This is Mikkel, the founder of weVi. People often ask me about why I started weVi (OK, put up a website and Kickstarter page) and figured I would make a blog post to explain it.
Honestly, one of the key reasons was that I wanted to learn ASP .NET MVC3, particularly on the Orchard platform. But as all tinkerers know, it's easier to learn something when you have an exciting project to apply it to, so I didn't want to just dink around with tutorials or a Hello World site. I wanted something to live and breathe; something that would keep my interest long enough that I'd learn the ins and outs of the platform and develop unhealthy attachments. I also wanted something that could be implemented quickly, so I could get it done in my spare time. This might not be the most enlightening explanation but it does show that my main impetus was always to focus on the technology and purpose, rather than scheming about how to get in on VC money.
While throwing around a few ideas that are all extremely superb and will change your life in a few years, I came across a video that instantly led to weVi. It was a video of the UC Davis police pepper spraying student protestors. In the video I noticed at least several dozen cameras (pure and cellphones) capturing the event from every angle and realized that if someone had access to all those videos they could create an extremely compelling result.
It turns out that this exact same incident inspired a Youtube video showing different perspectives:
Now just imagine if there were twenty perspectives and then all edited into one continuous flow!
After seeing the number of cameras in the original video, it occurred to me that this wasn't a unique experience (the number of people filming, not the pepper spraying -- I hope) and that an organizing platform could support the movement if it were developed quickly. Then I thought back to the Arab Spring and how much of that news came from random citizen footage. Even placid events like weddings and sports events are increasingly filmed as if the entire world were a Hollywood set.
If we're collectively the directors/cinematographers/actors, then weVi.tv is the editing room.