You know, one think I love about the Internet industry is that there is always something old, something current, and something which is on the “list of things to happen in the future”. By this, I mean different companies, services, mediums, whatever you call them. But the ones that fascinate me the most are the future ones — services or companies trying to achieve what is yet to be — and there are three in particular that I have been keeping track of in the past few months, and in a way all three of them are related to each other (trying to achieve the same thing in different ways). The three go as follows:
MSpot — Bringing on-demand satellite quality radio to ordinary cell phones – a new medium to distribute streaming media.
Ourmedia.org — Providing free and unlimited storage for audio, video and related formats – a new way to make your voice and distribute your personal media.
Brightcove — Turning the Internet into a TV-like media and your computer screen into a TV – a new way to distribute and stream low-cost and on-demand video (footage).
As you can see, the three start-ups have one similar goal: to change the era of content distribution and to turn the Internet to the default media network. Put it differently, to bankrupt the television and radio industry. No, I’m serious, and so are they, if the Internet was the default medium, we could see much more personal creativity taking place – e.g. you would no longer require TV channels to provide you with the latest crime drama or show you how the meningococcal disease is spreading – it would be there (on the “Internet”) even before the cameramen could setup their tripods!
What we have seen in the past with the newspaper (text) media industry and the “blogosphere”, we’ll see it again, but this time with a different kind of media (video and audio) — and companies like these will do to TV and Radio what companies like Blogger and SixApart did/are doing to the newspaper and professional journalism industry – so when the next tsunami happens, while the local TV channels will be getting their licenses to provide the video footage of how it happened, Bob and Joe (the locals of where the tsunami will take place) will be right there with their digital cameras and microphones, streaming their footage through Ourmedia.org and Brightcove, while the rest of the world listens to it through MSpot, and then you’ll be able to see the TV and Radio people say “The tsunami that took place two days ago…” 
