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5 Trends Behind the Growing Shift to Video Explanations

Posted by: leelefever on January 23, 2012- 11:24am

Categories: Explanation, history, media, youtube

It’s easy to look back at Internet history and spot the points of major change. A famous example is the Web 2.0 era which spawned products like Twitter, Facebook and other lasting features of the Web. Some would say we're in the cloud era now, with nearly everything we do on computers being moved to off-site servers.

Within these big, tectonic shifts are smaller shifts that also make a difference. YouTube was a big shift that kicked off online video in 2005 and in the years since, we’ve seen the growth of viral videos and myriad artistic expressions in video form. How did we survive without the Honey Badger?

But there is one shift, near and dear to my heart, that we’re just starting to see. The age of the video explanation is here. Let me explain.

Online video, in many ways, has reflected mainstream television. These productions are usually advertising supported and generally classified by documentary, narrative, drama, comedy, advertising, art, etc. All valuable and productive, but reflecting mainstream history.

With YouTube came the potential for video to be more democratized, more experimental. Suddenly there became room for new uses of video, new audiences, new genres. In 2006, anyone with a video camera and an Internet connection could make videos and share them on a worldwide scale for free. Sachi and I fit that model and Common Craft started to experiment.

In 2007 we saw an opportunity to make videos that explained technology. These videos were not instructional or tactical how-to videos. They answered a different kind of question. It was not “how do I do this?” but “why should I care?” We called them explanations and Common Craft’s tagline became “Our Product is Explanation”.

To my knowledge this was the first time a set of online videos had been described as explanations, with RSS in Plain English (below) being the original article.

This video was a viral hit and helped make Common Craft famous on the Web. It worked for a simple reason - it made people care about and see value in RSS. Since then we’ve made videos that have done the same for products like Twitter, Dropbox, Google Docs and now have a whole library of video explanations for use in classrooms and on the Web. In all, our video explanations have been viewed well over 35 million times.

As these videos gained traction, an increasing number of video producers have joined the fray and started describing what they do as "video explanations" or "explainer videos", which are usually computer animations. At the same time, demand for our services grew and we created the Common Craft Explainer Network in 2008 to help these producers flourish. Since 2010, we’ve seen more and more producers describe their work as video explanations and adopt the idea that explanation represents a specific skill and type of video, a new genre that’s useful.

Now, our success and a handful of producers don’t make a shift. But a few trends are at work that set this up to be a big deal in the future.

1. Growing complexity, growing anxiety. The world is moving faster than ever and people are feeling anxious because they can’t keep up. They need quick, effective ways to feel confident about ideas and products that matter to them. Video explanations fulfill this need and there is no shortage of subjects that need better explanations.

2. Growing Use of Video. Yesterday Reuters reported that YouTube is now serving "4 billion online videos every day, a twenty five percent increase in the past eight months"

3. Growing Demand. eMarketer recently released a report suggesting spending on online video will rise 43% in 2012. That’s one year. Spending begets supply. I see part of the money in video moving from whiz-bang marketing videos to videos that focus on utility and education, what we call explanations.

4. Growing Supply. As stated above, more and more video producers around the world are starting to specialize in explanation. These producers are seeing growth potential because organizations are tired of the same old marketing formula and demanding videos that are simpler and focused on explaining more than selling.

5. Growing Mindshare. Until recently, people have not heard the term "video explanation:. But that is changing quickly. We talk to organizations every day that want a video that explains their product. Indeed, I imagine a world where an increasing number of compaines see video explanations as a standard way for a brand to communicate.

Video explanations are not going to be the next Web 2.0. However, a number of factors are coming together that will make video explanations a trend to watch in 2012 and beyond. We expect to see more video producers developing video explanation skills for custom/promotional projects as well as video explanations designed to educate and inform.

We could be at the beginning of a wave that will change how we think about the role of video in helping people feel more confident and informed in the face of a rapidly changing landscape. Perhaps soon we’ll see that the genres of video have a new and productive member. Drama, comedy, documentary, advertising and explanation.

For a complete list of Common Craft Video Explanations, check out our video library.

The Story of Building the New Common Craft

Posted by: leelefever on December 12, 2011- 10:24am

Categories: design, development, history, New Common Craft, story, website

A few months ago, we released a completely new and different Common Craft. This is the story of the big ideas that drove the change and getting the website designed and built.

