UPDATE: I haz 2 friendz nao :)

I got suckered in to seeing what autism.change.org had to say, from this email:

Change.org Launches 7 New Blogs; Predictions for 2009
We're pleased to announce that today we’re launching seven new blogs to expand our network to 19 blogs covering the most important issues facing our world. Yes ma'am, that's a lot of blogs.

The new sites include Autism, Education, Global Health, Health Care, Human Trafficking, Poverty in America, and Sustainable Food. We've hired an amazing team of experts/activists to lead each community, selected from more than 1500 applicants. We hope you'll stop by, check out their take on the issues they’ll be covering, and welcome them to the Change.org community. (As always, you can find the full list of our blogs on our Causes page.)

I'm not saying that Jenny McCarthy is behind some sort of internet witch hunt technology, but just look at what she did:

McCarthy's claims on television that vaccines cause autism have contributed to parental concerns about a possible link;^[20] parental concerns have led to decreased immunization rates and increased incidence of measles.

UPDATE: Michael reminds me: Leo started streaming live video in early 2008.

2008 As I See IT - Nice Fish Films | Michael Sean Wright

What was the biggest “story” of 2008 for me? It wasn’t the meltdown in the financial markets, the forced inevitability of political change or company A introducing exciting product. This was the year of us SEEING network differently. One of the great innovators in social-tech is Leo Laporte, he puts ideas into action daily. This year over 271,000 people watched his live streaming “24-Hours of the iPhone." These are truly staggering numbers. More people were watching Leo live than were tuned into MSNBC at that moment. Laporte has assembled his own DIY television network. His “netcasts” are heard by hundreds of thousands. He’s figured out how to make this social-net work. While you will see many stories of social-tool A, B or C in the year-end re-caps, they have forgotten the BIG story of the year. Leo Laporte changed the reality of what can be done on the socialnet. Take notice: The Revolution has happened this year. It wasn’t Televised - it was streamed, for free.

UPDATE: Economy Crashes, Leo Keeps Going

A shocking round of economic catastrophes dominated the news in the fall and winter of 2008. Revision3 cut loose Sarah Lane and Martin Sargent, of Pop Siren and Internet Superstar. They appear to have at least a temporary home at the TWiT cottage, to acquire new skills and/or work on their next show. Leo's pragmatic, low-key business strategy coupled with openness and generosity are what endear him to so many. 

Original Post:

Possibly the most well-known name in independent tech broadcasting, Leo Laporte is launching a low-key and yet bold move into internet television.

The TWiT.tv family of shows is going to go video, and Leo recently said he was planning to start with 25 hours a week of video programming. You tell me if that's a promise or a threat. He's been exploring tech options and I've watched some video via twitlive.tv Saturday and Sunday from 11AM onward. Leo is building out his office into a small studio, purchasing cameras and lights and talking about it during the process, as he did recently on episode 140 of TWiT.

Leo has a long history in broadcasting and his close pals from the defunct Tech TV include John Dvorak, Patrick Norton, Kevin Rose and D. L. Prager. Amber Macarthur, Steve Gibson, Paul Thurrott, Merlin Mann and Andy Ihnatko all do shows on the TWiT network, and the Buzz crew Molly Wood and Tom Merritt are frequent guests, as are Veronica Belmont, Jason Calacanis and Robert Scoble. Leo has had some great "gets" over the years, including such internet-famous persons as The Woz.

Leo runs a small empire which isn't swimming in debt and seems to make enough money that talent and rent are paid by donations, appropriate advertisers, and well-done interstitials. In stark contrast to the standard raising of a butt-load of money from VCs and having a burn-rate that isn't necessarily sustainable, Leo has a more pragmatic and less risky approach.

Leo is the underdog mogul. He's got the numbers, the experience, the personal brand, the industry contacts, and the good will of a huge audience. He's nobody's fool and a genuine nice guy whose likely success no-one will begrudge. I admit, I'll be watching with some fascination how Leo's foray into TV plays out over the next months.
 

Video podcaster Dave Mora did this interview with me after the KGO Live event last weekend. He recorded it with a Flip camera. Thanks, Dave!

