A lot of people have been using the terms videoblogging and video podcasts interchangeably. There are no hard and fast rules, but members of the Yahoo! videoblogging list had some thoughts on the topic today.
Steve Garfield: “When some people first look at videoblogging they just see videos on web pages. It’s more than that. This group, comments, emails and links have brought together people from all over the world with similar interests, and relationships have formed between us. It’s the power of blogs combined with video that is making something new and exciting happen here.”
Bill: “This is what I see emerging. A video podcast is something that can be watched outside of the context of it’s original blog posting, or it might not have anything to do with a blog — it could just be video on an RSS feed that is listed and subscribed to from some directory somewhere and the interaction between the audience and the podcaster more mimics traditional media because the normal feedback loop that is part of a blog is not important or is broken or discarded all together — like traditional media, it’s basically one way communication. It’s also video encoded in such a way to be compatible with the iPod.
A video blog is video on a blog that can be aggregated via rss, like a podcast, but also offers all the interaction and additional contextual information of a traditional blog. And can really be encoded in any video format.”
Jay Dedman: “I see iTunes and other commercial platforms creating video stores that let you download video. The video is only available from their site…and is a one-way medium. In iTunes, if your videoblog is in their directory, there is no link back to your post. I can download it, and that’s it. This is a cool service becasue i may want the latest episode of ‘Lost,’ and there it is, $2. But i cant tell that pretty actress how i feel about her. iTunes and other services don’t help me learn how to videoblog myself.
“I love the term videoblogs because it recognizes the coolness of the blogging community. “Blog” to me brings to mind all the positive, empowering things that have emerged in the last 5 years. I post a video and it adds value to the whole web. My video is link-able, search-able, archive-able, subscribe-able. I leave a comment on your video. I can download your video, remix it, and send a trackback to you. This is what has made blogging so powerful.
“I love that iTunes has gotten into the mix. Let them have “podcast” or “video podcast.” They are helping people learn a new metaphor for finding and getting video/audio. RSS is not the easiest to explain. iTunes helps people SEE how RSS works in something they already have. In the next year people will start looking around, they’ll leave the iTunes store and see what else is in the neighborhood. They’ll come party with us. The videobloggers.”
Nicely said.
JD Lasica, founder of Inside Social Media, is also a fiction author and the co-founder of the cruise discovery engine Cruiseable. See his About page, contact JD or follow him on Twitter.
Nice excerpt from the current discussion.