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Media Literacy: Making Sense Of New Technologies And Media by George Siemens - July 11 09

George Siemens — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 09:07:00 GMT

Emerging technologies, the global economy and the Internet are changing what it means to be literate. As digital communications transform the quantity, range and speed of information and exchanges in our lives, increasingly, the ability to interpret and create media becomes a form of literacy as basic as reading and writing. Photo credit: Alan Levine Inside this Media Literacy Digest:

Google Chrome Operating System - The Google and Microsoft competition is escalating: Google announces new operating system
Web Squared - Tim O’Reilly and John Battelle’s article Web Squared: Web 2.0 Five Years On captures a small glimpse of the future
Social and Networked Learning - In June, through LearnTrends, we hosted an event on Social and Networked Learning. Topics include: What is social networked learning? ROI, organizational challenges, and moving beyond networks.
Does Anyone Still Use Second Life? - The answer, according to a recent report (which is a bit of a pain to get, but free), is a strong yes.
Disruption and Scientific Publishing - Changing scientific publishing is only partially about technological disruption. It’s mainly about common sense. If it comes from the public purse, it belongs to the public.

George Siemens\' weekly Media Literacy Digest Media is published here on MasterNewMedia with the objective to help its readers become informed citizens who can actively and successfully communicate with society and the world. Here all the details:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends by George Siemens

Google Chrome Operating System

The Google and Microsoft competition is escalating: Google announces new operating system. The operating system is expected to run on netbooks shipping in 2010. Google already has Android for mobile phones, so the move to PC-based system is an obvious direct challenge to Microsoft. With the exception of Bing, over the last several years, Microsoft has come across as a bumbling, clumsy organization trying to preserve a computing world that no longer exists. Consider Live. Or Mesh. Both initiatives were an attempt to innovate, but Microsoft is too tied to existing revenue models to be creative. Google, on the other hand, is well ahead in its ability to conceive a new world of computing and interaction. The announcement of Wave is a great example - a product that attempts to re-write interaction / collaboration based on today’s technologies, not those created decades ago. Google is exploring new territory. Microsoft is trying to defend what it has. Of course, Google is also entering new territory with the OS initiative. Microsoft has decades of experience and established relationships with businesses and hardware manufacturers. The Microsoft ecosystem is strong and entrenched. Success is far from assured for Google. Writing an OS for a netbook is a much simpler task than writing an OS that works on a broad range of PCs in numerous complex organizational settings. Other commentary:

Redefining the OS:
“The new OS will focus entirely on the web: “The software architecture is simple - Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform.” What that means is this. The browser is the platform. The browser is the UI.”

Google Blog:
“Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we’re already talking to partners about the project, and we’ll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.”

Web Squared

I prefer to stay away from pop-culture resources as a source of guidance for where we are heading in terms of technology, and more broadly, society. I listened to a podcast (TWiT, episode #197) and was inundated with buzzwords (apparently it’s still cool to say “Google Juice”) and random nonsense. I was surprised by the seriousness of the topic (future of university) and the shallowness of the approach (at one point Don Tapscott offered the nonsensical statement we often hear at conferences: universities haven’t changed in 100 years!). With this mindset, I approached Tim O’Reilly and John Battelle’s article Web Squared: Web 2.0 Five Years On rather skeptically. I was pleasantly surprised. It’s an important article that captures a small glimpse of the future. Yes, there is a bit of silliness in the article (the web as a baby, slowly growing up with each innovation) and the conclusion is completely unsatisfactory (the web is now the world and the world needs our help - an interesting hypothesis, but one that requires an entire article, not a throw away piece at the end of this article). Nevertheless, it’s a strong article. It captures trends, extrapolates to implications, and offers insight into where we are heading. Lots of great examples...

Social and Networked Learning

In June, through LearnTrends, we hosted an event on Social and Networked Learning. The recordings are now available (thanks to Scott Skibell of SkillCasting). Topics include: What is social networked learning? ROI, organizational challenges, and moving beyond networks.

Does Anyone Still Use Second Life?

Does anyone still use Second Life? The answer, according to a recent report (which is a bit of a pain to get, but free), is a strong yes. Not only is Second Life thriving, its citizens spend more hours each week in world than those in other multi-player online games. The hype around SL has been more subdued in educational conferences this year. Of course, with all new technology, it first needs to go through an insane hype cycle, be declared dead by a prominent theorist / writer, fade into obscurity (i.e. acknowledged by those who hyped it in the first place), and then quietly emerge as a viable tool.

