This is an interesting question. And it kinda goes to my own working
definitions that I've expressed here before. I don't happen to
believe that videoblogs are defined by content as much as
methodology. A videoblog to me is simply video on a blog. That is
video posted in a blog format, which is a regularly updated website
where content is posted in cronological dated posts. It may or may
not have an RSS feed, comments, a blog roll etc. But it always has
chronological dated posts on a web page. Thus the name Web Log. The
whole personal vs show thing to me is kind of a weird way of looking
at it. The first blogs I read were political blogs and they most
certainly weren't personal journals. I understand that the personal
journals, that a lot of people understand blogs to be, are a genre
of the form, but I wouldn't ever say that a defining characteristic
of a blog is that it's personal. So to my thinking if a video blog
is simply video on a blog then it's not necessarily personal. To me
saying a blog or a videoblog is by definition personal is like
saying TV is all sitcoms or all films are documentaries. A blog is a
media form, and that form has genres, personal, political, artistic
etc. The beauty being (which is kind of the beauty of the Internet
as a whole) is that it's simple for any individual to do without
much help or particular technical expertise, and that makes personal
forms or genres possible.
The other thing that I've been thinking about recently is if there
is or isn't a difference between a videoblog or a video podcast. And
this is what I've been thinking: if we accept the premise that a
videoblog is simply video on a blog and we say that a video podcast
is the same as a videoblog then conversely a podcast is the same as
a blog. Well, we know that that's not true. What we know (or at
least the way I see it) a podcast is simply multimedia distributed
via a rss feed. So accepting this definition then a video blog can
also be a video podcast, or not if it is video posted in blog form
sans an RSS feed. Also a person can post video to the internet
outside of the blog form but still deliver it on an RSS feed. This
would be a video podcast that isn't also video blog.
So if you accept these definitions (and I'm not saying that you have
to) then what the people from Four Eyed Monsters are doing is not
video bogging, but video podcastingsince they are primarily
publishing video via an RSS feed sans the blog form. They do have
blogs, but on Myspace, and that's not where their video feeds are
posted.
So those are my thoughts. It's not something that I feel is set in
stone, but that's just where my head is at with it at the moment.
Bill Streeter
LO-FI SAINT LOUIS
www.lofistl.com
--- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, Richard BF <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
>
> Old timers on this list are gonna love me bringing this up again.
> Newbies are probably going to love me even more for disturbing the
> mainstream media lovefest which seems to have taken over this
email
> list in the past few months.
>
> I received some offlist emails about my Four Eyed Monsters post,
> which I really think should be reposted here, as they had much
more
> information about the project, and offerred an alternate view to
my
> naive opinions. If you emailed me, please CC it here, it will be
> interesting for others to read.
>
> But the question it poses is yet again, what is this list for?
>
> The simple answer is to help out new videobloggers. Which again
begs
> the question <ducking> what is videoblogging? </ducking>
>
> In recent months, reading this list you would be fooled into
thinking
> that videblogging means video on the Internet. We have countless
> "videoblog directories" which simply aggregate RSS enclosures, we
> have "videoblog aggregators" which simply play video over the
> Internet, we have "videoblog hosting providers" which simply host
> video on the Internet, we have "videoblog shows" which are simply
> amateur TV series hosted on the Internet... the list goes on.
> Videoblog is a buzzword that most people seem to use to describe
> anything with video and the Internet.
>
> Others, like me, think it is more about the personal and all that
it
> entails. So the gap between these opinions is still, after 18
months,
> enormous.
>
> The point of the recent Four Eyed Monsters discussion seems to
have
> been "how to use the Internet to promote your more traditional
film",
> which I'd argue has jack to do with this list.
>
> On the vlogtheory list, arguably whose main job is to define
> videoblogging, we've basically given up discussing the definition,
> because nobody will change their mind about what they think a
> videoblog is. It's like walking into a party where everyone has
their
> arms crossed and nobody is talking.
>
> Michael's Vlog Anarchy video was a great bird flip to definition,
but
> this list is now a perfect example of why videoblogging needs to
be
> defined, otherwise perhaps the list should be renamed from
> videoblogging@yahoogroups.com to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> What do you think?
>
> I'm especially interested in the new members' opinions, as they
> probably haven't had a lot of the citizen media, fuck big media
> rhetoric we used to go on about here a year ago, but now tend to
no
> longer bother about.
>
> Regards,
> Richard
>
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