It's amazing to find friends who i've known in their former lives re-emerging as leaders in the nascent web-video world.

I had lunch last week with Dina Kaplan, who i worked with back in the day at MTV UNfiltered. Dina was even then a passionate advocate for the voices of people with a story they wanted to tell. As we talked about those early days, Dina reminded me of a few of the stories she'd done... and one by one the memories came flooding back. In each case, they were stories that came from people who'd had their lives changed by really difficult events. And it was clear sitting hear that those stories had stuck in my mind... and had an impact on how i see the world and in one case how i think about my kids.

That's a pretty big deal -given how much media i've made and consumed in my life that i can't remember, or that hasn't had an impact on me. UNfiltered, for those of you who haven't seen it - was a wildly early attempt to create viewer video (or now UGV as we call it). And Dina was a producer on the series on MTV. You can see it HERE.

The story that both Dina and I remembered most dramatically was this one, a story about a young man that committed suicide at age 15.

The story was called in to our #800 (remember those?) and a young girl asked to tell her story, and tell of her best friend who committed suicide. It was a scary story for MTV, since teen suicide is such an emotionally explosive story. Then there was the issue of just what kinds of pictures she could find - given that this was a story that had already happened. What could she film? Well, as you can see.. she found a lot. Home video. Interviews with friends. Family pictures.

What she didn't do was tell us "Why." For conventional media, this would have been a major no-no. But for UNfiltered, it was part of what we believed in. People should tell their stories, with their voice, and tell the parts of the story that they felt comfortable telling. "Why" wasn't answerable. The story was about how badly sean had hurt his friends, and how angry they were.

It was heartbreaking. It still is.

Dina - after a stint in the news business - is one of the founders of Blip.TV. It's mission is impressive. And the deals that they're doing are equally so. Video Blogging is the driving force behind whole generation of new storytellers. And Dina and her partners are a critical part of that future.

Sitting there - and knowing that UNfiltered was part of the spirit of the Exploding of television... I couldn't' t help but think that it was sure about time that old media made way for new. Bravo Blip!

Watch For Yourself

I've been trying to figure out what the post is that I want to write. But i'm not sure my opinion matters. What is more interesting are the voices of real people who feel strongly enough to record and post their opinions on various sites across the web. So now you can watch for yourself and see how you feel, if you don't know already.

Nice piece from Jack Myers today on MAGNIFY -

TODAY'S COMMENTARY by Jack Myers Tuesday, July 25th 2006
Magnify Networks Offers Safe Haven for Ad Placement in User Generated Content

Peer Review Emerging as Essential for Online Video Economics

By Jack Myers

Magazines and cable networks want to better understand how to integrate video into their sites and make their users an active part of the experience.
Analysts and industry insiders are questioning YouTube's financial model and ability to convert its millions of users into profits, much as they once questioned Amazon.com. Reports that major media companies are ready to ante up as much as $1 billion for the company revive images of the Internet bubble when all reason and logic disappeared. YouTube will invariably define a viable business model, but as of today founder Chad Hurley has more interested suitors than paying advertisers.

Although NBC and YouTube finalized a content distribution deal and CBS' CEO Les Moonves made headlines with his highly visible meeting with Hurley at Herb Allen's Sun Valley retreat, Steve Rosenbaum, one of the earliest players in the user generated content field and now founder and CEO of video site Magnify Networks, warns "the user generated content marketplace is incredibly messy and as the market becomes more crowded it gets more messy. There is no way for marketers to find user generated content that's appropriate to advertise against."

Rosenbaum, who produced MTV Unfiltered, the first commercial use of user generated video (along with ABC's America's Funniest Home Videos), argues "if you're a TV network, a branded website or a media buyer, you're asking if there's a way to participate in the user generated phenomenon and assure that everything surrounding your brand is appropriate. Advertisers and agencies, as well as websites, want to know how they can protect their brand so they are not putting up any objectionable user generated content." The challenge facing YouTube is the lack of control over what gets published to the site and how to control the availability of inappropriate content in advertising-supported areas of the site.

