In the end this mierda being discussed here is like a bunch of chimps fighting over an onion http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1Ajnu705iY .

All sounds a bit Citizen Kane to me – either the media covering that particular industry has no vested interest in the direct deployment of those technologies/businesses or it should not be a media for that sector at all…

Yes these Nead chaps are not the brightest or most responsible/ethical brothers as suggested by this post, but is Cotterill himself the Almighty or Allah?? How does he decide who is morally in the right?? Perhaps he should stop doing any consulting for ANY digital signage project because there just might be the slight chance that he also may sniff a very juicy opportunity and get involved on the project…is it worth the potential future risk to this media?

Of course this is all speculation, but i think for all that finger-pointing towards that digitalsignage.com blog and the Neads (what a crime to buy a domain name for that price when there are children dying of hunger in pakistan) sometimes it would be worth realising that in the end the responsibility for objectivity/neutrality in journalism is why journalists do not get paid as much as other roles!! They do it for intrinsic not extrinsic motives. So for example, why even bother having advertising on dailydooh??? Because everyone has a need for CASH/power, and that is where the edges begin to blur and temptations begin to rise. Temptations that frodo baggins could not resist, only jesus, god incarnate overcame but only after sweating blood.

If I have the acronym right, I am ROTFLMAO …. which is hard to do and still use a keyboard, I’ll tell you.

This whole argument was NOT started by us. The “Digitalsignage.com And Helius The Plot Thickens” story and all of the early responses that are found here were started by the software and hardware providers whom were approached by digitalsignage.com to buy their so called “Leads.”

When these companies looked deeper into digitalsignage.com they discovered all of the conflicts of interest—which has set this entire argument in motion.

This is NOT an argument about who has a better information portal. This is an argument about business ETHICS, or better—the lack of ethics demonstrated by digitalsignage.com.

We saw the RSS feed about this post and joined the “conversation” because we felt strongly about this subject, and we because we had a bad experience with Nate Nead early on BEFORE he launched digitalsignage.com where content was stolen from our site. (Read our earlier post above). We wanted to share our experience and information about digitalsignage.com with everyone in the industry.

Hi Mark,

If you had taken the time to look at the “About Us” page of our Website you would have seen that we DO identify that Digital Signage Universe is owned and operated by Motionstream, we have ALWAYS made this clear on our site from day 1. We also make this clear to all of our advertisers beforehand:

Here is the link if you care to read it:

http://www.digitalsignageuniverse.com/about.html

Motionstream sells pre-packaged, royalty-free high-definition content for digital signage systems. Our advertisers are all HARDWARE and SOFTWARE developers, NOT content developers—so there is NO CONFLICT OF INTEREST with any of our advertisers and sponsors.

If a content developer were interested in advertising on our site we would make it clear to them that we ALSO have a content business. They can then decide for themselves to advertise or not. We have never hidden these facts.

The issue with the Neads and digitalsignage.com is the fact that they HAVE HIDDEN their relationships while soliciting business from the same companies that they are competing against. This is a HUGE conflict of interest, and that’s the whole reason why we are up in arms over these issues.

We’re all waiting for Nate to respond. So far his silence speaks volumes.

I don’t believe that anyone, including our site, is interested in “shoving out” anyone. Every Website in this space has something to offer and it’s up to readers to decide where they want to get their information and if what is being delivered is relevant to their business.

There’s a big misconception in this space about Google and keyword search. Many people who are just learning about digital signage for the first time—–don’t even know what to call it. It is inside out thinking to assume that they do. If you don’t believe it, then talk with your friends and relatives. Asks them if they know what digital signage is? Some will know, but a large majority won’t. It has been reported around the industry that traffic for the keywords “digital signage” has been steadily rising. This is true. But has anyone stopped to think that the rise in traffic is largely self-generated by the digital signage business itself? Ask yourself, how many times have you used the keywords “digital signage”?

We can see from our analytics that people use a wide range of phrases and description in trying to find information on the Web, so they find our site through many other kinds of searching. Another factor in our traffic is that since we cover industry news and have feature articles, our site often comes up for a wide range of search results—well beyond the “digital signage” keywords. Believe it or not, the fact that digitalsignage.com sits at the top of page 1 for the keywords “digital signage” is not that important us. What’s important here is their unethical business practices.

