DECA

Meanwhile, some of the studio efforts left in the field include… DECA, which is now focusing on video-focused vertical community sites like Momversation and others.

We were very impressed when we first got a look at Momversation. The site is attractive and it’s easy to find current and recent posts as well as links to the site’s other features. Getting into Momversation is as easy as clicking on the play button for the video. You will see a well produced video featuring some of the site’s nine panelists. Within each video, there are short snippets from each panelist, keeping the viewer’s interest levels high. Once an episode is over, there are opportunities to connect with the panelists and with other moms through the blog comments and the site’s own forum.

Nielsen Online’s Power Mom 50 is a collection of leading voices in the mom blogosphere based on a blend of blog posts, comments and link love developed through ongoing monitoring of more than 10,000 mom and parenting blogs as tracked by Nielsen Buzzmetrics. In addition to site engagement, number of Twitter followers, ratings and other metrics were included in the calibration to provide a comprehensive sphere of authority and influence.

Momversation panelists, including Daphne Brogdon of Cool Mom, comprise six of the top 15 Power Moms online.

For decades, studies have shown that when parents fight, children are likely to become aggressive, anxious and withdrawn…

I like Asha Dornfest’s analysis, during a chat over on the Momversation a while back, about arguing in front of the children. Describing a “bickerfest” with her husband in front of their 4-year-old daughter, Dornfest, who is the founder of the Web site Parenthacks says:

“All three of us actually learned something from the resolution. She got to see us working it out and actually laughing about it later and realizing how silly it was. It’s not necessarily a good thing if all the kids ever see are Mommy and Daddy speaking very reasonably and always working things out like adults. It seems to me that conflict resolution is something you have to learn. It’s probably best learned at home, and if you never see anyone getting angry with each other, how are you going to deal with it when you grow up?”

In other words, if you fight fair, odds are you won’t mess up your kids. Which is a relief to those of us — I’d wager MOST of us — who fall short of the kind of hushed, serene household where my grandparents lived.

Momversation’s Heather Armstrong, Karen Walrond, Giyen Kim, Mindy Roberts, and Daphne Brogdon (also of Cool Mom) were featured on the April 6, 2009 episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, Secret Lives of Moms.

Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa discuss Momversation on Live with Regis and Kelly on April 2, 2009.

Michael Wayne, CEO of DECA Studios, a Los Angeles producer of Web video shows, has his own advertising sales team, so he uses Blip primarily for technology.

He uses the Blip player for popular shows such as Project Lore (about gaming) and Momversation, which are branded with their own show names rather than a Blip.tv logo. “Blip enables us to put our stuff up very easily and gives us access to data that lets us track how many people viewed our shows and share that with advertisers,” Wayne says.

I have an unhealthy and quite embarrassing fascination with celebrity children. I know it is completely wrong, but I can’t help myself. Before I had kids, I’ll admit I was the lady who in the grocery line would nonchalantly place my US magazine between my Lean Cuisines and Nestea (so if you are ever wondering who actually buys these publications, that would be me). But for some reason, once I had my daughter, my celebrity interests shifted from “What will Britney do next?” to “Violet Affleck shares a Twinkie with mom Jen.”
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I’ve included a video of some of my favorite mom bloggers discussing the topic of celebrity children. It’s part of the Momversations project, which has the funniest and candid videos from the mom blogging world.

Momversation would not be the same without the presence of über mommyblogger Heather Armstrong, founder of dooce…Tubefilter caught up with a Heather to ask her about being in a web series and what she thinks the moms of Momversation will come up with next.

Tubefilter: With your blog, new book, and busy family life, how do you make time to be in a web series?

Heather Armstrong: I was really interested the format of it. One because there wasn’t going to be a lot of interference. They were basically asking us to talk about a topic. I wanted to make time for it. It’s a lot of work, but the final products are so good that it is well worth the time I put into it.

Tubefilter: What did they tell you about the show? How did they convince you that it was the right series for you to work on?

Armstrong: Basically that Momversation was going to be an honest take on motherhood. Which is why mommyblogs are popular in the first place. They were going to send us a camera and they were going to edit it in such a way that they weren’t going to be putting words in our mouths. When I saw the first episode, I knew I had made the right decision.

When you got home from school growing up, was your mom sitting at her computer blogging? Some of today’s kids are being raised by a whole new generation of web savvy parents. Momversation offers their viewers the chance to join the web’s most outspoken mom-bloggers in a smart and entertaining video conversation. From the controversial Heather Armstrong of Dooce to the extremely frank Giyen Kim of Bacon is My Enemy, the show offers a discussion of today’s parenting topics. Tubefilter talked to Asha Dornfest of the popular website Parent Hacks to find out more about mommy blogging, Momversation, and what her kids think about the web celeb in their house.
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Tubefilter: What impact do you think web series have in the media?

Dornfest: Just as blogging has given writers and reporters an open medium for distributing their work, the web series format turns “TV” into something regular people can be a part of. There’s an immediacy with web video that just isn’t possible with television. Momversation is exciting because it combines the intimacy of home filming with professional editing, and the result is as approachable as it is entertaining.