DECA

To be honest, I was a little bit baffled when I stumbled across Project Lore…As it turns out, I was surprised by Project Lore, which manages to appeal to my gaming geek sensibilities despite my avoidance of all things WoW.

The Project Lore team consists of five WoW-holics: the leader, Alex Albrecht, co-host of Diggnation and formerly of The Screen Savers, is the creator/host of the show (and the party Rogue). Albrecht launched the series back in June of last year, backed up by Hunter-playing Zand “Dorkins” Broumand, Joshua Brentano, who tanks for the team when he’s not Executive Producer of G4’s Attack of the Show, Healer Jerry Trainor of iCarly, and Managing Editor/Team Asskicker Brandon Sato. Together these Fantastic Five quest through everything Azeroth has to offer in search of phat loot and experience points.

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.

So it’s wonderful that worthy players such as DECA…have found support in the venture community to continue to pursue their businesses…These data points suggests there’s a foundation in place for the delivery of content and associated marketing over the Internet. But in the next six months, even with the dire economic straits in front of us, the focus must shift from developing programs to bearing out the value of those programs.

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.

Introducing the most popular Internet celebrities of last year: Smosh.

If you haven’t heard of the comedy duo from Carmichael, Calif., you’re not alone. But Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla host the No. 3 most-subscribed-to video channel on YouTube. IStardom, a Web start-up that tracks Internet celebrity, declared Smosh the most popular name in online entertainment of 2008…YouTube appears to be weighted more heavily in iStardom’s celeb rankings. But the service does take other online social tools, such as Twitter, MySpace and Facebook, into account.

The fact that we’re even talking about this just goes to show that social media is a lot like a popularity contest. But when the kids sitting at the “cool” lunchroom table are a couple guys who dress up as cardboard box men…it should give a glimmer of hope to any average Joe.

What’s more challenging — parenting or marriage?

That’s the question on the table this week over at Momversation.com. The site is filled with videos of conversations among changing combinations of some of the Web’s most trafficked “Mommy bloggers.”

Mega-entrepreneur and business media superstar, Pat Croce, recently interviewed Lewis Schiff on Middle-Class Millionaires, helping the super-wealthy and how regular people become rich.

Taped in November 2008, Pat sat down with Lewis, in his own inimitable style, to get the facts and just the facts. Visit “Down to Business with Pat Croce” at “DownToBusiness.com.”

I wanted to post this episode of Momversation and open it up for discussion here because it’s not usual for me to have such a different opinion than that of the other panelists, and in this case it’s not so much of a different opinion than it is a different experience. What’s more difficult, motherhood or marriage? And when I thought about this question it was pretty clear cut for me. I mean, six months into parenthood I checked myself into a mental hospital. That’s a pretty good indication that the software was not compatible with my operating system.

Whereas my marriage has caused its fair share of wrinkles, but it hasn’t ever made me consider checking out of life.

A phony commercial for a liquidized beef product was just what the world craved in 2008. The number 6 spot on the year’s popularity chart goes to “Beef ‘n Go,” the tasty ad created by video humor site Smosh. The commercial spoof was received so enthusiastically that it spin off its own follow-up video featuring a full Beef ‘n Go theme song.

With just over 12 million views, the guys from Smosh answered the long-standing question: Where’s the beef? (It’s in a plastic tube. Yum.)