You can now broadcast your own live TV online with a number of tools and services. But a new contender takes things to the next level, giving you a feature-packed TV studio that works right out of your web browser. If you’re looking for simple ‘plug your camera in and play’ streaming, you could do worse than UStream, which has made it possible for hundreds of web broadcasters to quickly put out live web TV. Then, taking things a step ahead you have services like Operator11 that let you mix in your web videos with live webcam broadcasts, and even bring in friends to take part in your show. But the ante has just been upped by another contender, and what’s on offer is very impressive indeed. Here is a totally web-based service that will allow you to:Create live online channels with the capacity to stream footage 24 / 7 Collaborate with multiple producers from anywhere in the world, whether on camera or behind the scenes Add motion graphics with ‘coming up next’, station idents, ‘lower thirds’ and other great looking TV-like effects Create auto-pilot playlists that will continue to serve up your content, even if you are offline Mix all of these elements live and on-the-fly from an intuitive studio interface To find out how easy it is about to become to create professional, embed-anywhere, always-on live web TV, read on. Mogulus - Overview Mogulus has been designed to bring professional-looking live video tools to an audience of everyday people like you and me. With a simple interface that takes you through the process of creating a live Internet TV channel from scratch, it only takes a matter of minutes to get video imported, motion graphics prepared and live cameras rolling. In this video from Mogulus.com you can get an idea of exactly what the platform is capable of: One of the things that really sets the platform apart from its competitors - great looking graphics and transitions aside - is the focus Mogulus places on collaboration. In an industry first, Mogulus makes it easy for people around the world to act not only as guests or presenters on a friend’s show, but also to serve as producers at the same time. Mogulus simplifies the process of working together whether you are mixing together storyboards of video content brought in from YouTube or your own computer, or preparing captions and motion graphics to display between live straight-to-camera presentations and pre-loaded video clips. Effectively, I can be speaking straight to camera, while my co-producer at the other side of the world is cueing up the next clip, adding graphics to the screen or putting together a storyboard of news videos to run concurrently as soon as I hand over control. And you don’t even have to be in the room to broadcast your channel live, thanks to the addition of an ‘auto-pilot’ feature that will run through a list of videos that you have presented it with, sending them out as a live broadcast. What we have here is no less than a micro-TV studio packed into a web browser. Let’s take a look at the details. Getting Started Getting up and running with Mogulus is very straightforward. Once you are signed in, you choose a name for your channel and are given a Mogulus.com URL that people can go to in future to view your station, if you haven’t embedded it into your own website or blog. The first time you use a new channel you are asked to set up a number of simple features, from the full name and strap-line of the station, to the images you would like to use for your channel logo and test card. You can also choose from a range of motion graphic templates that will appear behind your text during interludes, such as station idents and ‘coming up next’ screens. These templates are set to expand as the Mogulus platform evolves and moves from its closed beta to open beta status, expected by summer. At the moment, though, the templates available look really good and create a professional look that makes for a great way to separate and announce your live and recorded content. In the next video clip I talk you through the set-up process: As you will have seen, once you have set up the details and graphics choices for your station, you can easily add in other Mogulus users to join you in collaborative channel production. This is as easy as typing in their username, and seeing them added to your list of channel members. From that point on, you can freely collaborate on your live channel, and work together in real-time in the preparation and broadcasting of your content. Managing Content Another thing that separates Mogulus from the likes of the popular Ustream.TV is the ability to import video from what will be a range of online sources, but is currently fixed on YouTube, in addition to being able to bring video right in from your desktop. These clips are fully imported into Mogulus, so you don’t have to worry about downtime at YouTube slowing down or otherwise causing problems for your live stream. Once they are imported, you can arrange them into ’storyboards’, and re-sequence the playing order of the clips. In this way you can quickly create a whole string of pre-recorded videos to be broadcast live from your channel, so you are in no way forced to speak directly to your webcam twenty-four hours a day. In this next clip I talk you through the import process: What I love about Mogulus collaborative aspect is that different producers working on the same show can interact in real-time. Just as I can run searches, create storyboards and set clips playing live in the channel, so anyone else collaborating with me can do the same, and I can see onscreen exactly what they are doing. If someone decides to re-sequence a storyboard I am looking at, I will see the video items move before my eyes. This gives teams a lot of flexibility to role-swap between directly presenting a show, preparing and mixing the live stream, and setting up videos for broadcast at a later point in time. Motion Graphics Another feature that I was wowed by is the vast range of motion graphics that Mogulus is capable of. I can bring in a lower-third splash that tells viewers who is currently speaking, make a transition to a full-screen ‘now and next’ screen with a graphical background, bring in a news ticker with custom-made news items, and even add photos and logos to the corner of the screen as the presenter speaks. All of the major features you would expect to see on the TV news, you have at your disposal in Mogulus, and much of the content can be created on-the-fly by simply typing the required text into an appropriate dialogue, and bringing it on and off screen as appropriate. This isn’t something I have seen anywhere else, and it really can make a difference to the over all look and quality of your productions. In this next video clip I talk you through the different graphic types that can be added: As you’ve now seen, bringing both live and recorded video feeds into your live stream is as simple as clicking the ‘cue’ button, having the video load into the player, and choosing just the right moment to make your transition. I like the fact that I can either have one clip automatically segue into the next as one finishes and the other begins. But it’s even better that I can jump between clips at any time with a smooth transition, effectively splicing the currently playing clip then and there. And then of course there is the ‘Auto-pilot’ feature, which is another of the central tools in the Mogulus studio. Auto-pilot allows me to easily drag-and-drop my