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Filed under: Handhelds

iriver Story e-reader hits pre-order status in Korea, gets priced originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In between startup sessions at TechCrunch50, we are hosting a number of heavy hitters in a panel titled ‘Creating scarcity, value and brand protection as we face limitless ad inventory” in collaboration with AdMeld. On the panel we have Michael Barrett from AdMeld, Kenneth Fuchs from Sports Illustrated, Kal Patel from Best Buy, Peter Foster from Hi5, Jim Heckman and Ross Levinsohn from 5to1 and Aaron Broder from Gorilla Nation. TechCrunch CEO Heather Harde is moderating.

Talking about the dilemma that remnant ads pose to quality publishers, Ross Levinsohn cautions: “In many ways I think the Internet has killed itself to a degree because there was a notion that I will just add another page without maximizing the premium spots.”

Live blog:

Kal Patel is talking about Twelpforce, an initiative from Best Buy that taps into the essence of Twitter to leverage customer service.

Ross Levinsohn: Advertising doesn’t always work. Sometimes algorithms don’t function because it lacks a human touch. Big brands and advertisers need that, to not have machines take over where and when there advertising units appear.

Peter Foster: How low are we willing to go. It comes down to what are you wiling to accept and what aren’t you.

The real challenge to us as a publisher is to find a network that is truly premium.

Heather Harde: What percentage of inventory are you direct selling?

Kenneth Fuchs: We sell everything direct.

Peter Foster: We end up selling 5 to 10 percent.

Aaron Broder: Premium programs go beyond selling a box ad. It is really about connecting your ad with a marketer’s messaging. You obviously have to listen to the publisher and what they want.

Michael Barret: Typical publisher at AdMeld has 100 million impressions plus they can not sell directly, and they have direct sales forces. We’ve built this platform that allows publishers to tap into all of these different sources and concentrate on their direct selling.

Jim Heckman: You’re talking about campaigns that are built custom, programmed with a publisher. Something that will be complementary to the brand, ads that the user will relate to and not tune out.

When I was at MySpace, we had a 100 million (billion?) unsold ad impressions. Silicon Valley creates companies looking at the whole world of advertising, we are approaching a trillion unsold pieces of inventory.

When you have a nice ad followed by a fat belly ad after the sold inventory runs out, that hurts the publisher.

63% of all ads aren’t even looked at anymore, Consumers are tuning out.

90% of all ads are unsold, they are machine-based and pushed. So there is uplift, but when you disperse it among the inventory, the individual publishers are hurt.

Ross Levinhson: AT Fox Sports, 70% of the inventory was sold. If we sold out all the remaining inventory, I think in 2003, it meant only $250,000 in revenues. We made a determination that a quarter of a million dollars at that time wasn’t worth the hassle of policing it.

On MySpace, we had to create scarcity where there was no scarcity. So we had the homepage, ad networks were arbitraging. Tom shut that down, no more ad networks on that inventory. If you have a site like Hi5 or MySpace or Facebook, creating billions of impressions a month, you have to find a way to create some scarce inventory so you can talk to the Best Buys. They don’t want to be next to [remnant ads]

In many ways I think the Internet has killed itself to a degree because there was a notion that I will just add another page without maximizing the premium spots.

Kal Patel: We look at how does it actually show up in front of our customers.

Jim Heckman: What has happened is we are selling a small percentage of our quality content, and everything else is going to the remnant networks.

Peter Foster: Also back in the day there were a few dozen ad networks, now there are 500. That is the challenge, there are so many companies doing great work, but it is all being back-filled by the same inventory.

Jim Heckman: I think Ross is right. Creating scarcity in any business is essential. I think you are better off not selling an ad at all on your front age and protecting your ad integrity.

If you are Sports Illustrated and you have a story by a top writer with beautiful images. Do you really want to put a yellow teeth ad up there?

Video:

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

As of today, it’s been a year since David Foster Wallace died. Wallace was an important author and teacher; incidentally, the first movie adapted from his work is about to come out. n+1—yes, that n+1–has a nice remembrance.

