…depending on where you stand. Here’s all the news that’s fit to blog from last week and beyond.

Today (or December 11th, if you believe the date stamp)
1. Are the major nets planning to band together to create a YouTube Killer? Read this fascinating article about how things are shaking out in the world of online video (we have front-row seats!) Seems it’s very very hard for the major content creators to resist the nine-figure licensing fees offered, even though they know that tying themselves to YouTube for three years will make it the defacto winner in the online video race – and nobody doubts the ambition of Google. Are they pondering a challenge? (…I am never going to get picked up by Google Alerts again…)

Sunday
1. The Blog Herald, a great resource for all things business blogging, has been sold to new interests.

2. Yahoo’s Media Group is gearing up for a web content challenge. They’ve recruited a new team of execs (I had no idea that Yahoo’s stock price had dropped by 31% – no time period specified – no wonder they’re scrambling).

3. Big in Japan and HD Republic have created a broadcast television pilot for a series about the adventures of three MySpace friends. – Yes, I know.

Saturday
1. Hugh MacLeod at Gaping Void has posted a Brand Manager’s Social Media Manifesto, reminding us all that it’s not as simple as setting up a corporate blog, but rather:

Until you fully embrace the fact that your relationship and communication with your consumers has been fundamentally antisocial, you will never be able progress on the road towards becoming a brand that can embrace social media…

2. The British PR blogosphere is deep in discussions about the CIPR Social Media discussion paper I posted about in the last roundup. Simon Collister points out that the document is approaching social media from an old media perspective – which demonstrates a fundemental lack of understanding.

Friday
1. The USC-Annenberg Digital Future Project released the 6th annual “Surveying the Digital Future” report, and found major shifts in our behaviour online. For example:

1. 43% of online community members (i.e. MySpace, mommy bloggers, etc.) said they felt as strongly about their digital community as they did about their “real” one.
2. 20% take actions offline at least once a year that are related to their online community (for example, going out for lunch with someone you met blogging, buying something someone made or recommended).
3. Social Media is a major contributor to social activism – on and offline. 64% of community users have gotten involved in social causes.
4. More than half of community members log on every day. [emphasis mine]

You can read the report summary here.

Thursday
1. IBM held the Virtual Worlds European Media & Influencer Event in the online world (also a digital community) known as Second Life (where, FYI, my avatar has hair the texture of wood – but that’s another blog post).

Wednesday
1. The National Association of Manufacturers has started a weekly business blog roundup in which one of their staffers reviews and reports on new industry business blogs.

2. Yahoo is wrapping up a lot of what I call “social media support sites” (things like Flickr and Del.icio.us) into brand universes, and they’ll let marketers choose packages of service to support and promote events and products, i.e. movie releases.

Various
1. According to this report released in October, 60% of online shoppers had visited a social networking site in the previous four months.