Long Live the Net Video Revolution

Vlogging, citizen journalism, and other facets of the online video phenomenon will shine on in the New Year

In 2005, Isam Rasheed hadn't heard about video blogging. The explosion of bombs outside his Iraq home had drowned out the buzz around YouTube, MySpace (NWS), and the new, user-generated Internet. But Rasheed, a 33-year-old former engineer turned video producer, knew well the power of images. So when 26-year-old Brian Conley came to Iraq asking for help creating a video blog about Baghdad, Rasheed answered the call.

So began Rasheed's work for Alive in Baghdad, a weekly vlog featuring interviews with Iraqis living in Baghdad and Ramadi. The work is dangerous. Rasheed and his colleagues do not have the protections afforded large news networks—and cameras tend to make everyone uneasy. In one case, two AiB vloggers were kidnapped by Iraqi forces and held for nearly 72 hours after filming a bomb-damaged gas station. "There are many suspicions of the camera from different sides," says Rasheed in a telephone interview from Iraq. "They think you are a spy… My life, all our lives, have become very dangerous in Baghdad."

But Rasheed, a father of three, says it's a risk worth taking. He's convinced of video's power to show truth and of the Internet's ability to disseminate images widely. And he became part of the vanguard that fueled an explosion of Internet video in 2006, evidenced by the millions of broadband computer users who shared, watched, and commented on independently produced video clips posted on sites such as Google's (GOOG) YouTube, Metacafe, Revver, and blip.tv. "I think we saw a tipping point in online video this year, and I think that tipping point is going to continue through 2007," says blip.tv Chief Executive Officer Mike Hudack.

Taking a Risk
More than 79% of U.S. broadband Internet users watched video in 2006, according to a September eMarketer study. Roughly 32% of all U.S. Internet users said they watched more online video in '06 vs. a year earlier.

Part of that increase was due to the quantity of video available. After all, YouTube, the biggest video-sharing site, says it was streaming more than 100 million videos a day for much of the year (see BusinessWeek.com, 9/18/06, "YouTube: Waiting for the Payoff,"). In 2005, YouTube was just getting off the ground. Hudack also attributes the surge to the proliferation of high-speed Internet connections, the financial recovery of investment firms willing to take a risk on new companies such as video-sharing sites, and the availability of server space to host videos, stemming from investments made by Internet service providers during the first dot-com boom.

But 2006 was notable not just for the sheer amount of online video but also for the quality of content that emerged. Sure, there was the torrent of porn, drunk college kids dancing, and parents posting cute videos of their kids. But there was also footage of the Mount Lebanon Hotel bombing, blogs highlighting environmental issues, video commentary on news and politics, and new made-for-online broadcast shows. More than ever, Internet video provided a platform for new voices and perspectives, giving even amateur filmmakers entrée to mass audiences traditionally garnered by established media outlets. And in 2006 people took advantage of it, using Internet video to influence everything from opinion about the war to notions about what constitutes entertainment.

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