‘VidBlogger Nation’ aims to leverage best of Internet

video, traditional TV, says show creator

Sep 28, 2011 3:53 PM, By Phil Kurz

Marc Scarpa, founder of SimplyNew Studios, is tapping the creativity of 10 video bloggers to present on-demand cable TV viewers with a fresh, new perspective.

Is there a way to take the best of what video blogging has to offer — namely giving otherwise obscure individuals with a distinct voice a way to reach millions — and the best of what television has to offer —that is sheer ubiquity — combine the two and come up with something that’s even better than the sum of its parts?

That’s exactly what SimplyNew Studios founder Marc Scarpa is trying to do with “VidBlogger Nation,” a social media approach to traditional television rolling out in 10 key markets around the country on Comcast Xfinity On Demand Local.

“VidBlogger Nation” is a series of three- to five-minute shorts told by 10 video bloggers who shoot and edit personal narratives on colorful topics, like naked cocktails and haunted places.

In this week’s podcast interview, Scarpa discusses the project, the technology used to shoot and post the episodes and how he envisions “VidBlogger Nation” tapping the strengths of Internet video and traditional TV to create content he hopes viewers will find fresh and engaging.

http://broadcastengineering.com/news/vidblogger_nation_internet_video_creator_09282011

Rocco Leo Gaglioti, Just an All-Around Good Guy

By Laura Medina

Offended, she tosses her glass of champagne in his face.

“Plenty of Fishes” episode from VidBlogger Nation: New Jersey, Season Three.

The lesson learned in the episode of “Plenty of Fishes,” in Season Three of VidBlogger Nation: New Jersey? Champagne burns.

Photo, on right, by Andrea Hanks.

This is one of numerous projects; Rocco Leo Gaglioti is juggling, in addition to hosting and producing “Fashion News Live” and “Miss Deaf International” Beauty Pageant.

In developing storylines for each and every episodes of Comcast’s VidBlogger Nation: New Jersey, Executive Producer and Creative Director, Marc Scarpa and host/tour guide, Mr. Gaglioti, will get together and brainstorm twenty-four ideas then narrow them down into a manageable set of twelve storylines. One storyline sets the theme for one episode. A set of twelve plots represents a season for Comcast’s VidBlogger Nation: New Jersey.

When Mr. Scarpa came on board to produce Comcast’s local, insider travel show, VidBlogger Nation, utilizing social media, he was hunting for hosts/local goodwill ambassadors that will take the viewer deeper into more intimate, cultural settings in a particular locale. Each VidBlogger host showcases the uniqueness of each locale, whether it is a state, a region, or a city, spread out across the nation.

In searching for the appropriate host for VidBlogger Nation: New Jersey, Scarpa approached Gaglioti about being the host/guide for the Garden State. Despite being born in Winter Park, Florida, Gaglioti spent this childhood summers and vacations in New Jersey with his extended family. Both want this show to be the antidote to “The Jersey Shore.” Redeeming the state in a good light, they want to showcase the full spectrum of the state, from the mountains to the local farmer.

They also use cultural events and unique settings to put the glamorous Gaglioti in a different light, away from the flash and dash of “Fashion News Live.” This is Rocco being Rocco, set in various quirky situations that happens all the time in the normal life of the Garden State, from doing yard work for “The Real Housewives of New Jersey”s Kim G. to hunting for pumpkins on a farm.

In the “Plenty of Fishes” episode, utilizing Comcast’s OnDemand Dating, Gaglioti goes on a series of blind dates. In the face of having champagne burning his eyeballs, he eventually continues onto a second date with another woman in the following episode.

In another episode, his most nerve-wrecking one, he did stand-up in a local comedy club and endured being heckled, a comedian’s necessary evil.

This is where Gaglioti proves he is a good guy.

He knows, from his career trajectory as a model to TV host and producer, being out there then interviewing celebrities or putting himself in all sorts of situations…on television. It is not easy as it looks.

Photo by Andrea Hanks.

Gaglioti always goes out of his way to make everyone comfortable, in front of the camera and behind it. He is consistently conscious about being in somebody else’s shoes.

He constantly repeats, doing a television show is a team effort, crediting his crew for making him look good and making the shows look easy. None of his shows are a one man show. He needs his team. He really gives credits to his camera operator/video editor/associate producer, Juliana Shadlen. He wouldn’t be where he is without her.

“She works with me on everything I work on. Doing these shows is a group effort.”

