You can subscribe to the show here.

The two of them helped raise the level of do-it-yourself special effects and consistently delivered a show that involved tons of long hours, learning new tools, and investing in themselves and their show.

Rudy was very clear that he would continue working on Galacticast, and I'm happy that he's been able to make that happen. Kneel before Zod!

Zadi and I know that they will both find success in their future projects, and we're glad that Galacticast will live on!

PGA SEMINAR - "PREPARING FOR THE INFINITE CHANNEL UNIVERSE"

DATE: November 10th
TIME: 10:00am to 4:00pm
LOCATION: CBS Radford Studios (4024 Radford Ave. Studio City, CA 91604)

PGA Members: No Charge
Non-Members: $50
Students w/ valid ID: $20

CONFIRMED PRESENTERS INCLUDE:
YouTube.com - Head of Product Marketing Jamie Byrne
Break.com - CEO Keith Richman
Broadcaster.com - CEO Martin Wade & VP of Marketing Robert Gould
Revver.com - VP of Marketing Angela Wilson Gyetvan
Metacafe.com - Founder Eyal Hertzog
Veoh.com - Founder Dmitry Shapiro
Zattoo.com - VP of Business Development Gagan Palrecha and VP of Content Ian Greenblatt
Brightcove.com - Director of Product Marketing Sanjay Desai

1ST PANEL: CASE-STUDIES FROM CONTENT-CREATORS
- Dan Harmon, creator of Channel101.com and Comedy Central's "The Sarah Silverman Program"
- Matt Price co-creator of Comedy Central's Guacamole.
- Douglas Sarine and Kent Nichols of Beatbox Giant Productions "Ask a Ninja"
- Steve Woolf and Zadi Diaz of Smashface Productions "Epic-FU.com"

2ND PANEL: DEALMAKING & THE FUTURE OF DISTRIBUTION
- Lydia Antonini: Director of Development at Warner Premiere
- Kevin Tidwell: Columnist/Blogger Allthings.tv
- Gary Bryman: VP Creative - Short Form Content The Walt Disney Studios
- Bruce Smith: Owner of Omnipop Management

SEMINAR PRODUCER & MODERATOR: Dan Abrams, Executive Producer at BodogTV and Writer/Director/Creator of the "Bif Naked Bride" webisode series.

RSVP: kyle [AT] producersguild [DOT] org

SCHEDULE:
9:00am - Coffee & Bagels / Networking
10:00am - 8 Companies' Presentations
12:30pm - Lunch / Networking (attendees may submit their written questions to our "question jar" for vetting)
1:30pm - 1st Panel : Case-studies from Content-Creators
2:30pm - 2nd Panel : Dealmaking & the Future of Distribution
3:30pm - Selected Q&A for panelists & presenters
4:00pm - Event ends / Networking

Seems like lately all Zadi and I have been doing is bitching about things. We bitch about the show, we bitch about business, we bitch about people on the street, you name it. Part of that is stress, part of that is burnout, and part of it is misplaced indignation about things that are not really important.

Tonight we went for a late night jog to clear our heads and get a little exercise. On the cooldown walk back, we started talking and, as usual, bitching about things. Then then strangest thing happened.

A van pulled up next to us and an elderly woman lowered her window. She asked if we could help her by picking up her husband, who had fallen out of his seat inside the van. Zadi and I looked at each other and considered the situation. There was no way we were going near that van without her opening the doors and turning on the lights.

When she slid open the van's side door, there was a little old man crumpled up on the floor. He had fallen off of his motorized chair. It was obviously not a threatening situation, so I stepped inside to see what I could do.

I'm 6'3", about 200 lbs, and this elderly fellow was probably half my size. After considering the best way to lift him without hurting him, I picked him up off the floor and put him back into his seat. He was was clearly humiliated by the situation. Imagine having to ask a perfect stranger, sweaty from jogging, 11:30 at night, to lift him up like a child and help him sit back down in his chair. I got him settled in, told him no thanks were necessary, and they drove off to destinations unknown.

I believe life is really about noticing the small things. There we were, a young couple with everything in the world going for us, and what were we doing? We were complaining, as usual. Well, that was it. If you believe in signs, there was none clearer that this one. Shut our stupid mouths. Our problems are nothing, they are meaningless. Almost anyone would trade positions with us. We felt like fools.

