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My good friend and Maxthon partner, Morten Lund (early Skype-investor) & his team at LundKenner has just made a strategic investment in Israeli Start-up Spearcast. I am very happy of being responsible for making this happen. Morten will take a seat on Spearcast’s Board of Directors (I am already on Spearcast’s Advisory Board). Spearcast, recently launced a service called Palore. Palore lets you call business for free, rate them and share them with others in a very smart way. Spearcast was founded by very talented Israeli entrepreneurs Hanan Lifshitz and Erez Chochva. Read more about the investment here (in Hebrew sorry). I see great potential for this service and I am delighted that Morten and I (again for the second time) will be partners in crime.

Screenshot of Palore

Robert Young, a frequent guest columnist on OM Malik’s Blog, has written a very accurate description about the changing media landscape and the power balance between consumers and corporations. The post is called: Social Nets and the power of the URL.

According to Young, one of the most effective ways to measure the shifting balance of power between consumers and corporations it to look at the web as a huge collection of URL’s (I would call it the WebDNA), and then distinguish those URL’s that are controlled by corporations vs consumers.

Simply put, each and every URL should be viewed as a container for content that, in turn, can be distributed and redistributed. And the control of such distribution is increasingly in the hands of consumers, not corporations.

I like that precise definition, it really is what it all boils down to. That is why I prefer to call the URL’s for the WebDNA. Towards the end of the post he envisions the future of people powered community based-distribution networks:

Looking out several years, it’s not too difficult to envision a media landscape where the majority of traditional media distribution outlets reliant on the benefits of natural monopoly economics have largely been replaced with a highly-fragmented layer of people-powered community-based distribution networks.

I really believe that this is what we are going to see, in a way one could refer to “people-powered community-based distribution networks” as a true democratic economy, really even going beyond democracy in the sense that it is both empowering and rewarding the individual.

New York Times has a good write up about how user generated content and how it is changing the media landscape. The article’s conclusion, is that most amateurs are just happy for having their clips posted on sites for everybody to see. However, more and more media companies are offering prices or even paying for user generated content. Even Yahoo is said to have signalized that it is moving away from creating its on content in favor of user generated material – and are willing to pay for it.

So what is so compelling about user-created material?

1. It is cheap
2. It taps into the social aspect of interactive media

But while user-generated materials can attract a lot of attention and drive a lot of traffic to sites like Myspace , the article points out that so far it has not been regarded as a winning format for major advertisers. Myspace is adding up to a million registered users a week, but has attracted little advertising reveune relative to its audience.

In response to this, Viacom’s chief executive, Tom Freston, is qouted saying, “It’s like inserting the advertising into a conversation between two people, and there are still a lot of questions about advertisers supporting user-created content.”

Still, I believe that there really is a good window of opportunity for user-generated content sites and networks over the coming two years, because at the end of the day, its one of the things that makes people tick’. We are all looking for a stage, for a little fame even if it is not on a American Idol format level, but rather amongs our own little circle of friends and peers.

I have now passed my first year as a blogger and it has been an amazing year. This blog was born out of many requests that I got from working with various media agencies and start-ups on questions like: do you have any research on viral marketing? do you know of any company providing …? what media strategy do you suggest that we use on…? have your heard of..? We are looking to hire a talented person that..? What do you think of this business plan? Can you help us find investment for this new start-up? and many more. Instead of emailing ideas etc whenever it came up, I thought I just start a blog to share some of my experiences and know-how with my circle of contacts. However, I never dreamt of that it would turn into a business..

Here are some of the major take aways from my first year as a blogger.

1. Build a fantastic business network & made new friends
2. Helped companies in generating new business
3. Launched Samsung Mobiles “Anyfilms.Net” blog campaign through my cooperation with Hyper Happen.
4. Helped some talented people getting new jobs
5. Adviced media agencies on blog strategies, viral marketing and what makes people tick’
6. Connected people
7. Inspired others to blog too
8. Launched my company Mash Up Media – (MUM)
9. Connected start-ups with Venture Capitalists & vice versa
10. Made some money too

To sum up: I have learned a lot, got in touch with so many new and interesting people, helped other people with promoting their businesses and skills. If there is one thing I can say is that blogging is good for you and your business whatever you might be doing, just remember the famous line “Anything that you say, can and will be used against you…” so think twice before you post. BTW, stay tuned later over the next couple of days for a new blogging announcement.

Technorati Tags: Maxthon, Internet, Media, Blogs, We Media, Citizen Media, Citizen Journalism, Advertising, Anyfilms, Samsung Mobile, Business Developent, Blogvertising, Online Media, Hyper Happen, Networking, Mashups, Mashup Media