The Congdon/Rocketboom split

At this hour, the No. 1 search term at Techorati is "Rocketboom," which should tell you something about the cultural significance of this pioneering video blog.

For non-Rocketboomers, here's the quick summary: host Amanda Congdon hasn't been seen on the three-minute webcast since June 23. At 7:38 a.m. on Wednesday, Congdon posted a clip at her Amanda UnBoomed blog announcing that she had been forced out by her Rocketboom partner, Andrew Baron. (Dave Winer found out about it about three hours later, and once Dave finds something, the whole world knows about it.*)

Anyway, Baron responded with an announcement at Rocketboom that said Congdon had left for Los Angeles to pursue "opportunities that have arisen for her in Hollywood," but that Rocketboom would carry on. Later that night, Congdon fired back with a lengthy Baron-fisking post that, in essence, called her former partner a liar.

Melodrama ensued, with pettiness extending down to the details of Congdon's apartment sublet. The comments on Congdon's site are predictably pro-Amanda, with the general sentiment that Congdon "was" Rocketboom.

My position? Break-ups are almost always ugly, and a couple's "friends" always seem to pick one or the other. But what many of the Amanda-backers don't seem to grasp is that if Congdon made Rocketboom, Baron made Congdon. Baron was the visionary: Congdon was the struggling actress who replied to Baron's Craig's List ad in 2004. Today Congdon is a marketable commodity, and Rocketboom is a brand in crisis.

Here's the way (one-time Xark linker) J.D. Lasica described it to The New York Times on Thursday:

"It's a classic story of artistic differences with a new twist," Mr. Lasica said. "Here are the leading pioneers of the new movement with different ideas on how to capitalize on the trend. Andrew sees the Internet as the end goal in itself, rather than the steppingstone to TV or traditional media. Amanda understands that Hollywood is where the money is right now."

Jason McCabe Calacanis, the chief executive of the AOL blogging network Weblogs Inc. — who has offered Ms. Congdon a job at Netscape — said in an e-mail message: "This is a simple case of the talent side outgrowing the business side, big time."

Bingo. Rocketboom was popular with webbies, attracting roughly 250,000 views per day, five days per week. This made its first foray into advertising big news here at Xark, where we were watching to see how the experiment would shake out. But as Business Week points out, the show's failure to convert its popularity into a steady revenue stream practically made the split inevitable.

The standard response to this news from larger media will likely be a smug "I-told-you-so." "Show-me-the-money" has been a damning demand for anything webbish ever since the Dot-com crash, and with Rocketboom on the rocks, a predictable segment is sure to conclude that vlogging and other forms of citizen media are all doomed to failure.

But it's worth noting that Rocketboom, despite its geeky chops, was decidedly NOT citizen media. Rocketboom was always one of the most professional of the available online video choices. As such, it was more of a product in search of a market than a labor of love. Porn aside, we still don't have an answer to the "how to get rich off producing your own Web-based TV show," question, but for citizen-media, that was never really the issue in the first place.

Disclosure: Congdon was one of the stars at ConvergeSouth 2005, but speaking personally, she left me rather cold. Not rude, but not generous or egalitarian in the same way that the other A-Listers in attendance were. Congdon and her boyfriend joined our little group for a night out in Greensboro (a night that included all of us trekking back to the hotel with her when it turned out she'd forgotten her ID), but for whatever reason the Rocketboomers were the only people from that evening who didn't inspire warm and fuzzy feelings. Many A-List bloggers seem to reject the mantle of celebrity; Congdon seemed a bit more comfortable with it. Maybe that's a function of the vlogging medium. Maybe it's her actor's training. It's neither good nor bad -- it just is.

Secondly, watch that "Goodbye, Rocketboomers" video from Amanda UnBoomed, and tell me whether or not you feel like your emotions are being manipulated.

Anyway, Congdon is a talent, and she deserves to cash in on what celebrity she has. Baron will be fine, too. But I'm predicting right now that whatever they both go on to do in their careers, each will be best-remembered for their fine, creative and ground-breaking work on Rocketboom.

(*Here's Dave Winer on the split: "I hope Amanda and Andrew figure out that they have a magic thing, their talent balances each other's and it's not too late to work it out, to get back on track. I don't think either of them will do as well without the other as they would if they got back together." Agreed. FYI: Dave also thinks the host of the first post-Amanda Rocketboom on Monday be Amber Dawn McArthur.-- dc)

(Photo: Dave Slusher of The Evil Genius Chronicles records an interview with Amanda Congdon and Mario Librondi, Congdon's boyfriend and Rocketboom collaborator, , in the lobby of The Biltmore Hotel during October's ConvergeSouth conference in Greensboro, NC.)

Comments

[Badger]

Drat. Just when I was first finding out what Rocketboom was.

Baron's explanation: "It's just like a marriage -- there are problems, and over time they just don't get addressed, and it just gets bigger until there's a loss of communication ... It was starting to seem pretty desolate, and I woke up in the morning and she had sent an e-mail to the field list with a link to her video -- that was kinda the indication that she had given up and that it was over ... We had been in negotiations trying to work everything out. Amanda came to the table with one proposal, and is not willing to budge."

Congdon's explanation: "It's been rocky -- communication with Andrew is a difficult process for me, and for a lot of other people. It's something we tried and tried to work on, but we never seemed to be able to make it work ... I'm not interested in Rocketboom unless he changes his view of partnership."

Winer's thoughts: "I feel really saddened by what's happened, and I don't think this is the end of it. I don't think it's one or the other. I think they need each other."

The source: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,71339-0.html?tw=wn_index_6

I don't know anything about Baron but I certainly don't get the "warm fuzzies" reading anythign Congdon had to say. Judging from what others have cited so far, I don't think she's as popular off-screen as she was on-screen.

[Hue]

In this new media world, private spats are done online and through vlogs too.

We will find out shortly whether Amanda is Rocketboom with a guest host next week.

I think this is the link to Dave Winer.
RocketAmber?