Learning, Sharing and Collaborating at “The Pitch”

Windows Media Center once again hosted “The Pitch”- a local event that brings about bloggers, reporters and news enthusiasts to talk about a common topic: the media!

The event was hosted by Jason Preston of Eat Sleep Publish and created a discussion around new business models for news and new media. The recent restructure of the Seattle PI, definetely makes this a very hot topic among.  Our very own Ben Reed, Senior Product Manager for Windows Media Center at Microsoft, participated in a panel with Hanson Hosein, Director of the Master of Communication in Digital Media at the University of Washington and local tech blogger and radio host, Brian Westbrook. The three led a discussion around new business models for journalism. Although it wasn’t directly related to the newspapers,  Ben’s statistics on the increase in online video usage  showcased the rapid changes in changes of TV viewing habits.  As newspapers become digital and they beef up their video capabilities, online video will be part of the mix and we foresee that they will face the same monetization questions with video than with print.

Several attendees of The Pitch emphasized the importance and success businesses have when focusing on “customization” and “experience” for the consumer. The discussion often times switched between personalization within devices and then different applications that give consumers the best technology experience they are looking for, these platforms maybe provide the solution to new busienss models to sustain journalism. Hanson reinforced that for any business model, one must incorporate multi-media strategy as statistics and studies prove that we are engaging and living more digitally.

What Matters to You the Most in the News Today?

As promised, here are some interviews the TV on Your PC team conducted with local bloggers and media in the Seattle area. The interviews were conducted at a media roundtable dubbed “The Pitch” at Lucid in the University District of Seattle a couple of weeks ago.

We spoke with bloggers from Seattlest, the Beacon Hill Blog, Eat Sleep Publish, Capitol Hill Seattle, Quadhome.com, and Sn0tty.com.

Enjoy!

A Successful “Pitch!”

The Windows Media Center team attended our first community event since the launch of the TV On Your PC blog, and we were enlightened and happy that we got to listen to the community’s thoughts on the ever-changing media landscape, get an opportunity to meet so many of you and show what Windows Media Center and the MSNBC News beta is all about. Below are some pictures that we wanted to share (courtesy of Jason Preston at Eat Sleep Publish). Enjoy!

Obama leaks, GNR rocks, and Jason raps

It’s a cold and clear autumn night here in Seattle — good weather for a blog roundup!

In a November 23 post, Charles Sumpter voiced his concerns about the leaks coming from the Obama transition team:

Firstly, the transition team needs to do a better job at keeping these selections known to only the highest levels as possible on the team, then and only then can Obama and the rest of the team stop the leaks before they get out (or at least know where they are coming from). It is not a good sign for any transitioning team to watch the internal discussions between the team and the Clinton’s on national television; these are private and serious matters.

Over at Ear Candy, Travis Hay marked the release of the long-awaited Guns N’ Roses album Chinese Democracy by republishing a review of the band’s last concert that he wrote in college:

It is one of my earliest concert reviews and I almost stand by everything I said six years ago when it was written.

I will say that Axl Rose is possibly the best rock frontman I have ever seen perform. He put on an amazing show six years ago and to this day it is still in my top 10 favorite shows I have seen (and I’ve seen hundreds of shows throughout my career as a music critic).

Jason Preston’s been hard at work recently putting together The Pitch, an event where anyone interested in the future of publishing is welcome to come and share their thoughts. On Eat Sleep Publish he linked to an interview about The Pitch that he did with Ryan Sholin from MediaShift IdeaLab.

From the very beginning, I’ve wanted to make ESP a hub for opinion as much as a broadcast platform for my own ideas, and given that Seattle has such a vibrant tech community and there are inherent limitations to just how social a WordPress installation can be, I thought doing a real life event would be a natural fit.