 

Update: Oct. 2008 Internet Superstar was canceled along with several other Revision3 shows. Rumor has it Martin is planning a new show.

Internet Superstar Site
Revision3.com

Martin Sargent is an excellent host, very engaging and funny, and produces some of the best interstitial ads I've seen (for Netflix.)  Gator is an excellent "straight man" for balance. Gator is dead, ZOMG!!!1!. He will be replaced by Jay Speiden. I hope Jim Louderback doesn't fire them anytime soon!

In the latest episode of Internet Superstar, Martin interviews Laughing Squid's "primary tentacle," Scott Beale.

About Internet Superstar

One after the other, Martin Sargent’s shows—on television, on cell phones, and online—have been brutally cancelled. When his most recent effort, Infected by Martin Sargent, was axed by Revision3 CEO Jim Louderback, Martin finally cracked. At the show’s final taping, Martin doused himself in gasoline and threatened to light his explosive-laden body on fire in desperate protest. Fearing a lawsuit, and that his fleece vest and perfectly coifed, John Edwards-like hair might get singed, Jim Louderback talked Martin down by promising him a new show, but with a major provision: except for the bandwidth, Martin will have to finance the whole thing himself.

Martin Sargent

Internationally adored farceur Martin Sargent has been delighting audiences for decades. Sargent got his start in media as a plucky young editor at PC/Computing magazine, and it is generally accepted in publishing circles that the periodical shuttered its operations as a direct result of Sargent’s exodus to pursue television projects. At ZDTV, TechTV and G4TV he hosted shows including The Screen Savers and Unscrewed with Martin Sargent. Since then he has done several pilots for such television powerhouses as Comedy Central and USA Network, and hosted shows on the Internet as well as mobile phones. Every show he has ever hosted or been affiliated with has either been cancelled or, in the case of his pilots, not picked up to begin with. He now hosts Web Drifter on Revision3, as well as Internet Superstar, a show he shoots in a shed in his mom’s backyard with absolutely no funding or support. In a nutshell, his once promising career, which reached its zenith in 2002 when he interviewed Vin Diesel, has utterly shat the bed.

He also has his very own blog - www.sargeworld.com.

Gator RIP Gator!

Gator was a hard-drinking drifter who was raised by an ex-con Seminole Indian named Starving Crow and lived out of his truck in an abandoned lot in South San Francisco. He knew very little about the internet and less about technology. His main job was to make sure his "Internet Superstar" pal Martin Sargent didn't act like too much of a hotshot or get beat up by a guest.

He also held state carp records in Tennessee, Kentucky and Florida and could field dress a buck with a broken beer bottle in under eight minutes. He had no knowledge of his real last name.

Shows are Live and On-demand at the GRITtv Site
Get Grit TV Twitter updates by following @grittv

GRITtv airs Mon-Thurs, at 8pm & 1am ET, on Free Speech TV (DISH Network ch. 9415)

Laura Flanders is the host of "RadioNation" heard on Air America Radio and syndicated to non-commercial affiliates nationwide.

She is the author most recently, of Blue Grit: Making Impossible, Improbable and Inspirational Political Change in America (Penguin, 2008) and BUSHWOMEN: Tales of a Cynical Species (Verso, 2004), an investigation into the women in George W. Bush's Cabinet. Publisher's Weekly called Flanders' New York Times best-seller, "fierce, funny and intelligent."

She wrote on Hillary Clinton in The Contenders (Seven Stories Press, 2007) and edited The W Effect: Sexual Politics in the Age of Bush, in 2004 for the Feminist Press.

Before joining Air America when it launched in March 2004, Laura hosted the award-winning " Your Call," Monday-Friday, on public radio, KALW, 91.7 fm in San Francisco.

Flanders' TV appearances include "Lou Dobbs Tonight" and " Larry King Live " on CNN as well as "The O'Reilly Factor," and "Hannity and Colmes," (FOX News) "Washington Journal," "Donahue," "Good Morning America" and the CBC news discussion program, "CounterSpin."

Her writing appears in The Nation, Alternet, Ms. Magazine, and elsewhere and her op-ed pieces have appeared in papers including The San Francisco Chronicle.

Flanders was founding director of the Women's Desk at the media watch group, FAIR and for more than ten years she produced and hosted CounterSpin, FAIR's nationally-syndicated radio program.

