As a non-member of the IAWTV, I have always tried to stay non-partisan on the issues regarding the organization. However, since I happen to be close friends with many of the active members of the organization and because I am also active within the non-member community, I have a unique vantage of seeing the issues from the perspective of an insider and an outsider. Man, sometimes I swear I’m a libra.
For those of you unfamiliar with the young organization, the IAWTV is short for the International Academy of Web Television and is a non-profit dedicated to advocating for professionals within web television. As a non-member, the IAWTV is most known to me as being the voting organization behind the first two Streamy Awards, one of the very few awards dedicated to web television. (Incidentally, that is no more, as the Streamy Awards will now continue as a Tubefilter show and the IAWTV has established their own awards, the IAWTV Awards.) Outside of the awards, I am only familiar with the IAWTV through their social events and the message board which as a non-member I cannot actually visit but I hear is a happenin’ place. The IAWTV has been more vocal lately about plans to take a more active role in shaping industry standards.
As of today, the IAWTV has opened elections for seats amongst the Board of Directors. Although names have surfaced through twitter and facebook, the candidate list was (to my knowledge) never officially made public to non-members, as most of the IAWTV communication tends to live on the password-protected IAWTV message boards, so please feel free to correct me if I give any mis-information here. For members and those of you considering joining the IAWTV, I will update this post with candidate videos as they appear online. Although I cannot speak to their candidacy as a Board Member, I do know every single one of these candidates are all web television pioneers that are passionate advocates for web television, and they are all people you should know. So meet them.
If you are interested in joining the IAWTV or have questions about this election, visit www.iawtv.org.
JEFF KOENIG (CEO, OMFGeek, New York)
** Disclosure: Communications Chair Jeff Koenig is a great friend of mine and asked me to interview him as an unbiased non-member of the IAWTV so he can address non-member questions. I tried to be as “Diane Sawyer” as possible and bring up many of the issues I have heard throughout the web-o-sphere regarding the IAWTV. Although this interview is not a candidate statement, Jeff is also running for the Board. I ask the tough questions in Part 2.
MICHAEL TODD COHEN (Creator, Red Carpet Run, New York)
SUSAN MILLER (co-executive producer, Anyone But Me; creator, Bestsellers, New York/LA)
** Statement given by her son. He’s cute. If you’d like to actually see Susan, just youtube search “Susan Miller Anyone But Me.”
AMANDA SHOCKLEY (aka Shadhavar, co-host Indie Intertube, Canada)
JARED HOY (gaffer, The Guild, Video Game Reunion, Legend of Neil, Los Angeles)
APRIL GRANT (aka Destini, co-host Indie Intertube, Canada)
BURNIE BURNS (Creator, Red vs. Blue, Austin, TX)
ROB BARNETT (CEO, My Damn Channel, New York)
MARK GARDNER (Creator, Cell: The Web Series, Austin, Texas)
