Buzz Potamkin introduces us to disintermediation, the process of squeezing out the middleman and asks how much longer will the Internet be classified as "new" media before it becomes "the" media.
* Tuesday, February 9 - Friday, February 12. Cannes, France.
Legendary Marvel comic book creator, Stan Lee, has formed a new company, Stan Lee Media, to harness the power and global outreach of the Internet to create a new world of superheros. The first venture of the newly formed company is StanLee.net (http://www.stanlee.net), which is being constructed to attract and accommodate the largest global assemblage of young comic book enthusiasts, who will be engaged in community creation on the Internet with Stan Lee and his new universe of superheros.
Mondo Media, a leading developer of digital content, has received a $2 million investment from venture capital firm, Sofinnova. The investment will fund the development of a line of Mondo Mini Shows - a series of animated and personalized, interactive, web-based cartoons. The shows will mirror the syndication model of newspaper comics where popular properties attract broad audiences on a repeat basis. "The syndication model is novel for the web, a proven success in other media," explains Randy Komisar, Mondo Media's Virtual CEO.
Buzz Potamkin attended New York City's first serious look at the increasingly complex and important world of taping into the kids' market. He was pleasantly surprised by the insightful panels and discussion. he 1998 Golden Marble Award Winners were announced at the event as well.
Are Kids Following Little Bo-Peep's Sheep? is a sidebar discussing the continuing erosion of audience numbers that will, in time, lead to a lag in advertising dollars...
San Francisco, California-based computer animation studio Mondo Media has hired Douglas Kay as president. He was previously vice president of development for Berkeley Systems. Before that he was chief technical officer at LucasArts, following nine years at Industrial Light & Magic, where he was a founding member of the computer graphics department in 1985.
* Friday, September 25. Utrecht, Netherlands.
The Utrecht School of the Arts faculty of Art, Media & Technology holds their annual presentation of the European Media Master of Arts, including Computer Animation. The event will take place at Baby in Amsterdam. Admission for Baby members is free, All others are admitted by invitation only. Contact hans.mertens@kmt.hku.nl for more details.
Gigi Hu reports on the current attempt by the island nation to bolster its fledgling animation industry.
