Archive for June 5th, 2007
VideoJug, Full of Cash, Makes U.S. Debut
British startup VideoJug drew our attention with its recent $30 million funding round. Since then we’ve been talking with the company about its U.S. launch, which just happened this week.
It’s been a bit of a whirlwind; since mid-January, the company opened a U.S, office, hired 55 people, and produced an astounding 13,000 new videos, 11,000 of those from the U.S.
VideoJug: Infidelity Detection
Focusing on how-to videos, VideoJug stands out for its commitment to professionally produced content while trying to amass a large-scale comprehensive “video encyclopedia of life,” as U.S. CEO Peter Schankowitz puts it. A Reuters profile appropriately described it as a video version of About.com.
Boss Box From Alienware
The Hangar18 from Dell’s boutique brand Alienware is like a muscle car of home media servers: up to four tuners (two digital, two analog), two terabytes of storage, 1080p resolution over HDMI, 200 watt surround sound amplifier, a DVD drive (eventually Blu-Ray) and WiFi.
Of course, all those boss specs will cost you — the model line starts at $1,999.
Tuesday Morning Vid-Biz Headlines
Miro Almost Here: The Participatory Culture Foundation just released the last beta of the Democracy Player. (BoingBoing)
Hart Promoted at MTV Digital: New senior vice president and general manager Dan Hart takes over Ben White’s old job at MTV Digital. (paidContent)
How-To Use Federally Mandated Firewire: Set-top boxes have been required to have a Firewire output for years — here’s how to actually use it with a Mac. (MAKE)
Wii No Media Center: Tim Robertson gives the Wii a thumbs up for YouTube, a thumbs down for media playback from SD card. (last100)
EU Continues P2P Press: Latest suggested amendments to Intellectual Property Directive may criminalize non-commercial file sharers like commercial pirates. (P2P Blog)
Justin.tv Adds Channels: Radio personality Rhianna and fashion maven Parris Harris are added to the lifecast lineup. (Epicenter)
More YouTubers Get Gigs
William Sledd, the fourth-most subscribed YouTube member, is the latest web video star to score a job for his efforts, taking his Ask a Gay Man series to Bravo’s gay-themed web portal. He joins singer Ysabella Brave (see update below) and comedian Sherry Sirof in scoring major media company production deals as a result of their homegrown web-efforts.
The L.A. Times had reported that Sledd — a 23-year-old Kentucky native who had recently been name-checked as a fashion expert on The View — had signed a contract with NBC, and now he’s turning up on its Bravo.
The deal is notable because it appears that Sledd — who has quit his job in retail at the Gap to make videos full-time — will be retaining the show he created for YouTube, rather than joining the cast of a network projects, like Little Loca and Lisa Nova did. “Webisode themes will include thought-provoking topics from the summer mani-pedi to dressing to beat the heat,” said Bravo in an emailed press release.
Copyright Report Calls for Political Action
Creators are under-informed about their rights to reuse material, and the nascent field of participatory video needs to develop best practices, was the conclusion of a recent report from American University’s Center for Social Media.
The key here is that this new font and style of work was unanticipated by legislators, stakeholders and judicial precedent. According to authors Peter Jaszin and Pat Aufderheide [PDF]:
Mash-ups and remixes reuse material to make a new product, in ways that have not been foreseen in previous thinking about unauthorized use of copyrighted material.
We found the report via Revver, which was singled out for its efforts to educate and inform creators of their due rights under copyright law and practice. Most online video services restrict discussion of rights to their terms of service agreements. The report offers realistic suggestions for best practices to preserve the existing read/write web, proposing that creators and providers should band together in order to protect their freedom to continue working with these new tools.
Taking in the Webby Video Scene
You’re only allowed five words when you accept a Webby award, and the best five-word speech yesterday evening came from Eepybird’s Fritz Globe, who, after the audience had watched Diet Coke and Mentos fountains explode on the screen at the New World Stages in Manhattan at the inaugural Webby Film & Video Awards, walked to the stage microphone and said:
“Eighteen million views, still no dates.”
Well, six words. But that kind of frustration knows no boundaries. As Globe walked off stage, host Rob Corddry (yes that Rob Corddry) pointed down to Halcyon, the creator of Hug Nation, and said “give that man a hug.”
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© 2009 The GigaOM Network. Marketing consulting by ACS.
