DIGITAL L.A. : SPEAKING FOR THE UNWIRED MASSES.

Byline: David Bloom 

The relentlessly hype-filled opening video really was puffy, but after the flash and trash-talking were done, music impresario Sean ``Puffy'' Combs proved surprisingly humble and thoughtful as he talked about the Net and what it means for the people he cares most about.

Yes, Combs' ventures in music, television, film, magazines, restaurants, clothing and more have generated an astonishing $452 million over the last three years. Yes, it seems he's just about everywhere.

But, he said, he hasn't been on the Net, which made all the more interesting his early-morning appearance at this week's Digital Hollywood conference, before the very people who make their livings in entertainment online.

``I'm here to represent that 190 million Americans who are not as active on the Web right now,'' Combs said. ``The whole Web thing is moving just a little too fast for me.''

But at 28, and a ``hip hop parent'' of two, Combs said he realizes he needs to get moving, particularly because many African-Americans are lagging badly in getting on the Web.

``The numbers are staggering on how my race and my culture are not as evolved as they should be on the Internet,'' Combs said. ``But I want to be a leader of urban youth culture going into the 21st century. I've got the fever. I want to make sure the hip-hop generation and my race don't get shut out of the future.''

Combs argued thoughtfully about how hip-hop culture has become an influential lifestyle among teens and 20-somethings of all races. Indeed, among the array of statistics that he brought along was one that showed only 28 percent of the people buying ``urban'' music - now a quarter of all music purchases - are African-American.

With African-American households much heavier patrons of cable television, HBO, movies and other entertainment than the average household, Combs said they'll be eager consumers of entertainment on new media too, once they get online and have something worth watching.

``You can have a whole bunch of information and e-commerce,'' Combs said. ``But it's important to come up with the programming and content that's going to keep the younger generation buying and coming on.

It's clear Combs believes he can take what he's learned in every other entertainment medium and bring it to the Web, profitably. That's good news for the Internet industry because big names sell boxes. Just ask Milton Berle.

``I'm just trying to lead the urban culture into cyberspace, trying to help them understand the importance of the new technology,'' Combs said.

Let's do lunch

Among the funniest and most interesting tidbits of Combs' speech was research showing that members of hip-hop culture are nearly 20 times as likely to buy a PlayStation as the average consumer.

Of course, chronically potted rappers Cypress Hill have beaten him to market with the violent, PC-based crime game Kingpin, but that didn't stop the head of Microsoft's Streaming Media Group, who also spoke during the morning session, from virtually tackling Combs after the speech, presumably to offer the company's services in any possible way.

To check out more of Combs' data, go to www.puffdaddy.com, Combs said.

Bits into books

``Digital Babylon''by John Geirland and Eva Sonesh-Kedar (Arcade) - A rather overly detailed accounting of the first push by Hollywood into the online world, this book nonetheless has a couple of useful themes worth keeping in mind as traditional media outlets and a new group of start-ups tries to figure out how to get people to watch entertainment on the Web.

One is that the first wave of ``Siliwood'' was fundamentally hobbled by the inability of three ``tribes'' - Silicon Valley geeks, Hollywood ponytails and investment capital suits - to talk to each other.

The geeks wanted technical perfection, but fundamentally couldn't grasp the hit-based mentality of Hollywood creatives, who live off a few hits among their many programming misses. And the business types, while initially eager to sink money into high-profile sites such as the Spot, couldn't figure out how to craft a financially feasible business plan from new but still small audiences.

For it to work, (and some of the same players, such as Microsoft's Bob Bejan and WireBreak Networks' David Wertheimer, are involved in the second wave) will require more investor patience, faster consumer connections, and more people who can cross the lines between the tribes, the authors argue.

The 28.8-kbps connections that were common from 1995 to 1998 were just too slow to allow anything more than a fairly static, low-resolution screen that was mostly text based, they rightly point out. The result was something that was enjoyable enough for a short time, but quickly became boring and financially unsupportable.

More promise lies ahead, with the burgeoning availability of very fast connections, such as DSL phone lines and cable television modems. Both are 10 or 20 times faster than a 28.8-kbps modem even now, with more speed increases likely in the future.

But as the authors also point out, it will take years (maybe Internet years, but still) before broadband is widely available to homeowners, not just businesses and colleges.

Just as important, it will be at least that long before this fundamentally new medium finds its own Sergei Eisensteins and Orson Welles to exploit its particular virtues.