Friday, July 28

Andrew Baron on Rocketboom at the first NYvideo.org meetup.

Watch movie (Quicktime, 9.9 min, 38.7 MB)

Original post, from Randy Wicker Reporting:

ROCKETBOOM? BOOM OR BUST? Randy Wicker Reporting Watch the video Andrew Michael Baron, creator of Rocketboom, talked to the first gathering of a a new vlogger group ( www.NYVIDEO.org ) Wednesday night, July 26,2006. He told the gathering they had a unique "window of opportunity", that vlogging gave even niche markets a previously impossible worldwide audience and that Rocketboom was simply a poster-child for a media no longer monopolized by multi-millionaires. He announced a new sale of $40,000 for one week's advertising on his show. He also revealed some of his most personal feelings about the departure of Amanda, Rocketboom's original anchorperson and showed some charts of the impact Amanda's departure had on viewership.

(Via Mefeedia)

Tuesday, July 25

Knights of the Star Trek Table

Star Trek Monty Python Mashup. Pointless humor is good. Pethaps thepan.org will find this handy. No idea who did it. Filmthreat whoever they are doesn't care much about where they get their content.

Watch movie (Quicktime, 1.5 min, 8.8 MB)

Original post, from Film Threat:

The gang from Star Trek performs "Camelot" from Monty Python and the Holy Grail...

(Via Mefeedia)

Sunday, July 23

Time based video permalinks... making the conversation more granular

An interesting and technically significant little piece of info

Google Video in a move that ups YouTube has added a way for anyone to link to a specific part of a video. All you need to do is append the time in this format (#1m35s)
to the video URL.

This is a significant advancement for video sharing and multimedia overall. I would love to see this ported over to podcasts and perhaps formalized under some standard that the mainstream media and individuals are able to adopt without going through Google. Add some metdata around these URLs and I would imagine it will become easier to search/tag audio and video content. This would get even more interesting if feeds begin linking to individual segments and not just an entire piece of multimedia content.


Steve nails it... of course the question I find is never just having the right idea. The problem is proper execution, and the implimentation is very prone to issues.

As many early vloggers know Mefeedia.com had a "video quoting" tool, though I don't know where it went. The idea being that one could directly quote or reference a particular segment of a clip and reference it via a url. Theoretically this might be particularly handy for referencing (for example) a partiular segment of a speach at a conference, but it had many technical issues, such as the fact it only worked with Quicktime compatible videos.

Technical considerations a side the ability to reference specific points in video... so called video permalinks would allow us not only new ways to reference media, but also new ways to annotate it, tag it, and make it otherwise searchable.

It occurs to me that there are three or four places where this makes the most sense to impliment

1) point of origin, host services... i.e. as google video is doing, also youtube, blip.tv and others video hosts and vlogging platforms... even myspace, livejournal, blogger.

2) point of origin, blog platforms... wordpress, moveable type. This is where time based permalinks has the best chance, if not the quickest of catching on.. of a standard evolving.

3) point of origin, video formats / standards... the most ideal situation would be for formats such as Quicktime, Windows Media Player, and above all Flash to support time based referencing. By simply creating a standard by which a video can be referenced such as "http://url.com/.../video.mov?time=1m32s". While it may take a long while for such as Apple or Microsoft to ever impliment such a system it may be in hands of Flash developers to build players that promote this standard. While Flash developers might be able to get together and just impliment this, the best course of action Quicktime and Win media support might be standards organizations for video formats.

4) middle player services... mefeedia.com, odeo.com and others... There are not to many middle players out there... some are search, some are directories... but there is opportunity wether with video or even more so with audio to impliment such a time based reference model as a service... the problem however for these services is opportunity cost... such a service will always be an obscure service on this level utilized only by a few. Developmentally it will take a lot of time... and from a usability standpoint the proper place and workflow must be found within such a service for users to find a tool such as this useful. Simply put it will require as much of a breaktrhough in usability as it will technology and development.

Via Micro Persuasion: Google Video Adds in-Stream Permalinks

Thursday, July 20

NBC, clueless is business as usual

Proving once again that they're market savy enough to capitalize on the recent PR of Rocketboom, but to clueless to "get it"... CBS launches a "vlog" that really doesn't have anything to do with vlogging. (1, 2, 3)

You know.. it's a web page and it has video on it... so... yeah, that must be a "vlog" right?

Save yourself any further distraction, podcastingnews.com tells you everything you need to know.

Rocketboom, The Show and other daily news vlogs are getting some serious company, a daily news vlog from NBC.

