I’m pumped for next week. Why? It’s Internet Week in NYC! Imagine SXSW Interactive, minus the panels, and set in the most lively city in the US. Sure it’s a bonus that I live here, and I have an excellent excuse to hit the parties at night and come in to the work late, but correct me if I’m wrong, NYC seems like a perfect setting for celebrating what we are all devoting our careers to try and make the most of.

*Brief History Lesson* It all started when the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting called up the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences (aka the Academy behind the Webby Awards), and asked them to help rally companies to throw parties and make their meetups and conferences a part of the festivities.

The events start this Tuesday, June 3, and run through Tuesday, June 10 concluding with the Webby Awards Gala. And in case you hadn’t heard, Fast Lane Daily picked up a Webby Award so we’re ready to celebrate BIG TIME!

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Jeaux Janovsky, our community manager for Channel Frederator and Pulp Secret and a wonderful artist as well, stopped by a talk by Giant Robot founder Eric Nakamura at the Korea Society earlier this week. Jeaux summed up the talk on the Channel Frederator blog, and posted his notes from the evening in the form of this awesome drawing:

Looks like it was a pretty inspiring event — and it’s obvious Eric dug the drawing, too.

You may have noticed that Epic-Fu’s been on a break lately, as we and the show’s producers, Steve and Zadi at Smashface, have both been thinking about what path we want to take into the future.

In the past year, we saw real growth in viewership of the show over the course of the partnership; we worked together to execute innovative advertising campaigns for clients including Lionsgate, Sony Pictures, XBox Live and Mobivox; and we supported Smashface in the rebranding and successful relaunch of the show in their new incarnation as EPIC-FU. All the while, Steve and Zadi entertained their loyal audience every week and, as the pioneers of videoblogging and inspired, creative people that they are, were great people for us to work with.

With that said, after careful consideration of each company’s goals, we’ve made the decision to move our separate ways. Next New Networks is focused for the coming year on a strategy anchored around our building up our own networks in key categories like autos, entertainment, humor and style, and establishing some new partnerships in those areas. Similarly, Smashface is going to pursue their creative vision in a way that can be most effective for them.

I’m of course disappointed we won’t be working day to day with Steve and Zadi on Epic Fu, as it’s no secret that we’re good friends and enjoy working together. But it’s a great thing to know that we’ve come out of a year with some real success, and a strong vision for what’s next for our companies. We wish them a lot of luck in their next phase, and as always, we’ll be watching.

Amazing illustration made by Kiichi for this month from the New Jenny-San Calendar english site. XJ5 icon created by gashi-gashi. Via the Teenage Roblog.

Four years ago, my partner Emil Rensing suggested I start a blog when I asked him what we should do online for our (Oh Yeah! Cartoons spin off) series My Life as a Teenage Robot. “You’ll learn something,” he said.

Boy was he right. All the Frederator blogs, Channel Frederator, and Next New Networks are all the direct result of the learning, and of course, that’s been in addition to all the great series, movies, and shorts, the great talents have been working on with us during those years.

A particular shout out and thanks should go out to a few folks:

Rob Renzetti created MLaaTR in the first place, inspiring us to create the first blog.

Eric Homan took my challenge to get the thing going, and keep it going.

Scott Peterson, MLaaTR’s story editor, wrote the blog for a couple of years when the rest of us were too scared to try.

Wichobot is the loyal and talented fan who took over the Roblog when the series was over, and has kept it going with our great fans over the last couple of years. It’s better now than we ran it, and proves the complete value of community in the modern, interconnected world.

And, of course, most of all, our loyal fans and readers who have read, suggested, commented, contributed, complained, and supported all of our efforts during the last four years. Without you we would literally be nothing.

I’m a sucker for a good mash-up or remix. OK, really I’m just a sucker for music. Add a kickin’ soundtrack to any video footage, and all the sudden, “it’s my favorite video, ever!” Now Weezer’s put their spin on the “mash-up/remix” for their latest single Pork and Beans. They’ve basically pulled an Internet People, and paid homage to a TON of our favorite YouTube stars! (Weezer has even released footage from the shoot featuring Kelly and Dan!)

What a smart move on their part! Nothing gets the “viral” web going like engaging the community that promulgates it. And seriously, who wouldn’t want to help out Weezer? While you try to name all the web stars in this video, I’ll leave you with a few other super-sweet remixes and mash-ups. And if you have a favorite, link it up in the comments!

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Working at Next New Networks has its perks. Two weeks ago I received a random email invite to a screening of the new Indiana Jones movie, The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull. At first I was wondering what PR list I had managed to get myself on, but what I didn’t know it at the time was that it was actually a Next New Networks field trip set up by Tim Shey and our awesome contact at Paramount, Casey. With permission slip in hand, I hopped in a cab to the premiere with Tim, Rachel, Justin, Erik, Steve, Scott, Vanessa, and a few others.

