Joe Duck

Have Blog - Will Travel

CES 2009

Hey, it’s already time to register for CES 2009 and there’s a new fee structure where people signing up before November 1 will get in *free* to everything but the regular sessions.    Althought those sessions are interesting the big deal at CES are the many world class exhibits of new technology and the CES Parties, so frankly you could have a great time there without attending any of the sessions at all.

As a blogger or press person you’ll get free admission to the sessions as well (this would run about $1000+, plus some really nice food, lounges, and freebies if they handle things like last year when even many press folks were envious of the great amenities at the blogging lounges.

I’ll be at CES again next year, hoping to find as many interesting stories as at CES 2008 when I got to interview David Filo from Yahoo, see Bill Gates, and hear GM’s CEO Talk about cool new cars.

I also had a great time at the Monster Blog Bash, Mary J. Blige Concert, SONY Poker Party, and PodTech’s Bloghaus (thanks to John Furrier and Robert Scoble who are always very cool conference characters.)

Here is the CES 2009 fee structure:

NEW THIS YEAR
The fee structure for admission to all exhibits, TechZones, SuperSessions, keynotes and selected conference sessions has changed. Please take note of these important dates:
Before November 1, 2008
$0.00

November 1, 2008  5 p.m. EST, January 2, 2009
$100.00
5:01 p.m. EST, January 2, 2009 On-site
$200.00

More about CES 2009 at the official website.

June 30, 2008 Posted by JoeDuck | CES, CES 2008, CES 2009, CES Parties | | No Comments

Current TV filing for $100,000,000 IPO. Initial PE ratio = infinity!

Today Current TV, with Al Gore a prominent investor, is filing for a big IPO.    But there is a problem.   They lost a lot of money “making” their 64 million in revenues last year.     Will they ever be profitable?  Global warming or not, I’m guessing they will be profitable about the same time that hell freezes over.

I still just don’t get it.  I understand why video clips are fun and a significant development online, but I don’t get those who express *economic* enthusiasm for online videos produced by … you and me.   As I’ve noted before about online video, I don’t understand why people think video sites can make money.   Youtube cost Google 1.6 billion but doesn’t make money.   Podtech had a brilliant, well executed, forward vision of the online video landscape.   They even had the ultimate forward looking blogger spokesmodel Robert Scoble (who has just moved to FastCompany.com and is right now hanging in Davos with the uber-economic-elite).  Despite this Podtech failed to deliver on the promise of monetizing quality content to the larger user base.   I had a chance to talk about this with John Furrier at CES.   John told me he’s still very bullish on video, but Podtech is going to focus more on a model where they’ll be producing company videos for corporate clients, helping them to leverage social media advantages.   We also talked about how hungry many big companies are for those who understand social media and want to leverage that power to their corporate advantage.    This, in my opinion, is where you’ll see most video and podcasast production efforts moving over the next few years.   The money is in leading corporate clients into the uncharted social media waters rather than trying to build website visitation and monetize clips.   The latter is a very dead end in my view.

So, should you invest in Current TV’s IPO?   Sure you should, right after hell freezes over.

January 28, 2008 Posted by JoeDuck | CES, CES 2008, CES Parties, Social Networks, Web 2.0, Youtube, blogging, companies, technology, videos | , | 2 Comments

Gizmodo blogger banned from CES for life

The Consumer Electronics Association, reports Portfolio.com, will ban the Gizmodo blogger (I assume Blakely) who used a hacking device to turn off TVs, some in the middle of CES tech presentations by Motorola.     They are reviewing taking more actions against Gizmodo.

Unfortunately for those of us who blogged the show “responsibly”, the Gizmodo prank has set back bloggers and blogging at least a few notches.     CES treated the blogging community very well with excellent credentials and two well stocked comfortable blogger lounges.    This hospitality was repaid, in the case of Gizmodo, with information vandalism against fellow tech enthusiasts.        

January 11, 2008 Posted by JoeDuck | CES, CES 2008, CES Parties, blogs | | 3 Comments

CES 2008 - Blogging officially arrives at CES with some mixed reactions.

“Blogger” is a new badge here at CES, given to about 200 people who registered as bloggers rather than press. However most of the bloggers here are under press badges and have been coming for some time. The early word - totally anecdotal and unofficial - from several CES and sponsor folks I had a chance to talk to include these observations:

* Bloggers are nicer than mainstream journalists.

* Bloggers more readily accept the giveaways, and thus are seen to be more subject to manipulation.

