Internet TV – Joost and Miro

Steve Borsch at Connect the Dots has a post today titled “Two approaches to internet TV: Joost and Miro.”

I’ve left a brief comment there, but wanted to expand on it here. This isn’t just a question of two different approaches to delivering Internet TV – it’s a fundamental difference of passive consumption versus active participation.

The fundamental difference between Joost and Miro is seen in these two quotes.

From the Joost FAQ, section on “Content Related Questions, ” the question is “Can I upload my own videos?“:

Not at the moment. Right now, we’re concentrating on high-quality TV content from well-known TV brands, so that we can provide entertainment to the widest possible audience. Future versions of Joost may allow you to upload your own material, but we have no immediate plans for this.

As opposed to, on the GetMiro site, the entire first-level tab called create, where one reads:

How do I get my Videos on Miro?

Miro converts any media RSS feed into a channel. Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of RSS — it’s an open distribution format that works with Miro, iTunes, and lots of other tools. Many blogs and video sharing services automatically generate an RSS feed. Once you have a feed that works in Miro (please test it first!), you can submit it to the Miro Guide.

With pointers to the Make Internet TV site, where you’ll find:

We have created a detailed set of guides for shooting, editing, publishing, and promoting internet video. We think it’s the best resource anywhere. If you are getting started with creating internet video or if you want to learn more about a specific topic, it’s the best place to start.

To me, this is the clear difference between Internet TV imagined as something brought to you by “well-known TV brands” (turning the internet into TV) versus Internet TV imagined as something inherently participatory (turning TV into the internet).

It shouldn’t be hard to tell which one runs on my machine(s).

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