Ready for the visual Web?

Are you ready for the visual Web?

It seems that it’s been forever since we were promised that the Web would one day mature into a more multimedia medium -- taking us into a new realm of video and audio that jostles the senses in ways that plain-vanilla text just can’t.

Hasn’t happened yet. Most of us are still firmly rooted in version 1.0 of the Web because of bandwidth constraints and the complexity of posting video.

But recent signs suggest that the barriers are slowly falling away.

Almost unnoticed, a cadre of two dozen video bloggers has sprung to life, with some active members, like Mica Scalin, posting regularly.

A Yahoo Group formed on Memorial Day is devoted to video blogging and now has 64 members. At the Democratic convention, Boston video blogger Steve Garfield produced eight video reports in an engaging display of citizen journalism. Raven, a one-person personal broadcasting network, webcasts news and events 24/7 from Daytona Beach, Fla.

The Digital Storytelling Association is looking for ways to post members’ digital stories in a global repository. Australian Briton Rob Wilks, who's deaf, took a stab at video blogging yesterday. Even blogger-author David Weinberger is giving video a whirl.

Jay Dedman of the Manhattan Neighborhood Network tells new members of the Yahoo Group that all they need is a camera, a way to get the video onto your computer, a simple editing program, a blog and a fast Internet connection.

That’s still a bit daunting. As Peter Van Dijck of Guide to Ease wrote Sunday:

When Mica [Scalin] goes to work or visits friends in Manhattan, she takes a small digital videocamera, and shoots video of anything that captures her attention. At night, she makes little movies and puts them on her Typepad blog. Mica is a videoblogger.

Videoblogging isn’t made easy for Mica though. After lots of practice it still takes her a while to post an entry. Most videobloggers use 3 or 4 different programs to create a post.

Still, the tools are getting easier. vBlog Central, a service out to simplify the process of posting video and audio to a blog, is rolling out version 1 of its software to a small group of alpha testers. Garfield, the Boston video blogger, tried it last week and gives it a thumbs up.

What everyone seems to agree on is this: The visual Web will not be television but a new media form that takes its shape from its Internet underpinnings. There won’t be one way of telling stories, creating short-form movies, or capturing real life.

In a few years, when high-definition camcorders come down to the consumer level, we’ll be awash in startling new forms of video vérité as a grassroots prairie fire in participatory visual media sweeps through the land. By then, the tools will be as easy as point, shoot, upload.

Is the multimedia Web ready for its closeup? It’s getting there.

Posted by jdlasica, August 9, 2004 07:30 PM | | TrackBack