Peter Diamandis Explains Why We Need the X Prize

Fresh from his appearance at the Long Now Foundation, which you can see here, X Prize chief Peter Diamandis presents an extraordinary EG '08 presentation, including video of physicist Stephen Hawking floating in space. Now, the automotive X Prize, bringing to market a new generation of cars. In a chat we had backstage, Peter asks the question: "What is on the intersection of audacity and achievability?"

FORA.tv Staff Favorites: Philip Zimbardo on the Psychology of Time

In a recent video post, psychologist Philip Zimbardo discusses his findings while writing The Time Paradox. He divulges in how each of us perceives the concept of time and how it affects our way of interacting and living. It's absolutely fascinating.

After learning of the two time-oriented personalities, I challenge you to reflect on which is a better representation of you: present hedonistic or future oriented.

Until next time, greetings from Maureen!

Personal Courage: Ken Kamler and Peter Coyote

Prolific actor and writer Peter Coyote gives the history of the Diggers and, in the process, San Francisco in the '60's at a Book Passage reading of Ringolevio, in honor of author and friend Emmett Grogan. He reads his own preface and sections from the book and discusses his own political odyssey, and struggles. It is an intimate look at local and national politics from one of the great voices of film and TV.

On today's FORA front page, another EG Conference gem, this time from Ken Kamler, the heroic Everest doctor from the ill-fated 1996 expedition immortalized in film and literature ("Into Thin Air," etc.). The audience hears both extraordinary acts of personal courage and endurance, and painful, revealed moments as the trip turned tragic for several climbers. Backstage at the Conference, Michael Cronan asked Ken about his personal preparation for the climb as a doctor, his relationship with his Sherpa guide and how climbing brings out the best in him. Kamler told Cronan, "It does bring out what I think is the best in me, pushes me to my limits and it shows me I have more in me than I ever thought I had. If you don't test yourself in some way, you'll never find out what you've got inside you... It challenges me to bring out the best qualities that I think I have in me, which would otherwise maybe lie dormant." I have the interview on one of the Flip video cams FORA distributed for backstage discussions at the Conference and will try to edit and post it tonight (blogger software does not allow large files).

Cronan, Wurman and Ferren at EG 08

FORA.tv has published thousands of public forum events online and we have been using Flip video cams to explore what happens backstage at events from the Aspen Ideas Festival to the Democratic and Republican Conventions to last weekend's EG: The Entertainment Gathering at the storied Monterey Conference Center. So, it was a joy to watch Michael Cronan, creator of the FORA.tv brand and one of America's great designers and brand builders, chat with Ricky Wurman and Bran Ferren on how the Pantheon was REALLY built. And why there has never been a Nobel Prize in Mathematics.

EG 08 Conference: The Master (Ricky Wurman) Speaks

Two men who greatly influenced the birth of the FORA brand are Ricky Wurman and Michael Cronan. Wurman is the original impresario behind TED and EG, and provided me with much valued advice at the end of the EG 08 Conference (thanks for the 3 P's, Ricky). The TED Conference has been around a quarter century; the poster for the 1997 NY TED proudly hangs in my office, signed by attendee Peter Max. Michael and Ricky go way back, and I had the chance to record some of their backstage conversations on my Flip video cam (the ultimate in convenience, not always the ultimate in audio capture in a noisy room). Here are Michael and Ricky on the joys of learning and the influence of Louis Kahn.

EG 08 The Entertainment Gathering now on FORA.tv

Check out the string of programs we are presenting from the just completed EG '08 conference in Monterey, California. First up is a hilarious look at technology by The New York Times' David Pogue whose presentation is book-ended by two piano performances that are not to be missed. On today's home page, a showstopper from MythBuster's Adam Savage on the mind of the obsessed. I ran into Wired founder and chocolate maker Louis Rossetto at the event, who described the similarities between starting media and chocolate businesses and why, sorry, David, the New York Times will not be around in 5 years.

FORA.tv Staff Favorites - Pitcairn: A Paradise Lost

Now that 2008 is almost over, I thought I'd take a quick look back at one of my favorite FORA.tv programs that I've come across all year.

Kathy Marks' discussion on her book Pitcairn: Paradise Lost is a riveting and disturbing look at a remarkably isolated society in the South Pacific. Populated almost entirely by descendants of the mutineers from the H.M.S. Bounty, the tiny British colony of Pitcairn Island found itself reluctantly thrust into the international spotlight several years ago in a series of highly-publicized sexual assault trials involving many of the island's top leaders.

Here's my take on Marks' excellent presentation of this fascinating story.



In this highlight, Marks explains the bizarre social dynamics at work on the island, where accused rapists must work side-by-side with the very men whose daughters they've been accused of raping:



For more information, please check out the full program on FORA.tv, courtesy of our friends at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

A quick correction: in the video, I describe Marks as an Australian journalist. I think she's actually British.

Battle of Ideas: Outside the Walls

I just can't get the Battle of Ideas out of my head. I finally looked at some of the flip video footage we gathered. The amazing thing is the folks continue the conversation well after the events. I know this happens to some degree after public forums amongst friends or couple attending, but not to the degree it took place at this convention.



