From Rocketboom to Rocket*
At the very beginning of the online video revolution there was Rocketboom.
Started in 2004 by Andrew Barron and Amanda Congdon, it was a daily 15-minute webcast of news and satire done from, as far as I could tell, Andrew Barron’s bedroom in Brookyn (though I could be wrong).
This was one year before Youtube.
It starred Amanda Congdon as the anchor. She sat behind a table with a world map taped to the wall.
It was anti-TV and it was very very popular.
Barron and Congdon were the first to realize that you no longer need a TV network to get on TV.
You could go direclty to the web.
When, on October 2005, Steve Jobs from Apple, was introducing the new iPod 5G‘s video podcast capabilities, he showed a playlist of video podcasts that included Rocketboom.
Congdon went off to try her had with a broadcast network – ABC.
It didn’t work.
I could have told her that.
The networks are far too frightented by the irreverance that made Rocketboom such a smash hit so early.
C’est la vie.
But now Congdon, who had been quite literally on the very cutting edge of online video, is back with an entirely new venture, and one, that to my mind, reflect where video online is, at least in part, headed.
Congdon and her husband, Mario Librandi have launched a restaurant in downtown Santa Barbara called Vegan Mario’s. The name speaks for itself.
But, firm in the belief that everything will one day have an online video component, Congdon and her husband have gotten there already
Congdon will launch a cooking show on their channel Sometimesdaily.com. Viewers will see the meals being made, have access to recipes, as well as the option to purchase on site
