The changing nature of television, including how new platforms and content delivery methods are being developed, is something I've been working on for a while. A great example of the changes afoot is Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, a new project of writer-producer Joss Whedon. Bored during the television writers’ strike, Whedon—the mastermind behind cult fave Buffy the Vampire Slayer—along with his brothers devised a short-form musical story to be broadcast over the Internet. The result is a perfect example of what we mean when we talk about power shifting to content producers with the advent of these new delivery platforms. Following the "airing" of the first (of three parts), the show racked up more than 300,000 Google hits and more than 100 Google News hits, and is the top selling video on iTunes. (That people are paying $1.99 for something they can watch for free is the subject of an entirely different blog post.)

Granted, the popularity and seeming success of this is due in part to Whedon’s large and enthusiastic fan base, but nevertheless, television programming execs should be nervous. You can hit the link at the top to watch but hurry, it is only online for a limited time.

Iron Man? Incredible Hulk? Hellboy? What do they all have in common? Besides opening number one at the box office this summer, they are all characters or properties that began as comic books. There has been a veritable invasion of page-to-screen in the past five years, and with The Dark Knight, set to open Friday ahead of rave reviews, I was asked by a reporter about the proliferation of comic-based movies.

I believe there are a number of reasons for this comic book invasion of movieland:

Technology: New filming techniques, digital cameras, and computer designed and executed special effects make it easier to translate the fantastic from page to screen. James McAvoy dodging bullets in Wanted could not have happened pre-CGI (or pre-Matrix, which really set the bar for what could be done).

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"Want your shot at videogame fame?" asks Pioneer Press reporter Julio Ojeda-Zapata in a May 17 article entitled "Gamers of the World, Unite -- and take the stage for a night." "You don't have to be a hardcore 'Halo III' or 'World of Warcraft' wunderkind anymore. Average gamers can now aspire to stardom, too," he writes.

Ojeda-Zapata interviewed Social Technologies' Matthew Sollenberger about the fact that videogaming has recently been transformed by "casual" gaming options:

"[These are] typified by the family-friendly Wii along with music titles like 'Guitar Hero' and 'Rock Band' that nearly anyone could pick up and play. This means the latest videogame tournaments have grown less elitist and more accessible to players of all ages and skill levels."

Sollenberger explains: 

"It's an easy way to hang out and meet people in the same way people play pub trivia or join kickball leagues," said analyst Matthew Sollenberger, of the Washington, D.C.-based Social Technologies research and consulting company. The Wii and its ilk are "a social lubricant."

Read the entire article.

Image: MNgilen (Flickr)

Global food prices have jumped an attention-grabbing 83% in the last three years and  food riots have broken out in multiple countries in the last few weeks. Bad weather, ethanol policies, and dwindling reserves can take some of the blame.

Will this apply the brakes to foodie culture? Much as I am comfortable speaking the occasionally overwrought language of gourmet land, recent news items give me pause. A carriage-trade kitchen designer is selling $185,000 marble-fitted show places. Food & Wine featured an attorney’s “dream kitchen,” where he’d installed chef-level tools, including his very own thermal circulator (a favorite toy of the molecular gastronomist).  Time taste-tested a $182 bottle of olive oil, reporting a 17% increase in gourmet food sales over the last two years.

The great majority of us who like to dabble with the occasional luxury ingredient or obsessively combine beef suet with butter for their pie crust (it works, trust me) are hardly on this plain. But, essentially, playing with your food at the level described above feels somehow an impropriety in the face of what could be starvation for swaths of World 3. And, as costs rise, the ingredients for “Ancient Roman Duck” may get so steep that the foodie challenge may instead be to put together the most intriguing dish for the least amount of money. Did you know kudzu can be made into a rather nice salad? And those dandelions that have taken over the back lawn are looking particularly fresh this morning...

 Image: littledan77 (Flickr)

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Following the lead of pared-down, budget airline services like Jet Blue and EasyJet, a new budget hotel model is emerging. The ‘pod hotel’ offers tiny rooms for rent by the hour or night. Typically, pod rooms measure fewer than one hundred square feet and either a commuter-train-sized restroom or a shared, standard bath.

The pod trend emerged from Japan where weary  businessmen stranded in a city overnight have rented inexpensive sleeping cubicles. Most Western pod hotels are more luxurious than the windowless Japanese cubicle style. No-frills European EasyHotels, owned by EasyJet, are probably the next step up. In the middle of the pod spectrum—such as the Pod Hotel in midtown Manhattan—all rooms have windows, flat-screen TVs, an iPod deck, and free Wi-fi. At the height of pod luxury, the soon-to-open citizenM hotel at Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport will feature designer linens and furniture and king-sized beds. Other pod hotels like the Qbic Hotel and Yotel feature mood lighting and even room service!

