For the first time, we're publishing a series of three videos. The series is called "Online Basics" and it's focused on teaching people who are new to the Internet.
Our goal is to help internet novices understand why they should care about using technology and how to think about their identity online. The videos share a character named Angie who establishes her online identity and online accounts so that she can participate in social networking and social media.
Now that school is cranking up again, we're set to publish a series of videos that will help make up a new category for Common Craft: Study Skills. In short, we want to help your students and trainees build information literacy.
When it comes to credible sources of information, peer reviewed articles set the standard. That’s because the peer review process is designed to make credibility a priority. This video explains the concept of peer review and how it applies to research and what we understand about the world. It teaches:
Why credible, trustworthy information is essential
Why articles published in peer reviewed journals are more trustworthy
How the peer review process works
How “peers” evaluate articles and ensure integrityWhat makes peer reviewed articles different from other sources
Using an example of a song written three generations ago, this video shows why it makes sense that the public domain exists and what it means when a song, photo, artwork, document or other creative work is in the public domain. This video teaches:
The basics of copyright law and how it gives creators control
Why copyrights expire over time
How public domain works are available for use without payment or permission
Why creators and organizations contribute to the public domain
For the first time, Lee LeFever will host a free webinar covering Common Craft's entire production process. You'll learn about the "Six Skills of Animated Video Production", from script writing and storyboarding to video editing.
The process Lee will share is the same process he and Sachi use to make Common Craft videos today.
Key details:
Webinar Date: Wednesday, June 21st at 11am Pacific
NOTE: All attendees will receive a coupon for 50% off the Explainer Academy's DIY Media Maker Course, which provides in-depth instructions and resources for every part of the video production process.
If you've worked on a team at work or at school, you've seen how projects can evolve into chaos. Our goal with this video (recommended by Common Craft members) is to outline the basics of how projects are managed by professionals. Using their techniques, almost any project, at school or work, can be more efficient and effective.
This video follows the story of a team who works together to build a prototype for an upcoming meeting at work. Thanks to a project manager, they are able to align their work efficiently and complete the project with limited time, budget and resources. It teaches:
Why project management matters in getting things done
How project managers help plan and align the team’s work
Why project scope (time, budget and resources) matters
How project managers work with stakeholders
How the basics of project management can be applied to other types of projects.
As of tonight, it has been ten years since we published RSS in Plain English on YouTube. I can't believe it's been so long. We owe a debt of gratittude to those of you who were with us in the beginning. It makes our day to know that you've stuck with us. We'd love to hear from you!
To mark the occasion, I wrote about how we came up with the idea for making RSS in Plain English and what happened the day we published it. Here's an excerpt:
YouTube was a year old at the time and growing incredibly fast. Soon, our discussions turned to ways we could ride the YouTube wave to new destinations. But how? We had no background in video production. What kinds of videos could be useful? What could two people and a cheap video camera do?
In 2006 YouTube was not alone in experiencing incredible growth. This was the dawn of the social media revolution and ideas like wikis, blogs and social networking were just starting to become known and adoption was slow. Being a big fan and user of these new tools, I wanted more people to use them. I believed they could be adopted quickly by the mass market.
But I also saw problems. These powerful, free and useful tools all suffered from the same malady: confusion. They were so new and different that most people couldn’t make sense of them intuitively. It was like a huge mountain of value was being obscured by a dense shroud of foggy, technical communication. Clearing that fog was the problem we decided to solve. We set out to make these new tools understandable for people like our parents using the power of YouTube videos. For the first time, we thought about what it means to explain an idea effectively using video.