“It is my team that built me into a brand. If it weren’t for my first show, “Fashion News Live,” Comcast and Marc Scarpa wouldn’t be asking me to host VidBlogger Nation.”

As a favor, Gaglioti returned to the runway for Polish designer, Eva Minge during this past recent New York Fashion Week. Even though, he retired the runway almost a decade ago, after strutting the catwalk for Giorgio Armani, Vivienne Westwood, and Jean Paul Gaultier. Despite, being asked the day before…without time to train, he went ahead anyway, opened then closed the show. “I’m a giver.”

As another form of giving back, Gaglioti co-produces and hosts the Miss Deaf International Beauty Pageant. In two years running, they already live streamed to an audience of 40,000 viewers worldwide.

As a son of a deaf woman, he knows first-hand the demoralization and the degradation of being handicapped and being a woman.

With his mother as the president of the organization and his brother co-executive producing, they are using the show as a platform to empower deaf women, not just recognizing their physical beauty but for their inner beauty, boosting their self-esteem through classes developing their talents, skills, and education. Subsequently, they return home as role models.

None of this, whether it be “VidBlogger Nation: New Jersey” or “Miss Deaf International,” would had happened, if it were not for his first baby, “Fashion News Live.” If it were not for his first online television show, Marc Scarpa would not have approached him to host “VidBlogger Nation:New Jersey.”

Being tagged, “Staple of New York Fashion Week” by Getty Images; Gaglioti lists the distinctiveness of each fashion weeks he covers…

Fast paced New York Fashion Week may be the Holy Grail of fashion weeks with A-List celebrities from fashion and Hollywood but Miami Fashion Week is more laid-back. Fashion shows starting in the afternoon and the atmosphere is hot and sexy.

Paris Fashion Week is risque and very European.

Milan Fashion Week, surprisingly, is where a lot of New York designers have their textiles and clothes made. The style there is flashier.

Los Angeles Fashion Week is for the upstart, risk-taking designers. A smaller market but new things are bubbling up.

Rocco in Peru.

Peru Fashion Week is the most startling. How the designers incorporate their culture and heritage into their textiles and tailoring, it brought his associate producer, Ms. Shadlen, to tears.

Speaking of New York, Gaglioti covered the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, airing on CBS on November 29th at 10pm. Ruffling through all that pink and joking, “Lingerie-the most expensive piece of clothing for the least amount of time wearing.,” he always interview CEO, Sharen J. Turney. “They always put on a good show.”

Having run the gamut from modeling to hosting television shows, they all have one thing in common; Gaglioti constantly putting himself out there. What advice would he give to someone aspiring to be a media personality or celebrity?

“Good one. My advice…because when you put yourself out there…make sure you are really ready. I’ve been called ‘f*ggot.’ I’ve been called every name in the book.” He is one of the very few heterosexual males in a very feminine industry. “Your taste in style has nothing to do with your sexual preference.”

“It is easier to be mean. Apollonia Kotero (of Prince’s “Purple Rain” fame) told me this very early in my career, ‘Gaglioti, you can’t read every comment. You can’t respond to every comment because people are just plain jealous. Just focus on your work and move on.’ People love to rag because you put yourself out there. Don’t get caught up in it.’ Focus on the good and the fun stuff-who wants to be miserable?”

He reminds people that it takes a team, a crew of people to make him, actually everything to look good. He cannot do this all by himself.

What keeps him going, regardless of envious people or having accolades, such as Gen Lux Magazine tagging him, “The Next Ryan Seacrest,” are his team and fans worldwide…and the chance to do some good in the world, discovering fashion talent, showing a state in a good light, or enabling deaf women.

As Gaglioti mentions, why be miserable when you can focus on the good stuff?!”

http://www.newscaststudio.com/blog/2011/09/20/vidblogger-nation-launches-first-social-tv-network

SimplyNew Studios announced the launch of VidBlogger Nation, the first national social TV network.

The network features self-portraits by hometown tastemakers who share the stories of people, places and things in their city from a first-person perspective. VidBlogger Nation rolls out in 10 key markets.

The VidBlogger Nation programming consists of colorful three-to-five-minute episodes on topics ranging from “Naked Cocktails” (a look at best non-alcoholic bars and happy hours) and “Awesome Wi-Fi” (where to go for the best free wi-fi) to “Haunted Places” (visiting sites supposedly haunted by local spirits) and “Music Mania” (a review of the vidblogger?s favorite music). The vidbloggers create, shoot and edit their pieces in their own unique style and these are available on Comcast On Demand as local and national segments.