Shie is also the author of Real Majority, Media Minority; the Cost of Sidelining Women in Reporting (Common Courage Press, 1997) about which Susan Faludi wrote, "If only there were a hundred of her." Katha Pollitt called it "Funny, angry, factfilled and brilliant."

UPDATE: Laura is in Denver broadcasting this week from the Democratic party convention.

Related Post: Unheard Radio: Radio Nation with Laura Flanders

Most of the brilliant minds responsible for Mystery Science Theater 3000 are back with a new project entitled Cinematic Titanic:
 

Cinematic Titanic is a feature length movie riffing show and is an artist owned and operated venture created by Joel Hodgson, the creator of the Peabody award-winning Mystery Science Theatre 3000. Cinematic Titanic features the original cast and writers of MST3K, which is Hodgson (Joel Robinson), Trace Beaulieu (Crow), and J. Elvis Weinstein (Tom Servo). Filling out the ensemble is Mary Jo Pehl (Pearl Forrester) and Frank Conniff (TV’s Frank). Cinematic Titanic’s focus is to riff on the movies we love, which are ‘the unfathomable’, ‘the horribly great’, and the just plain ‘cheesy’ movies from the past. Our first feature length DVD Cinematic Titanic’s “The Oozing Skull” is available for purchase at EZtakes.com 

Created by Joel Hodgson, creator of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Cinematic Titanic peppers The Oozing Skull with the kind of hilarious, rapid-fire commentary that fans of fine movie riffing have come to know and love. Joining Joel are his original Mystery Science Theater 3000 cast mates Trace Beaulieu and J. Elvis Weinstein, along with longtime MST3K writers and cast members Frank Conniff and Mary Jo Pehl. It's gonna get ugly, but then it's gonna get funny, so strap yourself in for the skull-oozing, gut-busting ride that is Cinematic Titanic.

Episode Two preview:

UPDATE: Episode Three available today. Here's the preview:

Official Site
YouTube Channel

Dubbed "the explainer" by Wired magazine, Michael Wesch is a cultural anthropologist exploring the impact of new media on human interaction (and the impact of human interaction on new media). After two years studying the impact of writing on a remote indigenous culture in the rain forest of Papua New Guinea, he has turned his attention to the effects of social media and digital technology on global society.  His videos on technology, education, and information have been viewed by millions, translated in over ten languages, and are frequently featured at international film festivals and major academic conferences. Wesch has won several major awards for his work, including a Wired Magazine Rave Award and the John Culkin Award for Outstanding Praxis in Media Ecology.  He is also a multiple award-winning teacher whose teaching projects are frequently featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education and other major media outlets worldwide. Wesch is currently serving on the Editorial Board of Advisors for Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Dr. Wesch inspires hope in me, hope that the next generation(s) will take control of the messages and media that shape our attitudes and policies.

Here are three of his more famous videos:

The Machine is Us/ing Us (Final Version)

Twitter and the World Simulation

Information R/evolution

Lastly, an in-depth presentation given at the Library of Congress, explaining YouTube, and the Numa Numa phenomenon. June 23, 2008, 55 minutes.
  

An anthropological introduction to YouTube

KsuDigg Banner

Podcast Episode Link (July 15, 2008)
GillmorGang Link

I twittered:

Doc Searls on (no) future of traditional broadcasting - last GillmorGang podcast. Technical and encyclopedic. TV is dead. Long live TV.

In this episode Doc Searls goes into detail on the digital transition and implications for local, public and commercial broadcasting, television and radio, and has some very interesting things to say about "live" broadcasting in the future.

A must-listen for anyone interested in staying ahead of the curve on the future of broadcasting.

GillmorGang Header

Joss Whedon is releasing a limited-availability online web video series premiering today, with three episodes available until July 20, 2008 only. DVD will be available afterward. Official Site.

Update: Mobuzz TV has been canceled.

Update: I can no longer recommend this show. News is thin and stale, presentation is more irritating than funny. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted!

Update: Olivia has left Mobuzz. Gabe Mac will present in her stead.

Mobuzz.tv Site
Mobuzz.tv YouTube Channel