The Early Nightly is hosted Brian Williams, who has had a blog since May of 2005. The new vlog looks to be an attempt by NBC to tap into the growing audience for vlogs and video podcasts.

Unfortunately, at this time the 'vlog' is hobbled by the fact that it (1) doesn't have a video podcast feed, (2) the site isn't compatible with Firefox, (3) entries aren't archived and (4) viewers must sit through a 30 second ad to see the video.


I smell huge success.

Watch out Andrew, NBC's got a Rocketboom killer if I ever saw one. It's going to be coming your way one pair of eyeballs at a time.

Thanks Podcasting news for hitting the nail on the head. I love it when I'm not the only one standing around snickering. Now we can all enjoy the inside joke together. And by "inside" I mean between me, my friend Andrew, and few hundred thousand of my friends in the blog-o-shere, vlog-o-sphere and podcast-o-sphere.

I really hope Andrew catches onto this. I'd really think they should be covering this news of their inevitable demise at the hands of NBC.

Thank you NBC for making me laugh.

NBC, clueless.

Me, sarcastic.

All is right in the world. ;)

Keep em coming NBC.

NBC, clueless is business as ussual

This is a duplicate post, please go here: http://mmeiser.com/blog/2006/07/nbc-clueless-is-business-as-usual.html

It looks like I can count on blogger.com double posting a lot these days.

The ROI on copy left culture

In 1977 Stephen King started granting any student film maker rights to make a movie off of any of his books for a $1 so long as they didn't show it commercially. This despite his lawyers many complaints.

He called these films "dollar babies" and this was his way of giving back for all the joy movies had given him.

"20-year old Frank Darabont's Dollar Baby adaptation of 'The Woman in the Room' which was eventually released in 1986 on VHS by Granite Entertainment Group Interglobal Home Video as part of the Stephen King's Night Shift Collection along with New York University film student Jeff Schiro's adaptation of 'The Boogyman.' Darabont went on to direct two feature film adaptations of Stephen King's work, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, both nominated for multiple Academy Awards, including Best Picture."


So... what's the ROI on that $1 now? What's the gross on the Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption? Argue what you will about what can and can't be quantified and serialized... but a budding film director got to test his metal on some good material and the owner of that material had two of his books turned into a couple of the best movies of all time. It all indisputably starts with that $1 license.

You might argue that Stephen King was one of the earliest proponents of copy=left licensing. In fact his license sounds a lot like a little license I've heard of over at creativecommons.org.

So when big wigs and media conglomerates and suits say that the buck stops with them... when people ask what's the ROI on copy-left... why should I user open source? Tell them to stick this example in their big fat ROI pipe and smoke it.

Via: Dollar Baby - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Senator Ted Stevens? InterTubes

Senator Ted Stevens? InterTubes
Senator Ted Stevens? InterTubes
, higres version

How can you not blog something like this.

To better demonstrate the theory of how information travels online, Senator Ted Stevens has teamed up with research scientists from Helsinki to develop a series of InterTubes - the world's first Internet data floatation devices.

When submerged in ethernet liquid, InterTubes will carry passengers safely across any type of digital divide. Stevens is quite proud of his invention, claiming that they took "enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material" to complete. With this new system, the young Senator hopes that your personal internets will no longer be delayed.

Stevens also claims that his InterTubes will be delivered on "big trucks" in time for the 2006 holiday shopping season. Net profits are projected to be in the gigabit range - should analysts remain neutral.

Next up for the Stevens development team: an Internet Cerfboard.

Source: TedStevensInterTubes.com
Domain: InternetTubeTruck.com
[Use the Coupon Code "bLaugh" to save 10% on your next GoDaddy purchase]


I've been seeing these in Chris Pirillo's Flickr feed for weeks... and they just keep getting more hilarious. I'm not even sure what the back story on this is, but they seem to be done by resident blogger, napkin artist, and business card cartoonist Hugh Macleod and they seem to employ an innovative new take on sponsorship by godaddy.com.

The first time I referenced one of these cartoons was about 4 posts ago over the Amanda Unboomed / Rocketboom scandal. Scarry stuff that was. :)

LOL

Alive In Jorburg, a short film

I found this absolutely fascinating. It deals with Apartheid and racial issues in South Africa in a very creative way. Cheers to the creators for their creative storytelling.

Alive_in_Joburg_compr480.mov (70mb, 6 minutes long)

alive4oq

"Edited with a documentary style, Alive in Joburg narrates the story of the racial discrimination on the aliens in South Africa, an obvious reference to the apartheid."


