<videovortex> update on VV4 Split and beyond

[geert lovink]

Dear Videovortex networkers!

Videovortex 4 is in a month from now. The preparations for the program  
are more or less done and it looks like a very exciting line up!

If you are thinking of coming, let us know. Dan Oki is the festival  
director and coordinator in Split: danoki at xs4all.nl.

The Videovortex reader came out in October 2008, a year after  
VideoVortex 1 in Brussels in October 2007. Number 2 happened here in  
Amsterdam (January 2008) and the third edition in Ankara (October  
2008). To have number 4 already in May 2009, in the wonderful Croatian  
coastal town of Split  is pretty amazing. It shows us that the field  
of online video is very dynamic and that there is very active,  
critical involvement of artists, theorists, programmers and activists  
in this area.

The Videovortex reader has recently been reprinted (total circulation  
now: 3000). We might consider to produce a second Videovortex reader  
but, in part, this also depends on how the Videovortex research  
network will further develop. We would like to discuss this on this  
list. How do you see Videovortex as a project? Has it been too much  
old school, depending on a mailinglist, conferences and publications?  
Will additional layers of exchange on Web 2.0 platform add anything  
and reach other audiences?

Where and when should Videovortex 5 happen? Or Videovortex 6 for that  
matter... When should we start producing a second reader?

At Wintecamp in March, here in Amsterdam (www.networkcultures.org/wintercamp) 
  we discussed how networks can become more sustainable. Soon the  
outcomes of this largest INC event so far will become available. Would  
it make sense to turn the loose Videovortex community into what we  
call an 'organized network'? Would it make sense, for instance, to  
create an editorial board for Videovortex as a whole?

This and other things we would like to discuss in Split, and, if  
possible, make some decision there.

All the best,

Geert