Video Schmideo
I was going to post a rant tonight about how nobody in the real world has time to watch freakin’ videos. And how they’re really inconvenient.
I was thinking I could invoke the image of Narita International Airport in Tokyo, last time I was there, when dozens of people were sitting in the business lounge checking email and surfing the web … imagine that same scene, but everyone’s wearing earphones to listen to some breathless shill rave about some new technology, or some aging beauty star cooing and clucking, or whatever the particular soundtrack is.
No.
People won’t like that better. I’m sure of it. They’d rather check email and surf the web, and be done with the damn computer after that.
Luckily, before I had burned many calories on this essay, I came across a rant that’s close enough to what I wanted to say that I won’t bother saying it. Just read vanessafoxnude’s why I will read your blog but not watch your video instead. You go, girl!
Not the last time I’ll be in violent agreement with vanessafoxnude, I’m sure.
This entry was posted on Friday, December 28th, 2007 at 10:57 pm. You can subscribe to comments on this post through its RSS feed.
on December 29, 2007 at 10:24 am orcmid wrote:
Funny, I am increasing my use of video. I want to keep them short, although I just violated that rule with a 14 minute one and I may do so again. It is clear that video is more work, and that I need training in elocution and elimination of the “you-know”s and umms.
I will continue to do that, although you can tell from the site that the accompanying blog post summarizes without repeating the same presentation and also has more detail, especially links and reference material.
I am practicing that. I want to be able to use all of the power available for digital authoring and blend it appropriately.
on December 29, 2007 at 11:58 am Doug wrote:
Actually, Orcmid, the last video I watched all the way through was one of yours this week, so you must be doing something right.
One factor is reading speed, which that site mentions. If you’re a fast reader, you move around the net grabbing bits of information, somethings spending a few seconds on a page and getting a high-level feel for what’s there, other times spending a few minutes digging in deep, and in that mode hitting a video can feel like a brick wall. You suddenly have to slow way down and let somebody else feed you information at a least-common-denominator rate, and if you’re in a hurry that’s not always an option.
Another aspect of video I’ve heard discussed in Redmond often is the fact you need privacy or headphones. For people who share office space or spend many hours in meetings each day, those aren’t realistic options in many situations.
Video has its place, but I just wanted to go on record as having strong doubts that video will become the norm for business communication any time soon. Time will tell, but I think predictions of video replacing anything other than hours already spent watching other video sources (TV, movies) will look pretty amusing in a few years. Well-written and well-organized books, articles and web pages will no more be replaced by video than, say, novelists were put out of business by the advent of the motion picture.