WebTV Meet Up 18th September
Further to my last post we’ve now managed to arrange a meet up for all the folks on Chinwag’s webTV list. You can rsvp and get more details here: http://webtvgroup.ning.com
Share/ask/learn: Chinwag’s web-tv list is back
For those that don’t already know, Chinwag is one of the UK’s top meeting places for digerati, designers and geeks. They run a number of discussion lists, including their uk netmarketing list which is an endless source of useful information and debate. And this week, their web-tv list has taken off again after a strangely quiet period which no one can quite explain (considering how much is going on in webTV world). Introductions are occurring, discussions are forming. So if you want to keep in the know get yourself signed up. See you there.
Cross-platform careers advice: The Insiders
Channel 4 Education launched The Insiders yesterday, a new online-only show, in partnership with MySpace. If you’re in the business of webTV you definitely need to check it out and keep an eye on the development of the characters, the content and the feedback. The project is incredibly well put-together and thought out in my opinion (having had a sneak preview from Matt Locke and co. at b.Tween a couple of weeks ago).
The idea is to give careers advice a revamp for the 21st Century, allowing young folk to watch down-to-earth, interesting, funny content about what it’s really like to work in certain professions. And of course, as it’s online there’s blogs and games, friends to be made, questions to ask, comments and clips to post, etc. All that social media offers. As well as MySpace you can find it at: www.insiderjob.co.uk/insiders The programme idea was developed with Twenty Twenty Television and agency Holler. Smart cookies indeed. I’m looking forward to finding out what my 17 year old sister makes of it all. She is most discerning in her media consumption of course.. ahem. But yes, the proof of this project’s success will really be seen in the responses they get from their target audience. I reckon it’ll be a refreshing change from the psychometric testing and strangely archaic careers advice sessions that left most of us uninspired, confused and slightly baffled! Check out more info on Guardian.co.uk too.
bTWEEN is live
We’re live from Manchester today and tomorrow:
http://just-b.com/btween/pages/webcast
The A-Z of webTV
When you’ve been in this game as long as I have, it’s sometimes easy to forget that not everyone knows all the things you know. So I decided to share the following links, to inspire and entertain you. It’s by no means an exhaustive directory. Obviously there’s tons of sites out there. But you never know, these might just pique your interest if you’re planning a webTV project, as there are different business models here. sites from a range of sectors and some do regular live webcasts too.
Get yourself a nice cup of tea and check out my little A-Z of web TV:
Atom Films
Baltic Video Podcasts
BBC Film Network
Big Picture Tv
Blinkx
Blip
BT podshow
Campaign TV
Current TV
DailyMotion
Dana Centre Webcasts (Science Museum)
Fabchannel
Friction TV
FutureShorts
Green TV
Jumpcut
Leicester Square TV
Live Video
Meet The Author
MetaCafe
Nature Live Online (Natural History Museum)
PublicTV
Revver
Saatchi - artists’s video showcase
Sevenload
Tate player
Teacher’s TV
TED
videojug.com
Vimeo
Hmmm. If anyone knows of a webTV site beginning with Z let me know! I’ll update this sometime in the future.
2 weeks to b.TWEEN 08
It’s two weeks until bTWEEN 08 kicks off at MOSI in Manchester. Who can say what adventures will occur at this most unique cross-media gathering? What ideas will be kindled? So many new projects could take off as 300(ish) interactive-obsessed digerati descend for 3 days of sharing ideas and exploring possibilities. It’s all rather exciting.
We’ll be webcasting the whole event (using live Flash) and wanging clips up on YouTube and elsewhere in webTV land afterwards. Sign up and join in to stay informed. You can also chat online during the event - possibly even text to the chat room - thanks to some nifty FCS programming from MuchosMedia, Someth;ng and Raw Nerve.
If you want to join in there’s just a few tickets left. If you want to find out more, take some time to check out the programme and whether attending or not you can get yourself profiled and connected to some clever geeky folk via the site (including me)…
Videojug: Life Explained. On Film. (Apparently).
Videojug launched in 2006 and is gaining popularity as a prime destination for advice on everything from applying make-up to improving your golf or managing your finances.