To solve that concern, Rosenbaum has launched Magnify Networks, which features a patent pending peer review process that subjects every submitted video to analysis by a selected group of users and by editors prior to it being posted to advertiser-supported sections of a Magnify partner sites. "Magnify Networks provides sites with a human powered scalable video review system that turns an individual web community into a vertical review process," explains Rosenbaum. Magnify is currently beta-testing its product with multiple sites (including MediaVillage.com, the website partner of this publication – see http://mediavillage.magnify.net). Rosenbaum advised Jack Myers Media Business Report he expects to announce several major partnerships in the next few weeks.

Within the next two years, Rosenbaum believes, "there will not be a web community that doesn't have video integrated into its offering. There will be a mix of user generated, professional, repurposed and archived videos of all shapes and sizes," he suggests. "Video is increasingly such a good experience on the web that if any site today says it's text only, I think everyone would roll their eyes. Experiences will be different from site to site, with some sites more appropriate for UGC than others."

Rosenbaum points out that even with YouTube's 35,000 uploads and 70 million views daily, "mainstream viewers have yet to arrive in this space. Anyone who tried to watch dial up video in 1999 has scar tissue related to the experience. Now they have to come back and see it's a completely different experience. There's no download and buffer time and it plays well. People will settle into watching video online as a matter of course."

Rosenbaum, whose career has been focused, perhaps more than any other TV producer, on user generated content (for MTV, CBS News and Barry Diller's Studio USA), believes "adding community reviews and filtering helps rise all boats in user generated and professional video. As people realize they can watch and then make videos and become part of ongoing stories, new business models will emerge. We're receiving calls from magazines and cable networks who want to better understand how to integrate video into their sites and make their users an active part of the experience."

"There is no such thing as good or bad video," he points out. "It's contextually relevant or irrelevant to a specific community. The idea of incorporating user generated content (UGC) on a site should be thought of in the same content as letters to the editor of a magazine or newspaper, Rosenbaum suggests. "They don't publish letters that are inappropriate," he points out. "Allowing submission of UGC doesn't mean you're losing control of your brand, if you're maintaining control over what gets published and what doesn't and giving your users an opportunity to register their opinion and vote."

"The advertising market is still underserved by UGC," Rosenbaum adds. "Even though Madison Avenue loves the idea of the authenticity and passion of niche audiences, they're very aware the environment of UGC is not secure. We built a system that can label every video as advertiser safe by harnessing word of mouth.

Rosenbaum intends to organize Magnify's partner sites into an ad network that will only include videos that have been approved as advertiser-safe and that are being made available with the approval of the rights holders. "When a video gets submitted, each site's community gets to review it and vote. The video will be returned when it doesn't meet the standards of a community. Even after videos are reviewed, an editorial staff checks it out before we include it as part of the Magnify Network. What I hope everyone understands is this offers the power of TV advertising with the targeting and efficiency of the web," he states.

For more information, contact Steve Rosenbaum at steve@magnify.net

On Friday nights my wife and I often consider renting a movie. Until recently that involved walking two blocks, grabbing a bag of popcorn from the free popper at Channel Video, and a pleasant 15 min wander through the isles.

But that's over. Channel video is gone. Closed. And Hollywood Video is gone as well (two blocks further south).

So we've become VOD customers. Well, sort of . You see, Time Warner VOD is pretty cool monday at 3pm, or wednesday at 11am. But, as the phone operator informed us - "everyone wants to watch a movie on Friday night." Hmmm, ok. "There's too much demand, so lots of the movies won't play." Right. The operator suggested that we could have a free month of The Movie Channel - less people watch that. Now the truth is - we've attempted Time Warner VOD before, and always found it to be spotty at best. But i figured that was just part of the early adopter pain i so often am inflicted with. But VOD isn't early any more. Now it's here. And it isn't reliable. And that's not a good thing.

If they can get VOD to the point where the customer experience isn't terrible, they'll have a product. But if i can connect my computer to the TV first, and download a movie i want without having to be tied up in shared bandwidth on a Friday night... then they're going to lose the race.

Meanwhile:

On the flip side, i found myself cruzing around channel 1900 the other day (really, there's a channel 1900) and stumbled into a TON of VOD channels that i didn't know existed. Court TV, TNT, Food Network, HGTV, Speed vision, Time Out NY, in fact almost every channel seems to have an "On Demand" counterpart.

