Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Getting Noticed
As I said at the beginning of the season, the Caps are focused on week by week, game by game team improvements that require aggressive play and getting points. Just a quarter into the season, Dave Fay of the Washington Times is noticing that our stats are better than last year. The team wants to make the playoffs ahead of schedule this year, so the level of expectation set by the team is truly driving the focus of team results and not individual stats.
Tags: Ted Leonsis Caps Dave Fay Washington Times
Posted on November 22, 2006 9:16:00 AM | 0 Comments | PermaLink
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
I Had To Comment...
I very much appreciate the words of wisdom from people that follow the Caps from around the world - their emails, their posts to message boards and their blogs show me how wise and how passionate they all are and how much they love the team.
Continued after the jump. More >>
Tags: Ted Leonsis Caps Matt Bradley Brian Sutherby Donald Brashear John Erskine Alex Ovechkin Chris Clark
Posted on November 21, 2006 4:20:00 PM | 4 Comments | PermaLink
The road from here.....
An employee wrote to me asking what are the top 11 things that we as a company needed to do in the New Year to secure our success and maintain the business momentum we created in 2006. (Top 11 is an AOL service schtick for our lists like Top 11 videos, Top 11 Hit Songs, Top 11 Movies etc.) She also wants to know how we would move towards our new corporate mission statement of ”serving the world's largest and most engaged community" in a focused fashion.
Continued after the jump. More >>
Tags: Ted Leonsis AOL
Posted on November 21, 2006 12:58:00 PM | 3 Comments | PermaLink
Shedding Light on Darfur
Having just completed a two year personal journey with the making of my film Nanking, a documentary on a long ago holocaust in China, one wonders how a world could stand by silently as people were systematically slaughtered. I was jolted into recognition that the exact same events are unfurling today in Darfur and I offer my praise to the Holocaust Museum for having the courage to display these graphic images in downtown DC. They challenge us as the most powerful city on earth to be reminded of man's cruelty to man and find ways to rise up and help. We must all must give thanks and be thankful for our own sense of personal safety and wellness and then offer aid for those that need it most.
Tags: Ted Leonsis Darfur Holocast Museum Nanking
Posted on November 21, 2006 11:45:00 AM | 0 Comments | PermaLink
Monday, November 20, 2006
Nicklas Backstrom Buzz
Wow, check out this hype on the Caps' prospect Nicklas Backstrom - he is being compared favorably to Peter Forsberg.
Tags: Ted Leonsis Caps Nicklas Backstrom Peter Forsberg
Posted on November 20, 2006 2:28:00 PM | 1 Comment | PermaLink
Showing Character
The Caps played a tough game at home on Friday night against the defending Stanley Cup champs, the Carolina Hurricanes - we played them close despite losing 4 to 1. Throughout the game we kept losing players - we started the game without Chris Clark, then Alexander Semin had to sit, Danius Zubrus left the game, as did Steve Eminger.
Continued after the jump. More >>
Tags: Ted Leonsis Caps Wizards Ovechkin Zubrus Clark Semin Klepsis Lebron James Gilbert Arenas Jarvis Hayes Eminger
Posted on November 20, 2006 12:03:00 PM | 0 Comments | PermaLink
Inner Workings of The Verizion Center
Here is a very interesting article on the inner workings of Verizon Center and how the building is transformed from event to event. I remember my son and I went to a Georgetown vs Notre Dame game at 2:00 PM on a Saturday, the game went into triple overtime and ended at about 4:15 PM and the Caps had a game at 7:00 PM - the Verizon Center team rose to the occasion and had us on the ice right on time.
Tags: Ted Leonsis Verizon Center
Posted on November 20, 2006 9:57:00 AM | 1 Comment | PermaLink
Ludacris
Chris Bridges was the first funny host on Saturday Night Live in a long long time. I was pleasantly surprised with how charming and engaging he was on the show Saturday night. Every skit he was in was entertaining - he sings, he acts - he is cool.
Tags: Ted Leonsis Chris Bridges Ludacris Wizards
Posted on November 20, 2006 9:15:00 AM | 0 Comments | PermaLink
Lou Reed - Vicious
Lou Reed has a great new design for his website, very nicely done. While there, check out his Vicious video from 1974 - very old school.
Tags: Ted Leonsis Lou Reed
Posted on November 20, 2006 8:37:00 AM | 1 Comment | PermaLink
Friday, November 17, 2006
NHL on the Web
I am very proud of the progressive nature of the NHL with its high-speed Web offerings. The recent spate of video deals between the NHL, Google and Youtube are really smart promotional and media deals. I hope that there are more to come.
