Twitter has been a big part of the Common Craft story. In 2008 we made a video called Twitter in Plain English that was present on the Twitter home page for over a year, introducing millions to both Twitter and Common Craft. Since that time Twitter has evolved in many ways. As it became a powerful way to track news and discover information, we made a video on Twitter Search. Now that it’s become a powerful business tool, we’re publishing a new video called Twitter for Business, which explains how businesses are putting Twitter to work. Together, these make a nice pack of Twitter videos for use in training and education.
Of course, you can follow our business on Twitter @commoncraft.
For over two years a company called Lilipip has been a member of our Explainer Network of video producers. Jen Zug and her team have run the show at Lilipip for while and now that Lilipip's owner has decided to pursue other things, the creative team decided to "keep the band together" and relaunch as a new company. Their new company is called What Now? Exactly! and starting today, it will replace Lilipip on the Explainer Network. We've always loved Lilipip's video explanations and expect more great things from the new company.
Here are a couple of videos that represent the first productions from What Now? Exactly!:
Based on suggestions and votes from our members, this video provides an introduction to Web browsers and their most powerful features. It’s meant to help less technical people see the browser as software that makes web pages easy to manage. Along with basics, the video also provides direction on using browser extensions, tabs, search and even the “find” tool for searching a single page.
This video is part of our basics series and works well with our World Wide Web video explanation.
This Week in Love is a series of blog posts where Sachi and I share what we love. Browse the archives and follow @weekinlove on Twitter.
This Week in Love: Shazam's LyricPlay
Over the years, Sachi and I have had an ongoing discussion about song lyrics. In general, Sachi doesn't really care about the lyrics. As long as the melody and rhythm are good, she's happy. While I appreciate those things too, I love knowing the lyrics of songs and often seek them out online. When I share them with Sachi, it usually leads to an "I had no idea!" moment.
I've always wondered why online music players or iTunes don't provide lyrics for every song. Recently we discoverd an almost perfect solution in the free Shazam Player (or the normal Shazam app), which uses a technology called LyricPlay. Lyricplay syncs songs up with lyrics that scroll on phone or tablet screen in a readable and fun format.
This video shows how it works with the normal Shazam app:
A couple of example formats:
Now, I said it's "almost perfect" and here's why. While Shazam says there are over 30,000 tracks with lyrics, we're often left wanting. The free "Shazam Player" app scans the music library on your device and tells you what songs have LyricPlay lyrics. About 40% of the songs in my phone have lyrics currently and Shazam is adding more all the time. The paid Shazam app ($5.99) will detect any song it hears (via speakers in a bar for example) and if there are lyrics, it will provide the LyricPlay option. The paid app is the only one with the ability to detect songs.
Why we love it:
We love this app because it makes listening to music a little like karaoke, with both of us able to sing along. It adds something to the experience. And Sachi gets to see the lyrics, for perhaps the first time ever.
Quick note on our policy regarding products. As always, This Week in Love is not a paid advertisement. We have no connection with the products we love. However, some products we cover may be for sale on websites like Amazon and we may use affiliate links. This means that if you click an Amazon link from this page (for instance), Amazon will know it came from our website and give us a small slice of the purchase price. We'll let you know when this is the case.
Don't miss the next Week in Love. Follow us on Twitter @weekinlove.
It’s true. The book is called “The Art of Explanation” and it should hit the shelves in the fall of 2012, published by Wiley & Sons.
The Big Idea:
The Art of Explanation is built on the very simple idea that explanation is a skill that can be learned and improved. The book is designed to help people rethink how they communicate and learn to package ideas into simple explanations that make people care, whether it’s at home, work or school.
Background:
For many years, I’ve been a student of explanation and Common Craft videos are a result of hours upon hours of crafting explanations and thinking about what makes ideas easy to understand. Along the way, I realized that the lessons we’ve learned are not unique to videos - they apply to everyone in everyday situations. The Art of Explanation is the the first book of it’s kind to explore explanation as a skill that everyone can apply to accomplishing their goals.
I’ll be writing more about the book here on Common Craft. Starting today, you can also follow The Art of Explanation’s progress and annoucements on Twitter, Facebook and email via artofexplanation.com.
As you may have seen, we recently published a video about copyright and Creative Commons. It tells the story of a photographer who discovers ways to use both for her goals. Recently, the Creative Commons organization saw the video and asked an important question in a tweet:
Nice video on how a photographer might use #CC licenses: http://t.co/rfmG5GEf (in draft) @CommonCraft Will you CC license this video? :)
Our answer is “no” - and here’s why:
We think Creative Commons is an excellent idea. Unlike reserving all rights with copyright, it gives creators a way to make their work more sharable. Like we portrayed in our video, it makes permission implicit and that’s a great way for creators to get their work in front of more people.
At the same time, the potential of Creative Commons licensing must be viewed in terms of a person or organization’s goals. Using it responsibly creates opportunities to build awareness, brand recognition and fan base - all things that can contribute to earning a living over the long term. You could say it’s a means to an end for many people and organizations.
At Common Craft we’ve been making videos since 2007. In the early days we did use Creative Commons and YouTube for making a few of our videos free for sharing. This helped us build a great fan base and brand awareness. But over time our priorities needed to change. To keep making useful videos for educators, we needed a way to offer them for a licensing fee, which meant Creative Commons made less sense.
But that’s not the only consideration.
You might say, “Why not use Creative Commons for this one video?” It seems reasonable, given the subject matter, that we might want to provide an example and make the video sharable.
This works against our goals in another way. A big obstacle for our business is the perception, from our early work, that all Common Craft videos are free for sharing. To have a successful business, we needed to change this perception and put the focus on our subscription service, which makes our videos sharable for our members. Because our members are paying for video licensing and sharing tools we provide, licensing even a single with Creative Commons would cause two problems:
1. Create more confusion about our business
2. Lessen the value of our subscription service for members
So, we love the idea of Creative Commons, and we know it can be valuable for many - especially those with a priority on building awareness. But for our business and goals it doesn't fit.
It’s true. The book is called “