At the pub, party . . . on the street . . . in the hallways of the venue, people were engaged. Watch Stuart and me and some of the attendees get it on.

"Can the state of the Jews be a democracy for the 20% of its citizens who are not Jews?"

The question posed by Asher Susser of Tel-Aviv University in the first discussion of the day. His answer is "yes." You'll have to watch the program to hear his argument.

FORA.tv Hits Oxford

Finding myself with a camera and an open weekend in the UK I headed up to Oxford to film the 2008 International Conference "Challenges Facing Israel at 60" at Oxford's Said Business School. The conference organizer just announced FORA and its embeddable player to a packed audience in Said's main auditorium.

This isn't FORA's first appearance in Oxford but it's gratifying to see the platform getting traction in one of the world's great centers of discourse and public knowledge.

Israel's Minister of Education Yuli Tamir is currently discussing attitudes and tolerance toward minorities (especially Arabs) in the Israeli state. Worth a watch for anyone with an interest in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

We have had a couple pretty good days in traffic over the last couple of days. This is what getting your video on the front page of Digg does to your site:




One of the video's is still there as of 9:45am this morning. Check it out:
http://digg.com/videos

FORA.tv at the Battle of Ideas - London

Stuart Schulzke and myself flew to London to film over thirty panels at this year's Battle of Ideas. Along with videographer Robert Recht (an ex-pat living in London) and the dedicated staff of WORLDwrite, FORA will be posting most of the panels from the festival over the next several weeks. Keep an eye on the Institute of Ideas channel.

Last year, Trevar accompanied Stuart to the Battle of Ideas. Next year, I anticipate an arm wrestling contest. And I have to say, I built up some extra muscle in the evenings with my pub related elbow bends.

Here is a little vid to give everyone a little context of setting.

IDEA Slam! - What Should the Candidates Be Talking About?

On October 15, 2008, FORA.tv threw its first IDEA Slam! to view and discuss the third and final Presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain.

As a lead up to the debate, we asked people what they thought the candidates should be talking about. Check out the embedded video below to hear what people had to say.

FORA.tv's YouTube 5000 Subscribers Spectacular

FORA.tv has recently hit several important milestones on our YouTube channel: Since we first launched in late August 2006, we've managed to rack up an amazing 5000 subscribers, 100,000 channel views and 3.5 million video views. In honor of these landmark numbers, Maureen and I put together this short video celebration. Well, it's actually a video of the description of the "big, fancy, hilarious, awesome" celebration we had planned, but weren't able to shoot in time since we're all so busy around here dealing with the U.S. Presidential election. So...yeah. Sorry about that. But I'm sure this is almost as good.

In all seriousness, we're extremely grateful to all of our subscribers for their continued support of FORA.tv on YouTube. Thanks, everybody.

FORA.tv IDEA Slam! - Debate Reactions

On October 15, 2008, FORA.tv threw its first IDEA Slam! event to view and discuss the third and final Presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain. Participants gave their thoughts on the evening's matchup immediately following the debate.

A quick disclaimer: although several FORA.tv friends and staff members have managed to make their way into the video below, the statements featured in this video are not in any way intended to represent the opinions of FORA.tv as a company.

Why Gerard Baker is a Fan of FORA.tv

In the age of the television sound bite, when it's very hard for anyone to get a word in on television that last for longer than about 2.5 seconds, FORA.tv is a rare breath of fresh air and opportunity to explore issues in depth - Gerard Baker




Thanks Gerry!

Why Norman Ornstein is a Fan of FORA.tv

The opportunity to be able to go at any point to the web and hear from people who can teach all of us about things that are going on, or make us think, is just invaluable. And FORA.tv is doing it in a way that nobody else is - Norman J. Ornstein




Thanks Norm!

Obamamania, to the Barracuda to the Mall of America: Two Weeks of Conventino Mayhem

Hours after I picked Trevar up at the Denver airport two weeks ago today we kicked off a two week conventioneering binge with Frank Foer and Eve Fairbanks of The New Republic at the Ritz Carlton (courtesy of the lovely and generous Vivian Deuschl, VP of Public Affairs for the RC and now a FORA favorite). Eve and Frank provided a rollicking preview of the days to come......

Then twelve days later, a mere hour before Trev's flight back to SF, we wrapped it up with the surprisingly terrifying Sponge Bob Square Pants roller coaster at the Mall of America in Minneapolis. For those of you that don't know - the M of A is apparently the world's biggest mall, big enough to house not one but two roller coasters.

Trev's post on the DNC gave a vivid glimpse of the energy in Denver. It has to be said that the Republican Convention didn't have the same electricity, at least initially. This is partly an effect of the awkwardness of having a convention in The Twin Cities with delegates and camp followers split bt Minneapolis and St Paul. With convention action being in St Paul while most of the people stayed in Minneapolis, the vibe just wasn't quite as strong.

