by Lauren Keyson

At the recent January NY Video Meetup event held at AOL’s HQ, Steve Rosenbaum, the organizer and MC for Meetup and the CEO of Magnify.net, focused on the rapidly emerging space known as TV 2.0 and curated video content.

Here are the six trends he sees in the video space in the upcoming year:

1. Business: NY’s core industries will find that Web video is no longer a loss-leader or a luxury. Video will now be a critical business driver.
2. Fashion: NY’s fashion brands, retailers, and marketers will shift to video to help their breakthrough designs stand out. NY-based conferences likeFashinvest are funding multi-media fashion startups.
3. Advertising:  Agencies like Digitas will explore new ways to use Web video to build online identities for brands. Companies like Foursquare are building new mobile opportunities for businesses, and countless startups likeShelby.TV that in turn is building new third screen TV experiences out of NY’s fast growing incubators.
4. Media/Publishing:  In the universe of media, the worlds of print and video will merge, with big TV players like NBC announcing new book publishing divisions that will build content with video for the eBook market. Publishers like Hachette Book Group, Penguin Group, and Simon & Schuster are launching a digital book platform called Bookish*that will prominently feature video (*disclosure: Magnify.net will power Bookish video)
5. Social:  For the companies that are driving NY’s new emerging economy – the social startups – video will be central to what they do.
6. Percentages: Rosenbaum predicts that 90% of all traffic will be video by 2015, and that much of the growth will come from companies based in NY’s Startup Scene. Cisco’s David Hsieh said recently: “Today over half of all Internet traffic is video—51 percent. And based on the current trends, we predict that in the next three years over 90 percent of all Internet traffic will be video.”

The January event also featured four diverse and innovative video companies that demoed in front of the group:

• Sharethrough – an ad tech company built exclusively for brand video content and “native advertising.”  It enables publishers to generate new revenue through non-interruptive, “native” ad placements and original brand video content, such as short films, webisodes and music videos.
• Mobcaster  -a crowd-funded television channel that helps independent TV creators take their show concepts directly out to market — giving the audience, as opposed to network or studio executives –  the ability to decide which shows end up on their screens.
• Attend LLC is a media cloud service that allows for storage, secure file sharing, proxy transcoding, team and client review, online screening/streaming and publication of large media files with little effort on mobile, tablet or private web pages all within a collaborative and secure environment.
• Landline TV is a NY-based video production company that specializes in comedy. It’s CEO, Jared Neumark, talked about the challenges of 24 hour high production value video and the potential benefits to being that timely.

NEW YORK, NY–(Marketwire -11/16/11)- Magnify.net, the largest video curation platform on the web, today announced the addition of two key members to its team.

Magnify has brought on board its first full time CFO, Parmjit S. Kang (Parm), to manage the finance and accounting functions of the high growth New York-based SaaS company. Parm also becomes a part of the Company’s executive management team, which directs all aspects of company strategy, planning and operations.

Parm joins from Fab.com where he was CFO; prior to Fab, Parm was CFO/COO of a start-up he cofounded. Parm’s experience also includes working in the Corporate Strategy and Venture Innovation groups of JPMorgan Chase and BNY Mellon. He earned an MBA from the Yale School of Management, an MSc from the London School of Economics and a BS in Mathematics from UCLA.

“Parm brings a wealth of startup and financial experience to Magnify.net, at a time when our customer base is growing rapidly and we’re building systems to support the business needs,” said Magnify CEO Steven Rosenbaum.

Magnify today also announced the addition of Brittany Gevanter to the team as a Senior Web Project Manager. Brittany joins from Best Effect, LLC, a youth empowerment and leadership training company, where she was a Media & Project Manager. Brittany will work closely with new Magnify.net powered customers to bring their sites onto the network, and provide support and consultation to customers looking to modify or expand their use of the platform.

“Brittany is one of those people who can naturally translate technology into a language that people understand,” said Rosenbaum. “She’s a splendid addition to the team, and promises to make the customer on-boarding process a seamless process.”

