Sometimes I will spend my time watching this guy in LA smoke pot at his computer.
I know it sounds crazy.
He calls himself "ANTI", though his real name is John.
He is one of the most natural videobloggers I’ve seen.
Journalists and Slashdotters must hate him.
But why?
His videos are often times 10 minutes long.
You are just sitting with him.
He knows youre there and talks to you.
It has absolutely no "value".
There is no "point".
And his work is…. "priceless".
Annie is a videoblogger.
She tells us what she likes about videoblogging.
I continue to say that you could not get this kind of info in a text or audio post.
We are there with her.
I can’t wait till many people, across the usual boundaires, are shaing with each other through video.
The Seattle Times put out an article on Videoblogging.
Read it here.
Here is a standard complaint in this and other articles:
Amateur vlogs (if that isn’t a redundancy), like their blog cousins,
suffer too much from "vlogghorea" (aimless rambling face-on into a
camera).
This statement is ridiculous. Most videoblogs are well-edited and engaging AS LONG AS you are not expecting TV shows.
What are you going to say to someone who doesnt understand that blogs are about context?
Ill let Josh Kinberg answer.
He is a rock in the Videoblogging community. His perpective is smart and to the point.
Its always funny to me to see articles like this because they make one
huge, wrongheaded assumption… the assumption being that mainstream
media is "compelling."The truth for most people is that much of mainstream media is not
compelling, its just that there’s little else to watch.Just try surfing through your several hundred cable channels and tell
me when you hit a compelling program. My bet is that you could be
channel surfing for hours before you hit anything even slightly
interesting to you.Mainstream media can only afford to treat us like demographics, when
the truth is that we are actually individuals. Vlogs can afford to be
way more granular than mainstream media could ever hope for, and this
is what makes them compelling…. well, at least to the audience
(however small or large) that the particular videoblogger is trying to
reach.
See, with guys like Josh, everything will be okay.
People just got to see that we have not only the right, but the ability, to show the world through our own eyes. You dont need anyone’s permission.
I found this great interview with Brewster Kahle the other day.
Click HERE to download.
Brewster Kahle is the guy who started the Internet Archive, which is a public server that will host original or public domain media for free. Brewster is enabling the Videoblogging Community to bootstrap itself into existence.
Imgaine telling new people that they had to rent a server if they wanted to even try to videoblog. Instead, a new videoblogger can use Ourmedia to upload their original videos to the Archive for free.
Yes, there are free services popping up that will host video for free….but it’s limited.
Usually, you get something like 10 free video uploads…limited bandwidth…and the expectation of a fee developing at some point.
I love Brewster’s commitment to building an archive, meaning storage forever.
What I make now will be so much more important in 100 years…
Maybe videos of my life won’t be important to you..but to my kids (or grandkids), the videos will be better than gold.
Brewster is making possible this human connection through time.
Imagine being able to watch videos of soldiers during the Civel War.
It stops being "history" and becomes a new "now".
Momentshowing.
Detractors ask how he can promise to store media forever.
Well, can Google promise forever?
Or Typepad?
I’ve read up on Brewster and believe what he says.
Creating a video archive of our lives is a daunting task…and I see no one else doing a better job.
There are always arguments that pop up about what a videoblog is and isn’t.
Ultimately it’s useless…becasue each os us can create and post whatveer video we want.
that’s the beauty of Videoblogging.
Video distribution is truely democratized.
Sometimes, though, a video stands out.
Like this recent Michael Verdi video.
Why is it so good?
Because you can only share this moment in video.
The infamous Ryan Hodson has created something amazing.
A whole website that lists all the videos created during Videoblogging Week 2005.
What’s more amazing are all the people who took part….
Adam Quirk announced on the Videoblogging Group that he was going to post a video a day for a week. Spontaneous. This is a big thing to say because it’s not always the easiest to create a video a day for a week.
It had been done one time before in 2004.
But people joined him and as the days passed you watched conversations and themes develop and fade away….in and out…separated by great distances…together.
No permission. No point.
Please check out all the work done during this week by all these people.
This is what happens when people want to talk to each other.
Send this link to any journalist who thinks videoblogs are dull.
and thank Ryan.
At Vloggercon in late January 2005, there were about 20 regular videoblogs.
Three months later there are well over 200…with new videoblogs popping up everyday.
I see no sign of this slowing down.
So how do we keep up?
Linking, filters… and directories which Michael Sullivan has done.
Introducing VlogDir.
Michael says,
VLOGDIR is a new Videoblog Directory Service
that allows you to add a link to your vlog along with descriptive details, rss
feeds and attached media.
Every VLOGDIR entry will ping and inject
itself into the videoblogging.info community page which will display
the most recent 20 vlogs added to the VLOGDIR.
So add your videoblog to the directory and get listed.
This way everyone will know how to find you and subscribe to your feed.
VlogDir is a great complement to Videoblogging.info, which is the public site for the Videoblogging Group. We are building a smart ecology of tools. A real community is developing.
There is now a videoblog listing all the new videobloggers.
You will get the first video of every new videoblogger that comes through the Freevlog tutorial.
Subscribe with ANT.
Vlog: http://freevlog.org/wordpress/
Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/freevlog/newvloggers
It’s just blows me away the variety of people creating video.
Since Freevlog opened up last week, a bunch of people have already followed the instructions to make their own videoblog.
If you have a video on your desktop, it’s easy to get it on a blog.
All hail Verdi and Ryan who made Freevlog.
Just watch this video.
Lukas Blakk lives in Toronto, Canada.
Turning 30, Lukas decides to videoblog….since big changes are happening.
Where is a good place to discuss life?
Over breakfast.
I cannot believe how intimate and personal this video is.
It makes me glad to be alive.
I also come from a punk background…always angry at the structures around me…wanting to tear it all down…but having a need build.
Music was very often how i connected.
Now with videoblogging, the most isolated kid in bum-fucked egypt can connect with like minds who are questioning.
always questioning.
Recently someone in the Videoblogging Group said that "Mundane is the new punk"…or something like that.
The idea is that our daily life…all the moments that pass unnoticed…are actually fucking incredible. I guess it’s what the ancient zen masters knew all along.
They were punk as shit.
Sclomo is a relatively new videoblogger who understands this concept.
Here he hangs with his Mom while she buys a microwave.
Do you think this woman is interesting?
Use ANT.
Subcribe to his feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/EchoplexPark