Disruption and Scientific Publishing

Clayton Christensen is well known for his work on disruption. His discussion of disruption at a systems level - i.e. how a new technology is able to develop on the edges of an industry and eventually reshape an entire field - is simple and intuitive. But last year, he co-authored wrote an aggravating little book called disrupting class (a lovely text of how great education could be if we could just get rid of the human element). Since then, my general fondness for Christensen has plummeted. I’ve been looking for critiques of his theory since, but haven’t found anything particularly useful. I’ll keep looking. Micheal Nielsen applies Christensen’s work to a variety of fields: construction, news, and scientific publishing. It’s a thought provoking piece, but I don’t share the author’s vision for journals in the future (i.e. technology innovation organizations). Scientific (or more broadly, academic) publishing is a surprising industry: it takes work generally paid for by the public (through government research initiatives), relies on peers within the field to review research and articles (done without fee), and then sells it back to the government (through university access to journals). If ever there was a field built on sand, this is it. Changing scientific publishing is only partially about technological disruption. It’s mainly about common sense. If it comes from the public purse, it belongs to the public.

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on July 10th, 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About the author To learn more about George Siemens and to access extensive information and resources on elearning check out www.elearnspace.org. Explore also George Siemens connectivism site for resources on the changing nature of learning and check out his new book "Knowing Knowledge".

Photo credits: Google Chrome Operating System - CNET Web Squared - Dan Farber Social and Networked Learning - badboo Does Anyone Still Use Second Life? - Make: Disruption and Scientific Publishing - piai ...]]>

Online Fraud And The Financial Phishing Scams: Brand Abuse May Be Coming To A Blog Near You

MarkMonitor — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:30:00 GMT

Brand abuse is increasing, but more important than the sheer volume is the increased sophistication and the opportunistic nature of brandjackers, who are quick to take advantage of current events and popular concerns. Photo credit: Tyler Olson As a matter of fact, so-called "brandjackers" continue to exploit the confusion over the financial markets that began in the last quarter of 2008 to prey upon vulnerable consumers, and such online scams continue to be quite sophisticated and difficult to detect for the unsuspecting Internet user. Not only. "Brandjackers" are also taking advantage of newer avenues like blogs and social media sites to find their victims, while utilizing a broad range of techniques ranging from spam to cybersquatting and phishing. Statistical information confirms indeed a profound increase - 36 percent in one quarter - in the level of phishing attacks as well as in cybersquatting cases, where fraudsters register domains that combine fake financial institutions and brands at the rate of more than one domain per day. This MarkMonitor report on Brandjacking has been created by tracking millions of emails and billions of web pages, including pages featuring online advertising, eCommerce, auctions and social networking sites analyzed during the September 2008 April 2009 study period. MarkMonitor, who has kindly granted MasterNewMedia with the permission to republish this unique analysis, is the company who has created the Brandjacking Index, which measures how pervasive brand-based attacks are and how to identify key online threats to strong brands. Here all the details:

Brandjacking Index - Financial Brand Abuse

by MarkMonitor
In this edition of the Brandjacking Index, we look at brand abuse trends in the financial vertical, focusing on four major financial services brands and four terms associated with the financial crisis - foreclosure, mortgage, refinance and unemployed. As the economy has worsened over the past months, we found that con artists have exploited consumers’ financial fears and uncertainties, and have rushed in to hijack well-known brands for their own profit. There has been a profound increase - 36 percent in one quarter - in the level of phishing attacks as well as in cybersquatting. We identified more than 7,300 questionable domains that were registered using the four financial brand names. Fraudsters registered domains that combined the financial brands that we studied with its four focus terms at the rate of more than one domain per day between September 2008 and the end of our study period in April 2009. Scams continue to be complex and sophisticated to lure in unsuspecting victims; in fact, cybersquatted domains registered since September 2008 were 50 percent more likely to use the focus terms than domains registered earlier. MarkMonitor created the Brandjacking Index to measure how pervasive brand-based attacks are and to identify the potential threats to the world’s strongest brands. As in our previous reports, this edition of the Brandjacking Index tracked millions of emails and billions of web pages, including pages featuring online advertising, eCommerce, auctions and social networking.

Summary Financial Brand Findings

As our economy has worsened, brand abusers have sharpened their focus and created schemes to lure consumers into their trap for mortgage refinancing and phony get-rich-quick investments. Sadly, the only ones who are getting richer are the fraudsters. They are using a variety of simple yet creative techniques to misrepresent themselves. Here are two examples of websites: the first shows you a phony mortgage refinancing site that exploits paid search listings to bring in traffic and a second site for a spam scam based on another bank brand.
Banking brand abuse site promoted with paid search
Suspicious landing page promoted by spam and taking advantage of a major bank brand
Then there is this page that has so much brand abuse going on, it could be one of those find-the-hidden-picture Sunday supplement puzzles. The fraudster who created this page exploits trusted TV and newspaper media brands and has the page designed to look like an online newspaper, all with the goal of obtaining personal identity information. To add insult to injury, the page uses encryption technology to give it a greater air of legitimacy! While many of the suspicious domains that we discovered tried to extract personal information, very few went so far as this site in offering encryption; 52 percent of the domains that we identified did not encrypt any data.
Site exploiting multiple brands, including media and financial brands, takes advantage of “bailouts”
Finally, there are new efforts that make use of social media to lure victims. Here is "Jessica’s Money Blog" which on the surface looks like thousands of other legitimate blogs that participate in conversations about managing finances or running a small business. But "Jessica" is selling a "home business kit" that promises steep rewards in exchange for a small amount of effort and some personal information, including a credit card number.
Questionable site using social media
These are just a few of the sites that we have discovered that may be exploiting the financial crisis. A summary of results is shown below for each of the four banking brands studied: Number of abuses observed by brand and type of abuse
Of the almost 7,400 suspicious domains identified, 16 percent were registered since September 2008 and 17 percent of the total used the focus terms - foreclosure, mortgage, refinance and unemployed - in the site content. When we examined the more-recently registered domains, the team found evidence of opportunistic abuse.

