Vancouver International Digital Festival

Online Communities Taking Over Television?

Ah, yes, the age old question, or at least the one that’s been thrown around since the inception of the internet: Is television (as we know it) dead?

While online content and those fancy LCD monitors creep slowly, but surely, into our living rooms, I don’t believe TV is dead, nor do I believe that it is dying.

Current.tv is a global television network that gives you, the user, the opportunity to create and influence the content that airs on television - citizen journalism and participatory news at its best. It’s a great example of how these 2 worlds of television and the online medium can intersect, coexist, influence and ultimately support one another.

Current was partly created by the man once infamous for not winning a Presidential election, now more recognized (thankfully) as a global hero for helping save the planet: Mr. Al Gore. Current is the first of its’ kind (well, technically, ZeD was *first*) where the contributors influence the content. They not only influence it, they shoot, write, direct and produce the material. Viewer-created content makes up a third of the channel, and that number will only get bigger.

Just how powerful and influential is this amateur video coverage? Well, look at Hurricane Katrina as an example. In New Orleans, there were more citizens on the ground recording and covering the events over 2 days before any major broadcasters could get on the scene. So you’re in the right place at the right time, fair enough, but “crowdsourcing” is becoming a faster and more efficient way to cover world events - and just like reality TV moved into primetime slots and pushed the “dramatic TV series” to the Friday night 9pm time slot, who is to say that user-generated content will not become the most watched form of entertainment on television, just as it has spread on the internet?

That’s what Vancouver company NowPublic is all about, and they’ve got the Associated Press backing them and seeking use of their community content - covered, shot and posted by you, the user.

The quality that these 2 companies provide us with is top notch. The work is produced professionally and extremely well, and it definitely is not the less than mediocre entertainment (crap) that’s out there on the internet.

Is TV dying? Of course not. Maybe we should ask Steve Jobs, a pretty substantial contender for changing how we watch and get our television fix. Apple TV will be a heavy hitter for changing the way we get our content. This aspect is technologically driven, yes, and this IS Steve jobs - online communities and geeks of the world will be testing it, wanting it, needing it, writing and blogging about it, talking about it, consistently, all online. So in that realm, it may not “take over”, but the online world will play a signifigant role in bringing the internet to TV, and back again, all to you in your comfy slippers on your sofa.