An informative article describing the impending Comcast-NBC deal appears today on Yahoo! TECH: READ THE ARTICLE HERE.

The article, from AP Business Writers, Deborah Yao and Ryan Nakashima, brings up the inevitable questions about whether or not it may be “questionable” for the “hard-wired” delivery service to own a network. According to Yao and Nakashima, Comcast’s direction may in fact change with this acquisition–that: “The future is in content, and the pipes that carry it matter less.” As the lines of propriety of content ownership continue to blur, and the matter of control over what we see, hear, consume, etc. over different media and where we get it expands every day, licensers, consumer groups, etc. are ready to engage in battle.

What this merger will undoubtedly make happen is another important visit to the issues of rights and permissions over content, of ownership and profit and of the unstoppable socialization of media. The debate and the incremental results are sure to continue for a long, long time.

Election 2008 in the United States is momentus for many reasons. For those of us in the field of interactive marketing, this election has been revolutionary. Because of the times in which we live but also the remarkable strategy of the Obama-Biden ‘08 Campaign, the employment of multimedia — including email, viral video, other digital communications and all of the current (and near-future) social and information sharing principles (as well as technologies) of Web 2.0/3.0 — and of the building of a powerful brand, were decisive factors in the decision of the American electorate. So much so that Senator Barack Obama has been recognized by Advertising Age as “Marketer of the Year”.

Mitra Creative extends our congratulations to Senators Barack Obama and Joseph Biden on their historic November 4 win. We also want to add a nod to Obama-Biden ‘08 Campaign Manager, David Plouffe, on his brilliant work.

A number of clients and potential clients have been approaching our firm, Mitra Creative, to develop Web 2.0 applications with video components. When video is involved, the “heavy lifting” to build these applications is not in the design of the application itself — though custom creative design is by no means ”off the shelf” — but in storing and moving the content across the Internet. The most important element of scalability for these applications comes with awareness from the start about the issues of uploading and downloading video and ensuring that the materials are highly available. This may seem like a rather obvious point, but when we are approached with questions about building these applications and we reply with the consideration of CPU and http and digital traffic, our clients/prospects’ mouths are usually agape.

Scalable multimedia storage and fast, efficient bandwidth does not have to be a prohibitive cost. It simply has to be considered as a part of any business plan when an entrepreneur wishes to incorporate the sharing of video, audio, photos and other rich media into the mission of a social networking site. There are many options, including the utilization of co-location facilities where storage, availability and maintenance can be, essentially, ”rented”.

As Web 2.0 grows in scope and its applications vastly increase, it is critical to know that usability is the principal mission of any social networking site… and when it comes to multimedia, usability virtually equals availability.