All Things Digital

The Public Relations Society of America, Silicon Valley chapter, asked me to make a short video for its dinner last night about what was hot in tech in 2007 and also what surprised me. They did not use it, as I got it in too late, so here it is!

I made it when I was in London last week (Double decker buses! The Beeb! Punk rockers with pink mohawks!). Then–horrid stage mother I have become with my little video camera–I lassoed my son in for the project too.

Here it is:

(I still am having problems with the Brightcove player, so I uploaded the video to YouTube.)

I have seen the future of online entertainment and–no surprise–it’s not being created by Hollywood.

That’s because people there are too busy fighting over nothing these days.

Still, Hollywood’s writers and studios come back to the bargaining table again today, resuming their discussions to settle the strike that has been going on for three weeks now.

The Writers Guild of America is adamant about getting its writers a fair share for work that gets distributed over the Web.

And studios are just as stubbornly resisting, saying shares are not forthcoming anyway right now, given how paltry the revenues from Internet content are at this point in time.

While the wrangling has gotten lots of attention–no late night shows, the horror!–what’s really more appalling is exactly how slow all of Hollywood has been actually trying to change that equation.

Good thing, then, for producers like Pete Gibbons, the series producer of “KateModern,” an interactive online-only series being made in London and now appearing regularly on the Bebo social network. Each episode–not including all the other side videos and posts that hang all around each one–garners around 300,000 page views.

So far, of course, it is a fledgling effort, but a step in the right direction, even as Hollywood fiddles and its business burns.

Here’s an interview I did with Gibbons when I was in London:

(I am still having problems with my Brightcove player, so I uploaded it to YouTube.)

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For your Thanksgiving entertainment, don’t be so American! Go abroad! See the world! BoomTown did!

Here are links to the posts I have done from BoomTown’s trip to Europe–with glamorous stops in England, France and Monaco (and all the videos are below too!)–in chronological order going backward:

Kara Visits the Royal Society in London

Kara Visits Cambridge University

Kara Visits a Feast!

Silicon Valley Loses to the Brits!

Kara Visits Dailymotion in Paris

Kara Visits Netvibes in Paris

Kara Visits the Monaco Media Forum: More Interviews on the French Riviera!

Kara Visits the Monaco Media Forum: Opening Dinner

Kara Visits Monte-Carlo

On the last leg of my trip to Europe to check out Web 2.0 companies, BoomTown spent the day at the Royal Society in the tony environs of St. James’s Park and Pall Mall, for some more lively discussions with more students, academics and entrepreneurs in England.

The Royal Society, by the way, is an “independent scientific academy of the UK and the Commonwealth dedicated to promoting excellence in science.”

In other words: Geek Central of London for more centuries of nerdiness than you can shake a powdered wig at (and, let me just say, there were a lot of powdered wig-wearing techies back when).

As I have written, it’s been a really interesting visit here overall, first at Cambridge University and now here, where a group of entrepreneurs, academics, execs and venture capitalists from Silicon Valley have been mingling with British students, academics and tech entrepreneurs.

It’s all been organized by Ellen Levy of Silicon Valley Connect and U.K.-based tech entrepreneur Sherry Coutu, in partnership with the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts.

So here’s my final video of the events, including interviews with European VC Saul Klein of Index Ventures, as well as Silicon Valley visitors Hans Peter Brondmo of the start-up Plum and Emily Melton, a VC with Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

The conclusion: It’s a small world, after all, as you will see. Also a message from the Queen:

One of the most hot and hyped areas on the Web is in the social-networking arena. And while Facebook and MySpace suck up all the oxygen in this heady room, there are others, including the No. 3 company in the space, Bebo.

While its technical and Web creation offices are in San Francisco, a lot of the commercial action takes place in London, since the United Kingdom and Europe are a big growth area for the company and, most important, where it is running neck and neck with the leaders.

Besides the more worldly focus, Bebo–co-founded by CEO Michael Birch in mid-2005 and funded by Benchmark Capital’s London partners–is trying some different approaches to the space.

Bebo, for example, has interesting new initiatives like its “KateModern” fictional series on the site, a deal with cool gaming site AWOMO (A World of My Own) and a hip look that straddles the chaos of MySpace and the spareness (I would say grimness, but Mark Zuckerberg would call me mean again) of Facebook.

And, of course, because of the landscape now related to social-networking sites, there are the usual takeover rumors for the site, although there is likely a lot more smoke than fire at this point.

Here is a longish video of my visit to Bebo’s London offices and a talk with Joanna Shields, its sharp president of international, a Silicon Valley exec with extensive European experience at companies like RealNetworks and Google. Her insights are well worth the length here, as they provide a window into where the whole sector is headed in content and advertising:

While on my visit to London, I wanted to drop into an up-and-coming start-up here, and so I went to see WeeWorld, an avatar-based social network aimed at teen girls mostly.

