Jeff Bradshaw, CEO of Jet Stream Media, shows XTend and chats about business

I first met the Calgary entrepreneur Jeff Bradshaw (CEO of Calgary based Jet Stream Media) when he demonstrated his software at Demo Camp Calgary. (We both attended the 2007 nextMEDIA and Banff World TV Festival but hadn’t got a chance to meet then.)

The following are videos of me talking to Jeff about his audio & video webcast building tool XTend and my chat with him about his business.

Jeff shows the steps for people to create and maintain their own audio & video webcasts using XTend.

Jeff shows a video webcast created by XTend.

My chat with Jeff about his experience in starting up his business 10 years ago and about business in general.

Blogger/Reporter – 網誌記者

I’ve been writing a monthly Chinese column about “user generated media” (自製傳媒) for a local Calgary newspaper since December 2006. For the July 2007 issue, I talked about my experiences as a blogger/reporter reporting on CBC Dragons’ Den (under the blog Dragonfly on the wall) and also nextMEDIA and Banff World TV Festival. The article is written for a general audience. If you can read Chinese, I hope you will enjoy it.

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於上個月 (2007年6月)，我加了網誌記者 (blogger / reporter)為我做的其中一項工作，我的其他工作包括公司顧問，IT顧問，電影人…等。(絕對滿身刀，沒有一張利。一笑)。

首先加拿大廣播公司 (CBC)買了機票請我到 CBC的其中一個非常受歡迎的新節目做內部 (insider)網誌記者。我是這個節目的超級支持者，但我亦講明我是要有絕對的寫作及編輯自主權去報導我認為有趣及值得報導的東西。

CBC這次的做法基本上是史無前例的。我在 CBC的錄影廠中可以自由活動，自由出入。而後來我才知道其他媒體的記者，如要進入 CBC之內是須要有 CBC的工作人員陪伴左右的。這次是 CBC的一個很大的突破。當然，這次行程中亦出了點問題，但現在已經解決了。想知多點我的 CBC網誌記者的報導，可參看：http://dragonflyonthewall.wordpress.com。

報導完 CBC新節目之後，我便回到卡城。之後我在卡城留不到五個小時便駕車進入 Banff再作網誌記者了。

CBC和 Banff的報導其實在本質上是有很大的分別。在 CBC時，我是集中報導那新節目的，而在 Banff，我便是跟我自己的個人網誌去報導。在 Banff 的時候，我便報導及收集了世界各地新的電視廣播發展。我差點忘了提起，Banff 的兩個項目，一個是2天的 nextMEDIA，集中於較先進的傳媒項目 (如網上資訊等)。而 Banff World TV Festival　是世界各地電視台 (ABC, NBC, PBS, NHK, UKTV, BBC, CBC, CTV等)都有高級人員出席參與。Banff的報導在我的個人網誌中便可以看到。

以我自己的標準，做網誌記者跟專業記者是沒有分別的，因為我會以相同或更高的標準去要求自己。當然，因為每事親力親為，所以有時是有些較不重要東西放鬆一些，不可以太擔心。

Praises for Kempton’s nextMEDIA and Banff World TV report

Forgive me for my shameless self promotion here. But it is kind words like these that made the extra hours (with 4-5 hours sleep every night) spending in blogging/reporting about nextMEDIA and Banff World TV Festival sweet.

And words coming from Keith who has attended nextMEDIA and Banff for years mean a lot to me. With Keith’s permission, here is what he said.

And thank you providing me with the information of your blog on NextMedia and Banff. Very interesting and very well done. I learned a lot more than what I learned on site.

Keep up the good work and thanks again.

Keith Chang
Director General / Directeur général
Trade and Investment Branch / Direction général du commerce et de l’investissement
Canadian Heritage / Patrimoine Canadien

And seeing emails and comments from readers and viewers telling me that they enjoyed and learned from my interviews, reports, and video clips also make me a happy blogger & reporter.

Thanks go to everyone who took a minute to write to send in your kind words of appreciation and encouragement, your words are deeply felt and very much appreciated. Thanks.

Interviews by Kempton at nextMEDIA and BWTVF

One thing I enjoyed a lot at nextMEDIA and Banff World TV Festival was all the interviews that I was able to conduct with the world leaders of new media and TV industry to pick their brains. I would like to thank them again for sharing a few minutes of their time with me.

