A port for video
Many months ago, when podcasts were young, someone in the back of the room at a conference (it was Dave Winer) said that I didn't have a “port for podcasts.” I don't have a commute, I don't own a car, and I don't (usually) listen to podcasts. This isn't something I'm proud of.
Well, video is the killer app for broadband internet connections, user-created video is everywhere, and I'm worried that I may not have a “port for video” either. This isn't good. I may be about to miss out on half the world of the web. I was just over looking at vimeo, and I can see that there's a lot of social organizing and general all-around tagged flickrish great times ahead. And there are about 49 other flickrish video sites out there, apparently.
A wise person recently told me that there are two kinds of people in the world: video people and text people. I'm apparently firmly in the text camp. I scan paragraphs, flip through pages, and like to skip through things when I can see where they're going. I am happy to be on someone else's time when I've chosen that route, when I'm watching a movie or listening to a concert. But when I'm in front of the computer I'm usually performing triage on email or working on some project, and I'm far less willing to be captive to someone else's picture-narrative.
On the other hand, there are 1.5 billion camera phones out there ready to record the world in little pieces, and it's going to be great. Many of us will be keeping track of our friends by watching clips they've put together for us. As humans, we love stories, with their ups and downs.
Maybe after tenure.
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Well, the point of the Pod part of Podcasting was to listen to audio away from the computer - like you I can't type or read and listen to someone talking about something else at the same time. If you have an iPod, I'm sure there are things you do that don't require the language centres of your brain - tidying, exercising, gardening, travelling on plane's to San Francisco.
Video is trickier, you do need to give it more attention than audio, but I find it fits a plane or train ride OK.