storyboards into a long playlist, so that should I for some reason stop mixing live, or else decide to go out for a stroll and leave my channel running, Auto-pilot will play through the clips I have arranged in sequence. If it gets to the end of all of the clips, it will go back to the beginning, so effectively, you can have your channel running twenty four hours a day. Going Live The extent to which you use direct live footage is entirely up to you then. It would be quite possible to create a channel that existed of nothing but clips arranged in sequence and left to play, with occasional motion graphic interludes and updates of the news ticker. However, as live broadcasting is so easy with Mogulus, I am sure that it will be one of the main draws that the platform has to offer. Being able to easily move between the cameras of producers, and even bring clips in between them, you can easily create dynamic multi-presenter shows that bring variety and personality into the live web broadcasting process. In this final clip Max Haot, CEO of Mogulus, and myself put together a quick live broadcast. You can see both the simple recording process, and then the embeddable Mogulus player that can be plugged into any website, blog or social networking profile: Business Model At the moment, Mogulus is in closed beta and isn’t implementing its proposed source of income. However, as the platform evolves and goes live this summer, the key monetization source of the platform will be through the delivery of advertising to user channels. Advertising will be placed at roughly eight-minute intervals between clips, although there will be some flexibility and a degree of control over when it begins by channel producers. As such, you won’t have to worry about you clips or live broadcasts suddenly being stopped dead by ads. This sounds like a good approach to me, and is in keeping with Mogulus’ otherwise TV-like feature-set. It is worth noting that there will also be an ad-free pro-edition, paid for by the amount of bandwidth served. Mogulus will primarily be focusing on consumer-level production, however, and the pro-edition is likely to be offered to larger companies alongside bespoke customization options. Beat the Crowd Mogulus is currently in closed beta and is only letting in a small handful of people in its initial release, as feedback is gathered and improvements made. If you fancy yourself as a live video pioneer, though, we may be able to help you out. The first twenty Master New Media readers to apply for a beta account, leaving the message ‘’Robin Good sent me'’ in the ‘’Anything else you’d like to tell us'’ section will be automatically whisked to the front of the line and given access within the week. Conclusions Mogulus brings you the capability to collaborate with a team of producers anywhere in the world to create great-looking live streaming video. Whether you want to conduct interviews, have reporters out in the field, or just introduce a series of pre-arranged clips, Mogulus makes it very simple. While Mogulus is in closed beta at the moment, and as such is still evolving and having different capabilities added to its line-up, it is already an accomplished step forward in the world of live web video. By adding the ability to collaborate with a team, mix your videos on the fly, add fantastic TV–like motion graphics and embed the resulting stream anywhere on the web, the possibilities opened up here are huge. I can see Mogulus being of great use to citizen journalists, veejays and local communities alike as events, news and video mash-ups are streamed live across the web. What really sets Mogulus apart from other contenders in the evolving live web video landscape is its ability to bring the TV production process into the hands of the masses. This isn’t just turning on your webcam and talking into it - which can very quickly become tiresome to watch. This is a tool that allows you to create compelling mixes of pre-recorded video, motion graphics and live action just as you’d expect to see from TV programming. What’s great is that after five minutes of playing around with the interface, you know pretty much all there is to know and have a powerful set of broadcasting tools at your disposal. That is an achievement in and of itself. Live web video just took another giant step forward. Mogulus is definitely one to watch. Additional Resources If you would like to learn more about Mogulus, you might want to check out the following links:The Mogulus website features a good introductory video A screenshot tour of the Mogulus interface The Mogulus FAQ The Mogulus manifesto Mogulus blog Originally written by Michael Pick for Master New Media and originally published as: “Broadcast Live TV Online: Exclusive Mogulus Video Review”
Source: www.masternewmedia.org

Wall Street Breakfast for December 28, 2006
MACRO AND HOUSING November Home Sales Data Propel Homebuilder Stocks, Suggest Bottoming of Housing Market Homebuilder stocks rose strongly after the Commerce Department reported Wednesday morning that new home sales rose 3.4% sequentially in November, higher than the 1.6% rise forecast by economists and a sharp rebound from the 3.8% decline in October. The supply of unsold homes at the current sales rate fell to the lowest since May, and the median price of a new home rose 5.8% versus a year earlier (to $251,700 from $237,900), the largest increase since June. Still, sales of new homes were down 15.2% year-over-year, and economists weren’t ready to call an end to housing market pain. ING economist Dimitry Fleming, for example, stated that “although the rebound in sales is consistent with the housing slowdown bottoming out… supply is still high , and Lehman Brothers’ Michelle Meyer said “We look for further weakness in prices as homebuilders continue to slash prices to encourage sales.” According to the WSJ, while November’s new sales numbers are encouraging, “the estimates are difficult to interpret with unclear calculations of sales cancellations making the true sales and inventory numbers difficult to pinpoint.” The SPDR Homebuilders ETF closed the day up 1.6% and the iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction ETF up 1.9%. The National Association of Realtors reports on existing home sales Thursday. New home sales are arguably a better barometer of current market conditions because they are recorded when contracts are signed. In contrast, existing home sales, which account for about 85% of the residential real estate market, are recorded when contracts close, often months after buying decisions were made and contracts signed. Sources: Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, NY Times, Wall Street Journal II, AP Related commentary: Housing Bubble and Real Estate Market Tracker, Housing Market At Its Worst Since 1997, Hovnanian Enterprises Suffers Gruesome Fourth Quarter. Potentially impacted stocks and ETFs: Hovnanian Enterprises (HOV), DR Horton (DHI), KB Home (KBH), Centex (CTX), Toll Brothers (TOL). ETFs: SPDR Homebuilders (XHB), iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction (ITB). IMF: Investors Too Blase in Face of Downside Risk The IMF has warned that investor complacency in the face of risk could trigger a destabilizing upset to the market if some unforeseen circumstance caused them to panic. While the market appears confident that the global economy is sound and that inflation should remain under control, the IMF maintains that investors are paying insufficient