NFTs Are Poised to Move Beyond Arts into Academia, Health

As NFTs work their way into the social fabric via digital art and collectibles, there is speculation that their usefulness is only beginning to be understood. While non-fungible tokens have gained popularity due to their use in illustration, music, entertainment, gaming and sports, as a medium they’re still in their infancy. As units of data saved onto a blockchain, the provenance of every NFT is trackable, substantiating ownership and authenticity. As such, there is interest in using them for everything from educational credentialing and documenting medical treatment to automotive applications and philanthropic fundraising. Continue reading NFTs Are Poised to Move Beyond Arts into Academia, Health

TikTok Fights Attention Deficit, Chases Ads with Longer Vids

Having ridden the short-form video wave to popularity, TikTok now faces a quandary: advertisers want longer-form content in which to place their messaging, while users say they don’t even have sufficient attention span for minute-long videos. Last year, a TikTok survey indicated 50 percent of its users find clips of more than a minute stressful, and about a third of them zip through 60-second clips at double-speed. “It’s not because I don’t have time, but because I can’t concentrate,” one twentysomething user reportedly explained in a survey response. Despite that feedback, TikTok began experimenting through the second half of 2021 with videos of five minutes and 10 minutes. Continue reading TikTok Fights Attention Deficit, Chases Ads with Longer Vids

Clearview AI Courts Investors While Facing Privacy Pushback

Clearview AI is positioning itself for a major expansion that is already generating major controversy. At a December financial presentation, the New York-based firm reportedly predicted it will have 100 billion facial images in its database by the end of 2022 — or about 14 photos for each of the earth’s 7 billion people. And there is said to have been talk of surveilling gig economy workers, identifying people based on how they walk and remotely scanning fingerprints. While the company’s 34-year-old founder and chief exec Hoan Ton-That is careful to present the firm as a crime-fighting tool, its broader implications are chilling. Continue reading Clearview AI Courts Investors While Facing Privacy Pushback

Kids Online Safety Act Advocates Holding Tech Accountable

A bipartisan bill to protect kids online was introduced Wednesday by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee). The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) would give parents more control over social media settings, add opt-out features and establish a “duty of care” that opens the door to liability and lawsuits. “Big Tech has brazenly failed children and betrayed its trust, putting profits above safety,” said Blumenthal. “This measure makes kids’ safety an Internet priority.” The bill follows a media blitz and months of Congressional hearings on the danger of social media to the mental and physical health of young users. Continue reading Kids Online Safety Act Advocates Holding Tech Accountable

Intel to Acquire Israel’s Tower Semiconductor for $5.4 Billion

Intel announced it will purchase Israeli chipmaker Tower Semiconductor in a deal valued at $5.4 billion. Tower — which specializes in analog semiconductor solutions for high-growth markets including mobile, automotive, medical devices and power management — will make Intel instantly more competitive in sectors dominated by Taiwan’s TSMC. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger cited “Tower’s specialty technology portfolio, geographic reach [and] deep customer relationships” among the assets that will help scale Intel to “a globally diverse end-to-end foundry” to help meet growing chip demands across the nearly $100 billion addressable foundry market. Continue reading Intel to Acquire Israel’s Tower Semiconductor for $5.4 Billion

Multiverse Challenge AND Preparing for the Multiverse

ETC@USC Multiverse Challenge

and

Student/Executive Multiverse Discussion

On March 29, 2022 USC students were invited to participate in the USC Entertainment Technology Center’s Multiverse Challenge.

The Challenge was to describe, in 250 words or less, a creative way to redesign, repurpose, or use an existing technology, process, or business model in a new way to create something that the world hasn’t seen before.

31 undergrad and graduate students from Cinema, Engineer, Business, Journalism, Iovine & Young Academy, and Arts & Sciences submitted ideas by the April 14, 2022 deadline.