Domains registered since September 2008 were 50 percent more likely to use the focus group terms.
Fraudsters registered domains that combined the financial brands that we studied with our focus terms at the rate of more than one domain per day between September 2008, and the end of our study period in April 2009.

In general, many of the suspicious domains are newly created, as you can see from our analysis of the domain registration dates in the table below:
In terms of geography, 49 percent of the abuse domains were hosted in the United States, while six percent were hosted in the United Kingdom, four percent in Germany, and Australia and Canada tied at three percent each.

Phishing attacks against the financial brands that we studied saw a big jump, with 10,000 attacks in Q1 2009, which was a 36 percent increase compared to Q1 2008.
Phishing attacks on four banking brands by quarter

General Phishing Trends

Interestingly, when we observe phishing trends overall, we found that phish attacks against the payment services category grew more quickly than the financial services category in Q1 2009, with a 40 percent growth from the previous quarter and 285 percent annual growth.

Payment services trend upward while financial services spiked in Q3 2008
Phishers continue to target different industries, shifting their focus from quarter to quarter as the chart below demonstrates. They sharpen their focus using standard direct marketing methods - identifying the most profitable segments and then continuously harvesting new targets within those segments.

Changes in targets for phishing by industry segments
A total of 502 organizations were phished in Q1 2009, which is a 14 percent increase compared to the last quarter of 2008, and a 24 percent annual increase - a large jump from previous observations. We also saw 93 organizations being new targets in the quarter; the vast majority of them were financial services-related businesses. This could signal that phishers will be redoubling their efforts against this segment going forward.
Number of organizations phished by quarter
We also observed how phishers are adjusting their techniques targeting the retail segment.

On the left is an older example of a phished retail site, using the oft-used ploy of masquerading as a trusted site, with familiar logos and credentials.
On the right is a more recent example of a phish against the same brand. In this case, a phony user survey purportedly offered by a trusted retailer promises a $90 credit for its completion, once your credit card number has been given.

Evolving marketing techniques for phishers
And as legitimate sites beef up their defenses, the phishers are following right behind by using similar techniques to make their efforts seem more plausible. The first example below is a site that uses the ‘captcha’ method of typing a series of numbers to thwart subscription bots, and the second example is a Brazilian site that puts up a warning like a real credit card site. While both of these sites are aimed at the payment services vertical category, neither is legitimate.

Payment services fraudulent sites
And while the US continues to widen its lead in the hosting of phishing sites, with a ten percent increase from last quarter, Canadian hosted sites have moved up to be the second most popular host country.

Social Media Phish Targets

We continue to see that cybercriminals are targeting new communication platforms like micro-blogging, virtual worlds and social networks. Phishers are creating phishing sites to collect passwords, conduct identity theft schemes and carry out online advertising scams. Phish attacks targeting social networks have grown 241 percent from Q1 2008 to Q1 2009 and have grown 1,500-fold since we first started tracking the category in 2007.
Growth of phish attacks against social networks
Phishers have also expanded their reach to web infrastructure sites such as domain registrars and hosting services. Economic reasons for exploiting these sites include redirecting traffic, holding a domain portfolio ransom or hosting further phish scams or pirated content.

Registrars

Hosting

Phishing attacks targeting web infrastructure

Conclusions

Brand abuse is increasing, but more important than the sheer volume is the increased sophistication and the opportunistic nature of brandjackers, who are quick to take advantage of current events and popular concerns. Brandjackers continue to exploit the confusion over the financial markets that began in the last quarter of 2008 to prey upon vulnerable consumers. Wielding a wide variety of techniques from more established abuses like spam, cybersquatting and phishing, brandjackers are also taking advantage of newer avenues like blogs and social media sites to find their victims.

Originally written by MarkMonitor for MarkMonitor and first published on March 1st, 2009 as "MarkMonitor Brandjacking Index: Spring 2009".

About the author MarkMonitor is a company specialized in enterprise brand protection that offers solutions and services that safeguard brands, reputation and revenue from online risks. The Brandjacking Index is produced by MarkMonitor and explores numerical trends and statistics about online brand abuse. It contains anecdotal information about the business and technical methods used by brandjackers, along with analysis and discussion of the business and social implications of brand abuse. The cornerstone of the Brandjacking Index is the volume of public data analyzed by MarkMonitor using the company’s proprietary algorithms. MarkMonitor searches approximately 134 million public domain records, billions of web pages and spam emails and up to 16 million unique suspect phishing emails on a daily basis in order to identify brand abuse. These records come from various public domain data sources, along with Internet feeds from leading international Internet Service Providers (ISPs), email providers and other alliance partners. None of this data contains proprietary customer information.