App or Not?

In 2010, we wanted a Common Craft app that would put our video library in your pocket, any time you need it. We had a version built, but something didn’t feel right. We dropped it. Soon after, I talked to a few people I respect in the mobile world, like Brian Fling at Pinch/Zoom and Brian Leroux at Nitobi who both said the same thing: consider the potential to build a service that ensures that your videos can play on any platform and multiple devices. They suggested using the Web and commoncraft.com to make it happen vs. a dedicated app that would have limits.

It took a while to sink in, but they were right and we started to think about the potential of Common Craft as a video service that’s designed for using the videos anytime, anywhere.

Business Case

Over the past year, we heard a common comment from licensing customers - they wanted a way to access all the videos and not just pick-and-choose, iTunes style. This planted a seed - how can we give them everything? What’s the business model? Is mobile part of it?

We needed a completely new service that offers our complete library of videos, all playable on mobile devices, websites, internal networks, etc. It was clear that we needed a membership service. Members would access all the videos in library form and have options for putting the videos to work in multiple contexts (in person, on website and mobile). We wanted the membership service to be available via subscription and offer a “power tool” for using videos in education.

The basic idea had formed.

Platform

Common Craft has been on the Drupal platform since 2005. Since one of the core features of Drupal is member management, we saw the potential to build onto our current Drupal site, which also provides a platform for e-commerce.

At the same time, we needed a video host. We’d learned over time that making videos work is a specialty and not something we should try to do ourselves. We needed a video partner that could ensure the videos play reliably on the Web and on mobile devices.

We’ve been friends and business partners with Wistia for a couple of years and started discussing it with them and eyeing their API as a resource for hosting and sharing the videos. Aside from technology, we’ve had consistently excellent experiences with Wistia and thought - this could work!

By now we had an idea and potential platforms. We needed Web pros to help us figure out the best path forward. Sachi and I are not developers.

People

Having a Drupal site for years, we knew that Seattle has an active Drupal community and I set out to find the right locals for the job. I knew Gregory Heller was well connected in the Seattle Drupal community and contacted him directly. He wrote back with two names: Josh Kopel and Jared Stoneberg. I contacted them both and found that they have complementary skills and were in the process of becoming a team. They are now operating as Number 10 Web Company.

In what would become one of the most fortuitous turns in the project, these two were both available and very well equipped to complete the project. Through a few meetings at Cafe Presse in Seattle, we had a dev team in place. This was February of 2011.

Of course, development isn’t everything. We needed a designer and someone to help with information architecture (IA). Findng an IA person was easy, as we’ve had a long relationship with the folks at Juxtaprose and knew Jay Fienberg could help us nail down the structure and organization of the site. The developers recommended a designer named Dan Shafer to do the design. In addition, we talked to folks like Tony Wright, who could be an advisor, especially during the early stages.

So the idea, basic platform and team were now in place. Now what?

Project Definition

Sachi and I had a pretty clear idea of what we wanted, but how to get there was the challenge. Some of the biggest questions were policy related and included:

Will Common Craft videos still be available for free on the website?
What features will only be available to members?
Do different levels of membership come with different features?
What are the required features for the project?
How will pricing work?

Over a couple of months we had multiple face-to-face meetings and I personally created billions of lists of things that could be features or considerations. Thankfully Jay was able to take it all in and create the IA doc that became the foundation of the service. It allowed us to think about what was on every page and why.

Integrations

The new Common Craft is a tightly integrated set of platforms. Selecting the platforms and making sure they work was a big challenge and one that was accepted by Josh Kopel. Through a lot of discussion and testing, we defined the major pieces and how they’d work together.

Website Front End: Drupal 7
Website Back End: PHP/MySQL
Video API/Host: Wistia
ECommerce Front End: Recurly
Merchant services: Authorize.net
Email services: Mail Chimp
SSL Security: Digicert

Things were coming together. The major design decisions were made, the platforms were lined up and development was underway.

Design

Common Craft has a clear visual identity that’s based on our videos. Our new site needed reflect these elements: White background, limited color, hand drawn images, etc. Dan was able to take these and create designs that work well.