Six senior executives from the ETC@USC member companies selected six submissions (link to document) and the students were invited to participate in a May 17, 2022 Zoom discussion of the Multiverse and related topics with them and other ETC@USC member-company executives.

Here is an 8 minute highlight reel of the ETC@USC Student/Executive Multiverse Zoom Discussion.

Here is the full 1-hour ETC@USC Student/Executive Multiverse Zoom Discussion video.

 


The Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California (ETC@USC)

Wednesday, February 16th, 1:30-4:45pm PT

As the culture, art, and commerce spaces rebalance to incorporate blended physical and virtual options, it is clearly important that we understand early on how changes will impact our business and creative endeavors.

Our speakers spend their days thinking about how the emerging metaverses will impact creativity, business development, and the fabric of society.

This is an ETC Digital Town Square symposium with support from Kinestry

 

Program

1:30   Introduction, Phil Lelyveld, ETC@USC

1:33   Eric Holdener and Rachel Joy Victor, Kinestry, “How to produce human-centered experience storytelling in the Multiverse?” (Preview (2 minutes))

2:00  Edward Saatchi, Fable Studio and The Culture DAO, “The future of art, creativity, and support for artists in the metaverse” (Preview (2 minutes))

2:30  Krista Kim, artist, interviewed by Eric Holdener and Rachel Joy Victor, “The Techism art movement, which reconciles technological innovation with the creation of art” (Preview (2 minutes))

3:00-3:15 coffee break

3:15   Caitlin Burns, Palm NFT Studio, “Non-Fungible Relationships: What Do NFTs Mean for the Future of IP?” (Preview (2 minutes))

3:45  Catherine Henry, Media.Monks, “How Brands can prepare to enter the Metaverse” (Preview (2 minutes))

4:15   Robert Tercek, futurist, consultant, author, “Will We Be Citizens or Subjects of the Metaverse?” (Preview (2 minutes))


FULL VIDEOS and speaker info below

  • Phil Lelyveld  (Moderator) ETC@USC Immersive Media Initiative program lead

Suggested links
Entertainment Technology Center @ USC website – www.etcenter.org
Entertainment Technology Center @ USC news site – www.etcentric.org

www.PhilipLelyveld.com

PLelyveld@ETCenter.Org

Philip Lelyveld

 

  • “How to produce human-centered experience storytelling in the Multiverse?”

  • Eric Holdener, Founder & CEO, and Rachel Joy Victor, Director of Strategic Insight & User Experience at Kinestry, an Innovation Studio.  Eric & Rachel provide Sense-Making for consumer-facing companies approaching the Metaverse and NFTs.  The pair have already educated and led Strategy Design for Nike, VF Corp, and, on the 25th, for Activision.  Answering key questions including “How to navigate this new space?” and “How to produce human-centered experience storytelling in the Multiverse?”
Suggested Links
Kinestry website = https://kinestry.io/
Kinestry contact info = ben@kinestry.io

 

Eric Holdener is an innovation strategist. He spent over 12 years with Nestle, a Fortune 100 company, in numerous functions both in Switzerland and in the USA. His experience includes driving business and technology transformation initiatives, launching products, conducting large-scale LEAN initiatives and partnering with executive leadership teams on strategic projects to deliver organic growth. He introduced Design Thinking and developed innovative tools to help organizations visualize value and improve their performance. His passion and expertise in organizational alignment, innovation design, and disruptive technologies make him a versatile and strategic thinker who likes to operate in any environment.

Eric Holdener

 

Rachel Joy Victor, Director of Strategic Insight & User Experience at Kinestry, is a strategist and designer exploring interaction and engagement in the context of emerging culture and technology. Her strategy work aligns brand, product, and content strategy, centering user engagement and experience throughout. She designs for the breadth of the new content life cycle: from narratives and immersive experiences to tools and platforms to spaces and cities. Rachel draws from a degree in computational neuroscience and a worldbuilding perspective to align emergent systems and human behavior in her work. She has consulted for Disney, HBO, Warner Bros, and Ford, among others.