There will always be reasons to bitch about things. Someone not treating you right? Sucks. Bad luck? Man, I feel for you. But you know what? That's about as far as it should go. Because that stuff just circles right back to you and pollutes your thinking.

Tonight really helped me locate my focus. When we got back home a situation we'd been dealing with suddenly came into very clear focus. It is amazing how clear your mind can become when you simply decide to turn off the unnecessary noise.

In case you don't already know, Casey is co-creator, producer, and star of two current online shows, Galacticast and A Comicbook Orange. She's celebrating her two-year anniversary creating web shows. Congrats, Casey!

This evening we launched the newly redesigned Smashface company website and new company blog.

Our goals are to keep things simple and professional. In the next few months we have some interesting projects in development, and we felt like a company redesign was pretty long overdue.

Let me know what you think, if there's anything you think should be changed/improved, etc. The projects section will get filled out in the coming weeks with some nifty DHTML scrolls and project thumbnails.

Now, I don't really have any gripes with YouTube holding a contest that helps independent filmmakers. But I do have a rather serious problem with the way they are branding their contest. Just take a look at these two pages by clicking the thumbnails below:

This is not cool.

Further, the video intro they are using is very similar to the one that preceeded every screening at Pixelodeon and preceeds a number of videos created at the event for the Pixelodeon website. For comparison, the YouTube video is embedded first, then the Pixelodeon video underneath:

Now, the carnival-like pinwheel image we used for Pixelodeon in the background was from a stock image available on iStockPhoto.com, so it's not exactly rare. But I find it hard to believe that the YouTube designers were not aware of Pixelodeon, since we had a number of prominent YouTubers attend, and in fact we had an entire screening dedicated to YouTube (embedded above).

We created a strong brand, and YouTube appears to be "borrowing" concepts that can potentially create confusion between the two events. The chances are very remote that this is a coincidence. They even have a film projector "flicker" and grain imposed over their pinwheel video clip like the one Ryan Junell created for us for Pixelodeon.

I'll update this post when we figure out what we're going to do about it. Zadi has already reached out to YouTube to try and get some answers.

In talking over our business direction with Zadi tonight, I think it's really important that people who are working on building a business always set aside time each week to sit down and talk over where you're headed, if it still makes sense, and ask yourselves whether the things you're doing day in and day out support the larger mission.

It's funny that a couple of things we had not considered in the past for JETSET suddenly made an awful lot of sense in the larger context of the mission we're trying to develop at Smashface. These weren't any ideas that were terribly innovative, but we had not seriously considered them because we hadn't focused on the idea of what it is we are trying to build.

Our goal at Smashface is to be working on projects that span all forms of media and that don't conform to the traditional structure of entertainment. That's not to say it won't have a beginning, a middle, and an end, but that each of the arcs exists in a larger context, exists in the context of audience contribution, and that each media incarnation informs the other.

Speaking of new initiatives, we're going to work on being better bloggers. I'm going to try to post every day going forward. I'm sure I'll miss a day here and there, but I think it's important that I find a way to create a daily record of the things we think and talk about.

It is I, the Blog Neglector! I really need to start writing about some of the stuff that we've been doing! We are in some crazy times! Prepare for some horn-tooting, because, well, who the hell else is gonna do it?!

Yesterday we found out that JETSET, which we always called "the little show that could," is no longer such a little show. We surpassed 1,000,000 views for the month of September, which is a nice milestone.

That we have been able to sustain and grow JETSET is a major source of pride for Zadi and myself. Throughout the 16 months we've been posting JETSET shows on the web -- 80 as of next Monday -- we've always been proud that we have been able to make a malleable format that is always growing and changing.

And we are really only scratching the surface of the untapped potential of JETSET.

In the next few months, we will roll out a new website for the show, at least one spinoff show, a JETSET blog, and something I'll save for a surprise so as not to turn it into the proverbial jinx. We are also going to step up our production values big time.

There's not really any time to rest on our laurels because there is so very far to go. We have an industry to try and impact and an awful lot left to learn. Trust me, we have our eyes and ears open.