attention to significant risk factors, including the debt level of many private equity funds and the options exposure of hedge funds. While the overall outlook is relatively positive — the U.S. housing slowdown, for example, has not yet affected the country’s overall economy to any dangerous extent — a sharp drop in market volatility or a widespread lack of risk diversification could spell trouble. Triggering factors that could raise volatility might include lowered growth expectations or higher inflationary pressure. Sources: Reuters Related commentary: Housing Market At Its Worst Since 1997, U.S. Economy Just Beginning to Sizzle — Barron’s, How Long Can Consumer Confidence, Earnings Weather the Housing Bust?, It’s Still The Economy, Stupid, Global Markets: Currency Imbalances and Trade Are Driving Forces, Comparing Economies of Key Countries Using Purchasing Power Parity Potentially impacted ETFs: Total Stock Market VIPERs (VTI), Standard & Poor’s 500 Index Depository Receipts (SPY), NASDAQ 100 Trust Series I (QQQQ), iShares Russell 2000 (IWM), iShares MSCI EAFE Index (EFA) The Grinch Stole Christmas from Brick and Mortar Retailers…But Online Sellers Are Smiling The housing slowdown and higher energy costs took their toll on holiday spending this year, with retail sales rising only 3% over last year. Sales were also hurt by the relatively warm temperatures, which cut into apparel sales. The last-minute weekend rush on December 23-24 gave the sector a 23% boost, but revenues were still the slowest they have been since 2002. Wal-Mart, which will issue a preliminary report on December’s results this weekend, is forecasting a slim gain of “up to 1%.” The S&P 500 Retailing Index remains stable, however, falling less than 1% since Oct. 31. Apparel fell behind overall retail during the holiday season, but no individual category did particularly well this year. Retailers are hopeful that the post-Christmas week will bring some cheer to the season as gift-card recipients come to stores to redeem their certificates. The only bright spot in the sector was online retail, with Amazon.com posting its best holiday season ever and Yahoo Shopping seeing a 34% rise in December over a year earlier. Sources: Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, MarketWatch Related commentary: U.S. Retail Sales Relatively Strong as Holiday Season Ends, Retailers’ Heavy Discounting Should Pressure Q4 Margins, Holiday Retail Sales Falling Short Potentially impacted stocks and ETFs: Wal-Mart (WMT), Federated Department Stores (FD), Target (TGT), Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), Yahoo Inc. (YHOO). ETFs: Retail HOLDRs (RTH), Consumer Discretionary SPDR (XLY), Internet HOLDRs (HHH), First Trust Dow Jones Internet Index (FDN) TECHNOLOGY AND INTERNET Tuesday’s Asian Earthquake Highlights Need For Stronger Underwater Communications Networks Tuesday’s 7.1 earthquake off the coast of Taiwan may have killed only two people and caused minimal physical damage but it underscored in a big way the vulnerability of the world’s communications networks. Parts of Taiwan, China, Singapore and Hong Kong had their telephone and internet service disrupted yesterday as underwater network cables were damaged by the quake. Asian telephone and internet companies such as China Telecom scrambled yesterday to reinstate service to customers who were unable to conduct business as usual by rerouting service through other, undamaged providers. Meanwhile, companies like Verizon and AT&T stand to gain from yesterday’s disrupted service as the need for more underwater communications cables between Asia and the U.S. becomes more apparent. Sources: Map of Global Communications Networks [pdf file], Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, NY Times, Reuters Related commentary: Options Trader: Tuesday Morning Ideas Potentially impacted stocks and ETFs: China Telecom (CHA), Verizon (VZ), AT&T (T). ETFs: iShares Dow Jones US Telecom (IYZ), iShares Goldman Sachs Networking (IGN), Vanguard Telecommunication Services (VOX), PowerShares Dynamic Networking (PXQ), PowerShares Dynamic Telecom & Wireless (PTE) Apple Stock See-Saws On Reports Of Faked Options Docs Apple stock was down about 5% in early trading Wednesday following a report from Law.com that federal investigators are examining stock-option documents allegedly falsified by company officials to maximize potential executive gains. The report, citing anonymous “people with knowledge of Apple’s situation,” claims that criminal charges are being considered by prosecutors and that CEO Steve Jobs has decided to hire an attorney to defend against forthcoming Justice Dept. and SEC actions. Jobs previously relied upon the company’s outside counsel. This Friday’s delayed 10-k filing by Apple may contain further information on the options investigation, including the possibility of further earnings restatements. The stock completely recovered from Wednesday early drop, however, ending the day up a penny. But an unsourced report late Wednesday from the Financial Times has the stock trading down 3-4% again — the FT indicates Jobs was handed 7.5 million in stock options in 2001 without required authorization from the company’s board of directors, and documents were falsified afterwards to cover this up. Jobs later surrendered these options before they were exercised. Sources: Law.com: Faked Documents May Be at Core of Apple Case, Financial Times: Apple falsified files on Jobs options, CNN Money, MarketWatch Related commentary: UBS: Apple Options Fears Overdone, Apple’s Options Problems Deepen - Likely To Restate Results, Apple Stores Now More Profitable Than Tiffany’s Per Square Foot, High School Math 101: iTunes Sales Not Collapsing . Conference call transcripts: Apple F4Q06 (Qtr End 9/30/06) Potentially impacted stocks and ETFs: Apple Computer (AAPL) MEDIA Cenveo Inc. To Purchase Cadmus Communications for $430 million Digital printing company Cenveo announced on Wednesday that it will buy Cadmus Communications, another digital printing services provider, for $430 million. The merger will create the third largest graphic services company in the U.S. with revenue of over $2 billion. The purchase is valued at $24.75 a share in cash, an 18% premium over Cadmus’ Tuesday closing price of $20.98. Analysts are pleased with the acquisition as it will provide Cenveo with entry into more specialized areas of the industry, including packaging and niche journal and magazine production. Cadmus’ FY05 revenue was about $450 million, while Cenveo generated $1.75 billion for 2005. Layoffs are expected at the corporate level where more jobs will become redundant, but less downsizing is anticipated in operations. Cadmus stock climbed over 17% to $24.55 on Wednesday, after touching a year high of $24.66. Cenveo shares increased over 9% to $21.67. Sources: Reuters, MarketWatch.com, InformationWeek Related commentary: Other articles on Mergers & Acquisitions Potentially impacted stocks and ETFs: Cenveo (CVO, Cadmus (CDMS) Competitors: Ennis Inc. (EBF), CSS Industries (CSS), The Standard Register Company (SR) ENERGY AND MATERIALS Falling Natural Gas Prices Haven’t Affected Stocks (Yet) The stock prices of natural gas producers have remained stable despite a 30% drop in the price of natural gas since the beginning of December. A combination of warm seasonal weather and record high inventories have sent gas prices to several-month lows but stock prices haven’t followed suit. The reason, according to