Rachel Joy Victor

 

  • “The future of art, creativity, and support for artists in the metaverse”

  • Edward Saatchi, founder of Fable Studio and organizer of The Culture DAO will speak on the future of art, creativity, and support for artists in the metaverse

Suggested Links

The Culture DAO

The Culture DAO launches the $CULTUR social token at the Virtual Beings Summit


Edward Saatchi

 

  • “The Techism art movement, which reconciles technological innovation with the creation of art”

  • Krista Kim, founder of the Techism movement, contemporary artist, and Mettaverse world builder who has had large scale public installations around the world and will discuss the Techism art movement, which reconciles technological innovation with the creation of art.

Kinestry’s Rachel Joy Victor and Eric Holdener will interview Krista. They will start with the latest piece of Continuum that is live in Times Square right now. Krista will then introduce herself and talk about Techism and her vision on the Metaverse. She will talk about the Mars House Genesis, the acceleration of the Metaverse and NFT space, and the place of artists in the conversation around Brand Franchise.

Suggested Links

Artist Interview – Understanding Techism, Krista Kim (2019)

Krista Kim’s website and techism manifesto

Artist Krista Kim sells “first NFT digital house in the world” for over $500,000 (45 sec. video)  She discusses the thoughts and goals behind her design and pricing of the house  (“what is the concept of value?”) on this ‘NFTs for Architects’ podcast (timecode 5:40-8:04)

Krista Kim is a contemporary artist and founder of the Techism movement (2014), whose work explores the concept of the digital consciousness. Her interest in digital technology and its revolutionary effects on human perception, media, social structures, and communication had led her to work in both digital and physical realms. Having developed her signature language of shifting gradients using digital software since 2012, her works on glass and plexi hypnotize its viewers into a trance of tranquility while her video works provide meditative experiences of color and light.

Most recently in 2020, during the Coronavirus lockdown, Kim continued to explore the creative potential to utilize screens as digital instruments of well-being by creating ‘Mars House’: a completely virtual environment using her digital zen philosophy as the first “Metaverse home” for sale as an NFT in history in March, 2021. The piece received global acclaim and in March 2021 was the highest-grossing sale on an NFT on SuperRare.

In 2014, as a response to society’s over-reliance on technology, she started the Techism Movement, a philosophy that recognizes technological innovation as an artistic discipline, encouraging artists to promote digital humanism for our digital culture.

Krista Kim was chosen by Louis Vuitton as a #Louis200 visionary in celebration of Louis’ 200th birthday; contributing Metaverse Editor for Singapore Vogue; Top 30 Most Influential People of the Metaverse by Read and Write Magazine; Architectural Digest AD100, NFTy50 by Fortune Magazine. Kim made an iconic collaboration with Lanvin in 2018. In 2021, Kim collaborated with Mercedes Benz EQS and she was part of the “Proof of Art” exhibition at Francisco Carolinum Museum (Linz, Austria). Kim was creative director for the Utah Jazz NBA Team, “JazzXR” campaign, the first Sports Team Metaverse NFT in history. She was also in a curated auction by Steve Aoki at Sotheby’s and a curated auction for Christie’s by nftnow. Mars House is exhibited at the Hermitage State Museum, “Ethereal Aether” in 2021.


Krista Kim

 

  • “Non-Fungible Relationships: What Do NFTs Mean for the Future of IP?”

  • Caitlin Burns, Director of Story at Palm NFT Studio, will discuss the future of storytelling between audiences and franchises in: Non-Fungible Relationships: What Do NFTs Mean for the Future of IP? 

Suggested Links
Non-Fungible Relationships: “What Do NFTs Mean for the Future of Franchises?”

