Veoh becomes the test case for video sharing services

And who would have thought the Wall Street Journal, of all publications, would cite bloggers so openly? The reference to a site like Uneasy Silence must send traffic skyrocketing.

Is this where newspapers and traditional media find their new position? Think of the WSJ and other "must read" publications as grown up "slashdots" that energize the news hounds of the world to unearth all the story that is summarized so professionally in print.

Post-Advertising Era?

Advertising In the Post-Advertising Era leaves the scent of death in the air. Are we over-reacting to all the attention being given YouTube and user-generated content? Maybe not.

In Flavors of Grassroots Video, JD Lasica took notes on a presentation by Mary Hodder of Dabble. Considering all the marketing-oriented TV we've grown accustomed to, it's a relief that no one says they watch commercials on the internet.

The WSJ examines video sharing

There is no doubt now... the Wall Street Journal tends to get stories right. I can only imagine the advertising budgets being re-evaluated... and many new advertisers getting into the game.

From the article:

"YouTube is a classic Silicon Valley garage-to-glory tale. Two friends, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, started a company in a garage to tackle an issue they were grappling with personally: how to share home videos online. They maxed out Mr. Chen's credit card on business expenses before a financier bankrolled them. They built a huge consumer following under the noses of richer, better-known companies with vastly larger payrolls. The young company burst forth as the dominant player.

"But for every Apple Computer Inc. or Google Inc., Silicon Valley's history is filled with dozens of hot startups that gained 15 minutes of fame but couldn't sustain their brief success. YouTube's executives, including some alumni of Internet flameouts, are now furiously planning strategy and making deals to sustain their upward arc."

How CNET mixes video and blogs into their sites

Online Video Revolution is Here and Some Online Publishers are on it, and wouldn't you know that CNET's Dan Farber is on top of it all. He was behind the original MacWorld magazine, in 1984, and he has ridden every publishing trend to hit since then.

I'm impressed how a short video presentation of his perspective does more than reading several "analysis" pieces. I want to know what CNET sees and how it moves forward. Dan shows and tells how they do it.

Things are taking shape: Beet.tv

Beet.TV: Believe it: The Video Revolution is Here

This group seems down-to-earth and aware of video as content (not just entertaining moments of dancing Christmas lights or dorm room pranks). If a picture is worth a thousand words, it only stands to reason that 30 frames a second has more potential to inform, educate and persuade.

The interviews seem newsworthy and heart-felt. I am drawn to hearing the CEOs and VCs do their own reporting on their own views. They know they are documenting their own voices with their own voices, and are willing to stand behind what they say.

We are disintermediating the editorial function and I can't think of an endpoint to this trend.

Print reporters shoot 'em themselves

'Wash Post' Reporters Get Digital Video Cameras for Online, says Editor and Publisher. The Washingtonian reports how remarkably easy it has been to just "do it".

DV Guru adds:

"Newspaper reporters are starting to be outfitted with video cameras, hinting at journalism's further expanding into the multimedia realm. Reporters who have had no shooting experience are now juggling between jotting notes and taking video clips in the field. This journalist-shot video is now popping up online, with clips accompanying news articles. If anything, it's interesting to see how the individual reporter is now taking on the role of two or three people with the proliferation of widely available and cheap digital video technology. It also goes to show you just how much emphasis and importance is put on the moving image itself."

Finally, CBS news says, "With fewer people buying the dead-tree versions of newspapers and more turning to the Internet for news, it’s no surprise that newspaper Web sites are exploring all the options available on the Web to distribute their content -- just as television outlets have expanded into more written stories on their sites. So the question becomes … how much of a threat does video on newspapers' Web sites pose for television?"

This revolution will be televised!

Drama in the living room

From BusinessWeek we get Apple's iTunes Movie Muddle, which touches on some core technology opportunities. Someone, somewhere is going to come up with a box that allows access to HD videos from the internet. But, it's simple to say and hard to do.

First of all, most "video sharing" sites present materials in less that HD, and most videos on those sites are less than 10 minutes long. Myspace.com actually restricts videos to that length, unless a user registers themselves in a special publisher's program.

Second, as the article points out, watching videos on an iPod or even a computer screen gets old. Why not video walls, retail video displays, and the old living room mainstay?

Finally, Hollywood makes far too much money the old fashioned way to want to switch. Someone has to show them how they can get even richer (or lose their shirt) before they change their "first release window" practices.

Will a breakout product cause the dam to break? Or a "must see podcast"? My bet is at the other end of the chain. Those HD flat panels are showing up in all sorts of places, playing all sorts of materials. Increasingly, they are fed by efficient, internet-sourced content.

Chevy Tahoe's online ad contest backfires

Chevy Tahoe's fiasco will have marketers scratching their heads for effective ways to harness creativity. The attack ads all use the same footage, which probably means that Chevy set the creative bar a tad low. Without much effort required, what was a "viral marketing" idea turned into a disastrous erosion of a valuable brand.

Yahoo and citizen journalism

Yahoo Wants Citizen Journalism: "Yahoo hopes to become the best-known brand name in citizen journalism."

This article raises questions about what news stories citizen journalists will cover. It sounds like Yahoo is working out a way for Verizon, Cingular and others to enable their subscribers to send videos and pictures from cell phones directly to a new Yahoo service as news. Leaving aside questions about accuracy and completeness, I would hope that cell phones are not the only source! The video clarity on digital cameras is often quite impressive, to say nothing of DV and HDV materials.

First there was "all the news fit to print", followed by "all the news that fits", and now "all the news"?

Corporate podcasting at National Semiconductor

National Semi Makes iPod Standard Issue according to Internet News. To me, this is the starting point: the iPod as a lure to get people to use iTunes for more than entertainment.

From the story:

National Semi spokesman Jeff Weir said his company has very real productivity expectations. He notes that half of the employees work in chip fabrication and test facilities where they aren't near a PC.

"They aren't checking emails from management all the time," said Weir. "This is another method for us to communicate information to employees, whether it's corporate speeches from the CEO, flash podcasts or new product snippets. It will all be available on iTunes for them to view at their leisure."

Video blogging event

Videoblog about videoblogging and Vloggercon appeared from a San Francisco Chronicle reporter. I went to the conference, and was amazed. It felt like early Macintosh days, or maybe even home brew stuff. Everyone was talking amongst themselves, even when someone was presenting something from the stage. In the chaos was an underlying expectation that this was big, even though no one seems to be making money yet.

One guy who might make money before others is Robert Scoble, who has been Microsoft's "blog guy" for years. He's just left MS for Podtech.net in Menlo Park. They have his announcement on their home page.

TiVo casting

New service from TiVo will start with the New York Times and the NBA and promises to bring internet content to the living room TV.

This sounds just right, and I'll investigate. Would be great to send out the Cal Crew Video Archive this way, in addition to iTunes. Many alumns and family members of the crew would rather watch our work on TV than on their computers.