On Seesmic

I've never been one for mindless bandwagon-jumping. I look askance at people who attempt to glow beautifully under the rapidly passing headlights of this or that technology bus. My skin tone and moral complexion don't need to look good, thanks to a deal I made with the Great Genie of Personal Confidence back in 1988. I simply cannot look any better. At all times, thanks to the excellent bargain I made, I am bathed in good light without the need of buses or other transportation. But, I do get curious from time to time, and I hop on board to see what the journey is about.

I've been intrigued by the flurry of internet business start-ups in 2007, and particularly those looking to do something around the phenomenon which has become known as social media which for various reasons is where I now spend a lot of my time, but I'm choosy about keeping my online life de-cluttered. I joined Twitter end of 2006 to see what all the fuss was about, and it took me a while before I saw the value of it, rather than just seeing novelty. I joined Jaiku and a few other Web 2.0 sites to explore them and judge them all against one other; they all work slightly differently, but the question is, differently enough to make a difference? Much as the conventional, older parts of the internet, blogging, forums, have done, I made new friends via Twitter, and I also found I was maintaining and deepening existing friendships. In the end, I find value (or not) in the context of my real, everyday life - you know, the smell of sex, and all that.

A while back I noticed (via Twitter) that several of my friends were using Seesmic, a new web-based video blogging tool, still as yet in Alpha, i.e. not public, and in the process of being constructed. There's a best of Seesmic on YouTube called Seesmix. My curiosity piqued, I recently asked Loic Le Meur the man behind Seesmic for a look, and he kindly let me see what the fuss was all about.

I once described Twitter as "community text radio" when trying to get the point of its rolling 140 character commentaries and quips across to someone recently. Seesmic is more like community video chat, contributions arriving on a permanently unfolding roll, content uncensored conversational and spontaneous, with multi-threaded memes running back and forth organically.

At the moment, the site seems pretty much based on webcam moments - a lot of people in front of their laptops - with the option of converting videos to flash before uploading. Like Twitter and Flickr, Seesmic has a combination of public and private settings - you can choose to follow people, you can also watch the public timeline. I like that it integrates into other useful popular internet applications like Twitter and Skype, so by following the Twitter stream (which has RSS, so you can subscribe to it like a blog or a podcast) you can, if so moved, watch videos as they come in.

I prefer to film on location and on the move, as anyone who has witnessed DeekDeekster.com will know - I am a big fan of pocket video. As soon as I have a WiFi phone with a decent web browser and good video capability that can plug into its web interface, I can see this being really useful for me. Better for spontaneous short-form video than sites like Blip or BlogTV, more about conversations than egotistical display à la YouTube, and unlike Facebook, not claiming your work's copyright by default, I can really see this addition to the new mediasphere catching on.

Check out my meandering muse on Seesmic here.