Given the almost deafening buzz from Wall Street to Hollywood Blvd., it's hard to imagine that the Internet could be under-hyped; but at Spring Internet World '99 in LA, the keynote presenters saw the next video wave of the Net's evolution as even more than another exponential leap.

Just a few days prior to the debates over DTV, HDTV and DVD at NAB, at InternetWorld, major webcasters were claiming that the future was all theirs. As you might expect, RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser (who also spoke at NAB) declared, "The future of ALL media delivery is the Internet." But surprisingly, we heard an even more media-centric perspective from UUnet founder, now a VP of MCI/Worldcom, John Sidgmore who said that the Internet was "not just the future of communications, but THE future."

I'm not sure where that last statement would leave the rest of us as human beings. However, from a business or certainly from a professional videographer's point-of-view, I do agree that the Internet will probably play a bigger role in our future than most of us realize or can even envision. After all, we are just getting started with the networked distribution of video of all kinds. Given that these are certainly still the pioneering days of video on the Web, there's no question in my mind that the best is yet to come.

DIGITAL DYNAMICS
Furthermore, while broadcasters are being dragged into the digital age with regulations that dictate the implementation of digital broadcasting, we are seeing far more innovation and growth empowering investment on the Net. Creatively, the video Web may be playing catch up with broadcasting's high-end budgets, but the race for the implementation of a viable broadband network is certainly heating up. As I've documented in past columns, from telcos to cable modems, and from the ATT-TCI merger to the MediaOne Express and Time Warner/Road Runner joint venture, the broadband video network is in extreme growth mode and the results can only benefit video professionals.

As a result, the landscape of the video Web just gets more interesting. This month's column includes my "intro" to the introduction of QuickTime 4, more on MP3 and why it has so much momentum, a peak into the GeoCities attempt to make streaming video producers out of its virtual communities, and a particularly robust VidWeb Bits sidebar. Enjoy.

WHY QUICKTIME FINALLY JOINS THE FRAY
As expected, probably the most significant announcement at NAB regarding video on the Web was Apple's announcement that it is finally about to release QuickTime 4 with "Internet Streaming.". (Also, please see my View Finder story.) The "cutting" edge to this announcement was the way it took direct aim at RealNetworks. Because Apple is taking a Open Source stand with its new QuickTime Streaming Server, Steve Jobs, Apple's interim CEO declared, that streaming video providers of all kinds will no longer be "forced to pay a server tax to RealNetworks for their proprietary server software."

Of course, the other big announcement from Apple was the release of Final Cut Pro non-linear editing software. I like the way that Product Manager Andrew Baum positioned it when he said: "The 60 million Web sites out there are going to be 60 million broadcast stations." And I agree that Apple's Open Source approach will help make streaming servers more accessible as well as extensible.

In any case, with Microsoft giving its streaming server away as part of Windows NT and now with QuickTime offering another relatively free and viable solution; we'll see how much value users really think RealNetworks is adding. I predict that the days of RealNetworks per-stream pricing are numbered. However Real's investments in infrastructure (such as its Real Broadcast Network system of servers) and the investments of its strategic partners (like Broadcast.com, TvontheWeb, InterVU and others) will continue to support Real as the streaming leader, especially for high volume events and at least in the near term.

Certainly, I'll have more to say in future columns about QuickTime 4. (For example, I was especially pleased to see that QT4 includes support for Macromedia's bandwidth friendly, Flash vector format; and I'm impressed with the way that Adobe's new 4.0 version of the GoLive web site authoring tool supports QuickTime's many under-utilized features). However, most importantly, Apple's Open Source approach to streaming servers is designed to capitalize on valuable web dynamics that are playing themselves out in other important ways. It's these dynamics that any video professional (or anyone else for that matter) who wants to enter this market should understand.

