Enthusiast Group

A key premise of my company and its websites (like YourMTB.com) is that technology is enabling people to share more of themselves with the rest of the world. Cellphone cameras, tiny digital cameras and video cams … all make it easy to document more of your life and share it with others. Sites like YourMTB let people share their images with others who share their passions for a sport.

One tech development I’ve been watching closely is the advent of tiny digital video cameras. The editor of YourMTB.com, Walker Thompson, carries with him an iPod-size video cam from Samsung that also has a helmet camera. Out on the trails, Walker and I are both seeing more people riding with helmet cams, recording their adventures so they can share them.

That Samsung unit costs around $600, which isn’t bad for what it does. But it’s still too pricey for many people to justify buying it. But units like that are coming out in less expensive (if not quite as capable) form. As Walt Mossberg writes for the Wall Street Journal, the PureDigital video camera pictured here has arrived, at a price of only $130; you can buy it at stores like Target.

I’m expecting to see a bunch of these out on the trails, and a large wave of outdoor adventurers will have amateur videos to share.

My company’s (Enthusiast Group) first website has opened the gates: YourMTB.com, an online community for mountain bikers that’s based on some of the principles of citizen media.

This is a soft launch. We’re issuing no press releases or otherwise trying to make a big fuss. The site has basic functionality, but is still missing a few features that are close to being done but not ready to make live, plus some that are a bit further out. I’d love to get feedback, and if you see something broken, please let me know.

Got an idea of stuff we should do that’s not there? I’m all ears. (Some obvious stuff is still being coded; it’s missing “Report Misconduct” links, for example.)

Are you a mountain biking enthusiast like me? Perhaps you’d like to submit some content — photos, a story about an adventure, MTB news. (MTB-related prizes for best content.)

One thing you’ll notice is the presence of Walker Thompson, who we call the site’s Enthusiast-in-Chief. A pro bike racer and blogger from Durango, he’s being doing a nice job blogging and podcasting, and soon will publish video from his recently acquired (and very tiny) helmet video camera. Walker’s presence demonstrates my belief that a successful citizen-media operation needs a strong personality guiding it and serving as chief evangelist.

Chris Pirillo stuck a microphone in front of my business partner, Derek Scruggs, while both were at the recent South By Southwest conference, and turned it on. Here’s the result (which includes Derek talking a bit about our new company).

I guess this marks the inaugural entry to the Press Coverage page for my new venture, the Enthusiast Group. Publish (part of Ziff Davis) online media columnist Stephen Bryant interviewed me yesterday about my transition from the non-profit world (the Poynter Institute) to the for-profit world. As part of his “Five Questions” feature, we discussed the larger picture for citizen media, and I explained why I think it holds promise.