“We wanted to create a social t.v. look-and-feel that emanated from the web, with a style that fit the locale of the vidblogger?s world, and enabled them to be natural hosts for stories that were authentic to them,” said Marc Scarpa. “As television moves toward an all-IP universe, the grammar of what we watch on t.v. will have more to do with an emerging, and immersive, web presence. Vidblogger Nation is the first step toward blurring the boundaries between web TV and cable TV”

The VidBlogger Nation roll-out will initially include three full seasons for each market, or 360 episodes in the next 90 days. Both Comcast On Demand Local and SimplyNew Studios will consider further markets after the initial run concludes.

Guests: Bloomberg TechStars executive producer Elizabeth Gould, and VidBlogger Nation creator Marc Scarpa.

by Dan Ochiva of New York City Production and Post News

Vidblogger Nation’s Ann Spade gives viewers the low down on Sacramento.

With an economy that’s not getting any better and alternatives like Netflix and Hulu continuing to garner loyalty, cable TV execs worry that a new generation of viewers might not show up.

That’s not a universally held idea. Time Warner’s Jeff Bewkes is among the cable CEOs who spots monthly cable fees as among the last items to feel the hit of a tighter personal budget. But that still doesn’t mean any of the major cable systems view the rise of the Internet lightly.

Case in point: Comcast On Demand Local service recently launched Vidblogger Nation; these short three-to-five-minute episodes by Facebook-aware video bloggers offer takes on local people, places and things. No mystery to this effort: it’s an attempt to pull the younger smartphone-obsessed generation back into the fold. Headed by participatory media director-producer New Yorker Marc Scarpa, the project is available in some 10 markets nationwide at launch.

(To fix its battered customer service reputation, Comcast, the No. 1 U.S. cable TV provider, launched Xfinity early last year. Pushed through by Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, Xfinity re-brands the company’s triple-play service for bundled Internet, telephone and TV, adding tweaks like live sports on the web, improved download speeds and the ability to watch some shows online.)

Heralded by Scarpa as the “first-ever Social TV Network”, local talent with “strong Facebook and Twitter followings” create short diary-style segments on local topics such as fun places to go, local personalities, things to do and other topics not so unlike those that show up in the color segments of local news stations.

Scarpa has built his name on finding ways to use computers, the Internet, cellphone and other technologies to make more interactive experiences for viewers. His varied background includes a gig as the first New York Chair of the Producers Guild of America New Media Council and producing the web show ‘Grammy Live’ for the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards. For a 2007 MySpace streaming of a Linkin Park concert, Scarpa says that he was the first to pull off the intercutting of realtime video from fan’s mobile phones with the concert’s live HD TV feed.

“It’s not a video log, it’s not a reality show, it’s just folks sharing their adventures and experiences with the viewer, who are also participants in the programming,” says Marc Scarpa, founder of SimplyNew Studios, producer of the shows. Comcast ordered some 360 episodes in all, with a decision by the end of November whether to commit to the series.

Scarpa says that TV is moving towards an all-IP universe, with an immersive web presence key to blurring the boundaries between web TV and cable TV. Finding a social TV look-and-feel for the cable giant’s current local fare, which hasn’t changed from standard studio presentations in years, is key.

One major hurdle, however, hasn’t changed since the earliest days of TV and Internet video: whoever is in front of the camera needs to be a compelling actor who can put a narrative across. Scarpa faces an added barrier: a huge corporate structure with layers of management ready to nix content that might be too cutting or salacious, the very spice that pulls in hundreds of thousands of viewers to YouTube and other social media sites.

Would be viewers are left with segments such as “Off Limits”, where erstwhile video blogger Jeff Wisenbaugh “sneaks into Spartan Stadium at Michigan State” and makes a go at not getting arrested, or “Beach Front Fun” where one Ann Spade is “off to the waters!” of the sluggish Sacramento River, which, we’re advised, is the city’s “beach.” Viewers may be unsure if they are instead watching a health report, as they face a number of perky reminders to “put on your sunscreen!”

These are still heady times for the cable industry. But as the main audience for broadcast TV ages, growth is hard to come by—profits are high because a push to offer premium services brings in more money, not more viewers.