It’s a small, great story about the writer, Michael Casper, who discovers, by going through his record collection, that David Foster Wallace named some of the characters in Infinite Jest after the real-life characters associated with an uber-obscure record label at the University of Arizona, where Wallace earned his MFA. This was my favorite part; someone who knew Wallace, a US military vet turned fellow MFA candidate, talking about his interactions with the author:

Wallace, who was fresh out of his undergraduate years, was attracted to stories of experience because he thought his life was bare of detail. “Dave liked to hear me tell stories,” he said. “He didn’t know what to write about. He thought he had used up all he knew in Broom of the System.

“Dave used to say that his life story would be, ‘David sat in the smoking room of the library’-they still had smoking rooms in those days-‘trying to think of the next line to write.’”

Wallace is still gaining popularity: a website devoted to helping readers get through Infinite Jest, called Infinite Summer, popped up earlier this year. Regardless of the movie on its way, and maybe more of his writing to be unearthed—who knows? The guy was prolific.—David Foster Wallace put to paper the kind of work that’ll ensure his legacy and influence over contemporary literature living on for a long, long time to come.

Here we go with this week’s ReadWriteWeb events guide. Remember to download the calendar in iCal format or import it into your Google Calendar. You can also import individual events using the link beside each entry. This events guide is a weekly feature here on ReadWriteWeb. We publish it every weekend, as good a time as any to review your conference plans.

Know of an event taking place that should appear here? Let us know in the comments below or contact us.

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12 September 2009: New York City

Twestival

Twestival, famous for harnessing the power of social media to bring people together for great causes, is hosting a star-studded event in New York City, in association with Brooklyn Bowl and Flavorpill, benefitting non-profit CampInteractive. CampInteractive is a local non-profit that empowers at-risk, inner-city youth through the inspiration of the outdoors and the creative power of technology.

100% of all money raised through ticket sales will go towards CampInteractive.

With stars in abundance, NYC’s “Celebrity Bowling” tournament represents a unique opportunity for Twestival-goers to bowl with entertainment elite. Participants are invited to purchase a special group package that will score them a lane to bowl with a star.

The night will be packed with live performances featuring some of New York’s most exciting emerging artists, including Twestival favorite, Eclectic Method.

Buy your tickets now!

21 – 23 September: San Diego, California

DEMOfall 09 Conference

DEMOfall 09 promises to showcase the most comprehensive portfolio of credible emerging technologies, vetted by VentureBeat founder Matt Marshall and leading technology analyst Chris Shipley. Alpha Pitch, a new DEMO program, puts you in front of the most promising entrepreneurs with products in the alpha, prototype, and development stages of their life cycles. These are pre-revenue companies that have no more than one round of seed funding and are ready for your investment dollars.

DEMO is the launch pad of emerging technology and a true market performer for visionary investors, entrepreneurs, and industry influencers alike.

ReadWriteWeb readers pay only $1996. Save $500 off the standard fee by registering before August 15th.

22 September 2009: London

Realising the Benefits of Web 2.0 in Financial Services

If you are responsible for marketing, compliance, e-business, customer communications, or internal communications at a financial institution, you won’t want to miss this series of events:

The UK’s first conference focusing specifically on Web 2.0 in Financial Services:

• What is happening now? Current applications and experiences of social media in the financial services market;
• Hear how social networking is changing the approach of firms to marketing, PR, and customer interaction;
• Explore opportunities to enhance internal communications, process improvement, and compliance;
• Understand the developing legal and regulatory framework for Web 2.0;
• Identify the next steps for social media in financial services.

ReadWriteWeb readers get a 20% discount. Use the code KM6298RRWEB.

22 – 23 September 2009: Singapore

Social Networking World Forum — Asia

This two-day conference hosted by the Social Networking World Forum – Asia features key speakers from social networking publishers, advertising agencies, industry analysts, software developers and equipment manufacturers, pay-TV and network service providers, mobile operators, and more.

• Joint exhibition combining social networking and mobile social networking formats
• Evening networking reception
• Discount for early booking (expires August 21st)
• Free pass for exhibition only

22 – 23 September 2009: Melbourne, Australia

Marketing Now!