* Press people were upset that initially they could not get into the blog lounges but bloggers were allowed in Press areas. This policy was quickly changed to allow press to blogger lounges, which were very comfortable.

* Gizmodos early scathing critique of CES is already being discussed at some length by CES insiders. Hmmm - I’m noting they have toned down the coverage yet fessing up to some prankish BS. Hmmm - can all bloggers and all suits mix happily? No, all can’t but most can.

* Some big sponsors were complaining about the bloggers.

Donny Deutsch’s The Big Idea featured the Blog Bus and Robert Scoble. I have high regard for Robert’s blogging rules. He’s highly credible but recognizes that you can’t eliminate all bias from the reporting. Generally he just lays it out for folks to judge - this is a good standard though I think we should develop a blogging *disclosure* policy where you can expect others to call you out if you pander to a sponsor without disclosing relationship. I don’t like the idea of some complex “code of ethics” because I can guarantee that far too many people would just sign off and then violate the code, making the most honest folks seem the least honest)

* I’m struggling with the *ethics of blogging* issues myself. Readership here is up about 400% during the conference. Should I be extra nice to Plantronics because they gave me great lounges, work areas, lunches, and some gadgetry? Monster because they threw two great parties and were very nice about inviting me - three if you count the “after party”. SONY for the great bash at Hard Rock last night?

As I’ve pointed out many times before the line between pay to post and the nuanced “lobbyist” effects is impossible to draw clearly. I like *real journalist* Kara Swisher’s superb disclosure policy, though disclosing a lot more than most of her fellow big time journalists would do. There was a prominent tech reporter at the SONY party last night and I’m hoping to get some comments from him via email about how he treats the CES giveaways.

Ultimately I think you need to trust the person you read to keep it legitimate, but bloggers, and certainly journalists, probably should go further as Kara has and really lay things out on the line. You cannot eliminate bias in reporting - but you can … report it.

January 10, 2008 Posted by JoeDuck | CES, CES 2008, CES Parties, companies, computers, conference | , , , | 2 Comments

CES: SONY Pirates of the Burning Sea Party

SONY Pirates of the Burning Sea Party
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

Thanks to SONY Online and Flying Lab software for a very nice party showcasing the Pirates of the Burning Sea, a new Massively Multiplayer online game or “MMO”.   I’ve been researching the MMORPG topic for the past few weeks and it was great to get a chance to talk to one of the game developers and Flying Lab PR about MMOs in general as well as their experiences with this game.

Also really fun was playing some poker with professional dealers who were very helpful to the many Texas Holdem novices.   One of my dealers has dealt in the world series of Poker, which was cool.  Very nice guy who could track the fast action in remarkable form.    Interestingly, when asked a different dealer said that he makes about $100,000 per year dealing at one of the top casinos here.  I think most of this is from tips.

January 10, 2008 Posted by JoeDuck | CES, CES 2008, CES Parties, companies, computers, conference | , , , | 3 Comments

Scoble on Donny Deutsch’s “The Big Idea”

OK, so I’m not getting to meet Donny Deutsch here at CES (because he’s not here). But glad to report that Scoble and the Bloghaus Bus o’ Bloggers will be on “The Big Idea” the show tonight on MSNBC.

Blogging is a pretty big story here at CES and I’m hoping to get some comments next week from CES CEO Shapiro about his decisions to bring bloggers in as a “separate but equal” press category. In fact the second hand stories I’ve heard indicate that the press actually was complaining they couldn’t get in the blogging lounges which were generally less crowded and more comfortable than the press rooms (they are allowed them in now).

I just talked to Plantronics who is sponsoring the lounges. She said last year they did have a blogger lounge but it was out in a tent and not as comfortable as this year’s lounges. Thank you Plantronics.

Another blogger upgrade are all the “blogger only” parties here. Intel sponsored the one yesterday at the Atomic Testing Museum, and Monster the night before at a Paris Hotel Suite. Hey Silicon Valley - YOU could learn a lesson on how to treat bloggers from the CES sponsors, though CES has the advantage of filtering folks via the cost to get to Las Vegas. This effectively reduces the number of folks who, for example, might just start writing the day before they got here. I’m hoping to ask CES if they did any screening for eligible tech bloggers. I understand there are about 200 registered here as “bloggers”, but most of the blog folks are here as Press because they are with other media outlets.

FastMoney with … Scoble!

January 9, 2008 Posted by JoeDuck | CES, CES 2008, CES Parties, blogs, companies, computers | , , | No Comments