Via: Graffit: Aliens en video... Alive In Jorburg

If you have more in depth information on this short film clip, please feel free to share in the comments.

Monday, July 10

iFilm, Ted Stevens, and the decentralization of media

Blogger is so screwed up it posted this twice... go see it here.

http://mmeiser.com/blog/2006/07/ifilm-ted-stevens-and-decentralization.html

iFilm, Ted Stevens, and the decentralization of media

A good friend sent this video clip to me today. :)

VH1, Best Week Ever, The Lost Mac Ads

And well it is a great video clip, a nice spoof of the current Mac ads... by someone who clearly is sick of Apple. :)

What I find most interesting is that it's hosted by iFilm and coming from VH1. As my buddy Joel put it this is the first time he'd seen an iFilm video outside iFilm's walled garden.

Why this is significant is because for years iFilm was one of the only large scale video sites on the web. They represent the old guard and old ways of doing business online. While they haven't exactly been hurting over the explosion of video content online sites like Youtube, and real user centric video sites like Blip.tv and others have been sucking up HUGE amounts of the online video market share. iFilm is but another player now in the space... and what is interesting is how they're responding to these newcomers.

A few points.

1) iFilm has partnership with VH1 to deliver VH1's content.

2) iFilm has mimicked embedded flash "video sharing"... so ANYONE can post one of their videos into their site.

3) iFilm has added more user centric features and driven them through this Flash interface... not only sharing, but ratings, and even an interesting playlist feature

4) iFilm has changed their monetization mechanism... instead of obnoxious pre-roll ads (ads prior to the content) that were often longer than the actual content... they now are monetizing through their partnerships (i.e. VH1 is paying them to host and deliver these videos) and only putting tiny post-roll ads which do little more than brand.



While this is a big step forward for iFilm I'm still by NO means a fan of their backwards, top down, editorially driven, pro-big business / anti-consumer created... business model.

Indeed what I see here is that iFilm is embracing only the most superficial of the Web 2.0 innovations. They have decentralized the viewing experience, such that anyone can post an embedded player into their web page to be viewed on any website. However this is only "sharing" on the most superficial of levels. They still control the entirety of the content and it's unavailable for remix, downloading, shifting to the iPod, PSP, set top box or any alternative experiences. These videos can not even be crafted into user created playlists or shared in any form other than one of embedding.

It is only the first and most superficial step they have taken. I have accepted that they will never be a outlet for decentralized and user generated content... but I must grudgingly acknowledge that while I loath them for issues to numerous to mention here that their business plan (of acting as a internet port to slightly more clued in old world media companies) is at least solid, and they are moving at least in the smallest direction toward a more user friendly media scape.

The major problem is though at some point however... their walled garden world will not allow them to go beyond the computer desktop... to iPods, PSPs, Set top boxes and other portable media devices. There will always be a very large disparagement between the reality of an open access world... that where true podcasts and video blogs can go... and that which these walled garden businesses like iFilm can go with their DRM'd content and old world business models.

On a side note I think we would do well to admit that clearly Flash media is a form of DRM even though Macromedia doesn't declare it as such... and that in fact that has been unfortunately one of the keys to it's propagation by the likes of iFilm and Youtube... that coupled with a widespread install base, and the flexibility in which excellent rich and interactive user playback experiences can be crafted.

The fundamental cruxt of this disparaging abyss between sites like iFilm and the rest of the vlog world is that iFilm still sees the world as one of "consumers" and "creators"... when in the new world order we are all fundamentally both consumers and creators. This is the same theme that became so apparent in the now infamous speech by Senator Ted Stevens over the poignantly title "Communications, Consumer's Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006".

The term "consumer" is an outdated term that should be stricken from all conversation about the internet and media. You should find yourself immediately suspicious of anyone who uses such a term.

"Consumer choice" is an oxymoron. Having our choice of consumption is no choice at all. We must be free to create, and share and participate in every level of the mediascape and political process. It's imperative to the health of culture, business and politics.

Incumbent media and communications companies like AT&T, Verizon, Bell South and others would have the entire world relegated to the sidelines (or more the sofa) in politics, media and the entire internet... purely for their need to make a quick buck... and their influence over the likes of people in political power like Ted Stevens is most obvious, galling, and poignant. It's caused major outrage... indeed I'm so appalled that such uninformed (completely clueless) and overtly influenced people are making such decisions that I can scarcely keep my tongue civil. This would be the issue of the day for which I would march on Washington if it comes to that. The internet shall NOT be turned into the likes of cable television, nor subverted from it's status as a outpost of free speech.

