Scoble asks an interesting question: “How much video content is too much video content?” I’ve got a better question — who has the time to watch that much, if any, online video? And this is a question for bloggers now who have an interest in the technology part of the blogosphere.
My own prejudice is that I don’t have time for podcasts or video logging or what have you, if only because they take *so* long to digest. Yes, it really is a “google” world we’re living in when I don’t have 15 minutes to watch a video. But while you’re watching that 15 minutes of video, no matter how interesting it is, you can’t do anything else. Its totally non-asynchronous (synchronous, then?). I’d rather be blogging.
I’ll give it up to Scoble — its a lot of hard work putting together videos, what with all the shooting and the editing. But does anyone really watch *all* that stuff? Does it all fall into “milf“wilf time?
12 Comments
I think there will always be people who have time for videos. Even I, who chronically lacks time, sometimes indulge an hour or two of YouTube browsing.
A better question for me were always podcasts – who the hell has time for those? It’s not like you can read something else and listen to a podcast, at least not if you want to actually remember what you’ve heard. If there was ever any web 2.0-ish idea that seemed completely useless to me, it’s podcast (this does not include vidcasts which fall into the video category anyway).
Richer experiences, like video and face-to-face, do cost more. That’s why it’s helpful if there’s an elevator pitch, a synopsis, an abstract, as well as a text transcript, to show what we’d be getting for that investment.
Video is good because it can show the people behind the words. But we’d have to know why we’d want to spend the time watching those words in the first place.
The “inverted pyramid” style of writing in newspapers can help with rich-media presentations too.
Maybe for some people, the interviewer’s brand would suffice. Most of the rest of us, I suspect, need to know what we’ll get out of a video before investing our limited time in it.
I watch very few videos, and no vlogs. I think it’s partly a control issue: We control the speed of our own reading and information assimilation. It’s harder to do that when watching a video. (It’s also a lot harder to pretend you’re working when you’re watching a vlog.)
If my car had an aux port that I could plug my iPod into, I think my podcast consumption rate would increase, but that’s going to have to wait for the next car.
Heheh, I wonder if people write to ABC TV and ask “who has time for this stuff?” They publish 24 hours of content every day. Damn, I bet they have no one watching anymore.
My show has been downloaded two million times so far. So, maybe no one is watching, but people sure are clicking the download button a lot.
“Milf”?????? When in Rome……
Maybe my mind is in the gutter…
Basically this divides up into two categories
1. Most people are terribly unproductive and do only the bare minimum….they have plenty of time.
2. I have a perfect 1 hour slot…while my wife is watching greys anatomy…it’s either video podcasts or attempt to scratch out my own corneas…unfortunately I bite my nails…so video content it is!
Stan,
While I don’t do it, I can see how podcasts might be useful in that they enable you to engage in a type of media away from your PC. Like while you’re on the subway, in your car, working out etc etc.
Video casts stil require yourself to be tethered to something, although some cell phone companies do allow you to watch stuff like YouTube through some of their services.
Cheers
t @ dji
Ryan — sorry, I meant *WILF*, not “milf” … ha ha, which is pretty funny, I guess.
As for your categories, I guess its just a matter of how you want to spend your time. If I have an hour there are other things I’d like to do, and that’s just my preference — because I’m able to consume information faster through other means than by video.
Cheers
t @ dji
Robert,
Here’s a question for you — I’m not sure if you and Podtech actually have the numbers (or are willing to let anyone know about them), but out of the videos that are downloaded, how many people watch it all the way through? half of the way through? never watch it at all?
Just wondering if companies keep track of metrics like this (or if they can).
Cheers
t @ dji
John,
No question that’s why I love podcasts / video casts that have some kind of good annotated show notes. I wonder (speaking of metrics), if we know or can proove that good show notes actually increase downloading / viewership?
Cheers
t @ dji
Fiat,
I hear you … although there are devices that allow your iPod (or any MP3) to broadcast an FM signal that can be picked up through your car (thereby getting around what you were talking about)
t @ dji
Tony — yes, I’ve tried them. They don’t work too well in the SF Bay Area; too many stations.
– oh, and call me Lux. I’m not a car :-)
I schedule my web browsing time, allocating times solely for searching and watching those videos, bookmarking them for a possible write-up later on. Haven’t really tried listening radios yet, I feel it will distract me from other work, as it is sometimes live streaming. With video though, you can always pause it and go back to it later.
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