Interview with Thomas Rigler: GoGOOROO

We continue to interview video & web TV communities on the web. This time we interviewed Thomas Rigler, a filmmaker producing and developing programming for television and new media, who co-founded the Internet Television Community GoGooroo.com. Not long ago we reviewed this user-generated online guide and now amuseline visitors have an opportunity to get to know more.

1. Can you tell us a little about yourself and your service?! Why did you name the service “goGOOROO”?

What’s completely missing in the marketplace is a quality user-guide that takes visitors by the hand, determines their needs, offers tailor-made selections and walks them to the destinations of their choice. An Internet video manual if you will, an interactive filter to distill thousands of global broadband channels and millions of YouTube videos down to the listings that actually matter.

Creating this discovery engine benefits both users and manufacturers: Viewers receive a tool to search and discover without frustration, the industry gains the link that connects content providers with ALL platforms, an essential element in the industry-wide and decade-long effort to bridge the divide between PC and TV/set top box environments in the living room.

We named goGOOROO as a word play between the ‘Guru’ who takes the uninitiated by the hand and ‘go’es out into the world = goGOOROO.

2. What makes goGOOROO stand out among all the like services available?

There’s no dedicated destination on the web that creates order from the chaos of American, European, or even global video offerings — a one-stop broadband channel guide is desperately needed.

GoGOOROO is a guide, an index and a community all wrapped into one destination. Unlike traditional program guides, goGOOROO puts the users in the driver’s seat. Similar to the free Internet Encyclopedia Wikipedia, GoGOOROO is a user-generated online guide and every visitor can submit, review and rate channels and videos alongside the GoGOOROO team. This ensure that the catalog grows on a daily basis.

3. What’s your university-level education? Degree maybe?

The founders:

Randolf Hillebrand / University of Cologne with a master in history, political science and German language
Thomas Rigler / Iniversity of Performing Arts, Vienna/Film and Television, Directors program

4. Are you specializing in a particular area of video technology, tools, software?

We’re pretty inclusive but currently focus on flash video players in the broadband & new media space.

5. Can you tell me about your hobbies and interests?

No time for hobbies yet.

6. How much time do you put into this service on a daily basis?

A small team of flexible freelancers keeps the engines running, with lots of hands-on support from the founders.

7. What do you do full time? Your day job?

GoGOOROO is a considerable time commitment that was born out of a professional need to organize an ocean of available broadband video channels.

Other businesses by the goGOOROO founders:

Randolf Hillebrand:
In 2002, Randolf founded brandbuero, a full service online consulting agency for the publishing industry. Since then, brandbuero’s media department has successfully advised its clients in the publishing world on new media content, business strategies and online-marketing. www.brandbuero.de

Today brandbuero’s high profile clients include newspapers and magazines like Handelsblatt, DIE ZEIT, Vanity Fair, WirtschaftsWoche, Karriere, VDI Nachrichten and New Investor. Brandbuero’s experienced editorial staff delivers articles, newsletters and new media content and is in charge of administering many of their clients’ websites.

In 2005, Randolf Hillebrand moved to Los Angeles to open brandbuero LA to research Internet trends for the publishing industry and to create marketing strategies for his clients in the publishing world.

Thomas Rigler:
Thomas develops and produces both narrative and non-fiction projects for production companies, TV networks, non-profits and ad agencies, often across all platforms. Calling on his expertise in these fields, he also consults for companies in the U.S. and Europe.

He is a member of the directors branch at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and serves on the board of directors at the International Documentary Association where he heads the web committee. He currently oversees the re-launch of the IDA’s documentary.org as a groundbreaking video driven online community, scheduled to go live December 2007. Thomas also participates as an industry mentor at the American Film Institute’s Digital Content Lab, collaborating on next generation new media prototypes.

In 2005-2006, Thomas executive produced the launch of The Vine, one of the first multi-channel broadband players operated by a TV network and headed the development and production teams responsible for E!’s multiple broadband, mobile feeds and video on demand programming. rigler.tv

8. How much further has web TV and online video gone?

The Internet is exploding with video content and giving birth to entirely new models of distribution.
YouTube and MySpace have become household names by fostering rapidly growing online communities of video sharing enthusiasts. Niche portals like Revver, Veoh, Vimeo and Break.com are attracting viewers in numbers competing with traditional TV networks.

The quantity of video available on the Internet has grown tremendously. As a result, finding useful and desirable content has become increasingly difficult. If there’s exponentially more available than before, how can we find anything worthwhile?

10. What is your favorite video search engine/video sharing web-site? Why?

Best video sharing sites — they’re all listed on goGOOROO.
We try to stay away from favoring any of them but share our enthusiasm for the niche phenomenon — in this new environment, everyone is a tv broadcaster!!

If we had to, here are some good examples of what’s possible:

Vimeo
http://www.vimeo.com/

SuperDeluxe
http://www.superdeluxe.com/

Revver
http://one.revver.com

VBS
http://www.vbs.tv/

New York Times Video
http://video.on.nytimes.com/

Revision 3
http://revision3.com/

Jaman
http://www.jaman.com/

Triggerstreet
http://www.triggerstreet.com/gyrobase/index

It’s Your Show
http://www.iystv.com/

11. Do you have any parting words?

Welcome to the super-niche.
Follow the Gooroo and come back often.