Last Few Days

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Since Jay got a new Xacti for Xmas, I got the passed down C4. Now I've become a Momentshowing freak-taking little videos all the time. This is why the Xacti rocks compared to my little Kodak-because you can just open the LCD screen and it's on and ready to record. I must say I like it very much. The weird digital audio noise drives me nuts though. I've noticed it on other Xactis as well, I think it's just a bad design flaw. Anyway, enjoy some of my pre-holiday and during-holiday observations in SF, Boston and New Bedford.

The Naga Crew

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The first day of the Air Jaldi Summit was an amazing hike in the mountains-a great way to get to connect with people before a conference. I happened to be talking with Tracy when I mentioned that Jay and I were in India primarily to teach people videoblogging. Tracy freaked and told me that we needed to teach this crew of kids from Nagaland, whom she's been working with, to videoblog. We had a couple extra days in New Delhi before heading home, so of course we were thrilled. This Naga crew has interesting stories because they are from a part of India that wishes to be the sovereign nation that it once was before British Colonial Rule. I have a list of their blogs that I will post when I get home to SF.

UPDATE

here are the naga crew's blogs (see jay's post about why they might not be posting):

Yoyo- http://crazynaga.blogspot.com/
Abu- http://dzii.blogspot.com/
Chon- http://kazing.blogspot.com/
Soso- http://aliensos.blogspot.com/
Apam- http://nativesky.blogspot.com/
Bangyaa- http://bangyaa.blogspot.com/
Sorei- http://khuiralung.blogspot.com/

Selling Out Isn't Easy

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What Jay said (I've been on a plane all day, I'm tired and I think he explains it well. Thanks Jay!):

"Ryanne and I have just signed a one-year deal with Podtech to license our videos on "sustainable culture". For over 2 years now, the Videoblogging Group has discussed money and advertising. I've always been a pretty big opponent of traditional models creeping into our new art form. Check out this video I made in 2005.

Here are three reasons the deal made sense to us.

We own our content. After a year, Podtech will have paid us to create a library of videos. They didn't even flinch when we negotiated this point. They deserve credit for this alone. Podtech will have exclusive rights to put ads on our videos.

Shows are different than our personal videoblogs. Ryanne and I each have our own blogs where we'll keep posting our crazy videos. Advertising would never work there. But RyanisHungry is our attempt to create themed content that basically takes the best part of TV viewing and applies it to the web. We'll be focusing on personal stories of people changing their habits. Here's an example of what we'll be doing. So far, Podtech has made clear that we have artistic control as long as we focus on sustainable culture.

Guaranteed money. Podtech is giving us a set amount of money each month. We certainly aren't getting rich, but one of us can work on these videos full time since it's content we believe in. I'm not sure I trust the "advertising revenue sharing" that other sites like Revver are pioneering just yet. To me, only the most popular videos can make a decent living for ads clicks. I also don't have time to go out and find customized sponsorship.

I hope that we can set the example for future deals that will be fair to both videobloggers and companies. I give Podtech props for being so progressive during this honeymoon period. We expect to continue working well together. I give a big shout out to Morty Wiggins and Colette Vogele (who wrote the Legal Guide for Podcasters) for helping us through this process.

So watch our for the first videos starting on January 15th. Two videos a week for a year. oh boy.