Video builds the radio guy

I'm watching the tail end of the debut of Max Headroom, one of those shows from the late 80's that seemed so amazingly different, refreshing. The premiere revolves around an advertising conspiracy that's killing people. When I was a kid, this seemed so futuristic and somehow important. A television show was critiquing television practices.

Now, the irony comes in because I'm watching this show on Joost, which is a new service created by the makers of Skype and KaZaa. There's advertising, of course, but it seems so seamless, you hardly notice it. A friend of mine sent me an invite today, and there's a ton of content here that I can watch legally, as often as I want. And, the picture is pretty darned good, full-screen.

Everything is changing, and changing fast. Steve Safran of Lost Remote was recently a guest on Coy Barefoot's show and continued preaching the gospel of convergence, and Joost is so far the best (legal) implementation I've seen. It lacks fresh content, but things begin playing immediately.

We had a meeting of the Charlottesville Podcasting Network think tank yesterday (at Court Square Tavern, of course) and I mentioned how excited I am about adding video to the offerings on Charlottesville Tomorrow. In the past few days, we've posted two features, and we're now purchasing what we need to make sure we can do this on a regular basis. Take a look at the one we did on the sinkhole.

At the end of the Safran show, Coy gives his typical shout-out to the Charlottesville Podcasting Network, and added: "Right now, no video, just audio, for now."

So, can we do it? How do we do it, and for what purpose?

One of my colleagues at CPN said video was too difficult to do on a regular basis - but, I think we have a duty to expand into video as soon as possible. While I don't expect to be in Joost before too long, the audience is coming fast, and they're coming for video. Audio still has its place, but we're a visual culture. I'm amazed at how much there is to learn in terms of how to tell a story visually. But, I learned how to do radio on my own, and now it's great fun using my journalistic skills to think of how to take the "public radio style" and apply it to video.

Other reporters are doing this, too. They're leaving traditional media for new kinds of organizations. Lost Remote recently had a post about something called Storybridge.tv, and I've not really delved into it yet. But, take a look. Isn't it beautiful? How do we build it here for Charlottesville?

To give you a sense of what I want to do, and what I think should be done, I conclude this post with the first line from one of National Public Radio's founding documents:

National Public Radio will serve the individual: it will promote personal growth; it will regard the individual differences among men with respect and joy rather than derision and hate; it will celebrate the human experience as infinitely varied rather than vacuous and banal; it will encourage a sense of active constructive participation, rather than apathetic helplessness.