Welcome back to the SpoutBlog. On September 21, 2005, Spout's founder, Rick DeVos, wrote our very first post: "Why SpoutBlog?" Several dozen posts followed over the next five or so months, before things started getting crazy during the weeks leading up to the March beta launch of spout.com.

But you could say that absence made our hearts grow fonder when it came to our affections for the SpoutBlog. We missed the stimulation of ideas generated here. We missed hearing from all of youâ€"having a dialogue with other people who are interested in the stuff we can't stop thinking about. We knew all along that the blog was something we not only wanted to bring back, but something we wanted to really throw ourselves into.

So we're back. The design and functionality are new and improved (thanks, Marie-Claire and Scott!), but what we want to do at the heart of this blog is the sameâ€"generate ideas around film and technology and community, and then get a larger conversation rolling around those ideas.

And the issues are already buzzing out there, looking for a place to landâ€"consumer opinion, Internet tastemaking, new marketing strategies, Web 2.0, Internet-based social networks, disruptive innovation, old and new ways to market and distribute films, new filmmaking technologies. It's all happening. It's all open for conversation here at SpoutBlog. So what gets you going?