So what’s caught my eye this week here at WebsEdge? Well it’s interesting. The headlines are full of news of the iPlayer and the iPhone. And as regular readers will know I’m a great fan of both devices.

But what’s really grabbed my attention is the work that’s being done to help communities engage using on-line video. More often than not it’s actually practical applications that are making a difference. Let me give you some examples.

We’re currently working on an initiative with Norfolk, Virginia to let job applicants get more of a feel for both the city and the job specification through the use of on-line video. Straightforward enough you might think. But it’s actually making a real difference to their recruitment. They’re finding it much easier to get people to relocate after watching the video.

Another is the work we’re doing with the International City Managers Association based in Washington DC. We’re helping them run a simple competition where young people can upload their own videos and have people vote on them. Again, nothing too complicated but it facilitates two way communications and lets people feel a part of things.

And I think this is the way things will develop. There’s a great demand for top quality content delivered on-line – be in Doctor Who or CNN’s Doctor Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Literally millions of people a month are consuming television in this way. And running alongside that you’ll see lots of different communities coming together in a very 21st century way through the growth of on-line video.

You’ll be pleased to know that family meltdown was narrowly avoided in our house this weekend. It was the much-awaited launch of the new Doctor Who series. And despite the best of plans we managed to miss the start of the programme. But thanks to the BBC’s iplayer all was not lost and our children won’t have missed any of the gory details.

And they’re not alone. According to the statistics around 500, 000 people are accessing content in this way. There’s other research too. A recent report from the Convergence Consulting Group states that one in ten traditional TV viewers look to the web for video content - and that in a few years one in four will be watching programmes on the web.

But it isn’t all plain sailing is it? At the same time some of the sparkle seems to have gone out of the on-line video business model. Millions of venture capital dollars have gone in but profits are thin on the ground. Recent rumours have it that even market leader Joost is starting to struggle.

So what’s going on? It’s clear that there is a very strong consumer driven demand for on-line video. And people want to watch high quality programming too. But the catch is that they might not be willing to pay for it. So where’s the business model to support on-line video?

Most pundits say it will come through advertising and we just need to wait while this catches up. But I don’t think so. We’re seeing a totally new medium here and it won’t be supported in this way. So we need a new plan.

And I think we’re starting to see it. People will pay for content that actually adds value – take for example the success of programming on the new iphone. And organisations will pay to do the same.

Look at our work with the AAC&U (the Association of American Colleges and Universities), which provides a variety of videos on US higher education.  This type of content would, once upon a time, be reserved for news programmes, or to be shown during conventions and meetings.  But the professionally produced content as online video allows it to be watched by anyone at anytime.  I’m proud to say that the production quality is good enough to be on traditional television, or hosted on a website.  Check it out for yourself here.