TV 2.0 for Producers: The 101 of Web 2.0

Web 2.0? What happened to 1.0? When did they release the update and have I installed it?

There is no update, you don't need to install it, it's already here, and you're in it.
It's not a program, it's just how we're navigating the internet these days.

In the initial days of the internet (or world wide web) most people would find what they were looking for by typing in a website address/URL (www.dogfood.com) and being taken to the site's homepage. From the homepage, one would follow the available hyperlinks until they hopefully found what they were looking for. Each website, for the most part, was a destination and billions of dollars were spent marketing and promoting website brands, like "netzero: free internet forever" did during the super bowl.
That was Web 1.0

Nowadays, most websites are no longer destinations in and of themselves (though they would like to be.) We've entered the world of search. Search engines like Google and Yahoo have become common methods by which most people find what they're looking for. Now, instead of going to a website's homepage to find what you're looking for, one now plugs their query into a search engine and peruses amongst the results to find the most relevant. In most cases, these search results won't take you to the home page, but instead will take you directly to the relevant page within the site that corresponds with your initial search request.
The use of "search" to go directly to what you're looking for (thereby circumventing homepages and long trails of hyperlinks) is known as Web 2.0

TV 2.0 for Producers: Content is King

Before getting too carried away with the ins and outs of TV 2.0, it just seems responsible (as a servant of the producorial public trust) to take a step back and provide the content producers and owners that have stumbled across this page with some of the basic concepts of web 2.0, tv 2.0, and internet-based video, as a whole.

What did you just call me??! All this time you thought you were a movie or television producer, when in fact, it was all just content. Don't change your business cards just yet, but instead just focus on becoming comfortable with the term, as it is the standard term for all online video.

• The person who controls and is able to exploit the internet rights to a movie, series, or other motion picture/video is the content owner, or content producer (which are often used interchangeably) -- in many instances this is the producer, but sometimes it's a network, distributor, financier, etc.)
  

The folks at Webopedia have been kind enough to layout a fairly straightforward, single-page, Web 2.0 Dictionary; it's worth perusing and familiarizing yourself with the terms there, as they will be a fundamental part of TV 2.0's verbiage.

The Web 2.0 Panel at Sundance

Having attended panel after panel (and participating in a few myself) on the topic of Web 2.0 at various conferences, I have found myself somewhat bored by some of the same inforation being given out over and over again. Always hoping to learn a little something more, I end up hearing the same self-promotions from the companies in attendance, using it as a forum to drum up busisness.


HOWEVER...To my great surprise this Web 2.0 panel at Sundance was quite different. And I attribute it all to the modertor, Kara Swisher of The Wall Street Journal. Wow! I was blown away by her engaging and darkly entertaining, no BS approach to keeping the panelists on track. She is a woman that said her mind.

My favorite part was when Kara challenged her panelists to name which companies were doing exciting things in the 2.0 space, without naming their own company. Of the half-dozen panelists, one named YouTube, one named MySpace, the other 4 could not name anybody specifically (oh wait, three of those four named themselves!) Sometimes (like salmon returning to spawn) the urge to self-promote is just too great.

There was only one slight disagreement I felt with Kara's feelings on Revver. I posed a question/statement that producers and syndicators using Revver are being mislead in thinking that any real money could be made from sharing a perentage of the click-thru ad revenues.

The point being that Revver ONLY pays on a click-thru model. Unless people click-through on the Jet-Li promotion ad at the end of the clip, NO-ONE makes money. And, when was the last time you clicked on the ad at the end of the clip to see the advertising that was completely irrelevant to the clip that preceeded it????

Kara, challenged me back with saying, "Well, at least they are paying." My retort? Sure, they are well and good for being one of the few to pay...but come on! That is like saying, there are starving people in the world, but at least Revver is feeding them rats to eat. Hardly, a nutritious meal if you ask me. Perhaps, an analogy stretch here, but hopefully you get my point.

FYI, this post is not to bag on REVVER per se, but to actually to tell content providers, producers, and filmmakers to really find out whats behind the promises from companies. Most grandiose ad-share models are akin to 50% of nothing. More on this topic to come.

Why are People so Afraid?

In my travels talking to independent producers all over the world there seems to be a big fear of the broadband world. Skeptical if you will. One of the things I try to do is to make content producers a little less worried and more excited about the landscape infront of them.

My advice? Knowledge is power. The more you learn the less weary you are. Broadband is not scary... yeah it is different....and different sometimes is hard because of "change", but overall if you understant, you can harness it, to make your videos reach a much wider audience and generate lasting revenue streams.

How scary can that be?

It's about time for Independent Producers

It's about time Independent Producers got the respect they deserve. While traditional televsion is being more difficult than ever making producers having to think about giving their show for free to the cable networks to seek distribution. Broadband networks are looking to offer the same professional producers the BBD (The Bigger Better Deal).