Ted Stevens took such special interest rhetoric as that of AT&T, Verizon and Bellsouth to heart and expressed it. In so doing he displayed both the dangerous level of his influence by them in politics... the many critical flaws of their arguments and his ignorance... of even the existence of the growing mass culture of creators and innovators.

But I am rambling... it's OK for iFilm to be conservative or ignorant of simply to choose not to acknowledge the growing culture of creators and innovators... to their own folly perhaps... but it is not ok for this legislated on all of us... for the internet to be gated off and those keys to be handed to the like of such fools and idiots whom think that control over the last mile of the internet between the backbone and the home entitles them to be gate keepers of the supposedly "free world".

And what ever happened to those words, "free world"? As Doc Searls said in a nice little rant on the Net Neutrality issue... "free world" in America has come to mean only your freedom to choose between what silo or walled garden you want to be locked into. We bloggers, podcasters, vloggers, and everyone and anyone who has invested in open source software and open access media knows and believes in a TRUE freedom, and we shall see if that freedom shall be subverted in this tenuous fight over the future of the internet.

We will not see this future sold out through such delicate matters such as pornography, child protectionism, P2P and other hot issues. Idiots, fools and "pipe providers" will no doubt try to polarize this debate and use these issues to drive faulty politics and legislation in their favor... they'll try as is typical to label their opponents with demeaning labels, but we'll be there one blog, podcast, and vlog at a time evolving and redefining the debate to resist such myopic and misrepresented characterizations of the fight over the "network of pipes"... as Senator Ted Stevens so misguidedly called the internet.

The key to success is in one thing alone. Participation. Like critical mass bike rallies, the key to success is merely in getting a critical mass of participation... in blogging, in podcasting, in photocasting, in video blogging and in open source. The mere presence of a critical mass of independent, open and free culture is the first and most important step. The critical debate and action are then sure to follow. So get out there and speak your mind and do it not just in text, but via audio podcast, photograph, and video before we are sidelines in the fight over control of the internet.

Congress kept in dark on spying

What with the net neutrality issues and the war going on not only over terrorism, but intelligence vs. constitutional freedoms, and over the future freedom of the internet I cannot stay away from the political side of the issues. They reach out and drag me in.

The following article from The Australian is of utmost interest.

Congress kept in dark on spying | The World | The Australian

I find it quite interesting. that it's often the outside sources that can contain such poignant overviews of the state of American politics. I'm sure you'll let me know if you disagree and see in this some bias that I you think I might be unaware of. :)

Republican Congressman Peter Hoekstra (Michigan), chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee (former supporter of the Bush administration's intelligence initiatives) speaks out on Fox News about his May 18th letter to Mr. Bush that was published in the New York Times this week.

This letter alleges...

1) "there was yet another intelligence program that the administration had not told Congress about"

2) "the operation in question was different from the wiretapping controversy or the covert monitoring of international financial transactions that the White House has been defending in recent weeks"

3) "that there was a dissident faction within the CIA that he said "intentionally undermined" the President's policies."

And separately according to The Australian;

4) "This confirmed rumours that have long circulated in Washington about the existence of a dissident group, which critics claim has selectively leaked stories to the media about the Bush administration's intelligence operations."

Even more interesting yet...

5) "US law requires that the intelligence panels of the Senate and the House of Representatives be informed of the Government's intelligence activities.

Mr Hoekstra said his intelligence committee learned about some undisclosed operations from whistleblowers who alerted Congress to what they believed were illegal activities."


Most interestingly this would seem to suggest that whistleblowers abound in the intelligence community. Indeed it would appear from this and many other cases that we have rampant whistleblowing going on in the intelligence community, and is it any wonder after the failure in the intelligence community under political pressure from the Bush administration leading up to the war in Iraq?

The ramification of that failure of intelligence prior to the Iraq war has caused a crisis of trust within the intelligence community and above all between the intelligence community, congress, and the Bush administration.

"If these allegations are true, they may represent a breach of responsibility by the administration, a violation of law, and, just as importantly, a direct affront to me and the members of this committee who have ardently supported efforts to collect information on our enemies"


That from Mr. Hoekstra's letter which was posted in the NY Times.


Another interesting aspect of this is that while the NY Times has been at the center critical press regarding the Bush administration (most obviously in the scandal regarding unauthorized wiretapping) that they are not by any means alone and have been joined by a huge chorus of other newspapers.

