I got this hilarious bunch of emails from David at Mommy.tv (a really great show- and if you've seen The Clip Show, Jim Kirks called me out!). It TOTALLY seems to point out what some of the animosity is:
David has four emails from four separate companies saying almost the same thing. We're one in a series. All of them say something like, "This is really great stuff. We'd love to feature you. Blah blah." Believe me, four is a small number. There will be 104 by the end of 2007. Some will have most people's best interest in mind. Some will be a silly idea. Some will make it just by having the right connections. Some will become notorious for making crucial missteps. Network2 might be no different. Who am I to say? But I have some thoughts on why *I* think we're different. I've been at this doing various video projects for a while now (I did New Media School before http://smallboxes.blip.tv ). My boss, Jeff Pulver, has been promoting the fact that independent video creation and distribution is key to the future, that sharing via RSS is important, and that this space needs to stay open and not walled (most IPTV deals are "walled garden" content). We promote sharing via easy distribution. We promote downloadable content so that people can enjoy shows on a portable device, while off the Internet, etc. (If I had to fly to San Fran without a laptop full of videoblogs, I'd have gone snakey.) We would love to help folks make money through bringing content together. The argument that paying me means we have money to pay videobloggers for content is interesting, but I can't think of a proper and non-snarky response. I worked 90+ hours a week since April (40 for my old day job) and 50 on my own video and audio projects plus PodCamp. The 50+ hours were unpaid. I actually found a job where I'm paid to meet the community through events like PodCamp, the Halloween Videoblog Fest, the Vloggies, PME, Video on the Net, etc. I'm paid to reach out to people and try to bring more attention to your work. I don't think I'll apologize for that. You'll have plenty of choices to make over 2007 and maybe some of 2008. The choices will entail how you want to proceed with your projects, how you want to be represented or not in this space. You'll see some people making huge deals with major traditional studios (oh wait! We already did). You'll see some people make decent cash their own way (did you buy a duckie?) We're offering a way to point people to your sites, your work. We've built ways for you to share collections of your favorite shows with others. We've built tagging, sharing, etc. Swing by. Oh, and just one more time for the chorus: If you like the site, but we've somehow got something wrong about your page, let me know and we'll work to fix it (iteratively at times). There's only two developers and they're working their head off to build more features). If you don't want to be on the site, please contact me via email or phone. If you want to meet up when I'm somewhere near your neck of the woods, I'll always post event invites, because I always want to meet folks. I'm sleepy and happy to be back to Boston. --Chris...