Photo credits: Brandjacking Index - Financial Brand Abuse - Robert Mizerek Summary Financial Brand Findings - pertusinas General Phishing Trends - Vladimir Popovic Social Media Phish Targets - mipan edited by Daniele Bazzano
© 2009 MarkMonitor Inc. All rights reserved. MarkMonitor® is a registered trademark of MarkMonitor Inc. All other trademarks included herein are the property of their respective owners. ...]]>

The Brand Ambassador Marketing Model Guide

Robin Good — Wed, 8 Jul 2009 14:35:00 GMT

The brand ambassador is a marketing model that employs trusted, credible personalities to promote and give greater visibility to its brand products. But outside of the traditional, big money advertising world, where famous actors or sport stars are utilized as "ethical" promotional promoters of unique events or services, the idea of a new kind of brand ambassador, a grassroots conceived-one, has yet to trickle down the marketing strategies adopted by successful companies. Photo credit: sgursozlu What kind of new brand ambassador am I talking about? The new kind of brand ambassador I envision is a true passionate consumer who volunteers to sponsor a company or product he / she uses and likes. This would be a passionate individual who has already been acting spontaneously as a "brand ambassador", providing credible, valuable and impartial info, exposure and visibility to a company product. On the web there are many people who, consciously or not, act as spontaneous brand ambassadors for many products and services. Why not consider to prize and reward economically those that have been doing so spontaneously? Why not give them greater and better opportunities to do so? Self-elected, grassroots brand ambassadors are by definition actual users, passionate consumers of something they really use and like. The key value they have in the eyes of their own audiences is that they are credible, trusted and honest. They wouldn\'t recommend something they did not truly tried and believed in. This is why, companies considering such an innovative marketing approach should be careful in not confusing the idea of paying someone to do marketing and promotion actions versus the idea of rewarding those who, while very competent and credible in their sectors, have already proven to be natural, spontaneous best matches to the role of a brand ambassador. A brand ambassador of such kind could act as a great resource to collect and gather valuable feedback and criticism from other customers while being himself a great advisor to any company product development office. Brand ambassadors would also be key in showcasing and promoting new products while utilizing communication approaches that are more in tune with how successful companies are communicating today on the web and across social media. But this is just my own idea. Out there, in the advertising and marketing world, the word "brand ambassador" means different things to different people. If you are interested in making greater sense of what the brand ambassador idea is about, I have curated a selection of the very best articles available on the Web on this highly relevant marketing topic. Here my super-guide to the brand ambassador marketing model:

The Brand Ambassador Marketing Model Guide

Advertising 2.0 Model: The Brand Ambassador
The Brand Ambassador is an advertising model that leverages the authority and credibility of online personalities to create a powerful direct marketing strategy. A respected followed authority, a blogger or small publisher targeting a specific audience niche can be a much more effective vehicle for marketing communication that the most expensive advertising campaign. Read more...

Who Are The Brand Ambassadors?
Brand ambassadors ideally listen and learn from ongoing conversations and then engage in them, forming bidirectional interactions. Ideally, they also talk about more than just their brands on social networks. A good ambassador will also talk about other aspects of his or her life, to the point that followers eventually begin to see the brand ambassador as something of a trusted friend. Read more...

The Role of The Brand Ambassador Is To Transcend All Aspects of The Brand: Abhishek Bachchan
The role of the brand ambassador is to transcend all aspects of the brand. You have to embody the brand you are endorsing, the give and take is very important. Just like the brand endorser has to embody the product values, the product, too, must reflect elements of the brand ambassador’s personality. In a sense, the brand personality and the endorser must hold the same morals and principles, style and appeal. Read More...

The Top 6 Branding and Brand Ambassador Tips
Six practical tips from ArticleBase about the brand ambassador role and the branding strategy that will help you leverage the credibility and authority of your brand. Read more...

\'Brand Ambassadors\' Give Your Business a Boost
Your customers are the key to your success in more ways than you might think. By buying your product again and again, they are providing the revenue you need to stay alive. But they also are living, breathing examples of consumers who used your product or service to fill a need. They are your key ambassadors. Read more...

Shouldn\'t Every Employee Be a Brand Ambassador?
...while brand ambassadors are certainly very important when you are doing marketing events, the truth is that there shouldn\'t be a select group of brand ambassadors. Every employee that you hire should be a brand ambassador. Read more...

This Is Not a Sponsored Post: Paid Conversations, Credibility & The FTC
Many expert and lifestyle “citizen” bloggers and online weblebrities are creating communities around their personas as they freely and actively share personal and identifiable experiences online, in social networks and also in the real world. Those who can successfully connect their stories to others in and around their peer groups earn trust, visibility and authority - limited only by ambition and ingenuity. They’re rewarded for their presence and ability to point their followers in strategic directions. Read more...