I always say that JETSET has flown under the radar of the people who keep tabs on the so-called prominent web shows that are out there. You won't find us mentioned in the Wall St. Journal, The New York Times, Techcrunch, BoingBoing, or any other mainstream publication or blog. Nope, we just keep making quality shows that take advantage of what the web has to offer. We cultivate a community of viewers that never ceases to amaze us with their passion and endless invaluable contributions. We find great people to work with like Rick Rey, Annie Tsai, Eric Rey, and Barrett Garese. Our friends pick us up when we need it, and we try and do the same for them. And we have never let anyone or anything stand in the way of the things that we know are right for us and for the show.

Never wait. Never ever. If there's something that needs to happen, go out and make it happen. Make them have to keep up with you, not the other way around.

Oh, and if you were one of the million-plus who watched in September, thanks!

Attention content creators: watch the video above and sing along!!!

It's pretty rare that a day passes by that I don't feel fortunate about being a content creator for the web at this moment in time. Perhaps at no other time in recent media history have content creators had as much say over what kind of content they can make, where their content goes, and how it gets distributed. And more importantly, we may have never had as much control of our own destinies as we do at this moment.

The future belongs to us if we fight for it!

Wow. I guess I knew it would happen eventually with all the gentrification in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. But the picture above is the sad sight that was formerly my home from 1998-2005. 140 South 4th St., Brooklyn, NY, 11211.

I feel strangely like crying for some reason. Maybe it's because it represents the last vestige of my old life in Brooklyn that I miss badly on some days. Ok, lots of days. The building was nothing special -- basically an old shell that my cheapo landlord renovated. I may have been the only tenant to occupy the second floor front space, because last time we were in New York we stopped by and it was empty then, too.

But it's special because Zadi and I renovated it by ourselves completely. 1500 sq. ft. of open space that we converted into six rooms. There's something special about building your own home with your bare hands. You leave part of yourself behind. Here's what it looked like when we finished our second round of renovations, circa 2002:

As they say, the only thing that's consistent in life is that everything changes. I'll pour one out when this building comes down. If anyone lives nearby, shoot me an email so I can stay posted on its demise...

Can anyone properly describe what might happen if we lost PBS in this ever-changing media landscape? The threat of losing PBS is a real one -- they truly do depend on the support of viewers like us. And we have tons of reasons to support them.

Zadi and I were tickled to be invited to the PBS Press Tour here in L.A. by the delightful Kristen Taylor the past three days. The Press Tour is basically where they gather TV critics for three weeks and all the networks come in and give them a taste of their new shows - PBS, HBO, NBC, and so on. They assemble panels with the producers and stars and the critics can ask them questions for an hour or so.

For PBS, it was a star-studded event with some amazing talent on display. On Tuesday we met and interviewed the brilliant Timothy Ferris who has a film called Seeing In the Dark about amateur astronomy and its impact on our lives, based on his own book. If you've never heard of Tim Ferris, he's written a dozen books and has had over 200 articles in The New York Times, as well as having the distinguished honor of being a producer of the Voyager record that was sent to the stars in the late 70's. That just scratches the surface of what this amazing person has done. Our interview with him will be on JETSET soon.

That same day we attended two other sessions. Wired Science is a new PBS show being produced with Wired Magazine designed to help us "...untangle complex research and introduce the high-tech mavericks defining 21st century culture and innovation." So cool. We got to meet and interview Ziya Tong, who is one of the hosts of the show.

Then we had the supreme treat of attending the Pioneers of Television session, which featured Dick Cavett, Tim Conway, Ed McMahon, Tony Orlando, and Betty White. So many amazing stars that we grew up with! They were completely charming and funny, and we got to hear a bunch of stories about the behind-the-scenes goings on that were wonderful. Richard Nixon was looking for a way "to screw" Dick Cavett and Jackie Gleason gave Tony Orlando a hell of a hard time on his first show, and that was just for starters.

After the session we got to go upstairs to the rooftop restaurant and hang out with these folks. We interviewed Ed McMahon, who is turns out is quite in touch with what's happening online. He was recently on Tom Green's show for July 4th, and he's rolling out his own online show called The Ed McMahon Show. You heard it here first! ;)

Yesterday in the morning there was a session with Carl Reiner and Mandy Patinkin about their new multi-part documentary film The Jewish Americans created by David Grubin (winner of two Peabody's and nine Emmy's!).