While no-frills pods can rent for as little as $35 a night, fancier ones like the new citizenM will start at over $100 per night. Although targeted at business travelers requiring a quick nap or young backpackers, pod hotel clientele hail from all walks of life.

Though pod hotels seem natural for Europeans accustomed to smaller quarters, the future of pods in the US is still being debated, according to the Wall Street Journal:

Some European-based operators who've opened pod-style hotels in the past year or two say they plan to expand stateside soon. But many in the U.S. hotel industry remain skeptical that the trend will spread beyond the novelty. ‘The question of customer acceptance still needs to be answered,’ says Jan Freitag, a vice-president with Smith Travel Research. For business travelers, the idea of being able to get some work done in the privacy of a hotel room is an important selling point, which can be a problem in a small-scale pod. And most vacationers, he says, want to be able to spend some time in their rooms relaxing.

Can the lure of low prices draw Americans from spacious hotel rooms? And, assuming that it takes less energy to power and clean and maintain a pod-sized room, will eco-conscious Americans take notice of ‘pods’ as well?

Image: Rain Rannu (Flickr)

Will the White Sox win the World Series before the Chicago Cubs do? That was a question Chicago Tribune reporter David Haugh posted to Social Technologies' analyst Kevin Osborn for an article entitled "20th Century gone, but 21st wide open for Cubs".

"I'd say every team, with the possible exception of the Royals, Pirates, Rangers and Rays, will win the World Series before 2108," Osborn told Haugh.

How does he know? Osborn's comments are based on research he conducted for a brief on the "The Future of American Spectator Sports."

He forecasts that in the next decade TV ratings for the three most popular professional sports—football, baseball, and basketball—will likely decline but American sports fans will make use of other media to access events, news, and scores.

“The three major sports sell more than 120 million tickets a year,” Osborn explains. “Throw in college football and basketball, and you add another 80 million spectators. Every Super Bowl Sunday, just under half of all American TV sets are tuned into the game. NASCAR, a rising star on the sports scene, claims to have 75 million fans. The numbers are staggering, and as technological advances allow fans instant access to their favorite sports, anywhere anytime, the audience could grow even bigger.”

Following is a sampling of some of the other sports-related trends that Osborn foresees:

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A recent New York Times article posed the question: is a sightseeing trip to a slum tourism, or voyeurism?

Reality tourism—travel that is intended to immerse the traveler in authentic, non-tourist experiences—now includes guided tours through slums in destinations like India, Kenya, Mexico, and Brazil.

The trend has its opponents—critics of the slum visit tourism call it “poorism,” and argue that it is exploitative and voyeuristic. However, advocates of the slum visits claim that these tours raise awareness—tourists will come away wanting to help, and with a better understanding of how to do so. Some organizers of slum tours cite a responsibility to give back to the community; one guide has built a community center and pledged 80% of his profits to the Brazilian favela where he operates.

The visits can offer opportunities. The New York Times said:

“At first, the tourists were besieged by beggars, but not anymore," said Kevin Outterson, a law professor from Boston who has taken several favela tours. Mr. Fantozzi has taught people, Mr. Outterson said, "that you’re not going to get anything from my people by begging, but if you make something, people are going to buy it.”

This is an interesting new twist. Reality tourism, done right, could allow the poorest direct access to wealthy tourists while at the same time granting tourists the authentic experiences they crave.

Image: Alicia Nijdam (Flickr)

In a March 24 MSNBC article about danger tourism, and the line between being adventurous vs. taking stupid risks while traveling, Social Technologies' Josh Calder offered these comments to reporter Christopher Elliott:

"Many people are seeking authentic experiences,” explains Josh Calder, an analyst with Social Technologies, a Washington consulting firm. “And real danger delivers. Most thrill-seekers settle for simulated dangers such as bungee jumping, but there is a small minority that want actual peril.”

Calder ought to know. He recently went gorilla trekking near the Rwandan border, in a place where rebels killed tourists just a few years ago. But he took precautions, including bringing along guards armed with automatic rifles.

Read the entire article.

Image: FutureAtlas.com

A superhero Vishnu fighting bad guys on city streets? Monkey god Hanuman reincarnated as a soccer playing, evil-fighting youngster? It’s the latest craze in Indian entertainment: “mytho-cartoons,” cartoons that borrow from Hindu mythology to entertain as well as teach Indian youth about Hinduism.