Mobile, Revisited

From the earliest discussions, we made mobile a priority. The website and videos should look and play well on small screens. Jared Stoneberg led the way in recommending responsive design as a way to handle small screens. The website is designed to rearrange itself based on the size of the screen, creating different, more appropriate experiences based on the screen size. This meant we didn’t need an app or a dedicated mobile site. It all made sense and became our mobile direction.

Content

In relaunching Common Craft, Sachi and I thought about all the ways we could extend the value of our content. We’re big believers in the global potential of our videos, which work well with translated voice-overs. The videos travel well. So, we set out to make the new Common Craft more international, with over 30 videos with voice-overs in 8 languages. This included professionally translated transcripts, titles, descriptions, etc. Soon, our library went from 40 videos to hundreds. It was a major project just to get all the content completed and uploaded to the site.

Bringing It Together

We saw the first versions of the site in July of 2011. Josh and Jared got everything humming along and Dan made everything look and work well. The biggest challenge was the home page, which took a lot of iteration. Two things we felt were important, aside from the sales funnel, were the use of white space and "bigness" in the design.

As with any project, there were roadblocks, but we were impressed at how Josh and Jared were able to overcome them. Josh always had some way to make things work.

Launch

We launched the new Common Craft on August 8th, 2011, about 6 months after our first discussions with Josh and Jared. After a few initial adjustments, things have gone smoothly and the service is working, both technically and a business. We’re excited to have a growing membership from around the world.

Sachi and I have gone through a number of big projects and found, whether it’s renovating a house or building a new website, the people matter most. If we can create a good, honest working relationship, we can overcome almost anything. We came out of this project with great relationships with our partners - something we cherish.

The Future

The service is up, and it’s working. Now begins the long and constant search for improvement. We’re set up for testing and measuring, and so begins our challenge: to use data to encourage membership and make both potential and current members’ lives easier.

Epilogue:

What our partners are up to and how to contact them:

Josh Kopel and Jared Stoneberg now run a company that specializes in Drupal development. It’s called Number 10 Web Company, based in Seattle.
Jay Fienberg and Anastasia Fuller run Juxtaprose, which designs and develops websites.
Wistia is going strong and becoming a standard for business video sharing.
Dan Shafer is a freelance designer and instructor at the Cornish Design School in Seattle.
Tony Wright recently started Tomo Labs and launched TouchBase, a calendar app for iOS.

For more,

The guys at Number 10 have written about the project from their perspective
Wistia has also shared their thoughts on the project and our model.

The Roots of Live Action Animation

Posted by: leelefever on October 19, 2011- 9:30am

Categories: animation, history, history, inspiration, paperworks, video

People often ask about the origins of what has become known as “Common Craft Style” and what inspired us to use paper cut-outs, hands and a whiteboard. The truth is, it was a solution to a problem.

I had been experimenting with drawing on a whiteboard in live action videos and found it frustrating. I felt like such a dork trying to draw and look at the camera at the same time. It felt forced. Sachi, always the problem solver and adult in the room, suggested our current format. She had seen me reach for paper and use drawings when trying to explain something and saw the format as a natural extension of that tendency.

Many years later, here we are. The original format of that first video, RSS in Plain English, is still very close to the videos we make today.

As it turns out, our videos use the same principles of some of the very first animations. They are live action recordings, with stop motion and other visual effects that create animations. I was amazed to see the video below, which was recorded in 1900, 111 years ago:

According to the entry on Roger Ebert’s blog, which calls the video the first American animation called The Enchanted Drawing:

American animation owes its beginnings to J. Stuart Blackton, a British filmmaker who created the first animated film in America. Before creating cartoons, Blackton was a vaudeville performer known as "The Komikal Kartoonist." In his act, he drew "lightning sketches" or high-speed drawings. In 1895, he met Thomas Edison. Can you guess what this meeting with the famous inventor inspired him to do?

There is amazingly little difference between the animation above and what we do at Common Craft. It's a simple process of holding the camera still and changing what appears on a frame-by-frame basis.

For another example, consider Terry Gilliam’s work on Monty Python, which doesn't use video, but photos. He was the creator of the colorful animations that became one of the most memorable parts of the show. Here’s a video of him talking about his process in 1974 (via CartoonBrew).

