Paul Walsh, the Irish Opportunist

It’s time to change the copyright law.

According to Jemima Kiss

Viacom’s $1bn lawsuit against popular video sharing site YouTube has escalated further, with parent company Google filing court papers in the US claiming the case could threaten the free exchange of online information.

Read more about what Jemima thinks on her blog.

I say ‘bullshit’ to Google. The only thing the lawsuit threatens is Google’s advertising revenue. Google is an advertising company, generating revenue from placing advertisements around other people’s content. Search results contain the title and description of each Web site. None of that content belongs to Google. Google doesn’t particularly care about search, per say. It cares about generating revenue by selling search keywords to the highest bidder. Ok, there’s a little intelligence in there to ensure some relevance is considered - but not a lot. Certainly not enough to make search trustworthy or relevant.

So, it came as no surprise to me, that Satan would do the same with YouTube. Viacom has every right to sue Google. It’s about time it got a taste of what Microsoft has to live with every year.

For a slightly less anger-led opinion, I’ve published below, a post I wrote on Segala’s blog on March 19th, 2007.

After writing the post below, the project coordinator for ACAP left the following comment

ACAP is entirely committed to the principle that we will not reinvent anything unnecessarily. On the other hand, until we have completed our requirements work, it would be entirely inappropriate for us to commit to use any particular technical solution. POWDER was already on our radar, and will continue to be so.

I met them shortly afterwards and felt like they were going to do what Google told them to do, irrespective of the fact that current technologies may provide the right solution. Yes. It sounds dumb to me too. It really frustrates me to hear about technologies and standards being introduced on the back of what one company wants, just because of its size.

Original post, dated March 19th, 2007

I received an email from Paul Miller of Talis yesterday (he obviously doesn’t stop working either!), bringing to my attention, an article in the Independent about the saga between Viacom and Google. Paul has written a blog post about this also.

Viacom, owner of Paramount, studios and MTV says that Google has breached its copyright 1.5 billion times by allowing YouTube users to share video clips. And the outcome of the $1bn lawsuit may have a knock on effect for newspapers and blogs. So, newspapers such as the Guardian and Independent and bloggers such as TechCrunch, Robert Scoble, ReadWrite/Web and Vecosys better watch the outcome of this lawsuit.

Make sure you read beyond the quote as I go on to talk about *the* solution to this problem.

According to the Independent (original article)

The case, which accuses Google’s YouTube video-sharing site of building “a lucrative business out of exploiting the devotion of fans to others’ creative works”, has the potential to redefine how content is used on the internet. “If it goes to court, this will be the biggest case since Napster [the music-sharing website shut down by litigation in 2002],” says Edgar Forbes, senior lecturer in media law and intellectual property at Bournemouth University.

[snip]

Bloggers and websites increasingly use newspaper articles to attract users, provoke debate and sell advertising on their sites. “This is a big issue,” says Larry Kilman of the World Association of Newspapers. “If a company like Google is using content and selling advertisements around it, that is of concern to many newspapers and publishers.” The association, with partners including the global news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP), Macmillan Publishers and Independent News & Media (parent group of The Independent on Sunday), is working to create an international protocol to regulate online use of newspaper content.

The Automated Content Access Protocol (Acap) would let owners of published content communicate permission information automatically in a form recognised by internet search engines. This would allow legitimate online users to comply easily and quickly with copyright law. Lawyers say such an international standard would be immensely useful. But making it work requires absolute clarity about what is protected by copyright and how it can be enforced.

Paul M. brought this to my attention because of the ACAP (Automated Content Access Protocol) connection. What ACAP is looking to achieve is exactly the type of use case that we have in mind for Content Labels .

In fact, I discussed this particular use case with Philip Hallam-Baker, Chief Scientist at VeriSign over dinner last year. Philip told me of their proposed (and very propritary) solution with Microsoft before the launch of IE7. I remember saying that what VeriSign could do to combat Phishing for $800 per certificate, Segala could do for $8 using Content Labels <g>

Jemima Kiss wrote an article about Content Labels, covering some of the major use cases in the Guardian today. Perhaps Jemima will write about Segala’s proposed solution for ACAP soon…

According to Acap’s homepage

ACAP will enable the providers of all types of content published on the World Wide Web to communicate permissions information (relating to access and use of that content) in a form that can be automatically recognized and interpreted, so that business partners can systematically comply with the publishers’ policies. In the first instance, ACAP will provide a framework that will allow any publisher, large or small, to express access and use policies in a language that search engines’ robot “spiders” can be taught to understand. It is anticipated that, in future, the scope of ACAP will be extended to other business relationships and other media types.

