I have recently made an investment in a new startup in Montreal being created by two great entrepreneurs who I’ve become friends with. The project is in the Internet video space and one of the trends that it involves is the growing army of pro-am videographers.

I liken it to 1994-95 when my brother and I were running our Internet Service Provider. At the time anyone who could format an <a href> was offering to put every laundromat and corner store on the web for a couple hundred dollars. In fact a little tidbit for interested Montrealers, I like many ISP entrepreneurs did some of this work myself. My very first commercial website I developed while running my ISP Infobahn was Mix 96 the Montreal radio station. I registered the domain name www.themix.com for them.

Some great web developers got their start this way (I was not among them), and others did it for a summer job or a part time hobby.

Similarly with the explosion of tools, sharing sites and cheap high quality hardware there are a growing number of videographers, video podcasters and amateur filmmakers who will be helping companies use video in new and interesting ways. New marketplaces will emerge around video that don’t necessarily involve Googleplex’s video advertising ambitions. (Or other advertising supported video plays).

My favorite site for photo’s, iStockPhoto has already begun to carry videos offering amateur videographers a way to sell their stock videography.

I think that we are just at the dawn of the Internet video age and that there are a lot of interesting new ways to build businesses that incorporate video.

When I was looking for examples of amateurs producing interesting videos and content, this was definitely not what I had in mind.

CAUTION - A LITTLE DARK HUMOR AND ADULT CONTENT. (It was just too funny not to post)


(Via Adam Curry - Thanks for the Laugh)

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
  • del.icio.us
  • digg

On Sat 17 Feb 2007.