Roger Ebert has an idea: "The commentaries on DVDs are one of their most popular features, turning viewers into experts who end up knowing almost as much about a movie as its makers....Well, this is one case in which freedom of the press doesn't belong only to the person who owns one." He wants people to record their own commentaries and offer them for download. Naturally, I love the idea. There are some very simple software hooks (into DVD players) that I think would be needed to make the idea take off—to automatically synch the MP3 file with the movie and to be able to select and download commentaries via a friendly UI. And it's hard to imagine Hollywood recognizing the value of this (though, it could only help sell DVDs). But perhaps their participation isn't needed. I don't know. Anyway, the idea fascinates me, and I'm sure this will happen...eventually. It reminds me of an argument against weblogs that you used to hear a lot in the early days but not so much now—i.e., that they didn't offer value because they weren't self-contained content, just links and commentaries about other content. Obviously that's not all that blogs are, but even if they were, the implication is that commentary (that is, perspective and interpretation) on media is not valuable. It's hugely valuable. And entertaining. And educational. And fun! Isn't this fun? Right on. Go Roger, go.