The Brand Ambassador - Josh Bernoff
Duration: 2\' 43\'\'
Full English Text Transcription
Josh Bernoff: Now, I think it\'s very important and if I were the manufacturer of the camera I would be looking for people like you and then contacting you directly. This is one of the hardest things, this is that companies are used to talking to people in masses. But you as an individual firstly have an audience, right? That there are thousands of people interested in what you read, what you write, and then you are a genuine believer. So they need to call you up and say:
"Can we help you out? Would you like to try the new one out and talk about what you think about it? We are going to give you some photos or videos that you might want to put up on your site, you become friends with our page on Facebook and then your Facebook friends will see that. You become friends and maybe become interested in it."
They need to treat you and the other individuals like you - and it might only be 25 people - they must treat you as if you were the most important people in the world because what you say it is actually more powerful than anything they would say.
Robin Good: Is that situation at risk when those companies economically support those brand ambassadors? Josh Bernoff: This is something that we have been discussing recently and it is a matter of some controversy. There is sort of a spectrum here. Everyone acknowledges that... say, allows you to use the camera for three months to try it out. That\'s normal and the journalists do that. Supposed they let you keep the camera, that\'s more like a payment because they give you money and say: "We\'re going to pay you to try this out and use it". Where we at Forrester draw the line is we say:
"If you are going to pay someone then you must require that they disclose that in any communication that they have". If you put a blog post about it you need to say: "Yes, I received some money to write about this".

The second requirement is you must be allowed to write whatever you want. You could say: "I received this money to write about this, and you know what? It\'s really not very good." You have to have the freedom to do that.
We think that with that disclosure requirement and the ability to be authentic then it is OK if the payment goes on. There are others who certainly disagree, but you see this sort of sponsorship happening all the time and I think it is better to have rules around it than to trying make something that says: "No, that\'s not possible".

Originally prepared by Robin Good and Daniele Bazzano for MasterNewMedia, and first published on July 8th, 2009 as "The Brand Ambassador Marketing Model Guide".

Photo credits: Who Are The Brand Ambassadors? - Darren Whittingham The Role of The Brand Ambassador Is To Transcend All Aspects of The Brand: Abhishek Bachchan - Bollywood.ac The Top 6 Branding and Brand Ambassador Tips - Boris Ryzhkov Shouldn\'t Every Employee Be a Brand Ambassador? - Apple Inc. This Is Not a Sponsored Post: Paid Conversations, Credibility & The FTC - TechCrunch ...]]>

Professional White-Label Video Publishing Platforms: Guide To The Best Services

Robin Good — Mon, 6 Jul 2009 09:30:00 GMT

White-label video publishing and distribution platforms allow professional web publishers to move beyond zero-cost video sharing sites like YouTube and onto services which guarantee faster transcoding, HD video quality, the option to schedule both VOD and scheduled programming, CDN-based distribution, ad management and integration as well as private labeling and personalization of your video player. Photo credit: Liubomyr Feshchyn and Christophe Testi mashed up by Robin Good If you are looking for solutions that would allow you to set up a professional web TV channel of some kind, one for which you have a budget to spend and hope to sell advertising and sponsorship for, you have no choice but look for a professional white-label video publishing and distribution service. The traditional free video sharing sites like YouTube, are great for uploading and distributing at zero cost your favorite video clips. Much less exciting is the moment when you want to start controlling the ads that are displayed on your video clips, or you want to set up a day-by-day video programming schedule while monitoring and analyzing traffic, views and clickthroughs. This is why to move from amateur video sharing to professional video publishing you really need to consider seriously whether you have a budget to support the costs that such pro video distribution services require. The video services I review here have all some kind of monthly or yearly fee that is clearly not within the reach of the typical blogger or independent video-maker. On the other hand what\'s the use of publishing tens of video clips and having hundreds of thousands of video views on YouTube if this provides very little return in terms of visibility and revenue for your business or web site? The times are ripe for serious and economically capable video publishers to step up significantly above the generic, amateur Internet video publisher, and to strengthen their online video presence by providing extra quality, reliability, speed and monetization options which are so critical to their own future survival. In this MasterNewMedia guide I have selected, reviewed and compared for you the best private-label video publishing and distribution platforms available out there, while paying particular attention to their key traits, strengths and weaknesses. This is an area that will see fast growth and many new entrants in the near future due to the increasing demand for quality video channels and the need for many video sharing sites to start earning back their rapidly escalating bandwidth and storage costs. If you are into video publishing or are considering the move from amateur to professional video publishing, this guide can help you get a comprehensive view of this new market and of the traits and features that characterize the first group of providers competing to get your attention. Here all the details:

