Irina Slutsky is a video blogger, tech blogger and all around Web 2.0 hip lady in San Francisco. She is one of the founders of Geek Enterntainment TV, an editor at Top Ten Sources and blogs about emerging tech companies for Under The Radar. Geek Entertainment TV is part of the Bubble 2.0 Snark Group, a network of Web 2.0 satirists. As Irina says, "Comedy is just a funny way of being serious."

We talked about her path to video blogging, her take on the future of the medium, it’s viability for non profit groups and what it takes to make and sustain a good video blog. Finally, Irina pointed to a few of her favorite people who have social change and real users at the center of their concerns while they work in the midst of the Web 2.0 whirlwind.

 

Table of Contents

You can click on any of the following links to skip to that section. Your browser’s back arrow will return you to this table of contents. All video screen captures can be clicked to launch that 3 to 5 minute episode in a new window.

How Irina became a vlogger

The future of the vloggosphere

Democratization and non profit vlogging

Related resources

 

 

How Irina became a vlogger

Marshall

How did you get into vlogging?

Irina

Well, i just wanted to be in front of a camera and i was at a party

it was all a joke really

Marshall

but you decided to stick with it?

Irina

well, then it was so fun and funny

and we got so much feedback on it

and Eddie also ran with it in terms of the website and the video

Eddie Codel, he's the man of the show

feb.23rd is the 10yr anniversary for this blog, eddie.com

 

The future of the vloggosphere

 

Marshall

Are you of the belief that the medium of vlogging has a lot of potential to take off and find itself populated by a larger number of people than there are doing it now?

Irina

Oh yes, but i think there's going to be a huge surge of what Josh Kinberg (creator of Fireant) calls "jigglers"

those are videos of girls or boys jiggling themselves or the camera

singing along to Gwen Stefani etc.

i think by that he means in general, just mediocre content

so those of us, ahem, with talents and tricks up our sleeve

will have to step up

and keep making interesting stuff

so there will actually be something to watch

like Rocketboom is of course the touchstone for someone like me

Marshall

I've heard Electronic Frontier Foundation's Annalee Newitz say that alot of technologies are actually made more viable because of the widespread adoption of the delivery technologies for consumption of porn. That’s a big part of the early user base that funds the creation of infrastructure that’s later used for other purposes.

Irina

i love porn

lol

only in that it makes video grow faster

meaning that, porn is still the most downloaded content

for video online

so thanks to porn

i can exist!

Marshall

what kinds of things have you learned are most helpful in making other vlog content valuable? what makes a good vlog?

Irina

it's always good to have good looking people on video

thats very very important

lol

seriously though, it's like anything good that's entertaining

you gotta have a beginning and middle and an end

Marshall

do you have a vision of the future where the web is filled with quality vlogs? is this liable to have any signifigant cultural impact?

Irina

yes, i do think there will be tons of stuff to watch online

just like there's tons of good blogs

i mean, the mythology about blogging is that it’s about your cat

right?

navel gazing

Marshall

or that it's an echo chamber for lazy wannabe journalists

Irina

right

however

that's not really the case

i mean, even the person who hates blogs and hates to read them

probably eventually ends up reading one or two blog entries a day

just because there is something of interest to that person in that particularly good blog

Marshall

so you think that if the content is there then people will end up watching vlogs just as a matter of course in their browsing for good content, etc?

Irina

so when the video media production is no longer controlled by what is affordable for CBS, nbc, etc.

then there will be such a huge variety of topics and styles of vlogs

then yes - there will be somethig to watch for everyone

however, just as with everything else there will be a small percentage

that is watched and liked by a larger percentage of people

so those vloggers (see Rocketboom) will be elevated to a status of near-mainstream existence

 

Democratization and non profit vlogging

 

Marshall

Net Squared works to bring Web 2.0 into the hands of non profit groups. Is this a worthwhile medium for those groups to explore?

Irina

i'd say it's a VERY worthwhile medium for non-profits

to explore since it's very inexpensive right now

the public loves to watch stuff much more than to read stuff

and if you can make it funny, then the public will love you

i mean, Eddie and i are both essentially broke as hell

and we still manage to put out a show 3 times a week

Marshall

What are the best types of topics to cover in vlogs, what kinds of events or topics do not work well in your experience?

Irina

Well, you have to remember that at this point we are strategically aiming at a niche audience

for people starting a vlog

I think that it’s good to aim for a niche market

because those people who are passionate about that topic will watch reliogiously

i mean, Dogster should seriously have a vlog

because people friggin love dogs

and if you have little weekly interviews with your favorite dog of the week

holy cow, that will blow up

you just need something that you LIKE

I mean, i LOVE geeks

so it's so easy for me to talk to them

and be interested in them

Marshall

so underneath your jaded exterior you seem to think this does have some real potential here.

Irina

oh yes (what jaded exterior?)

it's what Eddie and the Webzine crew are talking about

vlogs are just a continuing democratization of the media

"be the media"

like, i wanted to see funny interviews with people

because i think people are funny, in general

so it's so easy now with the technology where it is

and of course, comedy is just a funny way of being serious

Marshall

so are people "in the heart of the bubble" looking out for the folks who will give this democratization legs?

Who's inspiring you by the doing a good job of looking beyond the hype, insider jokes [nothing wrong there, but...], money flying around and tech for its own sake?

Irina

well, as much as i like to joke about him

i do think Chris Messina is doing a great job

he is SO earnest and SO kind and SO smart

and he really does believe in collaboration

i also love what Kent Bye is doing

with his collaborative media project [the Echo Chamber Project is a collaborative video experiment concerning mainstream media's roll in the Iraq war.]

if you havent seen that, definitely look at that

very much blowing up the idea of the media echo chamber

but yes, the whole thing about the "father boris" character is to try to take it beyond the hype [Irina always asks interviewees ‘How can I explain what you do in a way my father Boris will understand?’]

 

Related Resources 

FreeVlog: Tutorial - a very cool website all about how to set up a video blog for free.

Guns For Sale  - Amnesty International UK's great example of puting web video to use, this a satire of TV shopping shows but about the international arms trade.

Friday the 13th is here - Green Peace UK's web video on why nuclear power is a bad response to global warming. 

Vlogs via OPML (4 RSS feeds in one URL)

Contains:

1. Geek Entertainment TV, main vlog project of Irina et al.
2. Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth - Video, world traveling social justice multi media activist.
3. Brave New Television
4. Vlog - Flux, awesome radical street videography - last 10 episodes shot in Katrina aftermath.