Steven Levy of Newsweek on Video blogging

by on July 21, 2006

Andy Plesser of Beet.TV interviews Steven Levy of Newsweek (he’s one of the top technology journalists in the world — every executive hopes he’ll come calling) about video blogging. Steven says that there’ll be two tiers: good and bad. I think that’s already happening.

UPDATE:

Of course Steven is correct. But that’s only true if you look at the world the old way. Of limited attention.

I look at it as a sea of Google keywords, though. So, let’s go looking.

Are there any “plumbing vlog”’s? No.
“teaching vlog”? Yes, 27.
“law vlog”? Yes, 4.
“scrapbooking vlog”? No.
“cooking vlog?” Yes, 119.
“skiing vlog?” Yes, 2.
“learn German vlog?” No.
“movie star vlog?” No.
“tech geek vlog?” No.
“cool vlog?” Yes. 390.
“soccer vlog?” Yes. 1.

Should I keep going? When all of these categories are as competitive as “tech journalist” (91,300 results) then I think we need to worry about production values.

Not every video blog needs a huge audience. Have we learned nothing from the Long Tail?

  • I agree. My little video blog posting O have put up are definately not high quality nor have I made an attempt to make them that way. However, I did post them in response to requests I had gotten and the email, and personal (as in person vs. virtual ;-) has been great by those to who'm they are targeted. Is someone like myself ever going to put out slickly produced high quality postings, no. Does that make the contents any less valuable to those to who'm it meets a real need, not at all.
  • I forgot to add that I also just had my first reader point out wherw I screwed up with something I wrote up (seemed to insinuate something that I had assumed was true but in fact was not). I love it! :-) Not only did the blogging community catch my screwup but it now gives me a chance to troubleshoot the issue at home (its around a drink recipe application for Media Center) before I blindly trotted it out before friends and family to pull a Simpson "Doh!"
    :-)
  • MSInterviewee
    Fyi Scoble, I got a call from Microsoft today asking if I wanted to interview. I asked:

    Me:"One of my biggest problems with Microsoft is people like Scoble, I can't believe you guys let someone with no technical background comment on your strategy, hiring practices, etc..."

    MS HR: "Oh, we fired him"

    Me: "Great! I'm available next week"


    Just thought you might be interested in that.
  • MSInterviewee: I love how anonymous jerks show up here. If you think I got fired, I have a bridge in California I'd like to sell you. Of course there's no way you actually got a call from a Microsoft recruiter, either.

    Here's a clue: when you get fired you get walked to the door by security guards. So, if I got fired, please explain to me how I got up into a Microsoft VP's office to interview him three days after I quit? Here's the video: http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=2...

    Go put THAT in your pipe and smoke it!
  • ^^ I just started working for Microsoft in the last month - great place.

    As for video blogging I agree, surely the uniqueness of each users content i.e. ranging from great to poor quality video is at the very essence of whats great about blogging in general.
  • I have agreed with Plesser for some time now. When I started realVerse.com I wanted it to stand out and since Im not an art student, I defaulted to raising my vlog's production value instead. I'm not try to copy any other vlog, I just approached it from "what would I like to watch" and I like well-produced vlogs. Thanks for linking to this Robert.
  • BTW, Im almost finished with "The Long Tail" and loving it.
  • We need a better source of vlog categories. Notice, for example, that all four "law vlog" hits on Google are misses (though one sounds vaguely close).
  • Robert,

    If you acknowledge there are a whole track of areas where there are no vlogs, why are you not investigating going into those areas with PodTech?

    All you ever seem to do is talk about hiring members of the "blogging illuminati" - those people who you most likely see at blogging conferences: Gillmor, Congdon, etc.

    Why not talk to movie studios about getting someone from a movie to do a vlog every day and show it with gratuitous advertising for the movie, do the same with a popstar. Why are you not trying to get vlogs by those sorts - where you'd get HUGE audiences to what you would get for a techie vlog?
  • Cider: I +am+ looking at the niches. Don't be confused about that. But, I am looking to hire the best people in each niche. The reason I care about Gillmor or Congdon is because they have audiences that can be used to springboard into other things.

    Why is Digg so popular? Well, a big part of it is Kevin Rose, who had an audience from TechTV.
  • ryanne
    there is a plumbing vlog:

    http://www.flushtv.blogspot.com/

    and a movie star vlog (daryl hannah)

    http://www.dhlovelife.com/
  • As a matter of fact, there IS a scrapbooking podcast (out since 06/2005), soon to go into vidcasts... I don't use the term vlog anywhere, so I guess I'd better work on my tags!
  • LayZ
    Dude you might want to consider using some other search words.

    For example "scrapbook video blog" turns up:

    ttp://www.kariandgina.com/downloads.html

    And you're the V.P. of a PodCasting company you say?

    of course in all fairness, these women call them Webisodes, so I guess "technically" they aren't podcasts cuz you can't download them.... Whatever... Don't blame me, I didn't tag the web site, they did. But, it does indicate how completely off your experiment could be.
    (This Cody kid may be on to something)
  • The question comes down to does the viewer care about the good or bad of it?

    I've watched a ton of stuff online that I would categorize as "bad," and yet they get tremendous coverage and views.

    That bad comment by Steve is just the usual "old" media" trying to remind everyone else how far above everyone else they are. The people, not the "professionals" will decide.
  • Crap, I just picked PayMeToBlog.com and figured I'd make crazy money creating video posts for people...

    (Making a note to ask Robert next time I buy a domain.)
  • Robert,
    Your Google searches are in quotes!

    For example, you searched for “learn German vlog?”

    and got nothing.

    If you try if without quotes you get 95,600 hits and my friend Clark oc Saturn's German Class Vlog comes up all over the first two pages:

    http://mygermanclass.com/

    IT IS HiLARIOUS! Especially Ubel Knubels Welt 1.
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