Professional White-label Video Publishing Platforms Comparison Table

Professional White-label Video Publishing Platforms

Brightcove

Brightcove is an on-demand video platform to distribute and monetize your online video inventory. The web-based Brightcove Studio lets you create branded videos with your logo and monetize your clips trough advertising campaigns. Brightcove players are fully customizable to match the layout of your web pages and also maintain optimal quality whatever device or internet connection video you choose. Videos can be re-distributed and embedded across any website, even using widgets. Videos streamed are encoded with H.264 and VP6 codecs and range from low-quality till HD. You can also program video broadcasting using playlist creation facilities. You keep total control over the ads you show with your videos by choosing ad units, insertion points, frequency, relevance. You can also integrate your ad servers and ad networks to serve ads with your videos. Custom reports are generated by Brightcove to help you track the performance of your clips. To get a price quote (on an annual contract basis) you have to contact Brightcove sales.
http://www.brightcove.com/
Livestream

Livestream is an online video platform that broadcasts live and on-demand videos. The premium account is priced at $350 and allows you to have a white-label channel to deliver videos with your own brand logo or watermark. Using a web-based interface, you can fully customize the size and look of your video player and also configure the redistribution of your videos; allow only specific audiences to view your clips or even disable sharing if you prefer. A list of ready-made templates for your channel is available and the integrated user chat allows broadcasters and their audience to communicate in real-time. Videos are encoded with Sorensen Spark (Flash 7) specifications and HD is supported. You can create a video playlist with the Autopilot feature to broadcast your videos 24/7 automatically. For optimal video encoding Livestream recommends around 700Kbps of upstream bandwidth. Livestream also provides an analytics tool that tracks and reports the performance of your videos. Advertising is supported and your ads are integrated inside channels using overlays that can be either served by you or by integrating ad servers and ad networks into your video production workflow.
http://livestream.com/
Watershed

Watershed is the white-label version of Ustream interactive broadcasting platform. Watershed allows you to publish and distribute ad-free, branded videos to your audience both on web pages or mobile phones. Live streaming broadcasting is also supported. The video player is fully customizable and your videos can be password-protected or limited in number of views from your web-based Administrator control panel. HD videos are supported. You can also interact live with your audience via text chat, real-time polls or co-hosted broadcast feeds. Watershed does not support self-served or third-party-served ads on your videos. Reports are generated to take care of the performance of your clips. No video programming. Two pricing options are available: monthly-based plans starting from $49 and a pay-as-you-go pricing model that charges for monthly or hourly views by a single user. No encoding info provided.
http://watershed.ustream.tv/
Glomera

Glomera is a web TV platform that helps you broadcast live and on-demand videos with your own logo. You can pull video from YouTube to broadcast inside your channel or create niche-targeted compilations to redistribute on third-party websites. Video channels are fully customizable to match the look of any web page. The scheduling feature lets you organize your web TV programs in a daily, weekly, or season-long programming. HD videos are supported and videos are encoded using FLV specifications. Web TV channels you build with Glomera Premium account are ads-free and you cannot serve third-party ads. The reporting feature allows you track the performance of your clips. Glomera Premium account is priced at $199/year. You can also purchase additional interactivity options for your channels like: rating, comments, on-demand video list, guide-programming, and more.
http://www.glomera.com/
Ooyala

Ooyala has developed Backlot, a scalable video platform with content syndication controls and monetization features. Video quality is preserved to match your syndication relationships (web pages, video-sharing sites, mobile devices, or other). Backlot video player supports overlays with our logo / watermarks and is fully customizable. You can arrange your clips in playlists and program the broadcast with no operation needed from your side. Videos are encoded in H.264 format and HD video is supported. A video metrics report is generated to help you monitor the performances of your videos. Backlot manages also ad insertion points, frequency and the different ad units like pre-roll, post-roll, mid-roll and interactive which are served with your clips. Third party ad servers and ad networks are also supported. Prices depend on the campaign; more info contacting Ooyala sales department.
http://www.ooyala.com/
Vmix

Vmix provides web-based video and image publishing solutions to distribute and monetize your content. You can brand your clips, serve ads with your videos and also track the performance of your channels. Videos are encoded in H.264 / FLV and distributed at optimal resolution to websites, mobile phones and portable devices using customizable players, widgets and applications. Vmix has support for HD videos too. A list of ready-made templates is available. Your audience can also interact with your videos using ratings, sharing, or video / text commenting tools. Scheduled playlists are automatically created to operate your video channel without human input. You can customize ad-serving procedures on your videos using different ad units (pre-roll, post-roll, overlays and also animated ad units), insertion points and frequency. You can bring your own ad server / ad network to serve ads inside your video clips. Pricing is subjected to distribution campaign you choose; more info on Vmix corporate website.
http://vmix.com
PermissionTV

PermissionTV offers a web-based solution to manage and monetize your online video inventory. You can choose between different player solutions that are freely customizable and redistributable on any web page. Viewers can interact with your video content by clicking on graphics, surveys or advertisement overlays and pop-ups. You can also create video playlists and deploy niche-targeted channels to your audience. Ad networks integrate with your videos to serve contextual ads using pre-roll, post-roll and mid-roll ad units. No info is provided about the encoding codec used for your videos, but HD is supported. No programming feature available. Pricing details available upon request to PermissionTV sales department.
http://www.permissiontv.com/
Twistage