That said: The seemingly out-of-nowhere Palin selection worked like Red Bull in the veins of the Convention attendees and gave it a fun energy. Had McCain gone with a more conventional pick it would have been a far less lively setting. While much could be said about our convention experience, I will summarize it simply by saying: huge learning, great fun, some real successes. Lots to build on moving forward.

And most importantly, Trevar and I concluded that we agree on at least three issues: robust animal rights should be supported in legistlation, torture is bad and yogurt is generally good.

Trevar Mazza and Stuart Schulzke at the RNC

Thanks to our intrepid travelers who brought FORA.tv a wealth of great moments and hours of video from both political conventions. A lot of experimentation, some learning (sometimes too much learning...) and the opportunity to get a backstage look at how politicos, journalists, bloggers, delegates and partygoers experienced the selection of the presidential and vice presidential candidates.

Here are two moments:

Trevar at the Rally for the Republic, recording the likes of Bruce Fein, Grover Norquist, Ron Paul and Jesse Ventura, a kind of counter convention to the RNC.

And Stuart fawning over Mitt Romney, who did some chivalry thing protecting his wife from the rain on the way into the hotel.

FORA at the Republic National Convention

Great first day at the Republican National Convention, with several events and a slew of interviews. Our return path to the FORA Studio in San Francisco hit a snag when the local FedEx office decided that they do not ship on Labor Day and our Internet connection did not send back our video files overnight. Stuart somehow got the entire Marriott organization mobilized to help us create a makeshift studio, with a free high speed path back to the mothership. I haven't seen an immediate response like that--from the hotel manager to the IT staff to the national PR official--in a long time. Thank you Marriott.

The buzz in the first day of shooting was on Sarah Palin. We have some very strong reactions including a great conversation, with the Times of London's Gerry Baker interviewing AEI's Norm Ornstein and Brookings' Thomas Mann. After a Huffington Post panel, I had the opportunity to interview a number of participants and attendees, including Arianna Huffington and Roy Sekoff (HuffPost editor), Time's Joe Klein, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, Myka Brzezinski and Tucker Carlson, Left Right and Center's Tony Blankley, Slate's Mickey Kaus, and Byron York of the National Review.

We used the production camera for the interviews but will continue to experiment with the Flip Video cam. My favorite from the DNC was posted on FORA's front page last night. That will be an interesting editorial judgment over time--do you feature video shot on $100 cameras on a dark street corner when the content stands up? Here is my interview with one of the stars of the HBO series 'The Wire.' Wendell Pierce, who plays Bunk Moreland, is as eloquent in person as he is on camera. Wendell discusses his participation in David Simon's lates project on Katrina, his roots in New Orleans, and his view on the essential, mandatory role of a citizen in the political process.

Decompressing from the DNC...

Denver hosted an amazing Democratic National Convention. The city simply sparkled.

I'm currently sitting in my hotel room decompressing from an incredibly full schedule of events, interviews and parties. FORA was able to capture some amazing content, which is currently available on our Convention page.

My favorite event from the entire week was a panel co-sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations entitled Combating Global Poverty. The panel was loaded with heavyweights, including James D. Wolfensohn, Timothy E. Wirth, Gayle Smith, Donald M. Payne, Obiageli Ezekwesili, Hernando de Soto, Tom Daschle, John J. Danilovich, Nancy Birdsall, Madeleine Albright and Ben Affleck.

I was greatly moved by this exchange. I was also incredibly impressed by a bearded Ben Affleck (Stuart refers to him as Beard Affleck), who besides being an accomplished actor, also seems to be a fine philanthropist.

We also shot some amazing interviews, panels and FlipVideo (FORA's new favorite toy) with our friends from The New Republic. Frank Foer, Noam Scheiber, Michael Crowley, Dayo Olopade and Eve Fairbanks delivered some great interviews.

Many thanks to The Ritz-Carlton's VP of Public Relations Vivian Deuschl for providing FORA a temporary home to shoot and upload our interviews with the folks from TNR, and also for being such an incredibly nice woman. The downside of hanging out at The Ritz all week is the inevitable letdown of not hanging out at The Ritz. I suppose I'll have to acclimate.

Overall, I feel our experience at the DNC was a very successful new venture and we are extremely excited to do it all over again for the Republican National Convention next week.

Until then, check out a FlipVideo ThinkTank I assembled of my trek into Mile High Stadium for Obama's acceptance speech.

I also managed to snap a few pics while inside the stadium, which are accesible on our Flickr page.

Until the RNC...

Obama Speech at the DNC

FORA.tv wraps up its Democratic National Convention coverage from Denver today. On to St. Paul for the RNC. We will be post-producing a number of DNC events and interviews, including 3 panel discussions on world affairs with a world class line-up of speakers in partnership with the Council on Foreign Relations, a conversation between Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Air America/ MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, and convention interviews with the New York Times' David Brooks and writers from FORA partner The New Republic, plus Creative Coalition event interviews with activist actors.

I attended the last night's convention finale at Invesco Field. The line to get in took only several minutes, good timing. I walked the half hour from our HQ hotel to the venue, soaking in the sun and the thickening crowd of conventioneers heading for the event. The only protest was a group insisting that hell is our certain destination if we attend the event. I thought I'd chat them up to get the precise logic behind the prediction but opted instead for the free water being provided by some cheery Coca-Cola employees.

