The Streamys went out on the 11th April and I missed it. I never manage to get any live streams from the US. I can't be bothered to work out the time difference and probably they won't download anyway. According to what I read it seems to have been a disaster. They could not work out whether it was a public celebration of excellence or a self-indulgent private party full of in-jokes and ribbings - which I think in American is called Roasting.
Take a look at Nick Thunes on the the Streamy Awards website. He has a dry sort of humour that guys like me use all the time. Read my website and you will see me slip from self-deprecation to bitter and twisted then on to overblown confidence in one sentence. It is a web thing, an awareness that in the vast mass of content one's own voice is insignificant and one probably would not be writing web sites, if one actually had what used to be called a career. If Spielberg has a Facebook site, I'm pretty sure he isn't looking after it, and never cracks a joke about only getting three hits. Hell, his PR people will be thanking the millions of fans trying to sign him up as a friend! Despite his only getting three hits.
One should, however, be less uncertain of the value of a web presence because, everything is becoming the web! Films, TV, Books, Newspapers, Music, you name it. It is all part of the web. Broadcast TV is blending into the Web. Films are all being distributed via the web and TV series are all going out on the web. The distinction between Broadcast and Broadband is disappearing. In fact the winner of the Streamys, The Bannen Way looks and feels like a typical broadcast TV cop show, or would if you could watch it from Hong Kong - the web is perhaps not quite as global as it could be.
The nature of the web is that anyone can join in, and some with very few resources have managed to compete with those with enormous resources. Some of the biggest hits on YouTube have been hysterical and camp outpourings about minor celebrity scandals. Setting your hair alight or snorting wasabi will also get a lot of clicks. To be a star of such a media is not quite the same as being what is still considered more legitimate, but now with the old media and the new cohabiting the same space, it seems that we all have to start presenting ourselves more professionally because now it does seem to be a lot easier to cross over that line between amateurism, i.e. unpaid, and professionalism, i.e. paid, and, which is something we should all bear in mind, from professionalism back to amateurism. And all in the time it takes to click on the next link.
I am a natural cynic, not inclined to jumping onto bandwagons and trumpeting the next best thing, but I think for the first time I really can see that the web for film makers and TV show producers, is not just a practice run, it is the thing itself. And the with that, the critical heat gets hotter and expectations higher. I think it has to be remembered that since we can all now compete with the big guys, we are competing with THE BIG GUYS! There's no room for self-indulgence and screw ups. If you want sponsors they expect you to earn your money.