Rumor has it that Viacom is about to purchase iFilm, the popular broadband content site.

The digerati at the Digital Hollywood conference are all abuzz about the possibility. But will this acquisition be the harbinger of great things to come or just another AOL/Time-Warner-like debacle?

On the surface, the whole deal seems to make a lot of sense. Why wouldn't one of the world's biggest media companies want to snatch up one of the hottest purveyors of video content on the Web?

After all, as Jeff Jarvis notes in a recent post on BuzzMachine, when a site like iFilm can provide nearly three and a half exposures to a television segment that was originally only seen by about 150,000 people, doesn't it make sense that a TV company would want to jump on a piece of the rapidly-heating up online video market?

Possibly. But it seems to me like a missed opportunity if Viacom's thinking is that simplistic and is mired in a past where control of content is the main function of a "media" company.

As Jarvis also points out, the value may not be in the content itself but in the relationships that get built around that content.

I agree, but I don't think he (or Viacom) is pushing it far enough. The opportunity—and what it means to the future of online publishing, broadcast content and convergence—is much, much bigger than just providing another channel for content distribution and targeted advertising.

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The old analog media model is all about controlling content. Owning it, distributing it, re-selling it in different formats. In an analog world where content must be attached to a specific medium in order to be distributed, this makes sense.

Sure, people can tape a show, record an LP, or even dub a rented movie. They might even make a few copies for friends. But unless they invest huge amounts of money in duplicating equipment, their "market" for their pilfered content is fairly limited.

But digital content is different. Digital content is slippery. It resists all means of control. Media companies don't get this and still continue to try to slap increasingly onerous digital rights management (DRM) schemes on it.

But as soon as a new DRM scheme becomes available somebody inevitably breaks it.

Heck, as long as someone can see or hear the content (a necessary feature, obviously), it's always going to be possible to record it digitally and distribute it. Search for some top TV shows on BitTorrent or Limewire some time and see for yourself.

We're beyond moral arguments about content. It doesn't matter if it's "right" or "wrong" to copy content and distribute it. Once something's rendered in bits, it's out of control.

Media companies like Viacom hate this because it's contrary to their business model and continue to behave as if controlling the means of distribution is possible. The impending Viacom/iFilm acquisition is proof-positive of this.

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At the same time that "commercial" content is being passed around, more and more people are creating their own content and releasing it to the Web.

Media theorist Doug Rushkoff calls this new movement "The Authorship Society," one in which consumers empowered by new, inexpensive, powerful content creation tools create more and more content for online distribution.

This amateur content enters the mix and gets distributed through all the channels that we've become accustomed to now: Web sites, P2P networks, e-mail, etc.

So we've got lots of out-of-control content from a universe of sources being distributed willy-nilly about the 'Net. What do we do? What should Viacom do?

Embrace chaos.

In effect, the chaos of the online media world—it's resistance to control, it's free-flowing nature, it's lack of Big Media gatekeepers—create an incredible free market of content (free in all senses of the word) that can be tapped not for the ownership of that content but rather for its metadata.

Sure, it'd be nice for CNN to get paid every time somebody downloads the clip of Jon Stewart skewering Tucker Carlson off of iFilm, but that's not gonna happen.

Instead, what's really useful to media with revenue that depends on advertising isn't the ownership of the short clip, but rather what its popularity says about John Stewart, Tucker Carlson, The Daily Show and CNN's talk shows.

Once you know that 3.5 million folks like John Stewart (the current number of downloads of the clip on iFilm), you know more about the real popularity of a show than Nielsen could ever tell you.

Couple that with demographic data gathered from registered users and you've got an amazingly powerful tool to target advertising online, sell advertising offline and make programming decisions.

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The iFilm acquisition shouldn't be looked at as an opportunity to sell or control content, but rather as an awesome source of real-time data about viewing habits, interests and viewer demographics.

The real-time measurement of downloads, view time etc. could be far more valuable as a programming tool than as revenue source if it was sufficiently analyzed and used to make decisions.

With iFilm's popularity and reach, why should Viacom's stations ever take up valuable airtime showing pilots anymore? Stick 'em online, measure the results, and then make the decision whether or not to run the series.

In effect, if this is done correctly, iFilm could be a global focus group with real-time data measurement.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Coupling measurement from the Web with addressable set-top boxes and ad insertion tools would allow Viacom direct access to the zeitgeist and give them the power to program and serve ads to the most valuable demographic of all: the very 18-35 year olds who make up key online audiences.

Throw stuff up there, see what works and develop consensus media that's more in touch with what people want than any other method allows.

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