Caitlin Burns on LinkedIn

Palm NFT Studio website, Palm.io

Caitlin Burns is the Director of Story for Palm NFT Studio, where she’s responsible for leading teams of creators building new experiences for original and major franchise IP using NFT platforms and mechanics. A globally recognized expert in franchise storytelling, experience design and brand strategy. She has spent more than a decade creating multiplatform content strategies for well-known IP, Brands and institutions including: Pirates of the Caribbean, Descendants and Tron Legacy for Disney, James Cameron’s Avatar for Fox, Halo for Microsoft, The Happiness Factory for The Coca-Cola Company, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Nickelodeon and Transformers for Hasbro, Dexter for Showtime, and UNICEF Kid Power. 

Previously serving on the Board of the Producers’ Guild of America’s New Media Council for 6 years, with 3 as Vice Chair, Caitlin is recognized as a global specialist in emerging media production and sustainable development. You can find more about her work here.


Caitlin Burns

 

  • “How Brands can prepare to enter the Metaverse”

  • Catherine D Henry, SVP Growth: Metaverse & Innovation Strategy at Media.Monks will speak on How Brands can prepare to enter the Metaverse: identifying near-term opportunities to translate digital strategies to virtual worlds to drive engagement and traction

Suggested Links
How Brands launch NFTs and what to expect next – video and pdf
Making sense of the Metaverse (6 minute read)
Creating an Ethical Metaverse (pdf)
The Future is Fast and Slow: 6 Metaverse Trends you Should Know Now

Catherine D. Henry - VR/AR Global Summit ONLINE
Catherine D Henry

 

  • “Will We Be Citizens or Subjects of the Metaverse?”

  • Robert Tercek, futurist, consultant, and the author of the internationally best-selling book Vaporized, will examine the economic drivers that will shape the Metaverse. The talk will raise questions about the rights of human participants in corporate-designed and -controlled worlds. Tercek wants to examine the question of whether we will unconsciously replicate the artifacts of neo-colonialism in virtual worlds.

Tercek’s talk will examine the economic drivers that will shape the Metaverse, and it will raise questions about the rights of human participants in corporate-designed and -controlled worlds. He wants to examine the question of whether we will unconsciously replicate the artifacts of neo-colonialism in virtual worlds.

https://RobertTercek.com

2022 NEBSA Conference Keynote - Robert Tercek - NEBSA
Robert Tercek

2021 Marks Renewed Demand for Laptops and Smartphones

Laptops and smartphones are electronics categories that closed the book on 2021 with different takes on success. Smartphone shipments were up for the first time in four years, growing between 4 and 5.7 percent, according to Counterpoint and IDC research, respectively. Notebook computers, meanwhile, ended 2021 with record Q4 shipments down 1 percent from 2021 but a record 19 percent increase for the year as “the industry prioritized notebook PC production in the face of supply constraints to keep up with hybrid working needs,” according to Strategy Analytics. Continue reading 2021 Marks Renewed Demand for Laptops and Smartphones

YouTube Exploring Commerce and NFTs, Says CEO Wojcicki

YouTube plans to test new monetization features for creators of its YouTube Shorts videos, which have passed more than 5 trillion views since debuting in September 2020, according to YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, who also said the company is exploring adding NFTs to its toolkit for video creators. In addition, YouTube is testing new shopping features tied to its video content. The number of global creator channels making more than $10,000 a year “is up 40 percent year over year,” Wojcicki wrote as part of an annual letter to creators that outlined 2022 priorities focusing on helping creators generate income. Continue reading YouTube Exploring Commerce and NFTs, Says CEO Wojcicki

Squarespace Adds Monetization Options to Its Video Feature

Squarespace has introduced a new video feature for content creators that provides them with the ability to sell access to videos either as a one-off or via a continuing subscription plan. The website creation and hosting service will offer 30 minutes of uploaded content for free, while creators looking to post more content have the option to sign up for Member Areas plans, starting at $9 per month. To compete with the likes of YouTube, Patreon and OnlyFans, users will be able to upload video directly to their Squarespace site with options for monetizing content. The company’s native video player offers “slick playback” and “deep integration into the Squarespace platform.” Continue reading Squarespace Adds Monetization Options to Its Video Feature

