I just posted an end of season edition of the Owner’s Corner on the Caps website.  Check it out here.

Ovechkin voted Russian Player of the Year

I went to Hershey Pennsylvania last night in support of the Hershey Bears playoff game rooting our team on as they swept the first round playoff series with a very nice 5 to 1 win.

I went to Hershey Pennsylvania last night in support of the Hershey Bears playoff game rooting our team on as they swept the first round playoff series with a very nice 5 to 1 win.

The Caps organization affiliated with the Hershey Bears, one of the oldest sports franchises in America last off-season and our relationship has been a rewarding one. The Bears played at the Giant Center, a new facility and one of the finest arenas in the AHL. The old Hershey Arena was a classic and housed Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 point game. The Center is adjacent to Hershey Park’s beautiful hotel and spa.

Hershey, PA is the headquarters of the Hershey Corporation, a town reminiscent of a Norman Rockwell painting. It has a population of 20,000 with a strong hockey fan base, that for most weekends during the season fill the 10,500 seat Giant Center.

I had the great pleasure to sit with Kenneth Hatt, the 82 years young vibrant former President and COO of Hershey Corporation. He told me that he has been attending games for 62 years, not missing a single game in more than 30 years. Ken started at Hershey in the mailroom when he was 20 years old and worked his way up to President and Chief Operating Officer of the company. Chairman of the Hershey Trust, Ken remains deeply attached to the town, its people and the employees of the company.

As I was leaving the game, Ken shook my hand firmly, inviting me to come back anytime and then handed me a 5-pound box containing the largest Hershey candy bar I have ever seen. What a lovely night – good company, a winning team, happy fans and chocolate!

As I predicted a few days ago, the Wizards would go to Cleveland and steal a game making this a very competitive playoff series. Games three and four will be played at the Verzion Center giving the Wizards home court advantage — where our team plays very tough basketball.

Playoff basketball is so much more intense than the regular season, isn’t it? Every possession matters, every shot is contested and every free throw is crucial to the game.  As the old NBA ad campaign says "I love this game".

It’s amazing to watch the birth of a new type of media, and that’s exactly what’s happening with the birth of popular user-generated video programming on places like YouTube. YouTube isn’t simply repackaged broadcast TV or cable TV or advertising. It’s an entirely new creature that follows a whole new set of rules.

It’s amazing to watch the birth of a new type of media, and that’s exactly what’s happening with the birth of popular user-generated video programming on places like YouTube. YouTube isn’t simply repackaged broadcast TV or cable TV or advertising.  It’s an entirely new creature that follows a whole new set of rules. I think there are three main reasons for its spectacular success.First, it put the tools of production in the hands of consumers.  You used to have a handful of producers in Hollywood and New York who decided what you would see and when you would see it.  Now you have hundreds of thousands of people making videos and submitting them for millions of others to watch.  When your audience is submitting 35,000 new videos a day, you’ve tapped a waterfall of new content — free-of-charge and on every subject under the sun.Second, it flips the marketing paradigm upside down.  Rather than the handful of major studios and producers trying to convince viewers to watch their programs, you have millions of people virally marketing the clips they like best to friends and family members.  In the old broadcast world, you needed a strong prime-time lineup to hold viewers from one show to the next.  Today, the community does the marketing.  All you need is to produce something that’s funny/entertaining/powerful/interesting enough that some viewers will forward it to their friends.Third, the penalty for junk is much lower.  In broadcast TV or the movies, the viewer can spend 30 minutes to several hours on a single program.  If it’s terrible, the backlash can be equally strong, because they’ve wasted a lot of their time.  Here, short form content means that if something is bad, you’ve only wasted a couple minutes.  Ironically, bad content can be good, because people will forward awful things to their friends to share the awful-ness, but only if they are brief and funny.As the YouTube phenomena continues to spread, it’s only a matter of time before that medium produces a new set of cultural icons — popular shows, directors, and celebrities — all based on the short-form segment. 

I am so glad to see that one of my long term business associates and close friends, Mitch Kapor, is blogging.

I am so glad to see that one of my long term business associates and close friends, Mitch Kapor, is blogging.

Mitch has a very interesting view of the world and his take on "architecture is politics", is quite thought provoking, especially in light of the continued spread of Web 2.0 and my long held belief in the power of community. Like Mitch, I am a big fan of Thomas Jefferson and his theories of transparency, suggesting in essence, that if you can’t do something in the public eye, then it is probably something that you shouldn’t be doing.

Mitch and I worked together in 1981 around his Lotus 1-2-3 project and then again nearly three years ago on the Mozilla and Firefox relationship. Most recently, we were both speakers at an event in San Francisco, and I was touched by how warm our friendship had remained after all of these years.  I look forward to reading his posts.

