Video Conversations with Celebrities

The world of video conversations and the technology and business behind it all is evolving rapidly and in really cool ways. Video comments are showing up on high-traffic blogs such as Techmeme and Mashable. People are talking about what would make it easier for communities and individuals to use this stuff (channels, better threading, grouping of contacts) and some of them are digging in and building it. I expect that by the end of the summer the landscape will be more crowded but more interesting and more accessible. (At least to those with webcams. Go get one!)

Last week a few Seemic users (Mike, Dan, and Gia) who were doing business in Cannes for the annual film festival decided to try something new. They were able to bring the stars and forces behind the new Indian Jones movie to Seesmic to answer a few questions. I have to admit it was fun to see Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen and Shia LaBoeuf show up on Seesmic early one morning. Previously the author Deepak Chopra has had conversations with Seesmic users about the topics covered in his latest book, as well as just general chitchat about his book tour.

What would happen if a BIG star decided to hang out on Seesmic? With no handlers getting between a star and his or her fans? What would that look like- could it even work?

More likely Seesmic would use professional interviewers to moderate the conversation. Still, it would be conversation, with fans getting a chance to ask questions and hear answers directly from the star’s mouth. We’ve seen this done with limited success with text chat, but video makes it more personal. Imagine the thrill for a fan of the latest winner of American Idol knowing that he’s seeing and hearing her question, then responding? Having been a teenage girl, I can promise this’ll be big.

As always, the toughest issue is simply time. If you set up a 30 minute conversation, even if you put time limits on the individual posts, you won’t see too many people get a chance to participate. Also, as it exists now, Seesmic has no way to organize these conversations in a way that makes it easy to go back and watch later.

Using the technology but featuring the content elsewhere, or at least in dedicated channels or rooms, is probably where this is heading, but it’s not there yet. Soon, I’m sure!

(by the way- I met Jeremy Vaught, the man behind the official Seesmic blog, at PodCamp NYC 2 last month. Yesterday he called and asked if he could repost my recap of the session on Video Conversation that I did at PodCamp NYC. Of course!)