With the recent public launch of Hulu a couple of weeks ago I started to think about what effects Internet TV will have on our culture and our lives. People are slowly relinquishing their television sets as their primary way of watching network content. Online video and Internet TV sites are giving people a venue through which to be social, communicate and interact about what they're watching in different way.

Sites such as Hulu, Brightcove, YouTube, and Break allow users to rate each show/video, ask questions, and encourage social interaction. All of these sites allow the audience to share their videos with friends in many different ways (embedding video, email, IM, etc). But if the way by which we interact about television shows is changing, I wondered what will happen to the water cooler? (more...)