The old adage is true: Timing is everything.

 

At least I hope that’s the case as TMCnet and Interactive Media Strategies this month take the wraps off our new “Business Video” portal that you are visiting right now.

 

Our goal with this site is to deliver the market’s most useful destination for news, information and analysis related to the implementation of video in day-to-day business communications.

 

An ambitious goal? Perhaps. You might even think of this goal as a bit outlandish when you consider my worldview formed during seven years as research director of Interactive Media Strategies – a consulting firm that focuses its coverage on the world of Web communications, particularly online video.

 

Simply put, video is going to be huge. And I don’t mean huge in the “Google (News - Alert) buys YouTube” sense. Rather, think more about a “huge” that implies a pervasive presence over time for video in every digital venue you can imagine. Think about an era of video ubiquity.

 

In our research at Interactive Media Strategies, we have developed a fundamental belief that video will evolve into a type of data that can be integrated into every software application you use and every Web site you visit.

 

And this means more than just using YouTube (News - Alert) to tap into a late-night comedy skit or home family video blooper. That’s kid’s stuff. Rather, video adoption heralds a new age of digital development that is serious business.

 

Today, for instance, many companies already use video to distribute information and enhance employee training. Over time, leading retailers will become more adept at weaving video product descriptions into the Web sites where they sell their wares. Firms that develop online FAQs to address common customer questions will convert at least part of their customer support operation into video libraries that can address common customer support issues.

 

Indeed, any company that spends money to enhance internal or external communications today – whether it be in the form of four-color brochures, highway billboards or any other similar investment – will find it necessary to convert part of that communications budget into the implementation of vibrant video-enriched communications.

 

And that’s why – as we stand on the cusp of 2010 – that the timing could not be better for the launch of a Business Video portal.

 

Together, we stand on the brink of the Third Wave of the Interactive Video Era.

 

The first wave came in the first half of this decade, from 2000 to 2005. In this stage, technology vendors worked to simply get the basic infrastructure working to enable reliable implementation of online video. During this first wave, end users clicking on the “play” button of an online video would justifiably be surprised if a video actually played.

 

More common was the on-screen message telling the user that their requested video stream was “buffering” ahead of the actual presentation of the video content.

 

During this first wave, innovation came mostly from the companies enabling the basic plumbing of video exchange. As market watchers, Interactive Media Strategies’ analysts made big deals when media player platforms improved the quality of video delivered at relatively low bit rates. Likewise, we cheered the enhancements of content distribution networks that make the distribution of online video more reliable – and affordable – than ever before.

 

After 2005, the expectations of end users began to change with improvements logged during the first wave of the interactive video era. Videos started to play pretty reliably with surprisingly good quality.

 

That set the stage for the second wave of the Interactive Video Era, which is nearing the completion of its five-year window. With video now reliable, people began to realize that a bunch of software application infrastructure needs to be built to make video more useful.

 

As a result, much of the effort by business video technology vendors focused on the development of things useful but boring widgets like content management platforms that help organizations build libraries of video archives and track exactly who is watching the video. Also during this second wave, we have seen the development of applications that make it easier for individuals and organizations to create video-enriched content and make it available in a range of venues – from individual Web sites accessed via PCs to portals that can be reached via mobile devices.

 

Essentially, these two waves of technology development spanning the first decade of the century set the stage for a new Third Wave of the Interactive Video Era. With the basic enabling technology in place and some of the key basic supporting infrastructure developed, we are now poised for an age of creative application deployment.

 

This is when it gets fun and why our timing is right for the launch of the Business Video portal.

 

Folks, the technology works. Video is reliable, and software platforms are in place to make it possible for organizations to cost effectively develop, manage and watch extensive amounts of video content.

 

With this foundation in place, the only ingredient needed to spark massive growth in the usage and implementation of video is “creativity.” Innovation is the new video watchword. Because the technology works, individuals now have the license to begin dreaming up productivity-oriented applications for video that will help us all to get things done more effectively and efficiently than ever before.

 

Our goal with the Business Video portal is to hasten the development of the creative applications for interactive video. By bringing together regular news updates, top-notch market analysis and lessons learned by end-users on the front lines of video experimentation and deployment, this site will make it possible for users to tap into a one-stop shop that helps them learn about the state-of-the-art in business video technologies and the best practices for implementing these technologies.

 

As more people learn about the growing capabilities of video for productivity oriented applications, more new applications of the technology will be developed. And that will give us even more to write – and Webcast – about in the months and years ahead.

 

The time is right. Set your watches. The game is on.