So, I haven’t been invited to the Venice Project Beta for an exclusive “first look”, but if you want to know what’s going on, look no further. Some of your favourite blogs covered the details today so that you can get a breakdown of what’s going on with the software. Now while I KNOW that the emphasis is on the software with the unveiling of the beta (userfriendly, fast, skye-like, community features, makes you breakfast and so on), surely there’s one fact we can’t all forget.

Its about the Content, Stupid.

At the end of the day, the features that the Venice Project are rolling out are incredibly marginal compared to the importance of great content.

People are willing to put up with a whole lot of inconveniences to get a hold of something watchable. Dead links. Slow loading stuff. Low resolution video. Horrible UI. System-resource hogging software. And for some, they knowingly risk potential litigation.

I know what you’re thinking — “But, Tony — that represents a huge opportunity!” And to that I would say, “but only a marginal one if, all things being equal, the content is still non-existent”. Early adopters will continue to put up with an enormous amount of crap to get what they want — and will continue to do so as long as the content is there.

Let’s hear a little more about their content partners before we all get hyped up about the features. After all, without great content, the rest is just details.

Little, un-monetizable, details.

[Of course I'm not calling anyone "stupid", per se -- the title and content is a play on the infamous line by Bill Clinton who said, "its the economy, stupid" as one of his signature lines during the 1992 Presidential Election]