2highbehind

The poor state of Innovation thinking in my beloved country

Yesterday I attended the Dutch innovation lecture hosted by the minister and ministry of economic affairs. With the intention to think outside the box and have a debate about what needs to happen to create the optimal circumstances to innovate. For me its strange to see that I was amongst the youngest people in the room. Very little women and most Grey or no hair at all. Not that senior citizens cannot innovate, that would be too bold, but I think that young people should be part of this too. I'm talking about under 21! The thing that worries me most is that our minister held a compelling key note speech about how to innovate and why. People at the center of your innovations and so forth. What worries me is that at the same time we talk about innovation in Copenhagen we talk about our planet. If you only put gains in terms of more faster for people and businesses at the center of your policy to stimulate innovation you forget a couple of things Our Earth and all that is living on it should be at the core of every innovation discussion. That our own minister didn't even mention this in her bla bla shows me that first we need to innovate our politicians awareness and make sure they get it before we all walk around with an oxygen tank. Innovation brought us where we are today and many innovations have been fantastic to people so they can make more money faster. In retrospect I think it's safe to say we over innovated ourselves a bit at the cost of life on our beloved planet. This sucks and should change. How? Start with governments that put people, planet and each other at the heart of everything they decide upon. 

Change........

Geert Wilders VS Democacy VS Holland VS EU

Geert Wilders, member of Dutch political scene and member of the 2nd chamber (Dutch Parlement) will be part of a Dutch mission to Turkey, but the Turks wont meet with him because they believe he is a racist. So the Dutch are saying we all wont go. Now think of that one for a minute.

Our democracy is a platform for all, based on freedom of speech and grounded in our Christian legacy. Mr. Wilders calls Muslims retarded and believes they are a threat to our Western civilization. The Turkish democracy is also a secular nation-state, but based on a Muslim legacy. Both our history is larded with revolutionary reform.   I wonder why the Turkish government doesn't see the benefit in meeting with this man, but totally fall in his trap for attention. I love to see Mr. Wilders succeed in even fucking up the Common Wealth AKA England AKA UK poltical system. IMHO it all shows how fucked up politics are on a global scale. It shows how we are still totally intertwined religion&politics, the sad truth is that this takes away time for reform in Turkey, The Netherlands and the World. Kids are dieing, crime is ruling and we kill our planet with the speed of light. I am in favour of Turkey joining the EU, but think the EU should not be about trying to build a Christian fort. Lets move out of the middle ages and just decide we accept that the EU is about safety, economic progress and creating a healthy and prosperous environment for all people that live in the region. Wilders is the clown, he shows the ugly truth of our system, but he has no solutions that result in the above. If he gets in power, we are back in the WWW

Why are Bill Gates his achievements always downgraded in the public eye?

I just read this article and wonder why Bill Gates is always portrait ed as a guy that got where he is today because of luck, great background, other people close to him, theft etc.? This article tries to make a case against any risk that Gates and many other successful entrepreneurs took to get them where they are today. Being one myself I like to point out that the risk this DB is referring too don't matter, it's about the responsibilities that you have as an entrepreneur everyday that bring risk and make you cautious. The people that work for you, their families and financial obligations. Its not about the fact that you switch from being employed by somebody else, that is not a risk at all. Its about ideas and will they work in the world as you know it when the idea hits the brain? Its about making your ideas become companies and everything that happens on the way to the day you make more money then you spend and how to survive in between? It about trust and loyalty and finally its about the passion that you have creating something that makes things better and are people willing to pay for what you offer. I find it strange that Mr. Gates always gets to look bad for what he did. IMHO this man made it big, made mistakes along the way, but now he is where he is look what he does with his wealth and knowledge. I like Apple more, but think Bill Gates is a modern hero, making our world, not just his a better place. Thanks Bill. Good job! Great Risk!