The run down of ‘most viewed’ clips perhaps tells us something about the pressures of our society e.g. ‘how to kiss someone passionately’ being at the top fairly often; ‘how to get flat stomach in 9 minutes’ having an obvious pull - and I’m not sure what to make of the slightly worrying ‘how to get a girl to flash you’. Hmmmm. Ignoring the slightly ignoble lower end appeal of some of the content, you can’t deny this site is a winner simply for it’s clear purpose and drive to educate and entertain.
I’m going to try and track down one of the management team and will post again when I get some of my burning questions answered. I’m wondering things like how many viewers they get, whether most of these come from their YouTube Channel, and does the current Google video search situation fair well for returning links to their videos; also how far they go in terms of moderating the content that’s uploaded; how their business model is panning out - and what plans they may have for mobile devices. In the meantime, I’m preparing for my holidays by watching ‘how to have a belly flop competition‘ - useful stuff eh?! Oh - and Martin Shepherdly of WebEpics has something to say about ‘how to’ sites on his video marketing blog too.
Can mushrooms save the world?
TED is one video site that seems to have gained instant respect from everyone I know who has checked it out. A fair few prospective clients have said they want their site to be like this one. It as a fine example of quality in terms of online video. What makes this site excellent is its high production values, and its combination of very intelligent speakers and a straightforward remit, raison d’etre, or whatever you want to call it. And what’s more fantastic is that every talk they publish is covered by Creative Commons licensing too, so you can download content, embed it, link to it and use it for good things.
The organisation started out in 1984 as a conference about Technology, Entertainment and Design, but they have expanded to great heights and now simply tell us their mission is spreading ideas worth spreading. Getting a huge number of inspiring people together is an undeniably simple but wonderful idea in the first place. Using this as an opportunity to film them and make their talks available to the masses is just brilliant really. I especially enjoyed a recent post from Paul Stamets: 6 ways mushrooms can save the world - truly enlightening for any funghi lover. Also I love the revelations of ape expert Jane Goodall (being a fan of making random monkey noises myself); Bhuddist monk Matthieu Ricard on habits of happiness is also a great one to watch.
Can Mushrooms save the world?
Another video site which does similar good work and has won accolades and awards is BigPicture.TV. It was founded and is still run by Marcus Morrell who saw the possibilities for online video years back, when not many people were doing it. He told me that he started it up with some inheritance money and was amazed by how willing people were to contribute their thoughts or skills to make some really interesting content. He’s currently looking at various business models and exploring opportunities – from my point of view there’s no doubt it will survive in this age of corporate social responsibility - and in light of our ever increasing awareness of green issues and the fact that we all need to do something positive to survive on this big blue beautiful planet! Check it out.
Universal Search & the Emergence of Video
I went to an early morning talk recently and I have to say it was certainly worthwhile getting up for. The breakfast briefing (organised by E-consultancy) was delivered by Andrew Girdwood of bigmouthmedia – a man who knows his stuff (and yours) when it comes to search. He was reeling slightly from the Google trademark shocker, but kept our attention with his succinct and informative overview of Universal Search.
Universal Search is something we all need to be aware of. Particularly those of us with heavy investments in online video content. Even if you don’t use video content or images much at the moment, the way that Google will now return a mix of results for will of course affect your web marketing strategy significantly. The basic premise, in terms of video search is this: Google will only show up videos that are hosted by, er, Google or YouTube. Apparently the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, etc. have been rather irked by this omission of their on-demand libraries, after all they’ve worked so hard to get the darn things online! And apparently Google’s answer was that they initially want to include content they can trust. You’d think the Beeb was slightly more trustworthy than the average teenager with a video phone, but what do I know!
So if you want Google to show up your videos in search results, you need to get it at least a teaser or highlight of it up on YouTube, if not the whole thing, and also plan promotion of that content, and respond to users’ comments, etc. Of course you also need to get lots of hits, and with the YouTube demographic being what it is, I still wonder if it’s worth it, unless you’re using the platform because it’s free anyway. But then I would say that wouldn’t I? People pay me to host their content. At the end of the day, there’s more than one way to skin an imaginary cat – and if you plan online PR carefully there’s lots you can do to stay on top. But be warned – if you don’t know about Universal Search you ought to find out soon. Things move pretty fast thesedays don’t they?