As a result, it will be possible for publishers to make more content available to users through the search engines, and to continue to innovate in the development of business models for network publishing.

I hope they’re not spending too much time and money on developing a new ’standard’ for which there is a solution already, a solution that is going to be the standard for labelling content on the Web (and potentially for mobile and TV). In short, Content Labels does exactly what ACAP want to achieve.

Known within the W3C as POWDER (Protocol for Web Description Resources), Content Labels is moving onto a full recommendation track. This means our Content Labels are set to become the standard method for content classification on the Web. The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) is responsible for creating standards such as HTML and WAI Guidelines. This helps to ensure that our method of labelling content is (beyond) scalable and importantly free or low in cost.

Furthermore, Content Labels (I mean POWDER, sorry, I can’t get used to the new name), will be proposed as a replacement for PICS. PICS is the old/out dated W3C recommendation still in use by Internet Explorer for Site Advisor.

I came up with the idea of contentlabel.org to help organisations like ACAP adopt a system for its own code of conduct almost immediately and seamlessly. It also helps industry create new codes of conduct for which Content Labels will be created, as reported by the Guardian.

There are too many proprietary technologies and so-called standards looking to achieve the same goal. I’m not saying for a second that this is what ACAP is trying to do, but let’s not create another standard if it’s not necessary please. In fact, I’ve already been introduced (by email) to ACAP’s project coordinator and technical project manager and look forward to hearing from them.

I’ll write a separate post which looks at all the current attempts at enabling more trust on the Web using ‘a’ standard. For now, I must catch a train into an Internet People event.

The BIMA Awards (BIMAs™) now rightly take their place on the top shelf of prestigious Awards, alongside the BAFTAs, the Brits and the Oscars.

To win a BIMA, therefore, is truly the highest accolade in a very competitive world.

BIMA has never shrunk from its responsibility to reflect the very highest standards of creativity and innovation and caused controversy some years ago when it considered that the measure of work in one particular category was not of sufficient merit to be awarded a winner’s trophy. More recently, the industry applauded BIMA’s decision when it announced that the judge’s favourite – the BIMA Grand Prix – was the winning entry in the student category.

The Association is run by 12 strong Executive team with me at the helm as Chair. I know I know, I don’t look old enough

Until now, the Awards Committee has included only members of the Executive. For the first time ever, the Committee for 2008 is made up of Executives and non-Executives. This demonstrates how the Association is more engaging and transparent.

The bold move is already proving to be the right thing to do. The enthusiasm amongst the team is electric. Watch out for a new format. If you thought it was difficult to win a BIMA before, wait for 2008. It will be easier to identify where your work fits in, but we’ve halved the number of trophies. Why sit through 21 announcements when you could be enjoying a fantastic gala followed by a cool after-party.

So, here it is, the committee…

BIMA Awards Committee

Clare McDonald

Committee Chair
Creative Director, Interactive Media Agency, Bskyb

Having started life as a print designer of unwearable computeraided fashion, Clare realised that her passion for the pixel needed to be directed into a relevant world. No one ever was going to wear her LCD coats!!! While studying at the RCA Clare worked on the very first RCA CDRom for the end of year show and helped push forward the concept of digital design and its marketing potential within the fashion department and beyond. This left Clare with both a huge passion for collecting shoes, wearing odd outfits, dodgy CDRoms and also a desire to help people achieve their ambitions. It also allowed her to truly develop her cross platform approach to the design process and solution building. She also fell in love with “the web”. Over the next 15 years a series of interesting positions in the UK and the US in fashion, interactive and entrepreneurial businesses landed Clare finally as Creative Director of the Interactive Media Design Agency in Bskyb.

Responsible for the creative direction of interactive properties, Clare helps build visual strategies and creative solutions with her award winning team to develop online, mobile, interactive tv, blue sky thinking and brand solutions for Bskyb. This is a highly directional and strategic position, that is forging a new creative force within Bskyb and the European entertainment market. Utilising earlier experience with early online video and projects for the likes of Microsoft, Office Shoes, IT Network, Open TV and the likes Clare and her team are truly pioneering online entertainment design. The future is looking incredibly interesting for Sky and a future that marries Clare’s cross media approach, mixed with a bit of pizzazz will have great results.

Paul Walsh (me)

You can read my biog here if you’re really bored.

