"Our online event was going to be huge. We spent $2 million to run one ad one time."

"What happened?"

"The site crashed. We forgot to tell the web guys."

"That was stupid."

While this IBM commercial pokes fun at an attempt by Victoria's Secret to run a one-time Superbowl advertisement for a live online fashion show--which crashed their servers when curious guys overran the site--online video has shown great potential for revolutionizing marketing.

So far, however, internet video has been held back by lack of both standards and bandwith. To the chagrin of many, use of video requires an annoying plug-in such as Real Player, Quicktime, or Shockwave. The W3C, the Internet standard setting body, is working to develop a way to point to video within HMTL and even control the video (i.e, rewind, stop, etc.) within HTML, which could make video technology significantly more popular. [1] Additionally, Geneva's International Telecommunications Union has promulgated standards relating to videoconferencing, although they are "optimized for popular circuit-switched media such as fractional T1 ... and ISDN." [2] Thus, for traditional packet-switched, modem-based communications, video quality remains slow and unstandardized. Morover, some users are unable to view video because of limited random-access memory or security restrictions.

Because of high bandwith costs and slow download time, internet video has not gained widespread use. For example, a1998 study by Harvard's Kennedy School found that less than one percent of senate and gubernatorial candidates with web pages had their TV commercials online, despite the relative ease of doing so [3]. Areas where video is used heavily include news sites such as CNN and pornographic sites.

Recently introduced web video-recorders and software will make this medium significantly more affordable. Previously, ISDN videoconfrencing technology ran $1500 per seat. Now, Intel's PC Camera Pack runs $100 with camera and videoconfrence software (Demonstration available here). A similar option is White Pine's CU-See Me, also $100 (Demonstration photo available here).

Given this greater affordability, the e-commerce potential for video is enormous. Instead of making sales calls, for example, B2B salesmen can quickly contact large numbers of customers using online videoconfrencing technology, and skip POTS (plain old telephone service) charges or airfare and hotel rooms altogether. Video-based customer service also has tremendous potential for revolutionizing phone centers, especially in industries where video-based demonstrations would facilitate better service. Accordingly, products requiring assembly could have online video instructions. Continuing education could benefit from live internet professional recertification classes.

Middlemen can also profit from greater videoconferencing services. Dating services and hosts of online communities can charge fees for connecting individuals and arranging online meetings. Other applications include web-video security cameras on street corners, the monitoring of daycare centers and construction sites (click here for a live view of the new Wharton building), and current views of vacation spots (see a video from Northern Ireland here). For entertainment applications, music videos (example here) and movies can be placed online in either a pay-per-view format or a subscription basis, making tapes and CDs obsolete.