I hope you will enjoy the following interviews as much as I in conducting them,

1. Jane Mote, Director of Life Style, UKTV
2. Vicky Taylor, Editor, Interactivity, BBC Television
3. Dale Herigstad, Chief Creative Officer, Schematic
4. Greg Goodfried, Co-creator and Executive Producer, Lonelygirl15
5. Dawn Airey, Director of Global Content, ITV

P.S. I worked real hard to get every one of these interviews. And I promise to work even harder to get you more interviews next year. Of course, once I am more established as a blogger/reporter, I hope the interviewees will be more willing in granting me interview time slots. This year I ended up just waiting patiently after their speeches and hope I could get an interview. This year, after lots of wait and determination, I was “lucky” 50% of the time. (big smile)

TV and Patents – Meeting of two worlds

As I wrote in a previous post, I met the Hong Kong entrepreneur Paul Lam (no relation to me) from zooin.net at nextMEDIA and Banff World TV Festival. What interests me the most in this case is that his company’s technologies are sitting at the intersection of both sides of my interests — TV and patent protected technologies.

A quick Google found that the Korean entrepreneur Park Hyun-je is both the CEO of zooin.net and also co-inventor of some of its patent applied technologies. For the patent geeks (like me) out there, here are two of zooin’s patent applications (see submitted patents) for your reading pleasure,

1. Method of intermediating multicasting signal for multicasting embodiment – US patent application number 20040073612
   • “[0002] The present invention relates to a multicasting technological field of an internet broadcasting system, and more particularly to a multicasting relaying method to achieve a multicasting under a modem environment utilizing a digital subscriber line (xDSL) and a public switch telephone network (PSTN) and a recording mechanism that can read a program to achieve the aforementioned method with a computer.”
2. Method and system for virtual multicast networking – US patent application number 20050076207
   • “[0001] The present invention relates to a multicasting technology in an Internet broadcasting system; and, more particularly, to a virtual multicast networking method for establishing a multicast network without changing existing routers or switches on the Internet, and a system thereof.”

My regular readers may remember that I mentioned in a previous blog entry when reviewing a TV show that,

And thanks to “2165 The Best Mode Requirement” of the MPEP, the patent is required to disclose the “best mode” to make this device thus making the patent an interesting read. (smile)

Have fun as I am sure I will when I get around to read up on them a little.

BWTVF: Greg Goodfried Lonelygirl15 presentation

Greg Goodfried (co-creator and executive producer of LG15) gave a presentation at nextMEDIA and Banff World TV Festival about some history and thinking behind Lonelygirl15.

June 18 update: See also my interview with Greg and other world leaders in new media and TV.

BWTVF & nextMEDIA: Smita Acharyya, Scott Feschuk, Paul Lam, and other delegates

Smita, Scott, and Paul attended this year’s Banff World TV Festival  and I know them previously so I will start with them. (smile)

Smita Acharyya – CTV Fellow 2007 – introduces herself and her project. (note: I have known Smita for a few years now as she is a wonderful documentary filmmaker in Calgary. She was quite helpful to me earlier on, and I returned a favour by shedding light on the CTV Fellowship application process for Smita. It is a small world and I try to help my friends.)

Scott Feschuk introduces himself and the comedy he is pitching at BWTVF. (note: I knew Scott from the wonderful master class interviews that he did for Banff in 2006. I particular enjoyed his chat with Paul Haggis. Love to know Scott more.)

Paul Lam (no relation to me) is CEO and Co-founder of Zooinnet, and Paul comes all the way from Hong Kong to pitch his product and create contacts.

(Geek alert: By the way Paul, as far as I know, strictly speaking, there is no such thing as a “worldwide patent“. True, you can establish a priority date through internationally agreed treaty. But you still have to go to, e.g. the Japanese government, to apply for a patent to protect the IP in Japan.)

Now here are some other pitchers that I came across.

• I met David Cormican at a dinner thing. I shared with him some of my business advices and he gave me a demo DVD which I enjoy a good portion of it. Here is one he has put up on YouTube – THIERRY – HAPPY BIRTHDAY.
• I met Siobhan McCarthy (Blyssful) while waiting to attend a session. Siobhan is pitching her comedy project at BWTVF – (see video).
• I met Dennis Allen – Mackenzie Delta Films (Inuvik) in a party and here Dennis introduces himself & his project (see video).

nextMEDIA: Interview with Dale Herigstad – Chief Creative Officer of Schematic

Here is my interview with Dale Herigstad, Chief Creative Officer of Schematic and speaker at nextMEDIA and Banff World TV Festival. Dale is a very insightful man and I hope you enjoy my interview with him.