In the afternoon Ken Burns was talking about his new 7-part series called The War, a documentary in his usual grand scope and style about World War II.

Another session that day was for the upcoming NOVA special about the debate over "Intelligent Design." The judge in the landmark Dover, PA trial was onstage with an important witness and a local Dover teacher, as well as the series producers. Fascinating stuff. They mentioned a recent poll that indicated that 66% of registered Republicans reject the scientific theory of evolution. 35% of Democrats reject it, too. Sad and scary stuff.

By the way, did you know you can watch NOVA's shows, in their entirety, online and for free?

And finally we got to watch Carol Burnett talk onstage about the American Masters documentary that will premiere about her this fall. I have always been a huge, huge fan of Carol Burnett and it was a real treat to get to sit literally 10 rows away from her and listen to her talk about her life inside and outside of show business. But I was so disappointed to hear that she doesn't have a website!?

What this whole experience did for me was to really cement the notion that PBS's programming still can't be found anywhere else. Not with the same level of commitment to quality and substance. And no commericals, hello! We're all so bombarded with media now that it's easy to forget the things that make our lives interesting and important.

PBS reminded me, so thanks for that. Next time I see a pledge drive on TV, consider me a member for life.

I've been inspired by Chris Brogan's prolific blogging. It seems like he's always able to ask interesting questions and make good observations, even though I don't always have the same conclusions. But that's ok, because it's the doing that matters most, and it's the doing that I respect the most.

So I'm going to take the next few minutes to jot down some thoughts. I've given up on the day-to-day blogging thing, since it's just not me. But there are a lot of things I've wanted to talk about and this is supposed to be my outlet.

In the past couple months we've won a Webby Award for JETSET, launched MIX, JETSET's amazing community site, organized Pixelodeon with the inspiring Jay Dedman and Ryanne Hodson, and asked Rick Rey to join the team and take a big role in our future. And that barely scratches the surface on what is actually going on behind closed doors.

What's interesting is that with all the incredible opportunities we've been presented, we are still very much on the brink of failure. We are also on the brink of extravagant success, too. Seems like we've been teetering on that fence for longer than I care to remember. I'm not really good at managing the middle ground -- I prefer to be at a full stop or at full speed ahead. The in-between space makes me feel stagnant and wasteful.

That makes this time disproportionately long and painful for me. I'm finding myself getting overly aggressive with decisions in the effort to move decisively in one direction (preferably forward toward success). It's become something of a daily ritual to remind myself that this is the time I will look back upon with wistful memories of the struggle to establish ourselves and an industry. It's really not that attractive a thought, frankly. I used to be a real romantic, embracing the image of the individual, the artist, soldiering on against the tides, waging a war with the ignorance of the establishment, blah, blah blah.

So over that shit.

Now I want partners that know how to get shit done. The days of the lone individual fighting the good fight seem corny, childish, and self-serving. Partners are everything. A good partnership can lift you both to new heights, and a bad one can plop a giant shit sandwich on your plate with no choice but to take a big bite.

The most important thing I've learned from the past two years is how to select partners and what to look for when you know you need help. Above all the obvious things like action vs. inaction, decisiveness vs. stagnation, and so forth, the quality I look for most of all is a perspective that is different from mine, but not totally different. What I mean by this is a partner who shares the same ultimate goal, but who can show you and teach you a new way to get there, or a new way to look at the same situation.

What do you look for in a partner?

Lan Bui is a friend of mine and he produces a wonderful videoblog that I rarely miss called Noodlescar. When he told me about the situation he was going through with Podtech several weeks ago, I was pretty surprised. If you're not up to speed, Lan's blog post will get you there in a hurry. To sum it up quickly, Podtech used a photograph of his (pictured at right) in a poster promoting The Vloggies at SXSW. Lan originally published this photo on Flickr under a Creative Commons license, so someone from Podtech took his photo and used it for commercial purposes without compensating him, which in turn also violated his usage license.