There is an unusual cultural exchange present in Indian mytho-cartoons: Indian animators are borrowing from Western entertainment to tell centuries old Hindu myths in a new and innovative way. Many popular mytho-cartoons use the concept of the modern comic book superhero to portray Hindu gods to Indian kids. Mytho-cartoons are becoming so popular that production companies, such as Percept Picture Company, which produces the popular “Hanuman” films, have plans to release their films and TV shows in the US and Europe, completing a cyclical cultural exchange of ideas and beliefs.

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In an article published Dec. 13 on Tech News World entitled, "Jackass 2.5' Online-Only Release: Smart Stunt or Half-Assed?," reporter Erika Morphy asked experts: will movies be as successful as TV shows and videos have been in moving to the Web?

Social Technologies' futurist Simeon Spearman said:

The dedicated "Jackass" fan base will have no problem going online to watch its next iteration. That's precisely where they prefer to get their fix.

The film's target audience is mainly composed of those who already watch videos online: young men who have grown up with the Internet and are mainly responsible for the success of online video to this point. It is a natural fit for 'Jackass 2.5' to be released in this fashion.

However, I don't think the studios should believe that if this film is successful online that films for older audiences less familiar with online video will see similar success. Surveys have shown that most consumers still prefer watching video on television sets than on their computers. Films catering to younger audiences will likely see more success under this distribution model.

Image: Elliott P. (Flickr)

Image: Seth Anderson (Flickr)Over a month's worth of unread New Yorker magazines are sitting on my coffee table at home. I try to make the effort to read the weekly periodical, but I can never seem to keep up with the seemingly unending flow. I’ve even begun to cringe when I open my mailbox and see yet another New Yorker, mocking my lack of time or energy to read each issue cover to cover.

Fortunately, Brijit has the answer to my New Yorker problem, as their website offers 100-word synopses of articles in publications such as The Atlantic, Scientific American, Rolling Stone, Harvard Business Review, Playboy (gee thanks, I knew someone subscribed to it for the articles!) and yes, the New Yorker.

And, unlike the magazines it summarizes, Brijit is free.

This is another manifestation of the time pressure felt across World 1. Now, a simple pleasure such as sitting down to read one’s favorite magazine, newspaper, or book may not seem feasible while also working, commuting, caring for children, exercising, and socializing. As we wrote in GL-2005-44: Top 20 Trend--Time Pressure, this sense of time deficit will affect more and more consumers around the globe as incomes rise and scheduled lives become a necessity. We suggested that tools to help us more effectively manage our time will proliferate, and so we have Brijit and myriad other services popping up.

Will I be using Brijit to speed up my New Yorker processing? Probably not. Even though I may be a month behind, I still prefer doing my own reading.

Couldn't find the pricetag for Radiohead's newest album, In Rainbow? You're not alone. On October 10, the popular British band bypassed its record label, released the album on its own website, and is allowing fans to set their own price. Which means, of course, that the album is basically being offered for free.

After Radiohead came out with the digital download last week, big acts such as Nine Inch Nails, Oasis, and Jamiroquai announced plans to do the same. Granted, getting free music on the Internet is not a novel thing: illegal filesharing has been around for years and up-and-coming new artists often offer free downloads to get their name out. However, Radiohead’s move marks the first time a big-name artist has released an entire album for free and exclusively on the Internet.

It’s a revolutionary idea in the music business. The model, for decades, has involved artists signing with record labels while record labels distribute and promote the artist’s music, therefore wielding creative control over the artist. Radiohead has completely bypassed the traditional system. If enough artists follow suit, Radiohead’s new distribution model could be a complete game changer within the music industry, making record labels essentially obsolete.

Image: Brady Wood (Flickr)

This infectious ditty by Peter Bjorn & John has been a hit around S)T’s worldwide HQ for the past couple of weeks. The catchy song and charming video combined to make it a staff favorite. Interested in learning more about them, I turned to our good friend the Internets and came across this story. I was struck by two things:

First, this song seemed to be a perfect example of how a a lot of hits are being made these days: a band releases song or video on MySpace or YouTube, an adventurous musical director of a hit TV show ("Grey’s Anatomy" in this case) throws it on a soundtrack, and viola—biggest hit of their careers.