Tags: Ted Leonsis
Posted on November 17, 2006 9:53:00 AM | 1 Comment | PermaLink
Transformation at the Post
It looks like everyone is in the transformation business because of the high speed web, including people that report on it. Here is a story and internal memo from the most senior editor of the Washington Post. I find this work inspiring in that I have just been to the Post twice in the last two weeks, once to discuss AOL's transformation and another time to discuss how the new NHL is working and how the Washington Capitals are structured for the new realities of our league.
Tags: Ted Leonsis Washington Post NHL Caps
Posted on November 17, 2006 9:27:00 AM | 0 Comments | PermaLink
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Jon Miller's Legacy
In Internet time, August 2002 was centuries ago, so it's tough to remember sometimes just how bleak it was for AOL at the time.
Continued after the jump. More >>
Tags: Ted Leonsis Jon Miller AOL Time Warner Jeff Bewkes Randy Falco
Posted on November 16, 2006 4:37:00 PM | 6 Comments | PermaLink
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Top Coder Collegiate Challenge
AOL is the title sponsor for the TopCoder Collegiate Challenge being held this Friday, November 17th in San Diego, California. This four hour global event will be presented on the internet for the first time at 1:30 PST / 4:30 EST - bringing the excitement and drama of 64 of the world's best collegiate programmers competing against the clock and each other for a share of $200,000 in prizes. Check it out, to watch the competition unfold.
Tags: Ted Leonsis TopCoder
Posted on November 15, 2006 2:49:00 PM | 0 Comments | PermaLink
Raising the Bar
Here are some notes provided by our internal staff that may be of interest to the Caps fan base. It is interesting to note that we are playing well, have some very good and interesting stats, but that we still aren't satisfied with how we are playing - which means we have raised the bar on our own expectations.
Continued after the jump. More >>
Tags: Ted Leonsis Caps Kolizig Johnson NHL Ovechkin Zubrus
Posted on November 15, 2006 11:17:00 AM | 5 Comments | PermaLink
AIM 6.0 -- You Spoke, We Listened
When we launched a new version of AIM called Triton late last year, we got a lot of feedback from our users, and -- truthfully -- a lot of it was pretty negative. We had complaints about memory leak issues, usability, and the big bundle of other software that came with the download.
I'm pleased to say that we heard you, we learned, and we fixed the problems. Today, I'm proud to launch a new version of AIM, AIM 6.0, that addresses past issues, improves performance, and greatly increases usability.
But we didn't just address your old concerns. We made it better. We also added offline messaging, so you can leave messages for your friends and family, even when they're not online. We included a logging option, so you can keep track of your conversations without cutting and pasting them. And we increased the size of the Buddy List to meet the demands of our increasingly networked users, so you can now include up to 1,000 buddies. Plus, this new AIM offers easy access to AIM Pages, which we launched back in May.
It's pretty cool, and I think you'll like it. Check it out.
Tags: Ted Leonsis AIMPages Buddy List AIM6.0
Posted on November 15, 2006 11:07:00 AM | 2 Comments | PermaLink
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Am I Blogging Just to Raise My Google Rank?
There's been some chatter in the blogosphere about a cute story by Sara Goo on Ted's Take in the Washington Post yesterday. Sara is a young and very astute reporter that gets what new media is about, and she is a new blogger. The jist of Sara's piece is that I started blogging, and remain blogging, mostly as an SEO tool to raise my Google rank and control my own results.
Continued after the jump. More >>
Tags: Ted Leonsis Sara Goo Doc Searls Nic Carr
Posted on November 14, 2006 12:02:00 PM | 8 Comments | PermaLink
Cap are on a Roll
The Caps are continuing their streak of good play with another win on the road last night in Florida.
Tags: Ted Leonsis Gary Bettman Caps NHL Bruins
Posted on November 14, 2006 9:23:00 AM | 5 Comments | PermaLink
Monday, November 13, 2006
Online Video "Astroturf" Just Won't Grow
They don't get it. I don't get it.
I can't believe what I am seeing and reading of late regarding user-generated content on television.
Continued after the jump. More >>
Tags: Ted Leonsis YouTube Project MyWorld MySpace
Posted on November 13, 2006 3:36:00 PM | 1 Comment | PermaLink
Sunday, November 12, 2006
A Fun Night
Saturday was a fun night.The Verizon Center was rocking; the fans were showing their appreciation to our veterans all night and to top it off the Caps played a strong game - beating the NY Rangers 3 to 1.
When the Caps play attack offense - use speed and finish checks - we are a fun team to watch and a tough team to beat. Our goaltending was very strong last night, which always gives the team that extra boost of confidence. We have played 16 games and have 18 points - still not where we want to be, but nonetheless this is positive progress.
Tags: Ted Leonsis Caps Rangers Verizon Center
Posted on November 12, 2006 11:43:00 AM | 6 Comments | PermaLink
Friday, November 10, 2006
Ovechkin's Video Collection
Check out this great collection of Alex Ovechkin high-speed video hightlights on AOL's Uncut Video.
