Television and media guru Shelly Palmer posts an excellent summary of the year in online video, and what to look for in 2007 and beyond.

The big news is that “you” are Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year.” In a stunning stating of the obvious, the editors recognized that 2006 was not only the “year of online video,” but the “year of self-expression.” They, of course, were thinking about user-generated content. We don’t have to do that — that’s truly last year’s news. We have to think about the ubiquitous tools that empower consumers to share their passions with the world.

A lot of the talk in online video focuses on the technology side, but what about the creative side? Exploring the new and creative uses of online videos is one of the topics the 10ton blog will be covering in 2007.

The web is not TV. It’s a different medium with different rules. We’ve put together a compendium of the top 10 rules for success with online video. These are the principles we’ll be following for our own projects and we’re certain they’ll help others as well. Read 10ton’s Top 10

Since its inception 25 years ago, MTV has been using its centralized empire of channels to tell kids what’s cool. And clearly, they’ve had great success doing just that. MTV is undisputed as a major clearinghouse for mainstream youth culture. But now MTV is scared. Why? Because the future of media distribution is not in ‘channels’ in the traditional sense.

The channel of the future is based on personal preferences and is customized to the viewer. The individual creates the channel. Pandora.com provides a model for this future. Pandora is an internet radio site that gives the listener the ability to create custom radio playlists centered around musical styles they already like.

If you’ve never used it, here’s how it works. I enter, “Miles Davis” – and I get Miles Davis Radio. This station includes Miles Davis and other artists whose profiles contain elements that Pandora has concluded make up Davis’ sound. For example, the third song on the playlist is a live cut of Scotch and Water played by Cannonball Adderly. Pandora lists the following, as qualities that it finds similar in both Miles Davis and this track by Adderly:

• hard bop influences
• bop influences
• a lively alto sax solo
• a piano solo
• a driving swing feel
• strong melodies
• a groove oriented approach

Miles Davis Radio is great, all my old faves. But what happens when I add another variable? This is where it gets interesting. So next I enter, “The Rolling Stones”. Suddenly I am presented with not just Miles Davis radio and not just Rolling Stones radio, but a calculated mélange of artists who combine qualities similar in both Davis and the Stones. This is where I’m turned on to a great song called He Went Down to The Sea, by a group called The Monks–who I’ve never heard of. Pandora decided that The Monks song was something I might like because, according to Pandora:

Based on what you’ve told us so far, we’re playing this track because it features basic rock song structure, a subtle vocal harmony, repetitive melodic phrasing, mixed acoustic and electronic instrumentation and major key tonality.

Far out! At Pandora, each listener has his or her own channel and that channel is constantly changing as the listener’s tastes shift.

So why is MTV scared?

In a Pandora-style world, the winners will be those media outlets that prove to be the most personalized and the most diverse, not the most centralized. MTV can only offer so many shows in a day, and certainly only so many shows that any one person could be interested in. But with Pandora, the listener’s options are infinite, and all of those options have been custom-fitted to the user. Would you shop at Amazon or eBay if they carried only what they thought was cool? The Pandora-model works the same way – it empowers the listener. In a Pandora-world, kids no longer need an MTV to tell them what they like. Pandora offers kids a much bigger pool of potential favorites, and from those choices the kids can figure out what they like for themselves.

This decentralization presents a lot of problems for a network like MTV. But for the consumer and the advertiser alike, it’s a boon. Here’s why: advertisers finally have the information needed to target their ads at those most likely to be interested in their product. This in itself is revolutionary, but it’s nothing new: Google, Amazon, and many others are already using architectures such as this to direct their search engine ads and product suggestions. What I am really excited about are the new sub-cultures and cultural sub-groupings that these metrics are going to recognize and promote.

Take for instance, this hypothetical example. What if GameStop discovered, that as a group, punk rock listeners who are also Bach fans tend overwhelmingly to be avid Nintendo Wii players? It’s an advertiser’s dream. It’s a chance to carve out new brand loyalty in highly-specific groups that essentially didn’t exist or recognize themselves as groups before.

This is beyond the grasp of MTV one-size fits all youth marketing. But for those blazing the trail of advertising with metric-based placement it will be a chance to get the first scoop on new audiences as they are created. MTV, watch out!

Here’s a question: How much community does the average car, sneaker, or beverage ad create? None.

And it doesn’t make sense. Why not create an ad with the potential to promote itself?

You can’t bore people into buying your product by making intrusive, repetitive ads. Ads like this tell the audience nothing more than, “Yes, we have a product and, yes, you can buy it.” Because these ads lack intrinsic entertainment value, you end up having to pay for every viewer experience.

But there’s another way. Why not give your audience something that they intrinsically enjoy? That way the viewers can pass it on themselves, creating their own community around your ad. With every new friend added to the chain, so grows your product’s notoriety, and the number of people who have not only an awareness, but have actively participated in promoting your ad. New connections, blog posts, forwards, love letters, affairs beginning and ending — all around your product!

Just like TV creates community. Just like movies create community. Your ad brings people together. Remember those halcyon days snuggled around the RCA floor set waiting for Jack Benny to come on? Well neither do I. But I do remember making dates to watch X-Files. (Come on, I’m not the only one!) And you know what? It wasn’t any less entertaining because 20th Century Fox got something out of the exchange. And I still remember all this stuff years later.

It’s a powerful idea. And the great part is, people will be drawn to your ad because they’re getting just as much out of it as you are.