The Wizards suffered a tough loss yesterday at the hands of Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.  James had a triple double and once Cleveland opened up a double digit lead, the Wizards never got back in the game.

We go back to Cleveland on Tuesday for game 2, and if the team can steal a game in Cleveland, the series will tilt back in our favor.  We play Friday and Sunday at the Verizon Center, and I’m sure that our fans will help us defend our home court.  When you don’t have home court advantage, game 2 really is the key game in the series.   I’m sure this will be a long and grueling series, but I also believe the Wizards will win the series. 

A prediction: It’s not going to be long before the blogosphere has its first Page Six-style payola scandal.

A prediction:  It’s not going to be long before the blogosphere has its first Page Six-style payola scandal.  With thousands of increasingly influential bloggers trumpeting their opinions on movies, celebrities, technology, new products, and every other subject under the sun, demand is growing from individuals and companies who want to "guarantee" favorable coverage in this new medium.  And the low/non-existent pay scale of most bloggers make them a tempting target for deep-pocketed parties with their own agendas.Will the blogosphere payola scandal involve direct cash payments for mentions and placement?  Maybe, although I doubt it.  Instead, I think it will increasing take the less-direct forms of ad buys, directed traffic, link trading, comp/donated products for "testing", or other quiet support.But whether it takes the form of cash, traffic, products, or favors, the blogosphere will have a payola scandal.  It’s not a matter of if; it’s a matter of when. 

Yesterday I spoke at the Latin America Development Conference at the United Nations in New York. It was an honor and a privilege to be invited to talk about the ways in which the internet can help improve the lives of people in developing countries. You can read the full speech after the jump.

Thank you Congresswoman Sanchez for that kind introduction. And thank you Arthur (Navarro) for inviting me to speak today.

It is a distinct honor to be here with so many distinguished leaders from government, business, and the nonprofit sector.

And it is a privilege to share my thoughts with you about a subject dear to my heart – how the Internet can make everyone’s lives better, particularly those in developing countries.

It is fitting to talk about these things here, at the headquarters of the United Nations.

The mission of the UN is, after all, to build a global community that improves the lives of the world’s citizens.

It serves as a platform for sharing information and ideas… for communication … and a means by which we can work together to build prosperity for all.

That, in a nutshell, aptly describes the true potential of the World Wide Web.

A bad day for the Internet

People often tell me that I seem pretty happy. That I always have a smile on my face. And it is true. I am a pretty happy guy. But let’s be honest…  I have every reason to be happy, because I know that today is the worst day the Internet will ever have.

Just over 1 billion people will sign on to the Internet around the world.

AOL will deliver more than 2 billion instant messages over its network today, and nearly half a billion emails. Today, Apple will sell about 3 million songs through its iTunes store. Consumers in the U.S. will stream 49 million videos, and will upload about 30,000 new videos – most of them homemade — to You Tube – a new online video site. More than 6 million will go online to look for religious or spiritual information. About 4 million people will make phone calls over the Internet. More than 86,000 blogs will be born today. More than two-thirds of car buyers will go online to check prices, find a dealer and select options. About half of the stock trades today will take place online. Advertisers will spend about one dollar in 10 online. Today, about 4 million people in the U.S. will get their paychecks from an I.T. company – and make nearly twice the average wage of all private workers in the country.

Impressive numbers… But tomorrow, and in the days, weeks, months, and years that follow, the Internet will be much better.

More people will sign on, and they will spend more time online. There will be more for them to do. The Internet will provide richer, more rewarding experiences. Online communities will be more diverse. The tools and services will be more robust and more flexible. By 2010, 33 million Americans will make calls over VoIP lines. Access to education resources and quality medical care will improve. The economic impact of the Internet will continue to expand. There will be more and better opportunities for entrepreneurs throughout the world to turn their brilliant ideas into winning businesses. And the cost to access all of this will continue to go down – making all of these benefits more accessible to everyone, rich and poor, city dwellers, farmers, villagers.

Improving lives

The Internet is reshaping society, for the better. It is unique in history – because it can improve human happiness by enhancing our ability to communicate, join communities, improve ourselves through education, better health and more opportunities, find new ways to give back, grow spiritually.

That’s what we have seen happen here.

New opportunities

Thanks to the Internet, the ability to launch and scale new products is unprecedented. It took 26 years for the television to penetrate 25% of homes in the U.S., but just 8 years for broadband Internet to reach that level.

Today, the pace of technological development is even more rapid. Examples:

TiVo-like digital video recorders when from zero to nearly 12 million total sales in just six years. Apple has sold more than 42 million iPods in just 4 years. Vonage started just over five years ago and now handles more than 42 million calls each week.

