This page is all about video -- that stuff we simply used to call television, before they squeezed it into a zillion other methods of distribution and storage. Whether it comes over the air (yes, it's still possible!) or by Internet; whether it is CATV, VCR, DVD, G3, or some other acronym; I think the content is nearly always in need of improvement, or at least, a bit more thought and planning! So here are some highly selective resources that we can all use to examine the writing, production, and distribution of video.

If you work in non-fiction, you may be inspired by this marvelous interview with Ken Burns, courtesy of KQED. It covers many aspects of the craft, content and other issues in The Civil War, Baseball, and other projects. Or check out these other sources of quality documentary production: There's P.O.V. Interactive, the Frontline Home Page, and NOVA Online.

Other links personally selected for your further exploration:

• Television Production: A Comprehensive On-line Cybertext in Studio and Field Production is an astounding, wonderful resource provided free of charge by Ron Whittaker. Highly recommended.
• In a business with so many acronyms and odd phrases, one really needs a guide. Try these: first, a Glossary of Film/Video Terms from Kodak. That link covers terms starting with the letters A through G, but you can get to all the other letters from that page. The Extron Electronics Glossary of Terms includes a wider range of technical terms, and includes a search tool. And courtesy of Leutron Vision, a Swiss manufacturer of image processing products, we have another Glossary of Terms, this one with excellent illustrationsdemonstrating video signal propagation, among other things.
• Videomaker Magazine provides online access to many of its articles from current and past issues, and includes a "ClubVid" section with news, a database of product reviews, and many other resources.
• Independent Television Service Unless, of course, you'd rather be "dependent"...
• You can find information about DVD technology in many places nowadays. Here's a brief overview at PCTechguide

Spectrum Allocation Also onsite here at The Online Communicator, courtesy of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration: a PDF file (100K) showing the U.S. frequency allotment chart for the entire electromagnetic spectrum. (HINT: if you want to download it rather than read it online, try clicking your right mouse button on the link.) Either way, remember you can't view it without the Adobe Acrobat Reader.. If you don't have it, you can go to Adobe and download Acrobat for free. I hate forcing users to download yet another helper utility, but this chart is simply cool. And it's an eye-opener for anybody who studies or works in telecommunications, to see just how many applications are sharing the airwaves.

If you're not feeling quite so serious, take a look at my very own animated -- and recently revised -- analysis of Broadcast TV: The Condensed Version. With most browsers, you should see the animation with no plug-ins or extra hardware needed. Whoopee!