The response has been tremendous. The early videos - so cool. So we decided to get a jump start and start posting the video now.

You can see what's happening at the Bicycling Web Site or if you want to jump right to to the videos - start HERE.

The project is part of Magnify Media's overall belief that readers/consumers/viewers will quickly become a significant part of the content creation universe.

Bicycling is part of the Rodale Publishing group - a really terrific collection of magazines on subjects like health, fitness, lifestyle, and wellness. Among their titles - Prevention, Men's Health and Runner's World, which are published in 36 countries, as well as Organic Style, Organic Gardening, Backpacker, BestLife, Bicycling and Mountain Bike.

Our vision is that engaged and respected content consumers are likely to be the early adopters in area of consumer content creation.

And if the fast start at Bicycling is any indication - we're on the right track.

This months issue of The Nation features a long piece about Al Gore and the launch of "Current". The article points the genisis of the network to Gore's initial interest in UnFiltered, which i think is partly true. Certainly there are a number of things happening in the world that drive media toward user-content, blogs, podcasts, vlogs, and such.

But what i think all of the media enterprises trying to link up to user-content seem to miss is that the things that are fueling user-created content are the same things that are undermining mainstream media.

Mass distribution is fundamentally unsatisfying to creators. Would you rather give a speech (or read a poem) in a stadium with a white-hot spotlight blinding you from seeing a crowd of 60,000 or in a place like New York's Town Hall - an intimate room of 350 who can respond, cheer, and even ask questions.

Big media isn't good media.

So Current, or Kyou (san fran), or Adam Curry on Sirus all need to tell content creators why they aren't just fine building their brand, and their own economic future on an internet distribution platform.

Maybe they don't need to be embraced by mass media to feel meaningful.

article | Posted April 28, 2005
Al Gore Gets Down

During a town hall meeting on MTV in 2000, Al Gore dismissed a question about the rapper Mos Def. Throughout his career, Gore viewed hip-hop music, even when practiced by a politically conscious artist like Mos Def, as an undignified form of political expression. "Gandhi once said you must become the change you wish to see in the world," Gore said of hip-hop. "I don't think it's good enough to say, 'Well, we're just reflecting a reality.'"

Can Current be serious and dignified and appealing and popular? "On air, you're faced with the tyranny of the mass media," says Steve Rosenbaum, creator of MTV's UNfiltered, the inspiration for Current's initial vision. "Which is: If you do three pieces--one on the environment in Alaska, one on homeless people in New York and one on teenage girls getting breast implants, guess which one will do better than the others? People, especially those who watch TV, tend to be attracted to less intelligent, coarser, less thoughtful programming."

More

There's a terrific new post up from Chris Anderson (of Long Tail fame) about television and it's particular appropriateness to long tail economics.

He's right on many points, including the disposable nature of current offerings and the huge amount of TV that is missed and gone forever.

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From The Long Tail "Thus the ratio of produced content to available content is the highest of any industry I've looked at. Other industries may produce more content--print, for instance--but it's far more available (see Google). Only television treats its premium content as disposable. True, a lot of it actually is. But not all, and not as much as is effectively thrown away after a brief moment in the sun."
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What he doesn't say - but i suspect he an many other literate folks know - is that most of what is now distributed via TV deserves to be missed.

Content that is created under the current system conforms to it's shape and limitations.

That means that all content is biased in favor of scale (large audience sell TV ads).

But the power of the promise of the Long Tail isn't that we want to have all 500+ channel content on a server in an on demand world - what a pile of junk. Rather it is that evolutionary economics could actually create an entirely NEW kind of media.

Think of current 'television' as mass market entertainment, and the future of 'motion media' as having a whole series of other species. File content under:

a. Knowledge b. Debate and Discussion c. Exploration and Ideas d. Art

Overall, far more detailed - valuable, and necessary. Not a pastime, but the evolving center of a marketplace of ideas and information - created with new media tools.

So, I would suggest that TV shouldn't be saved. It shouldn't be Exploded. It should Evolve.

This is the tricky part. A number of years ago I was at conf. with lots of smart people. It was one of those 'everyone participates' think tanks. And when it came to me - the question was "didn't I agree that TV was the source of much evil in the world, in education, in our lives." Rather than answer - I asked everyone in the audience who watches TV to raise their hands. Out of 100 people - 8 did.

My point is - there is a cycle we have to break. TV programs to lowest common denominator audiences. Intelligent viewers don't use video for knowledge, or understanding. And the people who make programs for smaller, but more discerning viewers find they can't reach their intended recipients.

Companies like Brightcove (as Chris rightly points out) are key to the puzzle. But then we need to go the next step, and challenge great thinkers to attempt to translate their ideas into moving media. Not 'Sundance' films. Something entirely new.

Because we'll need an entire generation of new media ideas before we can ask people to evolve from passive consumers of junk media into thoughtful creators and remixers of participatory television.

A new video sharing site, with the feel of Flicker -

Welcome to Vimeo!This is a site for organizing and sharing your video clips. Vimeo also makes it easy to watch your friends' video clips, or to view clips that have common subject matter.

Aside from watching single clips, Vimeo can assemble multiple clips into automatic movies. For example, you could watch an automatic movie about concerts, or an automatic movie about funny things.

We are presently in closed beta, so you can't add your own clips, but we will open the site up as soon as we've worked out some more of the kinks. Have fun!

Ok, here's a glimpse into the future...Teacher Gone Wild!! (wmv File) LINK A Student in Brick Township NJ filmed his teacher going apeshit in class with his camera phone. This really brings back memories of high school.

thanks to chapmanlogic.com and monkeyfilter for point this clip out.

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This is one of those really important long term issues that we need to pay attention to NOW... before the opportunity to discuss copyright is gone. Just got this from Public Knowlege, and i'm passing it along.

---> Are you an artist, author, musician, or filmmaker? Maybe you're a scholar or librarian? If so, have you ever wanted to use a copyrighted work but been unable to locate the owner to clear the rights? It's a problem that happens all too often, and not only does it affect your work, but it also "orphans" the original owner's work. It's an unfortunate side effect of current copyright law that diminishes everyone's ability to create, innovate, and educate.

Fortunately, we have good news: The U.S. Copyright Office wants to make it easier to locate copyright holders, and it's asking for the public's help. Before the Copyright Office can *address* the problem, it needs to gather evidence that there *is* a problem. This is where you come in: tell your story to the Copyright Office.

Public Knowledge along with a number of other like-minded organizations have created Ophanworks.org: an easy way for you to submit your story to the Copyright Office. Now is your chance to tell the Office what personal difficulties you've had when trying to clear rights.

To get started, go to:
Orphanworks.org

Never tried to clear rights? Maybe you know someone who has. Forward them this message or visit: http://www.orphanworks.org to send them an email.

You can always learn more about the problem of "orphan works" and the U.S. Copyright Office's notice, by visiting Public Knowledge's website:
PublicKnowledge.org

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.