Again, it’s very close to our process. It’s just stop-motion with cut-outs. Take a look at the example of his storyboards from the video above:

We start each project with “thumbnail storyboards” that look like this:

Here’s his lighting a set-up

And ours:

His hand moving the cut-outs...

And Ours...

So what we do has roots that go back to the very beginning. While these examples came to us recently and were not a part of our early process, I think it’s fascinating that the simple idea of live action animation has changed so little over the years.

To get a feel for our process, check out this time-lapse footage that shows the entire production of Twitter Search in Plain English:

RSS in Plain English: Three Years Old Today

Posted by: leelefever on April 22, 2010- 5:00pm

Categories: history, rss, video, video

The video that started it all, RSS in Plain English, was published 3 years ago today. We had no idea, three years ago, what we were getting ourselves into, but we're so happy that it has worked out the way it has.

Here's the original version of the video. The one that appears on this site (the one we license) has been updated for color and clarity.

The video currently has over 1.1 million views on You Tube and has been licensed hundreds of times. As much as the technical quality of the video makes me cringe, it goes to show that a video doesn't have to be technically perfect to be effective. Since that day, we've continued to publish videos on a monthly basis.

Here are a couple of Twitter updates from the day after we publised:

Good times. After three years, the process of publishing a new video still gets my blood pumping. More coming soon to Internets near you.

Video: History of the Internet by PICOL

Posted by: leelefever on January 8, 2009- 4:00pm

Categories: history, internet, video

The Explainist blog pointed me to this awesome video that tracks the evolution of the web from the very beginning.

History of the Internet from PICOL on Vimeo.

I'm inspired by some of the iconography, which is one of the goals of PICOL. From the PICOL web site :

PICOL is an project for providing free and open icons for electronic devices. The aim is to find a common pictorial language for electronic communication.

Bonus video: The Drawn! blog pointed me to these neat little ThumbCinema Flipbooks by Fernanda Flick of Chile. Find them on Etsy.com.

TheThumbCinema Flipbooks from Fernanda Frick on Vimeo.

Common Craft is 5!

Posted by: leelefever on June 23, 2008- 5:00pm

Categories: history, quote, thissite

It's true, Common Craft (the company and blog) is 5 years old today, or sometime around now. I recently went back to the very first blog posts I wrote in 2003.

One of first was called "My Intentions for this Weblog" of June 24, 2003. Here are two quotes:

This weblog will be written in the language of a lay person. I feel strongly that a key to my success is being able to relate technology and technical concepts to people that are not educated or well-versed in technology. I think that the language of technology is very much focused on technologists. My goal is to make communication technology easy to understand for people like my Mom.

And...

Lastly, my overall and far-reaching goal with this weblog is to increase the understanding and acceptance of the Internet as a communication tool. There is a world of people and organizations that are looking for ways to use the Internet to work and communicate better and I want this site to help them see new opportunities.

I honestly didn't realize that these things were such a big part of my plans 5 years ago. Truthfully, I don't see much change in the next 5 either.

This birthday post at 2 years is one of my favorites too.

Our Story of Getting Started with Online Video

Posted by: leelefever on May 4, 2008- 5:00pm

Categories: history, ourwork, personal, thissite

We're often asked how we got started with our videos. Here's the story.

It all started with an online community. It was the latter part of 1999 and I was working in a healthcare data company called HBSI (which was eventually merged into non-existence). The customers were asking for a way to work together across hospitals. So, a few of us started an email group on eGroups, which is now Yahoo Groups. Through this experiment and the online community that grew out of it, I discovered my passion.

I met Sachi at work about this time. On our very first weekend away together in 2000, we were walking by the shore in the San Juan Islands and I said "Sachi, I hope you don't mind hearing about this online community stuff, because it's all I'm going to talk about from now on." She was cool with it, as she is today.

About this time I read the Cluetrain Manifesto and this book added high octane fuel to the fire. Over the next three years (1999-2003), I was the online community manager and it was my job to manage the community and convince people in my company that online communities are the future. It wasn't an easy job, but I loved it to my core. Even then, I needed ways to influence people about these new, transformative ideas.

After growing, designing and managing the community for 3 years, I quit to start Common Craft. The name came from a focus on communication. I've always thought that communication is the most Common Craft there is. In 2003, I became a blogger and independent consultant, helping companies understand and build strategies around online communities.