On a side note there is a very interesting similarity to the way consensus is made in big media and small media. Which is to say between the newspaper press and blogging. Consensus is not as transparent or organic in the world of newspapers, but it is effective non the less. But back on point...

Indeed the truth of most of these allegations by the NY Times and other papers has never been called into question merely the techniques by which information is gathered.

If any of you have seen the recent movie Good Night, and Good Luck... you'd likely agree that there are many similarities in the showdown between Edward Murrow / CBS and McCarthy and this current showdown between the NY Times and the Bush administration on the publics constitutional rights.

Needless to say NY Times is a shinning example of the free press in action and for me restores some faith in mainstream media.

And a special thanks to Geoff Elliott of The Australian for the article. It's a shinning example that you need not be in the middle of the debate to be relevant. Something I'm acutely aware of when rambling away on my little blog here.

Thursday, July 6

RocketBoom, the evilution of media and exploding narratives

RocketBoom Goes Boom
RocketBoom Goes Boom
, higres version

For those of you whom haven't heard the wildly popular Rocketboom has broken up. Amanda has left for LA it appears, and Andrew is looking for a new host or hosts.

I must admit I infrequently watched rocketboom (SOO much material). Still I'm a little sad that I will not be able to flip to an episode of rocketboom anytime the thought occurs to me and be rewarded with fresh, interesting and fun news.

Rocketboom was never about watching every episode to me. Rocketboom was a gathering place, an ideological mindspace, an ongoing conversation and my favorite watering hole (figuratively speaking of course) where I knew that I could pop in and see farmiliar faces and hear about the latest and most interesting news in regards to my geek lifestyle and general technological tomfoolery.

Do to the fact that it's been a tremendous two years, that Rocketboom was started on a non-existant budget, that for almost the whole two straight 2 years Rocketboom was a 5 day a week grind (rain or shine) I am not suprised to see the split between Amanda Cogdon and Andrew Baron. I'm rather impressed and in awe of their drive and staying power in fact.

I hope that Andrew, Amanda and their audience will not let the end in anyway overshadow the success Rocketboom has had.

The growth and success of Rocketboom has personally been beyond my wildest dreams with viewership well into the hundreds of thousands a day. (I've heard reports of as many as 350,000 viewers a day, though I can scarcely believe it.)

As as a flagship video blog Rocketboom has been a great first introduction to coutless thousands to the world of video blogging. (Much preffered to horrid alternative introductions such as Youtube.)

It was through Rocketboom Andrew, Amanda and other vloggers were able to break new ground and reach into new markets like set top boxes and the cellular markets. It will be due in large part to Rocketboom's success in pushing of the boundries that I hope all of video blogging will slowly follow into these new markets and platforms.

Rocketboom has been thus far the tip of the spear that has pierced perceptions, expectations, markets and platforms to help break down the walls of old media. When it was started barely 100 vlogs existed. It was a dart thrown at a board back before any of us had any idea how this market would shape up and many would argue we still don't. As such I think Andrew's instinct and aim were incredibly true.

Now there are by my calculations over 10,000 video podcasts / vlogs and almost 200 video sharing sites. We have some concept of where Rocketboom fits into this space, but you must remember that this landscape was largely a blanks hole in cyberspace only two years ago. Almost none of these vlogs or services existed before Rocketboom started and during this time Rocketboom has acted as a beacon, setting an grand example for those to follow both in it's openess (syndicatable and downloadable), it completeness and compatibility (iPod, PSP, bittorent), and its simplicity as a vlog with a single cohesive voice, Amanda.

Without Rocketboom and other independant successes like it vlogging would have long ago succumbed to domain of proprietary systems and walled garden services like Youtube. Rocketbooms importance and all independant vlogs and vloggers importance as examples must not be underestimated. It should be recognized and applauded.

Rocketboom has had its detractors, indeed I never thought nor assumed Amanda and Andrew creation to be perfect. Such notions of what is "worthy" is completely contrary to everything vlogging, podcasting and blogging is about. Andrew and Amanda (despite the her obvious looks and charm) didn't speak up because they were perfect or great, noble, or because they were trying to live up to an expectation created by commercial media. There is no illusion there, just a $10 map of the world, a Tandy computer prop and some humor.. but like all bloggers, podcasters and vloggers they spoke up because it is far far better to participate in the conversation rather than to be a spectator.