Note: See also my previous entry on Dale (with video).

nextMEDIA & BWTVF: New Videos

Back home, with access to more stable and high-speed internet access, I’ve added a number of nextMEDIA and Banff World TV Festival videos online. And I have updated the following entries with videos and additional comments.

1. BWTVF: Dawn Airey – Director of Global Content, ITV (clip of speech and my interview)
2. nextMEDIA: Ben White – Sling Media
3. BWTVF: Day 3 – Greg Goodfried Lonelygirl15 interview

BWTVF: Interview of Vicky Taylor, Editor, Interactivity – BBC Television

I have admired BBC Television for years. So it was my great pleasure to be able to interview Vicky Taylor, Editor, Interactivity – BBC Television at Banff World TV Festival 2007 to pick her brain. As I think Vicky has some interesting ideas from BBC that can be used to improve the CBC. Thinking about it, the other broadcasters in Canada can and should learn from Vicky too.

Note: I don’t work for nor speak for CBC. I am more like a big fan of CBC that will be critical of CBC if necessary.

BWTVF: Day 3 – Greg Goodfried Lonelygirl15 interview

Yesterday I wrote a blog entry, “BWTVF: Are you feeling lonely? – Lonelygirl15“. Today, on day 3 of Banff World TV Festival 2007, I had a great video interview with Greg before his 9am panel discussion. I hope you will enjoy the video as much as I in interviewing Greg. And Greg has some encouraging words for the aspiring content producers out there. Great stuff.

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June 14: Thanks for featuring this interview at LG15 Today. I hope your readers and viewers will enjoy the interview.

BWTVF: Blogger/Reporter/Change Agent

As this is my 4th day at the combo nextMEDIA and Banff World TV Festival 2007, I can now better define what I do as a “blogger/reporter“. I, of course, have been doing lots of blogging and reporting (note: a lot more short video clips are coming). In fact, I am also playing the role of a Change Agent in these two conferences.

Take the Internet Neutrality town hall meeting as an example, I turned myself into a Change Agent and made an appreciated suggestion. I pointed out an existing group at Harvard with work already started to measure “selective service degradation” (I think I just made this term up) in peer-to-peer applications like Skype.

And in my chat with Dale Herigstad, Chief Creative Officer of Schematic, I highly recommended Bill Buxton who I consider as a world expert in the area of user experiences design (the same field as Dale). And Bill also has a new book out that Dale may be interested in.

When traditional reporters and other bloggers report and opinionate while trying to be “objective”, I went ahead to actively add my 2 cents with the deep desire to try to change things for the better. (smile)

BWTVF: Are you feeling lonely? – Lonelygirl15

Well, I used to be totally against the whole idea of Lonelygirl15. And I have written a blog entry call “The Lonelygirl15 Vaccine – Lessons learned” that was quite critical of Lonelygirl15.

Now that was before I met and listened to a well delivered presentation (but may be a bit too detailed/technical for TV execs?) given by Greg Goodfried (co-creator and executive producer of LG15) at nextMEDIA and Banff World TV Festival 2007. (note: I have already posted my video interview with Greg. And I will have a separate blog entry about Greg’s presentation when I get around to writing it.)

I am impressed by Greg’s presentation and the thoughts that they had put behind all aspect of the LG15 experience (down to the way they poll their viewers on how they should make money).

So it will be my great pleasure to interview Greg at 8am MST this morning in 2 hours and 24 minutes (and counting down (smile)).

By the way, the new thinking that Greg and the LG15 team are creating (by trial and error) is precisely the kind of new tool that I, as chief ideas Revolutionary, am acquiring to better equip the tool chest of ideas Revolution.

BWTVF: Dawn Airey – Director of Global Content, ITV

Dawn gave an insightful and straight-talking Opening Keynote Address this morning at the Banff World TV Festival 2007. For those that care about the new and old media should pay careful attention to what she said.

By the way, I hope lots of discussions amongst Banff delegates will be generated as a results of this keynote. Will see.