Walking arond the stadium, the only disconnect I experienced were all the concessions with Broncos (NFL) themes. Broncos fans apparently live on a diet of sausages, pizza, and nachos. I didn't get put off by the exuberant stadium atmosphere for the event. It was staged with a combination of good music (John Legend and Will.I.Am stole the show), warm up speeches, some campaign volunteer promotions (text messages!) and the Main Event.

I sat next to Phildell (combination of parents' names...likes it now, not so much when he was seven...) who scored a ticket late in the day by walking into the Westin, determined to go. He is an African-American ordained minister, married to a Caucasian (Republican) wife, former aspiring comedian in Los Angeles and whip smart political thinker. We chatted about the meaning of the event for him, recounted painful and frustrating racial experiences in his life, among people close to him. In the final moments of the speech, when the March on Washington by Dr. King was evoked, here is what he had to say..




A special tip of the hat to our director of content development Stuart Schulzke and our director of media production Trevar Mazza for producing this week's coverage. On to St. Paul!

Day 2 of FORA at the Democratic National Convention

Our first political convention coverage, with lots of extraordinary moments. Here are some:

- Gerry Baker of the Times of London walks into our interview room where The New Republic's editor Franklin Foer is interviewing AEI's Norm Ornstein. After the on-camera interview ends, the 3 of them dissect Democratic Party politics. Gerry will interview Bill Kristol and others for us later this week.
- Dinner with Tony, an Australian messaging guru and consultant to the Prime Minister, who prefers to stay out of the public eye, discussing how Kevin Rudd defeated John Howard, and how messages will be crafted in the U.S. race this fall.
- Watching TNR's second panel discussion on sustainability at our partner bookstore, the fabulous Tattered Cover. An amazing primer on the politics, science, economics and ethics of moving forward on environmental issues.
- Watching our Master Videographer and director of media production Trevar Mazza follow his videotaping of the panel with a spontaneous video blog on his FORA Flip Video camera, giving personal context to the event and the venue.
- Sharing PR and viral marketing tips with former Foran Jason Damata and watching Trevar walk over to say hello, knocking the guy at the next table in the head, then realizing it's Jesse Jackson Jr.
- Meeting Wendell Pierce, star of the HBO series The Wire (Bunk Moreland) outside the DLC party, and doing a spontaneous Flip Video interview with him on his views of citizen as essential participant in politics. You go, Bunk! Regards to McNulty, my role model.
- Getting back to our rented condo late, and overhearing Stuart and Trevar (pictured) discuss... who...has...the...key........

Today, three big events with the Council on Foreign Relations, more interviews and experimentation with gear and technology.

Day 1 of FORA @ the Democratic Convention

It's morning in America.

Well, morning in Denver anyway, as my already jamming partners Stuart Schulzke and Trevar Mazza stumble out of bed. Trevar went to bed at 2am after producing some video segments and set the alarm at 2:30 to start new importing new footage. Hotels are booked out to Wyoming so we rented a friend's condo, which makes work seem like a frat retreat (pizza delivery!).

Hot on the heels of our successful coverage of the Aspen Ideas Festival, where we produced daily highlights, and provided backstage interviews and a customized social networking widget, we are experimenting once again. We thought Day 1 would be our lightest day but ended up with:
-- interviews with Danny Glover and Giancarlo Esposito at a Creative Coalition screening
-- a briefing by New Republic editors on what's happening behind the scenes at the convention
-- a panel discussion called "How Would They Govern?" co-sponsored by Brookings and AEI led by FORA favorites Norman J. Ornstein (AEI) and Thomas E. Mann (Brookings Institution). Panelists include Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.); former senators Trent Lott (R-Miss.), Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), and Gary Hart (D-Colo.); former representative Abner Mikva (D-Ill.); and reporters David Rogers of Politico, Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times, and Dan Nowicki of the Arizona Republic.
-- At FORA partner Tattered Cover bookstore, a panel with leading thinkers on sustainability and the future of energy, including Rep. Ed Markey, Cass Sunstein, Senator Jeff Bingaman and others. Moderator Frank Foer, executive editor of The New Republic, moderated and also conducted interviews with participants for FORA after the event.
-- We outfitted several TNR writers with Flip video cameras to do backstage interviews with delegates, journalists and political leaders. We are getting spectacular footage as we try to develop efficient production systems to shoot, collect, vet and post. Watch the clips from the Hillary convention HQ with TNR's Eve Fairbanks. A great look at delegate emotions, the ambience of the venue, and the positioning of candidates.

We checked in with Gerry Baker of the Times of London who is assembling a terrific line-up of leading political observers for interviews this week. We ended up at a late night Times of London co-sponsored party, practicing our Flip video BarCam interview technique and then headed home. Gerry will also be doing interviews for FORA at the Republic Convention. He told us about a recent story he did about Obama as Biblical pilgrim ("he ventured forth to bring light to the world...") complete with his reading of the story. It is great reading and the video is hilarious.