Canaccord Adams analyst Irene Hass is that even at a 30% discount to its previous prices, natural gas continues to remain quite profitable, especially with the news that Canadian natural gas exports to the U.S. are expected to drop heavily. As a result, none of the gas drillers have really slowed down their operations. But if some of the current inventory buildup isn’t drained this winter - something which would require colder weather - there are concerns 2007 revenues could be badly impacted for top gas producers like Devon Energy, Apache Corp., Anadarko Petroleum and Chesapeake Energy Corp. as well as energy service companies such as Halliburton Co. and BJ Services. Sources: Reuters, Washington Post Related commentary: Natural Gas Inventories Not Pressuring Supply in Meaningful Way, International Securities Exchange Launches Natural Gas Index, Natural Gas is Running Out of Steam, Chesapeake Energy: Hedging Its Way to the Top, The Short Case for Apache Corp. Potentially impacted stocks and ETFs: Apache Corp. (APA), Anadarko Petroleum (APC), Halliburton Co. (HAL), Devon Energy (DVN), BJ Services (BJS), Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK). ETFs: iShares Dow Jones U.S. Oil & Gas Exploration/Production (IOE), PowerShares Dynamic Oil & Gas (PXJ) RETAIL Hasbro’s ‘Wizards of the Coast’ Renews Lucasfilm Agreement Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of the toymaker Hasbro, has reached an agreement with Lucasfilm and will continue to produce Star Wars Miniatures and the Star Wars RolePlaying Game for an extended period of time. In addition, the Seattle-based company, which also produces Dungeons and Dragons and other popular games, will make new sets for existing products, as well as a Starship Battles vehicles game. Star Wars miniatures allow players to choose from hundreds of characters to create skirmish-style battles, and fans can create their own mini- plots in the Star Wars saga with the Roleplaying game. “Star Wars celebrates its 30th anniversary next year, which makes 2007 very special for us,” said Derek Stothard, director of toys at Lucas Licensing… We’re looking forward to working with Wizards of the Coast in this banner year.” Sources: Press Release, Theforce.net, Motley Fool Related commentary: Hasbro’s Fundamentals Seem Solid, Jim Cramer Discusses Hasbro on Mad Money, Nov. 21 Potentially impacted stocks and ETFs: Hasbro (HAS). Competitors: Mattel (MAT), Marvel (MVL), JAKKS Pacific Inc. (JAKK) TRANSPORTATION Settle Down, People — Toyota/Ford Talks Were About Sharing Green Technology Shares of Ford and Toyota leaped on the news that their CEOs met in Tokyo last week, but the companies have hastened to downplay any suggestion that joint ventures were discussed. The conversation was about sharing green technology. Ford, which is having one of the worst years in its history, lags its competitors in terms of fuel-efficient offerings. Toyota, on the other hand, is a leader in the field of green auto technology, with its hybrid-electric Prius leading the U.S. government’s annual top-10 fuel economy list for 2007 cars. The two companies already have a history of technological cooperation in environmental technology: in March 2004, Toyota licensed Ford several hybrid system and emissions purification patents. Sources: Boston.com, Houston Chronicle, International Herald Tribune Related commentary: Heads of Ford and Toyota Meet in Tokyo, Toyota Versus GM/Ford: Classic Hedged Pair Trade, Ford’s Internal Projections: Toyota Will Be #2 Within Months, Toyota To Become World’s Largest Automaker in ‘07 Potentially impacted stocks and ETFs: Ford Motor Co. (F), Toyota Motor Corp. ™. Competitors: General Motors (GM). ETFs: BLDRS Asia 50 ADR Index (ADRA), iShares NYSE Composite Index (NYC), Rydex S&P 500 Pure Value (RPV), Rydex S&P 500 Pure Value (RPV) AEROSPACE AND DEFENSE Air Force Might Hire Private Sector Contractors for Next-Generation GPS Satellite System The U.S. Air Force, hoping to avoid the expensive trouble it has had managing multibillion-dollar space projects, is considering the unprecedented move of hiring private sector firms to act as consultants and contractors. In an implicit acknowledgement that Air Force Space Command and the Pentagon’s enormous weapons-buying bureaucracy lack the expertise to oversee systems engineering and integration, the Air Force is contemplating bringing in an outside systems integrator for its next-generation navigational satellites. These global positioning system [GPS] satellites have both military and consumer applications, like in-car direction services. The next-generation system [GPS III] is expected to comprise two dozen or so $100 million satellites. Boeing and Lockheed Martin are competing for the contract to build the satellites and may ultimately compete for the integration work as well. Production is intended to begin in 2008 with the satellites entering orbit around 2013. In the meantime, the Air Force, together with federally funded think tank Aerospace Corp., is evaluating whether conflicts of interest will be created if contractors for GPS III or similar programs are permitted to compete for corresponding integration contracts. Sources: Wall Street Journal Related commentary: Defense Stocks Should Continue to Outperform in 2007, Boeing Is Flying High, Lockheed Flying High After Winning Lucrative Shuttle Replacement Contract Potentially impacted stocks and ETFs: Boeing Co. (BA), Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT). Competitors: General Dynamics Corp. (GD), Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC), Raytheon Co. (RTN). ETFs: iShares Dow Jones US Aerospace & Defense (ITA), PowerShares Aerospace & Defense (PPA), Vanguard Industrials ETF (VIS), PowerShares Dynamic Large Cap Growth (PWB) FINANCIAL Nabors and HCC Insurance Holdings Grapple with Options Reviews Nabors Industries is reinvestigating its option-granting after a Wall Street Journal article questioned the company’s practices. Although an internal review revealed nothing questionable, the article mentioned that CEO Eugene Isenberg received $450 million over the last 19 years through stock-option grants whose value was increased by “controversial moves.” Nabors allowed Isenberg to trade worthless options for those with lower exercise prices and “reloaded” him with new options once he cashed in others, according to the article. On Wednesday, Nabors’s shares rose 30 cents to $30.53. In other corporate options news HCC Insurance Holdings reported a gross, noncash compensation expense of $26.6 million following an independent review of options-granting errors between 1997 and 2005. Although the expense has no effect on the company’s revenue, cash or cash flow for the time period, it does mean a net after-tax decrease in shareholders’ equity of $3.3 million. HCC’s shares rose 38 cents to $32.04. Sources: Wall Street Journal, Businessweek Related commentary: Nabors Should Capitalize on Strong Natural Gas Demand, The Long Case for HCC Insurance Holdings Potentially impacted stocks and ETFs: Nabors (NBR), HCC Insurance Holdings (HCC) Goldman Raises $6.5 Billion For Dedicated Infrastructure Fund Goldman Sachs raised a reported $6.5 billion for its first dedicated infrastructure fund, which was supposedly closed to new investments as of yesterday. The fund will focus on infrastructure projects such as air, seaports and utilities in developed countries. In recent years, infrastructure investing has grown in popularity among investment banks, insurers