It's an exciting time for user-content. Blogging is an explosive new form of expression, video-blogging is coming on strong, the buzz of citizen journalism and user-submitted content has finally come on to the main stage.

All of this is fueled by the ultimate nexus of low-cost desktop editing, DV (and soon HDV) shooting, and broadband that takes content into the home. Once the home media server becomes essential rather than optional - we'll see video from pro-sumers and an emerging class of content makers arrive.

But back when UNfiltered went on the air, it was before there was any of this stuff. People wanted to express themselves with video. My point is that this isn't a trend fueled by technology as much as it is a basic human need that is filling the broadband pipe just as fast as we can lay it to the living room.

Over the next few weeks - i'm going to share some of the User-Video's from the past work i've don on MTV UNfiltered, CBS Class of 2000, and Free Speech (syndicated by Studio's USA in 1999).

I'll tell the story of the maker, and the tools we used to get their story on TV. Some of these stories are funny, some are heartbreaking, and some are shocking.

This first story is made by John Barber, who transfer to the Univeristy of Florida at Tampa. As you'll see, john is a soft-spoken rather shy guy who's developed an alternative personality to break out. When John called, he was ready to let his private personality and his public life colide.

This was one of those stories that could have gone either way. After all, Drag Queen on campus may or may not be that unusual or revealing. But as you'll see from how the story ends - something pretty amazing happens for John, and everyone who went to graduation that year. Not to mention the phrase "Construction Boys" that became a code word around the office. You'll see.

WARNING -> this next user piece is very intimate, and not something to be taken lightly. It was in fact a huge debate at MTV about how we handle this subject at all.

But the girl who called it in was so passionate about telling Sean's story - in fact she was so angry at him - that we sent her a camera. Internally the debate was... "how can you do a story that has no pictures" which was a concern, but Sean's friends set up interviews, and most amazingly found home movies. There was some pressure to answer the "Why" question, but Sean's friends didn't want to go there. They just wanted other people who might be considering suicide to know that it's a terribly hurtful thing to do to your friends.

CREDITS: This was an amazing team effort, a huge risk for MTV - and an amazing fun time making something no one had ever tried before. Linda Corradina was the Head of News and greenlit the show. Doug Herzog was running MTV at the time and signed off. Rob Barnett was the producer of the pilot, and Rob Fox was the series producer. Dave Goldberg quit his job to come work on UNfiltered. Both Robin Turner and then Mona Eldiaf were supervising producers (Mona went on to run the series after i left in '98). And Bruce McDonald produced the Tweeka piece as well as a bunch of other amazing pieces. I've got to get the credits for the Sean piece, might have been bruce as well.

But Robin was really the person who nurtured the thing along, from it's roots with Hi8 Camcorderes and an 800 number in Saratoga Springs. But that's a story for another day.