In this work, I confronted the same problems as I did as a community manager. The people with whom I worked were skeptical. It was their job to make business decisions about the future. In order to make sound decisions, they needed a basic understanding of the ideas and technologies that could impact that future. It was my job to help build that foundation of understanding. At the time, there simply weren't materials that worked to explain things like wikis and RSS.

So, I wrote blog posts. I would take something like wikis and write a post with the goal of giving my customers a way to see the concept without getting technical. You'll recognize the story I wrote for the post "Wikis and the Perfect Camping Trip. " The blog posts worked pretty well and I always felt that I took to explanation easily.

Sachi and I had been saving and took 2006 off to travel. Along the way, we decided to make Common Craft a two person company. We also fell in love with shooting video and putting it on You Tube for friends and family. Near the end of the trip, we considered how video could become part of Common Craft. In thinking hard about our goals and skills, we decided that we could remake those explanatory blog posts into videos.

After we got home, I experimented with standing in front of a whiteboard. It didn't work - I felt like I was just another talking head. Then, Sachi had the idea of pointing the camera down onto the whiteboard on the floor and using hands and paper cut-outs to tell the story.

Within a few weeks we had created RSS in Plain English on the floor of an extra bedroom. I remember telling Sachi, the night we put it online, that I think we could be on to something. Over the next day, the video got a lot of attention, including our first appearance on the front page of Digg. We were jumping out of our skin with excitement. People got it, and shared it!

Soon after we started planning our next video on Wikis. We also discovered all sorts of ways to improve the videos - better lighting, sound, etc. We solved problems as they needed to be solved.

Within a couple of months we added a "hire us" message on commoncraft.com and our first custom video clients were PR Web and Google Docs. For most of the past year, our business has been producing custom videos.

Of course, we've also continued to provide free videos on social media and other subjects via The Common Craft Show. A common theme that we hear from fans is "I sent your video to my Mom/Boss/Peer/Friend/customer and they finally got it!" This is the best feedback we could hear.

These days we're seeing new opportunities. Social Media is a huge, transformative trend. There are droves of professionals working to influence businesses, students and executives to understand it - and we want to help. We also see other trends and subject matters that need better explanations. Whatever the subject, our goal will always be to make videos that explain, enlighten and hopefully bring about a smile.

Are Spammers Machiavellian?

Posted by: leelefever on April 28, 2008- 5:00pm

Categories: business, history, offtopic, personal, spam

It started with a tweet. Eddie Codel described Boston's streets as "Kafkaesque." I found it on Wikipedia (it means disorienting), along with a listing of other name-inspired words. One caught my eye: Machiavellianism. The first line of the Wikipedia entry:

Machiavellianism is the term that some social and personality psychologists use to describe a person's tendency to deceive and manipulate others for personal gain.
It comes from Nicollo Machiavelli, a Renaissance writer, diplomat, etc. known, in part, for principles of conduct that are marked by cunning, duplicity and bad faith. His most famous work is The Prince.

Upon a bit more investigation, I found that there is a personality test called a MACH-IV test that gauges a person's Machiavellianism. Apparently there are "high machs" (likely to agree with Machiavelli) and "low machs" (unlikely to agree). Most people are in the middle (I'm a low mach). Take the 20-question test here.

When I first read about all of this, I couldn't help but think about the spammers and blackhats of the web. Aside from the trash that they produce, I'm fascinated by the people behind the spam. Who are these people? How did they get this way? What motivates them outside of money? Do they know right from wrong? How can they justify their decisions?

Viewed with a Machiavellian lens, I see spammers a little differently. It makes me wonder if spammers are born vs. made. Perhaps this is the source of my fascination - that spammers aren't just unethical, but possibly a bit mental. An insightful article in Salon has this quote:

McHoskey's article argued that high Machs possess, to a greater or lesser degree, the qualities associated with classic psychopaths: a lack of remorse, pathological lying, glibness and superficial charm, a grandiose sense of self-worth.
Sound familiar? Here are a few interesting questions from the MACH IV test that is based on Machiavelli's "The Prince" (on an agree/disagree scale). How do you think a spammer responds compared to you?