and pension funds in search assets that offer long-term, relatively inflation-proof returns. In addition to money from outsiders, Goldman added $750 of its own to the fund. The Financial Times reports that Goldman’s new fund highlights concerns that the rush into infrastructure investing is creating an unsustainable bubble. Last month, Standard & Poor’s cautioned that the infrastructure sector was in danger of a “dual curse” of overvaluation and excessive leverage. Sources: Financial Times, Financial News, Reuters Related commentary: Risk Versus Reward In Financial Institution Stock Valuations, Goldman Posts Its Best Quarter (and Year) Ever, Macquarie Sees Opportunity in Japanese Infrastructure, GE Discusses Its Infrastructure Business. Conference call transcripts: Goldman Sachs F4Q06 (Qtr End 11/24/06) Potentially impacted stocks and ETFs: Goldman Sachs (GS) HEALTHCARE Proctor & Gamble Signs Joint Venture with Inverness Medical Proctor & Gamble will pay $325 million for a 50% stake in a joint venture with Inverness Medical Innovations Inc. which will focus on medical diagnostic products aimed at consumers. P&G will be responsible for marketing and distribution of existing and future Inverness products. The joint venture excludes cardiology and diabetes care products that Inverness is currently developing. The deal will close in late 1Q07. Sources: Reuters, AP, Press Release Related commentary: Procter & Gamble: A Classic Investment With Great Potential, Procter & Gamble’s China Problem: The Return of SK II Conference call transcripts: Procter & Gamble F1Q07 (Qtr End 9/30/06) Potentially impacted stocks and ETFs: Proctor & Gamble (PG), Inverness Medical Innovations (IMA) Competitors: Quidel Corporation (QDEL), Genzyme Corporation (GENZ), Nastech Pharmaceutical (NSTK) ETFs: iShares Russell 1000 Index (IWB), iShares Russell 1000 Value Index (IWD), iShares S&P 500 Index (IVV) INTERNATIONAL Citi’s Next China Investment Could Be in a Budget Airliner Spring Airlines’ spokesman is reported to have said Citigroup is among potential investors considering taking an equity stake in the privately-owned budget mainland China carrier. Newswire coverage carried on Forbes.com says a Citigroup spokesman had no comment, but mentions Citi is ‘one of the arrangers for Spring Airlines’ initial public offer, expected in 2009.’ A source familiar with the matter quoted by Reuters comments, “We want to sell no more than 20 percent to one or several investors. Talks with Citigroup have passed the initial stage.” Spring Airlines needs outside capital to finance a fleet expansion. Spring is said to be looking to raise approx. 3b yuan ($384m) through share placements and an IPO. A Spring executive said the firm expects to earn 20m yuan in profit ($2.6m) on 485m yuan ($62m) in sales this year, its first full year of operations. Citigroup meanwhile, won a $3.1b bid last month to take a 20% stake in China’s Guangdong Development Bank, which will expand its footprint to 500+ branches, from just six previously. Sources: Forbes XFN-ASIA, Reuters Related commentary: China’s Airline Industry: Robust Growth, But Risky Investing, Foreign Banks Granted Authority to Incorporate Locally in China, Citi Ready to Expand in China, Winning Bid for Bank Confirmed, Citigroup: Does a Breakup Make Sense? Conference call transcripts: Citigroup Q3′06 Potentially impacted stocks and ETFs: Citigroup (C). Competitor: Goldman Sachs (GS) is one of the most active investors among global financial companies in China. ETFs: First Trust Morningstar Div Leaders (FDL), WisdomTree High-Yielding Equity (DHS), streetTRACKS KBW Bank (KBE), Vanguard Financials (VFH) Japan’s November Industrial Production Sets Record, Electronics Inventories Down Demand for Japanese made products, especially autos and electronics, sent November industrial production up 0.7%, but that was 0.3% short of the average estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Measured against a base year of 2000 (equals 100), it reached an all-time high of 108.6. A very positive development along with the production growth is the closely watched technology inventories level fell 3.4%, its first decline in seven months, coming off a record high in Oct. Market participants now seem to expect a greater chance of a Bank of Japan rate hike in Jan. (meeting concludes the 18th). The one damper came in a separate report, which showed wages fell 0.2% in Nov. Although unemployment (announced Tues.) dropped to its lowest level since 1998, many companies appear to be hiring mostly part-timers, which caps national average wage growth, and is seen continuing to limit consumer spending. The Nikkei 225 just managed to close in positive territory, gaining 1.66 (0.01%) to finish at 17,224.81. Sources: Bloomberg Related commentary: Mixed Economic Data May Force BoJ to Postpone Hike, BoJ Keeps Target at 0.25%, More Data Watching, Japan: No “Soft Patch” Despite Weaker Economic Data Potentially impacted stocks and ETFs: iShares MSCI Japan Index (EWJ), iShares S&P/TOPIX 150 (ITF) MUST-READS ON SEEKING ALPHA TODAY U.S. Markets: S&P 500: Should We Expect A Correction? Long Idea: Buying At The 52-Week Low: James River Coal and RadiSys Short Idea: Philadelphia Consolidated: Why Forbes Bulls Are Wrong Internet: Yahoo: Progress On Social Media Products Flickr and Delicious Telecom: Alvarion May Profit From German WiMax Spend Hardware: UBS: Apple Options Fears Overdone Software: To Promote Vista, Microsoft Giving Bloggers Slick ‘Ferrari’ Laptops Consumer Electronics: iSuppli: More LCD Pain On The Way Biotech: Eye on Geron: Stem Cells and Telomerase Retail: Jones Soda’s Recent Rally Was All Cramer Transport: Settle Down, People — Toyota/Ford Talks Were About Sharing Green Technology Energy: EXCO Resources: Insiders Taking Profits Financial: A Look At Stock Exchange Stocks Asia: Forbes Int’l Investment Report: IIJ Is Top Speculative Japan Play in ‘07 ETFs: Are Emerging Markets Headed Up Or Down? Small-Caps: Companies Trading Below Net Asset Value Becoming Something of a Rarity Sound Money Tips: More Tips on How to Perform a (Nearly) Free People Search Jim Cramer: Latest stock picks Have Wall Street Breakfast emailed to you every morning before the market opens. Related ArticlesRead more articles by SA EditorsArrayRead more on the themes Today’s Market, Wall Street Breakfast Research Stocks and ETFs Type in stock symbol to get opinion and analysis, earnings call transcripts, quote and chart:
Source: tradermike.net

Good Niche Bad Niche
