This past weekend the NY Times did a story on the active web video scene in New York City (as a part of the geek nightlife world.) Follow the links for the story and a slide show to better understand what I’m talking about, but here’s a bit from the feature:
A debate about what to call the Web video business quickly broke out.
“I look at the term ‘Internet TV’ as the same thing as ‘vegetarian chicken,’ ” said Mr. Smooth, explaining that Web video is a new art form that should not be compared to the stale stuff flowing from television sets.
Someone else suggested “video blogs” or “Web shows.”
“Webcasting!” said another panelist. Standing near the bar during the discussion was Dina Kaplan, a founder of blip.tv, a distributor of Web shows and the organizer of yet another regular gathering, the Founders Club.
“There are different scenes within the scene,” Ms. Kaplan said. “This is the video geek content scene, the crowd that used to be text bloggers.”
I know or at least have met quite a number of the people in the story and slide show. I won’t bother dropping names because most of my readers either know who I’m talking about or won’t recognize them at all.
Bill Cammack, NYC video guy, and me
When I graduated from college a generation ago, communications degree in hand, video editing my skill, the options were limited, and I went in another direction. I thought maybe at some point in the future I’d have the $25,000 to buy my own rig and setup. Who knew it would someday cost under $1000 to produce professional quality video and distribute it over some interweb tube thingies?
Video will probably always be just a hobby for me, but it is such fun to see the vitality and freedom these creators have, out from under corporate control! We’re starting to see the entertainment industry become something completely new, and these are the people making that happen. This is the future of mainstream entertainment.
Thanks to the influence of my grandfather, a NY Giants turned NY Mets fan, I never considered rooting for the other NY team. The Mets of the mid-1970s were my team, Tug McGraw my favorite player. I saw my first major league game at Shea, against the Atlanta Braves and new homerun king Hank Aaron. The stadium had such a mid-century modern feel to it, with those blue and orange rectangles decorating it’s exterior.
As the team dove down into the bottom of the standings in the late 1970s, I remained a fan. I was a young teenager and to be honest it wasn’t so much about the game (although I did still love the sport) but more about the cute players. My friend Anne and I would get our dads to take us to a few games each year. We’d arrive for batting practice and flirt with the players as they came over to sign autographs. We stalked the player parking lot hoping for a glimpse, guessing which car belonged to which player. 
Plurk is quite different, and doesn’t have some of the basic functionalities that I’ve used on Twitter, such as SMS & tracking. But then, Twitter doesn’t have those functionalities lately either.
When I first log into Plurk in the morning I click on the drop down box on the lower right side of the timeline. I look at “only my plurks” to see if anyone has replied to them overnight, and then I check “only private plurks” for replies as well. If there’s a specific topic I’m interested in I might do a search using the recently added search function. I can also search for my username in case I popped up in conversation while I was gone 
. Finally I go back to “friends and my plurks” (which annoys me grammatically but whatever…)
If my friends have been especially prolific overnight I go ahead and click Mark all as Read in the box on the lower left. But if the number isn’t too large I’ll scroll back through the past and click on threads that look interesting.
First, let me say that the use of the term “cliques” for groups is evidence to me that Plurk was not created for business.
Karma is awarded, and taken away, in Plurk depending on your usage. No one seems to fully understand the algorithm used, and a lot of people would love to see Plurk do away with Karma completely. Some even refuse to use the service because of it. The main issue appears to be that Karma is tied to features such as new smileys and the ability to change your username.
Plurk is not Twitter. It isn’t possible to keep up with hundreds of friends on Plurk. Of course, like all services, not all of the people you friend will actually post. But I’ve found it useful to only friend people who I know from elsewhere, adding new people as I get to know them. I don’t automatically accept friend requests from strangers.
