Viewfinder: Webmasters Becoming Videomasters

I'd like to welcome a new group of people into the world of video production. The craft of Webmastering didn't even exist just a few short years ago. Today there are thousands of people authoring html pages on the World Wide Web. As of recently, many Webmasters have become curious about video production because they now have the ability to "stream" video from a Web site.
When Web page authoring was a new craft, most Web sites were comprised primarily of text. Some Web sites included a few images, but these tended to slow down the page loading process. People visiting Web sites did not have the patience to wait for images to download. Over the past few years, modem speeds have increased dramatically. Most Web sites today include an abundance of images. As most of you know, in the past year, Webmasters have added lots of other bells and whistles to their Web sites. Streaming audio, animation and slideshows are popular on many Web sites. Although these bandwidth intensive features seem to "slow down" most Internet connections, as mode speeds continue to increase, we will find these on more Web sites. These bells and whistles make Web sites a more robust media experience.
The ultimate media experience is television. Most people believe that, in the near future, people will be viewing Web sites on TV. Microsoft certainly believes this. That is one of the reasons they purchased WebTV for over $400 million.