5) It is safest to assume that all people have a vicious streak and it will come out when they are given a chance.
8) Generally speaking, people won't work hard unless they're forced to do so.
13) The biggest difference between most criminals and other people is that the criminals are stupid enough to get caught.
16) It is possible to be good in all respects.
9) All in all, it is better to be humble and honest than to be important and dishonest.

If nothing else, I can now start to incorporate this word into my day-to-day life. Instead of obscenities, spam will now just make me say - oh how Machiavellian! Or, maybe it'll actually be - oh how $#@&ing Machiavellian!

Our Videos at One Year: Facts and Figures

Posted by: leelefever on April 22, 2008- 5:00pm

Categories: buzz, history, ourwork, statistics, thissite, videos

Well, as of today it has been exactly one year since all this video craziness began. On April 22, 2007 we published RSS in Plain English. We never guessed these videos would take us so far - it was just a problem that begged to be solved. Did you ever see a blog post with the same name from 2004?

Since our work is in front of people often, we both feel a little self conscious in talking about the numbers behind the videos. We don't want to seem ostentatious or too self-promotional. But, at the same time, I think that exposing some of the figures provides context and hopefully examples of the power of Social Media.

So, let's take a look.

First, please note that the #s of views are rounded and cumulative across hosts. A single video exists in multiple places and those views are added together. These numbers comes from our accounts on You Tube, Blip.tv and dotSUB. We use other hosts, but these are our core.

Totals April 2007-April 2008:

Total views (including client work): 3.9 million views
Total views (excluding client work): 2.4 million views

Most viewed Client Video: Google Maps for Mobile 834,000 views (includes UK version)

Most viewed Show Video: RSS in Plain English: 755,000 views

Breakdown of Views by Video (Common Craft Show only):

RSS: 755,000
Wiki: 436,000
Social Networking: 207,000
Social Bookmarking: 205,000
CFL Lightbulbs: 53,000
Zombies: 280,000
Blogs: 169,000
Photo Sharing: 42,000
Twitter: 223,000
Podcasting: 5,000 (published 2 days ago)

Breakdown of views by host (Show only):

You Tube: 1.3 million views
Blip.tv (embedded on our site): 772,000
dotSUB: 300,000

Incoming Links from Blogs

We would not have become popular without bloggers. We've always aimed to create useful resources that bloggers can use to educate others. One way that we track usage by bloggers is Technorati.

According to Technorati (today) for CommonCraft.com:

Technorati Authority: 3,040 (incoming links over 6 months)
Technorati Rank: 170 (170th most linked-to)
Blog Reactions: 15,000+

Here's how "Blog Reactions" looks across videos (rank/authority isn't always available)

RSS: 462
Wiki: 786
Social Networking: 452
Social Bookmarking: 560
CFL Lightbulbs: 45
Zombies: 151
Blogs: 444
Photo Sharing:100
Twitter: 535
Podcasting: 34

Search Results

We've been surprised to appear on the first page of Google searches for these terms:

RSS
Wikis
Social Networking
Social Bookmarking
Zombies
Twitter

Our SEO secret? Make content people want to see.

Language Translations:

One of the resources that has been very important to us dotSUB - a free way for our videos to be translated into multiple languages via subtitles. We're so excited by these language figures:

RSS: 27 Languages
Wiki: 30 Languages
Social Networking: 25 Languages
Social Bookmarking: 18 Languages
CFL Lightbulbs: 12 Languages
Blogs: 20 Languages
Photo Sharing: 9 Languages
Twitter: 15 Languages
Podcasting: 4 Languages

So, this past year has been a blast and something we never expected. We just make the videos - you share with friends, you link, you view. We owe you - big time. That's what I love about the social web - everyone contributes a bit and those bits roll up to bring visibility to content that may have never been discovered otherwise. Thank you so much for an awesome year!

Internet Power - A 1995 Video Explaining the Internet

Posted by: leelefever on March 17, 2008- 5:00pm

Categories: Explanation, history, humor, video

Via Laughing Squid and Andy Baio at Waxy.org, who is creating digitized version of old VHS tapes.

This makes me wonder if people, 12 years from now, will look back at our videos and laugh, saying "Hah! Can you imagine? That's what they thought blogs and RSS were all about! Sheesh!"

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