The digital revolution has given way to exposing the world to many great things. But there has also been various negative events exposed to the light of day thanks to the growing number of devices that can capture digital video. For instance, the Abu Ghraib prison scandal was exposed due to personal digital cameras. The only footage of the 2004 Asian tsunami was captured by tourists via home video cameras and the London train bombings were documented via cell phones.

The convenience of digital video has even spawned a new human rights group called Witness, which is based in New York. Gillian Caldwell, executive director of the group says, "images have more resonance" which explains the group's motto: "See it. Film it. Change it." Right now they have over 3,000 hours of footage of human rights abuses and they are hoping to create a YouTube like site for human rights. Caldwell said rights groups are increasingly harnessing the "power of images and human stories to motivate change." All thanks to the democratization of digital video.

In the growing trend of Hollywood embracing Videobloggers, an Observer article talks about the Hollywood courtship of the biggest videoblogger, Ze Frank. "The Show" is part of my morning ritual but in March, Ze will stop his morning newscasts as he had planned. There have been a lot of talk of what he might do next. According to the article, Ze says feature film will be his focus, though he will "never ditch the web." The article also provides some insight into his daily ritual.

At the World Economic Forum on Saturday, Bill Gates forecast the demise of television in five years with the increasing popularity and greater flexibility of online video. "I'm stunned how people aren't seeing that with TV, in five years from now, people will laugh at what we've had.." While not exactly an earth-shattering prediction, it is still brave to suggest that TV will be irrelevant. While there is certainly something of a benefit to be had in being able to choose viewing content on the internet, there is still a gap to be bridged between traditional television and online video. In addition to this, online content needs to mature before it can "take over" television, and Download Squad makes a good point in saying that a "convergence device" (read: something like the Apple TV) will be needed to really merge internet video and TV. But then again, there is also the issue of bandwidth. So, maybe it's not that simple... what do you think? What will become of television over the next five years?

Select Sundance short films have started to make their way online for viewing, and today several of those have trickled into the iTunes Store for purchase. The free shorts can be streamed directly from the official Sundance website, and the seventeen download-to-own (warning: iTunes link) versions are available for just $1.99 each. There are just over 45 total shorts available, so that should keep any prospective viewers busy for a while... And don't forget about the official Sundance podcast, which is freely available for subscription in the iTunes Store.

Hungry Flix is a new distribution venture for independent video creators and filmmakers. This free service allows users to upload original videos and set their own prices on their work, with 60% of all profits going directly to the original creator. Although the website is in beta testing, a bunch of short and even feature length films are available for purchase. Notably, the site is geared towards providing content specifically for portable devices such as the iPod and Sony PSP, so the pricing reflects that target.

Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis have unveiled their latest creation. Joost pronounced "juiced" is a web based video browser that aims to TV up the Internet. Users download the Joost software, and browse channels much like regular TV.

The system generates revenue through advertising, though in a less obtrusive way than television. Joost is also in the process of signing deals with content providers, making things nice and legit. Of course the system has a peer to peer element, meaning users will be sharing video with one another.

Joost will mark the third venture from Zennström and Friis. Both file sharing software Kazaa, and telephone over Internet provider Skype have proved lucrative for the Scandinavian duo. Time will tell whether or not they've scored a hat trick in the increasingly crowded video content market.

Similar to The Internet TV Charts, Vidmeter tracks the leading videos from major video sharing websites, with a daily top 100 list that features content from eleven total services. Unlike the somewhat limited stats of The Internet TV Charts, Vidmeter gathers information form a much more widespread selection, and the single master list is displayed with specific view statistics and the change in popularity from the previous day. Individual videos also feature robust view history information when they are selected from the list. This will be beneficial for anyone following the (somewhat predictable) trends in online video viewing.

(via CinemaTech)

New York Times article on Hollywood's uneasiness about YouTube. Even though, Hollywood for the most part has been embracing the YouTube phenomenon lately. Part of the problem now (and has always been) is that many of their movies land up on YouTube, even if it is broken up in several pieces (Youtube has a time restriction).

On my personal blog, I'd linked to a very important television series that I found in its entirety on YouTube. It ended up being the most popular post of 2006. Mind you, the content owners in question were not interested in bringing it to DVD or even releasing it (at the time) and it was too important to be shelved. Like many other movies, the television series was taken down to be only found at another hosting site.

