Actor Ashton Kutcher and Internet celebrity and Digg founder Kevin Rose held a 24 hour event last weekend at the Sundance Film Festival called 24HoursAtSundance.
Some observers are saying the event, which was sponsored by Qik, HP, Nokia and Nikon, was full of cheating, conflicts of interest and tasks that put participants in undue danger. Which frankly makes the event sound like a whole lot of fun. Except that very little of the video was ever uploaded to the Internet because of connectivity issues with the Nokia/Qik phones participants were given to record their exploits.
Four teams were invited to participate in an “online game show” where they would complete a series of tasks, some of which were humiliating, for points in the competition. The LA Times, CNET, AFP and other media picked up the story when it was heavily pushed by Ashton’s company, Katalyst Media.
Tasks included getting celebrities to say ridiculous things like “how many other celebrities have you slept with?” or “what is the worst thing you’ve asked your assistant to do.” Another task was to find a bar and get the bouncer to show his ID, or taking a Lat/Long point, traveling to it and writing something in chalk.
Participants were given a HP netbook, a nokia phone with Qik installed, a bottle of glue, a Nikon camera, a flashlight and $20. They were not allowed to bring their own devices or any cash or credit cards, and all tasks had to be completed with the materials given to them at the start of the event.
And the winning team, which was VentureBeat’s Matt Marshall and a news correspondent named Shira Lazar, smuggled in their own computer, say some people at the event. The HP netbook given to participants couldn’t get internet access, leaving the Matt/Shira team with an advantage when they had to research tasks or look up addresses.
That’s a fairly trivial issue for a small event like this one, but one that shouldn’t have been overlooked. Worse, say people at the event, Shira Lazar boasted all during the event that she was dating one of the organizers, a clear conflict of interest that became more egregious when she won.
The most pressing issue people are bringing up, though, is personal safety. Participants had to travel all over town during the event to complete tasks, and they had no vehicle or money for taxis. That led them to hitch rides with strangers in the middle of the night, many of whom were “excessively drunk frat boy types” cruising the festival. Participants also weren’t given anywhere to sleep, so they were finding hotel lobbies and other public places to pass out when they were exhausted.
To Kutcher’s credit, he said the event was a learning experience for his team and that they would likely make changes next year. Our advice – kill the event. Or if you must do it again, give participants a rental car or more money for taxis so they don’t have to hitch rides from drunk strangers at 3 am, and enforce the rules a little better. And if you must put participants in situations that may leave them hurt or abused, at least get the connectivity issue solved so that everyone can watch the train wreck happen in real time.
I want to see something like this at SXSW!
“at least get the connectivity issue solved so that everyone can watch.” Classic! Leave it up to Techcrunch to get the dirt and still throw some tech sarcasm at Kutcher…
Congrats to Thingfo team for making the entire http://www.24ho...satsundance.com site
The site is pretty impressive. It made me sign up for the widgets…
Thanks Ted and Anthony, much appreciated!
I remember when I first heard about this I thought it was such a great idea… definitely don’t think the outcome was anywhere near the expectations that some people (including me) had for this though. Hopefully they’ll either cut it or change it drastically for next year.
Peter Epstein
http://www.thewebwar.com
Mike, I’ll be writing more about the experience. For the record, our own computer completely froze and was rendered useless — even worse than those of the others. Shira and I asked whether we could bring in our computer to compensate, and the organizers said ok. We did not smuggle it in. Yes, I agree there were lots of problems, and I’ll be writing more later. It was a first time event, and there was lots learned. Overall, it was a valuable experience. Most of the tasks didn’t really require a computer to get ahead. We bombed the trivia section just as much as anyone else. If anyone was upset they didn’t win, that’s too bad. Don’t think the main thing was to win, it was to experience a new way of video and interactivity, and on the measure, it was a success.
>Overall, it was a valuable experience.
lol.
Maybe next time you can try to win a date with Flavor Flav.
matt, sounds like you’re doing the usual: wasting time and energy on fruitless pursuits
Mike, I don`t know if we should push the “security” issues too far. But I agree the whole production seemed to be a bit chaotic. They could be better prepared and especially the connection performance could be better. Also they could invest a few bucks in a proper website. But the concept itself is much fun. I would like to see more of it. Especially with guys like Ashton and Kevin.