Here's the full list:

AOL Music On Demand, PBS Kids On Demand, G4tech TV On Demand, Comedy Central On Demand, Food Network On Demand, DIY On Demand. HGTV On Demand, Golf On Demand. A&E On Demand, BBC America On Demand, CNN Showcase On Demand, Court TV OD, TV Guide On Demand, Anime Network On Demand, National Geographic On Demand, Oxygen On Demand, Fine Living On Demand, GAC On Demand , TBS On Demand, TNT On Demand, Adult Swim On Demand, Sportskool On Demand, Exercise TV On Demand, Speed On Demand, NY1 On Demand, Manhattan On Demand, Time Out New York On Demand, driverTV On Demand , Movie Trailers On Demand

There's been plenty made of the emergence of YouTube in the past few months. And the fact is - it's absolutely worth paying attention to. But the fawning of various network execs over Chad Hurley has served to obscure an important and related fact. Network TV is dying. The Associated Press wondered if "TV Viewers have gone to the beach" As the second week in July was reported as the least-watched week in recorded in history for the major networks. Of course history is all relative.

CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox averaged 20.8 million viewers during the average prime-time minute last week, according to Nielsen Media Research. That dropped under the previous record of 21.5 million, set during the last week of July in 2005.

But audiences don't go to the beach... the explore other media. And that's just what TV viewers are doing. Because just as Network viewers are reporting thier lowest week ever, YouTube is reporting 100 million videos a day. Hmmm???

There is a sizemic shift from Network TV to the web... and that shift is currently bestowing an avelanch of audience on YouTube. But YouTube would be the first to admit that their not replacing mass media with a new form of mass media. Just a quick visit to YouTube tells a very differnt story. It is an agragation of extreme niches... and its just the beginging.

The evolution of Me-Casting... video made by me, for me and a few friends... is clearly taking hold.

experiencecurve.com lays out the stats: "YouTube said viewers are now watching more than 100 million videos per day on its site. YouTube has 29 percent of the U.S. multimedia entertainment market, according to Hitwise; MySpace has a 19 percent share; Yahoo, MSN, Google and AOL each have 3 percent to 5 percent of the online video market. In June, 2.5 billion videos were watched on YouTube and more than 65,000 videos are now uploaded daily, up from around 50,000 in May, the company said.

If you don't believe that the fundamental shape of media is shifting...

Look at: http://warzone-video.magnify.net/ for coverage of the Israel/Lebanon conflict.

A diverse mix of perspectives, points of view, voices, and videos. It's been up less than a day and has 414 videos posted already.

The YouTube trend is the beginning of a shift, but it's not the end. Before things settle down, you'll see the shape of media makers and consumers change to the point were television as we knew it will no longer exist.

http://www.c21media.net/news/detail.asp?area=1&article=31163

ABC in the US is to air an "epic" miniseries focusing on the events leading up to 9/11 on the fifth anniversary of the attack.

The Path to 9/11, directed by David Cunningham, is a six-hour dramatisation of the events detailed in the bipartisan 9/11 Commission report.

Featuring a cast including Harvey Keitel, Shirley Douglas and Donnie Wahlberg, the miniseries gives an account of the event as it unfolded, while also looking at the measures experts believe need to be taken to avoid a repetition.

It also attempts to take viewers behind the closed doors of the CIA, FBI and the White House, as well as into the worlds of a number of key members of the Bush administration.

The special has been scheduled to air between 20.00 and 23.00, split across Sunday 10 and Monday 11 September, with limited commercial interruptions.

ABC president Steve McPherson said that having governor Thomas Kean, chairman of the 9/11 Commission, on board, has been fundamental to the series' success. "When you take on the responsibility of telling the story behind such an important event, it is absolutely critical that you get it right," he said, "Having (Kean) as a key advisor on this movie has not only been an honour, it's also been crucial to the project."

Former ABC News anchor John Miller, now the FBI's assistant director of public affairs, was also a consultant on the project. His book The Cell, co-authored with Michael

See This Video

If you doubt for a moment that the web will re-invent the way we tell stories... look at this video. Chances are you've seen it before, or some of it. But i can't believe that you won't find it hypnotic in any event.

These pictures are on the web. As they should be.

And I for one am glad to be able to see them.