Comcast, Cablevision, HBO, Turner and other major cable companies now offer TV Everywhere, which allows subscribers to watch TV shows online. But the audience that watches on a 50-inch plasma in the living room isn’t necessarily the same as those who will watch on a laptop or smartphone.

Cable continues to fight a rearguard action. As new generations turn to Netflix, Hulu and newer options for video entertainment, will they also toss in $100 per month for a cable subscription?

Jenny Scordamaglia: Image of Miami & South Florida at ‘Vidblogger Nation’

Lissette Rondon

Miami Celebrity Fashion Examiner

October 1, 2011

By Lauren Keyson

NY Video, the world’s largest organization of web video entrepreneurs held its monthly meeting late in September to showcase three companies and their shows. My Damn Channel was certainly the funniest. It’s an entertainment studio and distributor of original programming that co-creates branded entertainment and targeted distribution campaigns for major advertisers.

Rob Barnett, founder and CEO talked about the huge hit this fast growing comedy site has become and showed clips from the company’s award-winning original web series.  These have names like “You Suck at Photoshop”, which features Sarah Palin in a bathing suit with a gun – a show that plays in a category that he calls “mockutorial.” It teaches real Photoshop skills, but the person who is teaching has an inner life that is unraveling in every episode in a comedic way.

Other My Damn Channel shows include “Horrible People,” an evil comedic soap opera and “Cooking’ With Coolio,” a cooking show with former rap-star Coolio. “The Worst Generation” is similar to the HBO series “Entourage, “but instead of a group of friends living off the career of one of their house mates who happens to be an actor, this is a group of friends who live off the career of someone who is an actor, it also revolves an actor, but the actor happens to be a dog.  “This studio really seemed like an incredible opportunity,” said Barnett, “Amazing new real estate and a chance for any idiot to jump in and reach hundreds of millions of people — and I wanted to be one of those idiots.”

Another strong presentation came from VidBlogger Nation, the first national social TV network that involves self-portraits by hometown “tastemakers” who share the stories of people, places and things in their city from a first-person perspective.   The company announced its launch at the Meetup.  It’s about 10 unique voices in 10 markets around the U.S. telling their stories and sharing their experiences with their followers and friends. It uses Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to have a collaborative story telling experience with that particular audience.

“We spent a lot of time finding the right folks for this project,” said Marc Scarpa, the creator and executive producer. “A team of producers went through about 4,000 videos in the course of about three and a half months.  We weren’t looking for actors, we wanted people who were passionate about their cities and things that were happening in their lives – so we didn’t have a formal casting process.”

The third video presentation was about the site SeeTheJob.com, a social recruiting and career exploration site for campus recruitment that brings together students, employers and the career services departments to talk about everything related to campus recruitment.  “Students get an inside scoop of life on the job, and it’s all done through video,” explained Ernest Feiteira, VP of business development. ”We provide training for different  careers so students can see, for instance, a critical care nurse  versus an operating nurse on the job talking about what they do.  SeeTheJob.com lets them discover cool careers and takes them behind the scenes at some of the world’s best companies.”

by Larry Kless of ReelSEO

Marc Scarpa, veteran director and executive producer of live interactive media events, has launched the first of it’s kind social TV network with Comcast Xfinity On Demand, called VidBlogger Nation, that brings popular local YouTube talent into the living room of millions. VidBlogger Nation is shot on location by local video bloggers in 10 key markets, including Philadelphia, New Jersey, New England, Atlanta, South Florida, Michigan, Denver, Portland, Sacramento, and San Francisco. The episodes are short 3-5 minute narrative shorts by unique voices from across the country who share colorful stories of people, places and things in their city from a first-person perspective. The VidBlogger Nation roll-out will initially include three full seasons for each market, with over 240 episodes available so far on Comcast Xfinity On Demand local, and they’re in the process of shooting 120 more. Both Comcast On Demand Local and SimplyNew Studios will consider further markets after the initial run concludes.

I caught up with Scarpa on his recent visit to San Francisco where he met with several of his local VidBloggers, including Zennie Abraham (Zennie62), who joined Scarpa in this interview. See Zennie’s article here: Comcast VidBlogger Nation New Video TV Network | City Brights: Zennie Abraham | an SFGate.com blog.

“We’re using a lot of social platforms in order to engage conversation in and around the content that we’re creating. We’re using Facebook, YouTube and obviously Twitter, in conjunction with distributing the content over Comcast On Demand. So really, what distinguishes us from other types of networks is, we’re not a technology platform, we’re really focused on that conversation between the video bloggers themselves and of course amongst their audience.”

