The Vlogger Interviews : Boomer9168

About This Interview:
Boomer (Boomer9168), from New Port Richey, Florida, sums up his YouTube experience in one phrase: "YouTube saved my life."  Like many people, he began vlogging (and later, creating skits and collaborations) simply because he liked what he was seeing on other YouTube channels - and it looked fun.  With the fun he found creating for a YouTube audience, he also discovered an opportunity to expand and enrich his own social life.  In addition to friends around the world, he's also connected in person with local YouTubers in Florida.  Online community has helped Boomer recover enthusiasm for life that he thought he's lost.

Today, he says, If he somehow lost access to a  camera and couldn't be part of the YouTube community, "I would be heartbroken."

The Vlogger Interviews: TheSchwartzcaster [Eric Peter Schwartz]

About this interview:

Why would a grown man play with a puppet on YouTube?

A while back, I interviewed Spiggitz the Cat on The Vlogger Interviews.  Spiggitz is a ratty-looking, opinionated vlogging feline puppet created by Eric Peter Schwartz, and featured on his YouTube channel, http://youtube.com/TheSchwartzcaster  With this interview, I meet Eric himself, and find out the question asked of most YouTubers by the uninitiated:  Why?

Eric Peter Schwartz, a resident of Aurora, Illinois, has a long history in writing, theater and comedy (take a look his extensive resume on his home page).  He thinks of himself as a born performer, but his comedy efforts had been been in hibernation for a while when he learned about YouTube a few years back.  As you'll discover, YouTube reignited his creative flame.  Spiggitz, once a crowd favorite in his live comedy shows, was adapted for this new venue, and has since evolved into Eric's alter-ego.

Eric is fascinated by the opportunities that online video is beginning to offer.  In live theater, ad sales in a show's program booklet is an important supplementary source of income.   He believes that with some hard work, YouTubers could be quite successful monetizing their work beyond the Google Adsense model, which allows YouTubers to share in the revenue generated by advertisements placed by Google on their videos.

The Vlogger Interviews: Oliver6596 (Ollie)

I'm not a big fan of snarky comedy vlogs on YouTube - the mean-spirited channels that find humor through ridicule, almost as if they're inspired by the celebrity scandal sites.  If I'm looking for comedy, I tend to enjoy generally good-natured vloggers of the Charlieissocoollike variety.  I also like uninhibited comedy - off the wall, random and sometimes physical goofiness that is probably best created by teenagers who haven't acquired the layers of cynicism that restrain so many adults.




15 year-old Ollie (Oliver6596), who spoke with me from his home in Birmingham, UK, admits that he doesn't usually spend much time planning his vlogs, and maybe that's what I find entertaining about them - I don't think he knows any better than his audience where each vlog is going to end up, or when he'll throw himself into a random door.   His little brother is his sidekick  / antagonist, but you'll never take the brotherly name-calling seriously.

Ollie's vlogs are already working for him - he offered a few in his college (referring roughly to the UK equivalent of high school in the US)  application - and was well received (more in the interview).

Ollie's definition of vlogging is one of my favorites (or, in this case, favourites):

Vlogging is...being social awkward to a camera.

The Vlogger Interviews: BerrySoftball [Tommie Weimer]

Thoughts on this Vlogger Interview:

Dayton, Ohio resident Tommie Weimer's channel, BerrySoftball, is both a creative outlet, and a way to socialize and get to know people from around the world.   While many people, I think it's fair to say, have discovered the world through vlogging and YouTube, Tommie's participation in the YouTube community is just the latest chapter in his interaction with the world.  A U.S. Navy vet who served in the early to mid-1990's, he has friends the world over.  Having the chance to build an even wider community online is a huge part of his attraction to the world of vlogging.

So far, I've interviewed over thirty vloggers  - and social interaction is by far the most frequently mentioned reason for starting and continuing vlogging.  Yet, strangely, it's the one thing that non-vloggers don't fully realize.  "Traditional" media tends to see Vlogs and other produced YouTube videos as a one-sided affair.  Even in some corners of the YouTube community, there's a tendency to create more and more of these "one-way" productions in the broadcast model - it's the tried-and-true way to go.  

The Community model, I think, is far more exciting - and, potentially, offers so much more for a creator and his audience.  The strength of community in the online world is still largely overlooked.  It's going to take more ambassadors like Tommie - whether they're veterans, retirees, entrepreneurs, or simply individuals witha  passion to express themselves - to bring that community to it's full potential.

