As a Fortune 500 company considering a consumer-focused branding campaign that incorporates user-generated content, we are an office equipment and services provider looking to maximize the benefits of an online video campaign using YouTube and other online video communities. Obviously, we are aiming for a fresh and vibrant (and perhaps viral) response, but we also realize there may be somewhat negative portrayals of our brand.

1) Given our broad audience of consumers, how can we best encourage positive entries and on-message responses? Suggest online venues where the prevailing tone is upbeat -- or virtual locations that should be avoided if they are known to be too crass. How can these characterizations be determined?

2) Suggest creative ways to promote the collected video materials, after the submission period is officially over, that leverage online communities.

3) Other than ignoring or deleting content that may be negative, how should we handle submissions that are not entirely favorable to our brand?

From the point-of-view of a startup music recommendation service, we're considering expanding beyond music recommendations into other fields, as well as more geographic regions.

1) How should a mobile recommendation service best target the North American market? The European market? The Asian market?
2) What do you think the top 3 mobile recommendations services will be (other than music)?

With the introduction of the iPhone coming soon, there's been plenty of talk about whether or not it will succeed. Many analyst firms are weighing in and giving their thoughts on the iPhone. However, a much more interesting discussion may be about how it changes the rest of the market. Given the various strengths and weaknesses of the iPhone, how will other device vendors and mobile operators respond? We, at Techdirt, are raising this issue ourselves, and depending on the results, will help promote the winners on Techdirt, highlighting your analysis as a guest post while providing links back to your own site.

There's been a lot of talk about the governance, risk and compliance (GRC) market lately, with companies like SAP making a big push into the space. When talking about GRC people often fall back on talking about Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, as that's been a key part of it. Certain compliance deadlines have been pushed back for smaller companies, but small-cap companies may wish to anticipate GRC issues before they hit with full force. How do you see the market for GRC solutions changing for small-cap companies over the next 3 to 5 years?

Flurry.com would like some blogger perspectives on mobile RSS feeds. Flurry offers a free mobile RSS reader (non-WAP) and is looking for feedback to improve its service.

1) Describe your view of the mobile RSS market. Who do you see as the leader in mobile RSS readers? Why?

Please check out Flurry.com (and try out the mobile RSS widget, if you like).
2) As a blogger, what would motivate you to include Flurry's RSS Widget on your blog?
3) What are Flurry's strengths/weaknesses, and how can they best promote/address them?

eBay is known as one of, if not the, largest advertisers on Google. After the recent squabble between the companies, eBay briefly removed all its ads from Google. If this continues (or happens again in the future), it could significantly impact both companies' bottom line. Presumably, eBay would get less traffic, and Google would lose one of its major advertisers. How much do you think it would impact each companies' bottom line and how would each respond to try to either repair/restore the relationships -- or replace the revenue from other sources?

With the launch of the Facebook platform, a number of startups are developing apps with the Facebook API, rather than on general websites. This can obviously make sense for some products, especially ones that want to leverage immediate network effects of a large social network. However, as a web 2.0 applications startup trying to determine a development path, what key points should we consider before jumping on the Facebook bandwagon? We have a recommendation-based service that will be initially ad-supported and then offer premium subscription services. (Think evite on steriods.)

As more and more devices add GPS capabilities, what features will really differentiate personal navigation devices (PNDs)? What location based services will be most valuable to drivers? To pedestrians? What will GPS devices look like in 5 years?

Several video-on-demand services are ramping up, allowing users to download TV shows and movies onto a variety of devices. From the perspective of a traditional content producer, which video-on-demand services will attract the largest viewership in the next year? How will TV studios need to change what they do as these services grow?

If you were advising a private equity group that had an interest in consumer telecommunication services, where would you invest in the next 6 months? What areas have at least double-digit growth potential? Restrict your responses to North America.