Andreas Haugstrup Pedersen | solitude.dk

Those of us who showed up for VlogEurope a couple of days early had the chance to visit the TVBlob offices in downtown Milan to get a demonstration of the system and a discussion about the possibilities. All helped by the fact that Deirdré works at TVBlob and she didn't mind taking time of of her workday to entertain a group of videobloggers!

I've heard Deirdré mention TVBlob a handful of times, but the concept was a bit hard to grok for me without having seen the box. Thankfully they now have a demonstration video on the TVBlob website. Click the video link below the silly stock photo on the front page. The TVBlob box is like a regular set-top box… only it's two-way. So not only do you get to recieve digital signals, you can also send broadcast quality video to anyone else who has a box. It's like Triple Play that's actually interesting (do we call it Quadruple Play or Quintuple Play?).

What I like about TVBlob are the possibilities for one-to-one communication. Most of the videoblogs I watch I multitask around so I search for information around the video while I watch and that behaviour would be really hard to accomplish with a tv remote. Those are tasks the computer are really well suited for. I imagine that there is a large audience who “just want to watch” that would find comfort in a TVBlob setup. Thankfully we can move digital content around without effort so both groups can be accomodated without extra work.

But back to one-to-one. You can make direct video calls which is fun for the first week (although the group-to-group video calls that will appear as one living room calls another living room will be different that the single person scenarios we've seen fail on mobile phones). What's going to fun forever is the fact that you can splice in video from any input device into the call. So while I'm talking wih my mom on my Jetsons video phone I can send her video from my trip to Milan using my digital camera. I could even hook up my laptop to the TVBlob box and show her exactly how she marks messages as spam in her Thunderbird inbox. Actually it would be even more useful if she hooked up her computer to the TVBlob box to show me what her problem is. I know there are remote desktop utilities, but I just can't get them to work over the public internets. The box just has a standard analog input so you can connect pretty much any device. Camera, DVD player, computer, satellite reciever (mp3-player?). I'm really digging the extensibility of the box.

The biggest downside is that the box really puts a strain on your internet connection. Ideally you need around 1mbit upstream to send tv quality images. While I would be able to use it with my 1024/512 connection I wouldn't be able to send tv quality images across the network. I see that technical issue as one that will solve itself in time (ie. when the Danish telecoms get a grip).

PS. Madge Weinstein interviewed Deirdré during VlogEurope. There is TVBlob stuff in there as well. Not to mention talk about old lesbians so check it out.

And now we add radio sight to sound. It is with a feeling of humbleness that I come to this moment of announcing the birth in this country of a new art so important in its implications that it is bound to affect all society. It is an art which shines likes a torch of hope in a troubled world. It is a creative force which we must learn to utilize for the benefit of all mankind.

David Sarnoff, President of RCA at the New York World's Fair, April 30, 1939 (from Paul Schatzkin's “The Boy Who Invented Television”).

Since February E-Learning Lab at Aalborg University has been podcasting. They have eight podcasts available right now. The topics are broad, but of course the focus is on ICT and learning. Some of the podcasts are in English, but it's a bit hard to see which ones. The website also seems to be missing permalinks for the individual episodes making further conversation in the blogosphere impossible. I'm a bit bummed about that.

In similar news AAU-TV had their release party on Friday. AAU-TV is a student-run tv-station at Aalborg University. There are promotional videos online at the moment and production will start sooner rather than later. If you are student or faculty at AAU and have something to say AAU-TV have cameras and know-how. Everything is in Danish at the moment, but if you're an exchange student you will also be welcomed with open arms.

After approximately 20 hours of travel I'm back in Denmark, and boy was I glad to be reminded that the sun rises earlier here. Waking up at 6am this morning was great. I'm suffering from a mild case of reverse culture chock. My girlfriend said she got the same weird feeling when she returned to the States after six months in Denmark. To get used to hearing Danish I'm keeping the TV on as much as possible today. It's a bit sad that they're still running the same ad series as they did in February. On the other hand I don't have to endure the complete journalistic failure that is American local news. I found a strange comfort in DR's news broadcast last night.

Despite the fact that in 2005 the vast majority of Americans still thinks it's ‘cool’ to wear mobil phones visible in a belt clip I think I'll be back in the US sooner rather than later.

And the bunny? One of the last photos I took before leaving. Cute, huh. It won Best of Show at the Lenawee County Fair in Adrian.

The national Danish tv station TV-2 will start a new program in February called reallife.log. Ten contestants will each get two minutes of uncensored air time daily. Of course viewers can vote contestants off — this is the world of reality tv after all. It's not hard to see where they've been looking for inspiration (blogging, if you hadn't guessed).

It's going to be boring talking-head videos, but the move towards more and more personal broadcasting is interesting. From the teasers I can see that TV-2 is aiming for talking-heads and a diary format. As we get more and more videoblogs I bet the majority will also settle for talking-head diaries. Those will be boring too. In the same way weblogs that are just descriptions of daily life are boring.

I see that you will get paid for every day that you appear on tv. Maybe I should sign up just to bitch about why videoblogs on tv will never work.

Friday my internship application to Ann Arbor Community Television Network went in the mail. Now I have to play the waiting game for a while. I really hope they are interested in having me as an intern. Working full time at a place like that would give me new opportunities for learning I feel I can't get anywhere else.

I have to thank Jay for telling me about these community tv-networks to begin with, and I have to thank the internship coordinators at the International Office. They are some of the most helpful people.

The Danish version of Survivor has been running for seven years now (according to the commercials on tv — I haven't been following it all that closely). This year TV3, the network behind Survivor, has decided to auction off a spot as a joker in this year's Survivor on the auction site QXL (link points to the British QXL site). The joker will join the Survivor expedition sometime after the rest of the participants arrived at the island. TV3 has used jokers before, but they have always been kept secret, and the joker has been chosen by the network.

As I'm writing this there's 13 hours left of the auction and the current bid is at 53,500 Danish kroner (almost 9,000 US Dollars). In total 134 different people have made a bid.

There used to be something special about the participants in the Survivor shows. They were hand picked for the job and they had to go through a series of different tests. It gave, if nothing else, the illusion of them being extraordinary. This is the ultimate downfall of reality tv. You don't even need to be special to be picked for a reality show. You just need to spend enough money.

What are these people thinking anyway? Do you want to be “that guy who paid $10,000 to be on tv?” You didn't do anything. It's like the people who pay to get a trip into Space. They do not share the same kind of magic that surrounds astronauts. They are just some smucks who put down a lot of money. There isn't much magic in writing a check.

At least the auction money will go to Red Cross (Danish Red Cross) so something good will come out of it.

Update the day after:

The auction ended with 186 bids and a price of 96,500 Danish kroner (just over 16,000 US Dollars).