Niches can be lovingly solved or horrifically exploited.  We all have little elements of our lives that aren’t served by the mass market.  These elements often are the things that we identify by or are plagued by.  If we’re involved with a niche, we often have deep knowledge about the minimal products created for it.  Why are niches a business darling?  What leads to them being coddled or corrupted?  This week I had the good fortune to attend a Future Commons session at Institute for the Future in Palo Alto and a panel discussion at the “Leading Best Practice in Language and Literacy” conference in Monterey.  The discussion at IFTF was largely around the iPhone, telecom spectrum ownership, and rapidly irrelevant business models.  The discussion in Monterey was centered around applying emerging technologies to education and assessment. A common theme: they both centered around niches. Niche is a rather overused business term, but here I think it crosses several of its definitions. Webster’s definition of niche includes: a : a place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted <finally found her niche> b : a habitat supplying the factors necessary for the existence of an organism or species c : the ecological role of an organism in a community especially in regard to food consumption d : a specialized market In Seth Godin’s recent book, The Dip, he talks about quitting when you can’t be the best at something.  His message is that you have to be the best at something in order to really make it because the number of choices customers have is so massive now. You can never be the best pizza company on earth, so why try?  Which, of course, gives you a big hole to poke in the book - no one is really the best at anything.  But lucky for him, Seth answers this by basically telling you to have a good, tight definition for your endeavor. In other words, find a niche.  The best organic pizza place in Tiburon.  Much more obtainable and focused.  When we compare this back to the multi-definition for Niche, we find it could easily satisfy all four now, and not just “a specialized market”. The last few days have brought forth a few things about niches for me: Niches are nuanced Areas like telecommunications or education often seem like a market - a unified region of human activity which could be served with total equality.  The only seem like that for a second - that second we don’t give them a lot of thought.  So we get companies like AT&T giving us the same limited choices as Verizon or Sprint or T-Mobile.  We get initiatives like No Child Left Behind which seeks unprecedented standardized testing regimens in a world which is increasingly needing and rewarding diversity in problem solving and areas of expertise. Niches need special (thoughtful) solutions. They’re specialized, aren’t they?  Of course they need special solutions.  The thing is, they often don’t get them.  Within education and literacy are a jillion nuanced niches that do not get special solutions because of the reversion to rigid standardization. Special solutions aren’t easy to come by either.   They need to be thoughtful, insightful.  In something like education, the stakes are high.  You’re only 8 years old once.  It’s not golf.  You can’t play the hole over or take a mulligan. In telecom, the niches are hoarded by companies with an economic interest that trumps the interest of those actually in the niche.  This leads to things like spectrum hoarding and defacto price fixing. Niches are conspicuous If you are going to enter a niche, you’d better listen to Seth.  The more focused a niche, the more likely your clientele is to rank high in the niche-geek spectrum.    Niches have experts, those experts, due to their rarity, are listened to both inside and outside the niche.  By sheer need, the smaller the niche, the higher the percentage of experts.  They will tell you exactly what your solution does not do. Niches are also suspicious of newcommers.  If a solution comes from outside the Niche, it will likely be quickly examined.  From there it will either be adopted, watched, or discarded.  This reaction is important because it usually comes with decreasing levels of trust.  Adopted = high trust.  Watched = lesser trust.  Discarded = distrust.  This is very true if the product is discarded because it violates some central belief of the niche’s community. Invasion of a Niche Do you want to exploit a niche?  Sure! We all do! Walled gardens are usually built around a niche.  It’s part of how businesses meet Seth’s demand that you well define your product.  Niches are vulnerable due to the fact that they are often underserved. In telecom, the ugly invasion of a niche might be exorbitant pre-paid cell phone SIM cards sold in low-income neighborhoods. Elevation of a Niche Of course, bad things aren’t universal, and niches can be identified and well-served.  In Fresno, California, there is a magnet school (fighting for funding) that uses innovative techniques to teach it’s massive (over 70%) ESL population English and keep them mainstreamed.  These thoughtfully designed niche techniques have resulted in the best performance ever seen in that population. Killing an Industry to Open the Niches below Google wants to kill the Telcom industry by buying spectrum and opening it for free use.  The current owners of that plethora of niches (who have attached it to and misidentified it as an industry) aren’t very happy about this.  Like education, which is a large collection of niches (learning styles, lifestyles, focuses, desires, competencies) misidentified as one thing (are all kids the same?) So too is telecommunications.  The current telecommunications network was specifically set up to be a distributed network of independent nodes - yet it is managed as a centralized system. Centralized systems abhor non-conformity and thus reward thin and easily manageable mega programs.  No Child Left Behind and “My 5″ cell plans are great examples of mega programs that look like choice but ultimately serve the interest of no one. In both telecom and education we see a vast array of potential niches that would greatly enhance our most basic needs: to learn and to communicate.  The industries around them cannot support this, their very nature of bureaucratic centralization disallows creative problem solving inherent in open networks. Summing Up Telecom and education are both in a hard place.  Telecom has invested billions of dollars in rapidly antiquated communcations technology, making the US one of the worst places on earth for mobile communications.  They need to recoup this investment and can only do it by charging for and centralizing their services.  Yet, it is increasingly clear to even those in the industry that this business model no longer serves the need of the users. Education has a mandate to provide quality and equal instruction for all students regardless of circumstance (economic, mental, physical, geographic).  Offering a large range of choice means that kids will receive different types of education.  How do you defend yourself against law suits or claims that your particular school didn’t live up to its goals?  How do you test students for collegiate entrance when their backgrounds are so different? The obvious response to these issues by the institutions themselves is to largely ignore it.  Indeed with pressures from without to expand diversity, the best way to guard is to increase conformity and defend that as the best way for the system to operate. So, I have a simple plan to fix all this.  Okay, no I don’t.  Of course I don’t.  This is a hard and painful couple of problems.  It’s clear the direction both must take.  Only through overthrow (Telecom: Google, Education: Vocal Parental Involvement) can either of these institutions start to make the changes necessary for their and our survival. Technorati Tags: google, education, spectrum auction, telecommunicatoins, sprint, verizon, at&t, iftf, future commons, leading best practice in language and literacy, niche, seth godin, the dip
Source: feeds.feedburner.com

Personal Video Recorder On The Web: Record Italian TV Programming With Faucet PVR
