Forget Plain Old Video; Instant Messaging Is The New Media Canvas

from the interesting-ideas dept

There have been so many stories about the big internet companies pushing video style content, it seemed natural that an announcement from AOL concerning how Ashton Kutcher's production company would produce online content would focus on video for the web -- meaning yet another boring attempt to move broadcast video online. However, it sounds like the folks at Katalyst Films may have something much more interesting up their sleeves -- at least we hope so. First, they're not really explaining what they're going to do, but say that want to offer something that fits into the communities online -- noting the participatory nature of those communities. Specifically, they note both instant messaging and blogging as areas the new content is likely to tie into. On instant messaging: "We loved the idea that inside of AOL and AIM (instant messaging), users can participate more directly with friends in these built-in communities. We want people to stop, stare and share." Someone else at the company chimes in with this: "The interactive nature of instant messaging, blogging and social networking will provide a greater palette in which to work." While it obviously could flop, it's nice to see content creators begin to take notice that the audience online is more likely to want to participate in some manner. Hopefully the new content really embraces communications, rather than simply tries to jump on the "social" bandwagon by producing video content that's easily shared.