Last year, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (responsible for the Daytime Emmys) honored web video for the first time. Not to be outdone, this year the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (note the lack of “national” in the title) is following suit and honoring broadband content (aka online video) at their 60th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards. One organization presents the Emmys for daytime TV, the other for primetime, but both now recognize online video as the future of television, which is great news for all of us. The first deadline for submissions is April 7 — find out more about rules and eligibility requirements here. Good luck to you all, getting an Emmy would be huge!

Revver is proud to announce that we’re now part of the LiveUniverse, erm, universe. We are thrilled to join forces with this leader in the online video and social networking space. LiveUniverse’s network of sites is visited by more than 55 million unique users each month, which means that we will have the opportunity to expose our creators to a much bigger audience. So stay tuned - great things are on the way.

This week’s LA weekly features a cover story examining the evolving relationship between talent and talent agent in the age of online video. The article focuses on the rise of web talent divisions and “online agents” at agencies like UTA, and has some interesting discussion on the business of web video for creators. Revver users Handsome Donkey and Barely Political (Obama Girl), among others, are included along with several embedded Revver videos, so make sure to check it out.

Amid the swirling debate over how the WGA strike will affect web video, Rudy from Galacticast is complicating the issue even further by going on strike against the person that produces the show he writes: himself (and Casey of course). There’s something wonderfully triumphant and self-congratulatory about this parody of the situation; writers and producers of web video don’t have to deal with the strike because they are DIY superstars and they do it all themselves. So without undermining the plight and cause of TV writers, congrats web video producers for your self-sufficiency.

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With the writer’s strike going strong, will the future of TV be plagued by really bad writing? Yes indeed, as predicted and acted out by the doomsayers at Zoo Milk. Aaactually, that may not be the case; with non-WGA writers as talented as Zoo Milk maybe things won’t get too bad for TV. But then again Zoo Milk are online, not on TV. Sorry TV.

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The Writer’s Guild of America went on strike this morning, spawning a flurry of discussion about the implications of the strike. While it’s certain that the strike will have immediate effects on TV, with late-night programs that rely on writers for daily content airing reruns as early as tonight, the effects of the strike on new media and online video in particular have yet to be seen. As NewTeeVee notes in their great roundup of coverage, the strike could end up being a good thing for web shows as viewers turn to the web for daily entertainment and news commentary. Here’s an early look at picketers in LA from user samlem210.

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As the online video space has grown and evolved, creators have increasingly gained control over their work. Free hosting and the ability to embed video on one’s own site, being able to customize and white-label solutions, the flexibility of retaining ownership while licensing content for use under a variety of Creative Commons licenses — these are all things that have empowered independent creators and given them the opportunity to take the business of online video seriously.

This control, along with monetization — an element in which Revver has been a clear leader — has made it clear that creators can find success on their own, and part of the process has been that creators are no longer positioning big video distribution sites as the epicenters of their content. Rather, they’re distributing their videos and interacting with their audiences right from their own branded sites.

With this shift in mind, we’ve been hard at work on a video sharing solution that gives you all the best of Revver in your own environment, where you have full control over the presentation of your content and the community of people that rally around it. The result is the Revver WordPress Video Plugin, an easy-to-install tool that brings all the functionality of Revver (and then some) right to your WordPress blog. Whether you already use a WordPress blog to distribute your content, or you’re looking to get started with your own site, the Revver WordPress Video Plugin makes it easier than ever, and does a whole bunch of cool stuff:

• upload videos directly through your blog (+ auto-publish upon video approval!)
• manage your Revver account, videos, and subscribers — all from your blog
• enable video responses to your posts
• your subscribers are automatically given a Revver account when they sign up and post video responses — so they earn too!

In essence, the plugin brings an unprecedented level of convenience to your blog, allowing you to publish and track your content without ever requiring you to leave your site. On top of that, it’s a WordPress blog that you own - design it and trick it out to your heart’s content! And then of course there are perks for your subscribers — they can leave video responses and earn as Revver members just by subscribing to your blog. It’s your content, it’s your brand, and they’re your fans — why should anyone else own that but you?

Everything you need to know about downloading, installing, and using the plugin can be found here. Have fun!

The 12th annual Webby Awards call for entries opened yesterday. The Online Film and Video awards honor the best in online video with no less than 25(!) categories, including Animation, Comedy (long & short form), Drama (series and one-off) Technology, Viral, and a host of others — enter your work! Last year’s winners included several Revver community members, and we’re sure this year will be no different. Go get yours.

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After our latest round of payments, it’s official — we’ve paid over a million dollars to our creators! Today also happens to the be the anniversary of Revver 1.0. To mark the occasion, Revver’s own Alex Asselin and Optimus Prime visited our pal Doug Bresler (Doogtoons!) to personally dole out the millionth dollar. This milestone wouldn’t be possible without all of the talented creators that use Revver to publish and monetize their videos — thanks everyone! Here’s to a million more!

The Webby Awards are famous for only allowing winners a five word acceptance speech (The Beastie Boys last year: “Can anyone fix my computer?”). They like brevity, it seems, but verbal paucity is out the window for their first conference, taking place in Laguna Beach, CA in early October.

WebbyConnect aims to gather the various components of the Web world into one interactive 3-day dialogue. The speaker list is stacked, and the location is gorgeous. From their website:

Having reinvented the awards show, The Webby Awards brings its trademark flair and style to the staid world of industry conferences. WebbyConnect will bring together Webby Award winners, Academy members, and leaders in fields such as entertainment, advertising, and politics for an exclusive, three-day gathering exploring and charting the future of the Internet and emerging media.

It’s a bit spendy, so this probably isn’t for the casual participant. But if you work in an internet related field, you can spend three days at California’s only 5-star resort and write it off when tax time comes.