GOP Hub was launched by Jonathan Cornwell at the beginning of July 2007, and earned the label "Revolutionary" from techRepublican founder David All. Since then we have done what we could to build a small community among conservative bloggers, but our growth was limited by the fact that we were just a niche alternative to Digg and Reddit and did not offer anything unique. Our recent partnership with Evanston, IL-based startup Neokast, provider of HD-quality live video streaming without buffering, allows us to assert quite confidently that GOP Hub now offers the Republican Party a truly disruptive technology.
Neokast's technology operates on the most sophisticated P2P software in the world, which was developed by a Northwestern Ph.D. candidate. It made its public debut at the Video on the Internet conference and was greeted with rave reviews from some of the internet's most respected enthusiasts (see links to reviews below). Neokast describes itself as,
The Neokast Stream Server is a professional solution for creating
broadcast channels of real-time live multimedia or scheduled content
from file. It is ideal for broadcasting live events and supporting one
or more channels of continuously streamed video.Neokast is a technology enabler. The unrivalled scalability of
the Neokast technology combined with its professional-grade
functionality and ease of use can turn creative ideas into profitable
business models.
Essentially YouTube on steroids, GOP Hub's streaming video network will offer GOP candidates across the country the opportunity to utilize our consulting services to build their own channels of 24/7 content on their own campaign website for a very reasonable cost, especially considering what they pay for a few seconds of time on the local news. We hope to use the revenue generated by this highly personalized campaign consulting to build a truly advanced production platform that will empower conservative activists and bloggers around the country to build their own channels hosted on GOP Hub free of charge. We are currently seeking to establish relationships with content producers, whether bloggers, journalists, students or campaign managers nationwide who would provide live, on-site streams of each candidate as they make speeches, kiss babies and "press the flesh", as they say.
At the moment we are trying to wrap our heads around the technology to ensure that we package the content in the most effective way possible. We hope to use the primaries as a Beta phase for the general election, so please send your questions, comments and proposals for new channels. UStream is a useful tool, as noted on techRepublican a few days ago, and for those in the blogosphere who do not
have access to a digital video camera or a high-speed broadband
connection, we strongly recommend utilizing UStream's livecast
technology to broadcast their opinion.
You will notice that we have included a Slatecard widget with all of the GOP presidential candidates, as we agree wholeheartedly with David All that he too has a "Revolutionary" technology to offer GOP candidates in the 21st century. Another fun new widget that I encountered recently is from circaVie, an application that makes it quick and easy to create a dynamic and multimedia rich timeline, which I used to plot the post-primary victory and concession speeches from the candidates in both parties. Other widgets used in this Beta experiment include Twitter and Google's Election 2008 gadget, which includes tabbed feeds from YouTube, Google News, Google Blog Search and Google Maps, on all of the candidates.
Neokast Links
I Cringley, The Pulpit (PBS.com)- The $7 TV Network: Neokast brings multicasting to the masses
The Red Ferret: Neokast- set up your own internet television station in minutes