But the other thing I was struck by was the overall tone of the article, which to be seemed to be, “Isn’t it amazing that a band has hit it big this way?” The fact that Reuters wrote a story about a band finding success on YouTube reflects the still active disbelief among some in the press and entertainment industry that bands can achieve popularity while eschewing the traditional route of touring, big label contract, major distribution push. Why this comes as a surprise to the media writing about these video sites is confounding, as Peter Bjorn & John is certainly not the first band to achieve popularity this way or be profiled for their clever use of video sites to sidestep the traditional road to stardom.

For all their talk of the power of the Internet (and Time’s Person of the Year cover) it seems that mainstream media, and some music industry folks, are still not grasping the idea that the Internet gift of disintermediation has come to the music industry.

Perhaps because television shows require more production than just releasing a song on the Internet, this disintermediation has not become a clear route to stardom for aspiring writers or actors. Some shows released on video sites such as RocketBoom or Diggnation are beginning to draw significant viewership, but not at the levels of regular television viewing audiences. Instead, these sites pose together different challenges for television involving intellectual property rights and loss of audience share. In the first instance, producers seem to be fighting a rear guard battle, trying to pull their properties that have been uploaded illegally to video sites. Good luck—as one wit has put it, taking information off the Internet is like trying to take smell out of the air.

In the second instance of losing audience share, producers are facing this head-on, forging alliances with video sites in the hopes of cross-marketing programs and driving viewers back to television. How well this will work remains to be seen and many analysts (and producers) are already positing that the Internet will supplant television broadcasting as the main vehicle for filmed programming.

Will consumers bypass traditional television content for amateur-created television content? Not likely. Will consumers receive more and more of their television content from the Internet? As the Magic 8-ball is fond of saying, all signs point to yes.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a video to watch.

If you aren't aware of the emerging genre of serious games, you should be. To quote a recent Global Lifestyles brief on the subject mentioned below, "Serious games—games that provide players with opportunities to learn and understand complex situations or different points of view—have emerged as a distinct subset of video games. Creators of these games are taking the definitions of “play” and “learn” in new directions, often blending the two creatively."

Two items caught my eye recently on the topic: announcements about the second annual Serious Games Summit, coming up next month in San Francisco, and the creation of a new academic degree at Michigan State University in serious games design. While a lot of column inches and blogs have been consumed with discussion of sexier games like Second Life lately, the serious games movement has been spreading from a core of more political games into a more complex family tree of genres, as seen in the table to the left.

While serious games such as Darfur Is Dying and A Force More Powerful are among the best known examples, politics and advocacy are only two of the categories these games belong to. Interesting development is now happening in health care, for example, where serious games are being developed as both educational tools and simulators, and also for pain relief, as in the case of Free Dive, a game designed to distract young patients during painful medical procedures. (My children's' dentist has been on to this idea for some time, allowing his patients to play with Gameboys during some procedures to take their attention away from his tools and their throbbing teeth -- thanks Dr. Ed!) Serious games are also being used to help returning Iraq war veterans cope with the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder by simulating the sensory stress of combat conditions in a safe environment.

Where do serious games go in the near future?  Two of the half dozen possible directions we identified are:

• Broader applications—In only a few years the spectrum of applications for serious gaming has broadened to include everything from aiding cancer research to learning how to topple a government. Growth will likely be strongest in applications for job training, education, and “advertorial” content.
  
• More commercial use—Commercial uses for serious games have yet to take off, but the ability to attract new customers via advertorial games with a serious edge will be a strong lure for business. Companies need to be careful treading in this area, however. The tool may cut both ways as some consumers take offense at the blatant mix of commercialism and "education". One can imagine a pharmaceutical company using a game that raises awareness of a health condition while touting a brand-name drug, for example.
  

It seems the height of irony that this story should appear in a week when most of the Northeastern US is buried under a blanket of snow and ice, but  personal weather is on its way. Not in the sci-fi sense of bad guys seeking to manipulate the weather for world domination (though some governments have and are still trying to get a handle on meteorological conditions for military purposes), but creating your own snow where there is none -- at a household level.

That's right -- personal snow machines are the newest must-have in this age of global warming. Companies such as SnowStation, creators of the aptly named Backyard Blizzard, produce the machines for suburbanites who want to be the life of the cul-de-sac with their own little Matterhorn.

This trend probably has more to do with the desire for experiential fun and displays of achievement among the middle class -- think full-sized backyard basketball court, or expansive home media rooms with 50+ inch plasma screens -- than anything else, and a personal, on-demand luge track is just the newest amenity on the list. It's all there in a hill of snow--user creativity, personalization and convenience -- in an 8-foot pile of icy goodness.

Attention makers of low-cost, high quality sand out there! Personal beaches may be the next big thing.

(Image: www.sxc.hu)