Also for the record, our primary business is managing Digital Signage Universe. We no longer develop content under the Motionstream label. We only sell the existing content through direct sales and through ThoughtEquity Motion.

Anyone who develops content for a living can tell you that the market for content is not good. With the decline in advertising spending, the demand for stock content has also dropped considerably. We would sell the Motionstream content libraries off completely if there was buyer willing to make a reasonable offer for the content. It is not core to our business any longer.

I am so glad that you think this is all about who is bigger etc..

Maybe TV, film production and ethics are really mutually exclusive, and if you think selling ‘quality’ leads with at least 2 conflicts of interests is acceptable, then can I politely suggest you go back into that industry.

In my world its called biting the hand that feeds. Other ‘portals’ may have other connections sure but how many sell leads that are no more than BUMF (http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/BUMF)?

It can all be summed up as a bunch of guys (I’m assuming all males) playing king of the hill and using issues such as transparency, honesty and other noble terms as their weapons for launching assaults.

What I find extremely amusing is that Lionel on his own site, isn’t transparent in his relationships with the companies he is involved in. In an FAQ section on his DSU website I found this:

Q. Is Digital Signage Universe affiliated with any company
that receives our request?

A. No. Digital Signage Universe is NOT affiliated with any digital signage provider, integrator, tradeshow, event, conference, software developer, or hardware manufacturer.

What about Motion Stream???

Lionel is clearly the pot calling the kettle black.

As for DailyDOOH, I’m not sure what their financial motives are but it really doesn’t matter – to me they all provide a degree of relevancy. As far as ethics is concerned, you’re all a bunch of ninny nannies! I learned long ago that in regards to ethics and business it is all to relative, especially depending on the industry. Most of my background is in the TV and film production industry where the very things you criticize here are the ethics upon which that industry was built. The networks are in bed with the film studios which are owned by totally unrelated companies that have international holdings and stakes in news organizations, etc.
Business, these days, is measured in acquisitions and mergers. It only makes sense that Nate Nead or Ryan or whoever would want to have ownership in a variety of the elements that makes up an industry. All I see is a bunch of pansies whining because Ryan has something they want or accomplished something they can’t. As a buyer, I don’t care what other holdings he has as long as the service he provides is sufficient for my needs.

At the end of the day, the ones that really matter aren’t the site owners that are trying to prove their place in the WWW by shoving out some other player, it is the consumers of the services this industry provides.

The sites in question all provide information and require time, energy and money to operate ($20,000 for a domain!!!! WOW!) so it is only natural that they all have a method for recouping those costs. It’s capitalism dummies!

Typically, I’m just a lurker and read DailyDOOH and Digital Signage Universe but now seeing the love triagle that wasn’t evident until now, I certainly need to add DigitalSignage.com to the mix. This has all been too fun and amusing – there is no way I could pass up posting a comment on this. I’d love to hear Nate’s take on this! Hopefully he is as willing to gossip about his competitors as much as Adrian and Lionel have.

Ok, I gotta get back to work on stuff that really matters

Dear Mr. Nead,

Yes, of course I remember. How could I forget!

I would like to set the record straight for everyone reading this post. We ended up butting heads with Nate and Ryan Nead early last year BEFORE the actual launch of digitalsignage.com. I caught him and his brother STEALING information from our site in order to build their Website. Their directory information was built entirely using information from our Directory.

I caught them red handed when they used our directory to dig up email address to send out a mass (Spam) email using information from our Directory. They of course denied everything, and after a heated exchange with them (which you can read at the link above), we both moved on.

The Nead’s posted my private email to them on their blog in an effort to try and embarrass me—I assure you Nate I’m not embarrassed at all. I’ll admit that my language in my e-mail to you was a bit harsh, but you guys were STEALING months of hard work from us! Given all of the events that have unfolded in the last few days about digitalsignage.com I feel I did the right thing at the time.