On September 22-23 a movement of highly engaged, passionate thought leaders and professionals will gather in Melbourne to demonstrate the power of social media for business today. Marketing Now! brings together the best of the best in new marketing innovation in two intensive days of interactive training designed to empower a new generation of change agents and business leaders. Marketing Now! will change the way you think about communications by equipping you with the tools and insight to foster advocacy and community for your business.

Follow Marketing Now on Twitter for conference updates.

30 September 2009: on Twitter

Twittamentary

Update: Call for submissions of stories and videos is now open. In this documentary, filmmaker Tan Siok Siok peels away the hype and explores the human dimensions of how lives connect and intersect, and then are affected and changed, as result of encounters on Twitter.

Twittamentary is created in the open spirit of the Web. Twitter users are invite to contribute ideas and videos to the film. When the film is completed, it will be released online under a creative commons license. In other words, you are both the contributor and the audience.

The 24-hour storytelling event on 30 September 2009 shares the videos submitted up till then in a round-the-clock marathon in which participants get to watch the videos online, rate and comment on them, and tweet about them.

2 October 2009: Seattle, Washington

ExpressionEngine Roadshow

The ExpressionEngine Roadshow is a traveling conference designed to bring together experts and users to learn ExpressionEngine techniques and share insider tips. Now in its second year, and second city, the 2009 conference will be a full day event. The show runs from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm, with breakfast before, a party after, and lunch in between, all included in the price of admission. Follow @eeroadshow on Twitter for the latest details.

8 October 2009: San Diego

Mobile Application Stores conference

As a partner seminar of Intenational CTIA WIRELESS I.T. and Entertainment, the Mobile Application Stores conference will focus on the tremendous opportunities in the mobile apps stores eco-system. The event is designed to give a complete understanding of how to capitalize on this exploding market.

Participants will discuss strategy and deployment in application stores such as Apple (iPhone), Google (Android), RIM (Blackberry), Nokia (Ovi), Palm Pre, and Microsoft, as well as other emerging application stores. To learn more, visit www.mobileapplicationstores.com or write to events@nextvisionmedia.com.

22 October 2009: London, England

Cloud Computing World Forum

The Cloud Computing World Forum is the perfect event for professionals to learn and discuss the future development and integration of cloud services. This one-day conference will provide a focused platform for the global cloud computing industry.

The Cloud Computing World Forum is the place to meet all the key decision makers from all of the cloud service providers in one place. Show highlights include:

• Hear from leading case studies on how to integrate cloud computing into working practices,
• Learn from the key players offering services in the cloud,
• Benefit from pre-show online meeting planner,
• Evening networking reception.

23 October 2009: Durham, North Carolina

The Social Media Business Forum

The Social Media Business Forum will feature national and local speakers from marketing companies, technology companies, and social networks discussing ways in which business communications have changed because of social media. Sessions will look at internal and external communications methods for both B2B and B2C companies and provide actionable takeaway items for attendees to immediately implement in their businesses. The forum targets business owners, executives, business communicators, key organizational stake holders, and anyone interested in gaining practical knowledge about social media.

Early bird registration is $125 until September 18, and $250 thereafter.

4 – 5 November 2009: Raleigh, North Carolina

Internet Summit 2009

Internet Summit ’09 will feature over 75 speakers, including representatives of major Internet brands such as Twitter, Pandora, Google, Salesforce.com, Digg, Technorati, CBS Interactive, Huffington Post, Blogger, Tree.com, and many more.

Topics will include social media, blogging, real time, mobile, video, search, online advertising, e-commerce, analytics, the cloud, and more.

Join over 1200 entrepreneurs, senior marketers, and executives in the conversation about the future of the industry and how to capitalize on the shifting dynamics of the Internet and tap into its unlimited business potential.

9 – 10 November 2009: Santa Clara, California

Social Networking World Forum — California

This event taking place at the Santa Clara Convention Center actually consists of three conferences: two days dedicated to social networking, one day dedicated to enterprise social media, and one day dedicated to social TV. Key speakers include social networking publishers, advertising agencies, industry analysts, software developers and equipment manufacturers, pay-TV and network service providers, mobile operators, and more.

