In November 2003, I put up my first blog post: "Old dogs & New tricks." I had not a clue how my life was about to change. Maybe I should call this one: "Older dog. Newer trick."
I am about to become a video blogger. As of today, it is my main gig.
I'm joining Robert Scoble at FastCompany.TV. My show will be called GlobalNeighbourhoods TV (GNTV). I'll be covering social media's impact on culture and business. I hope to speak with people from all over the world, people in start ups and in the enterprise, people who are changing the world or are being changed by what is happening. While my primary focus will be business, I'll also look at government, academia, education, youth and assorted institutions.
GNTV premiers March 3, the same day as Scoble TV. Between now and then, starting tonight at the DEMO conference, I will be interviewing people for my new program. Beyond that, I'm looking for people everywhere who can address any aspect of social media's impact on culture and business. If you think you can help, please email me.
It's going to be great to once again to work with Robert Scoble. Naked Conversations is the child of the best professional collaboration I've had. Scoble is an online video pioneer who has twice opened my eyes and imagination to its incredible potential.
The first time was when we were working on the book. Robert's day job at Microsoft was to walk around with a video camera, talking to geeks about their jobs. The result showed how video could find and extract humanity where none was perceived to exist.
Then he did it again last week at Davos. Holding a tiny Nokia in his hand, we could watch him chat with significant makers of contemporary history.
Scoble's video is the opposite of what broadcast TV news has always been. I was a newspaper reporter in the 60s when I saw my first mobile TV news van intrude onto a news set. I was interviewing a politician in a parking lot, when the van halted about six feet from us, lights shining on us. Out stepped some guy in a suit and tan followed by an entourage of sound, lighting and even a makeup technicians.
Even I could feel the excitement. I wondered if newspaper reporters would soon be obsolete. I knew I could write well about events. I could tell you what it was like to have been there. I could write circles around this suit with a tan. But that camera.That camera could actually show you what it was like and I simply could not beat that with mere written words.
It didn't turn out that way. It might have but it did not. Broadcast news was to intrusive to the scenes that it covered. It's very presence changed the event. A reporter with a spiral notebook and a Bic pen just walked in where news was happening. The scene changed little or not at all.
Not so with the TV camera. It's arrival changes the scene. Real people stop conversing and they start performing. The camera became the event.
Now comes online video. Video reporters hold tinmier less obtrusive tools. We shoot in natural light. Our microsphones do not resemble construction site equipment. We don't cover our wrinkles because you'll probably miss them on the tiny screens where we will be viewed.
We are bringing reality back into video, at least in many cases. We are more like the reporter of my youth than the TV guy. But we add yet another asset. We don't intrude on the scene but we participate in it. We use our cameras to extend it. To let others who are geographically seperated participate and as I am about to demonstrate, almost anyone can do it. Some of you already do. More of you will.
For Scoble and me, this is still about Naked Conversations and I am extremely excited about the possibilities.
Wish me luck.