BEYOND BROADCASTING
Perhaps some of the biggest issues for video folks to understand about the web (and its enthusiasts, our future audiences) are the extremely dynamic changes that are occurring as we move from broadcasting to micro-casting. This is what author Howard Rheingold calls the shift "from one-to-many media to many-to-many media." A critical component of that transformation is what I call "communities of connectivity." It's illustrated today with e-mail lists and newsgroups; and it also includes "instant messaging" software like ICQ or AOL chatrooms. But underneath it all are new kinds of communication paradigms that are still being invented.

In terms of trying to understand the future of the video and other media distribution on the Web, it's perhaps best illustrated by the MP3 phenomenon (if you missed it, please see last month's Video Web column "Downloading Lives!"). Bottom line, the music industry is literally being turned on its ear by thousands (if not tens of thousands) of musical artists who are finding new and powerful ways to distribute and to sell their own work without the record companies getting a piece of it.

Marketing pundits call this "disintermediation" or the elimination of the middleman. But that's kind of negative. What it's really about is a more people-to-people (rather than a one-way, top-down) model that demonstrates the true power of the Network.

At InternetWorld, RealNetworks' Rob Glaser underscored the fact that his company is first and foremost an Internet company by saying that they understand this kind of "viral" marketing. Perhaps this is an overly dark and inappropriate analogy given the major outbreaks of e-mail viruses lately, but the image is also a vivid one. And it is also accurate both in terms of the organic nature of the way audiences build themselves online as well as in terms of this new grassroots power and its virtual invincibility. The real bottom line on MP3, in my humble opinion, is that there doesn't seem to be anything that the record companies can do about it.

VIDEO ENTERS VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES
Speaking of people-to-people communications, another example is GeoCities (if you haven't been paying close attention to the merger mania, GeoCities is in the process of becoming part of the aggregating Yahoo!/Broadcast.com cyber-media conglomerate). This virtual community pioneer and leader has just launched GeoMedia.

Keep in mind that GeoCities is one of the top five most trafficked sites on the whole World Wide Web - another reflection of the power of "communities of connectivity." GeoCities builds its traffic by offering low-end tools that help people build their own free or simple web sites within 41 virtual neighborhoods (or subject areas). The result is currently about 4 million members who have created 35 million pages of content that attract close to 20 million "unique visitors" a month. Despite its amateurish production values, this is as close to Web "primetime" as it gets (in terms of on-going audience aggregation).

Now, GeoCities is also offering extremely low-cost RealMedia hosting and streaming media creation tools as part of their assortment of packages. These packages range from the free GeoBuilder pages through GeoPlus ($4.95/month) to GeoShops ($24.95/month). GeoMedia costs an additional $4.95 to set up 5MB of video storage with unlimited streaming. An upgrade to 100MB is only $4.95/month.

They also offer "a special customized version" of RealNetworks RealProducer G2 when you sign up for GeoMedia, and they promote the Dazzle Digital Video Creator ($299) as a capture board with software that let's you "splice & dice" digital video.

PEOPLE POWER
I do not bring this up because I think it's a viable solution for professional producers. There are far too many unknown variables in this system as well as likely quality compromises including a lack of professional design control to call it a professional approach. It's more like a "VHS-level" of web production.

However, I believe that it is important to take note of this innovation because it points to dynamic new dimensions of our evolving digital highway. And, most importantly, the juice that's energizing these millions of "channels" is not information. It's people and their creativity.

Therefore, I believe that the ones who will really make the video Web magnificent (especially when it comes to the inevitable upgrade to broadband networks) are producers like you who understand the complexities of video communications. It's important to keep in mind just how radically the digital landscape is changing. As a result, it is inevitable that there will an increasingly diverse array of digital video varieties which will continue to challenge us. Most crucially, they will challenge us to show people the best ways to use them.

The truth is that when you take all of this new technology, new communication platforms, morphing media forms and awesome networking; and then, you mix all of that together into one cyber-pot, there's no telling what you're gonna get. But, one thing I'm certain of is that the best is yet to come. So, as always, I must insist that you stay tuned.