Best Thomas
Twitter @digitalwaveride
really? young women being forced to ask for rides from drunk strangers in the middle of the night? yeah, no security issue there. I’m surprised no one was raped or killed.
Never been to Park City, have you?
Who was “forced” again?
> I’m surprised no one was raped or killed.
LOL, is it the US of A at their finest? walk around the town at night and you might be raped or killed?
Never been to USA so I can’t say how it really is there but it’s hard to believe for me that it is that bad – I am actually slightly bending to the option that says that some people here are indeed living in some sort of plastic sterile bubble (like someone already wrote in one of the previous comments) not knowing the world outside and thus being afraid of him.
Yeah, let’s give those kids a loads of money, private limo and two bodyguards – that would be soooooo crazy adventurous and fun to watch!
what about the young MEN who could have been killed? or worse, raped?
be more sexist why don’t you
a combo of something like this and punkd would be dope. Like a 24 hour or 1 week punkd, where the punkee goes through a whole event, not just 15 minutes.
Qik sucks
Too early of a technology unfortunately..
the vids on the qik site could have been in chronological order. videos seemed out of order, very confusing.
Hitch hiking in the Ricky Mtn region is not like where most of you live. I give rides all the time, and I used to get them all the time. Are these children participating? I think they can make their own decisions.
Another lame idea executed poorly. This one is even less original than South Park done by little girls.
As a resident of Park City (location of Sundance), I was interested in how this would pan out. Unfortunately the Qik technology was just not working well (major buffering issues) and it was near impossible to stay engaged in what was going on.
I watched here and there throughout the day. The buffering was a problem, but sometimes it wasn’t. The most annoying part, however, was having to switch in-between feeds that were live. I didn’t know who would be live when and if it were to automatically switch, It would have been a lot better than having to constantly watch for a live feed.
2nd, you sound like an old grandpa. If participants were stupid enough to get in the car with a person DUI then that’s their stupid decision.
I thought the whole thing was pretty cool. Plenty of bumps to take care of and I think they should hold another event sooner than later and I bet it will be run even better.
I made the comment while watching that it seemed more like Twitter, only 140 characters made it through at a time. The buffer was constantly updating.
But, the idea is solid as long as the fans get to watch. I felt more sorry for the business owners who had to put up with people begging for “flags, eggs, etc” every hour.
Man, this was reality show.
Whoever is complaining is a hater.
I’ve seen worst on MTV’s Punk’d or Road Rules….
Michael –
Sounds like some competition….you seem to throw good parties so I wouldn’t feel too threatened.
However I suppose we’ll see Techcrunch in Utah next year.
I didn’t understand the entire event. It was confusing and not adv. correctly at all. I watched because of Kevin Rose and tried to look up and understand what they were doing. I sort of got it half way through but the qik.com video would just buffer and buffer.
To Ashton & Kevin: I’m a marketing major and know I could have done a better job at this. Get it together and next year this could be a lot more awesome and entertaining than it was this year.
Peace
Ive gotta go now.. Got the shivers!
you’re just sour u weren’t asked
no, they asked. I didn’t see it as a valuable use of my time.
I was apart of this competition helping CJ peters as his co-maven and we were never in any danger. Every decision made to accomplish the task was solely in our own judgement and was never forced by anybody at Katalyst or Qik, This was something ground breaking , new and a great opportunity for everyone involved. I would gladly take place in another one.
-SEAN FALYON
Kutcher (Katalyst) and Rose (Revision3) appear to be leading the way in regards to internet TV, no matter how unsuccessful this venture turned out.
Is it one of the most important future mediums?
Not sure how they can use the platform to seriously monetize productions, just as current TV ads are so ineffective.
“The LA Times, CNET, AFP and other media picked up the story when it was heavily pushed by Ashton’s company, Katalyst Media.” Pay for play. Pushing press releases is very easy.
I could only watch 30 seconds of a video before my eyes glazed over from boredom. Ashton needs to market to the jackass and punk’d crowd. He is a smart and talented, but he needs to tone down the tech visionary image before I die from laughing. Launching a few web video shows is not impressive.
I hardly see this as “leading the way.” They just seem like some dudes that tried sometime and it didn’t work out so great.
When live mobile webcasting is more reliable and higher quality you’ll see a lot more folks doing this and doing it a lot better. Fact is, mobile streaming isn’t ready for this type of thing yet. Close, but no dice. I don’t cede bonus points to Kadalysiteorirorhtathoweverthehellitsspelled for doing something a lot of know is going to turn out, well, like it turned out.
above: “sometime” = “something”… would like an edit button.
