Tjoon – A Refreshing New Video Application

Josh Lowensohn from webware introduced me to a cool new application, that gives the concept of one man show a whole new perspective – Tjoon.

The site is a split screen video recording system. what makes it interesting is the application itself – The site offers musicians to record themselves playing different instruments, and create a clip composed from all instruments.

I find it pretty cool – though it is an extremely niche application. Doing such a thing with Ustream though can be pretty cool (most live broadcasting solutions offer 2 hosts only).

I am not certain if this project is a business or just for fun, and there is not a lot of information about the team behind that. On the other hand – YouTube also started as a local video sharing solution…

In any case, if any of the founders are reading this post – please contact me, I’d love to hear more about your project.

Here is a short clip showcasing the application:

[YouTube=http://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=CM2Tg8_-D20]
YouTube – Tjoon.com – Only You

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Technorati Tags: tjoon, video sharing, youtube, webware, ustream

What’s the real business potential of Personal Broadband Broadcasting?

I’ve written a lot lately on products that enable users to broadcast themselves live over the interment. These products are mature enough to be used by almost everyone, and hype is building up in this field, slowly but surely.

But what is the real potential of this segment? Are we looking at companies that will become the next YouTube, or at a niche market segment with limited growth potential?

The difference between live broadcasting and edited content is a major one. While edited content allows creators to correct their mistakes, add visuals to their content and create an overall better experience for users, live broadcasting requires special kind of creators - ones who can immediately respond to their audience, talk fluently on a specific topic and interact on the fly with viewers and co-hosts.

Therefore, I don’t believe we will see as much traffic and content in live sites as in the YouTubes of the world. Add the fact that live content usually does not contain copyright infringing material, and you get a content arena with original content only, most of it by unknown creators.

What kind of usage pattern will increase the economic value of this medium? In my opinion we should not look at this medium as a stand alone technology, but as another tool in new media creators’ tool box. I’ve started a discussion about different ways to use this medium here. Companies that will tailor their products to the specific needs of their customers, rather then leave the platform as a general purpose site, can increase both usage and loyalty.

Another way of increasing the economical value of this medium is by helping Indie creators use it as a part of covering live events – just like any other news organization. Technology provider that will embrace Indie content creators, and enable them to cover events of their interest, will create a new kind of media arena – independent and alternative live coverage of niche events. Companies can encourage users to use their platform by providing them with specialized equipment such as wireless cams, to cover high profile events. Creativity, like in other area, is the key here.

There is no single answer to the question I’ve raised in the headline of this post. However, one thing is certain – plain feature wars are not the answer for creating economic value in this emerging market.

Technorati Tags: blogtv, ustream, personal broadband broadcasting, business, marketing

Entrepreneurs, Marketers, come to learn all about the market and competition in Vator.tv

Vator.tv, a new venture by Bambi Francisco, was launched yesterday. The site enables entrepreneurs to pitch their startups in an open forum using video sharing, as well as add information about the company and founders. The site also has social network element, as you can add connections to your pitch.

The concept itself is impressive, as it answers a need of startups to showcase their concepts. The integration of social network and crowd sourcing to evaluate ideas can be an interesting twist to the regular mechanisms out there. The execution is also very good – the site is clear, easy to use, and the video streaming works like a charm (though stronger RSS integration is still missing).

I am certain I will use this site not only to find new and engaging companies, products and services, but also to create a hype index – using amount of videos per category as a signal regarding the amount of entrepreneurs seeing a specific field as lucrative.

For entrepreneurs, it is invaluable “improve your pitch and learn about your competition” source. Every entrepreneur can easily learn about what is happening in her sector, refine her pitch and find new ways to present her concept. It can be also a good sanity check tool.

Which brings me to the question if entrepreneurs aren’t harming their own efforts in presenting their ideas on this site. Would all startups be happy if their first VC meeting was broadcasted? Not sure about that. Another important question is who would watch this site. If there is an A list of investors watching this channel – this is site is of great value.

Other coverage of vator.tv can be found at webware, Beet.TV, Mashable, Howard Lindzon and VentureBeat

You can find vator.tv coverage of online video here.

Technorati Tags: online video, vator.tv, bambi francisco, entrepreneurship, VC,

 

Meta Aggregators – a new segment in the online video market

My friend Chris wrote an insightful article in killerapp about the role of meta-aggregator in the online video market. The story is simple – there is a major problem today for both content creators and viewers – find something good to see. There are a lot of shows, and it is hard to find the good ones (and I’ve blogged a lot about what’s good for me – though not sure it is right for every one). Meta aggregator (like Network2) are solving this problem by being both platform agnostic (meaning that you can find there content from Blip.tv, Veoh, YouTube etc) and getting rating from users and editorial team in order to find good shows.

Being platform agnostic is a key issue in my opinion. The market is not dominated by a major platform yet, so from viewers and content creators point of view there is a need to both consume and distribute media across all platforms. Also, inclusion of main stream media shows in these sites is crucial, as it will help smaller content creators to be found (people who are looking for the latest 24 episode will also see indie production based on their taste).

How can these companies make money in this model? Well, some meta aggregators will go the advertisement path, and some will take the distribution path.

I wonder how this segment will unfold.

Is Ustream for Boradcast Television = WordPress for Journalism?

 

Yesterday I played with Ustream a little. After Jeff and Chris live show I’ve decided to give it a try, and when Michael twitted me about his feed, I’ve joined the wagon.

After opening an account, I broadcasted myself within minutes.

Isn’t it just like starting a blog?

Users can connect high end cameras to Ustream, as the Pulver gang did. So, they just need a room with proper lighting and audio, and they have a live show. Simple. Ah, of course, they need to do an interesting show, cause there are so many out there. But this is not different from any other media product, that has to grab the attention of its audience.

So, after blogging platforms democratized written Journalism, YouTube and Bittorrent democratized pre-recorded video distribution, Ustream (and probably the 1000 competitors gearing up as I write this post) democratized live broadcast TV.

BlogTV is an Israeli site owned by Tapuz, one of the biggest Israeli communities portal. It provides similar features and used to broadcast live videos from northern Israel in last summer conflict. In the past, I’ve played with it a bit, but didn’t stay for long. The main reasons were:

1. Poor video and audio quality

2. Nothing interesting to see (for me)

3. Lack of context – as I saw shows in their site only, it was not connected to other types of media by the same creator (such as blogs, websites etc).

It seems that Ustream has better video quality, and allow users to add context to their show by embedding it in other sites. But just like in every other media platform, interesting stories are a must.

YouTube Viacom Lawsuit Coverage – Ongoing Updates

David Mirchin, Internet Law Professor and a friend, wrote an excellent article about the YouTube / Viacom case. You can read it here, and contact him here.

I am going to have a podcast with David on this topic soon, so if you have any questions that need to be addressed, feel free to write a short comment…

UPDATE: Techdirt, one of my favorite blogs, adds another angle in this post.

4/4/07 UPDATE: Scott Kirsner from Cinematech (one of my favorite blogs about the relations between technology and the movie industry) has a short piece about both sides claims as they were published in Washington Post.