Visit the FORA@DNC page and watch the videos as they post from the venue. Most will get to air within hours of the event, with the rich FORA experience of chapters, speaker bios, embeddable players and links, and downloads for convenient viewing/ listening.

A big day today. Stuart is at 24 Hour Fitness (new corporate membership! the benefits keep on coming!), Trevar is producing video clips, and I'm blogging and wondering who thought of breakfast.

FORA.tv is Heading to the 2008 Democratic and Republican National Conventions

FORA.tv is landing in Denver this coming Sunday for the Democratic National Convention and then jetting off to Minneapolis for the Republican National Convention the following week.

We'll be partnering with The New Republic, The Times of London and The Creative Coalition to deliver panel discussions, interviews and impromptu coverage from each convention.

Footage will be streamed on both FORA.tv and YouTube.

Our CEO Brian Gruber and I will also be regularly updating the blog and uploading video - the first of which is embedded below.

Become the 4,000th Subscriber to the FORA.tv YouTube Channel

The FORA.tv YouTube channel currently has 3,994 subscribers. If you become our 4,000th subscriber then we'll mention you in our next video blog. Just take a screen shot with the "Subscribers" count at 3,999 or 4,000 and send it to media@fora.tv

Make it happen.

Walt Mossberg Makes the iPhone Practically Impossible to Resist

The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg isn't helping my recent cell phone upgrade dilemma - 3G iPhone or Blackberry Bold? Should I succumb to the current hoopla and buy an iPhone or wait for the Bold to drop!? Mossberg makes a strong case for the iPhone and its OS, an innovative game changer.

To see if Mossberg has the same effect on you, check out The Future of the Internet and the Rise of the Cell Phone from the Aspen Ideas Festival 2008.

Got a point of view? Check out the embed below and then shoot me an email at media@fora.tv.

SVP Bob Appel Shares one of His Favorite Programs

Bob has always liked obscure humor. Dave Barry obliges with one of his great appearances that is more of a stand up routine than a book tour talk.

Nick Ryan Gives a Tour of the FORA.tv Office

Join Nick Ryan as he goes behind-the-scenes at FORA.tv's San Francisco headquarters, meets FORA.tv staff, and takes a brief tour of the city skyline as seen from the office roof.

I promise the office is usually not this barren, we shot the video during lunch hour... :-)

FORA.tv CEO Brian Gruber on his visit to the Chautauqua Institution

Brian recorded a short video blog on his visit to the Chautauqua Institution at the end of June. Learn more about the landmark retreat in upstate New York by taking a look:

Petrobras CEO Talks Ethanol on FORA.tv

We noticed that gas prices have gone up, so we thought a good place to go to find out why would be the World Petroleum Congress in Madrid, Spain. The leaders of the world's energy companies, analysts, political activists gather there to look at the future of energy. On FORA's front page today, the CEO of Brazilian energy company Petrobras Sergio Gabrielli speaks about how his country has achieved 51% ethanol usage--used to be 100% in the seventies, and every car manufactured in Brazil is flex fuel (ethanol/gasoline). Kudos to FORA's Bob Appel and Stuart Schulzke for placing one of our freelance videographers at the event in Madrid.

Across the way, at the Aspen Ideas Festival, a full slate of programs on sustainability. Go to the Aspen channel on FORA to get daily uploads of events. The page also contains a video widget that can run on your Facebook, MySpace, iGoogle or blog page. A program featuring Silicon Valley venture capital investor Vinod Khosla asks whether Biofuels will starve us or save us.

Farewell Cody's Books...

The historic Cody's Books in Berkeley recently and abruptly closed its doors to the public forever. Founded in 1956 by Fred and Pat Cody, the Bay Area business was a landmark independent bookseller and a pillar of free speech.

In commemoration, FORA.tv Syndication Editor Maureen Olund assembled a farewell video blog:

"Seek dialog with people who disagree with you"

That's the essential thought in Bill Clinton's concluding remarks on the sixth day of the 2008 Aspen Ideas Festival. It also happens to be one of the pillars of the FORA vision.

We at FORA love debate, but dialog is something different and arguably more elevated. Debate is often (though certainly not always) an exercise in proving and disproving, in overwhelming an opponent with evidence and rhetoric. It frequently begins with adversarial assumptions and plays out more like a verbal boxing match than a conversation. It does have the virtue though that it always plays out the opposing viewpoints - two sides are represented and in good debate it becomes impossible to make either side into a caricature.

Real dialog aims for an exchange of ideas and viewpoints and begins with assumptions of good faith all around. The sad reality about America's public discussion at the moment is that it tends to be neither real debate nor true dialog. The American public conversation has been broadly reduced to two giant echo chambers - Rep Barney Frank points to the left blogosphere and the right talk radio as two groups that yell to their own constituents, caricature their opponents as morons while rarely bothering to actually engage them.

These are some wise words from President Clinton. And since it's my job and my passion to shamelessly flog FORA.tv, I'll add - enabling dialog through a substantive exchange of ideas is a core part of the FORA mission.

