Blog Posts About: Social Video

It's still in Beta and I have 5 invites. Just leave a comment with a valid email address...

If you don't know about Joost, here's how it is described on the site:

Joost is a new way of watching TV on the internet. With Joost, you get all the things you love about TV, including a high-quality full-screen picture, hundreds of full-length shows and easy channel-flipping.

The promotional video at the top of this page is fun and well done. Actually, most of the things I'm seeing from Joost are fun and well done.

I wrote about the early Venice Project beta here.

I'm not sure what to say about this, other than state the facts:

Justin has strapped a camera to his head. That camera feeds everything he sees, says and does straight to the Internet, 24/7. It just started today (he's about to go rock climbing). He is blogging and posting updates via Twitter. Justin also posted his cell phone number on the site.

From a few minutes of watching, I've already heard things like "Dude, you can't say that online - don't say that again" and "I'd offer $100 for someone to do a DOS (denial of service) attack on them", in response to a disruptive chat participant.

Techcrunch has the inside scoop, as usual.

You can watch live now...

I remember the first time I saw one of Ze Frank's videos in 2005 (I think). It was called "On Valentines Day" and I never forgot it. Funny, raw and clever. Little did I know that he would become such a rock star.

Paul Kaputska at New Tee Vee recently did a great retrospective of Ze's video blog show called, well, "The Show", which recently ended after one year. I have been so impressed. Ze deserves all the credit, accolades and praise that has recently been heaped upon him.

As Paul describes:

But what really distanced The Show from the rest of online video was Frank’s quick embrace of interactive technology to make his audience part of the proceedings, a facet that will likely live on as an enduring case study of how to build a supremely successful online community that doesn’t just watch, but participates.

Ah yes, we come to the meat of matter and why I am so fascinated by Ze's project. You see, Ze didn't just make a video blog - he created a community around himself. He used his talent and charisma to bring people in and engage them in projects that, while usually inane and useless, serve as great examples of what people are motivated to do in a community setting.

Example 1: Ze asked his community of "sportsracers" to dress up their vacuum cleaners and send in pictures. Of course they did, en masse.

Example 2: Ze decided that the earth had never been a sandwich, so he challenged his readers to simultaneously place 2 pieces of bread on opposite ends of the earth at the same time. He didn't stop with the challenge, but provided a supremely useful map to help sportsracers find the necessary global antipodes. My friends Duncan and Jon Rawlinson made a video and took the prize (via Spain and New Zealand).

Ze also created something he called "The Org" which enabled members (including yours truly) to interact by location, submit photos, etc. Like The Show, it appears that The ORG is currently taking a break.

My point? I have 2:

1. My first point is that communities (online and off) need leaders. They don't have to be Ze Franks, but they need visibility, personality and recognition. Who is your Ze Frank?
2. My second point is about engagement and mobilization. Discussions are great, but what are projects that the community can work on together? Will your community rally around solving a problem or producing something original? The first step is to ask them.

I put this 3 minute video together as the finale of my talk at Northern Voice about our trip last year. It features me eating all sorts of strange things like scorpions, drinking vodka with scary Russians and surprising my parents for their 50th wedding anniversary. All of our trip videos are here.

It'll be interesting to see if this gets any traction...

I've been enjoying Bert Decker's blog Create Your Communications Experience. It sounds a little dry, but I've found that his common sense approach to being a better communicator hits home with me. We all need to be better communicators, right?

He was recently interviewed by Ross Bowring at Public Speaking Sucker and I was interested in his perceptions of how important video will become...

Video will become ubiquitous – and the smart entrepreneur and leader will become adept at knowing how they come across so they can use the medium. It’s more than just YouTube – we will be sending video in our emails, using it embedded in power points, and having instantaneous messages in this most powerful of mediums.

Indeed. This is one of my personal goals for 2007 - learning to be comfortable and confident on video and turn the medium into an asset on CommonCraft.com.