Matthew Gorzkowski

Managing Director, Play

Matthew Bagwell is Conchango’s Creative Director and founder of creative agency, SignalOrange. Matthew has been called digital evangelist, offering insight into how people want to interact with organisations through multiple channels. He is capable of bridging the gap between inventing experiences made possible by web 2.0 phenomena and delivering them in reality.

Matthew Bagwell

Creative Director, Conchango

Matt began his Marketing career working for Saatchi & Saatchi in Europe and Shafter Advertising in the US where he helped to launch new products for major brands including Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, Fujitsu and Nokia.

Recognising the potential of digital media, Matt joined Itraffic in San Francisco as Account Director. Here Matt led key accounts such as Disney and Buena Vista Entertainment before returning the Europe to join Itraffic London as Client Services Director where he oversaw the interactive marketing activity of brands such as British Airways and Hilton. In 2005, Matt co-founded Pay in conjunction with M&C Saatchi and former Itraffic colleagues Jon Sharpe and Ethan Segal.

Dr. Scott Gallacher

Director of Online & Partner Marketing, BskyB

Scott is responsible for Sky’s online sales & marketing across their full product portfolio including digital TV, Broadband, Telephony, HD, Mobile TV & Sky +. Sky, according to Nielsen, are the largest online spender in the UK underlining a commitment to digital, with their pioneering work in Behavioural Targeting winning the 2007 award for best use of research in media.

Scott is well regarded industry commentator & speaker, Chairing last year’s Revolution conference on Brand Advocacy and speaking at the Economist Marketing Director summit in March on the challenges facing marketing in the next 5 years as well as addressing Cranfield business school on the maturing of digital marketing.

Previous to BSkyB, Scott worked at OgilvyOne as Client Services Director for the American Express International Online account covering 38 countries. Prior to this he served as a Vice President for Digitas. Scott holds a PhD in Multimedia innovation & social learning from Edinburgh, M.Sc. in Human Computer Interaction from Heriot Watt and a BCom in Business Studies from Edinburgh.

Chris Clarke

Executive Creative Director and President, Digitas London

Chris has been at the forefront of the digital industry since the late 90s. In 2000 as a UK founder of pioneering digital agency Abel & Baker, Chris brought a new level of creative excellence to the nascent digital industry and won a number of awards including Campaign Direct, Revolution, Clio and Cannes Cyberlions for clients such as Virgin Mobile, The AA and MTV.

In 2002 Abel & Baker was bought by leading web agency Wheel. While at Wheel, first as Creative Director of Abel & Baker then Executive Creative Director of Wheel, Chris helped turn the creative reputation of the agency around, delivering award winning work and driving an extensive change management process to make Wheel an ideas led creative business. Key client achievements at Wheel include winning BT, the global roll out of Brahma beer, and bringing prestigious clients such as ABSOLUT Vodka and Sony PlayStation Europe on board. Chris also oversaw numerous corporate website projects for clients such as Allied Domecq, United Biscuits and Unilever for whom Wheel managed the global rollout of Unilever.com in 26 languages.

Since joining Digitas London in April 2006, Chris has re-invigorated the creative product, winning new business with Vauxhall, Shell and HP, rolling out a network of offices in Europe and winning a Campaign Digital Award.

Chris is a multi-award winning creative with Cyberlions, LIAA, Clio, Revolution, Campaign Direct, Campaign Digital and D&AD awards to his name. As a founder in the UK of digital pioneers Abel & Baker, Chris was responsible for some of the first Rich Media and viral work done in this market.

Daniel Birch

Creative Director, Freestyle Interactive

As a Creative Director who has worked at a number of top London agencies LBi (then Oyster), AKQA and twentysix Daniel now leads the creative and delivery teams at the midlands largest digital agency Freestyle Interactive. This gives him genuine perspective across all aspects of digital channels.

As a Creative Director of Freestyle it is his role to lead and define the user experience on their clients. With wide ranging experience in leading multidiscipline teams of designers, developers, writers and architects he is able to bring the right solutions to a wide range of online of projects.

As the board level role responsible for project delivery through the project management team Daniel has a clear understanding of the delivery challenges faced by project managers and can appreciate what it takes to deliver an awarding winning creative solution.

Daniel’s belief in balancing the desire to win awards with developing the right user experience for client’s customer puts him in a unique position. As a Creative Director Daniel has found the opportunity to have an opinion on all this creative but will be frequently found client side asking awkward questions or bothering project manager’s to try and understand how Isle Interactive can be more efficient – all with the goal of giving the creative a better chance to design better and with more insight.