A free web-based personal video recorder (PVR) allows the scheduled recording of Italian mainstream on-air network channels which can then be easily downloaded to your iPod or iPhone. The unique service which is purely in experimental “beta” mode and has no commercial ambitions, provides a truly useful and easy-to-use in an area where rules and laws have for now left an open gap. Photo credit: MythTV Born out of the engineering and product development team of Inrete, an Italian company devoted to help and support large enterprise customers in their IT network needs, Faucet PVR is a web-based personal video recorder that can capture any time range on the all the major on-air clear broadcast channels available in Italy. There seems to be no similar service yet in the international market as competing tools are either scheduling software front-ends for video-television recording software or web-based versions of TiVo-like personal video recording systems. All competing or similar systems I have been able to find online require a direct TV reception capability in your computer either via set-top box, tuner card or other device, while Faucet records any television program even if you are lost on an island with no reception. In the case of Faucet PVR, the recordings are all done and reside on the Faucet servers and each user can access and download what she has selected to video record. Faucet does NOT record indiscriminately all of the on-air programming takes place but it rather provides an interface to a web-based digital video recorder that each individual can use to record his preferred television shows. The recordings are then made available for a limited amount of time in the user account and can be easily downloaded to an iPod or any other portable media player including mobile phones and PDAs. Here more details: What is a PVR or Personal Video Recorder? A personal video recorder or PVR is an interactive TV recording device capable of recording television programming at your own preferred times. Like the familiar video cassette recorder (VCR), a PVR records and plays back television programs and has the ability to pause, rewind, stop, or fast-forward a recorded program. Most existing PVRs come as part of a television subscriber service such as Sky or Virgin Media in the UK, or Fastweb here in Italy and can be either hardware or proprietary (can record only their channels in a locked format) web-based units. Good PVR services also enable searching for shows by type and selecting video-on-demand (VOD) among other options. In the US, service providers such as TiVo and ReplayTV, also sell hardware-based PVRs. Popular PVR products on the market include TiVo’s DVR, SONICblue’s ReplayTV, Sony’s SVR-2000, and Philips’ PTR. There are also a few software products that offer similar functionality (see list at end of this article). Faucet PVR - Overview Originally announced in October of 2006 in Barcelona and then in Turin, Italy, in the month of June of this year, Faucet PVR is not even a product yet. Still in full “alfa” and never intended to become a commercial public service, Faucet PVR was born out of the need to experiment with a new television recording facility to be added to another already existing web-based podcasting service: Vcast. VCast is a podcasting aggregator allowing registered users to select and create their own podcast compilations by selecting and bringing together into one feed the podcast shows they are most interested in. By integrating the ability to record and splice together into one feed private and public podcast channels as well as radio and TV broadcast recordings, Faucet provides a unique platform for creating and putting together your own podcast compilations. Vcast was born out of a business partnership between Inrete, Tex97 and Video Gruppo. Access and Use For any Italian citizen traveling abroad or unable to access her television set to watch a specific show, Faucet PVR is true godsend. No matter where she is, she can easily schedule the recording of her favorite Italian television show while she is swimming on the other side of the planet. Vcast Faucet PVR allows to select among over 40 Italian television language channels that include all of the mainstream public and commercial networks as well as a good selection of minor stations. I specify “Italian citizen”, because in principle, to stay within the law, Italian television programs can only be recorded by Italian citizens owning a television set in this country and having paid an annual subscription fee (”the wildly infamous canone RAI”). In reality, if you can manage a fully Italian interface, the service is technically accessible to anyone no matter what nationality and whether or not he has paid Italian annual state television fees. The only obstacle to this being, upon first registration, the system request for your Italian social security number. But as for most other countries these can be easily generated online by simply providing a name, last name and a birthdate. The range of possible applications and uses seems rather large with commercial and non-commercial opportunities having equal chances. Training, marketing, sales, R&D would all benefit from specific targeted uses of such a PVR. Key Features Faucet PVR presents a simple interface in which all necessary commands and options are pulled together into one page form. Setting up a Faucet PVR television recording is within the reach of anyone with enough patience to read through the different labels available on the PVR one-screen-interface page and testing the different alternatives inside the drop down menus. Here, Faucet PVR key features: Station set Faucet PVR has a rich Italian TV stations catalog from where to choose from. The list includes in fact all major Italian broadcasters and a few additional international television stations (BBC World). Notably Faucet PVR includes also a full list of Italian radio broadcasting stations that can be also recorded with the same ease. Precise scheduling The user can easily select the day and time-range in which she wants the recording to take place. Unlike TiVO here you are not hooking into a programming schedule but you simply input specific start and ending times for your recordings to take place. Repetitive recording Faucet PVR allows you to set a recording to be automatically repeated every week or every other day in order not to miss periodical programs. Repeating recordings can also be easily edited and modified to correct and revise wrong timings or other inaccuracies. Downloading Faucet PVR allows you to immediately and easily download any of the completed recordings. iPod aficionados get great looking 320×240 .mp4 that they can start immediately playing back on their portable devices as much as Playstation, mobile phone and Apple TV users for whom specific optimized target video formats have been made available. RSS support Broadcatching here is fully enabled. Broadcatching is the act of downloading TV programs to be viewed on your iPod, computer or other media player device (iPhone, Apple TV, PDA, Playstation, Wii, etc.). “Some call it the poor man s Tivo, but whatever you call it, it s becoming more and more popular.” (Source: Mashby) Faucet PVR automatically generates a RSS feed with media enclosures which you can plug-in in any quality RSS reader/aggregator. iTunes support First and foremost among these is Apple iTunes which can read in full Faucet-generated RSS feeds and can fully display associated videos inside the iTunes player. High-quality recording Faucet PVR can digitally record your selected television programming in your preferred video format. From standard 320×240 iPod matching .mp4 to high-quality iTunes mpegs at 640×480 resolution with H264 codec compression and with a data-rate of 1,3Mbs, Faucet