And on a related note - congratulations to the Aspen Institute for putting together such an incredible event. I'm writing right now from a breakfast conversation bt Jeff Goldberg of the Atlantic and the Israeli journalist Ari Shavit and my head is still buzzing with a week's worth of vibrant dialog. It's been an absolute pleasure to work with their people and being present here.

Luckily, anyone that wants access to these events can get it via FORA.tv. Go here to see more http://fora.tv/partner/aspen_institute

Media Thinkers on FORA.tv

If you're interested in the future of media, today's FORA.tv coverage delivers a rich mix of events.

Rupert Murdoch defends FOX News on a video from one of our newest partners, Georgetown University. The New York Times' Nicholas Kristof explains his coverage of Darfur from one of my favorite partner venues, the New York Publc Library. Paul Holdengraber, the Library's director of public programs, is one of New York's great impresarios. Every program is an Event, with the highest intellectual standards combined with a great sense of theatre and showmanship. Our coverage of their Christopher Hitchens - Al Sharpton smackdown on religion and politics, moderated by Slate's Jacob Weisberg, has been viewed by over a half million visitors. Check out Paul's intro on that video, replete with a James Brown backdrop.

And our self-proclaimed cub reporter, Technorati's Peter Hirshberg, continues with his backstage interviews at the Aspen Ideas Festival with Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal and Arianna Huffington. A new slate of interviews can be seen on his MyFORA page. A great companion piece from the Festival is Media and the Campaign, with the Colbert Report's Emily Lazar, journalist Howard Fineman, Atlantic editor James Bennet, Washington Post editorialist Jonathan Capehart, Newshour's Terence Smith, Huffington Post's Arianna Huffington, and Slate's Jacob Weisberg.

Technorati's Peter Hirshberg backstage at the Aspen Ideas Festival

For a unique backstage look at one of the world's premiere public fora, check out Peter Hirshberg's video blog on his MyFORA page at http://fora.tv/myfora/peterhirshberg.

Peter is one of the web's great business thinkers. Before his current stint at Technorati where he serves as executive committee chairman and chief marketing officer, he served as president and CEO of Gloss.com. During a nine-year tenure at Apple Computer, he grew Apple's large business and government revenue to $1 billion annually and helped lead the company’s entry into the online service arena. He is a Trustee of The Computer History Museum and a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute.

I met Peter last weekend at Aspen's Socrates Society Seminar, where we participated in the media track led by former FCC Chair Michael Powell. Socrates is the brainchild of Gary and Laura Lauder. Peter sat next to me and was one of the seminar's principal provocateurs.

Some of the interviews already posted include Arianna Huffington, Jim Steyer of Common Sense Media and Lawrence Lessig, with lots more to come. Also an amazing interview with William Cathers who gives a 5 minute snapshot of the Aspen Institute's history and vision. Peter had me shoot the interview before I left town as a "pilot" of sorts for the upcoming flurry of shoots. The previous pilot, with participants of the seminar on Sexuality, Power and Culture with Kate Roberts, required a second take due to 2 minor technical issues (the camera was not on Record, and the audio was not plugged in).

Check out Peter's MyFORA video blog posts daily through the end of the Festival.

Aspen Ideas Festival highlights coming to FORA.tv

Last night was the opening session of the Aspen Ideas Festival. Aspen Institute President and CEO Walter Isaacson kicked it along with David Bradley of the Atlantic Monthly. David gave a hilarious history of Aspen, followed by a series of inspired presentations of ideas. We'll have it all on FORA, starting today with a daily regimen of video highlights uploaded from the site. I ran into Jane Wales, head of the World Affairs Council of Northern California, and now a Vice President at Aspen as well. Jane was one of our original Board members, and a leading thinker on world affairs and philanthropy. FORA.tv owes much to her insight and leadership.

Aspen Ideas Festival

I just finished this widget for the Aspen Ideas Fesitval. Put it on your facebook/myspace/iGoogle/etc and it will refresh when new Aspen programs are posted. Just hit the share button.

Chautauqua Season Kicks Off on FORA.tv

Today's FORA.tv front page showcases the opening program from the Chautauqua Institution, featuring eminent sports journalist Frank Deford. I had the opportunity to attend the event, the first of a weeklong series of programs on Sports in America. For the first time in the 134 year history of America's oldest public forum, you will be able to watch programs from all nine weeks of this year's series, on demand. Frank's speech is introduced by Tom Becker, Chautauqua's President. We will run excerpts from a video interview I held with Tom on the history of the Institution, and its unique appeal and place in American history. Enjoy the season. Better yet, go up for a week yourself sometime. Visit their website at www.ciweb.org.

A Demonstrion of the ThinkTank Feature on MyFORA

Check out the video I just posted on how to upload a video blog and assemble a ThinkTank using MyFORA.

A ThinkTank enables MyFORA users to assemble and publish a playlist of bookmarked chapters and uploaded video to the rest of the FORA.tv community.

Get up on your soapbox today and utilize the vast library of FORA.tv content to create and broadcast your own ThinkTank!

Enjoy the vid and have a great weekend...