Better education

The power of the Internet in the educational arena is its power to break out beyond the walls of the classroom.  There isn’t any stronghold of knowledge that can’t be reached through this medium.

The Internet can cut across geographic, racial and ethnic boundaries and put the world at the fingertips of any student with access to a computer and the Internet.  And it can marry information with interactive tools that enhance learning.

Opportunities for online learning….at every level….are exploding.

For example, AOL Latino partnered with Berlitz to offer an English Language course free to members of AOL Latino – the special bi-lingual service we offer to Hispanic families living in the U.s.

It is an interactive course that lets Spanish-speaking citizens learn English at their own pace. It has been a huge success for everyone involved.

Study Dog, a small company based in Beaverton, Oregon, has created an interactive online reading tutor that makes it fun for the kids, and lets parents and teachers accurately monitor progress.

When low-income kids from St. Louis tried the program, 91% showed a full year of reading development over just 14 weeks.

Halfway around the world, the African Virtual University is offering courses in computer science and other topics from universities in the U.S., Canada, Australia and elsewhere to students in 27 African countries.

Better health care

In the same way, the Internet is breaking down barriers of time and space between doctors and patients.

Specialists can analyze test results and offer treatment options instantly to patients thousands of miles away.

For example, The Beaumont Epilepsy Telemedicine Clinic provides medical services to the underserved areas of Southeast Texas, significantly increasing patient access to medical services through a two-way interactive audio/video line.

At the University of Kansas Telemedicine Program, telemedicine technology has been used for several years for oncology… to provide mental health care to patients in rural jails…hospice care… to augment school health services.

At the University Medical Center Hospital in Hackensack, N.J., patients can access the Internet to get information about their condition, how to take care of themselves after discharge. And doctors can confer with patients remotely via a Web-enabled robot called Mr. Rounder. 

Giving back

The Internet is also realizing its potential to organize, and energize our desire to give back from our own bounty to those in need.

In the aftermath of the Southeast Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, we saw online donations on an unprecedented scale. Network for Good, which works in partnership with AOL to direct online giving, drove close to $13 million in donations to aid Katrina victims. It processed more than $11 million in the weeks after the tsunami disaster. The Internet also played a crucial role as a conduit for relief funds to help Hurricane Stan victims in Central America.

And last summer’s Live 8 showed how the Internet can galvanize the world behind a common cause.

On June 2, more than a million people from more than 160 countries tuned in online to watch live performances from London, Philadelphia, Toronto, Paris, Berlin, and Rome.

Millions signed an online petition calling on the richest nations to provide debt relief and increased aid to poverty-stricken African countries.

In the days following the concerts, the G8 canceled more than $50 billion in debt and sharply increased aid to those countries.

Internet gains in developing countries

Latin America, along with other developing nations, stands to gain as much, if not more, from the Internet.

The Internet can more efficiently connect businesses with customers worldwide.

It is a better platform for marketing. It is creating new business opportunities for entrepreneurs. These are particularly important for developing countries.

In India, for example, some farmers now use the Internet to negotiate prices on their commodities. Before they had to travel three days to market, and rarely got a fair price for their produce. Now they can negotiate prices on a Web site with local markets. The result has been an increase in farmers’ incomes of up to 30%.

Education and Health care

Internet can more efficiently train outreach coordinators who can go out with health messages about personal hygiene, how to avoid waterborne diseases, and AIDS prevention.

Club en Conexion, for example, is a YouthAIDS Latin America reproductive health project with sites in four Central America countries, each with an Internet café. It provides information about aids prevention.

A program called Talemed brings specialty care to remote areas of Brazil. Patients can go a nearby clinic, and have an x-ray or test result examined almost instantaneously by specialists in a provincial medical center who can offer treatment advice. No more traveling days to get help.

Last month, the World Bank announced that it is teaming up with other partners to invest in telemedicine as a way to improve healthcare services in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Money transfers

As everyone here knows, money transfers are a huge industry, with more than $30 billion flowing between the U.S. and Latin America each year.

The Internet can absolutely play a role in making these transactions more efficient and less costly for people living in the United States who want to support their families back home.

Last year, we started down this road with a discount money transfer program available to members of AOL Latino. The service has been a big hit.

Staying in touch

Not long ago, if a Latin American immigrant living in the United States wanted to stay in touch with friends and family back home, it meant sending letters by snail mail and waiting days or weeks for reply. Or it meant expensive long distance phone calls.

Today, they can communicate virtually for free, through email, instant messenger, video and audio chats, and increasingly, inexpensive Internet telephony.

