<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>BoomTown &#187; MyBlueCollar</title>
	<atom:link href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/tag/mybluecollar/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://kara.allthingsd.com</link>
	<description></description>
	<lastBuildDate>Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:02:51 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4</generator>
	<language>en</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	<image>
		  <url>http://allthingsd.com/theme/images/logo-rss.jpg</url>
		  <title>All Things Digital</title>
		  <link>http://allthingsd.com/</link>
		  <width>144</width>
		  <height>22</height>
	</image>		<item>
		<title>Sequoia Capital's Mark Kvamme Speaks!</title>
		<link>http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080117/sequoia-capitals-mark-kvamme-speaks/</link>
		<comments>http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080117/sequoia-capitals-mark-kvamme-speaks/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Jan 2008 12:23:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kara Swisher</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[BoomTown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Internet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kara Swisher]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[digital]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[video]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Adam McKay]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chris Henchy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[comedy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Eat or Die]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Funny or Die]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hollywood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mark Kvamme]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MyBlueCollar]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sequoia Capital]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Shred or Die]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tony Hawk]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Will Ferrell]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080117/sequoia-capitals-mark-kvamme-speaks/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We at BoomTown are very interested in content on the Web these days, especially given the ongoing writers&#8217; strike in Hollywood and its wrangling over digital (and a whole lot of other) issues.
The intersection&#8211;or perhaps collision is a better word&#8211;of the entertainment and technology industries continues at an ever more frantic pace.
And it&#8217;s clear the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>We at BoomTown are very interested in content on the Web these days, especially given the ongoing writers&#8217; strike in Hollywood and its wrangling over digital (and a whole lot of other) issues.</p>
<p>The intersection&#8211;or perhaps collision is a better word&#8211;of the entertainment and technology industries continues at an ever more frantic pace.</p>
<p>And it&#8217;s clear the strike is putting into fast-forward efforts by writers and other &#8220;talent&#8221; to do an end run around the traditional studio system of funding and distribution. </p>
<p>There has been, no surprise, a lot of noise recently about writers looking for funding coming up to meet with venture firms in Silicon Valley, the results of which I remain wary still. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, such marriages are inevitable, as the entire content distribution system shifts to new paradigms in a likely-to-be painful transformation whose end result is decidedly unclear.</p>
<p><img src='http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2008/01/logo.gif' alt='funnyordie' /></p>
<p>To get some clarity, I decided to pay a visit to Mark Kvamme of Sequoia Capital to talk about his nascent efforts in the arena with his investment in the online comedy video site, <a href="http://www.funnyordie.com">Funny or Die</a>, which was launched last April.</p>
<p>Starting with a small $17,000 seed round, Sequoia and others have recently sunk a more serious $15 million in the effort. The site has yielded a few Web hits, mostly done by Kvamme&#8217;s partners and the site&#8217;s co-owners&#8211;actor Will Ferrell and Adam McKay (Chris Henchy is the third leg of the entertainment stool, although the trio has wrangled in a plethora of Hollywood&#8217;s hipper comedy elite to contribute to Funny or Die). </p>
<p>Mixing professional content with user-generated material makes for a pretty lively site, where videos are voted up (funny) or down (die).</p>
<p>Results for Funny or Die are still mixed, with big success for one with Ferrell and McKay&#8217;s daughter, called &#8220;The Landlord,&#8221; which has garnered more than 50 million views. Its follow-up, &#8220;Good Cop, Baby Cop&#8221; (<a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080117/good-cop-baby-cop/">see here</a>), is also popular.</p>
<p>But those are the exception, of course, with several million monthly unique visitors engaged for about five minutes a visit.</p>
<p>But Funny or Die is definitely doing a lot better than some other failed efforts in the genre, such as NBC&#8217;s DotComedy.com, Time Warner&#8217;s This Just In and Time Inc.&#8217;s Office Pirates. Current competitors include sites like CollegeHumor and the Onion, although each one has a taken approach.</p>
<p>Funny or Die&#8217;s will be to expand to new areas, such as a recent site on skateboarding and other extreme sports fronted by Tony Hawk called <a href="http://www.shredordie.com">Shred or Die</a> and another one called <a href="http://www.mybluecollar.com">MyBlueCollar</a>, focused on redneck comedy. Eat or Die&#8211;using famous chefs&#8211;is next.</p>
<p>But who knows what tomorrow will bring&#8211;as the song kind of goes&#8211;in a world where few online video sites survive?</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s Kvamme to talk about it:</p>
<div class="video-wsj"><embed src="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/microPlayer.swf" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashVars="videoGUID={1378397388}&playerid=4001&plyMediaEnabled=1&configURL=http://wsj.vo.llnwd.net/o28/players/&autoStart=false" base="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/" name="microflashPlayer" width="320" height="240" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" swLiveConnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed><br />[ See post to watch video ]</div>
<span class="fdPrintIncludeParentsPreviousSiblings"></span><span class="fdPrintIncludeParentsChildren"></span>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080117/sequoia-capitals-mark-kvamme-speaks/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>