Hosted video platform Twistage allows you to create customizable video players with your own logo to embed on any website. Twistage integrates with your existing content management system (e.g. a blogging platform) or content delivery network. Videos are delivered to match the internet connection requirements of viewers; the video platform promises "uninterrupted delivery regardless of your site\'s traffic demands". Videos are encoded using H.264 specifications and HD is supported. Video player is fully customizable to match the look of any web page. You can create a video playlist to broadcast your videos in sequence. Ads on your videos are served using different ad units: pre-roll, post-roll, mid-roll, overlay and in-page banner advertising. You can also bring your ad server or ad network to provide your ads. Analytics reporting allows you to track the earnings and spread of your videos on the web, but also which portions of your videos are the most viewed. No programming features. A free trial is available. Contact Twistage sales department for pricing options.
http://www.twistage.com/
Castfire

Castfire allows white-label video publishing so you can distribute and monetize your own videos using your logo / watermark. You can take control of the video production workflow and customize your player, ad serving procedures, viral redistribution, and much more through a web-based interface. A single video upload automatically generates multiple video formats to match your distribution needs and maintain good quality either on mobile phones, iPods, media box sets, HD-compatible TVs and more. Videos are encoded complying with H.264 specifications. Castfire has partnered with the automated video distribution service TubeMogul and allows you to distribute your clips on multiple video-sharing sites and also track precisely the performance of your video. You can also schedule and broadcast your videos without any user input. Ads can be served by third-party ad networks or ad servers using pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll units. Prices depend on the distribution campaign you choose; contact a Castfire representative for more details.
http://www.castfire.com/
Delve

Delve provides a online video solution to manage, publish, measure, and monetize your video content. With a web-based management tool you can create an embeddable player that matches the look of your website and is freely redistributable over any web page. The player also auto-adjust the video quality for best results with every internet connection. Codec used to encode videos is H.264 and HD is supported. You can offer your users the ability to search inside your videos for topics of interests; a heatmap shows the portion of video that corresponds to a specific topic. Delve also provides analytics features to track the performance of your clips, but you can also use Google Analytics to monitor your video content. No video programming though you can broadcast video playlists. Advertising capabilities include the integration with ad servers and ad networks. Ad units options you can choose to serve your videos are pre-roll, post-roll and "random". You can also set the frequency your ads are served and specify the ad insertion points. A 30-days trial is available yo test the service. For pricing options, you have to contact the sales department at Delve.
http://www.delvenetworks.com/
VideoBloom

The Premium plan of VideoBloom ($299) allows you to deliver and monetize online videos with your brand logo using a dedicated player. The player is fully customizable and you can also redistribute and embed your videos on any website or social media page. Videos are encoded using MPEG4 specifications, also in HD format. VideoBloom claims that your videos are deployed to match the different internet connection speeds of your viewers while maintaining optimal video quality. Video playlists are available to broadcast niche-targeted compilations. No video programming. You can use different ad units to monetize your videos: pre-roll-post-roll, overlays, skin ads (for your video player) and companion ads. The analytics tool measures the popularity of your video on the web as well as your earnings through a web-based dashboard.
http://www.videobloom.com/
MonetizeMedia

A live streaming and on-demand video publishing platform, Monetize Media allows you to distribute and monetize your video assets. Through a web-based interface you can arrange your video, organize playlists and insert advertising inside your clips. You cannot schedule playlist broadcasting for the time being, but you can pull videos from most popular video sharing sites to add to your custom channels. HD videos are supported. You have a list of ready-made video players at your disposal that you can also customize and scale to match perfectly any web page or mobile device. All video players offer chat, ratings, comments, social network sharing, social media tags, and RSS functionalities. Video players also detect the connection of your viewers to auto-adjust video resolution. You can set your videos for public or private access. Monetize Media supports online ad units such as banner, in-stream, overlay and pre-roll ads. Ad network integration is allowed to serve third-party ads. You can deploy your video on a pay-per-view basis and receive payments using your PayPal account. Performance reports are available to track the popularity and monetization goals of your videos. No encoding info is provided. Gold plan is priced at $1199/month plus a one-time setup charge of $500. A free trial is available to test the service.
http://www.monetizemedia.com/
BitGravity

BitGravity is a content delivery network that provides delivery of on-demand video and live streaming broadcasts. The service takes care of distributing your videos but is not aimed to monetize your video assets with advertising campaigns. Codec used for videos is H.264 and HD is supported. There is no custom video player provided, but customers are free to modify the API of the Flash player to match their production needs. No video programming or analytics features. For further info you have to contact a BitGravity representative.
http://www.bitgravity.com/
GizmoUTube.TV

GizmoUTube.TV is a white-label video platform that allows you to broadcast either on-demand and live streaming shows. GizmoUTube.TV provides a customizable video player which supports HD, interactive video search and redistribution on third-party websites. Videos are encoded in Flash H.264 and VP6 formats. Ad integration is not supported for the time being. For $1999/year you get a .TV domain name and 1GB of storage space per month. Expenses for bandwidth traffic are managed by Bits On The Run and payed separately. No programming available. More info on corporate website.
http://www.gizmovideo.com/gizmoutube.tv/
The FeedRoom

