So, what do
MySpace, Video Podcasts, and YouTube have in common? Well, besides the
fact that they are all emerging (Web 2.0) technologies, they’re also propelling
some of their users/producers to fame, fortune, and lots of influence in this
new “attention
economy.”

The Wall Street Journal recently
published a very interesting article, called “Moguls
of New Media,” which
provides an in depth look at a few of these social media celebrities and how
they are changing the media industry. Also, take note that this article was
published in WSJ—which should be a good indication of the important impact
that these social media platforms have on mainstream markets in the current
economy…Times are definitely changing.

Anyway, the
article describes how relative “unknowns” have shot to stardom by accumulating
massive followings for their creative works on social media services like
MySpace, video podcasting, and YouTube. In addition, the article also describes
how their impressive online influence has led to traditional media and
marketing opportunities, including major advertising deals and offers from some
very BIG agents. Here’s a brief quote:

While online stardom can sometimes be fleeting, and some measures
of audience size are subject to debate, a look at the rising stars in this
world shows how the path to entertainment success is being redefined.
Traditional media companies and marketers are already in pursuit of some of
these new faces.

Accompanying
the article is a comprehensive
(but by no means exhaustive) list of some of some of the most popular media
in the world of podcasting, social networking, amateur video, blogging, music,
and photography, TV, and film. A few of these are definitely worth checking out
(if you haven’t already), such as Homestar
Runner and Ask a
Ninja. There’s also an audio interview with the author, John
Jurgensen (MP3 file), which gives further insight into the people he
mentions in the article and includes the proverbial question of whether these “celebrities”
are making money from it and what corporate America is doing in the face of
this new economy.

Overall, I
found this article to be more like a report with three different “case studies”
on how to grow an audience—and ultimately revenue—with social media. However, I
felt that there was no real conclusion and, being a WSJ aricle, I would have
liked more discussion on business models, penetration of these media in
different industries, and what corporations are doing to compete with these
“accidental celebs.” In any case, definitely worth a read and checking out some
of the links.

BTW, if you’ve ever wondered what exactly is podcasting and have two
minutes for a quick laugh, check out this video by one of the above mentioned
groups (Ask a Ninja) entitled: “What is
Podcasting”…

UPDATE (7/31): I'm not sure if anyone got this to work, but I tried it all day on SUN, July 30th, and I either got a “timeout” message or a holding page that said it would be “active” on July 30th. Either way, I didn't see a link to download the free version of WinRAR, so my apologies to everyone who was mislead to visit their site. I'm not sure what happened–I guess you can't trust everything you read on the web.

__________________________________________________________

For those
of you who are familiar with WinRAR,
you’ll know that it’s a great alternative to WinZip and other similar
compression software.

Well, I
recently came across a Digg
piece/link that says WinRAR recently won the recent “SIAF Peoples Choice Award” and,
as part of their gratitude, they are offering the full shareware version for
free for 24hrs; from 0:00 hrs to 24:00 hrs on SUN, July 30th. Here’s what the
announcement states:

To Say Thanks and to Celebrate: Get the Winner WinRAR 3.51 for FREE
on Sunday. In order to thank everyone who voted for us and made it possible for us to win this prestigious award, we are offering the WinRAR 3.51 single user
license non upgradeable version this Sunday the 30th of July 2006 from 00:00 until 24:00 CET for absolutely FREE. Please click the following link which will
become active on Sunday. Fill out the form on that page in order to receive further information via e-mail about how to get your FREE version of WinRAR.

Some folks
may already use this software for free and wonder what the difference is. Well,
I believe that the paid version—at the very
least—removes the annoying popup message every time you use it. Not sure if
that’s the only difference, but you know what…I think that’s a good enough
reason to go get it