First, I read an article about Joost.com, a peer-to-peer online TV distribution system created by the same people who made Skype (which sold to eBay for a gazillion dollars).

Second, my wife pointed out to me last night that our TiVo box will soon offer the option to purchase and download movies directly from Amazon through our high-speed Internet connection.

These two factors herald the true arrival of online video this year!

Most people's experience with online video goes something like this: a friend emails a link to a video on YouTube.com or passes you a video file through your email pipeline.

The video normally contains something to make you laugh, cry, feel inspired, shake your head in amazement, or something else I can't mention here in a family-friendly column.

Of course exceptions exist to every rule, but for the most part, the vast majority of online video rates short, pithy, home-grown, or pirated content.

Now, with the creation and impending release of the Joost.com system and the widespread use of digital video recorders, like the TiVo box, we will finally see online video distribution comparable to cable TV offerings.

Joost.com will use a combination of a peer-to-peer network along with specialized content and advertising servers to stream high-quality video across the web.

The peer-to-peer aspect (similar to the setup used by the original Napster, Kazaa or Lime Wire) enables the processing power of potentially millions of computers to help stream video, creating a distribution system that automatically scales as the network grows.

Joost.com will also pair the social networking aspects of successful sites like MySpace to allow users to recommend and rate content while fostering a sense of community.

Further adding credibility, Viacom (owners of MTV, BET, and Paramount) announced they will provide free content for the network.

Joost also promises a "secure, efficient, piracy-proof Internet platform that enables premium interactive video experiences while guaranteeing copyright protection for content owners and creators."

The second part of the equation may get you wondering over my excitement.

After all, most cable companies offer "on-demand" content and have done so for quite some time.

The drawback of traditional "on-demand" cable centers on the fact that you must watch the content right then, can't easily pause or rewind it, and must purchase it from the cable company exclusively.

Now, I can buy video from someone other than my cable provider, store it on a box I control, watch it whenever I want, and pause, rewind or stop it whenever suits me.

To top it all off, the content gets delivered through the Internet, not through my cable TV provider's system (though it may come through their wire if I operate with cable Internet access).

True online video arrives this year because we'll finally have access to a distribution system with the power to bring full-screen streaming video to your computer screen (Joost.com) and the ability to easily purchase content over the Internet to play on regular TV sets (TiVo and other digital recorders).

This may just make a believer out of me that Web 2.0 represents more than just a hyped-up phrase intended to separate another batch of online investors from their hard- earned dollars.

Copyright (c) 2007 Jim Edwards