Jeroen "JW" Wijering is an online video pioneer, Chief Digital Architect of LongTail Video and the creator of the Internet's most popular and ubiquitous media players, the JW Players, which have generated millions of downloads since their launch in 2005. The unassuming Dutch internet entrepreneur helped changed the face of the online video industry with his open source JW Player which can be found on tens of millions of websites. Even YouTube ran on the JW Player for the first 18 months of its existence.
While the huge number of website owners running his player may have never heard of him, Jeroen is considered a rock star within the online video industry and is the subject of a new full-length documentary titled, WHO IS JW? Through interviews with his parents, colleagues, university teachers and voices from the online video space, the documentary uncovers the secrets behind the success of one of Holland’s most viewed and yet least-known export products, to answer the question, “Who is Jeroen Wijering?”
While the huge number of website owners running his player may have never heard of him, Jeroen is considered a rock star within the online video industry and is the subject of a new full-length documentary titled, WHO IS JW? Through interviews with his parents, colleagues, university teachers and voices from the online video space, the documentary uncovers the secrets behind the success of one of Holland’s most viewed and yet least-known export products, to answer the question, “Who is Jeroen Wijering?”
WHOSIJW? from PictureThis.tv on Vimeo.
Jeroen graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven, with honors and began programming the JW Player in 2005 when he was a student. He could not have imagined then that five years later he would be co-owner of LongTailVideo.com in New York thanks to his product. In addition, Jeroen has developed several other projects including Sync.nl, an online magazine for entrepreneurs and professionals as well as a SaaS-based an online video platform Bits on the Run, which was acquired by Long Tail Video in 2010.
LongTail Video is headquartered in New York City with a developer team based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The company is headed by Dave Otten, Jeroen, Brian Rifkin, and Doug Cunningham who together have over 30 years of online experience from blue-chip companies such as 24/7 Real Media, About.com and Nielsen/NetRatings.
Here's a sampling of industry voices featured in the documentary:
- Eric Rasmussen – OnlineVideo.net, "The JW Player is one of those best kept secrets online..."
- Stef van der Ziel – StreamZilla.eu, "It's a good player, it works!..."
- Dan Rayburn – StreamingMedia.com, "Every industry uses it..."
- Merien ten Houten – Ilse.nl, "Jeroen combines technical skills with creativity. These people are very rare..."
- Larry Kless – OnlineVideoPublishing.com, "He is a rockstar in online video..."
- Merien ten Houten – Ilse.nl, "I think it's a success because it's simple..."
- Dave Otten – LongTail Video, "He knew the player was big, but he also realised the potential was much bigger..."
- John Luther – Google (WebM), "It's pretty phenomenal what he has done..."
Follow this documentary on Twitter: @whoisjw
Follow jeroenw (jeroenw) on Twitter
Follow LongTail Video (longtail_video) on Twitter
See this related post: Larry Kless' Weblog: Jeroen "JW" Wijering: HTML5 Video Is Not Quite There Yet
