Opportunopoly

Online media opportunities abound if publishers are but willing to look beyond their traditional definitions. Opportunopoly examines emerging technology and market game-changers, thought leaders and, well, opportunities that may lie beyond the usual newspaper comfort zone.

You've all seen those split-screen interviews on television where the anchor or interviewer is on the left of a split screen and the correspondent is on the right taking questions about the latest happenings in some remote location. Now you can do this on your own Web site with a couple of Internet staples. 

This is easier with a Mac, in part because of the built-in webcam, but because the channel itself is so inexpensive, you might be justified in getting a couple of MacBookPro's when you see how compelling the product/presentation can be.

1. Establish a video connection via Skype between the interviewer and subject expert or correspondent.

2. Use Skype Recorder for Mac to set up the desktop so the two talking heads are featured in split-screen mode.

3. Skype Recorder "tapes" the show as a QuickTime movie you can either embed into your site, or you can manipulate the recording with iMovie into other formats for slicker site video "players."

It's that simple. Skype bandwith issues can cause some intermittent time lags, but nothing you haven't seen on the nightly news as well. 

Think about the kind of tutorial content this opens up to you for either free or paid content. Anyone, anywhere, who is an expert on anything that has a Web cam and a Skype account is fair game. Setting up a Skype account is so easy, you can even walk them through it and offer to pay any sign-up fees. Or, you can set up your own "studio" at the local courthouse, city counsel, even police department to do taped updates you can turn around in 10 minutes. The key to making video interviews a staple of your site probably just boils down to consistency. Who do you have who can elicit excellent commentary from the people in your local government, business or community sectors who have something interesting to say?

With what I've seen in recent weeks, I'm inclined to say, what you can dream, you can do.

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