Scarpa says that they look at their audience more as followers and friends than as viewers – which is a traditional television approach – to the point that the VidBloggers are really involved with the audience on an honest and genuine way.

“Because it’s their voice that’s being carried throughout the network. It’s their points of view, it’s their opinions, it’s their stories, it’s their experiences that they’re sharing with that audience, and the audience actually helps them create their content.”

Scarpa says it becomes social by engaging the viewers to become involved in the programing decisions, and more importantly, they then become invested in the lives of the video bloggers themselves. This new approach transforms the traditional audience into collaborative partners in a participatory media experience. What also makes VidBlogger Nation unique from traditional broadcast television, says Scarpa, is that they went out and found people who who had stories to tell, as opposed to doing a casting session that would have attracted mainly actors.

“We went and we sought tastemakers, and voices, and personalities, and we actually searched around 3,000 to 4,000 videos in the course of a 4-week period. Then narrowed it down to roughly 100 people, 10 per market, and out of that 10, we then narrowed it down to 1 per market.”

The VidBlogger Nation network talent includes:

• Zennie Abraham, Atlanta, Georgia
• Sarah Austin, San Francisco, California
• Jessica Berry, Philadelphia
• Jen Friel, New England
• Rocco Leo Gaglioti, New Jersey
• Sacha Heppell, Denver, Colorado
• Jenny Scordamaglia, South Florida
• Ann Spade, Sacramento, California
• Tony Thomas, Portland, Oregon
• Jeffrey Wisenbaugh, Michigan

Scarpa says their VidBloggers are already talented producers and great storytellers who shoot and edit their own videos.  He is working closely with each host to supply them with editorial and technical support, content production and legal issues.

“We wanted to create a social TV look-and-feel that emanated from the web, with a style that fit the locale of the vidblogger’s world, and enabled them to be natural hosts for stories that were authentic to them,” says Scarpa. “As television moves toward an all-IP universe, the grammar of what we watch on t.v. will have more to do with an emerging, and immersive, web presence. Vidblogger Nation is the first step toward blurring the boundaries between web TV and cable TV.”

In this interview with Zennie Abraham, (who represents Atlanta), Scarpa says that VidBlogger Nation is not video blogging:

“I’ve always been a big fan of this school of improvisational story-telling, from the reactionary film movement to the John Cassavetes-style of film-making. What really captivated with early independent film and early web videos was this notion of ‘first-person perspective,’ where an individual is empowered to tell their story, there way, and how they want to. Web video has taken that to a whole new level.”

Zennie agrees and says the experience has been tremendous for him:

“What I’ve learned could fill a book, but the basic lesson is that the creative mind can be improved if only it’s working with other creative people. I love learning from Marc and the other vloggers. Frankly, I’m used to just letting it rip with a camcorder, where with VidBlogger Nation, I’ve become much better at telling a story with the camcorder.”

Zennie is one of YouTube’s first Partners, an iReport contributor before it was purchased by CNN and blogs at Zennie62Media.com. Read more of his article here: Comcast VidBlogger Nation New Video TV Network | City Brights: Zennie Abraham | an SFGate.com blog

VidBlogger Nation is a product of Scarpa’s SimplyNew Studios which has long track record of producing and pioneering the live participatory programming genre for television, the web, fashion and music industry, and even the White House with the “Townhall with President Clinton” (now part of the permanent collection of the Clinton Presidential Library).

Scarpa says that the overall goal of VidBlogger Nation is to have a new forum for very talented people, like Zennie and his fellow VidBloggers, who have a voice and help them extend beyond the web into a new market, and a traditional broadcast environment like Comcast provides access to 60 million homes.

Get social with VidBlogger Nation

About Simplynew Studios
Simplynew Studios is a leading developer of participatory media programming and productions, including live television, web, mobile, and on-demand broadcast events. Renowned director-producer Marc Scarpa, a pioneer in the industry who is founding chair of the Producers Guild of America New Media Council East, established the company in 2001. Based in both Los Angeles and New York, Simplynew Studios specializes in multi-platform productions, and have delivered groundbreaking content for customers including Comcast, Sony Music, MySpace, Fox, The Recording Academy (GRAMMY awards), Marc Jacobs International, Woodstock ’99 and the White House among others.