For the first time I agree with a banker a bit

From The Sunday Times

November 8, 2009

I'm doing 'God's work'. Meet Mr Goldman Sachs

The Sunday Times gains unprecedented access to the world's most powerful, and most secretive, investment bank. Article on Times online

It's not often that I agree with a banker and especially a banker that is the chief grabber at Goldman, but indeed I believe this guy is on to something. This man compares himself to God, I love it. I think the God he is referring to, is the illusion character referred to by many as God. A bearded man (Movember icon no.1) sitting in the sky surrounded by Angels and well behaved dead people. If this guy and his colleagues continue to behave the way they do he soon will be God and only surrounded by dead people and dead businesses. So I dig his story. If I was him I would do my best to be human again and turn his bank into a normal business that doesn't need help from the Devil (Think of that one for a sec). If he manages that, please give the man a 200 mio$ bonus and a bunch of hookers, Cocaine and all the young cock he yearns for while jerking of  on his own image..

Myspace & Facebook by Louis CK, You gotta love this guy

Some of you may have noticed that I no longer have a facebook page and that my myspace profile is mangled.
No, I was not hacked. I have been trying to cancel myspace for a few weeks and was having trouble, so I destroyed what was there. I have now reached someone there who is promising me that they will let me leave. I have no grudge against myspace or facebook. It's hard to explain. I just don't want to do these things anymore and I started to feel like I had to. So I stopped. That's all.
People will tell me that that kind of networking is vital for my career. Well, I guess I'm willing to go ahead and find out that no one is coming to my shows because I don't have a myspace or a facebook account. I wish all of you in the social network world a terrific whatever you're doing. If you still want to reach me, you can come here to my website. I will try to use the time I have freed up by killing those things to update this page more often.

A good life, or a hard life lived well to all of you.

Louis C.K.

ps. I still have twitter.

Dutch minister of justice and his department finally wake up, but still don't get it.

Dutch article on new direction in Holland with regards to illegal downloading

The logic here is that until there are enough legal alternatives available, the Dutch law enforcement will not do anything to fight copyright infringement. Once enough alternatives are available, only the illegal providers will be prosecuted. It is a bit like lets only start to prosecute rapists once we have enough prostitutes. I have several questions like: When is the enough reached and who decides? Then the Gerd Leonard idea for a monthly fee starts to rise again, I think the minister just heard about this theory.  My take on this would be to listen to mister Lessig and rethink copyright laws and start the process of legislation, so laws from a century ago will get replaced with laws that fit the current world. This instead of trying to make something out of the chaos that's currently the reality. It is no rocket science. Very funny btw, that it took a decade for politicians to wake up.

Proposal in Dutch sorry

Why DRM doesn't make sense. Why does the film industry not learn from the music industry?

Saturday evening, couch potato. On TV I saw an ad from Dutch On demand website Veamer.nl. It first checks my operating system, Ai you got a Mac (Yeas I believe Mac is much better then Windows) and therefore it doesn't work with our service. Dejavu right there. When I started in the music industry with Independent IP (IIP) and started to figure how my idea of FUGA would fit this space one of the things out there was DRM (Digital Rights Management). Microsoft was the biggest in this field and many businesses started around this 'opportunity'. I asked myself if IIP should take a look at this. As a music fan I hated DRM, it did not work with my choice of hardware configuration (Mac, iPod etc.), licenses expired and user experience getting access was terrible. When looking at a new business you need to take it all in consideration, so yes I thought of this strange piece of technology and took it serious for a sunny afternoon. To make a long story short: DRM was not going to be accepted by consumers! and soon in the process also not accepted by artists. (Remember that artist that posted the hack code for his DRM CD by Sony on his website?)

The reasons where simple:

All repertoire was already available for free on illegal websites, paying for something or getting something for free that later disappears  is weird and people are not always stupid when it concerns consumer behavior. Many other reasons apply.

Apple came with DRM iTunes, but the total experience and seamless integration with the iPod made DRM not the top priority. 

So I go to Veamer.nl and experience that strange feeling. Especially now we are moving to film with FUGA. I have heard the reason used by people defending DRM in film. But think they are all BS and based on fear of the unknown. The exact reasons as in music apply in film. So why does the film industry not learn from the music industry? I think this is what is going on:

Microsoft and the others that offer DRM solutions to an industry are all big companies, with big lobby/sales forces. They are perceived as knowledgeable about this space and are telling people in the film industry what to do. So its all a numbers game. In the land of the blind, the giant with the one eye is the king. The good news is, that from a timing pov things look a lot more insightful.

