Bootstrapper.com » Art Chang

Organized music patronage begins to sprout.

Art Chang — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:45:34 +0000

Fan-Funded Space Starts to Grow, Slicethepie Rumbles.

It Only Tuesday

Art Chang — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 05:11:10 +0000

Once in a while the Onion nails it. Enjoy: It Only Tuesday | The Onion - America’s Finest News Source.

You, Too, Can Be a Banker to the Poor, Part 2

Art Chang — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 03:13:33 +0000

I’m pleased to report that Kiva.org received a $300,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. Back in March, I organized a small get-together for Kiva. See Tipping Points: You, Too, Can Be a Banker to the Poor - New York Times. My friend Joan Shigekawa from the Rockefeller Foundation brought along one of her colleagues, the person responsible for micro-finance. Brad Burnham hosted. A good time was had. And now Kiva has an additional $300K to further their mission. Congrats to Kiva and the Rockefeller Foundation.

On a separate note, We are really honored and pleased to be working with the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a $3 billion charitable foundation that is focusing on the problems of our child welfare system. Kathleen Feely’s vision is to create a social networking platform that can ease the burdens on the caseworkers and help make them more effective in accomplishing their mission - helping children.

Talent managers may finally be able to enforce their contracts

Art Chang — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 03:13:33 +0000

I’m going to be really brief here. My dear friend and outstanding talent manager Rick Siegel has been pursuing a case called Marathon Entertainment vs. Rosa Blasi through the California courts at tremendous financial and personal cost to him and his extraordinary wife. Rick finally won a landmark ruling from the Court of Appeals that even if there was a violation of the procurement provisions of the California Talent Agents Act, that the remainder of a manager’s contract may still be valid. Today Rick learned that the California State Supreme Court will hear the case, scheduled to begin on November 6.

What Price a Download? - WSJ.com

Art Chang — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 03:13:33 +0000

$10 apparently makes me the median Radiohead fan. CDs typically retail for $16, cost $6.30. Without EMI in the middle, Radiohead will sell the album for $10, cost $3.40 in physical form and far less in digital. Link: What Price a Download? - WSJ.com.

The Verizon Warning

Art Chang — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 03:13:33 +0000

"Our democracy is built on basic freedoms not being left to
individuals, or individual companies. And there is special cause for
worry in our business. American newspapers can resist government
intimidation because the Constitution is on our side, but also because
we control the presses. That is the real meaning behind “freedom of the
press,” and authoritarian societies know it. In the 1980s in the Soviet
Union, you had to have a license from the Communist Party to own a
Xerox machine; the Soviets understood that it was a printing press.

If newspapers were delivered over mobile phones, a company could simply
cut them off because it did not like a particular article. This is not
the stuff of a futurist essay. Freedom of speech must be guaranteed,
right now, in a digital world just as it has been protected in a world
of paper and ink."

From the New York Times Editorial Section, The Verizon Warning, October 3, 2007.

Google Valued More Than Time Warner, Disney, News Corp. Combined

Art Chang — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 03:13:33 +0000

Based on the market close yesterday, Google’s market cap of $190.28 billion is greater than Time Warner, Disney, and News Corp, which total $188.73 billion. Google’s market cap is 3.6x WPP, Omnicom, Publicis, Interpublic, Aegis, Havas and MDC combined. Google Hits New High, Valued At More Than Time Warner, Disney, News Corp. Combined.

Among the factors driving Google’s appeal to investors is its relentless drive for a greater share of the overall media pie. Google’s Adsense Content Network begins to hint at a strategy of distributing video content across the Internet to enable Google to move upmarket into the very rich rich media advertising segment. It’s advertising driving new content distribution channels. And players hungry to break out of second-tier status (not those in the previous paragraph) are eager to participate.

MySpace Platform To Launch Next Week

Art Chang — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 03:13:33 +0000

Techcrunch: MySpace Platform To Launch Next Week.

The new developer platform, like Facebook Platform
which was announced in May, will essentially be a set of APIs and a new
markup language that will allow third party developers to create
applications that run within MySpace. Developers will be able to
include Flash applets, iFrame elements and Javascript snippets in their
applications, and access most of the core MySpace resources (profile
information, friend list, activity history, etc.). Applications will
need to be hosted on MySpace servers.

And in a big change in strategy for MySpace, developers will be able
to serve their own advertising within their applications, and keep 100%
of the revenue (Facebook also allows this).

It’s Official: U.S. Social Networking Sites See Slow Down

Art Chang — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 03:13:33 +0000

As published by blog Creative Capital, citing Comscore data.

Average Minutes per Visitor	Dec-06	Jan-07	Feb-07	Oct-07	Nov-07	Dec-07
Total Internet : Total Audience	1,764.90	1,746.90	1,721.90	1,817.70	1,732.70	1,684.90
MYSPACE.COM	234.6	227.5	184.8	192.9	196	179.3
BEBO.COM	213.3	417	302.7	231.8	246.8	173.9
FACEBOOK.COM	150.4	170.2	199.9	195.6	189.7	169.4
HI5.COM	22.7	34	28.1	53.6	62.5	56.6
FRIENDSTER.COM	39.5	38.6	31.5	109.2	69.8	39.2
Windows Live Spaces	17.3	14.6	17.2	14	13.2	14.9
LINKEDIN.COM	8	6.7	5	8.7	9.9	7.1


Unique Visitors (000)	Dec-06	Jan-07	Feb-07	Oct-07	Nov-07	Dec-07
Total Internet : Total Audience	174,199	175,559	175,653	182,206	182,362	183,619
MYSPACE.COM	60,887	61,524	64,443	71,982	68,746	68,905
FACEBOOK.COM	19,105	18,961	16,737	32,910	33,660	34,658
Windows Live Spaces	9,589	9,057	8,320	9,854	9,884	8,912
BEBO.COM	2,977	3,602	2,641	4,442	3,674	4,279
LINKEDIN.COM	872	1,122	1,211	2,782	2,784	2,868
HI5.COM	3,029	2,299	2,640	2,454	2,165	2,483
FRIENDSTER.COM	1,103	1,288	1,379	1,668	1,687	1,791

It’s Official: U.S. Social Networking Sites See Slow Down « Creative Capital.

Verizon Rejects Messages of Abortion Rights Group - New York Times

Art Chang — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 03:13:32 +0000

Mobile communications companies seeking entry into the carrier walled gardens have long complained about the actions of the carriers in restricting that access. Now it becomes revealed that Verizon actively restricts private free speech, even between people and organizations that they have proactively elected to communicate with. Truly un-democratic and reprehensible. Link: Verizon Rejects Messages of Abortion Rights Group - New York Times.