JB's Personal Portfolio

A Day in the Life of the Internet

Jason Bergman — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 06:57:06 +0000

While most of us have a good, general, understanding that the Internet is huge; do we really have any idea on the scope of just how big that truly is? According to the infographic below, courtesy of MBAonline.com, the amount of data that we consume and share on a daily basis is almost unfathomable.

For instance, every 24 hours, there are 294 billion emails sent. 250 million photos are uploaded to Facebook. 864,000 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube. And for the doozy… daily iPhone sales now outpace the human population.

Money, Music and Piracy

Jason Bergman — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 05:12:17 +0000

From Click It Ticket:

What’s included in this Money, Music and Piracy graphic:

Total U.S. Music Sales from 1999 - 2008
Concert Tickets Sales from 2006 - 2011
Most Downloaded Songs of All Time (iTunes)
Music Sales Breakdown, How the Money Gets Distributed
How Much Artists Get Paid for a Live Concert
Countries on the U.S. Priority Watchlist for Piracy
Cost of Piracy to the U.S. and Global Economies
Music Piracy Compared to Movie Piracy

Piracy: the unauthorized reproduction or use of a copyrighted book, recording, television program, patented invention, trademarked product, etc.:The record industry is beset with piracy.

Now that the wildly popular music-streaming service Spotify has come to the U.S., all bets are off as to the future of the American music industry. The downward trend in music sales that began with the appearance of Napster and its ilk continues.

Between 1999 and 2008, sales dropped from nearly $14.6 billion to just under $8.5 billion with further decreases in the years since.

As a part of the whole, digital sales now account for some 20 percent of all recorded music sales across the planet. That number is considerably higher in the United States, topping out at closer to 70 percent. The digital model is just more efficient and convenient for consumers and the industry alike. Gone are costs for manufacturing, packaging, retail space, and retail profit which eat up about 34 percent of the $15.99 someone pays for a CD.

When it comes down to it, the marketplace for physical product more readily benefits the distributors than any other parties in the supply chain. Of that same $15.99 that a music fan shells out for a CD, less than 15 percent will go to the artist and from that small amount, they must cover commissions and fees to their producer, manager, and lawyer. Generally, they also have to reimburse the record label for a bulk of the promotional monies spent.

That’s why the labels do a bit better, raking in almost 25% for their contributions, inclusive of expenses whether reimbursable or not from the artist. The record distributors and retail outlets, though, take a whopping 63 percent of the $15.99 pie.

However, a reverse algorithm seems to be in place for the live music business. Since 2006, revenues have steadily risen from $7.3 billion to $10.3 billion in North America alone. The global outlook is just as rosy with increases from $16.6 billion to $23.5 billion across the same time span.

As for an artist’s cut of the live revenues, generally speaking, they are paid about half of a show’s gross. However, their share must cover their booking agent and manager’s commissions, production costs, tour crew salaries, and travel expenses, so the actual artist may or may not pocket considerable cash.

In looking at the bigger picture of music piracy and its impacts, the revenue losses have led to consolidation withing record companies and affiliated agencies. Over 70,000 lost jobs have been attributed to piracy accounting for about $2.7 billion in lost wages and another $422 million in lost tax revenues.

It’s no wonder, then, that the U.S. keeps a watchful eye on nations it sees as major contributors to the problem. Among the top offenders are China, Russia, Algeria, Argentina, Canada, Chile, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Pakistan, and Venezuela.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is also doing its part to combat piracy by issuing copyright infringement notices to Internet users found to be participating in such acts.

The film industry also suffers its fair share of losses at the hands of content pirates. Total U.S. film revenues amount to an estimated $108 billion annually, with about $20 billion in losses chalked up to piracy. Of those losses, a full 80 percent come from overseas users.

My Pick for Best of Show at CES 2012

Jason Bergman — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 04:47:10 +0000

Samsung revealed a new transparent LCD screen called the Smart Window at the Consumer Electronics Show, winning the CES 2012 Innovation Award. The 46-inch touchscreen turns what were once boring window displays into interactive experiences.

The revolutionary screen has a contrast ratio of 4,500:1 with high-definition resolution and a 70 percent color gamut, making it is as vivid as a lot of TVs in displaying color. Weighing only 10 pounds and with a thickness of only 9 millimeters, Samsung says it could be used in product showcases, commercial freezer doors in grocery stores, and platform doors of subway stations. It can also be used in other work or home applications including electronic boards, information windows, medical equipment, electronic signs, and, once the displays get smaller, mobile devices.

Of course, after seeing this, you can’t help not to think: Yes! We’ve got to be close to strapping on our jet packs and living in a Minority Report world.

Wondering What All This SOPA and PIPA Talk is About?

Jason Bergman — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 03:49:41 +0000

Leave it to TED and Clay Shirky to break it down and explain why it’s a bad idea.

From TED:

What does a bill like PIPA/SOPA mean to our shareable world? At the TED offices, Clay Shirky delivers a proper manifesto — a call to defend our freedom to create, discuss, link and share, rather than passively consume.