• Joint exhibition combining social networking and enterprise social media formats
• Pre-show online meeting planner for delegates
• Discount for early booking (expires September 25th)
• Free pass for exhibition only

10 – 13 November 2009: Las Vegas

PubCon Vegas

PubCon Las Vegas is a multi-track educational conference hosted by SearchEngineWorld & WebmasterWorld. PubCon events are for thought leaders and professionals in search engine and Internet marketing to gather and to share best practices in the design, development, promotion and marketing of their Internet businesses and brands. PubCon London 2009 is a social networking event.

11 – 12 November 2009: Denver, Colorado

Defrag 2009 Conference

As online data is growing and fragmenting at an exponential pace, individuals, groups and organizations are struggling to discover, assemble, organize, act on and gather feedback from that data. In the largest sense, we’re all looking to augment the pace at which we achieve insights on raw data — to accelerate the “A-ha” moment.

Defrag explores the intersection of topics like:

• Business intelligence
• Business process management
• Social computing and analytics
• Next-level discovery
• Enterprise 2.0
• Next-gen email
• The semantic Web

1 – 3 December 2009: London, England

Online Information & IMS 2009

Online Information and IMS together create the largest event dedicated to the information industry. Consisting of an exhibition delivering over 9,000 visitors from 70 countries, a conference and a show-floor seminar program, the event provides an annual meeting place for the global information industry.

Online Information is once again set to play host to thousands of information professionals, information end-users and publishers from around the globe, meeting suppliers of online content, e-publishing, and library management solutions. IMS provides a forum for IT, business, and information management professionals to find unlimited, relevant advice, educational content and compare solutions under one roof. Attend IMS and meet suppliers of content management, search solutions, and Web 2.0 technologies.

15 – 16 March 2010: London, England

2nd Annual Social Networking World Forum — London

The 2nd Annual Social Networking World Forum takes place at the Olympia Conference Centre in London. The two-day event features four dedicated conference streams:

1. Social Networking World Forum
2. Enterprise social media
3. Social TV World Forum
4. Mobile Social Networking Forum

The event features key speakers from global brands, organizations, social networking publishers and developers, pioneering social media leaders, top agencies, content producers, and more.

• Full workshop program within exhibition area
• Evening networking reception
• Pre-show online meeting planner for delegates
• Free pass for exhibition only

Download this entire events calendar in iCal format.

Discuss

In this edition of the Weekly Wrapup – our newsletter summarizing the top stories of the week – we analyze the 5 biggest trends of 2009 on the Web, review the iTunes and iPhone announcements made by Apple during the week, tell you about a new WordPress feature that makes blogs more real-time, and more. We also check in on our two new channels: ReadWriteEnterprise (devoted to ‘enterprise 2.0′ trends and products) and ReadWriteStart (dedicated to profiling startups and entrepreneurs).

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Our First Premium Report for Businesses

The ReadWriteWeb Guide to Online Community Management is a premium report for businesses seeking to engage with online communities. It is a 75 page collection of case studies, advice and discussion concerning the most important issues in online community. You will also get a companion online aggregator that delivers the most-discussed articles each day. All of this is available for purchase at a price of $299. You can download a free sample section of the report here.

Top 5 Web Trends of 2009

This week ReadWriteWeb ran a series of posts analyzing the 5 biggest Web trends of 2009. Click each story below for the full-length posts:

1. Structured Data

Structured data is rapidly becoming a feature of today’s Web. Companies like Thomson Reuters and Google are enabling data to be structured, and new types of products (like Wolfram|Alpha) will make use of structured data in ways we perhaps can’t imagine right now.

2. The Real-Time Web

This has been probably the most hyped trend of 2009. The Real-Time Web has become a core part of many Internet products this year: Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, Google, Delicious, WordPress, and many others.

3. Personalization

Personalization has long been a buzzword on the Internet. With the glut of information on the Web circa 2009, personalization in this era means providing effective filters and recommendations.

4. Mobile Web & Augmented Reality

Clearly mobile devices are an increasingly important way to access the Web. What’s perhaps most encouraging however, is the entirely new class of mobile apps we’re seeing. Augmented Reality is the most obvious example. It’s been a big year for mobile, with much promise to come.

