AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

NICK DEMARTINO is Senior Vice President of the American Film Institute, charged with the Media and Technology strategy as part of AFI’s senior management team. He has been responsible for AFI’s strategy and business development in the digital era, which includes deals with many tech companies, large and small. He created three programs that still report to him: Internet Communications Group, the Digital Content Lab and the K-12 Screen Education Center, and coordinates the institutes technology steering committee.

PURPOSE of THIS BLOG
This is a blog that shares the clips that I find useful in keeping track of the world of media and technology. Having started out life as a journalist, I’ve always collected news clips, migrating from file folders filled with yellowing newsprint, to emails with the entire clip inserted into the message field, and more recently, to giant PDF’s. Like most of you, I now consume most information through a blog reader, and so why not share via the blog platform? It’s efficient, searchable, and supports your feedback, too!

What topics can you expect in this blog? The main focus is the overlap of Hollywood and Silicon Valley, e.g., the technologies and trends that are pulling content into digital formats. I’m obsessed with innovation, talent, and passion, from the artist and the technologist. I’m interested in new models for financial support, including the worlds of advertising, sponsorship, philanthropy, social investing. I follow individuals, singular leaders whose stories inspire and instruct, including those who help govern AFI. I follow a lot of companies, including many AFI supporters. I follow business news: investments, acquisitions, mergers, competition, hirings & firings—at studios, networks, and digital firms. I also track education, nonprofit management, public broadcasting, film awards, festivals and conferences, the media itself—and anything else that I think will help us all stay ahead of the pace of change.

I monitor several hundred sources regularly; my favorites are listed on the blogroll. If you have suggestions, send them my way.

Over time it is my hope to post regularly on this blog. For now, most of the posts are simply pointers to other clips.

You may contact me at nickd@afi.com. My associate Josh Porro (jporro@afi.com) manages this and other AFI blogs, and makes the magic happen.