web 2.0: March 2008 Archives

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').