5. The Internet of Things

The fifth and final part of our series is about the Internet of Things, when real world objects (such as fridges, lights and toasters) get connected to the Internet. In 2009, this trend has ramped up and is adding a significant amount of new data to the Web.

Other Web Trends

Forget the iTunes LP, Apps are the New Album

The “iTunes LP” was just one of many new iTunes features revealed this week. Butit has a heavy burden on its shoulders. It’s supposed to revitalize the music industry by encouraging consumers to once again purchase entire albums as opposed to single tracks. However, innovative artists are already discovering how to monetize their music while engaging fans in new ways that have nothing to do with a re-imagined LP. Instead, the “interactive format” of the future isn’t the album, it’s the app.

In 8 Years, Online Video Consumption Will be Measured in Exabytes

One exabyte is a billion gigabytes. It’s one quintillion bytes. And yes, “quintillion” is a number so large, it almost seems made-up. But that’s how much online video will be consumed by 2017, according to new reports from U.K.-based research firm Coda. Actually, to be precise, they’re claiming that mobile broadband users accessing the net via laptops and netbooks will consume 1.8 exabytes of video. Per month.

How Facebook Beat MySpace: From College Dorm to Platform

Two years ago Danah Boyd described Facebook as “hegemonic” and MySpace as the haven of “subaltern” teens. Whether Boyd intended it or not, Facebook became characterized as the privileged space of college kids and MySpace was plagued with the perception of lowbrow tackiness. But now, according to a recent Hitwise blog post, Facebook is not only beating MySpace’s traffic – it’s the second ranked site overall in the US behind Google.

SEE MORE WEB TRENDS COVERAGE IN OUR TRENDS CATEGORY

A Word from Our Sponsors

We’d like to thank ReadWriteWeb’s sponsors, without whom we couldn’t bring you all these stories every week!

• Mashery is the leading provider of API management services.
• Domain.ME, the official registry for all .ME Domains.
• Codero, Dedicated Hosting with Backup & Managed Services.
• Faroo, Real-Time search.
• Groupsite.com, How Groups Make Things Happen.
• Crowd Science gives you detailed visitor demographics.
• hakia is a semantic search engine.
• Rackspace provides dedicated server hosting.
• Aplus provides web hosting services for small business hosting needs.
• MediaTemple provides hosting for RWW.
• SixApart provides our publishing software MT4.

ReadWriteEnterprise

Our channel ReadWriteEnterprise, devoted to ‘enterprise 2.0′ and using social software inside organizations.

Salesforce.com Service Cloud 2: Customer Service for the Social Web

Salesforce.com is best known for its CRM and its cloud computing platform. But according to the company its fastest growing product is Service Cloud, a kind of SaaS customer service software meant to replace the traditional call center. Salesforce.com has launched the second version of Service Cloud, which incorporates new capabilities for handling content as well as a close connection with the social networks.

ReadWriteStart

Our channel ReadWriteStart, sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark, is dedicated to profiling startups and entrepreneurs.

Design for Startups: The Aesthetics of Web Apps in 6 Questions

Look and feel is the first thing we see and notice about most web apps and is often critical to an app’s user experience, adoption, and ultimate success. We chatted with a panel of expert aesthetes in the space, including Spymaster designer Eston Bond, veteran creative director Rich Barrett, designer/developer Warren Benedetto, Mike Rundle of 9rules and Beak fame, and the Paul du Coudray Lowdown. Here’s what they had to say about developers doing double duty as designers, trends they’d like to see disappear, and how aesthetics can help a startup sink or swim.

SEE MORE STARTUPS COVERAGE IN OUR READWRITESTART CHANNEL

Web Products

It’s Only Rock and Roll: Steve Jobs is Back, iPhone 3.1, iTunes 9 & iPod Updates

Steve Jobs returned to a standing ovation at Apple’s annual iPod event this week, where Apple introduced version 3.1 of the iPhone OS and the next version of iTunes. With iTunes 9, Apple introduces a Genius-like recommendation feature for apps, a major redesign, ‘iTunes LPs‘ that will bring liner notes and artwork to digital albums, and app management for the iPhone and iPod touch built in to iTunes.

