Current will give viewers a chance to participate in programming decisions in two ways: First, it will let people submit their own videos, and second, it will give viewers a chance to vote on which videos should make it to the air. In an April interview with the NPR show "On the Media," Neuman compared Current's video-selection process to the model of "American Idol." "I think 'American Idol' is in the gene pool of this network," he said. "We love that. I think we think of that as a form of democratizing the television medium that we think is a cool thing."

A spokesman for Current told Salon that all videos that viewers submit to the network will be put online immediately for people to watch, and to vote on. But as part of its submission policy, Current will prohibit its contributors from posting their videos on their own Web sites for three months after they submit the videos to Current, a limitation that Neuman described as reasonable.

Some observers criticized this policy. By limiting where viewers can post their films, Current could be cutting itself off from some of the best of the new video bloggers, says J.D. Lasica, a media consultant and the author of "Darknet: Hollywood's War Against the Digital Generation." Filmmakers who are used to creating and distributing media through the Web "have an expectation of immediacy for their material," Lasica says. "You put something together and you want to put it online. You want to get it out there." And as Jarvis points out, bloggers are wary of strictures imposed by big media firms. "I recently wrote a piece for a magazine, I won't say which one," Jarvis says. "Well, they came along and did a butchery edit, blood on the tracks everywhere. My response was, Screw it, I'll blog it." Some of the Web's best producers may react the same way to Current's policies, Jarvis says.

There's another important question to ask about Current's plans to make TV more like the Web: If we've got the Web already, what's the point? In the months since Gore first unveiled his idea, media created by "amateurs" has exploded online. We're not just talking about blogs but also podcasts, video blogs, animation, and some completely novel ways of keeping yourself entertained. If young people are looking for interactivity, why would they go to TV for it?

Several video bloggers are asking themselves the same question. Steve Garfield, a professional film producer in Boston who's been maintaining a video blog for several months, says that he was initially quite interested in Current. Last year, when Current put out a call to hire a team of correspondents, Garfield applied. But after Current decided not to hire correspondents, Garfield began devoting more time to his video blog -- and he found that he could attract a large following even without being on TV. Garfield's films document the highlights of his married life as well as his various personal interests -- tech conferences, local news events, art shows. It's not exactly cutting-edge TV, but there is a certain voyeuristic thrill in watching some of Garfield's videos. Perhaps for that reason, his films are relatively popular; at least a few hundred people, and sometimes more than a couple thousand, watch each of Garfield's videos, and more people come to him every day, Garfield says. It's not throngs, certainly, and if Garfield's videos were on Current, he could very well find more viewers. But Garfield says that the creative control he'd need to give up wouldn't be worth it. Better, he says, to try to make a go of his work by himself.

The creators of Rocketboom, one of the most popular video blogs on the Web, and a show whose youthful spark would seem natural for Current, also say that the TV network's restrictions would keep them away. Rocketboom -- which Amanda Congdon, an actress, and Andrew Baron, a Web designer, created last fall -- is a daily three-minute Web-based newscast that attracts more than 200,000 people every week (that's more viewers that some shows on cable TV). The program has become so popular so fast that Baron and Congdon are on the verge of signing advertisers to their endeavor; they expect to make a nice profit from the venture, Congdon says. Consequently, they have no interest in submitting their work to Current. "We attribute the success of Rocketboom to letting our videos have the furthest reach possible," Congdon says. Anyone can watch Rocketboom at anytime -- that wouldn't be possible if Rocketboom were on Current, Congdon notes.

Of course, one way to make TV more like the Web -- more "on demand" -- is to use a digital video recorder like TiVo to slice and dice what's on according to your personal preferences. But Current, like all other TV networks, isn't so hot on TiVo. In May, Karl Carter, one of the network's advertising executives, told an advertising trade Web site that Current plans to stagger its advertising between programs in a way that will "prevent people with DVR from skipping over our ads, making us 'TiVo proof.'" Neuman says that he doesn't believe TiVo will hurt Current because Current's ads -- some of which will also be created by viewers -- will be innovative enough that people will want to watch them, not skip them.

Neuman acknowledged that there may be some videos on Current that people will want to skip. But Neuman also says that Current understands that today's young people are fond of multitasking -- keeping the TV on while they surf the Web, chat on I.M., or play video games. Current, Neuman says, understands this "two-screen experience": Some of the videos on Current will be compelling enough to demand your full attention, but at other times you can just keep Current on in the background, while you spend the bulk of your time reading your favorite blog.

"Maybe in the long term, we'll be in an on-demand society and Current will be served up the way you want it," Neuman says. "Until then, we're offering a unique television experience. Just like you have a default home page on the Internet, we want to be the default channel on your TV. You'll keep it on Current to be apprised of what's going on, a nonstop flow of cool information." Current, Neuman insists, will be more interactive, and more open, than anything else on TV, and though some of its restrictions may upset a small number of people, most will see something truly great in what it's doing. "For some people, the perfect is always the enemy of the good," Neuman says of Current's critics. "But I think our mission is great."

This story has been corrected since it was originally published.

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