My Birthday Wishes

My Birthday is this week and friends and family have been asking what I would like. There aren't too many things I really need so I've had to think long and hard about what I want and I've come up with a list.

I don't think I'll get all of these things by my birthday but I do hope that by next year this time all of my birthday wishes have come true.

My Birthday Wish List (in no particular order)

1. Beers on the Diggnation Couch with Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht.

2. A comedy writing lesson from Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine of Ask A Ninja.

3. Cocktails on the set of Tikibar TV with Dr. Tiki, Lala and Johnny Johnny.

4. Discover some new music and a cool new websites with Steve Woolf and Zadi Diaz of Epic FU.

5. A "How To Snowboard Episode" of French Maid TV.

6. A massage after playing paintball with The guys from Big Fantastic.

7. Getting a cool new video gadget the same time as Steve Garfield and having Steve set it up for me and explain to me how to use it.

8. Share a bottle of wine with Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV

9. Being able to watch all of my friends shows on my TV as easily as I can watch Heroes or any other Network or Cable TV Show.

10. Some hugs from my online video friends because we are all making more than a living from online video.

Online Video Leaders: Leo Laporte

Online Video Leaders is a new blog series I'm doing about leaders in the online video industry who I believe are breaking new ground and leading the way as we build this new industry.

When it comes to online video Leo Laporte is no twit even though Leo runs Twit.tv and Twit Live.

Leo seems to create and monetize more online video content than any other independent producer on the Internet today. Leo is truly the Digital Master of online audio and video community building and has broken ground in areas of relationship building, podcasting, advertising and new business models.

From the independent content creation side Leo creates and delivers more information daily through his Twit network than most people consume in a month and he is an inspiration to other online content creators as well.

According to Leo's website, "It all started in 1998 with a small cable network called ZDTV, a channel dedicated to covering computers, the Internet, and personal technology. The people behind this site all worked on that network as hosts, reporters, or producers."

In 2004, ZDTV, then called TechTV, was sold and dismantled. Former TechTV hosts, Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, Kevin Rose, and John C. Dvorak, and producers Robert Heron, David Prager, and Roger Chang went on to other jobs, but stayed in touch, with each other, and with fans of the late TechTV. Those fans told them again and again how important TechTV had been in their lives, and how much they missed the channel.

On a rainy evening in January, 2005 a few of that group got together for dinner after spending the day covering MacWorld Expo in San Francisco. Leo, who was working as a radio host, happened to have a microphone and recorder. He turned it on and recorded 20 minutes of idle chatter about the Expo and the tech world in general. He posted that recording on his web site. Within a few days tens of thousands of people had downloaded the recording. TechTV fans began clamoring for more. A few months later, TWiT was born.

I first saw Leo at the Podcast and New Media Expo in the Fall of 2005. Leo talked about Podtrac and how they handled his ad sales and how anyone could go make online content and get it out to the masses. I left the New Media expo inspired and within a few weeks shot the first episode of French Maid TV.

Leo Laporte is a true pioneer of online audio and video and one of my Online Video Leaders.

Ad-Tech San Francisco is Next Week

Popular online show Internet Superstar will tape their next show as the closing keynote presentation. Attendees will hear from Internet stars Kevin Rose of Diggnation, Ask a Ninja's Kent Nichols, Jeff Macpherson of Tiki Bar TV, Gary Vaynerchuk of WineLibrary.tv and hosts Martin Sargent of Jay Speiden of Internet Superstar/Revision3, who will talk about what this new world of Web video programming looks like and explore how users can leverage these programs to deliver tremendous results. Opening keynotes on the first two days and the closing keynote are free with pre-registration for an expo hall pass at http://www.ad-tech.com/sf/adtech_san_francisco_register.aspx.

If you want a "DEEP" Discount on a Full Pass let me know.

If you are not sure why you should go to Ad-Tech ask yourself if you want to make money in online video advertising. If the answer is "yes", go to Ad-Tech.

Unlocking Your iPhone

I've not yet purchased an iPhone for a couple of reasons one of which is that I can't use it on T-Mobile. Now Wired has announced that there is an easy hack for unlocking your iPhone.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

Beyond having an unlocked iPhone I would like to see the iPhone be a little more durable. Nick Douglas from Valleywag posted on Friday that Digg founder Kevin Rose cracked his iPhone. I know I'm much better at breaking things than Kevin Rose is so that really makes me want to wait for the next version of the iPhone. Maybe it will have 60 gigs of storage as well.

All this said I do see the iPhone as a great platform for content producers to create new and exciting content especially when it comes to the world of ARG or Alternative Reality Gaming. Inagine watching a video on your iPhone then getting a phone call or IM from one of the characters in the video asking you to located something for them on a Google Map and text a friend. The possibilities are endless.