I stayed up well past 1 am this morning watching, in RealVideo, the ABCnews.com webcast of the 5th annual Webby awards (see my column and visit the Webby site
for a complete list of winners.)
With a dial-up connection, the video is herky-jerky. But I had a broadband cable modem hookup and, after clicking over to watch in full-screen mode, I have to say it was the best quality webcast I’ve ever seen, with very smooth video, excellent sound and few of the irritating congestion lockups that seem to disrupt most live streams. I actually forgot I was watching it on my computer monitor, that’s how TV-like the experience was.
We still have a long way to go until webcasts are a viable alternative to TV, but as broadband becomes more common and technology keeps pushing the envelope, there’s no doubt that day is coming. Hats off to ABCnews.com, which set a new standard in streaming video reliability.
Sam Donaldson hosted the a pre-wards show but seemed a strange choice. He made an embarrassing gaffe in introducing the president of software maker Adobe when he said that the company had nothing to do with the Internet. Adobe, of course, as anyone remotely familiar with technology knows, makes the software that powers virtually every major website out there. Donaldson tried to explain away the miscue by saying he was only reading the TelePrompTer but, come on now, didn’t he read it beforehand? Does that mean all his remarks were scripted?
To his credit, despite prodding by the man behind the Internet gloom and doom site fuckedcompany.com, Donaldson refused to say the F-word on the air. But in general, Donaldson was irritatingly affable and so enthusiastic about the Internet that he lobbed softball questions at his guests and seemed more like an infomercial host that a serious newsman.
One more thing: After watching many of the winners, I came away from the show with the clear and distinct feeling that it’s no wonder so many dot-coms are bombing. So many of the people behind these sites seemed so self-absorbed and immature that they were pretty hard to take seriously.
