vlog 4.0 [a blog about vogs]

BrainTrust

Got this via Matthew Clayfield, braintrustdv A project by the big Lev that collates, solicits, hosts, publishes, scours commentary about electronic cinema. This is a seriously good project and resource. The revolution is finally starting. (Not because Lev has a new site but things like the video iPod are forcing some very good questions.)

Correction (November 17), via Matthew Clayfield. The site isn’t run by Lev, but by Alejandro Adams.

Reconsideration

Well, here I am, listening to TAFE teachers describe teaching indigenous populations distributed throughout Queensland to be teachers – Queensland is enormous, south to north would be close to 3000 kilometres (that’s further than Rome to Stockholm), or video linkups of student groups who are hundreds of kilometres from the institute, and I’ve realised I need to change what I was going to talk about. I’m the ivory tower southerner. In my state nowhere is 1000 kilometres away from anywhere else, and I am not about solving problems right now but inventing things that aren’t happening yet. These people don’t need or want to know about this. I was going to point out all the problems with podcasting, but for these people podcasting is a revolution. I was going to explore vog possibilities, have even written a vog essay (coming soon), but I think I was invited here to show them how to use RSS, enclosures and podcasts. Am working on a plan B. Stay tuned.

Video iPod

Well, it happened. Lots of commentary, excitement in parts of the videoblogging community. Lets rake the coals, read the tea leaves, or whatever it is one says.

• They will sell very well.
• Eventually most people will realise that most of the time they just use their iPod for sound, and only very occassionally for video.
• There will be a small group of videoblogging afficiandos who use it a lot for video, these will be a tiny minority.
• This will happen because things like portable sound devices (we’ve had them ever since the transistor radio) work very well – we can easily do other things while listening to sound.
• In the same period we have pretty much always had some form of portable TV – you often will see (hear) people at a picnic listening to a sporting broadcast, very very few are watching it on their portable TV (the attention economies are too different).
  In other words portable sound has always worked, portable televisual has not.
• Podcasts (whether video or audio) are a step backwards because they break all the networked aspects that make the blog part of audio or videoblogging of interest and value:

• You lose the context of the post, eg post title, date, time, and any accompanying text such as trackbacks, comments, links (are we inventing a new rich media language or are we just wannabe TV stars?)
• You lose any possibility of connections between parts (the basic logic of blogs) since the iPod is network deaf and
• The player supports zero interactivity (can you click on the link in the movie?)
• It enforces the academy aspect ratio (4:3) for content

Media that confuses portability with new forms misses the opportunity to invent something more than a genre.

Another Lean Patch

Around this ‘ere blog. I am way behind in a lot of tasks due to procrastination, confusion, anxiety and a lack of planning, so have swallowed my pride, purchased “The Time Trap” and have spent the week actually trying to finish things that I should be doing. (Writing a book chapter, cramming for another, assessing student work, keeping enough administrative matters juggled.) And in all that there is no time for the blog. Not sure what that means for the immediate future, but with a conference next week, two chapters due by December and over 40 mixed media essays to assess, don’t hold your breath.