Streaming Media West 2006 Wrap-Up: User-Generated Content is Serious Business

Panelists also argued the merits of Adobe's Flash technology in this space. Andy Plesser, who publishes his video podcast through Google Video, asserted that Flash is a good solution because it is simple, ubiquitous, and cheap. He also noted the benefits of publishing to a web page to get the benefits of metadata and context for search engines. Other panelists agreed with those benefits, but pointed out a non-trivial shortcoming of the technology: its not available to iPods, Playstation, Windows Media Center, or Xbox.

"The cost to be at this party is very, very low. It's just not the way it was when people came to this conference years ago," Plesser said. "There are these free services. The tools are very simple (and) there's really no barrier to entry."

All the panelists agreed that ease and relevance of search will drive the future of online video; wherever viewers can easily find what they want is where they'll return. The bottom line to the success of podcasting and video blogging will be ease of distribution, availability on all platforms, and discoverability.

Consumer-Generated Video Communities
Led by ThinkJose.com pundit (and StreamingMedia.com contributor) Jose Castillo, this panel featured Revver.com co-founder and senior VP Oliver Luckett, Motionbox.com CEO and co-founder Chris O'Brien, Google Video product manager Hunter Walk, and Current TV online studio VP Smith Forte. Again, the first question to the panel was, "How do you make money?"

Luckett noted that viral videos and other one-hit wonders are currently making money. But to truly monetize on a consistent basis, content producers will have to build a brand, create serialized content, and create a community around their content. Ask a Ninja, Ze Frank, and Lonelygirl15 are all examples of this concept in action. Chris O'Brien of Motionbox agreed: "Just having the ability to create a player and upload user-generated content isn't enough."

The next steps toward making money in this space begin with ironing out copyright issues. Recent threats of legal action by the major movie studios against YouTube and others will need to be dealt with carefully. "New forms of participatory content will emerge," predicts Revver's Luckett.

Relevant, discoverable content will also be successful. The most popular overall content is often not what individuals are looking for. People want to know what's popular with their friends, family, and peers. Relational links are also important, according to the panel. The concepts of "next video" or "similar videos" are very important to keep eyeballs on the site.

Google Video's Hunter Walk noted that the burgeoning online video market was made possible by the increasingly lower cost of hosting and bandwidth. He asserted that content creators now need editing tools and monetization tools, as well as effective distribution channels. He predicted notable growth in the area of video for education and instruction.