Vloggercon: Where everyone's the media
Up on stage is the team from Rocketboom, the wildly successful video news blog that has evolved into a viable business model. — In the audience is Stephen Voltz, who is just beginning the process of setting up a video blog.
Context & Ripple Effects
Videoblogging spent its first years as a hobbyist scene, but by mid-2006 the money question was on the table — GigaOM had already profiled one startup betting on it with the vPod.tv play in May. Vloggercon is where that arc gets its showcase: Rocketboom, a daily video news blog, is presented on stage as proof a videoblog can sustain a real business.
First-order effects
- Attendees get a working template, not just theory — Rocketboom demonstrates that an independently produced video show can attract an audience large enough to matter commercially.
- Newcomers like Stephen Voltz, who arrived at the conference just beginning to set up his own video blog, leave with both a model and an implicit peer network of people doing the same thing.
Second-order effects
- Infrastructure players like vPod.tv gain their customer base from exactly this wave of would-be Rocketbooms — every attendee who starts a show needs hosting, publishing tools, and eventually monetization.
- Sponsors and advertisers get a cheaper, more targeted alternative to broadcast inventory, since a niche videoblog offers an engaged audience at a fraction of TV pricing.
Third-order effects
- The gatekeeping function of traditional media erodes further: if a two-person shop can build a news franchise, distribution platforms rather than broadcasters become the scarce resource worth fighting over.
- A creator class forms around this pattern — people whose livelihoods depend on direct-audience video — which will push the industry toward dedicated hosting and revenue-sharing services built specifically for them.
The trend: Videoblogging is crossing from DIY hobby to creator-owned media business, with conferences like Vloggercon marking the moment the scene starts organizing around monetization.