A genuine understanding of all aspects of the digital build process and experience across kiosk, mobile web and iTV means Daniel is able to combine a wealth of experience to developing a framework for creative teams to work in. A desire to work on projects that are created in a less that ideal situation, short time frames, limiting timeframes or conservative outlook means he has an affinity for recognising others who have succeed in this conditions.

The client list is long and varied, as you’d expect from nearly 12 years of working in the industry. From mobile guidelines for Orange to ground up redesigns for Natwest and Abbey and campaign work for Volvo and Drambuie the experience is there.

Janice Cable

Principal Administrator, BIMA

When she joined BIMA, Janice brought with her the experience of a lifetime working with trade associations, mainly in the music industry where she considered herself extremely privileged to be able to work with some of the most influential industry doyens and talented composers, artists and broadcasters in the UK. She has considerable experience in arranging and coordinating exhibitions, seminars and conferences, both in the UK and abroad, and was responsible for organising industry social events, both lunches and black tie. Her previous involvement has been extremely valuable for the administration of the BIMA Awards as, amongst many other tasks, she prepared and managed the selection of the UK entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. She hasn’t done this for ten years which, incidentally, was the last time the UK won!

About BIMA

Established in 1985, the British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) is the industry’s longest established association to represent the diverse interests of the UK interactive industry.

In short, it’s BIMA’s mission to ensure the UK remains the centre of excellence worldwide for creativity within the interactive industry.

I asked the Twitter community what their favourite search engine of all time was earlier. After having a great conversation with a few people, I got thinking about my days at AOL and companies that came and went before that.

The purpose of this post is to find out what you did, which you may not have shared with lots of people, to get a job. Before I move onto what lies I’ve told, I might as well give you a little background so you get to learn a little more about me. Skip to the end if what you already know about me is more than enough.

I’ve done just about every job presented to me; sandwich board advertising (me inside one!), washing dishes in an Indian restaurant, collecting shopping trollies, store man, potato/strawberry picking, bar tending, office junior, hotel work and so on.

I wasn’t good enough academically to get into university to study architecture, so I ended up working in a bar, something I really loved because for me, it was all about people. What became apparent from a very early age was that, not only did I always want to be the best that I could be, I always wanted to be the best at what I did, irrespective of what job I did. (I don’t expect everyone to want to be the best. I do hope however, that people strive to be the best that they can be)

I realised that working in a bar, or even running my own chain of bars in the future (that was my goal at the time), wasn’t what I wanted to do longterm. So, after managing a cocktail bar in Greece during the summery of 1993, I returned to Dublin adamant that I’d get a job in an office. I didn’t know what I was going to do, I just knew it would have something to do with computers, because it would be 9 to 5 (cough) and I was pretty handy with computers at school.

I quickly got a two week job helping a company to clear out an office. Like I said, I always did my best and it was always ‘about people’. So, they liked me enough to give me one of their old (286) computers. It didn’t even have an operating system so I sold it and put the money against the hire purchase of a brand spanking new 386 computer with a whacking 4MB of RAM. It was state of the art. I guess that was a big risk at the time because I had very little money and the computer was extremely expensive (for me anyway). I was getting myself into debt on the assumption I’d be able to pay it off later when my investment paid off. I did actually think of the purchase as an investment. Without it, I couldn’t progress.

The first thing I did was learn how to type. I purposely made it more difficult by using my girlfriend’s manual typewriter. I knew it would significantly improve my skills on a computer keyboard when it came to typing tests. I used the same books that secretaries use and within a few months I was speed typing about 120 words per minute and ready to hit the agencies for office junior positions.

Whilst all of this was going on, I must have received hundreds (literally) of ‘thanks but no thanks’ letters. Almost every company in Dublin received an application from me. I was on social welfare and living in a flat I wouldn’t give to a stray dog. I used to find slug trails on the bedroom carpet and I used cling film across the windows to block the wind.

Bending it like David Beckham

I was tired of companies expecting high grades at school, so I told lies to land my first job working for an insurance company. Life was back on track until they asked for proof of my exams two weeks into the job. My forgery skills were never great at school when I tried my parents signatures, so I wasn’t taking any chances in the real world. So, I pretended to be sick and never returned.

Balls in a wheelbarrow

I got my lucky break when the lies I told about my experience gained by working for a great insurance company (see above), amongst other things, landed me the position as Computer Operator at Bank National De Paris in Dublin.