Related:

• Comcast VidBlogger Nation New Video TV Network | City Brights: Zennie Abraham | an SFGate.com blog
• ‘VidBlogger Nation’ aims to leverage best of Internet video, traditional TV, says show creator
• New Social TV Network “Vidblogger Nation” Rolls Out On VOD
• Q+A: Marc Scarpa, Executive Producer, VidBlogger Nation | Studio Daily
• VIDBLOGGER NATION, FIRST NATIONAL SOCIAL TV NETWORK, ROLLED OUT BY COMCAST ON DEMAND LOCAL AND SIMPLYNEW STUDIOS

Comcast VidBlogger Nation New Video TV Network

Comcast Corporation, and Comcast Ventures (the cable giant that’s now merged with NBC and whose unit that will own and operate telecommunications towers) now has “VidBlogger Nation” on its Comcast XFinity on-demand channel system.

VidBlogger Nation is a new concept created by Hollywood producer Marc Scarpa. Marc had an idea of essentially mixing video-blogging with television production processing techniques to create a brand new approach: vidblogging.

VidBlogger Zennie Abraham Interview with Marc Scarpa

Marc, in San Francisco to meet his vid-bloggers (including Sarah Austin in San Francisco, Ann Spade in Sacramento, and this blogger, Zennie62, who represents Atlanta) and the media, is quick to say that what VidBlogger Nation does is not video-blogging: “I’ve always been a big fan of this school of improvisational story-telling, from the reactionary film movement to the John Cassavetes-style of film-making. What really captivated with early independent film and early web videos was this notion of ‘first=person perspective,’ where an individual is empowered to tell their story, there way, and how they want to. Web video has taken that to a whole new level.”

The difference between what Marc is saying and “video blogging” is that with video blogging, as done by me in the classic way, it’s just picking up the camera and talking into it. Now, where I take the camcorder and use it to tell a story of, say, an event, with interviews or people making quips as I did at Comic Con, that’s what Marc would call more in the vidblogger style – close, but somewhat different.

Because its something new, traditional television has been slow to pick up on it, giving a door for Scarpa and for Comcast Corporation and Comcast Ventures to walk through. But first, Scarpa had to find the talent.

There are vid-bloggers representing ten cities in America, from Atlanta, to Portland. As to how this blogger became involved, it was from a recommendation by Ms. Austin to Mr. Scarpa, because I’m a regular vlogger and spend about half my time in Atlanta. Sarah and Marc sent a Facebook message, which led to a long conversation with Scarpa.

What I and other vid-bloggers do is make 2 to 5 minute videos around a set of words like “Favorite Places,” which could lead to a video of favorite places to go in your city, or some other interpretation of the words. You then use the camcorder to take your viewers on a kind of tour of those places, at least where you can get a location release signed to do an interior shot, or do an exterior shot when you can’t, or use photos where available. You combine that with talks, quips, and whatever else to make the final show cut.

The idea is to form a kind of video narrative about the place you live in.

What attracted me to do this were three considerations: first, a chance to really get to know Atlanta and its people, which helps since I go down to be with my Mom often. Second, I really like Marc and enjoy working with him and his team. I’ve never been “produced” before – in other words had an executive producer asking for this or that, so this experience has been tremendous for me. Third, I was flattered that Sarah thought enough of me and my work to recommend me, and that both she and Jen Friel were involved – that was a big consideration. Regular readers may remember my vlog with Sarah at Pop17.com (and now Shaker) a while back…

Also, Jen Friel’s a vid-blogger at TalkNerdyToMeLover.com, who helped me cover the Academy Awards parties in LA this year:

So I did it.

What I’ve learned could fill a book, but the basic lesson is that the creative mind can be improved if only it’s working with other creative people. I love learning from Marc and the other vloggers. Frankly, I’m used to just letting it rip with a camcorder, where with VidBlogger Nation, I’ve become much better at telling a story with the camcorder.

You can see how to catch the work of all of the vid-bloggers on Comcast Corporation and Comcast Ventures here at the VidBlogger Nation Website.

Oh, and if you’re wondering why some cities like Oakland doesn’t have a VidBlogger Nation channel, and others do, it’s up to the local Comcast managers to decide to pick it up. No, the Oakland decision had nothing to do with me, for those who are wondering, I wasn’t even a part of VidBlogger Nation at the time.

But Oakland needs a VidBlogger Nation channel, so Comcast Oakland should take note.

Stay tuned.