Building a Platform

My friend and German hero Sabine asked me a simple question. She is working on building an online VJ platform and wanted me to send some links to any sites I’ve worked on or seen. Rather than just send some links, I thought I’d put together my thoughts about what does and doesn’t work for video platforms.

In general, most video platforms look like replications of YouTube. A few of the sites stand out, either for adding an extra feature, or for dismissing the YouTube platform altogether and going in a different direction.

USABILITY
A couple of things have to be in place for a platform to be usable. The first is navigation. It has to be simple to locate videos by the following three categories: author, subject and date. It is useful to promote top videos, but in many sites this is an unbearable obsession. YouTube bombards us with popular videos (this makes sense for their mission of keeping people on the site for as long as possible). BlipTV, (now ShoartBrainTV) and Funny or Die have good presentations for Featured Videos. CurrentTV’s redesign is also a step in the right direction.

In the other direction is Rocketboom, which is almost so sparse it’s unusable. Wallstrip is stripped down and mixes blog entries with its video content, but is appealingly minimalist in its clutter. These two sites aren’t intended to be full-use portals as much as they are supposed to be centers for the publication of their product, and only their product. On these criteria, they are very successful.

Personally, I think CommonCraft’s Explanations in Plain English is one of the best examples of video integration. The site is clean, intuitive and let’s the users enjoy the content without worrying about getting lost down a rabbit hole.

Finally, TitanTV. My personal experience aside, the website is a mess. It’s very difficult to manage or easily find media. Part of the problem is poor categorization, but the other problem is that the “featured videos” section suggests that the site lacks content. For a site that wants to be a network for content, this is a dead giveaway to a content shortage.

USER GENERATED
Then there is the user-generated function, which has become an obsession of almost every video platform since YouTube. For my money, anyone building a platform is wasting their energy if they focus on user-generated content. This market is already controlled by YouTube and the like and anyone looking for free web hosting has plenty of choice in this matter.

If, however, one were to embrace user-generated content, two factors must be taken into account. The first is the widget. The platform must allow people to embed video from the host site in other blogs and websites. This draws viewers to the main site by allowing it to become integrated with the rest of the internet. If this option isn’t available (like on TitanTV), then there’s no incentive or capacity for a content producer to publish to your site.

The second factor is a revenue sharing program. Revver has a smart setup in which content producers can derive revenue from ads placed at the end of a clip, or as an overlay to the video. Tiva also tries to provide a financial incentive to content producers by developing a network like AFP, AP or Reuters. On the whole though, my experience with Tiva has been fruitless. More importantly, their rate structure is unfavorable to VJs and their distribution platform isn’t very friendly.

REVENUE SHARING
It’s a difficult balance to walk if you are trying to provide content to traditional media through a web portal. Truthfully, no revenue sharing seems fair except pay per view, or pay per click. Though this is clearly not fair to those who provide a sales services (Current, Tiva), as a content producer, I’m inclined to work as an independent and do my own sales rather than give up such a substantial portion of my revenue to these promoter agencies.

Brightcove should be mentioned here - not because of a unique rev-sharing system, but because they are very relevant in the derocktvelopment of video platforms. They run Blip/ShortBrain on the back end, along with several other video platforms. They know what they are doing, and a quick look at their site should give up a ton of ideas. But their work takes them away from the VJ driven model and focuses on providing services to companies looking to build video environments.

DO ONE THING & DO IT WELL
As I mentioned, Rocketboom and Wallstrip have an appeal to them, despite their minimalism. I’d add the already discussed Alive in Baghdad to this list. In each case the site focuses on the arrangement that best suits their mission of distributing the branded video. The videos stand out because they aren’t mixed in with the clutter common to Blip and YouTube. I’d argue that only Current is successful in having a unified brand image despite the diversity of user generated content.

I’d like to list CareerTV in this section because I think the site is very successful at presenting its content and allowing the user to find what they might like. The content is very specific and not intended for a mass audience. Though this means it won’t be seen everywhere, it also means they can focus and do their god work.

Essentially, this gets at the idea of the mega niche. It’s common wisdom that the media are fracturing, but too many platforms are trying to reach everyone, despite the indisputable dominance of the established players. By claiming a field like comedy (Funny or Die) or how-tos (CommonCraft), or whatever you might imagine, the site becomes focused and can dominate its specific market.

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Work?

Finding work ain't easy. That's what I've been doing lately - posting to job boards, connecting with old colleagues, volunteering and in general just trying to get out there. I'm bringing back Geek World and working through a couple of new story ideas. More to come, of course. Just wanted to say it though. Job Hunting does not equal fun.

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And She Stares Longingly at What She Has Lost

This film is beautiful and it is a pleasure to see it in the best sound design category because audio is such an important part of this clip. Though the audio is dominated by a song, the effect sounds never overwhelm. The extreme restraint and subtlety employed by the filmmakers is impressive on their own merits. More impressive, though, is the song selection, which evokes romance, tragedy and loss, the main themes of the work.

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Bush Cross Dressing

This video is crap. That is to say it looks like garbage. But what an ending! The final makeup shot is very well done. Strong concept, though a little overplayed.

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Death of a Language

Breaking the trend of great videos, I wanted to post this. The last speaker of a native Alaskan language has died at age 89.

It seems to me that we have been warned repeatedly that this is happening and will continue to happen. And though it doesn't make a lot of practical sense to get too worked up about it, the loss of a language is the loss of a history and a culture.

Would the preservation of an endangered language be useful in the future? Doubtlessly to historians and anthropologists. Does the disappearance of languages say anything about us today? Aren't we supposed to be embracing diversity and letting the global cultural market flourish?

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Circle Squared

Circle Squared is a beautiful animated short. It is simple, well-executed, and clever. The art design (clean, minimalist) and the sound editing are two strong elements contributing to this clip's success. I do wonder why the tiger thing died, and what a crocodile is doing near a corn farm, but really, these are minor questions.

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Be a man

WOW. This is too funny. Check your balls. Carpe Testes.

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Evidence of My Existence

This video is perfect. The narration is smart, swift, and informative, assuming you already understand the world well enough to skip over the basic and move deep into the terrain of Lo Scazlo's photo subjects. The editing is tight, especially for someone with a photographer's background, and the final chapter about his son is beautiful. The notion of exploring LoScazlo's Evidence of Existence is a smart concept created by a highly talented artist.

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Getting Away With Murder

Wow. I loved this. It's something like Reservoir Dogs crossbred with Curb Your Enthusiasm. It makes no sense, but the story is so full-bodied and insane, I can't help but slam my fist against the table and shout 'Yes!' This is something good, something new, and something engaging. My only question is, why is the FBI Agent doing an HST impression?

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Webby Awards

For the next few days I'll be working as a reviewer for the Webbys. My job is to watch internet videos and give some feedback. Whenever I find an interesting clip, I'm going to post it here. I wanted to start with one that relates to the VJ theme, though future video clips probably won't.

This comes from Rocketboom and features Ruud Elmendorp as the VJ. If you've seen my presentation, you might recognize him as the VJ behind the God's Army piece. He won the 2006 VJ Award for International reporting, and this clip shows he is still doing some great work.

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