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Magnify-net-Announces-Adding-iw-1741722657.html

http://www.digitalhollywood.com/12CES/CES12-Wed6.html

Next week, January 10th-13th, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), a trade association who has promoted $186 billion worth of growth in the U.S. consumer technology industry, will have their annual International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. CES is the largest consumer technology tradeshow in the world, with CEA representing more than 2,000 corporate members involved in the design, development, manufacturing, distribution and integration of consumer electronics products. All profits from CES are reinvested into industry services, including technical training and education, industry promotion, engineering standards development, market research and legislative advocacy.

Magnify CEO, Steve Rosenbaum, will be speaking at one of the Digital Hollywood events and will be sharing his years of knowledge about online video and where it is headed. Rosenbaum is excited for CES and the opportunity to speak with other key players in the industry. Other presenters include: Jahn Wolland, National Sales Director, Microsoft; Michael Alexander, Strategy & Growth Initiatives, IBM Global Telecommunications Industry; David Tochterman, Head of Digital Media, Innovative Artists; Ran Harnevo, Senior Vice President, AOL Video; Rob Barnett, Founder/CEO of My Damn Channel; Steve Woolf, Vice President of Content, blip.tv; and David E. Leibowitz, Managing Partner of CH POTOMAC.

A MetroFocus Special: Tech Campus NYC – The story behind the winning bid for Applied Sciences NYC – a competition won by Cornell University and its partner, Israel’s Technion Institute, to build a massive new technology and engineering school in New York City – hosted by Rafael Pi Roman, with a special contribution from Jane Pauley.

Interviews offer commentary about this project’s enormous local significance, including Cornell University President David Skorton, The Technion Institute President Peretz Lavie, New York Academy of Sciences Director of Innovation Karin Ezbiansky Pavese, and New York City Economic Development Corporation’s newly appointed and first Entrepreneur at Large Steven Rosenbaum.

AIRDATES

WLIW21 – THURSDAY December 22 5:00 AM/ Repeating Friday 12/23 at 7:00 PM
THIRTEEN – THURSDAY December 22 11:00 PM/ Repeating Saturday 12/24 at 7:30 AM

THIRTEEN AND WLIW21 TO AIR “A METROFOCUS SPECIAL: TECH CAMPUS NYC”
What will it take for New York City to become the next Silicon Valley?

On Thursday, December 22nd, THIRTEEN and WLIW21 will debut an on-air MetroFocus special “Tech Campus NYC.”

The special report, hosted by Rafael Pi Roman, with a special contribution from Jane Pauley, will take viewers behind the breaking news of the winning bid for Applied Sciences NYC. On December 19th, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that Cornell University and its partner, Israel’s Technion Institute, had won the competition for a land grant and $100 million from New York City to build a massive new technology and engineering school on Roosevelt Island.

Viewers will hear commentary about the local significance of this project from special guests including Cornell University President David Skorton; The Technion Institute President Peretz Lavie; New York Academy of Sciences Director of Innovation Karin Ezbiansky Pavese; and New York City Economic Development Corporation’s newly appointed and first Entrepreneur at Large Steve Rosenbaum.

“Tech Campus NYC” will air on THIRTEEN on Thursday, December 22nd at 11:00 PM, and will rebroadcast as an encore on Saturday, December 24th at 7:30 AM. The special will also air on WLIW on Thursday, December 22nd at 5:00 AM will rebroadcast as an encore on Friday, December 23rd at 7:00 PM.

The on-air MetroFocus special: “Tech Campus NYC,” marks the next phase of a multiplatform initiative to bring local news and culture coverage to the tri-state region. The website for MetroFocus (www.thirteen.org/MetroFocus) launched July 11, 2011. A mobile platform is expected to launch in early 2012.

