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Brian Gruber launches Fora.tv

January 11th, 2007

Brian Gruber was the Director of Marketing for CSPAN back in the 80s, now he is bringing content from the public sphere of the World Affairs Council, CSPAN, and guest lectures of independent bookstores into a great new online community site called Fora.tv (plural of forum).

I spoke with him at CES this week and got a walk through of the site. He said that he has been visiting universities as well as several US and European public affairs groups. They all want Fora.tv to distribute their content and to build community around their content. Fora.tv has edited video and commentary in regional and topical channels. They have great transcription and chaptering features that make it easy to navigate the video. My favorite feature is the Fora.tv Think Tank. Here they post content around a narrow topic, interview thought leaders, and post videos and comments from all of us. The goal is to provide a rich information experience around narrow and current topics.

Moving forward Brian hopes to create a network of video blogger “stringers” that he intends to give press access to public affairs venues and cash to cover production costs. Folks can just show up with their cameras and plug into the audio press pool.

Brian has received funding from several angels including Will Hearst who loves the idea of bringing public affairs content and online communities together. I see this as important as Doug Kaye’s IT Conversations … Doug gives me access to keynote speeches of the Web 2.0 conference and many of the leading technology thought leaders … Maybe Brian can give me access to Davos!

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