The Coming Media Revolution (Video-blogging + RSS + tags + BitTorrent)

[StefanX]

Tired of being force-fed a daily deadly diet of lies, smears and psyops from the fascist corporate media? Ever feel frustrated that friends and relatives and co-workers don't know what's REALLY going on because they're hooked on the crap from Fox/CNN/MSNBC/Imus/WaPo/NYT?

Blogs and forums like DU and Kos are a breath of fresh air counteracting the lies from the corporate media, but let's face it: web-surfing takes too much time and/or tech-savvy to be an appealing option for most people, so they just flip on the TV or radio or buy a newspaper instead. Don't get me wrong -- I'm thrilled and amazed that we have a few hundred thousand people here -- but cable and network reach a few hundred million people.

Around forty percent of of the country doesn't "get it" -- it's not that they're dumb or anything; it's just that up until now, it's been a lot easier to tune into lies than to tune into reality. News, stories and opinions in the "grassroots" media are way better than the crap we buy from the corporate media -- but you can't exactly relax and enjoy DU or Kos or CrooksAndLiars or CanOFun while you're doing the dishes, or driving to work, or chatting over a cup of coffee with a friend -- so we remain a well-informed but small and ineffective and isolated minority.

Well, all that may be about to change. A new "people's media" called video-blogs is rapidly emerging, and as it starts to combine with the following additional features, we could end up with a world where tuning into Quality becomes as easy as tuning into Tweety:

- BitTorrent: a peer-to-peer file-sharing system where, paradoxically, the MORE people want a file, the EASIER it becomes to download,

- RSS: think of this as a subscription to your favorite publications or a season ticket to your favorite shows,

- tags: flexible, descriptive text labels which make it easy to categorize and search for audio and video,

- collaborative filtering: that cool feature on Amazon where it says "other people who bought this book also bought these books".

Very soon we might be able to set a few options on the computer before we leave the house or go to bed, and let the machine download for a few hours -- pulling in the news and stories and opinion that truly reflect what WE care about, not whatever crap Rupert Murdoch or Scooter Libby have decided they need to force-feed us today so they can continue to pillage our country.

To take this new video-blogging technology for a spin, you could start here:
http://fireant.tv/about
http://fireant.tv/download
where you can get the free FireAnt video web-browser for Windows or Mac.

Check out the links below for a preview of the coming media revolution -- and for tips on how you can get involved TODAY for free. There's something for everyone -- whether you're a high-tech guru or "all thumbs" with the computer ... whether you just want to sit back and and enjoy the show or you have a hankering to become a broadcaster yourself.

Enjoy!

Blogging + Video = Vlogging
It was inevitable: Bloggers who previously wrote endlessly about everything from politics to tech tips to how to fry an egg on a hot sidewalk can now take their commentary, advice and random experiments to the next level by filming and broadcasting their work, thanks to the latest web trend -- video blogging.
...
"We're going from being media consumers to media makers. We're learning how to do that," said Chuck Olsen, a documentary filmmaker and video blogger in Minnesota. "There's sort of a whole continuum between (videotaping) grandpa's birthday and filmmaking."

Anyone can "create media and have a distribution outlet for it that bypasses television and mainstream media," Olsen said. "It's like slightly curated cable-access."
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,68171,00.html

Vlog
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A vlog or video blog is a blog (short for weblog) which uses video as the primary content; the video is linked to within a videoblog post and usually accompanied by supporting text, image, and additional meta data to provide context.

Blogs often take advantage of RSS for syndication to other web sites and aggregator software (RSS readers). With the inclusion of RSS enclosures, which provide the ability to attach media files to a feed item/blog post, it is possible to bypass the mainstream intermediaries and openly distribute media to the masses via the Internet. Vlogs typically take advantage of this technological development, just as audioblogs have in recent years via the podcast boom.

As of 2006, videoblogging is rising in popularity, especially since the release of the new Apple Video iPod and the availability of iTunes Store's video content. iTunes uses the term video podcast to describe a video blog.

One of the potential problems with Vlogs is the current inability of search engines to create rich metadata or "search engine" data from the stream. For Vlogs to be fully embraced as part of web culture, some indexing solution will need to emerge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlog

What is vlogging?
As Steve Garfield says, a vlog is simply a video blog — a blog containing video. Vlogs come in all styles and flavors.

