Social Viewing
Just seeing this commentary over at James McQuivey’s OmniMedia. In this post, McQuivey was responding to the October news that CBS had added social video functionality to their content.
For now, though, most of us are so darn happy to have the ability to watch online video on demand that we’re not left wanting more viewing options and features. We’re pretty satisfied. Give it some time, though. There will be some applications for this. I like to watch Heroes with my family even when I’m on the road. This way, we could watch together. In fact, one of the keys to this kind of viewing experience will be when it gets ported to the TV so that TV-PC social viewing can occur.
Key is the part about giving it time until there are applications for it. Hopefully, that’s not far off. For us, the enthusiasm of the audience of a show like Dorm Life makes all the difference, and the more we can do to connect them with each other, the better. The issue of having to get people to watch and comment simultaneously is a tricky one. We think that figuring out a way to let people watch asynchronous-style, yet have the experience of watching together, is going to be the real win.
Hoping that JanRain’s RPX system is a step in that direction, and that we can get ASM video-site partners like YouTube, Hulu, Blip and Metacafe on board the portable social data train asap.
