Techie and the Media

The Amanda Project

4TH STORY MEDIA PARTNERS WITH HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS FOR ITS FIRST VENTURE: THE AMANDA PROJECT, AN INTERACTIVE, COLLABORATIVE DIGITAL MYSTERY

New York, NY (June 18, 2008)—4th Story Media and HarperCollins Publishers today announced their partnership in The Amanda Project, the first multi-platform series to be written in part by its audience, girls ages 12-14. 4th Story Media, which owns all rights for the property, will produce the content for The Amanda Project with a creative team including web design agency Happy Cog, young adult authors, artists and graphic designers. HarperCollins Publishers, which is a strategic partner in the venture and an investor, has acquired the rightsto publish an eight-book The Amanda Project series worldwide.

“It feels like the art and craft of publishing great stories for children is on the brink of revolutionary change,” said Lisa Holton, founder and CEO, 4th Story Media. “We are exploring new ways of using the web to tell stories, while also leading kids back to the joys of reading.

By combining talented authors with creative web designers we are fusing traditional storytelling with the interactive world of social networking, online games, and user-generated content.We are thrilled to introduce 4th Story Media with the launch of The Amanda Project and are delighted to be partnering with the exceptional team at HarperCollins to bring this series to life.”

“HarperCollins is very pleased to join forces with 4th Story Media on its first multi-platform series,” said Susan Katz, President and Publisher, HarperCollins Children’s Books. “Book publishing is increasingly digital in nature and HarperCollins Children’s, as a leader of innovative publishing, understands and embraces initiatives that engage readers in exciting new ways. The traditional book/web connection is evolving every day, and The Amanda Project takes it one step further by allowing readers to not only discuss the story but help create it as well.”

Amanda Valentino is the elusive, charismatic, and alluring new girl at Evansville Township
High School who arrives mid-year, leaves abruptly, and indelibly changes the lives of everyone around her in the process. Her story will be told across a variety of media in addition to the books—a social website where readers can interact with and become characters in the mystery, a related series of blogs chronicling the story as it unfolds, clues and seed posts on satellite sites, downloadable music and official and user-generated merchandise. Amanda’s fate will begin to unfold across the web during the fall of 2008, through the launch of the T.A.P. website in early 2009, and continue into the publication of the first book in Fall 2009.

Contact:
For 4th Story Media: Lisa Herling
917-912-4273, herling@fourthstorymedia.com

For HarperCollins: Sandee Roston, Executive Director of Publicity
212-261-6796, sandee.roston@harpercollins.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Peter Buffett and Akon - An Odd Couple with a Powerful Message

Full disclosure, I work with Peter but this is a great initiative.  Get involved people and yes, you can make a difference!!!

Question: Is There Something I Can Do? Answer: YES!

Peter Buffett and Akon are happy to let you know what they are passionate about. But what are you passionate about?

Or are you so overwhelmed with what’s going on in the world that you don’t know where to start? Or think that when people are giving millions to a cause (or billions!), how can a few dollars make a difference?

Well… a few dollars - a little time - even a text message can make a difference.

On this site you’ll find places to start getting involved. You’ll have the ability to talk about what you’re into and why — share your stories of how you’re making a difference — and meet others who are trying to do the same.

http://istheresomethingicando.com

When the Student Eclipses the Teacher

Does Sony's move to support Apple's choice of the AAC format mean that Steve Jobs has won the war? Or merely the battle?  All I know is that in November of last year, I wrote a piece about teaching the mass market and the importance of critical mass. Hang on folks, the ride has begun.

iPod as a Verb
by Lydia Loizides

         April Fool's Day, 1976 and Apple comes to be. After several product launches that rocked the industry and became the basis of what we know computers to be today, the Apple Macintosh was launched in 1984 with the now famous Super Bowl advertisement based on George Orwell's novel 1984.
        Fast forward. The year is 2001 and there are approximately 2 million MP3 players in the U.S. market and many, many legal and illegal music services. But the market is going nowhere, fast. P2P hysteria, a global music market crash, and little-to-no mass consumer awareness, and along comes Apple with a music player called the iPod. Two years later the connection from platform to service is made and iTunes is launched. By the end of 2004, Apple had sold 200 million units. Three months later 300 million songs had been sold. Three months after that, the company says it has hit 460 million songs sold. In the course of 4 years, the iPod has grown to dominate the market with 76% market share as of June, 2005 (Jupiter Research puts the number at about 12 million MP3 players connected in the U.S.). Apple has since become synonymous with online music (much to Sony's dismay) and there are numerous derivations of the iPod that have flooded, and more importantly, been adopted by the consumer market.
        So why the diatribe? Because all great businesses need critical mass before the chance of a product succeeding is better than 50/50. The iPod is almost there. The fact that video for the iPod costs $1.99 today, it really doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that the quality of the video at full-screen is no better than VHS. It doesn't matter there are over 15 applications that I can find to break the rights management on the file and share it with all my friends if I were so inclined  It doesn't matter that there is only a straw-man of a business model in place.  What matters is that the iPod for video will entice, educate and entertain an entire generation of mainstream consumers who, up until this point, had no idea what the term "mobile content" meant. Having sold and downloaded over one million videos in the first 20 days after launch, Apple has proven a market exists and that people are willing to pay.  The iPod, an entertainment platform small enough to fit into my purse, will "cross the chasm"  to mass market faster and better than any break-out technology of it's generation (DVD not included).
        Hang on folks, we are in for a hell of a ride.