The truth is that mass media is now part of the conversation of life itself. To be a spectator of blogging, podcasting, and videobloging is to be a spectator of life, politics and culture itself. And Rochetboom has proven as much.

We speak despite our imperfections because by such a standard noone should or would speak their minds. Participation is the life blood of new media and of course our democracy and as such all our rich media participation shall like the written words of those individuals before us breath new life into this democracy, world debates, and global cultures.

(Forgive the high level political tangent, I blame it on the 4th of July. ;)


It appears the split between Andrew and Amanda happened over the inability to work out the details for collaboration as Amanda moved from to NY to LA to pursue her acting carreer.

As a ground breaker and the vanguard of video blogging I hope Andrew and Rocketboom will recoop with a new host, or better yet new co-hosts and grow to a whole new level. I hope as well Amanda will find success in LA and not forget her vloggy roots but take them with her and let them drive her success in a more traditional media world.

While I will will miss Amanda on Rocketboom I think this is a great opportunity for both. For Amanda this split should give her the opportunity to take her acting carreer to new levels and for Andrew I think this is a chance to take what he's learned from the last two years of Rocketboom and go in a whole great new direction with Rocketboom. I expect exciting new times are a head for both.

While Amanda owns 49% of rocketboom I sincerly hope their split will be amicable and they'll be able to do it nice clean break so they can both move on find continued success. I implore them to find a way to make an agreement on a clean break and set their minds quicky on new opportunities. To not dwell.

Personally I'd like to see Rocketboom continue with TWO part time correspondants whom can either alternate and or co-host the show together. (Five or Six days a week is such a grind.)

Secondly, I'd like to see a Rocketboom extended edition (as the default episode) focusing more on materials from the rocketboom correspondants, growing the correspondant pool, and taking more submissions from the audience, reviewing and sharing more video based clips, and driving more traffic to bloggers and vloggers to encourage participation. It's time for Rocketboom to expand their staff and reach.

Third I'd like to see rocketboom focus on bridging the gap between the new world of media and the old. I always thought that an regular episodic vlog like rocketboom could find a place amongst a progressive show like Current TV, MTV, or G4Tech TV. (G4 Tech TV has in fact moved toward Rocketboom with Video podcasts like Attack of the Show.)


The mechanisms for aggregating bottom up material in a transparent and public way and shapping them into a daily show now exist. They've been perfected by blogs like boingboing and services like Slashdot, digg.com and flickr. All that need be done is to selectively apply some of those principals to video based media and to choose from amongst the bubbling mass of participatory media a final selection or two a day to include in the show.

It is not about "viral media" either. It's about moving beyond the spectacle and finding that which is relevant to the conversations.

The promise, that which Current TV hyped but failed to deliver now exists. It's time for media to get more participatory, more journalistic. It's time to stop looking at the participants as spectators, eyeballs or cutomers and start thinking of them as a community of creators.

I would love to see the hand of the creators in the final product. Not just the hand of Andrew, the host (or hosts!) and the correspondants which is already present.... but an ever increasing roll of the audience.

I'd love to see Rocketboom as well as other vlogs and similar media focus on melting away the age old boundries between creators and the audience and experiment on making them one in the same.

I'd love to see rocketboom encourage viewers to set up their own vlogs and encourage them to make their own matterial for rocketboom and post it to their own vlogs... tagging specific videos and submitting their own feed to a community of Rocketboom "feeder pool" so matterials could be aggregated, viewed by the rocketbooom community and out of the commenting, viewing and sharing of this media a group of editors derive a daily show.

As mentioned these mechanisms already exist and are being improved on every day. In the future, the almighty narrative will not be withing the end episode itself, not just in the continuity from episode to episode... but it is being slowly deconstructed and exploded. The narrative of media is becoming the conversations that goes into the creation of the show itself. The narrative is exploding. The abstraction of episodic media will be offset by the transparency and the depth of the narrative woven into its creation. Instead of becoming superficial and shallow, it will become for its participants more real and valueable than ever because they will have a hand in the dialogue and the creation of it's meaning.

I would hope that whatever Rocketboom does they merely consider this evilution of media in their process. Good luck to Amanda and Andrew! I wish you both the best!

Dislaimer: written pretty much steam of conscious, not proof read or spell checked. Deal with the imperfections and try to enjoy it anyway. :)

Some related audio rocketboom.mp3

Update:

It appears that Amanda has NOT made plans to move to LA... a missunderstanding perhaps... a misquote, it doesn't matter. Inconsequential, but none the less I didn't want to misreport any details.