The FORA.tv Summer Reading List

The heatwave here in San Francisco may have finally gotten to us, because we decided to cut loose FORA-style and assemble a video blog. Hey, 77 degrees is scorching when you're used to damp fog and chilly nights.

Our Manager of Syndication Nick Ryan assembled a video of staff picks for summertime reading. I think you'll find it both informative, and entertaining. If you have something to add to the list, we encourage you to submit a comment. Bonus points if the author is on FORA!

We are aiming to make this a weekly tradition, so if you have any ideas for material please submit them via Contact Us or in the Feedback Forum.

As always, thanks for tuning in and have a great weekend!

I've embedded the video below:

FORA.tv & The New Republic join up on live events

On June 5 FORA will join TNR, host the 6th & I Synagogue and co-sponsor Politics & Prose in Washington DC to host the first event in what will become a series. The description is below. We're really pleased to be working with such quality partners to create this sort of genuinely meaningful live event.

There's also something of a personal element here. The event (and the eventual series) is named for Nelson Polsby, a Berkeley political scientist and early FORA advisor who passed away last year. Nelson was a giant in terms of scholarly achievement, personality and human goodness. Brian and I had multiple breakfast and lunch meetings with him in FORA's early days and I sometimes went out of my way to grab a hot chocolate with him. His insight was impeccable and his sense of humor was always worth the price of admission.

"The inaugural Nelson Polsby Congressional Conversation will be hosted by Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute and feature Representatives Barney Frank and Tom Davis. It will be a candid conversation between prominent Congressional leaders of opposing political interests on finding ways to build bridges, find solutions and govern effectively in a highly partisan environment.

The Polsby series, sponsored by FORA.tv and The New Republic, aims to honor the late Berkeley Congressional scholar Nelson Polsby by enabling substantive discussion between politically opposed leaders. Polsby was noted for his ecumenical approach to divisive political issues and his efforts over many decades to expand our understanding of political institutions and to make them work better."

Joie de Vivre

Just attended an extraordinary weekend workshop at Esalen with Chip Conley, founder and CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality. I've stayed at his Bay Area hotels over the years and always noticed its unique customer orientation. Chip discussed his application of Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to business planning and management.

There were great small group sessions that allowed for some musing on the development of the FORA concept. One attendee asked me about FORA, and she responded, "Oh, a selective, gourmet YouTube." Another discussed an experience she had with a TED Talks video and we got into a discussion of online video as a source of inspiration and big ideas. That struck me as an essential element of what we do, and how we might drive our editorial process. Stories that inspire from the world's great public forums. Like Esalen, a place of brilliant ideas, inspiration and free thinking.

Welcome to the new FORA.tv

Kudos to Allan Claghorn and the entire FORA team on the launch of the new site, features and tools. What's new to see?

At the top of the home page you’ll see tabs to visit the primary categories on the site:
Politics, Business, Tech & Science, The World, and Culture. Notice each category has subcategories; it’s all there for easy navigation to the videos of greatest interest to you.

On the right-hand side of the page you can check out Today’s Top Programs – the current most popular videos on FORA.

After choosing a program, you’re directed to the FORA player, featuring video highlights…
…the full program……DVD style chapters…a transcript with built-in search functionality....a brief description……speaker bios...diverse options to share and download…associated links…and related programs.

Right below the program you can weigh in on the conversation…or by giving other users a thumbs up or down.

Register and create your own online channel with MyFORA. Here, you can build your own library by bookmarking your favorite chapters or full-length programs and starting your own "Think Tank" discussions by uploading content you've created.

Keep track of your recent comments and viewed programs. Customize your profile further with a personal bio, add other users to your "Friends" list, share your favorite links, and manage your subscriptions.

We'll be giving you more tips and background on the new site in the days ahead. Please share your comments with me and the team at fora-ceo@fora.tv. Thanks for visiting,

Brian Gruber
President and CEO
FORA.tv

Chatham House Announces FORA Channel

Chatham House - AKA the Royal Institute of International Relations in London - reached out to its membership last week to publicize its FORA.tv channel. CH is one of the world's oldest and most esteemed forums for public discussion (and the originators of the famous "Chatham House Rules").

The press release posted to the CH website can be viewed here.

In the relatively early FORA days of 2006 Brian and I had a great meeting with Keith Burnet (Head of Communications at Chatham). I followed with them in London in November of 2007. In between we filmed multiple events with world political leaders and some of the best minds in the international community.

Commenting on the development, Keith had this to say: "For decades, Chatham House members have had access to some of the best, most high-profile international speakers debating significant developments in global affairs. We are delighted that these events will now be available to audiences around the world."

We share that sentiment.

FORA.tv Now Broadcast on Link TV

FORA.tv has partnered with Link TV to broadcast our programming!

The airdates can be found by visiting the following link:

http://www.linktv.org/programs/foratv

About Link TV:
Link TV broadcasts programs that engage, educate and activate viewers to become involved in the world. These programs provide a unique perspective on international news, current events, and diverse cultures, presenting issues not often covered in the U.S. media.

The FORA.tv Channel on YouTube Surpasses 2,000 Subscribers!