See also: iPhone 3.1: Some Nice Tweaks – Augmented Reality Still Only Semi-Supported

WordPress Just Made Millions of Blogs Real-Time With RSSCloud

All blogs on the WordPress.com platform and any WordPress.org blogs that opt-in (using this plug-in) will now make instant updates available to any RSS readers subscribed to a new feature called RSSCloud. RSSCloud is an element that’s always been present in the RSS 2.0 spec but has drawn new attention with the rise of interest in the Real-Time Web.

Android Market Passes 10K Apps; Marshall’s 5 Favorites (With QR Codes)

Google’s Android mobile operating system isn’t as popular as the iPhone, but its application marketplace is wide open and one service tracking Android apps reports that there are now more than ten thousand available. In this post lead RWW writer Marshall Kirkpatrick outlines his five favorite Android apps so far, along with QR codes you can scan.

Facebook Open Sources FriendFeed’s Ultra-Fast Real-Time Web Framework

Facebook announced this week that it has released Tornado, the real-time web framework that powers FriendFeed, as open source code. According to Facebook’s David Recordon, Tornado is one of the core infrastructure pieces that power FriendFeed’s real-time functionality.

SEE MORE WEB PRODUCTS COVERAGE IN OUR PRODUCTS CATEGORY

That’s a wrap for another week! Enjoy your weekend everyone.

Discuss

This just in from our team at Microsoft’s MCE event at CEDIA — the OEM requirement on CableCARDs has been officially lifted, freeing Joe Six Packs all over from having to buy whole systems. The photo above pretty much says it all — enthusiasts (hey, that’s us!) can add CableCARD tuners to their PC. Even though a DIY workaround has been around for a while, it’s nice not to have to break/bend the rules to get your shows recorded, isn’t it?

Filed under: HDTV

Media Center CableCARDs freed from OEM requirement originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Collecta, the real-time search startup we reviewed in May and again in June, is releasing their API today and announcing that the developer of the best application will receive a MacBook Pro.

“The API is really simple to integrate,” said Collecta CEO Gerry Campbell in a phone conversation yesterday. “It works very similar to the Twitter search API. We enourage that as a standard and wanted to make sure developers could easily pick it up and use it.”

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Campbell had an interesting take on Collecta’s approach to the ever-more crowded real-time search space.

“Our focus is real web search,” he said, “not just the social web. We’re looking across the web everywhere to find timely items.”

And while other real-time search engines, such as OneRiot, have PageRank-eqsue algorithms involving backlinks and user influence to determine search results, Collecta’s results are ranked solely on timeliness.

“We believe really strongly in relevance. We’re just going about it in a different way. If you want to offer real-time search, you have to be true to the timeline. We give you not the summary of the story, but the story as it unfolds.”

Campbell said this type of result is good for searches on entities and events, and he and the rest of the Collecta team feel the API could be put to great use in weather or fantasy sports applications.

“We think publishers will find this very interesting to use for evergreen or static stories as a widget or sidebar,” he continued.

API calls are limited to 5,000 per hour for developers who have not established a relationship with the company, and Collecta does plan to charge for high-level API usage as part of their revenue model.

The company was funded by True Ventures to the tune of $1.85 million and is still figuring out how the product will be monetized.

“Obviously, we’re building a business here” said Campbell.”‘I ran search at AOL… I’m pretty well-versed in search-related business models.”

Although he noted that the startup is “still getting all the players on the field,” Campbell did reveal that the basis for Collecta’s business strategy will be offering creative solutions to brands and advertisers. “The reason I love search is because it’s the number one place where user value and advertiser value are completely aligned. When users are coming and looking to buy something, I expect there to be those opportunities in this kind of search, as well.”

Discuss

This whole stream idea is starting to catch on. Even sports blog network SBNation is adopting what CEO Jim Bankoff calls StoryStreams for a new redesign it is launching tonight. A StoryStream is “the latest news feeds, Tweets, videos, comments that move a major sports story along,” says Bankoff.