Some people are insightful but seems to only be able to give boring speeches. Some people are insightful and can communicate their deep insight with ease and grace. And Dawn is definitely one of those gifted “ease and grace” presenter/thinker like my friend Kevin Roberts.

Here is a clip from Dawn’s presentation,

Here is my interview of Dawn (sorry for the loud background noise. watch a few times and you should be able to hear every word). Thinking about it, “viewers can become evangelical” may be a good way to describe my love and blog of CBC’s Dragons’ Den.

nextMEDIA: Internet Neutrality – most important session of nextMEDIA

The Network Neutrality – Town Hall Meeting is one of the worst attended session at nextMEDIA by far (it happened at the exact same time as Minister Bev Oda’s speech). But I consider Net Neutrality as the most important session because of its longer term implications involving our fundamental human rights (section 2(b) freedom of expression) and also potentially involving billions of dollars. And the session was the most lively one that I have seen, as we had the the pleasure to have someone from Telus attending the session debating with the activists.

Honestly, please forgive me Hon. Minister Oda. The matter of fact is that government policies, ministers, and even governments come and go. In my humble opinion, if we messed up the legal framework for Internet Neutrality, we won’t see that “Oh shit” moment until we look back in 10 or 20 years time. By then we would have lost the irrecoverable time we could have for innovation and technological advance.

Starting from August 2006, I have written a post about Internet Neutrality and linked to two. And here they are for the interested readers.

• The idea of “Internet Neutrality”
• An interesting video on saving the internet and “network neutrality” (this video is fun but insightful and slightly technical)
• Sugar battery cells & net neutrality

And the following is the Webby award winning video created by one of the panelist. Great stuff. By the way, to the Internet Neutrality activities, let me know if I can help. I do have some understanding of the topic and can definitely read more. Plus I sometime do read Supreme Court of Canada cases to help me fall asleep, so reading up on proposed bills and legislations, etc. won’t be much of a stretch for me.

Now, I am going to start blogging about Banff World TV Festival.

nextMEDIA: Dale Herigstad – Chief Creative Officer – Schematic

Dale Herigstad, Chief Creative Officer of Schematic is a very insightful man and I had a chance to interview him to talk about creating better user experiences. Cool stuff.

Dale reminds me of the wonderfully insightful Bill Buxton. By the way, Bill is one of the people I’ve included on my “Great Minds of Our Time” series amongst the likes of Milton Friedman, Richard Feynman, Woz, et al.

nextMEDIA: Stacey Seltzer – Joost

I think Joost is one of the coolest new software and system around town at nextMEDIA (and later at Banff World TV Festival 2007). And Stacey gave a very interesting presentation.

Here is a clip of Stacey’s presentation. Enjoy and learn.

nextMEDIA: Ben White – Sling Media

Sling Media makes a really cool set-top box that lets users watch their own TV (cable, satellite, etc.) from anywhere in the world on many devices. Basically streaming content from the user’s own set-top box to anywhere in the world.

Here are two clips from Ben’s insightful presentation.

nextMEDIA: Network Neutrality – Town Hall Meeting

Since I knew that Minister Bev Oda’s speech at Banff World TV Festival will be very well covered by the other media outlets, I went to the Town Hall Meeting on Network Neutrality instead. Network Neutrality is one of the topics that is too technical that only super-geek understands the full implication. Even I am a geek and I have learned a lot about Network Neutrality in the last year or so, I still get confused sometimes.

I was happy to be able to share my knowledge about an initiative started at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society (at Harvard Law School) which I happen to be a member of an initiative that aims to measure any sudden drop in network speed when using peer-to-peer software like Skype.

Here are the info on the session and I will post some videos later.

“All media has become digital. Is the Internet a lucrative and profitable playing ground for a new generation of creators and consumers of media or a new and potentially extremely profitable channel for old gatekeepers? How independent is the relationship between user, content creator and media conglomerate and how will this affect the distribution revenues and expenditures? How have these relationships been changing over time and how will they affect your business? Explore the frontlines of the digital media landscape through a town hall meeting where everyone is invited to participate.”

Here is a short clip of the meeting,

nextMEDIA: video clip of panel discussion

Here is my first video report from nextMEDIA. Don (VP of business development, Feedburner) has some interesting insights to share. (Note: It may take a few minutes for the following Youtube Video to be ready.)