Meta AI Research Supercomputer Aims to Be World’s Fastest

The immersive experiences Meta Platforms has planned for the metaverse will require processing power beyond what’s possible today, tipping into the quintillions of operations-per-second. But the company has a fix for that. Meta announced Monday that it has been working on a new artificial intelligence supercomputer called the AI Research SuperCluster, that will be the fastest in the world when fully built this summer. Drawing on resources from partners like Nvidia, Penguin Computing and Pure Storage, the effort took two years and involved several hundred people who collaborated remotely through the COVID-19 pandemic for much of the project. Continue reading Meta AI Research Supercomputer Aims to Be World’s Fastest

Euro Parliament Toughens Stance on Surveillance Advertising

The European Parliament has added amendments to the EU’s proposed Digital Services Act that will further strengthen consumer protections and make it more difficult for Big Tech to continue tactics for surveillance advertising and microtargeting. The new amendments, advanced at a plenary session last week, are significant in part because they apply to digital services more broadly than the original DSA, which targets “gatekeeper” companies like Google and Facebook. Parliament had already endorsed a full ban on the profiling of minors as well as limiting the use of special category data for ad serving. Continue reading Euro Parliament Toughens Stance on Surveillance Advertising

Google Quietly Developing Cloud-Based Android AR Goggles

Meta has a VR megaphone; Apple has been working on an AR headset; and Microsoft wants the best of both worlds, with its mixed reality HoloLens and headset-agnostic Xbox game platform. But observers say don’t count Google out. The search giant is reportedly ramping up its headset efforts under the codename Project Iris with a release target of 2024. As with HoloLens and, experimentally as of last summer, Passthrough API-enabled Oculus Quest 2 headsets, Google’s device-in-progress is said to use an outward-facing camera to provide a real-world backdrop for digital images. Continue reading Google Quietly Developing Cloud-Based Android AR Goggles

VPN Unlimited Settles with U.S. Filmmakers in BitTorrent Suit

VPN Unlimited has agreed to block BitTorrent traffic via sites such as The Pirate Bay as well as access to online pirate services on U.S. servers. The move is part of a settlement in a federal lawsuit brought by a consortium of independent film production companies. The complaint alleges that VPN Unlimited’s subsidiary KeepSolid Inc. has perpetuated widespread copyright infringement. BitTorrent sites YTS and RARBG are also targeted in the settlement. By failing to disconnect repeat offenders, VPN and KeepSolid are accused of encouraging copyright infringement. Continue reading VPN Unlimited Settles with U.S. Filmmakers in BitTorrent Suit

Meta Quest VR Unit Faces Antitrust Probe by FTC and States

In the wake of a last week’s ruling that the Federal Trade Commission can prosecute its antitrust suit against Meta Platforms, it is now reported that the FTC and multiple state attorneys general are scrutinizing the company’s virtual reality unit — formerly known as Oculus Quest but renamed Meta Quest — for potential anti-competitive practices. New York, North Carolina and Tennessee are among the states that, in addition to the FTC, are said to be investigating whether the Meta Quest app store discriminates against app developers whose goods compete against Meta’s own products. Continue reading Meta Quest VR Unit Faces Antitrust Probe by FTC and States

Google TV Aims to Build Its Own Identity Among TV Platforms

Alphabet’s Google continues on a path of global dominance, announcing during CES 2022 earlier this month that the total number of monthly active Android TV devices has grown to 110 million in the world. Since May alone, 30 million devices were added, a growing number of them featuring the company’s new Google TV platform, with TCL reporting that it is moving about 10 million television sets a year with the Google TV interface. Seven of the world’s top 10 smart TV OEMs are currently using a Google UI on their TVs, according to Google TV director of product management Rob Caruso. Continue reading Google TV Aims to Build Its Own Identity Among TV Platforms