Recently in web 2.0 Category

Rory Cellan-Jones of BBC News published a video interview featuring Eran Hess, Flixwagon's Co-Founder and CEO. The interview was taken at the BBC's Television Centre, right in front of the live News 24 studio.

Apart from the great interview with Eran, Rory raises an important question:

"What would happen if everyone, anywhere, could have their own live television station from a mobile phone? So I could broadcast something as banal as my walk with the dog, or citizens could go live in conflict zones?"

Let me rephrase the question a little to make my point:

What would happen if everyone, anywhere, could have their own blog/online news site on the internet? So I could cover something as banal as my walk with the dog, or citizens could go live in conflict zones?

This probably sounds familiar to those of you who have been long enough around the blogosphere. So my answer to "what would happen?" is that change would happen. It means that we will probably witness the proliferation of the new technology, bringing alongside huge amounts of video contents with it. At first, we might be swamped, just like before everyone learned how to use Technorati and Google Blog Search to sort through all the blogs out there. Later, we will probably find our way (using new recommendation tools, directories and so on) and find new talents and new forms that couldn't have managed to get under the spotlight any other way.

 As for a 'walking with my dog' video, every new technology enables content generators the freedom of creation while the consumers need to sort and find what they like. This rule has been applied to books, music, TV shows, blogs, why not live video content? Also, even a 'walking with my dog' video will probably be relevant to someone, it may be my immediate circle of friends, dog lovers and people who want to get closer to me (potential dates etc'). 

NewTeeVee asked their panel of experts this question: POINT: UGC will rule 2008. COUNTERPOINT: UGC will die in 2008.

Our answer here at Flixwagon, in reply to the previous discussion, is UGC will rule 2008. The cost of producing a video is becoming more and more redundant. Today, growing numbers of people have cam phones at hand. Also, at the age of web 2.0 people are getting used to creating content, sharing it with wider communities (not only with my family and or immediate friends but with my entire online community) and consuming it.

Using Flixwagon they will be able to live broadcast from the mobile and publish to their favorite social websites. Therefore, with more people capturing live videos on the go and broadcasting straight to their favorite websites, more video content will show up on the internet and be available for consumption.

I was just reading at Go2Web2.0 about Samsung & YouTube's NewYears project. YouTube users are invited to answer one of the following questions in a short video (less than 1 minute long):  

1. Make a video that reveals the one word that is your personal theme for 2008
2. Reenact the best of worst thing that happened to you in 2007
3. What cool things have you done with your mobile phone this year?
4. In 2008 what kind of cool mobile phone should Samsung develop for you?

Users can also browse the videos using Google map and pick videos by location.

I can easily answer question #4 and say that Samsung (and other leading handset manufactures) should embed the Flixwagon live mobile broadcasting service in all of the devices. That way, users will have the application preinstalled and ready to use when they get a new device :)

Summarizing the year of 2007, Orli Yakuel of Go2Web2.0 has listed Israeli start ups that she

"feels most strongly about and believes in their success".

[via Go2Web2.0]

We were very proud to see Flixwagon among the promising start ups!  You can see the entire list in thumbnails below. Also, don't miss the slideshow with posts from the blogsphere that Orli created.

Thanks Orli!

I just read about MTV's “Choose or Lose” voting initiative:

"MTV will be launching a “Street Team” comprised of 51 young, amateur journalists from each state and Washington D.C. to cover the 2008 election, emphasizing issues important to younger demographics.

Members of the Street Team will begin appearing in January on a new mobile site as well as the existing MTV Mobile, ThinkMTV (a social network), and other websites as well. You’ll note that MTV is even taking advantage of its revamped efforts to reach the youth through its mobile initiatives as well.

The content will be a conglomerate of blog entries, videos, photos, podcasts, and animation. [...] the members have also been equipped with laptops, video cameras, mobile phones, and Adobe software."

[via Mashable]

For us at Flixwagon this is a dream come true... When we started thinking of who will benefit from Flixwagon's ability to broadcast live from the mobile (or our 'end users'), one of the natural candidates was the Citizen Journalism domain. Web 2.0 has already turned most of us into reporters, journalists and opinion leaders armed with blogs who have a certain amount of readership and mobile cams at hand. Let me add the following to the current state: the ability to publish to your favorite social websites and leverage their viral nature + the immediacy of a live broadcast from the mobile and we get a whole new definition for "citizen journalism".