Scrutinize: The GigaOm Show Episode 1
The inaugural episode of The GigaOm Show debuted on Revision3 this evening, and being a fan of the blogger/columnist/venture capitalist Om Malik, I decided to tune in. Kara Swisher summed up the show’s vitals better that I could have, so I’ll let her do the duties:
Along with tech lawyer Joyce Kim (who is also sister-in-law to Jason Calacanis), the weekly show will be 10-minute talks with various tech CEOs and start-up entrepreneurs.
Malik will handle the editorial and Revision3–founded by Digg founders Jay Adelson, Kevin Rose and others–will deal with production, distribution and ad sales.
The episode itself, while inoffensive enough, didn’t really do much to put the show on the map. Some general sloppiness didn’t help either - the audio sometimes sounded muffled, and at one point you can hear a door slam in the background. Very bush-league. Om, as intelligent and knowledgeable as he is, needs more practice in front of the camera, as well.
Still, I enjoy Malik’s interviewing style. He manages to continually push and ask real, challenging questions, while remaining as charming as ever. His two guests this week were HotOrNot CEO James Hong, and Seagate CEO Bill Watkins. Hong was pressed about whether his company’s much-heralded Facebook application actually has any, you know, revenue potential, and Watkins got grilled about why the heck his company’s revenue fluctuates so wildly quarter to quarter. Malik managed to accomplish this while keeping everything friendly and cordial, despite pushing the issue when he felt he wasn’t given a real answer.
Ultimately for those interested in the Silicon Valley scene, I will, for now, give The GigaOm Show a tentative thumbs up. The show does nothing to push web video forward as a medium (it’s people talking on a couch for 30 minutes), and this first outing wasn’t especially impressive, but there’s potential here. It could develop into a more serious, level-headed examination of the space than some of the more “edgy” video being produced today.