I find many movies on YouTube, I am not really comfortable with this. Not because it is illegal but because I can't watch something for that long on my computer, when I can easily get it on Netflix. This annoys most people. But I'm sure Hollywood will spend a lot of money addressing this issue, especially when they get their numbers wrong: "No one knows exactly how much Hollywood-derived content is uploaded to the site without the studios' consent, but academics and media executives estimate it could be anywhere from 30 percent to 70 percent." I laughed when I read this.

The article also has many instances of compromise, for example, 8 Mile was found and then taken down from YouTube except for the songs. The article also shows Hollywood's uneasiness towards user-generated content which at times means "Hollywood-recycled" content. "Brian Grazer, a producer of '8 Mile,' said some of the mashups he had seen were 'pretty hip.' But he said he, too, viewed them as a form of piracy: 'It bothers me artistically. Here's this thing where you have no control; they are chopping it up and putting your memories in a blender.'"

I just goes to show, if your video is stupid enough, and...um video-y enough you could be famous... or at least win some cold hard cash. Stupidvideos.com announced today, their award for Best Original Video of 2006. The winners Invisible Engine, a comedy troop from LA won $15,000 and untold recognition throughout the blogosphere.

The troop put together a little skit about a mouse stealing a tank which I admit made me laugh quite a bit. Stupid Videos says they awarded "Mouse Tank" the prize because it shows "what everyday users can do with just a camera and some creativity." (And a mouse in a remote control tank.)

Click READ below for a link to the video

Forget YouTube, start your own video sharing site. Sorenson Media has announced Sorenson Squish that will allow you to publish and share user-generated video. Squish is a Java based web app that encodes files within the browser using the Squeeze Compression Suite technology. Just drag and drop a file on the app or stream it from a camera and the video is compressed and sent off to the hosting server. Here are a few of the features:

• Client-side compression technology runs in a browser
• PC and Mac support
  
• IE & Firefox (PC) and Safari & Firefox (Mac) supported
  
• Input video formats supported: ASF, DV, MOV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WMV
• Input image format supported: GIF, JPEG, PNG
• Output format is Flash video
  
• Supports capture of video streams from attached DV camcorders or Web cams

Sorenson is also offering SquishNet as a place to host your videos. It provides an embedded Flash video player plus allows page customization so you can make the look your own, like matching your existing website. You can check out an online demo of SquishNet here. Pricing for Squish starts at $1 per user annually with an annual minimum of $5,000. Pricing for SquishNet, which includes Squish, starts at $1.50 per user annually with an annual minimum of $7,500. Both products will be available in February.

The Sundance Institute and Sundance Channel announced that they will offer a selection of narrative, documentary and animation short films from the 2007 Sundance Film Festival for download in the iTunes Store starting January 22nd at a price of $1.99. During previous fests, Sundance has streamed shorts for free on their website (which is planned again, starting January 18th), but this is the first time that people will be able to buy digital versions of select screened films. The movies will be chosen from the 71 shorts scheduled to play during the festival. In addition to the shorts, free podcasts from behind the scenes of Sundance will be hosted on the iTunes Store. The Sundance Film Festival will be running from January 18th-28th.

Dovetail, the unique video sharing website that specializes in offering high quality HD and DVD format user-generated videos, has recently announced that it will start to make monthly payments to creators based on the number of generated downloads. That means each individual download will now net the original creator $0.10 a pop. Unlike traditional video sharing websites like YouTube and Revver, Dovetail uses a unique peer-to-peer download system for distributing the available high quality content. Dovetail currently remains in Beta mode.

YouTube is considering creating a television show and/or a TV channel. The content will consist of user-generated clips that are handpicked from the millions of clips it currently hosts. This is a nice idea, it will quickly replace the TV viral shows and compete against programs like "America's Funniest Home Videos." But you have to wonder if the creators will be compensated in any way. And if the answer is no, why not? It is one thing to put it on the web, it is another to put it on TV. Though I remember reading that Youtube license did indicate that Youtube could in a sense play the videos on any platform. Meaning they covered their bases.

(via Gizmodo)

Ok, you already know that Paramount has entered the iTunes Store fold, but here are some additional details. Paramount is officially the first non-Disney entity to get into the iTunes movies game, and they've made their entrance with over 100 films immediately available for download, most of which are priced at $9.99. Some sample titles include: School of Rock, The Italian Job, Mean Girls, Zoolander, Coach Carter, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Chinatown, and Breakfast at Tiffany's. So it's taken about four months for a major film studio (again, non-Disney) to team up with Apple. If Paramount sees success with this latest development, will other studios finally get on the ball? (Anyone remember that LionsGate deal that was supposed to go down?)