You may also note that the there are nine responses on Mr. Nead’s blog. Unfortunately, Dick Trask, who we all know and respect was unsuspectingly caught up in Nate Nead’s nonsense. The other responses (Esther Perry, BloggerBen, etc.) are friends of Nate who he recruited to reply. The fact that the Nead’s took a PRIVATE email and made it public in order to advance their evil plan speaks volumes about their lack of ethics!

So, Mr. Nead, in addition to your other misdeeds, everyone now knows that YOU are THIEVES!

In addition, there is a new post on the DailyDOOH that everyone should read: http://www.dailydooh.com/archives/17828

Those companies that have White Papers on digitalsignage.com should read today’s post where I point out that your intellectual property is being used AGAINST you and, as a marketing tool by the Nead’s to grow their other businesses. Business that are in DIRECT competition with you! If you’re smart you’ll DEMAND that they REMOVE your property from digitalsignage.com. You will also learn in today’s post that DEPLOYED Digital Signage is not the only business that they have going— Go read and learn the truth:

Here’s the link to today’s posting for more details: http://www.dailydooh.com/archives/17828

1. Nate blogs, etc: Of course he works full-time. He apparently owns three businesses, one of which competes with his employer. And having read his blog posts, I would suggest he stick to sales.

2. Helius, if they receive any leads, etc: “If they receive any leads”? Can you not answer the question asked? Do they receive leads or not? Because the answer is curious either way. A key sales executive is employed by a company, and sells (or withholds) sales leads to his employers. He neglects to tell his employer that he also gives/sells leads to a competitor that he owns. That they seem not to care either way makes them either complicit or just plain dumb.

3. Nate knows more about the industry than any fool around: Certainly not proven by his writing. Certainly not proven by the market success of his employer or his own various shadow companies. But I guess if you qualify it by saying he knows more than a fool (using yourself as an example), then the statement could be factually correct.

4. We get dang good leads, etc.: Yeah, sure you do. Those Nigerian gas station deals, Abu Dhabi hotels, unfunded startups in India and one- screen church deals in Iowa are dang good. As for your comment on trusting, I defer to “Mr. Adama” above.

5. Nate’s MBA submissions, etc.: Cause and effect, one must infer. Sure thing. By the way, I encourage Nate to take the Business Ethics course in his first semester.

Finally, your tough guy persona is rather tiresome and laughable, as is your assumed leadership position in anything resembling a business. You are just another young (and immature) guy hustling for a buck: congrats for your energy, but get over yourself.

The site itself is remarkable only for its name. The content consists of any press release mentioning digital signage, and the seldom coherent ramblings of the “busy guy”. Of course, neither matter to you or Nate, since the site exists only to trap the very high quality “customers” who would limit their research to the top of a Google search, and then “trust” you to direct their well-funded business plans to “top” solution providers. Yup, those would be leads I’d be anxious to buy and then put my best people on. Not.

I caught them red handed when they used our directory to dig up email address to send out a mass (Spam) email using information from our Directory. They of course denied everything, and after a heated exchange with them (which you can read at the link above), we both moved on.

The Nead’s posted my private email to them on their blog in an effort to try and embarrass me—I assure you Nate I’m not embarrassed at all. I’ll admit that my language in my e-mail to you was a bit harsh, but you guys were STEALING months of hard work from us! Given all of the events that have unfolded in the last few days about digitalsignage.com I feel I did the right thing at the time.

So, Mr. Nead, in addition to your other misdeeds, everyone now knows that YOU are THIEVES!

In addition, there is a new post on the DailyDOOH that everyone should read: http://www.dailydooh.com/archives/17828

Those companies that have White Papers on digitalsignage.com should read today’s post where I point out that your intellectual property is being used AGAINST you and, as a marketing tool by the Nead’s to grow their other businesses. Business that are in DIRECT competition with you! If you’re smart you’ll DEMAND that they REMOVE your property from digitalsignage.com. You will also learn in today’s post that DEPLOYED Digital Signage is not the only business that they have going— Go read and learn the truth:

Here’s the link to today’s posting for more details: http://www.dailydooh.com/archives/17828

Unfortunately the partner page does not say…

Partner 1 employs the owner of this site
Partner 3 is owned by the owner of this site

Goodness knows about Partner 2