Online Media Cultist

The “lifestreaming” phenomenon streams onward and upward, or at least a few companies in the venture capital space hope so.

Ustream.tv is announcing that it is raising $11.1 million, which is on the heels of Qik’s $3 million round.

In late March I noted this about Ustream: It’s a potent and timely mix, video and social networking and a real-time communications experience. I’m curious to see where this will go.

In my view, Ustream is a lot stronger and healthier platform as compared to Qik, which centers around live video streaming from mobile phones. I think this space will be huge in a few years (and perhaps less, who knows?) but the quality of the video I’ve watched on Qik has been bad enough to make me shut it off. Whereas with Ustream it’s a lot easier to “get”: (watchable) live video broadcasting with a suite of easy-to-use social networking and chat features built around it. Great place to go if you want to set up your own video chat show. Host impromptu live meetings by making an announcement on Twitter or another real time communications application where you can reach a lot of people immediately. Get it, makes lots of sense.

I haven’t played with Qik a lot so don’t want to be totally unfair to it, but I sense that it has a ways to go before it can attract a huge audience. And perhaps it’s unfair to compare Ustream and Qik directly as they are not exactly the same. If Qik can improve video streaming quality (no easy task!) it could be a killer app. And for all I know it just might be anyway: people love using their mobile phones to do so, and if you can stream live video and create an audience around that, that will certainly catch on.

Other lifestreaming-type services include Kyte.tv and Justin.tv. I haven’t head a lot about Justin.tv of late, but it seems to be quietly streaking up the Alexa rankings at the least, clocking in under the 1000 mark yesterday.

So that might help us to understand why there’s a spurt of funding going on round the lifestreaming junction at the moment.

The TechCrunch 50 versus DEMO battle is raging.

What’s interesting to me this morning is the part of the story that is developing on places like Twitter and UStream.tv.

In fact, I believe it was Michael Arrington’s comment that “DEMO must die” on Twitter that kicked off the wave of coverage this morning.

As the media wave ramped up, Jason Calacanis then announced on Twitter that it was time to head over to Ustream.tv for an “emergency meeting” of the “Jason Nation.” Calacanis partners with Arrington on TechCrunch 50 so it’s not hard to imagine which side he is on.

Calacanis, with his 15,000+ Twitter followers, managed to bring more than 300 people to the impromptu live streaming event on Ustream.

I will now present some choice Calacanis quotes from the meeting, which speak for themselves:

“Entrepreneurs are being asked to pay $18,500 for 6 minutes on stage. BOOO! That’s right it’s terrible. It’s so ridiculous that DEMO is charging that much.”

“We at Jason Nation need to stand up to this abusive practice”

“TechCrunch50 does not abuse the entrepreneurs. We are entrepreneurs ourselves. Can I get an amen?”

“We will not stand for the abuse of our fellow entrepreneurs.”

“Conference payola is wrong!”

“They had 60 or 70 companies last year pay that fee. It’s criminal!”

“The power of Calacanis compels you!”

More than the Tech Crunch 50 v. DEMO battle royale, I’m fascinated by the way in which services like Twitter and Ustream are shaping communication, collaboration, and media coverage.

My prowlings around the interwebs today provoked some thoughts about three unique and up-and-coming players on the interwebs landscape.

Ustream.TV

Ustream.TV is a “live interactive video broadcast platform.” It combines live video streaming with live chat and throws some basic social networking features into the mix. What that means is that you can run a live show while at the same time allowing live chat to take place among chatters in which the show host or hosts can also take part. Further, you can also partake in “non-live” interaction such as show page commenting.

It’s an interesting and slightly odd mix, driven by the eclectic and slightly oddball lineup of offerings that ustream has on tap. For example, a quick browse around the site shows a Johnny Knoxville (of Jackass fame) show, Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis basically responding verbally to chatters while he worked away on other stuff, and some sort of live feed provided by the San Diego Police.

It’s a potent and timely mix, video and social networking and a real-time communications experience. I’m curious to see where this will go.

Friendfeed

Everyone keeps on talking about Friendfeed, and it certainly has that early Twitter buzz out of the blogosphere thus far. SEO and Tech Daily posits a few ideas as to why the “frenzy” continues, such as riding the buzz (correctly and well, presumably) and releasing an open API at the right moment.

Friendfeed is a great and powerful and simple product: you sign up and people can then track all of your publishing online, from blog posts to comments to twitter tweets, to social networking profile announcements. The downside to this of course is that it can make you too visible, particularly when seeing comments and thoughts posted out of context and in a huge stream. There’s the thought too that people can have an extraordinarily close insight to all your online doings, movements, and communications as well. Of course, many people love this idea – particularly bloggers and web entrepreneurs, so power to all of y’all of them.

Twitter

I’m kind of back in the Twitter fold after an absence of many months. (Are some of my comments about Friendfeed above somewhat paradoxical considering this last statement? Probably!) It really is a fun way to “listen in” on thoughts and links and short and concise blurbs from a select group of people around the globe in nearly real time. The key word here is select. I’m trying to cull the list of people I’m following to people I know personally, people I admire and trust and who provide great lists, and people who are really interesting… like the fake Capt. Mal Reynolds profile, of course.

Here’s my Twitter page. Enjoy!