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Then try vlogging, doing video versions of the podcast. If you have a PC, download a program called Vlog It! (www.seriousmagic.com). It costs $49.

For Macs, the best package I've seen is Videocue (www.varasoftware.com). It comes in two versions, a $40 basic package or a professional version for $90.

Both these programs let you drag and drop video and sound and graphics into a column on the right side of the screen. On the left, type in your script. Then plug in a Web cam, or even your home camcorder, and the text scrolls like a teleprompter.

Any Webcam will do, but Apple's iSight camera ($149) comes with a built-in microphone that does an excellent job. Add Griffin's SightLight lighting kit ($49) and you get great quality video of your on-camera anchoring.

For the highest bidder, we will create five original, fifteen second (minimum) - one minute (maximum) post-roll commercials that will span five days of programming, Monday-Friday, March 6 through March 10, 2006. Each day that week a different commercial that we create for your company will be played at the conclusion of the Rocketboom episode.

Rocketboom reaches a minimum of 130,000 people per day and each day's video, over the course of several days, receives over 200,000 complete views. Thus, the advertisement reach for this auction is currently a minimum of one million views.

For the highest bidder, we will create five original, fifteen second (minimum) - one minute (maximum) post-roll commercials that will span five days of programming, Monday-Friday, March 6 through March 10, 2006. Each day that week a different commercial that we create for your company will be played at the conclusion of the Rocketboom episode.

Rocketboom reaches a minimum of 130,000 people per day and each day's video, over the course of several days, receives over 200,000 complete views. Thus, the advertisement reach for this auction is currently a minimum of one million views.

UPDATE: Baron clarifies writing us, "The advertiser will relinquish all control. If we get a high bidder, they will pay us right away. Then we will make the ads and play them on Rocketboom whether they like the ads or not. They will understand that by placing a bid, they give up complete control to us to do what we will."

Travel Channel has embarked on its journey to select five TJs to participate in the next season of this international series. Those chosen will visit major cities on a 13 week tour for the television series 5 TAKES, which has revolutionized internet/television interaction in real time. Viewers influence their journey by deciding what the TJs do via the Travel Channel web site, and the TJs will document their first-hand experience with video logs (vlogs) and web logs (blogs) while interacting with viewers real-time via the Travel Channel message boards.

The Travel Channel is looking for a group of impassioned 20-somethings to travel the world and chronicle their experiences along the way. The network encourages those with a sense of adventure to log on to the Travel Channel's website from through December 31, 2005 at http://travel.discovery.com/videogalleries/upload/index.html and upload their own vlogs and blogs for consideration by network executives. This is the first Discovery Communications, Inc. program to accept user generated content over the web.

At my blinkx.tv, users can upload and store their video blogs free of charge; they can also enter a search and save it as a "channel", which will be automatically and perpetually updated with relevant footage. This personal "channel" can then be viewed as a single, uninterrupted media stream, either online, or when downloaded to their desktops or portable video player. In this way, blinkx is empowering Internet users to customize not only what video content they receive, but also how and when they view it.

"Let me just explain it this way: Every webpage will become a television station," he said. "Think of the webpage as a video magazine. ... In a few years, if people open the page and see words and data, they might change the channel on you."

• Road Trips: Fun vacation moments.
• Office Humor: Pranks, skits, and other office hijinks.
• Bloopers: DOH moments.
• Pets: Yahoo wants to see what Fluffy can do.
• I Can't Believe It!: A miscellaneous category -- it doesn't fit into any of the above categories.

1. Videos accepted between July 27 and August 17.
2. Semi-finalists announced on August 30
3. Fans and friends cast their votes August 30-September 12.
4. Grand prize winner selected and announced by celebrity judges approximately September 19.

Many of the vlogs have a home-grown, experimental feel. People capture moments in their everyday lives. Some post cooking lessons, short films or videos of local festivals or family events like graduations. One of the best-known video blogs is Rocketboom, which puts together an irreverent daily news program.

Politicians are also wading in the video-blogging waters. North Carolina Sen. John Edwards is receiving and responding to questions using video. Boston City Councilor John Tobin has a video blog as well.

Clint Sharp, a vlogger who publishes a weekly tech show, said "the potential for everyone to self-publish has the ability to revolutionize the world" by sharing video across cultures and countries.

Battlestar Galactica executive producer David Eick will offer viewers an exclusive look behind-the-scenes of one of television's hottest new shows. Fresh three-five minute video blogs will be posted every few weeks. They will give fans never before seen insights into the production of the hit show including candid moments with the series' stars. Visitors will be able to sit in on script meetings with writers and producers and meet other members of the crew and special effects team.

Congdon is reason enough to watch Rocketboom. A fizzy ingenue with a mischievous streak, she bridges the gap between the program's dual missions: to be a newscast homage and a new media breakthrough. She makes Rocketboom comfortable and cool, all at the same time.

"We wanted to have a creative video blog that would be palatable," she says. "A lot of the video blogs out there are by someone in their bedroom, half-awake. Mainstream America is not going to want to watch that. We wanted to get people watching stuff online, to get people interested in this new medium."

Baron has recently hired correspondents in Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Boston. To make the venture pay, he peddles ad time at the end of each report.

How big, how lucrative, how revolutionary could Rocketboom become?

Nothing is sure except this: Technology won't hold it back. From day one it blanketed the globe, issuing forth from a consumer-grade videocam and a laptop.