Amanda “Rocketboom” Congdon has been unboomed! What a bummer since I really enjoyed her vlog on Net Neutrality. She did not specify the reasons for the break-up or where she will go, but I have a suggestion.
Folks at PodTech should hire her – right away! (Doh… Scoble is already thinking along those lines.) With Scobelizer already in the house, they have the whole vlogging podcast thing almost figured out. Add Amanda to the mix, and they become a serious player in the video-podcasting business. Vlogs are more fun, and are likely to get more mainstream interest than podcasts. (Okay that is just my theory!) If done right, video podcasts can become big money earners, since they get higher CPMs. Say what John?
Update: Andrew Barton says Amanda decided to move on. To pursue Hollywood dreams.
My understanding is that Amanda planned to (or had moved) move to LA to pursue a broader career in Hollywood. She wanted to stay with the show, but the Rocketboom folks did not want to keep her on under those terms (i.e. living in LA). Likely more to the story, i.e. Amanda was getting bigger than the show.
I think the more interesting thing to watch will be how the show fares without her and how she does without the show. With both get bigger? Both get smaller? Or will one trump the other? It will be fun to watch.
Om, I’ve got a response from Andrew Baron here:
http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2006/07/05/andrew-baron-responds-to-amandas-video/
If this isn’t a stunt for publicity, then I wonder what kind of affect it will have on investment in video bloggers. This kind of news is probably throwing Tivo into a fit. Its going to make the entire ‘community created content’ look like a bunch of unreliable hacks (which they are). It could cause advertisers to take a step back before approaching content creators.
When there is almost no investment required by the content creator to make their product, then there is nothing much keeping him from walking away from his ‘project’ and leaving others hanging.
Om
She does explain why she’s leaving – in her view, Andrew is no longer interested in being her partner.
There’s a transcript over her announcement over at VPN:
http://www.videopodcastingnews.com/2006/07/05/amanda-congdon-leaving-rocketboom/
I wonder if they will both just fade away…
Such drama. Dress Om in a skimpy outfit and he can be the next host.
jason
you so don’t want that. i know it is a visage that could scar generations – no even i cannot take that chance. 😉
I’ll definitely miss her … she added some “class” to the whole video podcasting thing.
You could tune to http://www.mobuzz.com – they got a girl by the name Karina Stenquist. She’s pretty entertaining in her own way.
Rocketboom is not a “video podcast”. Rocketboom is a Vlog.
Well John, apparently “video podcast” beats out “vlog” and “vodcast”.
I think I messed up the URL:
http://www.google.com/trends?q=“video podcast”, vlog, vodcast
Re Podtech hiring Amanda, it sounds like that a few of us sent the same idea over to John…
Valleywag claims this is about to get ugly?
As for the distinction between “vlog” or “video podcast” why dont we just call it “video”? Trying to coin a term as ugly sounding as vlog just smacks of trying to sound visionary.
Podtech would probably love to have Amanda working for them, but after having gone over Amanda’s resume on her personal website it seems to me that no matter what she does in the realm of podcasting, vloging, video podcasting or whatever Doctorow & Co. want to try coining this week is not going to have the kind of viewership she wants.
Lets be honest here, Rocketboom is hugely popular among the Web 2.0/podcasting savvy people and their friends. However, even with the kinds of numbers I seem to recall Andrew Barton tossing around on the This Week In Tech podcast he participated in those numbers would amount to statistical noise in viewership numbers for a popular television show.
As for Calcanis offering a opening for Amanda to work for AOL under the Netscape brand I think its a desparate grab by Calcanis to make folks at Cnet and elsewhere pay any attention to Netscape still. After all, Calcanis had to copy/mimic Digg 2.0 just to get Cnet to even bother mentioning the name Netscape in a story. Netscape would be a step up from Rocketboom in some ways, but would still severly limit Amanda’s potential to gain better visibility as personality that the average person on the street would recognize which I think is her reason for gravitating to Los Angeles.
well since everyone is calling it vlog, well lets go with it. we do get the general idea. not to nit pick!
jeff,
clearly we all are thinking along the same lines. the damn group think. bah… need new friends.
The mobuzz.com girl is overly emphatic and kind of annoying. Watch her muted, and you’ll see what I mean.
Amanda might have been cheesecake, but she was easier to take. I can’t see her not finding a new partner, even if she can’t use the name rocketboom. Boomrocket anyone? Ooops. It’s taken.
Vlog? Yuck, especially because it’s probably pronounced vlawg. What’s wrong with vodcast? You don’t see plog anywhere.
I think you’re right on the vlog thing Om but I’d never employ someone who chooses to put an internal dispute into the public domain. It’s juvenile, egotistical and a guaranteed turn off to corporates who might be teetering on the edge of coming into this medium. Bad day for the biz.
Om,
I think you need to stop thinking with the little head and start thinking with your big head. Amanda was funny but there are alot of funny ppl. Lets face it. If she was not a tall, sexy blonde the show would never have been nearly as popular. It just goes to show you how superficial our culture and how hard up the propeller head set is for female attention.
-Dave
It’s a shame what happens when creativity talent money = drama. They’re both very talented and will do just fine.