Working in Video? Mark Your Calendar for Sept. 9th

Will Richmond of the analyst firm/publication VideoNuze is putting together a cocktail party for anyone working on Internet video. It's September 9th, in Downtown Crossing. I'm going to try to stop by...

You can RSVP here.

Last night's MITX panel on Internet video

Last night's sold-out MITX panel, 'Internet Video: What's Next?', was a lot of fun... and a full house despite dire warnings of impending precipitation. (Which always get people in Boston agitated.)

In the audience was a big contingent of video folks from the Globe, at least one exec from Visible Measures, video analyst Will Richmond, blogger and consultant Cesar Brea, and lots of folks from PermissionTV, one of the event's sponsors.

I won't try for a comprehensive re-cap here, but we talked about three areas: how is viewing behavior changing on the Web; how are videos made and distributed, and how are they monetized and measured.

No one has yet solved the problem for the mainstream consumer of getting Internet video onto a TV. Mike Hirshland of Polaris Venture Partners said that it could wind up being the player who can most successfully do deals with cable companies -- a risky prospect for venture capitalists to bet on. He said he'd earlier invested in a company, Ucentric Systems, that tried to built a next-gen set-top box, but was about eight years too early.

The panel seemed to agree that story and content trump production values. Denise DiIanni of WGBH recalled that several years back, filmmakers working with 'Nova' resisted shooting on video and tried to stick with 16 millimeter film. But the audience didn't see the difference, and didn't care.

Hirshland said that pre-roll advertising is already dead, and that the ad formats that will win will be highly targeted, and allow the viewer to choose to engage with them, rather than forcing a viewer to sit through them.

Someone from the audience asked a great question about how Internet video will evolve. Right now, he said, we're treating it like TV -- but it'll likely turn into something different. Denise DiIanni of WGBH had a great reply, which is that Internet video allows for conversations between the creator of media and the consumer -- putting both on a level playing field.

Videoblogger Steve Garfield, sitting in the audience, showed us how he does liveblogging with his Nokia N95 cell phone. Using QIK, he streamed video while he was talking.

After the panel, I had an interesting chat with Cesar Brea, who said that an impending recession will likely force advertisers to get serious about Internet video, emphasizing solid measurement and accountability. IE, it may shift things more to a pay-per-click model, as opposed to pay-per-impression.

Finally, here are some of the clips that we showed and talked about at the start of the panel....

- Boston.com 'Office Invasion': Harmonix Music Systems

- WGBH: War Games

- Mike Hirshland's interview with Scott Kurnit

- Boston Celtics, from Boston.tv

- TMZ video of Tara Reid, hosted by Brightcove

- Dean Whitney from Digitas showed these videos, one in HD and hosted by BitGravity

Two Events on the Radar Screen...

Next Tuesday is an evening dedicated to Internet video, organized by MITX and featuring panelists from WGBH, Brightcove, Boston.tv, Polaris Ventures, and Digitas.

And next Wednesday is a "demo night" at Cambridge Innovation Center, focused on companies creating new kinds of information display technology. More info here, but you'll need to e-mail me for the top secret code to register. (As of yesterday, there are five spots left.)

Just one more video investment for General Catalyst

I was pretty sure I heard, at a recent panel I moderated, Larry Bohn of General Catalyst Partners say that the firm was done making investments in online video.

Well, maybe just one more... they've now put money into WonderHowTo.com, a Santa Monica based instructional video site. (Videos explain how to tie a Windsor knot, and also how to tie flies.)

Here's the NY Times story announcing the site's launch; it says that Cambridge-based GC is the primary backer, but doesn't disclose how much the firm put in. General Catalyst doesn't yet list WonderHowTo on its portfolio page.

The Bostonians behind BigThink, and a possible CNet takeover

The NY Times has two pieces of interest this morning...

- Former Harvard president Larry Summers and Nantucket Nectars co-founder Tom Scott are two of the investors backing BigThink, a new site that offers videos from well-known thinkers on topics like faith, truth and justice, and policy and politics. From the Times story:

“I’ve had the general view that there is a hunger for people my age looking for more intellectual content,” said Mr. Summers, who resigned as Harvard president in 2006 after making controversial comments about the lack of women in science and engineering. “I saw it as president of Harvard when I saw C.E.O.’s come up to my wife and want to discuss Hawthorne.” (His wife, Elisa New, is a professor of English at Harvard).

...“I tend to follow my own curiosities, and I know millions of people are like me,” said Mr. Scott. “I’m into this kind of thing. I do think there is a market for this.”

- And Boston VC firm Spark Capital is involved in an effort to take over San Francisco-based CNet Networks. From that piece:

The proxy fight is expected to shake up CNet, whose shares have underperformed the market and its competitors, leaving investors with a 19 percent loss over the last three years while other Internet-related companies grew. Over the same three-year period, the Interactive Week Internet Index rose 32 percent.

Wall Street analysts have not looked favorably upon CNet, either: only two of the 18 analysts that follow the company have buy ratings on its shares, according to Bloomberg.

The article says that Spark partner Santo Politi will likely be nominated to join the board of CNet.

Innovation Economy Video Series

Every week, I post a short video related to my Innovation Economy column in the Boston Globe. Here's the entire series, with the most recent at the top. (But it's a bit easier to see what each video is about if you use this bigger player.)

Solid lists of mobile and video start-ups around Boston

David Laubner runs the great local tech site 93 South. Two cool new postings there:

1. A list of video-related start-ups in the Boston area, including Brightcove, PermissionTV, Avid, and ExtendMedia. (David used to work at Gotuit, one of the video companies on this list.)

2. A list of mobile-oriented start-ups in the Boston area, which includes Enpocket, MobileLime, JumpTap, Skyhook Wireless, and the super-stealthy LocoMobile, funded by General Catalyst.

I think gaming is another area where there'slots of activity. Your next list, perhaps, David?