No offense but it look like something G Bush would make to support his war activities.

Gimme gimme

Hey Jason

I thought you said you were done given percentages. And then one paragraph later there you go again. Gues you just cant help your self... LOL

Anyway I completely agree. Wikipedia should just put up the damn add. In fact I think they should put up many add, make as much money as they can and turn wikipedia into a charity fundation. Not only will they be educating the world via wikipedia but also they can help those who need it most.

I think it is a complete no brainer.

Mark I'm curious what is your take on The Venice Project aka Joost - will it fail?

God damn the Geak to Freak show looks stupid! But I'm sure its gonna be a success. I would love to watch, however, beeing in Europe I gues thats just not gonna happen.

Have you taken a look at Greg "Fossilman" Raymer or Doyle "Texas Dolly" lately. They are doing pretty well in poker but I don't think that good fitness is their strong point. In fact when thinking about poker and professional poker player good physical fitness is not what comes to mind.

Movie theater marketing plan Two tier plan to getting more people to the movies Tier 1 � cost efficiancy The inspiration for this tier comes from the airline business and in particular one of the most succesful european discount operator Ryanair (CEO Michael O�Leary). When O�Leary took other the management of the strugling Irish airline he knew that he had to come up with a whole new plan for the airline if it was to be competitive. A former accontant O�leary is very cost concious and he double check the figures and then check them again. The result he came up with was to make the airline the most cost effective airline in the business. He has done this in a number of ways that will be discussed below. I believe that a number of the parameters used by Ryanair can be applied to the movie business and contributing to making the business more profitable and at the same time generate new way to market the movies. Tier 2 � new media marketing The hottest thing in media development at the moment is without a doubt community driven media. Just look at the likes of YouTube, Digg, Delicius, Jason Calacanis efforts to turn around netscape.com around using the community angle and Robert Scoble switch from Microsoft to PodTech where is to run a number of employess creating news in a whole new way with podcast and videocasting. These are all new ways of running a media business � a real business. Granted the mentioned examples and other are far from agreeing on how this new business should be run. However, I believe that the movie business can learn from all of them, take the best bits and use it for marketing their movies. More on this later. Ad tier 1. Besides working the numbers and thinking outside the box to came up with new ways in which to run the business more efficiantly Ryanair and O�Leary has done one really brilliant thing to be more competitive. They have cut their product down to the absolutely bare minimum. First they promote their prices one way which has made their prices seem lower (trust me it works � all the other discount airlines has later copied this idea). This is not that relevant to the movie business business but it shows how one should think. Make it seem cheaper to the customer and your number of customers will increase. Another thing Ryanair has done is to shave their product down so when you buy a ticket with them there is alot of things that are not included: you dont get a meal but you can buy one onboard with your credit card, the ticket doesnt include you checking in a suitcase you pay extra for that per bag. Naturally there a no free drinks onboard and they have even been trying the idea of not having any personel checking in the customers bags they do it them selfes on kiosks. Also they fly out of less used airports where they are able to negotiate lower fees to the airport making the ticket cheaper. Of course it is not the same extra products customers want in the movie theater. However, the fundamental idea can be applied to the movie industry. What elements one chose to implement will demand throurough investigation and calculation which demand acces to all business information which I do not have. However, here are some ideas for extra products one can charge people for at the movies, hence making it posible to lower prices a bit drawing in more people and being more competitive: - Babysitting service, dump your kid right there at the theater where sweet young girls will look after the child in a safe an fun enviroment � the girls will also love it. - Display prices for the �bad� seats and charge a small extra for a decent seat. - Snack service, people can order snack and drinks from home and a young smiling girl will bring it to your seat. - Movie and a meal, charge extra for having food ready for the whole family after (or before) the movie. Somebody will know they are comming and will pick them up and take them to their seat and the food will be ready fast coz you will know when they are comming. - Paid parking, charge extra for a parking spot close to the entrance. People wont have to walk around endless parking lots looking for their car after the movie. - Charge for merchandise - Etc. The ultimate goal for Ryanair is to make their tickets free and solely make a business of of selling extras to the customers. Although this seems like an unreachable goal it seems like a good goal to have. It definitely shows rethinking the business and thinking outside the box. It is my belief that the same thing can be done for the movie business. Ad tier 2 � moviebuff.com � community driven movie media Recriut moviebuffs and have the do blogging, podcast and videocast. Only requirement it has to be about the movies and the theaters and all stories has to link and mention the website of the movie and where people can buy tickets. Reward your moviebuffs with special treats: - acces to premiers - Limited merchandise - Meat the actors - Come to the sets - Early information about future movies - Etc This is a relatively inexpensive way to market movies and if done right this can generate alot of attention to the movies. Also this is word of mouth marketing which in my mind is a lot more efficient than �regular� marketing. The two above mentioned tiers together I believe could make a real difference for the movie business and drive a lot more people to the theaters.

You have totally nail it. Kevin is definately loosing the debate by getting personal. Also I simply cannot understand what the fuss is about. In any other media nobody would be suprised that the people contributing get paid for their work. Do people really think that the journalists on any paper work for free? I mean jeeze!

Just grow up. Wake up and smell the coffee this is a business - treat it like that. Or maybe Kevin wants to give Digg away to Yahoo when the time comes. Oh no I dont need money... I just did it for free.

So stop pointing fingers and crying just because somebody are paying people for their work.

You've written endorse twice in your post

"You're endorsing the story if you vote for it--as opposed to delicious where you are just bookmarking it (which doesn't tell you if the person endorses it). What do you suggest?"

So maybe endorse is a better word that vote?

I think that the red line through your whole business plan is that everything begins with the user and his/hers wants.

I think you should stick to this and create mobile blog system in such a way that the users them selves have control over what they want on their phone and how.

If you "give the ball" to the mobile companies they will create the business model and traditionally it wont start with the users wants. Its my opinion that they will make a model where the users have to pay to see the content and wont be able to control how they see it.

In the short run that might give you guys profit from the mobile companies, however, in the long run I think it will spoil the business model and rob you of a great oportunity namely mobile content.