Yesterday I have recieved an invitation to be an alpha tester of Knocka TV.

Tried to register yesterday but got a screen that said - "Knocka TV is down for maintenance", allready not a good start.

After registering today, I can forgive them about yesterday. The site is designed properly, quite easy to control for the common user and the most important thing - it works very nice, the videos are smooth, the content is a bit small but hey - it is still an Alpha version.

Knocka is an Internet television network. It has "channels" of streaming content. Unlike video sharing sites like YouTube, users can't randomly select videos to play when they wish (except clips they've already seen in a stream), nor can they embed Knocka vids in other sites. Kncoka is a destination site, not a media library.

But even though Knocka can be watched in passive mode, like television, Interactivity and community are a big part of the Knocka equation. Viewers can text chat with each other in a window under a running show, and can engage in person-to-person Webcam video chats with their friends. And content is chosen through a combination of user voting and editorial oversight. On the current alpha site, users can vote on clips that play in the channels, and the voting will affect the rotation of a show: Good vote, more plays; bad votes, less. Eventually, Knocka will let its users further upstream in the editorial process. It will let users vote on videos in the submissions bin to help decide what makes it into the channels themselves.

Can the internet community create professional TV? That’s the core question behind the Knocka TV project. Knocka TV offers a stage for creative content produced by the community, supporting individual producers and small production houses in their original creation.

Knocka TV is a User Generated Professional Television Network (or in short UGPTN). It’s a democratic, interactive, and collaborative social television:

• Democratic: By casting your votes, you choose what’s on.
• Interactive: Live broadcasting on the internet will allow you to participate and at real-time affect the course of the program. Participate in live interactive shows, go live with your webcam, manipulate the program content in real time together with other viewers and much more.
• Collaborative: Everyone can participate in creating Knocka TV, from creating channels and programs to cooperating together in creating content.
• Social: While you watch Knocka TV you can chat, video conference and talk to your friends.

Here is a captured screen:

As I will test it and play with it a bit further I will post updates.