Blog Posts About: video

Boy, did we learn something about our videos. You like the booos and yeahs, eh? I think that's pretty clear.

It's funny.  Did you know that the first time we did it for the RSS video it was completely spur-of-the-moment?  The booo just seemed to fit in that moment of production - we had no inkling that it would be a trademark.

I'll take the blame for it not appearing in this video.  I felt like it started to get a bit trite - I thought people might be getting tired of it. I was wrong.

I promise, cross my heart, that the next Common Craft Show video will have the booos and yeahs. 

Thanks for letting us know what you think - for that I give you a big YEAAAHHH!

I'm not sure you realized, but it was Common Craft week last week. I know, it snuck up on you again. Me too!

Really though, we were surpised and honored to see that the folks at New Media in the Land of Manana decided that such a week existed last week. Well, it started in Tuesday, but we'll call it even.

Tuesday: The Common Craft
Common Craft Wednesday: What is a Wiki?
Common Craft Thursday: What is Social Networking?
Common Craft Friday: 4600 in 2.2 minutes

From what I can tell, the site is run by Josh from Albuquerque, NM and is (maybe) related to PBS station KNME. Thanks for the kind words Josh! I'd love to know more about The Land of Manana. Is it a project of yours?

I'll be a panelist in an upcoming webinar that is being put on by Vocus, the parent company of PRWeb. It's called "Maximizing PR Impact with Online Video." We're just finishing up a video for PRWeb and I plan to focus on the democratization of video, among other things.

The panel will be moderated by Jiyan Wei and my fellow panelists include two very experienced folks in the online video world:

• Stephen Harris, Executive Producer, Discovery (see the TLC broadband series Makeover Train).
• [Updated] Bart Feder, CEO, The FeedRoom.
  

I'm really looking forward to the discussion - I hope we'll see you there!

Let me start by saying I like Vimeo. The video host has great features (like the thumbnail chooser), a personal attitude and slick interface. For our purposes, we like Vimeo because they focus on controlling privacy - you can share a video with just one person. We use it to share rough cuts of videos with clients. Vimeo does a lot of things well.

That is why I'm both perplexed and disappointed by an experience lately. We tested the privacy system to see what happens when we share video with someone who is not a member.

Sachi is a member and added me (using an old email address) to her list of people with access to a video. I received this email:

Sachi wants to share! Yaay!

I then clicked the link and saw this page:

Whaaa? Boooo!

It's great that the privacy works, but how about a little more information about the remedy? What do I need to do to see the video that has been shared with me?

How about adding this tiny bit of information:

"You must become a member (or be a logged-in member) of Vimeo to view a protected video. You can do that here."

That would help a lot. Thanks!

Check this out... someone uploaded a bullshit version of our RSS in Plain English video to YouTube with a crappy ad on it.

I would love it if you could help me rectify this situation by reporting it to YouTube as inappropriate and/or leaving a comment on the video about it being a fake.

Update: After a handful of you good people left comments, the user has now removed the offending video. I think this was, in part, a cross-cultural misunderstanding - he is Malaysian. His comment to me showed that he saw no problem with the ad - he thought I was upset that he was getting credit for my work. I was impressed that he responded at all.

Updated: This is another one that isn't as bad, but still a pain. This person uploaded one half of the Wiki in Plain English video. Since the video is branded as Common Craft, these incomplete versions make a bad impression.

I really, really hope that I'm not going to have to fight this fight every day in the future.

The other day I was getting a haircut. Making small talk (it was a $15 haircut) she asks...

Barber: So are you going back to work after this?

Me: Sort of. I work from home.

Barber: Oh, that's cool. What do you do?

Me: Me and my wife make videos, in our basement. Well, I should say that we get paid to make videos.

Barber:

Me: We have a little studio at home and we make short videos for businesses.

Barber: Oh, THAT kind of videos. I hear ya.

Me: No, no, no. Not THAT kind I swear. Our videos are instructional.

Barber:

Me: I mean, our videos explain complex ideas in a simple way, using a whiteboard and paper.

Barber: Oh. So what are we doing with your hair today?