Why can’t i see my comment
I typed big long comment and it didn’t event get posted. That is wack.
But in summary. If you can’t use common sense in doing some of the missions we were giving then you are crazy. If someone is drunk you should know better than to get in a vehicle with them. Plus, you had to power to skip a task. They clearly stated that in the rules. They also stated that this was new and to roll with the punches.
24hoursa@Sundance was a great event and i’m glad i was apart of it. Ashton, Kevin and Qik were great host. 24hours@theGrammys wassup!
I think this a great idea, it shows that tech geeks aren’t that boring!
BestJobsOnline
http://tinyurl.com/7uj5ay
I have to say that this was a crazy experience as a participant but the idea is interesting and has never been done. We got a good amount of traffic- I really think it was a success considering the fact that it was a first for everyone. Like all firsts, you learn what works and what doesn’t. No one had an unfair advantage- all our phones were dying and videos not uploading properly at times. I don’t know of anyone who got in a car with a drunk driver. We weren’t the only one’s who used our own laptops. Once the HP one’s broke down, we were told it was ok. The winner was chosen based on getting tasks done first, creativity, views and interaction with our social networking communities. It happens that Matt Marshall and I were getting our tasks done earlier most of the time and had some good views as well on our qik.
Also, the concept was that the competition had an amazing race twist. While we didn’t know what we were getting into- we were warned that anything was possible whether fun or not so fun.
All in all- It was a unique and fun experience I don’t regret being part of at all. I thinks it’s really cool to have been part of an online first.
Mike, just to be snarky for a minute here: how is it that you began a post with a a subtle slight to the LAT, CNET and AFP for having gulped down PR bait by writing on this story, and then go on to immediately write about it yourself? Is the idea that you were moving the story forward by exposing the fraud and danger hidden beneath the surface of this sick and depraved “game”?
David, I didn’t intend to slight those publications, only to point out that people thought this would be an important event, not a trainwreck with a fixed outcome that put people in dangerous situations.
I made the decision not to write about it when I heard about it partially because I didn’t know about it until after everyone else had written. If I had written earlier, it probably would have poked fun at the event a little, but I didn’t expect this outcome.
Impressive indeed!
All good advice here but if they did those things (gave them money, didn’t let them be in danger, etc.), then likely the Techcrunch’s of the world wouldn’t care too much about it, and if they did, words like “lame” and “pointless” would probably be used.
Stupid, out of control…these are things that make the viral world go round (unfortunately).
This article is almost as ridiculous as the execution of ‘24 Hours at Sundance.’ Even with the negative spin, it still looks like an advertorial to me. Did the winners even win anything? If not, who cares. And the danger aspect? Please. Who wants to watch a bunch of poorly shot low quality camera phone content of people doing childish and relatively boring things?
Kill the event? Damn, Arrington – if it isn’t your idea, you hate it.
You point out minor items that don’t even compare to the harshness of Survivor and Amazing Race, and then you try to get righteous and call out the contestant’s safety?
Admit it – this is a great idea in need of some polish, and Katalyst is capitalizing on all of the social media aspects of Web 2.0 and adding an entertainment factor that has yet to be exploited.
This is the future of entertainment and Katalyst is on the cutting edge.
Instead of hating, you should be encouraging them to improve. Then, when they do “24 hours at this” and “24 hours at that,” you can claim some credit to inflate your already overblown ego.
absinthe sounds so awesome! i wish i could have been there! i heard they were serving absinthe!
thats crazy they had absinthe?hmmmm interesting. What type?
i think its called hallusinthe.. cause it makes you hallucinate
Isn’t there only one kind..the hallucinating kind!
yaw funny……… pour me a cup of that green fairy
Does anyone else think that Ashton Kutcher and Josh hartnett look like brothers?
I read a blogg where a man claims to be biological father to Ashton and Josh.
He said they are brothers from different mothers .
Google search something like ,,news flash Ashton kutcher and Josh Hartnett are brothers ..LOL
WOW
Talk about funny,,,this blog stopped after my comment on Ashton and Josh being brothers.
So Amazing
I heard that his biodaddy was porn star LMFAO
That is the biggest lie I have ever heard,I don’t think Larry would like to read this.