Tom Guarriello responds to Perry's discussion of The Tropolis, arguing that video format shapes conversation itself. He sees social platforms splitting into quick chat and produced depth, positioning The Tropolis as a venue for magazine-style discussions like The New Yorker or The Atlantic, not pop culture gossip.
Well, hi, it's Tom. I just watched Perry's video, a few words, The Tropolis, a few words, and thought I'd say a few words about The Tropolis as well. First of all, Perry, in the spirit of what Perry said about Seesmic being chat, I thought, okay, I'll do something that feels as close to a Seesmic response as we do here on YouTube, or at least as I do here on YouTube, or maybe as most of us do here on YouTube. Because, uh, as Perry said, the, the difference between what happens at Seesmic and what happens here and what's going to happen in Metropolis is a difference in the way in which we use the video medium. And like that McLuhan guy said, you know, the medium is the message. And in regard to video conversations, the medium in its particular use is the message. I was giving a presentation someplace and talking about different forms of communication, and I used an image of some Native Americans with smoke signals, and the caption was, "Imagine writing War and Peace using this medium." The point being that if you're using a medium, in the case of smoke signals, that's a binary medium, you know, pretty much ons and offs for smoke puffs, right? Maybe longs and shorts, you know, like Morse code. There's only so many things you can say in smoke messages. You're not going to write War and Peace in smoke messages. You need words. There's only so many things you're going to say, and only certain kinds of things that you're going to say in a chat with one another. They can be fun things, and they can be fine things, and maybe they can be things— certainly they can be things of, of some depth and quality, no question about it. But they're different than the kinds of things that you say and talk about in a more produced and prepared kind of video conversation. And what we're seeing— remember, we've talked before here about the stratification that is taking place within the social media world with video in particular. And now we continue to see that stratification take place. And what we're talking about, what we're thinking about at The Tropolis will be something that will engage, as Perry put it, people who have had experience or people who would like to have experience having the kinds of conversations that we think are interesting and valuable and exciting and fun and can lead to stars, like Perry said. And that will have, you know, the kind of weight— not weight, you know, in heavy serious stuff— but will have, you know, some kind of, you know, like a— like, think about the best magazines that you read, the ones that you really enjoy, you look forward to them coming. Now that will tell you something about the way in which you like to relate to the stratification of magazines. Magazines have been around for a long time. You know that there's magazines that specialize in pop-pop-pop-pop kind of things about certain kinds of topics, and then there's magazines that specialize in yeah... uh-huh... so, you know— If you like People magazine, you like People magazine. And sometimes you— we all like People magazine. But for me, sometimes I like The New Yorker. I look forward to The New Yorker. I look forward to The Atlantic. I look forward to Wired. Magazines that treat things in a little more depth and make me think as a result of treating things in a little more depth. So, but in the spirit of Perry's point about chat, I thought I would chat with him here about this idea about how the video communication world really is now stratifying nicely. And, you know, we think there's room. So thanks, Perry. And I know the Penguins got beat last night, but come on, let's go Pens! Stanley Cup Finals! See you guys soon. Take care. Bye-bye.
