History of vlogging

[Smashing]

milowent said:

...this whole series could not have existed before vlogging was something people did. and that didn't reallly happen until, um, early in 2006? youtube debuted only in 2005....

I'd like to point out that technically people have been vlogging since at least 2000, but it wasn't called as such. In 2004 there was some sort of tipping point in terms of the number of people with high-speed internet for videoblogging to become a phenomenon, and it did. A year before YouTube existed, a vlogoshpere emerged. I know because, though I never vlogged, I followed several of their vlogs and was captivated by their stories and their conversation with each other. There were articles in the NYT and Businessweek and interviews with vloggers on NPR, just like there are now with YouTube "stars." But they were spread out all over the internet. What YouTube did was put it all under one roof. One-stop shopping for all your online video needs. In the process, it totally overshadowed what had been going on, and rightly so. When the history books are written on vlogging, YouTube will be what people remember, but they didn't start it.

Links for the vlogosphere 1.0:
community.vlogmap.org/
www.freevlog.org/
www.vloggercon.com/
www.node101.org/
wearethemedia.com/

Oh, and about the vloggercon. It looks like they've kinda neglected the site since last year, but it's worth noting that a bunch of vloggers from around the country and even the world paid their own way to San Francisco for a convention, just because they were really into vlogging. So the idea that YouTube must have paid people's way to their "as one" gathering because otherwise it would be impossible, doesn't hold up. I'm not saying YouTube didn't pay, I'm just saying it's entirely possible the vloggers would be willing to do it on their own.

[trash180]

Nice point. Thanks for the heads up.

[milowent]

Smashing - Thanks, i didn't know that. Who were the top vloggers pre-Youtube, in your opinion?

[Smashing]

It wasn't as easy to rank people, since views and subscribers (via RSS) were not usually posted like on YouTube. In fact, much of the original vlogosphere shunned YouTube because they didn't think vlogging should be competitive. They also didn't like the "ugly" design of the site and the embedded player. That was a very unfortunate stance, because they obviously missed out, and continue to miss out on all the exposure. But then, for most of them, it's not about fame.
I'd say the top of pre-YouTube vlogging was Rocketboom. They claimed ratings equivalent to the lowest-rated cable TV shows in 2005. I have no idea what their viewership is these days, but they are no longer on iTunes most subscribed podcast list, and the days where they were actually eBaying adspace on their show for tens of thousands of dollars were extremely short lived. If they moved to YouTube now, they probably couldn't get arrested. There were a lot of parallels to the LG production, despite the obvious difference in format. If the parallels continue, Jessica Rose will leave LG and be replaced by a new actress, and while the show will continue, it's viewership will plunge and the show will be largely forgotten as people focus on whatever is the "next big thing."

[milowent]

i know i've heard of rocketboom, i'll need to check that out. this history of vlogging thing is interesting. bree couldn't have happened without it, but the concept of vlogging sank into my consciousness without me noticing it.