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After I enthused about how video blogging is about to take off, I’m obligated to take note of this Wired News article this morning about the potholes in the road ahead for video messaging. Blogs are everywhere and podcasting took off like a rocket when iTunes started listing them for free downloading. Video is on the brink, but it’s got some snags.
The aforementioned article points out that video is harder to pull off. Actually, for each step up in communication ladder you’ve got to add some skills. Writing and editing your thoughts is pretty straight forward. But when you record it for podcasting, it’s more like giving a speech. You’ve got to add some interest and zest with your voice. I get nervous and do more than my usual share of hemming and hawing. Fortunately you can edit a lot of that out. But when you’re doing video recording you can’t edit stuff out without obvious jumps. So with video you’re challenged to say something interesting, sound interesting, and look presentable…and get it right in one take. Each step tends to narrow the number of people who want to take it on.
Also right now the world of video is an absolute mess of hardware and software disconnects. There isn’t yet a common video file format. There’s at least three competing proprietary video formats. Moving video from one form to another and getting it up somewhere for showing can be a headache.
But you know what? Despite all that there’s going to be a rising tide of video used by many people for communication. The wide open opportunity that’s there and the urge of a lot of people to express themselves guarantees that the video trend will roll on. We’ll get past the current kluge "in the fullness of time," as they say.
