Freyburg

It was inevitable that the expanding world of online video would hit the wall that every other industry in America (and elsewhere) has run into, and with that decline has come rounds of layoffs. Revision3 has turfed three of their employees, including some TechTV alumni, and discontinued its distribution deal with Smashface Productions, the creators of Epic-Fu. Not to mention Seesmic, the video commenting service, though I’d contend video commenting is a dumb idea to begin with. Heavy.com, 60Frames…the list goes on.

But the difference between this round of cost-cutting and the tech bubble is that these companies weren’t throwing around masses of worthless stock and spending beyond their means, and the fact that the economic malaise isn’t isolated to the tech sector this time around. And online video is, at least for now, much cheaper to produce than regular broadcast television. Standout shows like Epic-Fu get their start through people screwing around with a camcorder, not a big production deal…so one way or the other, there’ll always be a place for online video. It just might not have venture capital attched to it.

Wired Magazine has an interesting profile of the developers who created Google’s Chrome browser, an attempt by the search megalith to crush IE and revamp the way we access the web. Do we need another browser? I’d say no, since Firefox does pretty much anything I need but what the hell do I know? Here’s some thoughts about Chrome from the rest of the web, and it looks like Chrome is the next step towards a Google OS.

Bon vivant and wit-slinger Stephen Fry isn’t just a first-rate writer and performer…he’s also a complete and total nerd, with a love for gadgetry and computers that knows no bounds. He’s just recorded a salute to free software and doffed his cap to the many and various people who have contributed to the free software movement.

Unfortunately, as with many things Linux/GNU/etc, free doesn’t mean “user friendly.” There’s no easy way to embed the video using the open source Flash encoder provided my the GNU nerds (or at least, they haven’t set u the video to do so), so I have to embed the Youtube version, seen below. If you want to see a much nicer looking version of the video, go here.

Something’s been bugging me for the last little while about the amatuerization of media. While you probably won’t find a bigger proponent of the democratization of tools for creating media and distribution methods than myself, and while there’s never been a better time for someone with an idea and a camcorder to go out and make media, it’s pretty disappointing to me that what catches on with the general public isn’t thoughtful or unique creations but gossip and nonsense. Witness the rise of Perez Hilton, chronicled in the latest issue of Wired. Hilton’s blogging consists of mindless gossip wrapped in an infantile bow of terrible writing, and yet his site makes on the order of 50k a day in advertising. And Julia Allison’s Nonsociety is about…what, exactly? Nothing but navel-gazing and the craven pursuit of fame for fame’s sake.

But we can’t blame vain, shallow people for being who they are. It’s our own damn fault for falling prey to the same craven impulses they wallow in and enabling them. For further spite and bile, check out this Huffington Post article about female New York bloggers, and how they’re cheating themselves by writing about superficial nonsense and staring at their own reflection.

Well, what they really did was take a different poll about web microcelebrity and turn it around to focus on the negative results. Unsurprisingly, attention sponge Julia Allison ranked first, with her former boyfriend Jacob Lodwick close behind. I’d agree with the placement of most of the other people on the list, including Scoble and iJustine, though I dunno what Veronica Belmont ever did to anyone to raise such ire. Ditto for Tron Guy; I’ve heard that anyone who’s met him in person comes away amazed at how pleasant he is…despite the wacky outfit.

Digg, along with its scrappy competitor Reddit, is an interesting idea that has one fundamental flaw; it’s driven by idiots. The whole idea behind Digg is that the users vote on what news is important. That’s fine in theory, but in practice you get a lot of dumb links to dumb things, such as the endless Ron Paul links that festooned Digg’s front page months ago, despite Paul not having a chance in hell of securing the Republican nomination.

Polymeme aims to avoid that trap. The service tracks buzz, but shapes the result into something somewhat more intellectually pleasing than Digg. I’m intrigued, and I’ll keep checking it out for now.

The great thing about Web video is that with the tumbling cost of hardware, software and distribution, anyone can make a video. But practically no-one is making a buck at it, if this story in the San Francisco Chronicle is to be believed. In fact, many web video creators are using their work as a calling card to get into the TV and film industry, where there are still paychecks to be had. Makes sense, and that’s why I work in mainstream media and do web stuff on the side….I try to do the web stuff for fun and my own education, and if it helps further my career in one direction or another, so much the better.

This one’s more ranting about the proposed Canadian DMCA. Also, on a technical note, it looks like video hosting sites don’t ike something about the end credits, so I guess I’ll have to tweak that for further episodes.

The Canadian DMCA has just been tabled by the House of Commons, and from what I can tell (gleaned from Michael Geist’s excellent blog post) it’s a complete and total ruinous mess for the future of electronic media in Canada. Let’s, just for a second, get past the spectre of evil pirates stealing content from hard-working, impoverished studios and record companies. This bill makes it illegal for anyone to transfer music they bought off a CD and onto their own iPod. It also makes it illegal to unlock an iPhone or other locked digital devices, to the tune of a $20,000 fine. So the fact that I’ve been carting around said iPhone for the last six months is apparently more important than the fact that our representatives in Parliament consort with gangster molls or that the Alberta tar sands are an ecological disaster area. No, people downloading the latest Coldplay album is what our law enforcement services should concern themselves with.

The real irony here is that the studios are the authors of their own destruction. If these laws are actually enforceable, all that will happen is that people won’t bother to watch copyrighted material anymore. The means of production are cheaper than ever, and more and more people are watching amateur video, citizen journalism and other user generated content. The drive for self-preservation will actually accelerate the decline and fall of big media, by its own hand.

And the potential damage from this bill doesn’t just affect individuals. Companies in the business of moving and storing content, like Domain7, have already expressed concerns (check their news section for their take on the bill).

What can you do to voice your concerns about this bill? Email your member of Parliament (I just did, for the very first time), join online groups like the Fair Copyright for Canada group on Facebook, and join the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Canadian Music Creators Coalition, and other groups advocating for digital rights.

Thanks to Mahalo Daily and Blip.tv….