Software makers like Microsoft are laying odds there'll be a bigger market for streaming video of the homemade variety real soon - soon enough that the Redmond, Washington software emperors plan to release operating software later this year which includes digital video editing tools.
Wired also says Apple is trying to encourage digital video production by sophisticated consumers by offering free Web space to people who buy new iMac computers.
But the question before the house remains: Are the masses ready to play with streaming video other than looking at it?
Wired says another who's convinced they are is William Mutual of the recently-launched POPcom. His service uploads and deploys 10 MB of digital video free, the magazine says, if users agree to commercials playing every time a viewer logs in.
But isn't 10 MB small change if you're thinking about digital video? Of course, acknowledges Mutual - who's betting that factor will help anyone from aspiring musicians to would-be filmmakers and corporate heavyweights will buy "industrial strength" varieties of POPcom services.
"We have democratized broadcasting," he tells Wired. "There's really a revolution going on here."
Jupiter Communications Web analyst Billy Pidgeon tells the magazine POPcast seems easy enough to use, but he's put off by the question of "how many people have digital video to put up there?"
It's one thing, Wired says, to post digital imagery on the Internet - but streaming Net video is still very, very new. Few, consumers or small businesspeople, have bought digital camcorders, never mind learned to put digital streaming video together to upload to POPcast, the magazine continues.
Mutual is also chief executive of ITV.net - which charges, Wired says, some quarter million dollars to Webcast major entertainment such as the Grammy awards or rock concerts. And until recently, annual meetings or corporate promotions weren't things Mutual considered worth the time.
With digital camcorder costs falling, POPcast is pushing a $600 Sharp model designed especially to upload digital video online. This, Mutual says, means online digital video will become as common as digital images.