I've met John and Linda Furrier a couple of times and found them to be intelligent, charming folks. Robert Scoble is a very prominent blogger and an important member of the tech community, and is always responsive to people. I don't know any of the other higher-ups at Podtech, and I don't deal with them for business on any level. Some of my colleagues in the videoblogging world such as Irina Slutsky, Eddie Codel, Ryanne Hodson, Jay Dedman, Oscar Grimm, Tanja Andrews, and Bill Streeter have content partner and/or employment contracts with Podtech. There are others, but I know these folks the best.

I think the most alarming thing about Lan's issue is the disrespect paid toward Creative Commons licenses. It's one thing to be dismissive of a single individual, as wrong as that is. It's another to knowingly violate a license that we have all sacrificed a lot to support. Jon Phillips's keynote at Pixelodeon showed me as much.

So what is so hard to understand about this issue from Podtech's perspective? Ok, you used something you shouldn't have. It's not the end of the world, we've all done it at some point or another. But when you're called on it, you do the right thing and spare yourselves the shitty PR. Duh. It's a business move. Better to pay Lan a few hundred bucks for his photo than start seeing blog posts like this one, which damages your credibility with content creators. No amount of money will get that back for you.

Maybe they don't care about content creators. Then I could understand flaunting a licensing violation for this long without proper compensation. I sure hope that's not the case. We all need companies like Podtech to succeed at what they do, but apparently they are not even responding to Lan's continued inquiries at the present time.

Please blog about Lan's situation so we can demonstrate that this community must be taken seriously. It could be any of us in this position, so let's make our voices heard.

Veracifier is a political videoblog I wish I had the experience and knowledge to create myself. I wanted to give it a few weeks to see where it goes, and it just keeps getting better and better.

Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo has joined up with Next New Networks to put out a daily show that breaks down the statements of politicians in the media, shows the sources they are using in their statements, and offers commentary based on an independent assessment of the actual resource.

From the blog associated with the show:

TPM Media are a new kind of journalist outfit; the kind that wears its independence on its sleeve and has an army of thousands of readers and contributors helping them get to the root of a story. Over the past months, for instance, TPM doggedly pursued and published information on the US Attorney scandals, and simply put, owned the story, as admitted by no less than the LA Times.

Josh Marshall is a real person offering straight commentary. To me, shows like Veracifier are the future of political commentary. I'm so sick of tv pundits that I tune out immediately. This is something I've been waiting for. Wth the presidential election getting into full swing this summer, it's a very refreshing new resource.

Veracifier also shows Alive in Baghdad:Uncut on Fridays. From their blog:

When we began looking for unique perspectives to be part of the programming here on Veracifier, Brian Conley and the Alive in Baghdad team were the first people we called. We've been avidly following their work since we first came across them last year, and when we began to hear some of the stories about how some of their reports were made, it seemed that there was a rich vein for a project together.

If you haven't seen it, Alive in Baghdad is simply one of the finest examples of progressive media on the Internet. It's a weekly videoblog produced by a team of Americans and Iraqi correspondents on the ground which brings testimonies from individual Iraqis and footage of daily life in Iraq.

The Veracifier site is still working out some kinks, but the show itself is way above par. Check it out.

Important links in this blog post:
Veracifier
Talking Points Memo
Alive in Baghdad

Disclosure: JETSET has a licensing and distribution partnership with Next New Networks.

Lately I've twittered a few links to my Flickr pictures titled, "At This Moment." The wonderful immediacy of communication on the web lets me share those moments with our friends. There's been so many immediate moments versus reflective moments in the past few months that sometimes I have to stop and remind myself to take a look around, see where I'm at, and make sure the ship is pointed in the right direction.

Zadi's recent blog post got me thinking about how to evaluate the past few months. I really liked Tim Shey's comment on Zadi's post that the reason some videobloggers are so hard to define is because they are really artists. At the beginning of any industry it's always the artists who set the tone, and it is the artists who show the way for others to follow.

Smashface is six weeks into its second production now, this one for Cyworld, the social networking site. We were very lucky to be able to partner with Next New Networks to give JETSET a stable base and a supporting team, and for now it looks like we will continue to work on a show-to-show basis to find the right partner for each concept. I really like the flexibility of this approach, and it keeps Smashface small and agile.

