The Mad Pulp Bastard Rants Again! Pt. 2,345

Edit to add: You can watch streaming video from Natpe here. And there's that little chat function too, which makes the web way cooler than broadcast. Back to me ranting (it will make sense, trust your bastard) :


Okay, guys - repeat after me:

The Internet is NOT JUST VIDEO.

I'm not a wealthy guy. I'm not an exceptionally smart guy. I am however a guy who can take what's there and apply it to what I'm doing in new ways. It's the producer in me - we solve problems:

We don't have a crane for the camera? No problem - we have a ladder. We don't have stage blood for that zombie? No problem, we'll add this Karo syrup to cherry soda and you can dribble it out of your gaping wound. Don't have an image to use to create this key art? Fine give me that little digital camera there on your desk and I'll shoot it. Be right back.

And so on...and so on...

So it really upsets me when people look at the way things exist, smart people mind you, and can only focus on the problems and not the "workaround." If we are to move the internet forward in any meaningful way we have to focus on how we can get the job done, and not how impossible it is to do. Quit focusing on what it isn't and focus on what it is...

Enter Mark Cuban, and his "The Great Internet Video Lie."

Mr. Cuban - I'm sorry but your premise is inherently flawed. The internet doesn't really care if it can't support 500K viewers at once through a single source. Maybe for news programming - I'll give you that. The point of the internet is that its an archive that keeps finding new viewers all the time. Every day I stumble across something, or someone new sees this blog and gets hooked.

The internet is not a broadcasting model per se, it's an open air market that takes place 24/7 throughout the world.

Let's use your idea of a great concert. Okay then - 500K people watch it as it happens. But then, they tell someone and that someone goes to the web and watches the concert too, or downloads it and watches it later on their way home on the train, or after the kids have been put to bed. Then those people tell more folks about this great concert... and so on... and so on...

Then - people who really liked that concert decide to buy the DVD, that has extras. Really cool behind-the-scenes stuff. Oh, and wait - there's a book you can buy too! And a t-shirt!

Because really - how many people saw Woodstock live? (I didn't because no, I'm not that old. Nurse!) How many people bought the soundtrack? Did they see the movie - maybe, maybe not.

The internet is different. It's not broadcast. It's not theatrical. It's not books. It's not radio.

It's all those things and more.

And just because it doesn't do exactly what you want right this very second, doesn't mean it's a lie. It simply means it's growing, maturing. So what if it doesn't give you simultaneous broadcast capability through one source? Just use multiple sources (CDN's) !!!!

Is that soooo hard to work out?

Besides. Internet video is going to change again.

Because it needs to change...to evolve.