Now that broadband is becoming ubiquitous and the tools to create multimedia are becoming inexpensive and easier to use, the same democratic forces that drove blogging (there are now 24 million blogs) will eventually lead millions of us to communicate and tell stories through video blogs and podcasting.

There are already a number of folks who've taken the lead in championing videoblogging, including Michael Verdi, Steve Garfield, Jay Dedman (who started the Yahoo Groups videoblogging mailing list), Ryan Hodson, Josh Kinberg, Peter van Dijck, Michael Meiser, Josh Leo and many others.

There's even a breakout "video blog" hit, Rocketboom, getting more than 100,000 downloads a day, Amanda says.

The best way to get immersed into this community is to join the videoblogging mailing list (it's free). Subscribe to video blog RSS feeds with FireANT (again, free). Browse vlogs at MeFeedia and Vlogdir. For hands-on training, see Node101.

Go ahead. Get started.
http://www.realpeoplenetwork.com/vlogging/

About BitTorrent on this vlog
BitTorrent has gotten a bad rap in the press, coming on the heels of the peer-to-peer file-sharing phenomenon kicked off by Napster and some intense name-smearing by the entertainment industry.

But at its core, BitTorrent is genius. It's a way to more easily share large files between users without having a third party playing intermediary. The more peers who host the file, the faster the file can be shared with others.

You'll see Hollywood embrace it at some point.
http://www.realpeoplenetwork.com/2006/01/about_bittorren.html

What is Videoblogging?
Videoblogging is a new form of expression centering around posting videos to a website and encouraging an audience response. It is the next step from text blogging and podcasting.
http://videoblogging.info/

Your work deserves to be seen.
You've made a great video. Now who will watch it?
Whether you produce hundreds of titles a year or just a few, you can give your videos the recognition and visibility they deserve by promoting them on Google - for free. Signing up for the Google Video Upload Program will connect your work with users who are most likely to want to view them.
https://upload.video.google.com/

Internet TV Made By You
Popcast is software that allows you to view and broadcast Internet TV channels. Welcome to the future of TV by viewers, for viewers.
http://www.popcast.com/

Osprey
Peer-to-peer enabled content distribution
Osprey is a peer-to-peer enabled content distribution system. A metadata management system for software and document collections enables local and distributed searching of materials. Items are available for download directly via URL or indirectly via the BitTorrent peer-to-peer protocol.
http://osprey.ibiblio.org/?q=node/11

BlogTorrent
Blog Torrent is free, open-source software from Downhill Battle that provides an easy way to share large files on your website without large storage or bandwidth costs.
http://www.blogtorrent.com/

PCF: Participatory Culture Foundation
The Participatory Culture Foundation is building software and web tools to create an independent, creative, engaging, and meritocratic TV system for millions of people around the world.
http://participatoryculture.org/

TorrentTyphoon
Search all the major BitTorrent sites in one place and find what you need.
http://www.torrenttyphoon.com/

La REVOLUTION de la TELEVISION P2P (pair à pair)
Le point fondamental est que l'on n'a pas besoin d'un site disposant d'une très grande bande passante pour toucher un nombre important de spectateurs : au contraire, plus on a de spectateurs et meilleur devient l'accès aux programmes ! Par conséquent la création d'une chaîne télévision par internet devient accessible à la société civile et aux petits budgets. Il devient possible de créer des chaînes spécialisées touchant un auditoire précis.
http://www.p2ptelevision.net/DOCS/revolution-fr.html

The P2P TELEVISION REVOLUTION (translation of above website)
The fundamental point is that one does not need a web site having a very large bandwidth in order to broadcast to a significant number of viewers, quite the contrary, the more there are viewers, the better becomes the access to the content !. Consequently the creation of an Internet television channel becomes within the reach of civil society and low budget ventures. It becomes possible to create specialized channels concerning a specific audience.
http://www.p2ptelevision.net/DOCS/revolution-en.html

