If you're reading this as it hits the Web, I will likely be in front of the HP Pavilion in San Jose trying to drive down the price of a ticket to the afternoon NCAA Western Regional game between Southern Illinois University and Kansas. I couldn’t care less who wins. I lost my taste for watching other people live out there fantasies a long time ago, and I pretty much loathe college basketball. So why would I go?

I’d go because my lifelong friends still enjoy it. They live sports, eat sports, sleep sports and mostly bet on sports. I’m getting together with them Friday night and would love to walk up to the poker table or the couch or the bar--whichever has the best vantage point to the TV--and critique the three-guard alignment Kansas used in the backcourt on Thursday or comment on how Jamaal Tatum from SIU looked timid in the post.

I’d have to embellish the description of my seat since, if I get one I won’t be paying much for it, but I would get instant and genuine kudos for leveraging what they see as my very boring job traveling to what they see as a very dull city into actual tickets for the NCAA tournament. Mostly, it would give me something to say. I have been marginalized as of late by my waning interest in sports, but they are old (as in long-time) and dear friends who are worth the effort of feigning interest in this overblown tournament.

This principal of wanting to fit in by being able to talk about what everyone else is talking about came up a few times at VON (my reason for traveling to this very dull city) this week. And I think it will have a direct effect on the longevity and business case of this current craze of Internet TV--the YouTube or Internet2 kinds of personalized video programming, if you could call it programming.

Imagine walking up to the water cooler at work and talking up this great video you watched on YouTube the night before, where this guy did this routine with sock puppets that looked like Steven Tyler and Andy Rooney talking about why Jennifer Hudson really got voted off of American Idol last year. Inevitably, that conversation would end with, “I guess you really had to see it.”

Now if you walked up to the water cooler and screamed, “I can’t believe Izzy slept with George,” you’re automatically in the club.

So the brave new world of Internet TV has a long, long way to go before it has the community reinforcement power of network and cable television and the renegade VoIP providers have a long, long way to go before they understand what it takes to build and maintain a quality network and why they shouldn’t get it for free.

Somehow, I don’t think we’ll be discussing that Friday night. So go Salukis!

E-mail me at tmcelligott@telephonyonline.com.