Vlogs: Next big thing or niche experiment?

Here’s some follow-up on last week’s column on vlogging.

First, an interesting new place to post video has now launched: the long-awaited Ourmedia.org. It’s an open-source citizen-journalist project masterminded by veteran new-media writer JD Lasica and the even more veteran multimedia pioneer Marc Canter (there are probably kids learning Director today who weren’t born when Marc created its earliest incarnation years ago in San Francisco). Ourmedia had 20,000 visitors its first day, and signed up 3,000 members in its first 3 days and is definitely worth watching.

Another reader suggested KnowItAllVideo.com, a no-cost video aggregator that also offers an application platform that allows any Web site to play video uploads. But check out their terms of service — it looks like they basically take over all rights to any video uploaded to their site (including the ability to reuse it without crediting the creator).  On the Web, free lunches usually don’t stay free for long.

Vlogging lit fires among some readers:

Joe Dwinell, Framingham, MA: TV is beating the pants off the rest of the media because it's easy. Too easy. Video blogging could pull in more eyes and — wouldn't this be nice — possibly give birth to a well-informed electorate.

We need to use whatever tools we can to pull the darn remote controls out of the hands of kids and tired adults and compel them to read/write/think/respond. I'm a journalist with a fledgling blog, and I also do TV reports for WB56 here in Boston, so this topic is kicking around in my head -- big time.

Virgil Butler, Pine Ridge, AR: Ooooh! I can see great possibilities here. As an animal protectionist, environmentalist and social justice activist, my blog focuses on the devastating social effects of factory farming. With the ability to put video on my site, I can show exactly what I witnessed as a worker in the poultry industry, most recently as a hanger/killer in a Tyson slaughterhouse in Arkansas. With this wonderful new technology, the public won't have to take my word for it.

Other readers, however, weren’t so sure:

Warwick, London, UK: There's no way that a vlog will be used in the same way as a blog. How about searching content? As we get more vlogs people will need to advertise their content so transcripts or tables of contents may become common.

Blogs are also much easier to update regularly — no need to do your hair.

Michael, Durham, NC: Vlogs are such a distinctly different animal that they are never going to replace blogs. Does the world really want to know when we compose a post sans pantalones?  How many people really have Webcams?  And how many of them can produce video of sufficient quality to endure for even five minutes? The progression from email to personal homepages to blogs is an easy and organic path. My money is on vlogging remaining a niche expression, limited to those highly specialized in skills and equipment. And, to be both shallow and cynical, those whose visages are so pleasant we don't mind watching them day after day.

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