How YouTube's Global Platform Is Redefining the Entertainment Business | Fast Company

BY: DANIELLE SACKSJanuary 31, 2011
YouTube CEO Salar Kamangar and his team have transformed Google's Folly into a mind-blowing -- and lucrative -- global platform that is redefining the entertainment business.

EnlargeSalar Kamangar, YouTube, CEO

Star Maker: Kamangar loves that YouTube is creating the stars of tomorrow-and that advertisers want in. | Photograph by Robyn Twomey


EnlargeMargaret Stewart, YouTube, User Experience

Discovery Network: Stewart's goal is to make sure there's a flood of personalized content waiting for users every time they visit YouTube. | Photograph by Robyn Twomey


Salar Kamangar floats unnoticed through YouTube's sprawling San Bruno, California, offices dressed in a navy blue hooded sweater and jeans, laptop cocked on his hip. he might as well be just another anonymous, nomadic programmer rather than YouTube's newly named CEO.

The exceedingly shy 34-year-old escorts me into a corner office filled with a cornucopia of Silicon Valley souvenirs, including hundreds of conference badges and, naturally, a Segway. "None of this is mine," Kamangar tells me. The office belongs to YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, even though neither technically works there anymore. Kamangar's own desk is a naked cubicle right outside. Jeff Zucker he isn't.

Sitting stiffly on Hurley's tan couch, Kamangar has a nervous demeanor, which only begins to melt after I accept his offer to take a spin through his favorite YouTube channels. "This is pretty funny. Have you seen this before?" he asks, sounding almost like a teenager. He props his worn Lenovo on his lap. "It's Indian pole gymnastics," which is exactly what it sounds like. With his eyes glued to the screen, he shows me vintage footage of bluegrass flatpicker Doc Watson; the fan-created Lord of the Rings prequel "The Hunt for Gollum," which, he tells me, has been mistaken for a Peter Jackson flick; and Sal Khan, the young hedge-fund manager who ditched his career to become the most prolific math instructor on the web and whose audience, says Kamangar, surpasses those for recorded Stanford and MIT lectures. Kamangar's tour is a peek into a side of himself that he doesn't show the public, even if some of the videos are the kind of baseline entertainment that has made YouTube beloved by audiences but infamous to advertisers. (I mean, seriously: Gymnasts flinging themselves onto a pole is a few steps above talking-cat voyeurism.)

Since YouTube's earliest days, Kamangar has envisioned the site's transformational potential. Unknown to many, he was the driving force behind Google's acquisition of YouTube for $1.65 billion in 2006, less than 20 months after Hurley, Chen, and Jawed Karim registered the domain youtube.com. Google's youngest VP at the time, Kamangar ran Google Apps, including Google Video. "As quickly as Google Video was going, we realized it wasn't that likely to catch up with YouTube," he says. He felt that while Google Video obsessed over comprehensiveness, YouTube's founders made the smarter bet of cultivating its vibrant community.

Read the full long article on fastcompany.com - well worth the time

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/152/blown-away.html?page=0%2C0

@Blastradius & TheMediaMerchants create Starbucks Interactive Storefronts in Vancouver & Toronto. I"m off to play!

Description from Vimeo site:

"The latest from The Media Merchants is this interactive experience for Starbucks.

Located in the storefronts of two Starbucks, one in Vancouver and one in Toronto, the user guides a creature of their choosing (hummingbird, dragonfly or butterfly) on an adventure to find all the ingredients unique to each of the three Tazo teas currently being promoted by Starbucks.

The Starbucks Interactive Storefronts have become an intricate part of Starbucks’ recent Tazo Tea campaign. Once the concept was developed internally, it was up to The Media Merchants to manage and execute the innovative initiative in order to follow a specific campaign strategy.

“The Media Merchants managed all facets of the campaign,” says Jordie Morrow, National Account Executive, The Media Merchants. “It was a matter of balancing the overall scope from MediaCom’s concept, Blast Radius’ creative brilliance, and ensuring we developed the interactive portion perfectly.”

This installation is different from other interactive storefronts The Media Merchants have worked on as they typically utilize empty retail locations. “A vacant venue allows us to build a massive projection screen, as large as the window will allow, while taking advantage of significant foot traffic,” says Morrow. “Starbucks, on the other hand, wanted to make the most out of their key locations in Vancouver and Toronto and these two interactive storefronts are uniquely positioned on two of Starbucks’ busiest locations.”

The interactive storefronts, placed in high traffic areas, have not only been attracting thousands of people on a daily basis but also a wide demographic due to the brightness and quality of the screens. “It is very difficult to pass by the screen and not notice the Tazo campaign,” adds Morrow.

The campaign will run until February 26, 2011 at 2510 Granville Street, Vancouver and 4 King West, Toronto.

Creative Agency: Blast Radius
Media Agency: MediaCom
Execution and Interactivity: The Media Merchants"

Really insightful post on Brian Newman's Blog SpringBoardMedia: Egypt, Tunisia, Social Media and Change

Egypt, Tunisia, Social Media and Change

164297_501518534290_511364290_5849813_4735509_nphoto © 2011 Al Jazeera English | more info (via: Wylio)The events in Tunisia and Egypt (and now popping up elsewhere) have been nothing short of extraordinary. It is too soon to say what will ultimately happen there, but what has been most fascinating to me, and what I am only slightly more qualified to comment upon, has been what it has revealed about the United States government, and its complete and utter failure to understand what was going on, and is going to continue to take place, globally.

Read the full insightful post on Brian Newman's blog:

http://springboardmedia.blogspot.com/2011/01/egypt-tunisia-social-media-and-c...

Do I LOVE This? Oh Yes: MTA.me: Google Engineer Turns Subway Lines Into Musical Instruments | Co.Design

Alexander Chen used HTML5 and Massimo Vignelli's famous subway map to turn NYC's mass transit system into a playable musical instrument.

Manhattan denizens sometimes describe the sounds of the subway as the city's incidental music. Now programmer/designer Alexander Chen has created a more soothing version with MTA.me, an interactive NYC subway map-turned-musical-instrument that uses transit lines as its strings.

Play the subway here!

http://www.mta.me/

Read full post:

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1663129/mtame-google-engineer-turns-subway-lines-...