News Corp Couldn't Have Invented MySpace

And Google didn't invent YouTube which is why it paid $1.6 billion for that oversight. There is a reason why big, viral music media-related ideas come from people with nothing to lose. That's because they act like they have nothing to lose. I must say I had an engaging conversation at the USC Faculty Club today with a young, talented woman who helped launch MySpace and she's the one who made the observation that News Corp which paid about $600 million to buy it couldn't have invented it. I haven't been able to get all of this out of my mind. Steve Jobs needed a garage to collaborate on building the first Apple computer. He had nothing to lose. Meanwhile Microsoft has nothing but money and they are about to take it on the chin with their newest iPod challenge -- the Zune. Microsoft -- as many traditional media companies do -- live in their own world. New ideas could never make it out of committee or past the lawyers or worse yet past their own establishment. So which companies really want to innovate? Well, come up with the paltry funds YouTube's founders had to get by on but give them carte blanche to do what they want. (Could you imagine YouTube's young founders getting their idea past any media company's lawyers? Fortunately they didn't have to. Now Google's lawyers can do the legal work). My thought at this moment is -- we need to foster ideas, encourage the unthinkable. Too much emphasis on why ideas can't work. No media corporation that I know can presently do this. Maybe it's time to start. What do you think?