My wife and I decided a while back that our lives would be better without TV being piped into our house. So, we unplugged the cables, cancelled our digital package subscription, and headed out into the unknown.
What precipitated this great unplugging was the fact that we kept having this same experience over and over again. One of us would say, “Do you want to watch something?” “Sure,” the other would reply. Then, we would spend 10-15 minutes looking through the guide only to realize that, even with 300 channels, there just wasn’t anything on that we really wanted to see.
I know, you’re probably thinking that this is more about who we are than the poor quality of programming on the tube.You could be right. Both of us grew up as movie buffs and have seen pretty much all the classics. If you add to that my penchant for renting “B” movies and action/sci-fi thrillers when I’m traveling, well, there isn’t that much in the way of movies that TV has to offer. As for the more traditional programming, we do have rather narrow tastes. My wife has some comedies that she’s fond of, but there’s nothing she can’t replace by renting a whole season on DVD.
It’s not that we’re opposed to TV or its programming. We rent movies and TV shows we like all the time. The point is that there just doesn’t seem to be much programming out there that really satisfies us.
That’s why I got so fired up yesterday when I read an article extolling the virtues of slivercasting. That’s right, slivercasting. This is the natural next step in the progression from broadcasting, to narrowcasting, to slivercasting. It’s about low-cost, niche-market videocasting on the Web. It’s about power to the people and putting the control of content in the hands of everyman. This sounded fantastic to me. With this phenomenon, our family will have access to millions of channels talking about everything from tractor pulls in Haven, Texas to subway tricks in Boston. We’re going to be able to watch shows about anything and everything. Surely, with the size of the Internet, there will always be something on that we want to watch.
But, as I thought about it, I started feeling a little guilty. Perhaps my wife and I might need to do more than just enjoy the hard work of others. Heck, we’re not without a bit of talent ourselves. We should be giving something back to the community. And, when you think about it, who better to produce the perfect slivercast that will appeal to us? If we make our own shows, I mean the ones that talk about the things we’re interested in, we’re guaranteed that there will always be something we want to see. I certainly makes sense to me.
So, in the spirit of all the mashup folk and of “write” Web promoters like Will Allen and David Warlick , I’d like to float some ideas regarding new shows that my wife and I could think about creating.
- Our Pet Adventures
- How to Survive Children’s Accounting 101
- Making Long Distance Marriages Work
- Political Differences Between Oklahoma and Massachusetts
- Our Pet Adventures II
The great thing is that we can make these shows for ourselves, put in them all the things that appeal to us. Now, someone else may come along and appreciate our work, even want to pay something for it, but that’s not the point. We just want something good to watch.
Maybe we’re just reinventing blogging with video, but that’s not important. We’re going to learn new technologies, have fun, spend more time together, and finally see shows we want to see. Man this slivercasting is great!
Now, where the heck is my camera?
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