When we arrived there were a TON of lines set up outside with fans, photographers, and Dr. Jones look-a-likes! Of course, being the cool kids that we are (well, that and Casey being the bomb), we didn’t have to wait in line and we walked right in to grab our seats, and then predictably made a mad dash to the concession stand. Hot dogs, popcorn, and nachos in hand, we returned to our seats on the balcony (which were sweet!) to relish in the delight and excitement brewing within the theater. As we relaxed into our seats we were serenaded into anticipation by the Indiana Jones theme music. Right before the film got started there was a ruckus at the balcony entrance, and low and behold, it was Shia LeBeouf hanging out! Next walked in Karen Allen and Harrison Ford! With all the stars in place, the lights dimmed, and the adventure began continued.While I won’t spoil ending for you, I will leave you with a few online features to warm up with before you go see what many of us have been waiting almost 20 years for! (more…)

Photo by Jared.

I first met the brilliant Ben Ross (of Channel Frederator, Ultra Kawaii, and more) on Channel Frederator RAW, our Ning-powered social network for animators and animation fans. He had posted the first episode of Inside Ben’s Head, his own original series, and there were so many crazy, great ideas, like “Nolte-Busey-Busey-Nolte” and “Italian Techno,” that I wrote him a fanmail right away. Here’s the episode in question:

Find more videos like this on Channel Frederator RAW

Ben wrote back and said he’d actually had a cartoon way back in the second episode of Channel Frederator (unknown to me, Fred had a similar experience, meeting Ben at an event and never making the connection that he was the same guy who sent that great cartoon in to Channel Frederator). Such was the pace of those early days at Next New Networks that about a week later, I walked over to meet a new intern who was sitting over with the Frederator team, and it turned out to be Ben. He’d already been hired before I’d gotten the chance to tell anyone about him. (more…)

There’s a bit of a discussion raging online right now about whether the a la carte nature of online video has economics that can support an industry, prompted by a research report by Craig Moffett over the weekend called “And Now for the News…The Emperor Has No Clothes.” Mark Cuban reproduced many of the best parts and expanded on them in a blog post of his own.

What’s got everyone talking is a sobering (for some) calculation by Moffett that implies that TV producers will have to reduce their costs by nearly 90% to be profitable in the new medium (Cuban thinks it’s even more). But many of the things Moffett and Cuban are responding to are the things we built into the business model of Next New Networks. Not because we’re visionaries, or have the answers to this challenge everyone’s facing, but because it was the only sensible way to launch a new media business in this landscape.

For one, our programming costs average in the hundreds of dollars per minute, which is one tenth or less cable television’s programming costs. We launch networks with the minimum necessary programming to build an audience, which may be as little as two minutes of programming a week — with the goal to add more programming as audience and advertiser demand grows. But most importantly, we made a decision to focus on communities that will embrace our programming. If you make something people love, questions like production value and how much money you spend become less important — what matters instead is, do they love you? Do they keep coming back every week? And do advertisers see undeniable evidence that you’re creating something that speaks to the people they want to reach?

I think our co-founder Fred Seibert addressed all these concerns really well in an interview he did with Beet.TV last week. Check out the embedded video below for his take on our take, which highlights some of the creative ways we’re trying both new and tried-and-true advertising models in our programming, and what he calls “struggling optimistically forward” towards a model that can support great video online. Will it look like TV? Who knows. We always like to say it will be better than TV.

The winners of the 11th annual Webby Awards were announced today, and in our business, all eyes were on the Online Film & Video group of categories, where we had four nominations in play. For every category, there’s a juried award and one chosen by popular vote, and sometimes both go to the same nominee, but most of the time they’re different.

Fast Lane Daily, our daily automotive news network, won the People’s Voice Award for the Sports category, in a category that also included nominees from CBS Sportsline, Heavy, and HBO Sports. Congratulations to everyone here at Next New Networks who worked on Fast Lane Daily this past year, especially the core team of Emil, Mike, Ian, Alan, Gene, and Derek D, the ultimate good sport. Below is a special video the team created for the Webby judges and voting public, and it’s a fun recap of how far they’ve come.

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I mentioned before that Erik Beck was up for the title of Hottest Male Web Host and though you and I both secretly know there’s no competition, we have to let the others know too. He’s made it to the finals and he’s up against 8 other male web hosts.

The male Web hosts left standing are: Leo Laporte (This Week in Tech), Gary Vaynerchuk (WineLibraryTV), Jeff MacPherson (Tiki Bar TV), Erik Beck (Indy Mogul), Michael Somerville (Love, Somerville), Kevin Rose (Diggnation), Martin Sargent (Internet Superstar), Chris Leavins (Cute with Chris) and David Price (The Middle Show).

So if you haven’t voted, VOTE NOW is your time to vote - you have until THIS FRIDAY, May 2 at 2pm PST. Be sure to tell all your friend because time is running out!