Jay says:

this is a good way to explain it.

html can give you the look you want...but its no good for updating.

WP makes it eay to update, but so far has been difficult to get the look you want.

This is what we're trying to solve.

great style. easy management.

Jay says:

We are allowing the Videoblogger to think of her whole archive as one body of work.

anytime she posts a new video, any part of her archive can be used to build up her latest work.

her body of work then becomes an ongoing story that keeps replaying itself in different forms as new videos are created.

So as a regular viewer, I get to see how she related her most recent video with what she's done inn the past and make connections to things I never understood before.

Cheryl says:

It goes back to what someone already mentioned - using WordPress as a Content Management System (CMS) rather than as a traditional chronological blog.

Looking at the geobeats.com example - specifically the Editor's choice area - that could be done with WordPress by designating an "Editor's choice" category of blog post and drawing excerpts from the latest 3 posts in that category into an assigned area on the front page. It would still most likely pull those post excerpts in chronologically, but so long as the editor makes a new entry from time to time, the latest entry would replace older ones.

Accomplishing this takes someone to understand the WordPress template code enough to modify it. That's why we've been working on different themes for Show in a Box users. The goal is to change the WordPress templates so they don't look so bloggy, and also create custom presentational styling to go along with these template changes. And then it will also take some training for the users - so they can define the different categories they want, and designate which post categories (and how many posts) get pulled into what area on the page.

Changing WordPress default templates + Custom presentational styling + User training. (Don't forget, that formula doesn't include the plugins - which also have to get integrated into the templates + styling + user training!) That combination will eventually get us there. It's slow going but we're on it.

Milt says:

This notion of the doc/filmmakers  and bloggers not connecting is also

something that I've noticed.  I believe that it's because the

filmmakers have this notion that they are more special than bloggers,

and they are not seeing the amazing potential out there.  Bloggers

have come a huge distance since the beginning, and continue to

advance.  I believe in fact that the bloggers of today ARE the

filmmakers of tomorrow.  People just don't get the convergence, or

something - they don't realize that the work that bloggers are doing

IS in fact the same sort of stuff that indie producers have been doing

for a long time.  The real difference and maybe this is what is really

happening is that bloggers are out there giving their stuff away.

Filmmakers are trying to raise lots of money because they feel that

that's how it happens - that this is the way that it is done.  And of

course - it is the way it has been done.  But it's all changing.

Yesterday, when I did my first interview for the SIAB intro piece -

with Michael Verdi, I began to see that we SIAB'ers are really on the

cutting edge of a new paradigm.   I know people hate that word but it

does describe what is going on.  At the end of the interview, Michael

started talking about Pledge Drive.  This I believe - more than the

artistic form that we are all working on with the modifications of WP

- is really the key element that will transform the production and

sale of media/art in the world.

We need a new model of selling our work.  Speaking for myself, I want

to make my living doing my art, and getting paid by the people who

like it.  I don't want to set up a "lowest common denominator" website

that attracts hundreds of thousands of viewers - and thus becomes a

vehicle that advertisers find attractive.  I would rather keep getting

better and better in my productions, and have people get it that they

can support my work by sending a monthly subscription.