Network 2.0

13Sep06

On his blog at the end of August, Jeff Pulver, co-founder of Vonage and creator of Free World Dial-Up, published a guide to “TV Shows Only Available on the Net”. It’s definetly worth checking out. However, a week later he released Network 2.0, a collection of RSS feeds that allows you to watch many of the shows he listed in one place. The site is quite user friendly and it’s great starting point for people who are just begining to get into online video.

Right now he’s inviting anyone who is producing online video to notify him and provide their feed to the site. At the moment, there are over 70 shows available with no real organization other than listing them alphabetically. This works fine for now, but as the number of people producing their own online video content increases, it seems to me that the format will need to improve to assist the user in finding the kind of content they are looking for. There are also bound to be issues surrounding of selection: what is the criteria for having your show posted? What type of content will be considered acceptable (ie, offensive, racist, or sexually explicit material)? And where is the line between “online television” and the 17 year old kid in front of their webcam who regularily posts to YouTube. This type of Network, given that it could potentially attract a large audience, could play a powerful role in shaping not only how we watch video online, but what we end up watching.

Check it out. In spite of my questions I think it’s a great way to bring exposure to some hard working folks who are putting up great video content on the net. And I think it’s important to understand the effect of these types of portal sites. We’re likely to see more services like this appearing in the future and they will undoubtedly influence our online video consumption.