“Tech Campus NYC” is a production of WLIW21 and the Interactive Engagement Group in association with WNET New York Public Media. For nearly 50 years, WNET has been producing and broadcasting national and local documentaries and other programs to the New York community.

“MetroFocus has been covering this topic online since we launched our site and wanted to bring a thoughtful analysis and context on this historical moment to our local TV audience,” said Laura van Straaten, executive producer for “Tech Campus NYC” and editor-in-chief for the MetroFocus website, “If this tech campus endeavor succeeds, it will mean big changes for the entire New York region, which we’re committed to covering.”

This MetroFocus special is made possible by the Cheryl and Philip Milstein Family, Josh and Judy Weston, Jody and John Arnhold, James and Merryl Tisch, The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, Jean and Ralph Baruch and the Metropolitan Media Fund. Corporate funding is provided by Mutual of America.

###

About MetroFocus
MetroFocus is an online magazine that covers local news, culture, and life in and around the New York City area. MetroFocus is a production of the Interactive Engagement Group in association with WNET New York Public Media, the parent company of THIRTEEN and WLIW21, New York’s public television stations. Read more about MetroFocus.

About WNET
New York’s WNET is America’s flagship public media outlet, bringing quality arts, education and public affairs programming to over 5 million viewers each week. The parent company of public television stations THIRTEEN and WLIW21 and operator of NJTV, WNET produces and presents such acclaimed PBS series as Nature, Great Performances, American Masters, Need to Know, Charlie Rose, Tavis Smiley and a range of documentaries, children’s programs, and local news and cultural offerings available on air and online. Pioneers in educational programming, WNET has created such groundbreaking series as Get the Math, Noah Comprende and Cyberchase and provides tools for educators that bring compelling content to life in the classroom and at home. WNET highlights the tri-state’s unique culture and diverse communities through SundayArts, Reel 13, NJ Today and the new online newsmagazine MetroFocus.

Photo caption:   “A MetroFocus Special: Tech Campus NYC,” hosted by Rafael Pi Roman, with a special contribution from Jane Pauley, will take viewers behind the breaking news of the winning bid to build a massive new technology and engineering school in New York City. Credit: MetroFocus.

Steve Rosenbaum
Dec 19, 2011

Ahhhh … the cloud. White, fluffy, set against a blue sky. It sounds lovely: The idea that all the information you might ever want, all the music you might ever listen to, all the photographs you’d ever take, would all be just a link away.

We all know clouds have a metaphorical dark side. There are storm clouds on the horizon, dark clouds, and foreboding clouds. There are clouds that can open up and drench us in a downpour-and that’s what the content cloud is about to do.

Content in the cloud is a natural evolution from storing files on our desktops-but the content creation explosion that has overfilled our inboxes and overwhelmed our social networks won’t be solved by moving the growing mass of data from a private realm to a public one.

In fact, there’s a solution on the horizon that promises to keep the clouds fluffy and the content contextual. It’s the “curated cloud,” and it’s the next big thing. By one measure, we created 5EB (exabytes) of data from the beginning of time until 2008. Now we’re creating 5EB every 2 days. Where did that statistic come from? The folks who should know: Google.

As we move our digital information from the old world of VHS, Kodachrome slides, and letters to fast-moving digital objects, something else happens. We make more stuff. We post on Yelp. We comment on Facebook. We check in on foursquare. Companies are making more stuff too. When we shopped at the corner grocery there was a one kind of tomato sauce. In the mega-supermarket, there’s more shelf space, so brands start to create more and more choices to keep their share of shelf space. The same is true in the digital world. Access to low-cost, device-neutral cloud storage will massively increase the volume of accessible content.

When the web began, the folks who were making content were professionals–media companies, universities, publishers, and brands. Within a world of quality pages rose the concept of search. Ask a search engine a question, and it had an answer. Search for a map, you had a map. Search for a news story, you had a news story. There was little noise and plenty of signal. So search worked. Google quickly became a verb.

