You’re anxiously refreshing the page to immediately absorb any incoming critiques, comments, or cuss words. You’re the creative addict chained to the chair waiting for your digital ripple to transform into a tsunami, and I’m out looking for you.

Last week, upon Fred’s urging, we started posting “Vimeo Vids of the Day” on the freshly-launched Indy Mogul. I’ve always felt that Vimeo represents a fresh new sort of creators community that other video sharing giants can’t fully attest to. It’s a friendly, small town atmosphere. The church, the post office, the local pub, and bright blue picket fences lining every dark brown house.

Posting to bigger pages can feel like plopping down on a crowded street corner in midtown Manhattan, holding your hard work up for the world to see, and praying a kind soul comes by and says something constructive.

With that in mind, I’ve been spending a portion of every morning looking for the best, the brightest, and the most innovative of the Vimiaddicts (I think I just coined that … if not, I’ll still take credit). One of the first I came across was Brett Dougherty, a video blogger and film student from Syracuse University. I didn’t even know that much at this point, I just knew he had cut together a very real, raw, and interesting clip. A short couple minutes later and it was on the site. I sent a cursory note informing him we had written the flick up.

He quickly shot back telling me couldn’t really ‘express just how awesome’ my message was.

The cycle quickly began. Brett sent me yet another message proclaiming his excitement, practically making me blush with just how enthused this talented young buck was to get spotlighted on the site. In short order he signed up for a user account, added his email address to the mailing list, began commenting on episodes, and even called and left a personal voicemail to me on our hotline.

If Brett had been excited about my blog post, I was ten-fold thrilled about his quick leap over from featured artist to fan of our network.

The world needs more Bretts and I’ll be seeking them out every day, walking down Main Street Vimeo, smiling and waving to everyone holding a camera and sharing.

Some of you know I have a life in a parallel universe as a cartoon producer. A while back one of our shows went out of production and, at first, the production blog didn’t seem to have a reason to exist. Then it occurred to the creator, Rob Renzetti, and me that we had a lot of worldwide fans in the My Life as a Teenage Robot community and maybe one of them would keep our dream alive. Sure enough the proprietor of one of our favorite fan blogs from Central America agreed to do the do and has been working with our biggest fan artists and posting all the time.

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The original Hollywood swingers.

I’m on my way to Hollywood this week and next to participate in conferences that should be lots of fun. First up, is the EconSM conference where I’ll be appearing on a panel Thurs 4/26 AM titled “The Social Media CEO’s Speak Out” moderated by Rafat and including Bebo, Six Apart, NetVibes and Demand Media CEO’s all of whom I’m meeting for the first time. I’m looking forward to it and hearing about the efforts of my fellow panelists to make communities the centerpiece of media now and into the future.

Next, on May 2, I’m back for AlwaysOn’s OnHollywood conference to moderate a late afternoon panel, “Is consumer generated media a friend or foe to mainstream media?” — a topic I can speak to having been on both sides of the fence. As a former mainstream media executive, I remember there was a time when mainstream media (about two years ago) thought “professional” content would be their killer ap and make them more relevant on the web (some still do!) only to be befuddled by the growth of YouTube and MySpace and users generating media that rocked (and continues to rock) the mainstream world. (more…)

Recently got back from one of a number of trips to San Francisco as of late; I’ve been there more times in the last six months than in the previous six years combined, and my last company had its second office there. That says a lot about how much is going on in the Bay Area right now, and how important it is for a business like ours to understand it.

I got in on Friday afternoon, and after a nice coffee and talk with Nicholas Quixote, creator of Rabbit Bites and one of my favorite people in videoblogging, headed to a party thrown by Om Malik to celebrate the launch of his company’s new website, FoundRead, a resource and forum for entrepreneurs. Judging from the packed room at the venue, there are a lot of people choosing to found something these days.

(Top, Om Malik; Above, GigaOm’s Liz Gannes, Katie Fehrenbacher and Joey Wan with Kevin Rose. Photos by Thomas Hawk)

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Watching Thursday’s episode of our latest network, Veracifier, was one of the core principles at Next New Networks. Josh Marshall, host of TPM TV and publisher of Talking Points Memo, brings us on a tour of his headquarters and tells the viewers how they can help TPM cover the news.Truly the community in action. And in their case, action that can change the world. No joke.

And it happens on a less lofty basis across our other networks too. All the cars on VOD Cars come from our viewers. And all the cartoons at Channel Frederator. The Threadbangers are constantly fielding tips as to the best DIY designers in the country. And JETSET? They are their community.

So, if any of our blog readers are wondering what’s the big deal with internet TV, just think about the last time NBC asked you to help them cover the news.