HAPPY NEW YEAR
Happy 2008. That's a video I recorded with Carol last night in my kitchen. It was easy to make. Using Seesmic, I just pressed record and the video was saved and posted to the web. It wasn't just posted to a web page somewhere, it was added to a community. A social community of friends.
SOCIAL VIDEOBLOGGING
As we enter 2008, I see a future where more people will be capturing and sharing unedited moments with friends via social videoblogging.
It's going to be a lot more social for a number of reasons, most important is that it'll be easy for people to have video conversations.
VIDEOBLOGGING BEGINNINGS OF A CONVERSATION
Let's take a look at how we got here.
Four years ago I started Steve Garfield's Video Blog and posted my first video.
That video was posted to a brand new blog. The blog allowed comments. That's where the conversation happened. Sometimes people would record response videos, and post them on thier own blogs and in my commnets, provide a link back.
Sometimes people talked about a certain video on the Yahoo! videoblogging group.
VIDEO HOSTING - A COMMUNITY SQUARE
Then video hosting sites like OurMedia, Vimeo, YouTube and Blip.tv came out which had the added feature of providing a central location where you could post and discuss the videos.
I SUBSCRIBE TO PEOPLE
When RSS 2.0 with Media Enclosures came out, it allowed you to subscribe to someone's feed of videos, so you'd get every new one delivered to you.
What I said about that advancement was that "I Subscribe to People."
I was making a commitment to watch every new video that someone produced.
FROM QUICK TO FULL
Now people are producing videos that span the continuum from a quick, unedited moments, up to a fully produced show.
RECORDING LIVE FROM A COMPUTER
Sites like Seemic, let you record a video using a webcam. Once recorded, the video is immediately available for everyone visiting the site to view. The video sits there at the top of the river of new videos until someone else records something. The conversation happens when someone clocks 'reply', and adds their video to the river of videos, in response.
STREAMING LIVE FROM A COMPUTER
Lot's of sites are now available to stream live video with the ability to chat live. Check out Ustream.tv, Operator 11, Blogtv, justin.tv, ijustine.tv
STREAMING LIVE FROM A CELLPHONE
I've recently been experimenting with Qik, which let's me broadcast a live stream from my cellphone up to the web. While broadcasting, people who are watching live, can type in comments which are then displayed on the cellphone's screen.
After ending the stream, the resultant video can be embeded into a blog.
WHAT'S NEXT
Social videoblogging frees people from expectations. Much like MySpace or Facebook, where you can join to communicate with a group of people you already know, you can do the same on social video sites.
Watch a video, post a response.
Watch the responses flow into a river of video.
Stand on the shore or jump in.
In addition, like on MySpace or Facebook, you can also make friends.
One tip, ignore the negative people. There are always going to be people who criticize what to them looks mundane.
As Chuck Olsen says, Mudane is the new Punk Rock.
Google search for 'Social Videoblogging' - 9 results.
Disclosure: I'm an investor in Seesmic. Contact me if you want to try it. Nokia provided my cell phone and ATT provides my cell service.