I must have carried my balls in a wheelbarrow on the day of the interview. The role included managing the entire bank’s computer mainframe, backing up the dealer room conversations each day, transferring the daily interest rates between Paris and Dublin and supporting 12 Programmer Analysts’ in their file backup and restore procedures for the rest of BNP’s branches throughout Europe. Remember, I had no experience and no qualifications. Mistakes were made, but thankfully they weren’t too serious. As far as I was concerned I could learn on the job. And I did.

That was the last time I told a lie about my experience or qualifications. I ended up moving to another bank before joining AOL as a startup in 1995.

How did you bend the truth to land a job?

I’ve decided to blog more often about the things I discuss on Twitter. I’ll continue to use Twitter in the same way I do now, but I feel that I’m not communicating enough with most of my social network.

What’s my social network?

In short, it’s you and the other people with whom I’m connected. We are connected by the very fact that you’re interested in what I have to say. By the same token, I’m interested in what you have to say, hence why I converse with everyone who’s kind enough to spend time to leave a comment.

My social network is made up of people. Within that network I have multiple communities, each community representing something unique. The three blogs I author for example, represent entirely different communities, each with some overlap.

• Personal blog = entrepreneurial stuff, connecting, networking, social media…
• Segala blog = trust on the Web, standards, search, semantic web…
• BIMA blog = mainly Industry, creativity…
• Twitter = all of the above

You’ll notice that Twitter represents all of my communities. But it only represents a very small percentage of each one and hence, a small percentage of my social network. That’s because only a small handful of each community is represented by the early adopters in each one.

As I said, I won’t stop twittering. It’s a fantastic way to get to know more people whilst strengthening relationships. Twitter is also the world’s most comprehensive news feed and periodic replacement for a search engine when searching for stuff such as contact details or recommendations.

Think about it for a minute, do you sometimes Twitter messages that warrant a blog post? Does laziness encourage you to opt for the more accessible Twitter?

http://designerzone.com/ is probably my first failure (I no longer own the domain).

In 1996 whilst at AOL, one of my fondest memories was learning how to build Web sites so I could teach the trainer, who could then teach the technicians.

Friends at the time, laughed at my idea of building a site about the town I come from. They all thought it should have been based on sport. I provided information and pictures of beaches, restaurants, hotels and the usual tourist attractions. With the exception of Yahoo! (indexed by humans), my site was placed in the top five results on just about every search engine. I guess it was easy back then as there wasn’t much to compete with. I remember saying I could charge the hotels and restaurants for advertising, to which my friends laughed and said ‘yeah as if that will ever take off’.

I used the domain http://aol.wexfordirl.com because aol.wexford.com was taken. The site attracted a lot of visitors from the US, many of whom asked if I could make travel arrangements or recommend where to go and what to do. Some asked if I could help track down their families. Perhaps that was yet another missed opportunity. Anyway, the whole idea got me thinking and I eventually decided that I wanted to sell designer clothes for men online. Why? Well, because I used to buy from sites that I felt were crap compared to mine and given how easy it was to appear at the top of every search engine, I figured I was in with a chance.

I conducted market research and continued to study how search engines worked over a six month period. I knew what men wanted, where they came from and the sizes that would sell. I had tens of thousands of email addresses belonging to people who signed up to the research and I had the International Sales and International Marketing Managers at AOL US on board. It was all good to go in late 1996 when there were very few Web sites selling designer clothes. That said, all but designerzone.com was taken, so I bought that. However, when the girl who was going to handle the buying fell ill, I decided to dump the entire idea. I put it down to inexperience. Why didn’t I just get someone else to do it? Ah well.

Come to think of it, I wrote an ebook entitled ‘how to setup an online shop within 24 hours’, based on my research and review of all the products available at the time. Again, I never bothered to publish/sell it. I’m confident that I could have sold a few copies too because there was so little information about ecommerce on the Web. I don’t think the word was even used back then.

So, advertising and selling designer clothes were the two real missed opportunities. Anyone can come up with an idea though. Only those who execute their ideas should be praised. Am I sorry? Absolutely not. We are the sum total of all our experiences and I wouldn’t have ended up with Segala had I gone down a different route.

I’ve had other failures including a marketing agency, which were much further down the road with the employment of staff and rented offices etc. I thought I’d focus on my AOL days because of the recent attention it has been given since the purchase of Bebo.

What mistakes or missed opportunities can you talk about?