I'm Interviewed on "The Quad Spot"

Recently, I had the opportunity to be interviewed on The Quad Spot, a YouTube webseries that also features interviews with YouTubers - but with an approach all it's own. These interviews feature one subject and four interviewers interacting on Google Hangout over at Google Plus. I really hadn't had the chance to use Google Hangouts much until this interview - it's probably the single greatest advantage of Google Plus. I've been using it more or less on a regular basis since the interview - and I recommend you give it a try.  Join me on Google Plus!

I had a great time - it's a whole different ballgame being on the other side of an interview - you can be sure that I'll be featuring each of the Quad Spotters in future Vlogger Interviews! 

Enjoy the interview - and let me know what you think! Click on the video and check out The Quad Spot Channel as well! 

Barbarians Storm the Gates! Broadcasting and the Future of Media

As someone who has lived most of his career in "traditional media" (in other words, outside of the internet), I've always known the NAB Show as a technological mecca - an overwhelming conglomeration of state of the art equipment for all phases and types of broadcast media - from radio to television to digital cinema.  The NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) Show in Las Vegas includes perhaps the most extensive exhibition of broadcast technology in the world, with attendance topping 90,000.   

While I love tech, however, my point of view has evolved over the past decade.  Today, I'm excited with innovations that have evolved technology into an increasingly accessible tool for creative work.    There are many in broadcasting, however, who see this evolution as a dire threat.

What does "broadcast" mean in an age when so much media access is moving online?  How relevant is the traditional broadcast world in the changing landscape of information and entertainment?   Broadcasters are aware the world is changing - NAB's slogan this underlined the rumbling earthquake:  

In his keynote speech, NAB President Gordon Smith summarized the challenge to professional broadcasters - and to those working in traditional media, "Our greatest challenge is to have the courage to challenge ourselves.  Challenging our existing business models, looking around the corner, and adapting to a media marketplace where only the technologically nimble will survive.

"It is said that every moment can be golden for those who have the vision to recognize it as such."

I'm a great fan of streamlined technology - high quality, increasingly simple-to-use tools that tear town the obstacles that have prevented so many creative people from expressing themselves effectively.  With increased access to these tools, audience access is no longer limited to the select few.  Anyone can create a YouTube channel or record an audio podcast.   Of course, that doesn't mean that most will earn an audience.  Talent and ability are still prerequisites for success.  Some in the broadcast industry, in my opinion, see this as a "storming of the gates" and look upon low cost tools with disdain or outright rejection.

The future of entertainment is not in the hands of engineers and technicians.  It is in the hands of a huge and growing resource of creative people everywhere.

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Here's my "Planet of the Vlogs" podcast on my NAB experience, featuring several products that, perhaps, prove that there is beauty in simplicity."



Here are a few selected highlights that likely represent the charactger of the NAB show five or ten years from now.

I met David Basulto of FilmmakingCentral.com in the press room before the exhibition opened - his iPad based camera rig is a great example of the simpler-is-better creative spirit I love about the evolving world of media:

Some Photos:

At several locations throughout NAB, remote control camera copters, made possible by miniature HD cameras,  were on display.

Another camera copter - of a more radical design.

The NAB Show took over the huge Las Vegas Convention Center.  Here's a small portion of the massive exhibition.

Social technology was also on display.  "Escort Live," from escortinc.com brings dashboard radar detectors to a new level.  Now, if your detector indicates a police radar or laser nearby, your location information is fed into a social network, alerting others nearby that they're coming upon an area where they might want to be extra careful...

Yap.tv is a desktop and smartphone application that provides monitoring of  Twitter/Facebook and other social activity attached to current network programming

Tracky.com is a social network designed for tech and creative start-ups - with both private, group-oriented project management features, and a public area for targeting networking

WeVideo.com is a browser-based, collaborative editing platform.  It's already available as a recommended tool at http:youtube.com/create  - or as a stand-alone tool.  It's no replacement for Final Cut or Avid, but it's a surprisingly useful system with a wide range of potential professional, semi-professional and educational possibilities. 



Finally, the smallest, cheapest, and most popular camera at NAB - GoPro's booth was packed, as it's cameras stood staring into the face of change....

Planet of the Vlogs Podcast - Episode #2

In this second episode of my new audio podcast, I react to the Google/YouTube decision to open the YouTube Partnership program to just about anyone eligible for Google Adsense. I also talk about my decision to attend the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference in Las Vegas to seek out industry evolution to serving the needs of content creators. Finally - a quote from a Hollywood legend about the early years of the movies that speaks today's media pioneers.

You can subscribe to this podcast through iTunes at (this will open iTunes):  itpc://planetofthevlogs.podomatic.com/rss2.xml

Check out the official podcast page at http://planetofthevlogs.podomatic.com