PVR satisfies also mobile users with a 3GP quality output and gamers with a PSP compatible format too. Radio recording Faucet PVR can also record Italian live radio stations in the exact same way that it records video programs. Available all of the main state network channels, a few commercial ones and a nice group of other (to me unknown) European radio stations. How does it work Faucet PVR is extremely simple to use. All one needs to do is to select the television channel she wants to record, the starting and ending time and the format for the recording (available now: iPod, Playstation, 3GP and Apple TV). Once a title is given and the recording button is pressed Faucet PVR does the rest by itself all automatically. At the established time it goes out and it does a custom recording, just for you, of the television programming time and station you have selected and it drops it inside your Faucet PVR account. You as a user can easily add new automatic recordings, set repetitive recording assignments and watch or easily download shows that have already been recorded. Best of all Faucet PVR creates a RSS feed with media enclosures that can be immediately fed to iTunes, providing a perfect bridge to a high quality media player as well as the perfect vehicle to then transfer your selected television recordings directly to your iPod or other media portable device. Legal Issues Faucet PVR reqires each registering user to approve the following statement: “Per utilizzare le funzionalit di registrazione di Faucet ocorre avere diritto ad accedere ai contenuti radiotelevisivi italiani trasmessi in chiaro, in quanto gi detentore di altri apparecchi radiotelevisi e di essere in regola con i pagamenti delle relative imposte. Dichiaro di essere in regola con canoni di abbonamento RadioTV e di essere cittadino italiano ” which translates to: “To utilize Faucet PVR video recording functions you need to be able to access Italian unencrypted on-air broadcasting channels as an owner of a television set and to be compliant with the payment of the relative television subscription fees. I declare to be in compliance with the payment of the Italian TV subscription fee and to be an Italian citizen.” Editor’s Review Faucet PVR is a unique breakthrough web-based personal video recorder (in alfa, experimental testing), which allows Italian citizens anywhere to schedule the recording of their favourite broadcast television programming and to watch it back at their preferred time on their favourite media player. There is no other web-based tool out there on the web today that does the same. Other PVRs are generally software based solutions that need to be interfaced with a tuner card or other incoming digital television input. Faucet instead is completely self-contained, fully web-based, does not require any download or software installation to be used. The recordings take place on the Vcast servers and you as a user have nothing to worry about but finding out at what time is the television program you want to record. Quality of the video recordings is excellent and well above my best expectations. The choice of multiple formats gives everyone something good to work with and the Apple TV high quality format is just impressive. Considering that Faucet PVR is in alfa, experimental testing, and it is just a module within a larger web-based service, the success it has garnered so far in the Italian press are more than well deserved and nonetheless the very low profile with which Inrete likes to talk about its baby Faucet, this is truly a tool you can’t avoid telling about to your friends. Inrete, the company behind Faucet PVR, promises to surprise you again very soon with the release of a new service labeled VHS 2.0. This will act as a schedulable video screen recorder capable of capturing and recording live video internet streams and making them available to you for later use. Tying-in television program names and show schedules would obviously make Faucet PVR a million times easier to use and more effective but, I guess you will need to wait some time before that happens. The same is true for any PVR potential ability to skip ads during recording, a feature as much loved by users, as feared and fought by advertisers. But if users want it their way, why don’t the main television network channels allow me to opt-in for a yearly subscription to their programming and then have the freedom to do ad-skipping on my own personal, private recordings. If the price was right I’d certainly go for that. But for now it ain’t so. Stay tuned. Short conversation with Giorgio Bernardi of Inrete N.B.: The video clip goes bad at about 5′30″. Apologies. Click To Play Other Personal Video Recorders While there are a number of other PVR solutions in the market none seems to have the unique web-based characteristics of Faucet PVR. Showshifter With this recording software you can record your favorite shows and movies with practically any TV or satellite tuner card. WebShifter is a web based and WAP enabled scheduler for analog, digital and satellite TV recording. It allows you to manage your TV recordings using a web browser on any PC or mobile device, at home and anywhere in the world. Main features: a sophisticated scheduler, an integrated and searchable EPG, a file browser for downloading and deleting recordings, password protected access and customizable colorskins. WebShifter provides the scheduling mechanism for many TV recording software packages, including ShowShifter, Virtual VCR, WinTVCap, WinTV 2000, ChrisTV, iuVCR, MyTheatre, DVBsVCR2, TechnoTrend DVB-TV, DABDig, Fly 2000 TV, GBRecord as well as support for additional recording software like Media Portal, Windows Media Center. SnapStream PVR software capable of scheduling, recording and playback of your selected TV, satellite or cable TV programming. Webvo Webvo is an open-source web-based PVR system. It provides easy recording of television shows without the hassle of VCRs. Utilizing a web browser interface, Webvo allows the user to connect to a recording server and manage the scheduling and recording of television programs from any computer connected to the network. Webvo began as a Software Engineering project at Seattle Pacific University in Fall of 2006. The team members were Molly Jo Bault, Tim Disney, and Daryl Siu. MythTV MythTV is a homebrew PVR project that I’ve been working on in my spare time. It’s been under heavy development for almost four years, and is now quite usable and featureful. Online TV Recorder Probably what comes closest to Faucet PVR. To follow everything happening about PVR you can check this site. In Italian Video tutorial to the use of Faucet PVR from Italian publisher Megalab.it. (In Italian) Interview (text) with Faucet inventors. Another interview done by Italiamac. All of the Italian online reviews for Faucet PVR that have already appeared are listed in this RSS feed. An excellent video review of Faucet was offered inside the August 2007 of Italy’s Win Magazine. The video tutorial explains how to set up, execute and play back recordings as well as how to download them to your iPod. Here direct access to the video tutorial in two different resolutions: Low-res (320 240 - 23 MB) Hi-res (640 480 - 46 MB) The Vcast Blog Originally written by Robin Good for Master New Media and entitled: “Personal Video Recorder On The Web: Record Italian TV Programming With Faucet PVR”
Source: www.masternewmedia.org

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