ShortForm.tv

The business model we have at NSVG is very unique. On the one-hand, we work with our corporate clients playing the role of an entrepreneur and advising them on technology innovations they should embrace to remain relevant in the constantly disruptive tech world. On the other hand, we invest in or incubate startups that share our view of the world gained through our work with our clients.

Our most recent incubation that I have been involved in is ShortForm.tv. We are still in early development, but should have our initial Facebook app out in early July. As I have been actively involved in the video space for almost two years now, I am particularly excited about the prospects of this venture. ShortForm.tv solves two inherent problems with online video today:

1. Finding shortform (3 minutes or less) video content is difficult. We are either sent links or have to conduct our own searches on video sharing sites and social networks
2. Quality control is almost nonexistent because of a lack of content editors/programmers that exist in old media (e.g. TV, Radio, etc)

To solve these two problems, we categorize online shortform videos into the equivalent of television channels, a whole new viewing experience for online videos. We classify the most sought after video clips into news, sport, entertainment, humor, etc. channels. We empower content editors to monitor audience viewing patterns and adjust or discard content to maximize time spent viewing. ShortForm.tv's key value proposition is twofold:

1. While we are building a robust crawler to find and categorize videos, we rely on professional content editors to manage content quality and relevancy.
2. We turn online videos from a predominantly pull based model to a push based model. Viewers can select a channel and watch a continuous feed of relevant content or easily skip to other videos within the channel.

In addition, we are building a host of social elements that will allow viewers to easily engage their friends in ShortForm.tv.

Look for our Facebook app in July.

twitter and journalists

The real value in twitter as opposed to FB is that it provides more important information like interesting articles or news from anyone we care to follow (it is fully open, we don’t need people’s permission to follow them). Thus, we are all micro-reporters that people can follow.

A problem will arise when all the so-called micro-reporters (all of us) have nothing to report because all the paid journalists who we reference via links in our tweets go away because the entire value chain that pays them crumbles. You see, twitter works because people have links to share. When all the reporters lose their jobs, we will only have material that is subpar to share. So, while the value chain gets undone and reformed, it is unclear where the money will come from to pay the actual journalists who we all like to reference via links in our tweets. Until very recently, the journalists got paid by the newspapers/magazines, where the real money in journalism was being made. However, as print content continues to fade into the background and more content is consumed online, new forms of online content monetization have not surfaced in a manner that is sufficient to pay the people who actually cover the news.

Simply put, online advertising hasn’t cut it, something else has to come along. Until then, we will lose more and more talented journalists who have to find other means to make ends meet.

More on Google Profiles

The first 10,000 people to sign up will get free business cards of their Google profile. Clearly, they are moving in the direction of disrupting Linkedin.

Google Profile Business Cards: http://www.google.com/profiles/me/bizcards