New Content Networks Everywhere

If you haven’t realized that this is the best time ever to get into creating whatever it is you’re passionate to create, I feel sorry for you. Now, like never before, there are tools and distribution devices to make your voice heard to whoever chooses to give you a piece of your attention. It’s fascinating, and I intend to get involved.
Doug Kaye has a great product in IT Conversations. If I haven’t yet FORCED you to go there and listen to their programming, do so. Do it today. But my point here is this: Doug has moved his steady flow of podcasts from the technology industry from being a single line product into a network of content. He has moved from running IT Conversations into running The Conversations Network.
If you haven’t thought of the The Apple iTunes Store as a new TV network, you’re nuts. I’m watching regular programming via iTunes now at a rapid rate. No, not the $2.99 downloads of Lost (which is fine, but just not my thing). I’m watching content like Something to Be Desired and Don’t Be That Guy, and Atom Films, and RocketBoom. That’s a network to me. Apple has my attention through all these creator-built programs, done by people like you and me, only driven enough to make content flow.
I don’t view YouTube as a network. I think of them as a kind of… burlesque show, or variety show. It’s more like a program. As such, there’s some neat stuff there, but I find you still have to hunt for it. I usually let BoingBoing and other aggregators to help me find the best of it.
MySpace is another beast altogether. It’s like this great promotional engine. It’s definitely a content platform. I went to my friend, Jon’s band’s site, and it was AMAZING. I suddenly had his latest song blasting in my ears, and man… does it ROCK! But I digress. MySpace is more like a promotion platform, and that’s great. Let’s talk more about networks.
Adam Curry has his podcast network over at Podshow. I think of them more like syndicators of content, but even that’s cool. The way these new networks operate is by distributing as often and as thoroughly as possible.
If you’ve got a podcast, for instance, you can distribute through iTunes, through Odeo, through several different podcast directories. You can burn your feed easily through FeedBurner, so that it’s easy for people to pick up into their RSS feeds without much effort.
The big content providers and the big networks are getting into these streams, and they are definitely sucking up a mountain of viewership, but even there, several independent people are out-performing the big names in the realm of portable or downloadable video. Will it be this way forever? I doubt it. But in its infancy, it’s neat to see the little guys going toe to toe with big producers. I hope it’s always that way.
What’s left? Well, you still have to CREATE your content. You have to sit down and think about your ideas. Write them out. Think about them more. Produce your stuff. And then edit it up until it’s something you’d be proud to show someone else. In fact, let me take another line of your eyeballs for a moment. If you’re going to put stuff up as content, take the time to make it look fairly decent or sound decent. The tools are all there, for free. Take the time to make it something nice, if you want people to see it. (Sketches are okay if you’re telling people it’s a sketch, but if you’re passing it off as content, try).
The best part of this new media is that I am the network programmer. I choose the content I give my attention to. I’m even more powerful than that. I choose the specific content within the stream that I like. I don’t have to watch EVERY episode of Ask a Ninja. I can watch it when I feel like it, or delete it when I don’t. I am the network aggregator for my consumption.
But what about my creation? What will my network look like? And who else would be the kinds of people inside a network of my own envisioning? (This is cart before the horse. I’m still building the content).
So, what would your network look like, both as a consumer, and as a creator? What would be the mash-up of content you want to look at/read/listen to? And who would be sandwiched on either side of your own created content? Big names or little. How would you do it?
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