Funded by Benchmark Capital’s London colleagues and also Accel Partners, it is typical of a European Web company in its worldwide focus (instead of just the basic U.S. obsession of most in Silicon Valley), even though its CEO Celia Francis (whose online avatar is pictured here) has longtime Silicon Valley experience and is an American.

The site allows a user to create a “WeeMee” character to interact with others on the site or anywhere really, blog, email and even play games. It is gaining traction nicely, it seems.

So here’s a video about my visit to WeeWord, chatting with Francis about the European market and WeeWorld’s not-so-wee world, opening with another tiny tech tour of London:

No posts until a bit later today, as I am traveling back from London, but watch for posts and videos soon on Tom Glocer of Reuters, my visit to Bebo and other start-ups. Meanwhile, here is a good British message for everyone:

While in London, I paid a visit to the offices of Yahoo, which are now located near Covent Garden (less upscale than its tonier digs in years past), and which is the new home of its new managing director, Toby Coppel.

Coppel, pictured here and whom I have known for many years, comes from ground zero–literally these days–at Yahoo’s HQ in Sunnyvale, Calif. There, he most recently was the company’s chief strategy officer, reporting directly to recently departed CEO Terry Semel, in a job that included much of the portal giant’s deal-making worldwide.

In Europe, the United Kingdom-born-and-educated Coppel replaced Dominique Vidal, in what will be Coppel’s first foray into serious hands-on operations.

He will have his work cut out for him.

To start, here is a short video of my visit to Yahoo Europe’s HQ, as well as a tiny tour of London on my way there:

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I have known Simon Levene for a long time–he’s been working in the European operations at a handful of Web companies, such as @Home, Time Warner and Yahoo, over the years and is now working as a venture partner at the European branch of Accel Partners, the Palo Alto, Calif., backer of Facebook and other Web 2.0 companies. The London office has about $500 million under management.

Levene always has a sharp view of the scene and is often sharp-tongued–exactly how I prefer my VCs. In our talk, he liked mobile–one must in cellphone-heavy Europe–but not so much widgets, which earned him my undying gratitude for saying so.

Here is my video of him talking about the venture landscape in Europe:

BoomTown has left our sojourn in Ireland with Walt Mossberg in our ongoing quest to create EuroD and has arrived in London.

For some reason, though, we have still not gotten our invite to Buckingham Palace to discuss the wireless access and show off the iPhone to the royals.

Nonetheless, we press ahead and will be out and about through Monday to see a little of what’s cooking in the digital space here.

London and all of England are quite the users of online technologies–for example, London itself just became the top geographic network on Facebook, with 810,000 sign-ups.

While here, I will be meeting with Reuters head Tom Glocer; Yahoo’s new Europe honcho, Toby Coppel; the people behind the Bebo social network (the service is very popular in the United Kingdom); Index Ventures’ Danny Rimer; and a few cool start-ups. A planned meeting with the Joost folks got canceled sadly, but somehow I will recover.

Look for my tech travel posts and videos in the days ahead and, until then, try to identify this quote and from where from a famous Englishman, and which seems particularly apt for the entrepreneurs of tech:

“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.”

I have arrived in Dublin and am so tired, I am still trying to figure out the time difference and money–yes, I am a completely ignorant American!

Nonetheless, we press on and serve up some interesting items from around the Web–this time with a Euro-focus.

First observation: If you want to make a friend abroad, carry an iPhone. They are not for sale here yet, as deals between Apple and major European telecoms are still pending.

But Apple is likely to sell the iPhone here later in the year, with one of the major carriers, which include Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile, France Telecom’s Orange or ultra-hip Telefónica’s 02.

Until then, with it visible in my hand, I made about 53 new friends at Heathrow Airport where I was changing planes. I also scored free first-class champagne from the stewards on board British Airways for giving them a test run of the device.

Most people treated the phone as if it were Paris Hilton suddenly appearing in their midst, with a lot of pointing and gaping at it, as I watched the first season of NBC’s “Heroes” I had downloaded. (Save the cheerleader, indeed! From her creepy adopted Dad is more like it!)

And I could elicit visible oohs when I kept shifting the screen vertically and horizontally, as if I were performing some sort of “Harry Potter” magic.

Since I am in Ireland, here is a link to an Irish blogging site talking about the iPhone.

And check out the video Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert did especially for Philippe Dauman’s appearance at D5 this year–his impression of using an iPhone midway through skewers the ridiculous fascination with the iPhone perfectly.

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