! Frenchman Cyril Dessel claimed the yellow jersey at the end of the first mountain stage of the Tour de France, won by Spaniard Juan Miguel Mercado. Later in the week, I'll meet Dessel, after Marty got our group VIP passes to meet the riders at one of the starts.

Tour de France rest day

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Jens Voigt won the longest stage of the Tour de France (142.9 miles), giving the CSC team its first victory at the three-week race. Voigt beat out Oscar Pereiro Sio, of the Illes Balears team, at the finish of the 13th stage. They were about 30 minutes ahead of the main pack, which included race leader Floyd Landis of the United States, giving Pereiro enough of a lead over Landis to take over the Yellow Jersey. In this video of mine is Jens. I met him and the rest of the CSC team on the tour's official rest day (which is hardly a rest day, given that they ride about 60 miles). My group - thanks to Marty (former racer on the U.S. Postal team with Lance Armstrong) - rode with the CSC team for a brief part of their ride during the vineyards of Bourdeaux. I also caught a quick shot of the Discovery team. My handy helmet camera worked out OK for this part of the ride.

Stage 11 of the Tour de France

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Here are the Tour de France bikers climbing up Col du Tourmalet (2114 meters, 18.3 km, 7.7% grade). My group - Marty Jemison Cycling Tours - climbed this mountain a few hours before the tour came through around 1:30. It's a tough climb. But since I had my Samsung sports helmet camera on, and I was busy capturing certain moments on video, I didn't overexert myself (there were other days to do that). There are many riders who climb what's called an "hors" grade category mountain. After reaching the top - which takes the professionals 55 minutes to climb and good riders twice that time -- my group descended to about the 5k mark (from the top), and watched the tour from there. That's where this video is taken from. At the end of the day, we biked back down to our hotel in Luz and watched Floyd Landis win the stage and capture the Yellow Jersey, or "Maillot Jaune" - as they say here in France.

I've been riding parts of the stages since the tour went through Bourdeux. The first stage our group rode was Stage 9 - Bordeaux to Dax (169.5 km). I hope to post more video blogs of the tour when I get online again.

Inclue RSS video feed

Here's a new way to subscribe and watch the videos on my blog from your email. Check it out. Inclue is a 14-month-old company, based in Lajolla, Calif. The company has 6 employees and has received $900,000 in angel funding. What's nice about this service is that if you want to watch video blog posts from inside your email box, you can do so. The problem with the current RSS readers is that they're not rendering the videos that are being placed inside of blogs. So, if someone subscribes to, say, this blog (which has a lot of video), they would just receive a link to the video. With inclue, there is instant gratification. In three weeks, inclue will be working with Outlook Express - the free email client that comes with every copy of XP. Inclue founder/CEO Nick Gogerty says the company is also in talks with user-generated video sites to help them distribute their video content.

Tribe at less than $5 million?

Despite the rumors, NBC has yet to sign any deal to buy Tribe. net, the social networking site founded by Mark Pincus in 2003. 

From what I hear, the price for Tribe is far from the $50 million reported by Rafat (at Paidcontent.org). Rather it's less than $5 million, according to a source close to the situation. NBC is looking at Tribe's technology to incorporate new Web 2.0 features/tools into its social community iVillage.  Of course, $5 million sounds really tiny considering that Beebo (one-year-old social network site received a valuation well north of $50 million). Then again, Tribe hasn't really taken off in popularity, and broadened its user base. According to the latest traffic figures from Nielsen//NetRatings, Tribe.net had 611,000 unique visitors and 2.7 million pageviews in May. By comparison, Friendster (which isn't exactly a success story) had 102 million pageviews in May. Bebo had 123 million pageviews. Yahoo 360 had 117 million pageviews while Tagged (social network for teens) saw 130 million pageviews. 

MySpace in its own space

With the exception of Google, it's been a negative year for Internet stocks. Internet merger activity is quiet compared to last year, and there are few IPOs to get us excited. Vonage put a damper on any IPO enthusiasm. If MySpace were a standalone it would be a hot stock worth about $3 billion next year, based on revenue estimates of $528 million in '08, a 30% cash flow margin, and a multiple of 20 times. It's not a serious consideration at News Corp, but I'm sure the thought crossed their minds. After all, MySpace is adding 230,000 new members each day and has more than 90 million members. It's the fastest-growing property across the top Web brands, drawing 42 million unique visitors in May, up 329%, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. Monthly pageviews grew nearly 400% to 19.3 billion, second to Yahoo. But how will MySpace really make money?

Read my Net Sense column