Search presumed that the web was full of mostly useful information and that the most popular pages were inherently the most useful. As the web continued to grow, search continued to solve the basic problem of how to find what you were looking for. But in the past 3 years, the very nature of the web has changed. It changed from stored quality content to real-time, mobile, personal content. No longer is search able to find what’s popular or relevant because the nature of what is being published has changed.

Relevance is now driven by where it comes from, who is publishing it, and when it was published. Google has been modifying its algorithms to modernize the internal logic. Meanwhile, Facebook has taken a different approach. By empowering individuals to share among each other and register their behavior with “likes,” we’re seeing discovery shift from computer-driven search to human-discovered recommendations.

What we’re seeing is the emergence of the curated web. In a world of endless and unmanageable data, we don’t want more information. We want less. We want the links to the songs our friends are listening to, the films our friends are watching, the restaurants that people with our taste recommend, and the information that we need when we need it.

Curation makes the noisy web sensible again and is already the daily activity of the large majority of web users as they individually struggle to sort through the inbound noise. Platforms such as Facebook and applications such as Editions, Pulse News, and FlipBook are putting the power of finding into the hands of individuals.

What happens next is critical, and the winners haven’t yet emerged. Some legacy media companies will reinvent themselves as content curators. Few will make the transition. Meanwhile, Facebook seems poised to challenge both legacy media and Google as the new home for consumer creation and curation.

We’re in an era that has shifted from content abundance to an avalanche of undistinguished content. The cloud is turning dark; the skies are about to become menacing. Since it seems very clear that the volume of content isn’t going to diminish, human curation may be the silver lining in the content cloud.

http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/News/News-Feature/Curate-the-Cloud-Is-Human-Curation-the-Silver-Lining-in-the-Content-Cloud-79108.htm

It’s hard to remember just how simple video was back in 2006,  but it was mostly straight forward back then.

Phones didn’t have video cameras.  The FlipCam didn’t exist.  So the job of recording video fell to tape based camcorders and high end content creators.

But even then,  it was clear there was a tsunami of video content on the way.  YouTube was born,  and along with it a whole slew of UGC video platform companies.   Some survived,  some perished,  but the sheer volume of content creation continued it’s massive march upward.

Meanwhile,  on the infrastructure side of things – there were big changes as well.  The emergence and deployment of broadband and Wifi changed the way consumers both gathered and consumed content.   The web morphed from a text and images infrastructure into a video enabled network.

And then – at the same time – the so-called ‘third screen’  emerged.   Flat screens in your phone,  in your living room,  and in your tablet device all turned into hungry video-enabled devices.

Which is to say content creation,  content distribution,  and content consumption behaviors all changed.  It all grew – exponentially.

Back in 2006 – when we decided to dedicate ourselves to a better video experience on the web – we wanted to find a name that would embrace the idea of looking deeply into the sea of content,  and finding patterns and coherent contextual video connections.

Which is to say,  we looked down the road and saw a huge and ever growing collection of video that would shift from the closed servers of the web 1.0 world to the open sharing ecosystem of the web 2.0 cloud.

What we didn’t count on was the emergence of the real time web,  and the speed at which content would be created,  shared,  and linked to.   But all in all,  the shear volume of video content,  and the speed of creation and distribution seemed likely to swamp ‘search’ as we knew it.  And it did.

So even then,  the idea of “magnify”  was to do just that,  to Magnify… to look closely at collections of content and be able to discern and make visible the signal in the noise.  The gems in the dust pile.   The meaning in the madness.

Magnify Amplifies Meaning and Value.

One of the things in our core concept,  going back to 2006,  was that we saw the power of the web in it’s highly targeted and clearly gathered niches.  Even back then,  we called it “the Curated Web”  and we embraced the concept of human knowledge as the core differentiator between robotic ‘aggregation’ and human editorial choices.

What we said then – and today – is that while technology can help editors find appropriate content quickly,  and automate the ongoing search labor,  it would be editors that would contextualize,  organize,  and promote timely and topical content in ways that automation would never achieve.