Tags: Ted Leonsis Alex Ovechkin AOL Uncut
Posted on November 10, 2006 3:15:00 PM | 1 Comment | PermaLink
It is what it is..
At the end of his concert he played a song called "Gravity", a great new rock song - the song was attributed to a new film which is being produced by AOL. That last part of the statement is incorrect.
The song is actually inspired by my documentary, which I have created and funded outside of my AOL duties. The film is called Nanking and will be released in 2007. Nanking is directed by Academy award winner Bill Guttentag and produced by me. Lou has contributed a couple of songs to help us with the film and pending Website and we are forever grateful for that work.
The song and Lou's performance last night was of course recorded - this was a Web 2.0 conference after all and is now on AOL "Uncut Video". The song was bootlegged and is now also being heard and soon I'm sure will be seen on Youtube. I really wanted to preserve the song for the film opening, but it is what it is - it's now out there, so go and enjoy it. Just think of Nanking the filmed documentary when you hear it and I hope you will be inspired by the film when it hits the big screen.
Tags: Ted Leonsis Nanking Lou Reed Gravity
Posted on November 10, 2006 2:34:00 PM | 1 Comment | PermaLink
Caps Lose in Carolina
An ugly loss last night in Carolina, Hurricanes played like defending Stanley Cup champs. It is interesting that we hung around and were close even though we were outplayed and out shot. Had we scored on the 5-on-3 power play, the game would have pivoted into another direction. It is time to regroup and get ready to face the NY Rangers on Saturday.
Tags: Ted Leonsis Caps Hurricanes NY Rangers
Posted on November 10, 2006 9:33:00 AM | 2 Comments | PermaLink
Gold Rush Winner
"Now I am the weird kid with money."
Tags: Ted Leonsis Micheal Kearney Gold Rush
Posted on November 10, 2006 8:52:00 AM | 0 Comments | PermaLink
Thursday, November 9, 2006
Georgetown Hoyas
Hoya Saxa expectations keep growing for the Georgetown men's basketball team with their preseason ranking at #8 in the country alongside Maryland, George Washington, and George Mason. We have several really top notch programs all within a 25 mile radius here in the tri-state area, but only Georgetown can boast 2 legitimate NBA prospects on its roster with Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert and a great incoming freshman class. I can't wait for the season to start.
Tags: Ted Leonsis Hoya Jeff Green Roy Hibbert
Posted on November 9, 2006 10:05:00 AM | 2 Comments | PermaLink
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
It's All About the Audience
This show isn't about Ballroom Dancing, this show is about America voting and participating in the process of picking a winner. Is big media listening? The # 1 and # 2 shows on TV are all about the audience, not about the stars or the studio.
This show is about interactivity - it's about community - it's about people wanting to "participate" - it's about trusting the process. Just as we vote to show our satisfaction or displeasure for a politician, the audience votes for their favorite dancer or performer just to be involved in the process of picking a winner. It is ironic that more people now vote for an American Idol than vote for a US President.
Tags: Ted Leonsis
Posted on November 8, 2006 1:34:00 PM | 3 Comments | PermaLink
A Favorite Blog
I have to admit, this blog (D.C Sports Bog) is quickly becoming one of my favorites. Dan is working hard to point to other bloggers covering sports that others dare not cover. :-) He adds an interesting and unique perspectives on many facets of local sports. Go Dan go!
Tags: Ted Leonsis
Posted on November 8, 2006 11:05:00 AM | 5 Comments | PermaLink
Player Pipeline
Tags: Ted Leonsis Backstrom Ferh Hershey Caps
Posted on November 8, 2006 10:58:00 AM | 1 Comment | PermaLink
Ovechkin Making a Difference
More Lovechkin...this time from the AP.
Tags: Ted Leonsis Ovechkin
Posted on November 8, 2006 9:44:00 AM | 0 Comments | PermaLink
Tuesday, November 7, 2006
A Win to Savor
I woke up this morning feeling good after a great comeback win last night. We spotted Ottawa 3 goals on 5 shots and then stormed back to win 4 to 3 in overtime.
Continued after the jump. More >>
Tags: Ted Leonsis Caps
Posted on November 7, 2006 11:01:00 AM | 17 Comments | PermaLink
Monday, November 6, 2006
A Fun Few Days...
On Friday, I had the opportunity to be the keynote speaker at the University of Maryland Robert Smith Business School CIO Forum. I lectured to more than 200 executives and MBA students on Web 2.0, the new consumer and leadership.
Continued after the jump. More >>
Tags: Ted Leonsis Mark Walsh Caps Wizards AOL
Posted on November 6, 2006 5:08:00 PM | 1 Comment | PermaLink