Clay Shirky believes that new technologies enabling loose collaboration — and taking advantage of “spare” brainpower — will change the way society works. Full bio and more links

The Ultimate Desktop

Jason Bergman — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 06:27:54 +0000

EXOdesk is part of the EXOtables form factor to be build by selected partners starting in 2012, focusing on pricing and user experience. The HTML5 multi-touch development kit and the application store allows a wide range of exciting applications involving productivity and creativity.

From EXOPC Lab:

EXO UI physics

EXO UI physics is a natural way to interact with digital content and applications on large touch displays.

EXO UI physics is based on EXOengine and run HTML5 applications. EXO UI physics is a skin of the standard EXO UI.

For better interaction with no learning curve, physics behavior are respected (and will be progressively more realistic). EXO UI physics start point is a round icon floating on the table. When the user click on the icon, other icons are made visible and accessible.

EXO UI physics requires a screen size of 32 inches with full HD resolution (1920×1080), and 10 points of touch.

EXO UI physics supports standard EXOstore, with an access to the applications designed for EXO UI physics, including multiple display applications (playing piano on the EXOdesk while the partition is visible on the main computer screen)

The general behavior of the UI is compatible with the use of a traditional keyboard and mouse on the display area. Virtual keyboards and pointing devices are supported but many wish to continue to use their traditional input devices.

EXO UI is built on EXOengine, a small and optimized runtime acting as a local web server for HTM5. EXO UI can run on many different form factors.

Get more info at EXOPC Lab and follow their progress!

The Evolution of Web Design

Jason Bergman — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 23:57:51 +0000

View an enlarged version of this Infographic »

Can you believe that the first published website is already 20 years old? Web design has come a long way since the first website was published by Tim Berners-Lee in 1991. This infographic is a peek at the evolutionary tale of web design, which is ironically still in its infant stages. Enjoy the infographic below and let your imagination wander. You might find yourself asking, “Where will web design be in the next 20 years?”

from KISSmetrics - The Evolution of Web Design Infographic.

Facts and Stats:

The very first website was published in 1991 by Tim Berners-Lee.
Flash was introduced by Macromedia in 1996.
Dynamic design language PHP gained popularity with its PHP3 release in 1998.
In the year 2000, Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 became the first web browser to achieve better than 99% support for CSS1.
In 2000, the W3C recommended the second release of Javascript, and by 2002, nearly all browsers supported it.
In 2008, mobile access to the internet exceeded desktop access for the first time in history.
Today, two thirds of cell phone users say they access the web/email from their device.

About The Author: Sean Work is the marketing coordinator at KISSmetrics. Follow him on twitter (@seanvwork) and ask him for a free cup of coffee

The State Of Internet Based TV

Jason Bergman — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:20:13 +0000

More and more people are giving up the hefty price of cable for online viewing. But just how much has Internet based TV changed the way we watch our beloved shows? Check the infographic to see the major competition and if one of them might be right for you.

The State of The Internet: 2010

Jason Bergman — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 01:28:46 +0000

The Internet is a big place. How big? Try gigantic. The infographic above, from the folks at Focus, attempts to visually represent some of the mind-boggling numbers that defined the Internet circa 2010 — the result is certainly pretty, but still not very easy to wrap your head around.

How, for example, does one simply imagine the 2 billion videos being watched on YouTube each and every day? How is it possible that 35 hours of video can be uploaded to the site every minute? What do 36 billion photos look like? Ask Facebook; that’s how many photos are uploaded to the site each year. (More than seven times as many have been uploaded to Flickr in that site’s entire existence, by the way.)

These numbers aren’t necessarily easier to comprehend in infographic form (107 trillion e-mails?!), but they’re definitely easier to take in. If you’re not a visual learner, however, the graphic seems to be mostly based on a post earlier this month from the Royal Pingdom blog, which lists all those stats in plain text.

Via Mashable

The Age of Exabytes: Tools & Approaches for Managing Big Data

Jason Bergman — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 19:11:50 +0000

From ReadWriteWeb:

We are experiencing a big data explosion, a result not only of increasing Internet usage by people around the world, but also the connection of billions of devices to the Internet. Eight years ago, for example, there were only around 5 exabytes of data online. Just two years ago, that amount of data passed over the Internet over the course of a single month. And recent estimates put monthly Internet data flow at around 21 exabytes of data.

Our latest report, The Age of Exabytes, explores how technologies are evolving to address the needs of managing big data, from innovations in storage at the chip and data center level, to the development of frameworks used for distributed computing, to the increasing demand for analytical tools that can glean insights from big data in near real-time. Download it for free now.

How Color Affects Our Purchasing Habits

Jason Bergman — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 17:40:56 +0000

From KISSmetrics:

For retailers, shopping is the art of persuasion. Though there are many factors that influence how and what consumers buy. However, a great deal is decided by visual cues, the strongest and most persuasive being color. When marketing new products it is crucial to consider that consumers place visual appearance and color above other factors such as sound, smell and texture. To learn more about color psychology and how it influences purchases, see our latest infographic [above].