So today,  Magnify.net is ready to take on the massive and exciting challenge of turning the human editorial talent of publishers,  brands,  and media into human-curated,  machine assisted content collections.   Call them what you will,  channels,  magazines,  books or shows.  Media is morphing into a trans-media world where all flavors of content live on multiple platforms with multiple form-factors.

The volume of content on the web is growing at a stunning rate.  And video is driving much of the growth.   Consumers become creators,  Brands become Publishers,   and Media Companies morph into user-centric content communities.

Today,  the mission of giving publishers – both old and new – the ability to see closely,  find themes and gems, and helping content creators find emerging value in what they both create and curate.

The road ahead is an exciting one.  The need for context becomes more clear,  and the solutions around curated context more exciting.

Magnify’s Mission remains steadfast.

Here’s to an exciting and important 2012.

From The Magnify Team.

We have added another feature to our platform! Now, in just a few steps, you can add a leave behind showing a list of related videos to your embeddable players.  A leave behind displays after your video is finished playing and is a great way to get your viewers to watch more videos from your site and dig deeper into your content. 

You can turn this on for all of your players by default by going to your Global Preferences, or you can activate it for specific players that you create and save.

Try it! Your viewers will love it.

Magnify.net is happy to announce the launch of Parenting.com‘s video site! Now, parents will have thousands of videos at their finger tips ranging from viral videos, baby videos, to How-To videos.  This new curated video site will be updated on a regular basis with the newest parenting content for all viewers to see. Check it out here: http://video.parenting.com/

“The Parenting and family category is red hot”  said Magnify.net CEO Steven Rosenbaum.  ”We know that people have busy lives,  and they’re looking to trusted sources for accurate, timely, well curated information.  The Team at Bonnier’s Parenting.com magazine and site are extraordinary experts – the ideal editorial team to find, categorize,  and recommend the best in family videos.  We’re excited to welcome them to the network.”

Bonnier states, “Parenting meets the diverse needs of modern families by connecting them with the tools, targeted content and supportive community to help them navigate every stage of the often humorous, sometimes chaotic and (almost) always joyful life with children.”

About Bonnier
Bonnier Corporation is the leading developer of passionate enthusiast audiences in the U.S., reaching one out of every three American adults with our content. Our audiences represent “precision mass” –- and can be segmented by almost any demographic that advertisers want to reach. We deliver these audiences efficiently, but more importantly, effectively. Effective delivery means our consumers trust our content brands—our readers come to us for advice on how to do it, what to buy, and where to go.

Our brands are instantly recognized by consumers as the “expert” in the areas in which they provide information, regardless of form factor. We provide information to consumers in the format and context that they want most; and deliver whatever, whenever and wherever they need it.

Our content provides a level of expertise that creates a connection with our readers based on trust and loyalty. And we connect because we are not just observers, we’re passionate participants too, driven by the same enthusiasm that fascinates and fuels our readers.

We are excited to announce the launch of another North American Media Group video site – Gardening Club! This site is a personal guide to planning, planting and cultivating a beautiful garden and now features How-To videos, as well as gardening tip videos for every skill level. You can check out their video site here: http://video.gardeningclub.com/

NAMG has been building a powerful collection of sites on the Magnify.net Curation platform.  Gardening Club is added to a family of 4 sites including:  Hunting Club, Fishing Club, Handyman Club, and Cooking Club.

Gardening Club states, “Our engaged relationship with members is unmatched by traditional media entities. We know what our readers want to hear and we deliver this through a number of timely multi-media channels.” Using the Magnify platform to deliver their online video is just another way they are enhancing their site and giving their members access to even more content.

Said Magnify.net CEO Steven Rosenbaum:  ”We’re very proud of the way that NAMG has embraced the platform, and turned their deep knowlege and passion in their subjects in to truley immersive video experiences that users really appreciate.  In this world of too much information, the NAMG team knows how to find the right material and put it front and center.”

