DISQUS

Mashable - The Social Media Guide: 2008/07/08/a-meta-discussion-on-our-irksome-video-experience-video/

  • Alexander Williams · 1 year ago
    My problem with online video is easy: I have to look at it.

    I can't IM other people during the process. I can't blog. I can't drive. I can't do ANYTHING but look at the video.

    If you try and structure it so I don't have to look at it, why even go with the technological overhead of video at all and just give me higher quality audio, instead? You can cram a lot of bitrate into those images you either have as vital for my experience (in which case I have to look at it), or they aren't and the bits are better burned elsewhere.

    I'm a busy guy. I like lots of stuff going on at once. Video is inherently pretty single-tasketive.
  • Duncan Riley · 1 year ago
    2 issues: nothing said until the 38 second mark, and the embed isn't working in Goog Reader. That aside, what did you use to get the two pics up?
  • Alexander Williams · 1 year ago
    Incidently, it's hard enough to do live AUDIO shows and interviews with the relatively ubiquitous technology of the telephone, which has a lot more technical maturity than webcams, online services, et al.

    In my mind, the real issue is whether or not the video content is useful. If it's important, and you have to do it live, the current tech curve doesn't make it easy. Or cheap. But mainly it's not easy and enjoyable to do.

    To make video recording and, more importantly, management and manipulation easy is a huge problem. Video editing and data management is inherently hard.
  • Morgan · 1 year ago
    If it's essentially the same content, what does the video bring to the table except higher bitrates and probably worse audio?

    If you need video for demonstrations, it takes relatively high resolution. If you don't, then listening to audio and doing something else besides looking at people talking makes so much more sense.
  • Jonathan · 1 year ago
    A good example of "value add" by video is Diggnation I think. I can listen to most of that as audio, but they discuss enough stuff that needs visuals so that it gives it a decent lift on plain audio. They're actually quite fun people to watch as well (facial expressions, etc.)