SBNation is a collection of 212 sports blogs across major sports like basketball, baseball, football, and hockey. So far it’s main site, SBNation.com, has been not much more than a glorified directory for all the blogs. But tonight it is changing to more of a true sports destination site in its own right with a small team of editors who cull the best stories from the 212 blogs, as well as articles, videos, and Tweets from elsewhere. Each different major sport will have its own aggregation page, and new items will stream in on a continual basis.

But that’s not really the stream part. A big sports story, like basketball player Allen Iverson moving to the Memphis Grizzles (what is he thinking?), will sometimes show a number next to teh headline which indicates how many individual items are showing up about that one big story. If you click on one of those headlines, you come to a StoryStream page for that particular story, with blog posts, editor commentary, videos, Tweets, and so on about Iverson moving to Memphis or whatnot.

Sports news is like financial (and tech) news in that it attracts sports junkies who like to constantly refresh their favorite sports site to see the latest scores or updates about their favorite teams and players. Why not just stream all of those stories to them so that they never leave? That is sort of the idea behind SBNation’s StoryStream, which I like to think of as more of a SportsStream.

SBNation’s 212 blogs are already attracting a quickly growing audience. Bankoff says the network as a whole is up to 7.5 million unique visitors a month (Quantcast has 3.8 million). SBNation.com is a tiny part of that. Quantcast measures a tripling since April to 350,000 monthly U.S. uniques to SBNation.com,while comScore shows a similar trend (see chart below). Turning SBNation into a central sports hub should pump it up significantly and make it less puny. Adding more content and organized headlines on the main homepage and then keeping visitors longer with a constant barrage of headlines and links to the hottest sports stories should help move those numbers even higher on both the central site and the related blogs..

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

A British news organization appears to have reported that Yoko Ono said the Beatles’ catalog was coming to iTunes. Not true, say music industry sources.

Matt Drudge is playing up Andrew Breitbart’s latest Obama conspiracy theory—that he is enlisting the aid of the all-powerful visual arts cartel in support of healthcare reform. How long before artist thugs are dragging conservatives from their homes?

The diabolical alliance between Obama and his art-gangsters was struck in two shadowy conference calls last month, one allegedly hosted by the National Endowment for the Arts, and the other by the NEA-funded Americans for Arts. Both calls invited artists to discuss ways to “make change happen” and featured representatives from the White House’s Office of Public Engagement.

Drudge calls them “propaganda” calls, and hints darkly that someone lied or something about who sponsored them. It’s unclear whether these were simply random conference calls hosted by artist-activists and nonprofits at which representatives of the White House and NEA appeared, or whether they were actual White House-directed efforts to get a bunch of artists on the phone. Patrick Courrielche, a blogger at Breitbart’s Big Hollywood, thinks it’s the latter: “What appears to be emerging is a concerted and deliberate effort by the White House and the NEA to encourage the art community to create issue specific art.”

Oh dear. If Obama’s way to ram healthcare legislation through is to convince artists—the group of Americans who collectively wield the smallest conceivable quantum of influence over anything, at all—to, um, do art stuff in favor of it, we are all screwed. If his idea of propaganda is a mixed-media show about the insurance industry at a community center in Deerfield, Illinois, then he’s the least competent fascist in the history of fascism.

We should say that we are somewhat sympathetic to Courrielche’s position. If this is indeed a White House-led effort—and there’s no clear evidence that it is—it is wrongheaded. Even the suggestion that NEA money could be doled out to artists based on political criteria should be avoided, and any artist worth the name ought to feel uncomfortable about joining any conference call at all, let alone one that features Kal Penn in his duties as White House liaison to the arts community. Courrielche’s initial post on the subject at Big Hollywood is actually thoughtful, well-considered, and largely devoid of hyperbole. His second post claims to uncover a thicket of lies and rants about propaganda. Hey! That’s also the one Drudge linked to. What do you know?

Anyway, plenty of artists obviously support Obama’s agenda, but because they are just artists and nobody pays any attention to them, they are powerless to do anything about it. Now let’s hope they go back to taking pictures of urine-soaked crucifixes and men with whip-handles up their assholes, so crazy wingnuts will have more interesting things to be outraged about.