Last weekend the FORA.tv channel on YouTube surpassed 2,000 subscribers and our video views climbed to nearly 1.4 million.

Congratulations to Nick Ryan and our newest team member Maureen Olund for all the hard work invested in building a FORA community over at YouTube.

Check out the FORA.tv Channel on YouTube by clicking HERE.

FORA.tv and The New Republic

Check out the latest issue of The New Republic, not only for their great election coverage, but for the gorgeous full page FORA ad on page 4. I have been a reader of The New Republic since my days as a juvenile delinquent in East New York, Brooklyn, and so it's a charge for me seeing the ad opposite TNR's esteemed TRB column. The ad is part of a TNR/ FORA partnership which includes the airing of the magazine's public events at fora.tv/partner/tnr. The TNR channel features a new conversation with Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. My favorite is a video on Mike Huckabee and evangelicals in politics. Don't forget to buy the March 12 issue of TNR.

FORA 3.0

Final touches being put on the next iteration of the FORA.tv user experience. New tools and design solutions that will allow you to get to what you want, share it, participate, create your own MyFORA space and think tanks. We have been fortunate to work with brilliant designers such as Michael Cronan, John Goecke and Dylan Schwartz, who push us down the path of ore experimentation and ever greater focus on the user.

We'd like you to have a turn too. How do we make FORA more fun, more accessible, more valuable to you? Write me with your thoughts, your critiques, your most subversive ideas at fora-ceo@fora.tv. I promise you we'll read them all and personally respond. We plan to have a lot of fun with the site in the months ahead.

Special thanks to Keith Burnett of Chatham House in London for giving us his FORA favorites on the front page this week. We love visiting the hallowed grounds of the world's great fora, meeting people like Keith who spend their days thinking how to bring the brilliant ideas to new audiences.

2,000 Programs

FORA.tv has recently posted its 2,000th full length program. Since we break every prgoram into a dozen or so short form clips, that's around 25,000 videos, with plans to dramatically expand production capacity.

2,000 is just a number. Each program is curated, hand-crafted if you will, by our young, energetic, dedicated production staff. I hope to introduce each of them over time. I do want to pay particular tribute to our Director of Video Production Services, Trevar Mazza. Almost every program you watch is touched, literally, in some way by Trevar. He sets and manages our high standards of quality, of editorial attention, of user satisfaction. FORA's innovative content management systems, and almost supernaturally efficient production processes were either created or fine-tuned by him.

My office is right across from his desk. Amidst the manic pace of growing our young startup, it is a daily comfort to watch Trevar's intensive focus on delivering a great product.

Happy 2,00th program, Trevar, and congratulations to the FORA.tv production team.

MyFORA BETA Test launched

Next month will see the introduction of MyFORA, a bold new way for you to publish, manage and share your ideas and your favorite FORA videos. As we finalize the technology and interface, we are inviting registered FORANS to join us as a BETA user for the next 30 days. FORAN is a term sometimes used by our branding and identity strategist Michael Cronan. I've never used it before, but it has a ring to it. We have used Member, or user, or consumer, or viewer depending on the application. I never liked user or consumer in the media biz. Is the exploration of ideas another form of consumer consumption? Anyway....

On MyFORA, you can:

Bookmark long form programs or chapters for future viewing. Upload your own video commentary (video blogs) and original programming. Assemble "Think Tanks" with FORA program chapters and user generated content.

Keep track of recently viewed programs/chapters, recent forum posts, newly added friends. The "News Feed" keeps you connected to your personal activity, as well as that of your friends.

Add friends and colleagues to your FORA network. Find someone interesting in the forums? Become a friend and follow their life on FORA.

Moderate your own forum and invite others to talk about issues and subject areas of vital interest.

Track subscriptions to channels and areas of interest by email/text messaging/RSS.

If you are not yet a registered user, it's very easy to do. Just follow the instructions on the home page, upper right corner. Then join us for the BETA test. Full monty rollout in March along with our fabulous redesign and new user experience.

As they used to say in vaudeville, we think you're gonna love it.

FORAcast Video Highlights

Commencing in the New Year, we began posting a daily offering to the site dubbed a FORAcast. A FORAcast is a concise excerpt cut from our full-length video offerings. The function is simple: FORAcasts provide a straightforward and succinct approach to viewing video highlights. If you enjoy a FORAcast, then view the full-length video from which it was extracted when time permits.

We’re working hard on developing an intuitive User Interface to easily distinguish between FORA.tv’s full-length video programming and FORAcasts. Currently, FORAcasts are identified as such on their thumbnails and show-up throughout the site akin to their full-length counterparts.

All FORAcasts are archived here: http://fora.tv/channel/FORAcasts

FORAcast of Ben Stein speaking at The Commonwealth Club of California:

Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales discusses Wikia

This is a very cool FORAcast (our short form offering) with Wikipedia Founder Jimbo Wales discussing his for profit start-up Wikia. Wikia Search employs a very liberal ethos by sourcing the community to improve the site’s search algorithm.

Check out Wales discussing Wikia:



Imagine a world in that every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge – Jimbo Wales