Building Smashface is going to be a multi-pronged approach. We will be doing niche market shows like JETSET, consulting/production gigs like Cyworld, and large-scale immersive entertainment produced in partnership with major studios. At the moment I'm only planning about six months down the road. In my opinion, it's unwise to plan beyond that for danger of filling the cement buckets around our feet. In the online world where things shift on a weekly basis, you have to be ready to adjust your thinking, pick up your feet, and march in a different direction. Being fast is far more important in this world than being big.

This is the third online business I've been a part of building. The first was with a company called NetCreations, a web 1.0 marketing company where I was lucky to be exposed to the business savvy of Rosalind Resnick and the marketing and programming smarts of Ryan Scott at a very young age. The second was with VisualMax, where I spent the past 3 years working with Steve McBride handling clients large and small, and also delegating authority.

Zadi and I—the artists—are the ones on whom the responsibility now falls for heading a company and doing the strategic planning. We have a lot of help with the latter from UTA, who we signed with back in December. The team is everything, and we feel very fortunate to be where we are right now.

So where are we? That was really the point of this blog post. Despite some misplaced energy (understandable), some financial pressures (expected), and some road bumps (unexpected), it seems to me like the choices we have made have been the right ones. What's interesting is that to reach a certain point you have to work like you have never worked before, until you push yourself so hard that you find out you can do things you never thought you were capable of. And once you get to that point, the "foot in the door" so-to-speak, you have to forget about everything you have accomplished and re-double your efforts to continue moving forward.

It's that re-doubling of your efforts when you're already at the brink of exhaustion that can really knock the shit out of you if you're not ready for it. That's where you find out if you can really persevere, where you really get to know who you are and where your limits are. The trick is just to stay focused. It's very easy to let things start unraveling and allow all that work go to waste. Maintain your perspective on things. Once you realize that life will go on and the sun will rise the next day no matter what happens, it's much easier to see things for what they are. That, to me, is the very definition of focus.

For a few days over the past week I think I lost focus, but today is a new day and I feel like the ship is pointing in the right direction. You work on building that ship until it is strong enough to withstand any manner of rough seas, and sometimes it just takes a little more time in dry dock than you want. You know, in re-reading that last sentence, I think George Carlin said it best when he wrote, "People who speak in metaphors should shampoo my crotch."

See? Focus.

Got some pretty exciting news the other day -- the show we've been doing for the past nine months, JETSET, has been nominated for a Webby Award in the Music/Variety category of Online Film & Video. We were also mentioned in one of their press releases.

If you like the work we've been doing, it would be a really great thing for us if you'd take a couple of minutes and register on their site to vote for JETSET for the People's Voice award.

The Webby Awards have been called "the Oscars of the Internet" by The New York Times. While it would be a really great thing to say that JETSET is a Webby Award winner, awards are bad things to look at from a personal perspective. There's been a lot of talk about the fees that the Webby Awards charges businesses to enter their work for consideration. Let's just say it ain't cheap.

We paid to enter because it was a smart business decision for the future of the show. For us, it was worth the fee to get our show in front of influencers and people whose work we admire on the judging panel, even if we never got nominated. Turns out we were very fortunate and made it past some 8000+ entries this year to be one of the nominees. Very, very cool.

Even if we don't win, we've already turned our entry fee into hugely disproportionate gains in exposure and audience. So while I can understand why people grumble about the cost, if you look at it as an investment in your show or website it's relatively cheap.

The Webby Awards are a large event -- maybe the biggest in the online world. We feel fortunate to be a part of it. Even if we don't win our category, it would be great to get that People's Voice Award. Hint, hint!

We're really happy to announce that Smashface has signed a licensing and distribution deal with Next New Networks for JETSET! This deal will give JETSET a stable platform for at least the next twelve months, and it will allow us to focus our energies on thinking of new ways to interact with our audience and make great content.

Zadi and I have known Tim Shey for a few months, but it seems a lot longer -- he's one of the founders of NNN. They were a sponsor of the Halloween Videoblog Festival last year, and at that party I got a chance to talk with Tim about what they were planning on building with NNN. I liked the things I was hearing, such as how they were focused on niche content, identifying audiences around which they could build networks of their own new shows, and creating an infrastructure that allows content creators to be free of worrying about platforms and distribution models. Seemed like a pretty smart approach to us.

