Another killer day in your crappy cubicle... not... The New York Times today published a story about Inc Magazine. Last month, Inc engaged in the 'very radical' idea of trying to publish their monthly magazine from home. That is, all the staff would work from home. This is not news to us.  We've been doing this for years. The very heart of the VJ revolution is that once you have skilled people with cameras and laptops, they don't need an 'office'. Most of them don't even want one. And we find it works better that way. Much better. The VJ Revolution is driving change in more places than just the viewfinder. Read all about it here.

Can video be far beind? The New York Times today declared the profession of professional photographer pretty much dead. As with much in The Times, it's about 10 years late, but now that the Times has said it, there is no arguing the point. Professional photography died a victim of digital technology. Pretty much anyone with a point and shoot camera, uploading to the web, can now handle the global demand for photos. And what happened to photography is going to happen to video, or is just staring to happen. But while the demand for photography was limited to a few magazines and a few ads, the demand for video is limitless. And with the arrival of iPads and video enabled iPhones, that limitless is going to get even more limitless (if such a thing is possible). Home video production may prove to be the number one growth industry for the next decade and beyond. Read all about it here.  

Every once in a while you come across a book that is life-changing. Len Shlain's The Alphabet v. The Goddess was such a book. Shlain, who sadly died last year, predicted that as we moved from a text-based culture to an image based one, we would see an ascendence in the power and position of women. The roots of this, he said, was in the way our brains are wired, and has been true since pre-writing days. All of this must have seemed a strange abstraction, until now. Yesterday's NY Times contained a piece by Nick Kristof entitled Why The Boys Are Falling Behind. Shlain was, in fact, right. Read the whole story here.  

Wow! KILLER SHARKS OF SOUTH AFRICA! Like it? Would you watch it? We ran a VJ training session in Cape Town, South Africa last month and this idea for a series came out of it. Check out our promo video: http://www.nyvideoschool.com/blog/user/michael/KILLER-SHARKS-OF-SOUTH-AFRICA-Pitching-a-series What do you think? Will it fly?

The holy grail of video has always been to make it look at good as film. Now, it seems that the 'film barrier' might have been broken! Zacuto, an equipment company, has conducted The Great DSLR Shootout. The results may surprise you. This could be a real game-changer, not just for video and TV but for feature films as well. Suddenly, film quality could be within reach for just about everyone.  

The New York Times launched it's daily online webcast, TimesCast yesterday. It was terrible. Like many print organizations, they put stuff into video that they would never tolerate in print. If you want to do video, it has to be as good as your print and writing. This one is not.  

Anyone can start a local news webcast. All it takes is a video camera, a laptop and a little creativity. But what happens next? What is the future for hyperlocal webcasting. Former MTV employees Morgan Hertzan and Joseph Varet may have found one solution.  They founded Code.tv to cover lifestyle and real estate stories in NY for the web. Later, they sold the content to Taxi TV (the videos you see in the back of cabs).  They created a webcast show about NYC Real Estate hosted by Sara Gore (no relation to Al). Then, NBC Universal bought Code.tv and hired Hertzan and Varet to retool their webisodes into a daily local show for WNBC in NY, the number one market in the country. Today, their show, LX.TV airs daily on WNBC/4. Nice. And a nice model for the rest of the nation.  Create, craft and fine-tune online and then transit to air or cable. And it's even nicer that anyone can create the content. We like this a lot. A lot.

Last month, the Travel Writer's Exchange (www.travel-writers-exchange.com) ran a competition for travel writers. First prize: a 12-month subscription to NY Video School. Yesterday, Director Trisha Miller announce a winner: Melvin Boecher from Traveldudes.org, a German based travel website. Congrats to Melvin, and welcome to the NY VIdeo School family. We look forward to hearing from you, and seeing you videos! Meanwhile the Travel Writer's Exchange is a great place to find out how to turn your travel writing passion and hobby into a paying career.  Check them out here.  

Beet TV today announced that Reuters, the global news organziation, will begin to purchase news videos from independent (ie Citizen) journalists. This is a big step forward both for Reuters and for independent video news gatherers. This comes on the heels of The BBC's embrace of Citizen Journalists, announced by the Beeb last week. We fully expect that other major news organizations will now follow suit.  The technology makes this inevitable, but it opens the door to whole new revenue sources for independent video makers. Congrats! For those doing business related video, check out Reuters Insider. It's a new service from Reuters that empowers to you to embed your video content into the workflow of hundreds of thousands of financial professionals worldwide. By leveraging the dynamic, multimedia platform of Reuters Insider you can distribute research, market commentary, morning calls and trade ideas straight to the desktop and mobile phones of Thomson Reuters customers.  

The BBC, on the cutting edge of the VJ revolution in 2000, is now reaching out to embrace Citizen Journalists and make them part of the regular newsgathering processes for The BBC. This is a big step forward and major recognition for a concept that is already a reality on the ground. Kudos to The Beeb, and great news for anyone who believes in a Free Press and citizen journalism. And, of course, you can't be a citizen journalist unless you know what you are doing. More info HERE.