This week, Forbes published an article written by Chad Hurley on it’s website. I don’t know if the article also appears in print but I imagine it does since on the website it says it’s published date is three days from now.

I expect Forbes to publish a better article than this. Chad spends the entire time talking about how YouTube allows new talent to be discovered and gives people the ability to get in front of a lot of eyeballs and basically just tells us all how great YouTube is. Come on. We all know that YouTube allows new talent to be discovered and allows users to get eyeballs to their videos that normally no one would ever see. Is that the best thing that you can write about?

What about writing an article that explains how you plan to monetize YouTube? Or maybe some details on how the revenue sharing will work for video advertising you plan on rolling out this summer? Why not tell us what it’s been like integrating YouTube into the Google infrastructure? Or better yet, talk about when you plan on rolling out your content filtering technology and what that will entail.

There are so many things about YouTube and Google that people want to know about and probably need to know about that could have been discussed in detail in this article. But instead we just get another piece about how great YouTube is. Disappointing.

Todd O’Neill who is organizing a track on Evolving Delivery Systems for the upcoming Media Communications Association-International conference (ProTracks), is actively looking for some speakers in three areas:

• video production for streaming – SD/HD; production gear; post production
• delivery methods – hosted or not; digital signage; iTunes; Slingbox; Intranet; mulitcast; etc.
• strategies – the "why" of streaming; pitfalls to avoid; enterprise approaches; independent producer approaches; vlogs; etc.

MCA-I (formerly ITVA) is an association of professionals primarily in the corporate and business media space. The show takes place in September in Chicago. Contact Todd O’Neill directly if you are interested.

Microsoft will be making a bunch of announcements this week from their MIX event surrounding Silverlight and StreamingMedia.com’s Editor Eric is at the event and will be covering the announcements shortly.

From the week of NAB, Microsoft was distributing with its press kit the below chart comparing Silverlight’s features and benefits with that of Flash. I have not had a chance to really review them side by side but this is how Microsoft sees their platform stacking up to Flash.

We have some great sessions at the Streaming Media East show, May 14-16 in NYC talking about P2P and other forms of content distribution. One of the sessions on May 15th is entitled "Is P2P The Answer To Large Scale Video Delivery?"

Moderated by Rich Mavrogeanes the Founder and CTO of VBrick, this session discusses whether P2P will finally revolutionize online video distribution. They will discuss whether the cost savings advantage with P2P is real, how P2P will translate into a competitive advantage, how P2P distribution may affect the networks and CDNs and what some of the potential problems are that P2P technology may face from the telco’s. The panelists include:

• Nick Rockwell, CTO, MTV Networks
• Christopher Levy, Chairman, Digital Media Management Working Group, DCIA
• Monty Mullig, SVP, Internet Technologies, Turner Broadcasting System
• Brian Taptich, VP, Business Development, BitTorrent

Register for the show and come hear the debate on whether P2P is the answer to the fundamental capacity limitations for large-scale video audiences for today’s Internet. Are there any topics or points would you like to see discussed at this session? If so, please include them in the comments section.

CMP currently has two Online Media Director positions available to
lead, manage and oversee the digital media strategy for their Channel
(targeting the sellers of technology) and Technology Innovators Group
(targeting the builders of technology). Locations: San Francisco and
Waltham, MA.

For more details, contact Beth Rivera at CMP.

If you are looking for a new position, have taken a new job or are a company that has a job opening, let me know. In many cases I will highlight it here on the blog – free of charge.

I know it may seem strange to ask that question, but part of the problem with P2P technology is that most content owners don’t know what P2P does and does not support. I’m with them. Even I don’t know what P2P distribution can and can’t do. For instance, many P2P providers call their service "P2P streaming" but is it really streaming? If you are not using a Flash Media Server for example, then how are the P2P networks delivering "streaming" Flash video?

There seems to be no standard amongst the P2P providers as to what they all provide, the range of services vary greatly and many speak to P2P as being a live solution, others say only on-demand. Yet what is interesting to note about nearly all of the P2P delivery providers websites is that they all have the exact same sales propositions. All of the sites talk to the same value proposition being
quality, cost and security.

And none of them that I can find talk to reporting, which seems odd. How are the P2P delivery networks going to distinguish themselves from one another? They have to do something, because as of right now, visiting each of their sites, they all sound and look exactly the same.

We have some great sessions at the Streaming Media East show, May 14-16 in NYC talking about user generated content. One of the sessions on May 15th is entitled "User-Generated Content Tools".

Moderated by Steve Bryant, Associate Editor of eWEEK and Hollywood Reporter blogger, this session covers how with more than 50 user generated content sites available on the Web today, what tools are currently being offered and used by consumers for content generation? Learn what tools consumers want, how they manage content today and what the future holds for making consumer-generated content even easier to create, upload, and deliver. The panelists include:

• Chris O’Brien, CEO and Co-Founder, Motionbox
• Matt Sanchez, CEO and Co-Founder, VideoEgg
• Steve Rosenbaum, CEO and Founder, Magnify.net
• Scott Rhodes, CEO, Veotag

Register for the show and see firsthand presentations from some of the leading companies offering tools in this niche vertical. Are there any topics or points would you like to see discussed at this session? If so, please include them in the comments section.