The Next Big Thing
I when through some online course materials with MIT's Open Courseware project on digital media. It is an excellent course from the stand point that the lectures are on video. The lectures are mostly talking heads but the variety of instructors and quality of what they say is outstanding. (What else would you expect from MIT?) A predictions that one of the professors talked about was that the next big thing on the Internet was video. At the time I thought that was not true. My objections to his idea was
1. We already have video deleivery systems that do an good job; TV, Cable, Video, DVD, Pay-per-View, and now TiVo. I don't think TiVo was a going concern when he made the lecture.
2. Most of our Internet connections go to a small screen at a desk. Video is a couch, not desk chair medium.
3. Who would put their content on the Internet for it to be peer-to-peer copied? The television and cable production studios are already putting it out there with cable TV.
The Answers To My Objections
1. These deveivery systems are built on the 30 minute, 60 minute and 120 minute formats. Deleiver something shorter.
Check out Jerry Seinfield's commercials about American Express. They are creative, entertaining, but do not fit the TV or movie models.
2. Again shorter clips would be more suited for the desktop/laptop environment.
3. Advertisers, hobbiest, public service agencies, churches, hobbiest would all put their content out there if they could make it easier to produce and put out there. For pictures we have webshots. For written media we have blogging, wikipedia, and reviews on Amazon. Perhaps we need a place to put short video content on the web.
Video is an important medium for communication on the desktop computer environment. Let TV be TV, video on the Internet needs to be different. Now if you can hook your TV to your internet connection, your longer 30, 60 and 120 minute formats are applicable again. Its the couch versus the deskchair issue.
1. We already have video deleivery systems that do an good job; TV, Cable, Video, DVD, Pay-per-View, and now TiVo. I don't think TiVo was a going concern when he made the lecture.
2. Most of our Internet connections go to a small screen at a desk. Video is a couch, not desk chair medium.
3. Who would put their content on the Internet for it to be peer-to-peer copied? The television and cable production studios are already putting it out there with cable TV.
The Answers To My Objections
1. These deveivery systems are built on the 30 minute, 60 minute and 120 minute formats. Deleiver something shorter.
Check out Jerry Seinfield's commercials about American Express. They are creative, entertaining, but do not fit the TV or movie models.
2. Again shorter clips would be more suited for the desktop/laptop environment.
3. Advertisers, hobbiest, public service agencies, churches, hobbiest would all put their content out there if they could make it easier to produce and put out there. For pictures we have webshots. For written media we have blogging, wikipedia, and reviews on Amazon. Perhaps we need a place to put short video content on the web.
Video is an important medium for communication on the desktop computer environment. Let TV be TV, video on the Internet needs to be different. Now if you can hook your TV to your internet connection, your longer 30, 60 and 120 minute formats are applicable again. Its the couch versus the deskchair issue.
Comments
I had heard of the MIT Open Courseware but hadn't seen anything I really wanted to do - glad you liked it - I might go back and check it out again.
At this point I really don't like watching videos on the computer because of their small size and poor quality - not to say that others don't and it wouldn't have a place, I just haven't really gotten into it.
Where are the Seinfeld videos - I would love to look at them. BTW - this is David