4:00 PM - 5:15 PM
Session A:
Content Acquisition, Licensing and Syndication on the Net
From the start, as much as TV industry, the Net has been about aggregating viewers, gaining market share, and monetizing the user experience. To that end, the concept of licensing, content acquisition, and syndication have become a growing Net business phenomenon. While the content may not function in quite the same way as TV syndication, the value of “site features” from stock information, news updates, and ASP like add-ons to actual “programming,” which might be a pay-per-view event or a long term “content partnership”, syndication and licensing is very much at the core of E-commerce and Net success.
Jason Rubinstein, GM, Riffage Live
Jannat Gargi, Atom Films
Andre Herring, Senior Manager of Digital Media Centers, Alta Vista Network
Todd Sherman, Vice President, Corporate Services, iCopyright
Alan Ellman, President & founder, ScreamingMedia
Kent Devereaux, SVP of Wireless and Editorial Content, Britannica.com
Joel Maske, President & CEO, iSyndicate, Moderator
Joel Maske, President & CEO, iSyndicate, Moderator: Joel Maske is a serial Internet entrepreneur.
Joel founded iSyndicate in October 1996, and as the company's Chairman, President and CEO, has steered the team to its current position as the Internet's Content Marketplace. Prior to iSyndicate, Joel was co-founder and Vice President of GALT Technologies, producer of the Internet's first financial portal, NETworth. Intuit acquired GALT in 1996 and integrated it into its market leading Quicken.com service. Joel holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University and was attending Carnegie Mellon University's Graduate School of Business when he co-founded GALT in 1994. Prior to CMU, Joel led teams in product engineering, marketing and technical sales roles during his five years with Shell Oil Company and Ingersoll Rand. An avid runner and team sports enthusiast, "Coach" Joel perpetually quotes the likes of Vince Lombardi, Steve Prefontaine, and Bobby Knight.Todd Sherman, Vice President, Corporate Services, iCopyright: Todd Sher
man was most recently vice president of sales for GoAhead Software, which provides management applications and frameworks for embedded networked devices. Previously, he was the Northwest branch manager for Silicon Graphics, heading up the field sales and marketing operations in Alaska, Oregon, and Washington. Major customers included Boeing, PNNL, Nintendo, Nordstrom, Nike, and Tektronix. Sherman has also had marketing, product management, and technical roles with Silicon Graphics, Wyse Technology, and Calma/GE.Alan S. Ellman is Founder and President of ScreamingMedia, where he oversees the
daily operation and growth of the company. Ellman also drives the development of ScreamingMedia's core aggregation, filtration and content syndication business and e-commerce technologies. Ellman has created ScreamingMedia, a leading global infrastructure technology that aggregates, distributes and integrates digital content into websites, enterprises and wireless networks. ScreamingMedia brings content, commerce and Web sites together in a way that benefits each part of the network: Web site affiliates are made more vibrant, compelling and "sticky" with real-time, customized news streamed to their sites by ScreamingMedia. Content affiliates benefit from the additional exposure of their material and the fee they receive each time one of their stories is downloaded. Commerce affiliates benefit from having a larger presence on the Web and greater opportunity to sell their merchandise. Ellman launched ScreamingMedia in 1993 as Interactive Connection, a full-service Web site business, offering Web design, advertising and consulting services. In 1996, when he was contracted to provide news content to AT&T's Olympic Web site, and travel news to Visa's site, Ellman realized how streaming constantly-updated content could dramatically increase traffic and repeat visits. He decided to redirect the company's focus to the delivery of custom content to corporate and vertical-market Web sites. Under Ellman's leadership, ScreamingMedia's network is growing and expanding dramatically every day, signing such blue-chip clients as AOL, Sun Microsystems, Inteliheath and Microsoft. Prior to founding Interactive Connection, Mr. Ellman was the Director of Finance at ABC Radio Networks in New York, where he learned the value of news syndication. His responsibilities included the management of all-financial operations and obligations on a domestic and international basis. Mr. Ellman was also responsible for all accounting and business operations. Previously, Mr. Ellman was a Sales manager at Capital Cities/ABC Television network. Mr. Ellman is a graduate of the University of Maryland with a B.S. in international finance. He earned his M.B.A in finance with a concentration in information systems from Fordham University.