We also liked that there were people at the helm of the company that had serious experience building and growing media companies. Herb Scannell and Fred Seibert basically built MTV, Fred built Frederator Studios, and Herb was president at Nickelodeon Networks. For some people in the online world I think there is a certain fear about working with companies with top people who come from mainstream media. That thought crossed our minds, as well.

When the Channel Frederator Awards were held here in L.A. in January, we got to spend an afternoon with Tim to talk much more in-depth about NNN's plans. We could see that they were not approaching this thing as if they had all the answers. They knew that there were going to be hurdles to cross and things to figure out, and they seemed to be genuinely interested in hearing criticism. A year of planning had gone into NNN, and in that time Channel Frederator had become a really fun show that we were watching regularly. This allowed us to get a sense for how they might approach their other shows.

Zadi and I had been thinking about the future of JETSET since it first rolled out the door. We knew we had something that could really reach a wide audience and break boundaries in terms of audience interaction, but time and money were always an issue. I was working a full-time job until January, and we did not want to be in a position where we were going to miss opportunities.

After talking to Tim, it seemed quite plain to us that we were thinking in very similar ways about building online shows and making them as interactive and engaging as they could be. They were calling them "networks," but they are really just groups of shows that serve the same audience with niche content. This is what we wanted to do with JETSET eventually -- build a network of teen shows with JETSET as the hub. Zadi had been hatching that idea since last June.

We presented the idea to Tim of making JETSET a part of Next New Networks, and things came together very quickly with the help of Barrett Garese at UTA. Even though it's their clearly stated mission to build new shows, I think we could all see the potential of placing an established show like JETSET into the infrastucture they had already built since we seemed to have such similar plans. So it made very natural sense for all of us that way.

Zadi and I have a very steep task ahead of us -- to be one of the first shows to try and figure out how to engage viewers on primarily mobile devices. Some 60+% of JETSET viewers watch on their phones, iPods, or PSP's. We're really glad to have the support behind Smashface to help JETSET solidify and grow while we all work on developing this industry. And we're excited about the possible opportunity to help NNN develop shows around JETSET eventually.

These are interesting times. :)

While doing on location shoots for a new show we're working on, we shot an episode of JETSET in New Orleans.

It's an amazing place, literally infused with history and culture. And ghosts. Some strange things have happened to us since we walked through the narrow back streets of New Orleans. Makes you wonder sometimes.

Sadly, the 9th ward in New Orleans is all but a dead zone in some areas. A few places have come back, some restaurants for example, but it's an incredible sight to see all these homes wiped out and standing there a wreck eighteen months after Hurrican Katrina. It's infuriating, actually.

Brings back some thoughts from the karmagrrrl days: Wake Me Up When September Ends.

1. When something happens, even something important, writing a blog post is really, really far from my mind.

2. Ultimately, I'm a very private person. I enjoy opening up to a close-knit group of friends, but beyond that it takes a while for me to trust people. Most people are surprised when I say this, but it's true.

3. I love the idea of an online repository of someone's person and professional history, but I'm scared by it. For example, tons of people with whom I have close business relationships are now on Twitter. No way I can feel comfortable expressing my honest thoughts knowing that they could be misinterpreted. I post twitters very rarely these days.

4. The things that have gone on with Micki Krimmel and Kathy Sierra are alarming to me. I work with my wife, who is a well-known Internet personality. Any more sharing than is absolutely necessary makes me nervous.

5. I'm mean. Yup, I said it. I can be very direct (as Zadi constantly reminds me) and my natural tendency is toward impatience. A lot of the time I might say things that are too blunt, and it's way too much work to censor myself. So it's easier to just shut the hell up. If I don't like you, you probably know it, and it's probably for a good reason.

Ok, I've neglected this blog something awful. In fact, I never ever wrote any of the posts I'd intended to. I see a list of topics on a sticky on my desktop related to online video content issues, and instead I've been posting sad little updates and personal promotions. Tsk, tsk.

Worse, I've neglected myself and my friends lately. When exactly did things get this busy?