Prodigem Marketplace: Bittorrent plus Creative Commons plus PayPal
Stanford graduate student Gary Lerhaupt has put together Bittorrent-like data transfer, Creative Commons licensing, and Paypal to create Prodigem Marketplace. Success will depend on achieving a critical mass of culture creators and paying culture consumers -- but if that happens, Lerhaupt might well have come up with a viable answer to the DRM wars. Peer-to-peer distribution isn't a crime -- stealing is a crime. So why not create a p2p marketplace where people can upload their work and know that the system will mediate transactions? There's a huge potential market out there in the long tail, once someone succeeds at what Gary is trying to do.
http://www.smartmobs.com/archive/2005/04/09/prodigem_market.html

Vlogs not there yet, but keep watching
There's a new kid on the blog who is taking Web communications — and ultimately the way we communicate — in a compelling direction.
I'm talking about the video Web log — vlog for short. The potential for vlogs has existed since the late-1990s advent of blogging itself. But only with the growth in fast Internet connections and the willingness of Internet service providers to host fat video files for a reasonable fee has vlogging become practical for general users. Don't enter the world of vlogs expecting TV-like quality or anything near it. Still, vlogs bear watching (in more ways than one) for a couple of reasons.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002244378_paul18.html

Ideas que rondan mi cabeza: TV Internet
Desde hace un par de años vengo pensando en la idea de la TV por Internet (no Imagenio) y todos sus derivados, Pluralia, Mobuzz, Fredarator, DTV, OurMedia o YouTube. Quizás no llegan a ser canales de TV tal como los conocemos, pero la idea de unir el poder de blogs (+ podcast, vlogs! -tags-), bittorrent + P2P e Internet realmente resulta atractivo.
http://blog.organicadtm.com/2006/01/13/ideas-que-rondan-mi-cabeza-tv-internet/

Mefeedia
Mefeedia is the first and most complete videoblog directory. 5418 videoblogs and counting.
http://mefeedia.com/feeds/pop/180/

“Vlog / VidBlog / Vog”
The term 'vlog', 'vidblog' or 'vog' is short for video weblogs or video blogs. This is blogging using video or keeping an online video diary. Video blogs may be watched on the computer or downloaded to a portable device for later viewing.
Like audio podcasts, vlogs or vidblogs may also be delivered on demand via RSS feed (webfeed) subscriptions when RSS enclosures are activated. Video blogs may also be tagged ('keyworded') and archived.
http://weblogs.about.com/od/podcastingaudioblogging/g/vlogsvidblogs.htm

New Media Picks Of The Week: Sharewood Picnic 26
http://www.masternewmedia.org/new_media_tools/new_media_picks/new_media_picks_of_the_week_20051113.htm

Paul Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid
You probably know Paul Miller as the DJ culture guru famous for creating structure from sequences. Also known as DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid, he works in music, video, and text, he cuts-up and collages, he deconstructs and creates. And Paul appears in our 24×7 film experiment.
http://www.24x7.com/blog/category/vlogs/

VIDEO INTERVIEW: Steve Garfield and Chuck Olsen - Video Bloggers
Discussion of Video Blogging with Corey of independentfilm.com.
"What is Video Blogging", "Examples", "How to get started"
http://www.independentfilm.com/festivals/videogalleryfest/chuck-olsen-and-steve-gar.shtml

Steve Garfield's Lens
Steve Garfield is best known as being the Paul Revere of Citizen's Media, having promoted videoblogging since January of 2004.
http://www.squidoo.com/stevegarfield/

Videoblogs -- by Steve Garfield
Everything you always wanted to learn about video blogs, but didn't know where to go to ask.
http://www.squidoo.com/videoblogs/

WATCH my Videos
Video Blog - Apple calls them video podcasts. Featuring:
- The Carol and Steve Show - 'Real' reality TV.
- Vlog Soup - Vlogosphere tours start here.
http://homepage.mac.com/stevegarfield/stevegarfield/menu.html

[Roho]

1. great post

question...

Right now the real information IS available in most cases for those willing to look for it. What makes you think the people not looking will start because of new technology?

All the vlogs i've been to are full of back yard wrestling videos, drunk college girls showing their boobs, or car chases.

The people we want to wake up don't think they are sleeping and most of them think the whore media is fine.

[StefanX]

2. I think it's still kinda hard to look for it

Right now, it's pretty easy to turn on the TV and channel-surf -- but it's hard to find video on the web.