For more than 30 years, North American Media Group has excelled in creating and growing eleven distinct lifestyle clubs that thrive on the camaraderie fostered between their members and clubs. Each club’s magazine, e-newsletter and website is rich with articles and how-to features that inform, motivate, teach and inspire members.

Program pairs the city’s public high school students with New York’s most innovative technology companies

NEW YORK, Nov. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — More than 800 members of NY Tech Meetup (NYTM), the monthly nexus for emerging Silicon Valley talent, gathered at 92Y on November 2, 2011 to celebrate the successful culmination of the second Startup Summer Program, which provided internships at tech startups including Gust, ComiXology, Foursquare, Livestream, Magnify.net, The Morris + King Company, Personal Democracy Forum, and TekServe.

Startup Summer, in partnership with Camp Interactive and MOUSE, local nonprofits that provide technology-based programs that engage, empower, and inspire students from underserved communities, is an internship program that gives New York City high school students the opportunity to spend the summer working and learning at New York’s most innovative technology companies.

The NYTM Startup Summer ran for six weeks this summer, with each of the interns engaging in a wide variety of technical projects, including web design and development, marketing, sales and community management. They had the opportunity to work with a dedicated technology mentor and gain hands-on experience within an exciting and innovative technology company.

“My internship at TekServe helped me get ready for the professional environment by teaching me important skills, especially networking with others,” said Rigel Leonard, who participated in the MOUSE program at the School of the Future and also interned at TekServe last summer. As a result of his internship, Rigel was offered a part-time position at TekServe. He is currently attending Borough of Manhattan Community College.

“We took a chance with a high school intern after speaking with Camp Interactive. We put our intern right onto our android app team, and within three weeks he had provided us with lines and lines of code that helped fix the app,” said Dennis Crowley, CEO of Foursquare. “By the end of the summer, our high school intern was managing his own project and in charge of a team of NYU grad students.”

“Today’s interns are tomorrow’s CEOs and internships are the seeds of future entrepreneurial giants,” said David S. Rose, CEO of Gust. “From high school to graduate school, our interns were critical additions to our organization. I’m not sure who got more out of the internship, the interns or their mentors!”

AT&T T -0.18% is the founding sponsor of NYTM Startup Summer. Sponsorships provide support for the overall program management and a salary for each participating student.

“We deeply appreciate AT&T’s commitment to education and ensuring that today’s youth are successful in school and in the future,” said Carole Wacey, Executive Director, MOUSE. “Through the generous support of AT&T, we are thrilled that students from Camp Interactive and MOUSE participated in summer internships at these innovative technology firms, providing a unique opportunity to experience the professional world and to become better prepared for exciting careers in the future.”

About NYTM

Started in 2004 by Meetup.com Founder and CEO Scott Heiferman and co-founded by Dawn Barber, the NY Tech Meetup has over 18,500 members, representing professionals from all parts of the New York technology community. NYTM centers around its monthly events, where members gather to watch emerging companies demo new ideas, hear leading-edge thinking on technology topics, and build their networks to develop their businesses. NYTM has been integral in the birth of New York’s new Silicon Alley, with nearly every notable new company, including Foursquare and Tumblr, making their debut at a NYTM demo. NYTM is a not-for-profit, community-led organization. Its Executive Director is Nate Westheimer, Managing Director is Jessica Lawrence, and Chair of the Board is Andrew Rasiej. www.nytm.org

About MOUSE

MOUSE is an innovative youth development organization that empowers underserved students to provide technology support and leadership in their schools, supporting their academic and career success. Founded in New York City in 1997, MOUSE is a dynamic nonprofit organization having a positive and lasting impact on students in more than 300 locations in the United States, including in New York, California, Chicago and Texas, as well as a global presence in more than 50 countries. To learn more about MOUSE, visit http://www.mouse.org .

SOURCE AT&T Inc.

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