3/19 - 3/22 Atlanta
3/22 - 3/25 New Orleans
3/26 - 3/27 Los Angeles
3/28 Fresno, CA
3/29 San Francisco
3/30 Reno
3/31 - 4/6 Los Angeles
4/7 - 4/8 San Francisco
late April - New York for a week at some point

We begin production on our second show this week, and it's a doozy as you can see from the schedule above. I'm concerned about getting off-track. There are several really important ideas and concepts that are not getting the attention they should, and that stuff is really our future. But one step at a time, I suppose. I've just never quite been good at that approach...

I recently got word from my friend Chris Brogan that he and Jeff Pulver had not received as many video submissions for the Network2 contest as they anticipated, considering how much goddamn money they are giving away.

Are you folks just not aware of the contest? We're talking about $25,000 for first place, $10,000 for second, and $5,000 for third. And they have not received a lot of videos? Um, someone has a good chance of racking up some serious dough here. Just wanted to let you know that. If we had time, we would be on top of this thing.

Here are some details from the contest page:

We're looking for inspired producers to create an episode of their Internet TV show or post a videoblog or make a clip that shows people "How to Watch Internet TV." We want to drive awareness of your work, as well as the medium as a whole. If you can mention Network2 in your submission, that'd be even better, as we believe Network2.tv is a great site to answer the question, "What do you want to watch on the Internet today?"

Record your episode or clip, send us a pointer to where we can find it, and if you would, post a link to Network2 in the show notes. Submit to us before 11:59PM on March 9, 2007, and you'll be entered into the contest. Finalists will be announced March 16th, and the prize will be awarded on March 20th at Spring 2007 Video on the Net in San Jose, California.

You do NOT have to be on Network2 to enter. But if you are producing an Internet TV show and would like to be reviewed and mentioned on Network2, please add your show here.

GRAND PRIZE: $25,000.00 US
SECOND PRIZE: $10,000.00 US
THIRD PRIZE: $5,000.00 US

These guys are risking their lives and the lives of others to get the word out about this thing. Submit a video before they kill someone, please.

Network2.tv/contest

Since the Halloween Videoblog Festival turned out so great last fall, we're doing another event in L.A. with awesome people like Jay Dedman, Ryanne Hodson, and Irina Slutsky. This time it's all about the content and all about the artists. Online video has arrived, and there's no better way to call attention to that fact than by showing off what we can do.

From the website's About page:

Pixelodeon is a screening festival recognizing innovation, independence, and community in global online video. It is a bridge between independent artists and traditional media founded to showcase the work and ideas that are forging the future of entertainment and information.

It's all about the content. On June 9-10 in Hollywood, California, at the American Film Institute (AFI), curators will screen videos according to themes outlined by them and by the community. Attending creators will take part in an onstage discussion with the curator, and will be able to share their experience with the audience.

Web content creators represent a powerful new force in media, and the mainstream has taken notice. Pixelodeon will bring the two together to share knowledge, to discover common goals, and to build relationships.

We will announce more details very soon, and we really want to hear from everyone in the community about how to do this event as well as we can. So we set up a wiki for everyone to make suggestions and sound off.

It's going to be an awesome time, hope you can be there!

Threadbanger is a new show about DIY fashion made by a couple of cool cats I got the chance to meet at the Channel Frederator Awards last month here in L.A., Rob and Corinne.

I really enjoyed the first two episodes, even though I don't consider myself a fashionista in any way, shape, or form. But I always like to see people doing things themselves, and the fashion industry is ripe for a smackdown. Anything that knocks people off their high horse by showing how to do the same thing in your garage gets my vote.

Threadbanger is also one of the first new shows put out by Next New Networks, a startup that is focused on developing niche web shows. Threadbanger is a nice effort -- the site has plenty of features, including the ability to register and upload your own videos for inclusion in future shows. Nice.

My only gripes at this point would be the video quality, which needs to be better, especially for a show focused on something as visual as fashion. And I don't see a way to get the show on a Windows Media Center PC to watch on television. For something like Threadbanger, which is a medium-length format, I can picture a lot of people wanting to watch on their televisions. Maybe TVTonic could help out. Also, I tried to embed the player in this post, but it surrounded the video with heavy white borders on the right and bottom, which is offputting. I replaced the player with a screenshot linked to the site.

Here's a direct link to the show's feed.