Dear people and companies in the film industry,

You are in the business of making art. Beautiful, inspiring, entertaining funny, scary, wicked works that are going to be loved by your audience. Anything you do to frustrate that experience, will drive your audience to illegal download sites, torrents, streaming sites etc. What ever your consultants tell you about DRM, what ever you want to believe DRM is going to bring your business, Think again! Ask your kids or grand kids how they listen to their music and look at their video/film. Then take the time to observe how they really do it ;-) The thing with current technological developments is that it all goes faster. This means you should be faster to keep up. Rethink your supply chain and release strategies. When you finish a movie there are no boundaries any more. The second you make it available, its available to the world. You should dictate and dominate that process by letting go of the way you did things in the past. That all made sense at the time it got to be, but because of the internet and technologies using the internet to connect, today things are different. The reason people go to the cinema is still the same as when it started so it makes sense to release in cinemas, but it doesn't make sense not to make it available at the same time on all the other platforms. If you don't do it, some Russian, Belgium or English smart ass will film inside the cinema and puts it on line after the showing, ruining a lot of your audience to be. Not so much the cinema audience, that's a night out, but the audience online and DVD. If my friend tells me she went to the cinema and loved that movie and I dont have time or what ever to go to the cinema, I want to watch the movie online or on DVD. So the minute I have a craving, I have to wait for months before I get satisfaction. I think this is the wrong approach. IMHO ;-) When it becomes available it doesn't play on my Mac or any other device not supporting MS DRM (I believe that is a lot of devices). I will go to Watch movies online and get what I want. This time I don't feel guilty  (as I did with getting music for free) because I think its pretty stupid to make the same mistake twice. Even being in an other industry isn't an excuse, you all know what happened with music. Now iTunes is DRM free and all my music can live on all my devices now and future devices I have become a loyal user and customer. I do want to pay for my content and honer the artists that made all the great music and films and so forth but have no compassion for stupid lawyers, MS salesmen and women, bean counters and other idiots that just want my money and have no compassion with me. I think my take on this might be a bit loud, but I think its shared with many people out there. They don't think of it that much and will just follow the possibilities that are out there. Unless governments world wide will enforce copy right infringements from now on any DRM strategy will just stop you from making money on the internet. Looking at the customer satisfaction for FUGA in music, I think I know what we will do for Film ;-)

Have a nice day!

 

Microsoft Bing shows how sad things are @MS

www.bing.com is the new search wonder of MS. Its a pure rip off. They must have thought what is Google doing and do that. From a leader in Tech they have become a follower and copycat. Strange, sad and above all weak. It seems like the MS people have stopped innovating and focus on making money too much. The golden rule is IMHO, if you make something good, Money will follow, if you follow the money you will get lost in your search. BTW Google still is a better search engine, just tried the Bing beta

I love it when IIP moves to a new territory (Berlin, next = ??)

FUGA & IIP & Berlin

FUGA Signs 5 New Labels and Distributors, Opens Berlin Office

Written by John on 19/10/09

On the eve of the Amsterdam Dance Event, digital content management and delivery system FUGA has reinforced its growing reputation with five key signings.  Respected UK dance label Toolroom Records,   Europe’s fastest growing online distribution service Record Union, leading independent distributor Republic of Music, San Francisco based OM Records, and global music hub WaTunes will all be moving their digital operations to the new platform.

Representing artists such as Mark Knight, David Guetta, Underworld, Faithless, Funkagenda, Dave Spoon, Dramirez, Fedde Le Grand, Richard Dinsdale, Benny Benassi, Dirty South, Jay-Z ,Mark Farina, Samantha James, Bassnectar, J-Boogie’s Dubtronic Science, Colette, Andy Caldwell and Chubb Rock,  these labels and distributors will now benefit from FUGA’s innovative approach to digital distribution.