When you’re young, you look at television and think, There’s a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that’s not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That’s a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks are really in business to give people what they want. It’s the truth.
-Steve Jobs in Wired, Feb 1996
Networks pander to the lowest *common* denominator. Video is asynchronously social (watch now, discuss later) and information dense, which makes it a very interesting form of communication. One that has been largely unexplored by people like you and me. The economics/tech of TV required broadcasting to a large audience. That common denominator is therefore very low.
YouTube, Vimeo and other Internet services have started the democratization of video and creating communities of their own. But this segment is still so young and under explored. I’m excited to see and help accelerate video on two fronts: real-time candid video and community driven meaningful video.
Real-time candid video is not live, but it’s close and it’s only the meaningful bits. It’s a rough edit of what just happened, the video equivalent of 140 characters. I bet it will change our world.
I don’t watch and don’t care to further the pace of dumb video (i.e. reality tv). But I do watch lots of TV and mostly focus on though provoking / horizon expanding historical or scientific shows. There is great demand for this material but it’s difficult for Networks to capture. If I can help to decrease the amount of time spent watching video, while increasing the amount of meaning derived from watching video, I will have succeeded.
(via danspinosa)
my cofounder Dan does a great job summing up some of what we’re trying to accomplish with Shelby.tv…
so moved and excited about @ charitywater’s September campaign. @scottharrison + team doing amazing work
go get involved!
If you have any interest in TV and how the web will play with it, particularly how Google sees it, this lecture by Chairman Eric Schmidt is a must-watch. (He starts ~36m mark).
A few gems…
“If content is king, context is its crown.”
“Technology advances and no laws can preserve markets that have been passed by.”
“Listen to the entrepreneurs, not the lawyers, if you want to revitalize your business.”
A little while ago, I sat down with David B. Lerner of Venture Studio to talk about TechStars, startups and our journey as HomeField and Shelby.
David’s a great interviewer. He does his homework beforehand and is really passionate about entrepreneurship. Thanks for having me Dave.
Check out more interviews on Venture Studio here.
My really good friends @Wistia just announced a huge feature - video transcriptions.
You can watch the video announcement here, but I really recommend that you click through to play with the text-linking on their demo page.
So proud of Chris, Brendan and the whole Wistia team. They’re a great group of guys and they’re making web video better and better for everyone. Congrats guys!
…so this happened. ;)
for anyone who saw me being stalked by a camera-crew between January and April, now you know why…
i’ve got to admit, i’m still not ready for the fact that we’re going to be on TV, but i am excited to see the show. from the little i’ve seen of it, Bloomberg did a good job covering our actual experience during TechStars. hell, they probably caught a lot of stuff my sleep-deprived brain missed!
and FWIW, i know that David and David always put TechStars’ priorities well before the show.
point is - if you’re at all interested in TechStars, entrepreneurship or startups in general, you’ll probably enjoy watching the show… even if half the time you’re thinking “these guys aren’t so smart.” ;)
i’ll probably be agreeing with you, but hindsight is 20/20.
season starts September 13th!
so excited for @charitywater + @scottharrison for getting their Moale drill going! inspiring video. appreciate h2o ppl!
my buddy @csavage and the team @wistia with another awesome video…
new video starring Chris - ‘Why Web Video Sucks!’
“The Continuingly Ill Adventures of the Beastie Boys”
Featuring Santigold, directed by Spike Jonze.
love it. this vid will go nuts today. http://shel.tv/qUZZoe
Jason plugging Shelby.tv at the end of his show. [skip right to it]
“stop squinting, stop trying to dig up URL’s. get Shelby.tv… solve all your needs. have a better life, be less depressed, stop taking Prozac… get Shelby.tv”
haha… amazing. thanks Jason!
(David Tisch of TechStars NYC on This Week in Startups #143 | ThisWeekIn)
