“Scoble isn’t listening,” TechCrunch commenter says

Dave Winer is listening… he posted a comment on his blog. My point is that it is sometimes about the quality of listeners not quantity. If you want the mass market you have to dumb it down or make it short. This will require skill which I’ve noticed each video you shoot gets better.

Give me shorter and I’ll watch more. But make the long ones that I’m interested in available to consume at my leisure

I think folks just need to be patient. You say the Flash player is coming – then I can’t wait.

As for the length of the videos – I would rather not see you be constricted by a length of time, instead focusing on the content at hand.

Just me two cents.

It interests me.

I caught up with a few shows this morning, but to be quite honest with you it took a while. Shorter videos that are much more brief would be a lot better, and you could then decide to download the larger/longer video if the topic really interested you.

Go for it, I say.

I like the long format videos! We have enough short content in our lives. I want the whole story and nothing but the whole story!! A highlights version would be cool but I will watch and listen to every second of the videos you produce. It lets me get to know the person you are interviewing and the product they are showing. I don’t need a flash version, but if you want to make it, go ahead. Keep the long content coming!!

Oh yeah and Thanks for the content!!

I always liked the NerdTV approach…a couple of shorts available (NerdyBit & JuicyBit) along with the whole enchelada.

PXLated: yeah, I like what NerdTV does too, but I notice that they have all the features but only have done a small number of videos compared to what I’ve done in three months and they were going a lot longer than I have.

I remember someone telling me “shipping is a feature.” So, I’ve put all of my energy into getting interesting conversations going.

Now it’s time to go back and add some more features into the mix.

>instead focusing on the content at hand

Yeah, to me I’m just having interesting conversations with interesting people.

Imagine having a conversation with someone like Douglas Engelbart and telling him “you gotta tell me how you invented the mouse and the GUI in less than 10 minutes otherwise we won’t get on YouTube and not enough people will see it.”?

Dear: you nailed it. I’d rather have a smart audience than a large one.

Anyone can get a large audience. Just look at Paris Hilton.

But getting a smart audience? That’s a LOT LOT harder.

While you’re add it, how about WMV? I know it’s against Silicon Valley protocol (which you devoutly adhere to these days) to use any MS tech, but I’ve seen posts here asking for WMV that have been ignored.

Stanley: WMV will take longer, sorry, but it is on my list to do. What I really want to do is create a high-definition version that could be displayed on Media Center/Xbox 360. AMD loaned me a box to play with doing that, will let you know how it goes. If we do a high definition version than I could also put it on DivX/Stage 6. You should see videos over there, much much better quality than YouTube or Google Video or anything Flash-based. But that requires another player to be downloaded and installed.

What’s the reason you want WMV, by the way? Zune?

Oh, and to say I devoutly adhere to Silicon Valley protocol makes me laugh. If I did that I wouldn’t be using Outlook anymore.

I, for one, don’t need a Flash player or shorter videos. What I _would_ like is videos in WMV format. I don’t have a portable video player (or audio for that matter) so I watch videos on my PC with Windows Media Player. I’d mind the length of the videos less if I could watch them at 1.4 speed.
Otherwise, it’s a pretty good show and I agree that your interviews should last as long as they’re interesting. The trick now is learning how to make interviews intersting all the way

Mauricio: good point about WIndows Media’s ability to play at higher speeds than recorded at.

I will do WMVs, just will take some time. Probably after CES, sorry.

I agree with Brandon. Focus on the content and ensure that it’s compelling. Just because most video on the web follows the YouTube model, doesn’t mean it ALL has to. I for one have an attention span a little longer than a hummingbird, and it’s a safe bet that I’m not alone.
I also like the idea of a highlight reel showing key moments from the weeks videos. This would make it easier to choose ( if time is limited ) a specific video in spite of its length. Content is KING!!

Cheers!!

What I’d like is to be able to go to Scobleshow and see a list of the most popular/most watched videos. I like the way IT Conversations has a highest rated and most popular list. That’s at least a good place to start if you don’t have time to listen to every show. When you add Audio feeds that would be the first feed I’d subscribe to.

I like the long format clips actually, there’s nothing worse rushed or edited content that leaves you with loads of question’s. They are conversation’s and should take as long as they take, by the way your video is “all killer and no filler” hehe. The pop window is also useful, allowing me to go off and browse and read as I listen to the audio and flip back and forth watching.

If your going Flash there’s a nice site that breaks down long free form content at http://www.fabchannel.com, I like it anyway.

Robert, howzabout reaching out to some MS contacts and getting the show up on the Xbox Live Video Marketplace or available on-line through WMCE? I’m not suggesting the content delivery be MS-centric, but those are two more avenues to garner a smart audience. By all means, WMV, Flash and MOV are all needed, which puts a fair amount of burden on content providers. It’s a killer to have to create good content in the first place and then encode it over and over for every player….solid content creation ought to be enough, but unfortunately, it’s not.

Kevin: I will definitely be working on distribution relationships in 2007. Thanks!

What would be great is a wiki for all the episodes with a list of points covered and a transcript if somebody has the time. This way people who want to get the content in 3 mins can read instead of watching.

It would be nice if you could separate the interview from the demo. For example, with the Mark Lucovsky interview, I was only interested in seeing the demo but since it was near the end had to wait for the whole video to load. It’d be cool if you could give people a choice on how they watch: demo, interview, or combo.

“I think doing a weekly “YouTube Edition” which is less than 10 minutes, but has highlights of the week’s interviews is potentially interesting. That would let me take two-minute snippets from, say, four of the week’s shows, and have me introduce each show’s snippet and explain why that snippet caught my eye. Does that interest you?”

Sounds good, thanks… provides a more accessible path to the more engaging versions… lets us better judge where to put our limited attention each day. (Text summaries & transcripts are a good entrypoint too.)

jd

On the one hand you say shorter videos are coming, but on the other hand you seem to suggest shorter videos would reduce the “quality” of your content. So, which is it? You can’t be all things to all people.

I’d also like to add a vote for WMV. I found that QuickTime gives me a black viewing panel after coming back from a screensaver so I really prefer to use Windows Media Player.

The reality is I think it’s up to Apple to provide native support for Flash in Quicktime, or ipod sizes, or to allow audio-only streaming without having you doing the work separately.

As for transcripts, it’s a whole another thing. But it does not have to be you doing the work either, it’s a perfect opportunity for a company to emerge in this niche.

Anyway, in short, it’s 100% automated technology we are talking here. Don’t do the work by hand.

Great to hear about the podcast versions etc.

I reckon, if you believe the long-format HD vids are necessary to do the subject matter justice, then by all means produce them that length.

But at the same time, if you want people to be able to watch the stuff, you should make it available in smaller chunks, with lower definition. I’m sure format converters and editors are available. I’m not talking about mass market, just expanding your audience from those who want to watch the material and are equipped to do so right now – my guess is a small proportion of all the people that would watch.

…and don’t forget links, screenshots and transcripts!

We work in AVI and then do all of our conversion to flash, MP4, and 3GP on a separate machine in parallel…of course we dont have 40 minute interviews (10-20 minute interviews and 1-2 minute property videos are our norm). Our transcript generation is an outgrowth of our human translation process.

Given the rendering and upload times, rework is a killer (having to redo a video due to a mistake not caught in editing). A replicable error-free process is really key to being successful in multiple formats.

As a side note, the data for our audiences show that FAR more people watch the online flash version than download the video…