Some of Next New Networks (and new media’s) best friends are at Apple, especially Pete Alcorn and Scott Simpson at iTunes.

Pete and Scott were the first big supporters of what Emil and I were doing a couple of years ago with VOD Cars and Channel Frederator. They promoted us to popularity at every turn and when we launched NNN this year they’ve been there whenever one of our new networks goes online.

So, we put together special Freddie Awards for each of them last January, but when they couldn’t make the show we decided to wait. Pete came by for a visit last week and I couldn’t have been prouder to give the award to anyone in the world.

Thanks Pete. Thanks Scott. Thanks Apple.

We now have a shiny new Next New Networks page in the iTunes Store. Check it out here! (this link will load iTunes)

Right now, we’ve got some prime real estate when you visit the iTunes podcast page

And here’s our new page, where you’ll be able to find every Next New Networks show in one place.

Recently got back from one of a number of trips to San Francisco as of late; I’ve been there more times in the last six months than in the previous six years combined, and my last company had its second office there. That says a lot about how much is going on in the Bay Area right now, and how important it is for a business like ours to understand it.

I got in on Friday afternoon, and after a nice coffee and talk with Nicholas Quixote, creator of Rabbit Bites and one of my favorite people in videoblogging, headed to a party thrown by Om Malik to celebrate the launch of his company’s new website, FoundRead, a resource and forum for entrepreneurs. Judging from the packed room at the venue, there are a lot of people choosing to found something these days.

(Top, Om Malik; Above, GigaOm’s Liz Gannes, Katie Fehrenbacher and Joey Wan with Kevin Rose. Photos by Thomas Hawk)

(more…)

“…as great as YouTube is, YouTube IS NOT the future of TV on the Internet. There will be different segments of video online…”

I think I would have enjoyed this post even if it hadn’t picked up Jeff Pulver’s old post asserting Channel Frederator was worth watching.

Our DIY fashion network, ThreadBanger, and its first show Thread Heads (go, Rob and Corinne!), are starting to get some really nice attention: mentions from sites we love like Craft and Whipup; a great viewer-submitted how-to video that’s become a growing hit in YouTube’s DIY category, and been picked up in places like Consumerist and Lifehacker; and a lot of nice comments around the blogotwittosphere (thanks, Chris Brogan!)…

Imagine our happiness today to find out we’re currently the #1 podcast in Beauty and Fashion in the iTunes directory. That’s right, ahead of Hilary Duff, Seventeen, Sephora, Chanel, Vogue… and everyone else, for that matter. Wow! Only seven episodes into our first show — and we haven’t begun to talk to all the people we hope this network is for. We hope that if you love fashion and making it your own (or know someone who does), you’ll keep watching, send your comments, and tell your friends — we really love this network, and made it for you.

…I’m glad we could help show you the way.

Oooh, I love it when they like us so much.

“I wonder what the the role of branding really is in the YouTube world. It’s part of a larger question about what will happen as people increasingly look to the internet for their video content.”

So muses Andy Eggers in a comment on the VentureVoice podcast interview I did a few weeks ago. I read that and figured I’d have a lot to say, but on reflection it seems to me I wanted to reflect a little bit more.

By the way, I’ve had more comments on this interview than anything I’ve done in several years (thanks Greg), since my small on camera participation in the original MTV Uncensored show. I’m not sure why that surprises me but it does. An audio podcast garnering more attention than a major cable network? Our world’s changing fast and it’s great.

“Channel Frederator was, from the start, the essence of what make and continues to make Web 2.0 special.”

Here’s the rest of Profy’s post. Thanks Paul.

When Gregory Gallant asked me to subway over to Brooklyn to be on his Venture Voice podcast I forgot to ask him what we’d be talking about that day. When I got there he let me know he’d done over 40 interviews on entrepeneurship. Then I asked him whether it was my entrepeneurship in cartoons or advertising or media. I confused him entirely and I never quite got an answer. We talked about everything and I think I proved my favorite quote (written by William Goldman).