The FeedRoom is an online video platform that helps you create and distribute niche-targeted video channels out of your online video inventory. Different customizable video players are available to help you find the correct matching with the look of your website. Players are also scalable, redistributable and allow user interaction with rating and commenting features. HD videos are supported. Reporting functions tell you who is tuning in, what and how much they are watching, and an understanding of which sources are driving traffic to your site. With The FeedRoom you can also monetize your video assets by offering online subscription, pay-per-view programming or by integrating advertising features. The platform has support for all popular ad formats, including in-stream pre-rolls, post-rolls and banners, as well as contextual targeting ads. You can also rely on ad networks partnered with The FeedRoom to serve third-party ads on your videos. No programming feature and no encoding info is available. You need to contact the company for available pricing solutions.
http://www.feedroom.com/
BestTV

BestTV provides fully customizable Internet TV channels to distribute and monetize your video content. You can either broadcast white-label live streaming shows and on-demand videos on PCs, set-top boxes or mobile phones. You have also the option to create targeted playlists but not schedule a playlist to be broadcast without user input. HD videos are supported. You can monetize your video assets using both subscriptions and advertising options. Regarding advertising, you can employ pre-roll, post-roll and banner ads while setting ads frequency and capping to achieve optimal results. Ad networks can be integrated to serve third-party ads with your video content. Detailed reports are available to track your advertising campaigns and video performances. No encoding info is provided. To get a quote for BestTV solutions contact a company representative.
http://www.best-tv.com/
Kaltura

Kaltura is an open source online video platform that allows you to manage, distribute and monetize your online video inventory using open standards. You can also import third-party video content from other websites or video-sharing sites, add your videos and create custom playlists to engage your audience. You can schedule your playlist for broadcasting without input and also take advantage of advanced features like: remix and annotate your videos, add text slides, translations, and much more. When you have your content ready, your video is encoded using FLV and H.264 codec (HD supported) and then published using a customizable widget player that matches the look of your website. Powered by Gyga, your widget player is freely redistributable on any website or social media sites. Kaltura also has pre-integrated solutions for WordPress, Drupal and MediaWiki sites (free up to 10 GB of streaming & hosting). You can allow viewers to download your video player for offline viewing or broadcast private shows. Kaltura has partnered with ad networks to help you show ads with your video content that comply with IAB standards. Detailed statistics and analytics of your online video offering are also generated for your video campaigns. Contact Kaltura sales department for price quotes or to get a free trial. The company offers also a self-hosted version of the platform that publishers can download for free and host behind their own firewall.
http://corp.kaltura.com/
KIT digital

KIT digital provides solutions manage, publish and monetize your online video assets. Videos can be offered on-demand on websites or mobile devices and you can put your own logo to represent your company. Video players offered by KIT digital can be fully customized, redistributed and shared on any web page. No info on HD support or video encoding. To capitalize on your video inventory you can serve ads with your content, even integrating your ad networks. Ad units accepted are: pre-roll, post roll, companion banners and flash overlay ads. Alternative revenue channels supported are: subscriptions, DTO (download to own), VOD (video on demand), and PPV (pay per view), pay per click and pay-as-you-view (per second / per frame). Detailed reports are generated to track your earnings and the performances of your videos. No video programming. Contact KIT digital for pricing info.
http://www.kitd.com/
SOFTing K.iTV

K.iTV from SOFTing is designed to assist content providers with all key functions associated with managing online video: content uploading, cataloging, tracking and maintenance, advertising, analysis, billing and paying. You can either offer on-demand or live content. Once uploading your content you can take advantage of fully customizable video players that also allow you to create scheduled playlists to broadcast without any input from the user. A list of ready-made templates is available if you do not have specific customization needs. Advertising is supported with most common ad units: pre-roll, post-roll, in-stream, image & flash banners. Third-party ad network integration is not supported. Other monetization strategies include billing and subscriptions. Contact SOFTing support for pricing details.
http://eng.eu-softing.com/
Sorenson Video Delivery Network

Sorenson Video Delivery Network is a white-label video publishing platform that helps you manage and monetize your video assets. Video you upload are encoded using either Spark, VP& or H.264 codec and HD is supported. You can then syndicate your video to any website pasting a piece of HTML code or directly to iPhone models. A custom WordPress plugin is also available. You have multiple players to choose from that you can scale to match your publishing needs. Video players available have all a permalink but do not support playlist creation nor scheduling. Analytics features give you a real-time snapshot of audience engagement. Advertising is not supported for the time being. Pricing starts from $99/month for 1,000 streams and up to 20 minute videos. Free trial available.
http://www.sorensonmedia.com/video-delivery-network/

Originally prepared by Robin Good and Daniele Bazzano for MasterNewMedia, and first published on July 6th, 2009 as "Professional White-label Video Publishing Platforms: Guide To The Best Services". ...]]>