Tubefilter News

Web series fans, take note. The International Academy of Web Television, the independent, non-profit organization that serves as the voting body for the Streamy Awards, officially announced its Board of Directors today along with its first Chairman, Michael Wayne, co-founder and CEO of DECA (Digital Entertainment Corporation of America).

“Just as the Academies of Motion Picture and Television Arts and Sciences had humble beginnings, so do we,” said Wayne in the IAWTV press release today. “While our industry may be in its early stages, it is growing at an exponential rate … 2010 promises to be a phenomenal year for the International Academy of Web Television with the 2nd Annual Streamy Awards and the continued expansion of our membership.” Before DECA, Wayne served as the Vice President of Strategic Alliances for Sony Pictures Digital and Sony Pictures Television.

The board is an impressive collection of talent from the web television world, bringing together their experience in areas such as content creation, finance and distribution. First up is Blip.tv co-founder Dina Kaplan, who will serve as the board’s Vice Chair. Besides the experience with distribution through Blip.tv that Kaplan brings to the table, she also brings a journalistic perspective having won several awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. Mo Koyfman, Principal at Spark Capital, a venture capital firm whose notable Web TV investments include Next New Networks, EQAL, Boxee, and Veoh, will also sit on the board. Before Spark Capital, Koyfman was the COO of Connected Ventures, parent company of popular web video sites Vimeo and CollegeHumor.com.

Also joining the board is John McCarus, someone who has intricate knowledge of branded entertainment as VP Director of Brand Content at DIGITAS, whose clients have included high profile companies like Disney, General Motors and KRAFT.

Then there’s content-creation and who better to sit on the board than The Guild creator-star Felicia Day who has created one of the most successful web series to date. George Ruiz, Head of New Media at talent agency ICM, will serve as the board’s secretary. The board will also include Tubefilter co-founders Brady Brim-DeForest, Marc Hustvedt, Drew Baldwin, Josh Cohen and Jamison Tilsner.

Who knew that the debate of circumcision was so hot right now? Seriously, this is apparently a hot button issue amongst new parents and parents-to-be. So what better topic to tackle in the launch of DECA’s newest original web series, Parents Ask (above).

DECA is fast becoming to parenting what Revision3 is to gamers and techies, building up a stable of original web series around an super-focused audience. Their Target-sponsored hit Momversation recently rolled out its 100th episode and Daphne Brogdon’s Cool Mom is still going strong. Sure, they also rock World of Warcraft slugfest Project Lore and Boing Boing, but in terms of new properties it’s all about the parents.

“We know that parents are looking online for answers to the tough questions about raising their kids, so we set out to bring together a panel of the top experts in the country,” said DECA’s CEO Michael Wayne. “We created Parents Ask to directly connect parents with the most knowledgeable authorities on every parenting topic.”

The panel of experts assembled for the weekly web series and site are the leading pop experts in the parenting space—pediatricians, authors, and psychologists. Also notable is that most of this group rock some clever titles to their books like “Eat, Sleep, Poop” author Scott Cohen, MD, FAAP, “Anxiety Free Kids”

We’re not quite a the point where this calls for full-page congratulatory buyouts in Variety, but 100 episodes is still a milestone. Sure, it’s not the TV syndication gravy train that lets Friends and Seinfeld stars collect ski chalets, but in the web world, it means you’re doing something right.

Momversation hit the vaunted 100th episode maker this week, and the A-list mommyblogger show continues to draw audiences not just as viewers but as active participants. Santa Monica-based DECA, the digital studio that created the web series, says this frequent community chatter was by design.

Armstong is joined by other well-read bloggers like Rebecca Woolf, Asha Dornfest of ParentHacks.com, Giyen Kim of BaconIsMyEnemy.com and Alice Bradley of Finslippy. They also seem to score a not-too-shabby group of guest panelists—like Access Hollywood’s Nancy O’Dell and NY State Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (in an upcoming episode).

The media agency Digitas is doing its part to ferry more money into the Web video business. It expects to book about 10 new advertising deals stemming from the “NewFront” Web video showcase it hosted along with its visit to the Cannes Lion International Advertising Festival, both early June.

Buoyed by that success, the agency will now bring a smaller version of the NewFront to its regional offices and advertisers around the country starting this week. Joining Digitas in the mini road show will be DECA, EQAL, Next New Networks, blip.tv, CBS Interactive, CAA, Reveille and others, said John McCarus, VP and ground director for brand content at the Third Act, the branded entertainment arm of the media agency. Most of those companies were also presenters at the NewFront.

Momversation would not be the same without the presence of über mommyblogger Heather Armstrong, founder of dooce. Heather began blogging in 2001 to chronicle her life. Her readers have followed her work in LA, subsequent firing (for blogging about people from work), getting married, moving to Salt Lake City, having a baby, postpartum depression, and current life as a wife and mom. These days a healthy Heather is pregnant with her second child, excited about her new book, and loves sharing her parenting thoughts with the Momversation viewers.

Tubefilter caught up with Heather to ask her about being in a web series and what she thinks the moms of Momversation will come up with next.

Tubefilter: With your blog, new book, and busy family life, how do you make time to be in a web series?

Heather Armstrong: I was really interested the format of it. One because there wasn’t going to be a lot of interference. They were basically asking us to talk about a topic. I wanted to make time for it. It’s a lot of work, but the final products are so good that it is well worth the time I put into it.

When you got home from school growing up, was your mom sitting at her computer blogging? Some of today’s kids are being raised by a whole new generation of web savvy parents. Momversation offers their viewers the chance to join the web’s most outspoken mom-bloggers in a smart and entertaining video conversation. From the controversial Heather Armstrong of Dooce to the extremely frank Giyen Kim of Bacon is My Enemy, the show offers a discussion of today’s parenting topics. Tubefilter talked to Asha Dornfest of the popular website Parent Hacks to find out more about mommy blogging, Momversation, and what her kids think about the web celeb in their house.