Television: The Next Generation? Who knows. The loose topic went wandering, with Patrick Norton from DL.TV at the lead. He took the bull by the horns and led it in circles. But the guy's clearly a good geek. An editor-turned-producer, he seems camera-ready to be a character on "The Office." (These days, how many people can get away with saying, "Bleeding edge on a stick" and "I was forced into a union"?)
Nicole Carrico, with AOL, put out a solid pitch to indie filmmakers: AOL wants to back new indie talent without "devouring" it. No, really. Hey, I'd email her....
Jay Adelson (CEO of Digg and founder of Equinix) was on the panel representing Revision3, his newly funded Internet television network. He wants to know, What's the TV version of YouTube? Norton the geek: What about the game-box version?
Another question that grabbed the crowd: Who's going to make the directory to YouTube? Apparently, content discovery for 2008 is going to be hell, and there's concern that YouTube could implode under the "wait" (weight?) of its content. It's one of those obvious, but unanswered questions.
Greg Brannan, from MobiTV (which transmits cable TV channels to cell phones for about 2 million subscribers) added a nice level of perspective to the panel with his 20-plus years in the industry. And he (along with Norton) didn't sugarcoat the future for indie filmmakers making self-described art and other self-indulgences: You're doomed to be poor. Wow, that's brave with this crowd. Hope they have bodyguards.
