Amy and Sam both surprised me with very touching cards this morning on this, my first Father’s Day. That boy is really amazing. I could almost read his handwriting! We spent the day in relaxing, had a nice dinner out at Fritti with Sam getting all the attention, etc. To cap the day off, I’d encourage anyone reading the blog to visit the CNN.com free video site and find the ‘CNN’s dads give advice‘ video. You may have to use the ‘search’ box at upper right – just put in ‘dads give advice’ and you’ll find it. Really quite touching. Guess I’m turning into a big ol’ softie as a dad.

So after three long years where CNN.com’s video was a premium (ie – pay) product licensed to various wholesale companies as well as direct to consumers, the site launched on Saturday (two days ahead of schedule) their new free video product. Supported by the burgeoning broadband video advertising market, the new product is slated to feature some 30 new videos daily. I was involved in the product development aspects of the advertising technology and operations side of the project. This gallery shows the combined technical teams in our ‘Port:80’ conference room gathered for the launch effort, some 12 hours of work beginning at 6am on Saturday. The best news of all – it went off without a hitch, and the reviews are already coming in.

Lost Remote TV Blog review is here.
Media Bistro’s TV Newser talks about the return of free video (finally)
PaidContent.org talks about the Saturday launch, and CNN.com plans for the fall.