My good friend and colleague David Wellisch, who runs AOL Latino, tells the story of how he set up AOL Instant Messenger on his mother’s computer in Ecuador. Now he gets regular IM’s from her – sometimes daily, sometimes hourly. It has been a real blessing to his mother, although, as David notes, "she gets very upset when I don’t respond in a prompt manner."

The market for Internet-enabled phones is surging in Latin America.

A Frost & Sullivan analyst forecasts that VoIP will climb from 1.5% penetration last year to more than 25% by 2011. That’s a compound annual growth rate of 85%!

A major challenge, this analyst says, is the lack of a clear and open regulatory framework, or restrictive licensing rules.

We have found that there is an absolute hunger for these new communications tools among the Hispanic population here in the U.S.

Our Surveys find that U.S. Hispanics instant message, email and use cell phones far more than the general market.

Leapfrogging Ahead

The Internet’s potential is actually greater in Latin America, which has the potential to leap into the next generation of Internet.

History shows how this can happen.

Japan in the 1970s and 1980s was out-manufacturing the United States. Why? Because while the U.S. had to spend time and money retrofitting old manufacturing plants, and struggle with old labor contracts, Japan was building state-of-the-art plants.

In Africa today, telecommunications are reaching even the poorest, not through traditional, expensive landline phones, but through cell towers.

As the New York Times put it, "Cellphones are enabling millions of people in Africa to skip a technological generation and bound straight from letter-writing to instant messaging."

I saw this myself on a recent visit to China, where everywhere you looked there were satellite dishes and cell phones.

The future within reach

PC prices are plummeting, and at the same time, businesses are stepping up their effort to make computing more accessible to the poor.

Intel recently launched its "Discover the PC" campaign to bring affordable computing to developing countries, starting with Mexico. It plans to expand the program, which offers computers for as little as $200 to other Latin American countries.

Nicholas Negroponte’s innovative "One Laptop per Child" program offers Linux-based, hand-cranked, Internet-accessible PCs for $100.

And that’s to say nothing of increasingly affordable Internet-enabled cell phones and handhelds.

At the same time, broadband prices continue to drop. You can get a broadband connection for as little as $15 a month here.

And there will be still more opportunities to bring the high-speed Internet to remote areas, without the need to string costly wires, as WiFi and Wimax technologies continue to be improved.

We are already seeing how this combination is closing the digital divide in the U.S. A recent New York Times article reported that African Americans, even those at the lower end of the economic scale, are making significant gains in getting wired. In fact, today more than 60% of blacks now go online, up from just 23% in 1998, and close to the figures for whites in the U.S.

We are beginning to see this gap close internationally as well. One survey found that broadband access is growing 87% a year in Latin America. By 2008, broadband penetration is expected to climb to 13% in Argentina and Brazil, to 20% in Chile,  and 7% in Mexico.

That’s good progress. But there is clearly a long way to go. At 15%, Internet penetration in South and Central America is well behind the nearly 70% penetration in North America.

Better, faster, cheaper

In essence, the Internet today is becoming a utility… An indispensable part of life, like water or electricity, but one that provides so much more. It does just about everything … only better, faster, cheaper.

It can provide access to the best teachers, the best doctors, even to the poorest most distant parts of a country… better, faster and cheaper than traditional means.

It can create new opportunities for personal and financial growth…  better, faster and cheaper than anything before it.

It can connect disparate communities … better, faster, cheaper.  

It can let people communicate with each other… better, faster, cheaper.

And…  if we all recognize the Internet for what it is, and invest in it accordingly, it can be deployed throughout Latin America – better, faster and cheaper than ever before.

There is a great future in the Internet. Particularly in Latin America. We just need to reach out and grab it.

Thank you very much.

Here’s where a mash-up between Web 2.0 and the MSM gets interesting, or kind of sad, depending on your perspective.  In the morning, someone blogs that AOL is working on a social networking competitor to MySpace.  People link to it.  Others link to the links.  And then a certified mainstream media headline pronounces, "AOL To Launch MySpace Killer!"  Or words to that effect.   C’mon.  Working on a product that "kills" another, popular product is just so…1999.   Here’s a better way of looking at it.  The AIM Buddy List (which was introduced 10 years ago) was the orignial social network, and it has 43 million AIM and Buddy List users.  We’re working on adding functionality to AIM that will really open it up — allowing developers, partners, and users to take part.  It’s going to be fun.  Rather than thinking of it as a killer of anything, let alone MySpace, it will allow our millions of users to express themselves in new and interesting ways and become a catalyst for new communities to grow and flourish. We’ll have more to say about it soon.