The other video market

A lot is being made of the explosion of video entertainment on the Web, and for good reason. But while everyone from content creators to distributors to ISPs tries to figure out how to build a business in a market in which so much is given away, there is another video market with less spectacular growth but considerable long-term upside.

Video on the Net stands poised to change the way we interact with our physicians, get instructions, and even communicate with government entities.

"It's too limited to think of Internet video as fun video snippets," said Larry Warnock, chief marketing officer of Vignette, a company which does Enterprise Content Management, which means they help enterprises organize their existing images, Web content, videos and documents so they can be used in a variety of ways, including to create new opportunities for revenue. Last week, Vignette announced a strategic relationship with Microsoft, which happens to provide the basic software -- Microsoft Office and more -- that corporations use to create much of their content.

In fact, it's much more powerful to consider how Web video might revolutionize things like medical records, Warnock said. "As the medical record revolution takes hold, and everything is digital, you could have video recordings of interaction with physicians," he commented. "The patient could choose to have their records given to other physicians, for referrals. We will also see more instructional video and more use of video by governments, to provide communications. We haven't even envisioned the types of content that is coming out."

The relationship with Microsoft is intended to make sure the two companies are able to create an end-to-end solution, which Microsoft will use on its MS Office and Windows Sharepoint products as well as other software supporting PCs, mobile PCs, smart phones, the Xbox game system and Media Center, said Eddie Amos, senior director of the global Independent System Vendor team for Microsoft.

What this relationship and others will enable businesses to do with Web video might ultimately eclipse all those day-after TV episodes -- which could provide a productivity boost to offset the time lost to watching the latest stuff on YouTube when we're supposed to be working.

E-mail me at Cwilson3@telephonyonline.com.