{"id":7708,"date":"2009-04-06T08:17:52","date_gmt":"2009-04-06T15:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=7708"},"modified":"2009-04-06T08:21:18","modified_gmt":"2009-04-06T15:21:18","slug":"dont-vook-now-but-brad-inman-has-invented-the-undead-pool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/7708\/dont-vook-now-but-brad-inman-has-invented-the-undead-pool\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t vook now, but Brad Inman has invented The Undead Pool"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Times:<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Plenty of authors dream of writing the great American novel.<\/p>\n

Bradley Inman wants to create great fiction, dramatic online video and compelling Twitter stream — and then roll them all into a multimedia hybrid that is tailored to the rapidly growing number of digital reading devices.<\/p>\n

Mr. Inman, a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur, calls this digital amalgam a “Vook,” (vook.tv) and the fledgling company he has created with that name just might represent a possible future for the beleaguered book industry.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is so much wrong with this idea — and I realize that the Times<\/em> never gets anything right — that I can only think of two words in response:<\/p>\n

Market research.<\/p>\n

Print is dead. The book as a transmission medium, with or without print, is dead. Marrying books to video makes great sense — for comic books: DC, Marvel and the entire graphic novel business have never had things better. Adding video to actual books is just dumb. And blending “social media” into the batter is just twitter-brained echo-chamber cargo-cultism.<\/p>\n

Here’s the real deal, and the talisman that reveals that Brad Inman is anything but a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur:<\/p>\n

The chokepoint is dead<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Every dinosaur in the land is thrashing about, looking for a way to create a mass-media product that can be locked behind a paywall, thus to force the punters to cough up the dough like they always have in the past.<\/p>\n

Welcome to our world, Brad, which you quite clearly have never understood<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I do want to give Inman credit for a new invention, though. The “vook” (yikes!) is not dead on arrival. It’s dead before<\/em> arrival. It stalks the night, a zombie of the mind, with its only reality, perhaps, being an unfinished web site<\/a> and a gushing article in the notoriously useless New York Times.<\/em> But this is not for naught. The “vook” will never live, but Brad Inman has inadvertently created a new category of hi-tech start-ups: The Undead Pool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Times: Plenty of authors dream of writing the great American novel. Bradley Inman wants to create great fiction, dramatic online video and compelling Twitter stream — and then roll them all into a multimedia hybrid that is tailored to the rapidly growing number of digital reading devices. Mr. Inman, a successful Silicon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,6,19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7708","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-casual-friday","7":"category-marketing","8":"category-technology","10":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11133,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/11133\/i-went-rummaging-around-the-vook-and-came-home-with-an-education\/","url_meta":{"origin":7708,"position":0},"title":"iPad observation #9: I went digging through the heap of festering garbage that is the Vook and came home with an education.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Vain though it may be, tonight I looked in on my own past posts on the Vook. The writing was better than I remembered it, just exactly my kind of fun with words, but I do think I have been overly... forgiving... of this sleazy little... not vampire, even writ\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9931,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/9931\/is-it-time-for-a-second-vook-at-brad-inmans-latest-brain-fart\/","url_meta":{"origin":7708,"position":1},"title":"Is it time for a second Vook at Brad Inman’s latest brain fart?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Believe it or don't, just yesterday I was telling Cathleen that I felt remiss in not having made fun of the Vook lately. The Vook, as you will recall, is Brad Inman's latest attempt to prove that he stumbled onto half a billion bucks by accident. The trouble is, as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8218,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/8218\/brad-inman-would-someone-be-kind-enough-to-sell-me-some-fur-i-know-mammals-are-warm-blooded-but-perception-is-reality-right-oh-what-the-hell-the-way-things-are-going-id-settle-for-some-fea\/","url_meta":{"origin":7708,"position":2},"title":"Brad Inman: “Would someone be kind enough to sell me some fur? I know mammals are warm-blooded, but perception is reality, right? Oh, what the hell! The way things are going, I’d settle for some feathers!”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Hungry dinosaur. Will Vook for food:","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10213,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10213\/vook-dead-yet-doesnt-matter-if-you-want-to-sell-blades-first-you-have-to-find-stubble-that-people-are-willing-to-pay-to-have-shaved\/","url_meta":{"origin":7708,"position":3},"title":"Vook dead yet? Doesn’t matter. If you want to sell blades, first you have to find stubble that people are willing to pay to have shaved.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This was in my email this morning, spam from LinkedIn.com:Joel Burslem is no longer Director of Product Development at VookMeans what, I don't know. Deck chairs on the Titanic. There is no huge surging mass of sub-literates demanding even easier-reading access to the half-shouted profundities of Gary Vaynerchuk. Love him\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11013,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/11013\/apple-tablet-computer-annoucement-liveblogging-now\/","url_meta":{"origin":7708,"position":4},"title":"Apple tablet computer announcement liveblogging now…","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 27, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"...at Engadget. It's called the iPad... Dear Brad Inman, while you weren't Vooking, Steve Jobs stole your lunch: \"Embedded video inside of articles that can be played.\" Don't weep, though. It's a Kindle-killer, too, as expected: How free does information want to be? The marginal value of digital content is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flourishing"","block_context":{"text":"Flourishing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/flourishing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7731,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/7731\/the-inman-prayer-deliver-us-not-into-deliberation-and-tempt-us-not-into-leadership-for-ass-licking-for-lucre-is-the-kingdom-the-power-and-the-glory-forever-and-ever-amen\/","url_meta":{"origin":7708,"position":5},"title":"The Inman Prayer: “Deliver us not into deliberation and tempt us not into leadership, for ass-licking for lucre is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever, amen…”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 8, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"You just can't make this stuff up:Inman News is launching a new feature: Real Estate Product Reviews. Would you like to be part of a team of real estate professionals that reviews and rates new real estate technologies, tools and services? We want to hear from you.I'll just bet you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dirty Laundry"","block_context":{"text":"Dirty Laundry","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/dirty-laundry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7708"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9930,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7708\/revisions\/9930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}