I'm somewhat of a programmer geek and I'm still having a hard time getting up to speed on all this video-blogging stuff. I just ran across it today and installed FireAnt, and now I'm wading through thousands of videos trying to figure out what to download.

I think two things are inevitably going to happen to make this take off:

(1) The programs for downloading, searching etc will get easier to use.

(2) Some sort of "collaborative filtering" will get incorporated, making it easier to find what you want.

Now, I have nothing against videos of drunk college girls showing their boobs, if that's what floats some people's boat. I read somewhere once that the "proof of concept" for any new form of media is when it starts to transport porn, so that's just a sign that it's actually working.

As this grows, we're going to see a lot of diversity in the videosphere. Already I've found a channel devoted to politics on FireAnt (it's called Brave New Television) and I'm downloading some of their videos.

Text blogs are holding WaPo's and NYT's feet to the fire and making them lose readers. This video-blogging stuff is new, but once it takes off, I think it will start doing the same thing to cable and network TV.

[Roho]

5. good points

Porn and video games have certainly pushed the technology, and text blogs have indeed forced their way into the mainstream.

[hwmnbn]

6. Thanks for posting this...

I was overwhelmed by the info in your previous post but this gives me more resources.

I downloaded Fireant and will mess around with it today. I am NOT a computer whiz so it takes time for me to comprehend.

What I do know is the explosion of blogs is the model we can use. Blogs are text, Vlogs are video. Videos are more accessible/understandable intellectually to the masses.

I can't see how it will NOT explode.

Thanks for all your research. I know your screen name now. :hi:

[patdem]

3. Well, seems TV has gone after the wrestlers, girls w/boobs and

car chases...if they link on to one of them and find some important stuff too...what's the problem? :shrug: If they watch TV they will NEVER stumble upon ANYTHING of importance..specially now with Corporate Media!

[OneBlueSky]

4. the revolution you describe depends on free and unfettered internet . . .

access . . . if BushCo has their way, however, that will soon be nothing but a memory . . .

the battle over internet access is one we must be prepared to engage, and to win . . .

[liveoaktx]

7. Add CanOFun to that list

I'm in process of doing a major conversion to the site over the past couple of months. It already, for the past 2 years, has had video clips and some independent video content (including vlogs of the Crawford protest of Cindy Sheehan and Austin protests), plus audio content, including podcasts.

I have recently added broadcast to the site.

If you look in the research section under CanOFun videos I have instructions as well as comments from others on how to do podcasts and videos. In my opinion, in this age of technology, most people can BE THE MEDIA instead of waiting for others.

LINK at CanOFun

[Greyhound]

8. I am really sorry to bring the soggy blanket, but with the exception

of bit torrent, that is music and film industries are doing their best to SLAP out of existence, all of the wonderful new "technological development" that you point to, are merely proprietary programs that are owned and controlled by the very corporations that own the M$M. Just remember that they all operate on the Micro$hit business model, capture the market by lock them into our technology, then begin the FUD campaign to kill any remaining alternatives, then make them pay perpetually to consume whatever we decide to feed them.

[StefanX]

9. I understand your worries but I think BitTorrent is special

I understand that the music and film industries have dones their best to slap down other peer-to-peer file-sharing systems.

However, I would argue that BitTorrent is different: because it's really just a protocol (which can spread virally) and because of the way it scales up: the MORE people that want something, the EASIER it is to get it. (This is because in BitTorrent a file is broken into numbered chunks, and AS SOON as you have at least one chunk on your machine, you change from a "leecher" to a server, automatically.)

Just look at the blogs -- they're DEFINITELY having a major effect on text-based commercial media.

Video-blogs are the next step -- and in the next few years we're going to see them having an effect on the video-based commercial media as well.

Check out this article for some more inspiration:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.01/bittorrent.html?pg=2&topic=bittorrent&topic_set=

[Greyhound]

10. Should have been more clear. I forgot that there are multiple

meanings of SLAP, and now that I try to find it I can't. Anyway it is a strategy of initiating lawsuits to drain financial resources. Also they've turned their attention to the users, for example here in Aridzona they sued or are suing approximately 500 people, over 17,000 nationwide last year.