Want CNET to notify you of price drops and the latest stories?
No, thank you Accept
X
WWDC: Everything We ExpectRemote Working in ParadiseBest Mineral SunscreensBest Solar CompaniesCNET CouponsMeal Subscription vs. TakeoutBest Satellite Internet ProvidersCurrent Mortgage Rates

Web Video Summit

A brief overview of my experience at the Web Video Summit in San Jose

Josh Wolf first became interested in the power of the press after writing and distributing a screed against his high school's new dress code. Within a short time, the new dress code was abandoned, and ever since then he's been getting his hands dirty deconstructing the media every step of the way. Wolf recently became the longest-incarcerated journalist for contempt of court in U.S. history after he spent 226 days in federal prison for his refusal to cooperate. In Media sphere, Josh shares his daily insights on the developing information landscape and examines how various corporate and governmental actions effect the free press both in the United States and abroad.
See full bio
2 min read
I'm in San Jose today attending the Web Video Summit today and tomorrow, and have been scoping out the latest innovations and learning more about online video for a few hours now.

In typical conference fashion, there are too many simultaneous presentations and each panel is filled with such a diverse group of individuals that the overall experience is almost like going out for dim sum. You get a taste of a lot of things, but by the time you stumble onto something truly satisfying, there just isn't enough to leave you fulfilled and you find yourself looking around you in the hopes that him or her crosses your path sometime in the near or distant future.

Right now, I'm sitting in on a panel focused on collaboration. JD Lasica is moderating the panel, and Kent Bye is speaking about his collaborative documentary The Echo Chamber Project. Kent's project has fascinated me ever since I first learned about it over a year ago and he's developed some rather robust tools to help establish a distributive editing process.

Adriana Gascoigne is also on the panel and chose to focus on her work with Bubblicious which seems to be a sort of group blog effort dedicated towards covering the Silicon Valley "scene." She describes the project as being about "the fun things that happen when you're in a bubble." While it's certainly a fun project, and Adriana is certainly a vivacious and intelligent personality, I was totally turned off when she revealed that the future of Bubblicious revolves around, "ads, ads, and more ads." I know that advertising is one of the only means for an online venture to become sustainable, but I really don't see the point in promoting the coming deluge of advertising ecstasy. But, as Jim from Hot or Not says in a video montage Adriana presented, she just might be the hottest videoblogger on the net, so those who appreciate eye-candy might appreciate visiting Bubblicious for that reason alone.

Finally, my friend Dave Toole has put together a presentation for SpinXpresswhich is just one of several great initiatives that Dave has been working on as CEO of Outhink. SpinXpress is a sort of closed-network peer-to-peer web application which allows team members to collaborate on media projects and more easily share files back and forth. Although I haven't yet had the opportunity to use SpinXpress, it appears to be quite robust and has massive potential to change the way media is created.