all posts tagged “language”
The Web really is a wonderous thing. Thanks to e-commerce tools like e-junkie and paypal, two people can run a home-based business with global reach. We've been offering digital downloads of our videos via this website for about 2 years and recently took a look at the makeup of our customers in terms of nationality. We've licensed videos in 41 countries in all. Below are the top 20.
We've always had a goal of being as global as possible, which is why we've had ten of our videos translated with voice-overs in 5 languages. We plan to do more translations in the future. Over time, we've also tried to move away from using text in the videos because it makes translated videos more difficult to understand.
We've re-thought our website from the ground up and soon you'll see the all the changes we're making. For now though, I want to highlight a few things that make a big difference.
1. A Focus on the Business. This may be the best way to explain how the focus has changed:
- The current Common Craft site says "WE HAVE A BLOG - and we sell videos"
- The *new* Common Craft site says "WE SELL VIDEOS - and we have a blog"
It's true - the new site is more closely aligned with the goal of finding, viewing, purchasing and downloading videos.
2. Simplified Video Organization. Our videos used to appear in two places, depending on their version: "free" or "presentation quality." We've consolidated the display of videos one a single page. This means:
- No More "Common Craft Store" - Instead of trying to attach a video store to the site, we're integrating the purchase experience into the pages where the videos appear.
- No More "Common Craft Show"- The "Common Craft Show" was simply a way to organize the free versions of our videos. Now higher-quality versions of the videos will appear in a single place on the site.
3. Videos in 5 Languages
We're taking a big step to internationalize our videos. For the first time, 10 of our videos (including the Social Media 9 Pack) will be available with voice-overs in 5 languages (English, French, German, [Brazilian] Portuguese and Spanish.) These videos will be available for viewing, purchase and download.
4. Organization by Major Topics
Our video library will be organized into four major topics, which outline our direction in the future. The topics are: Green, Money, Society and Technology.
5. Overall Look and Feel
Our goal was to make the site look and feel like our videos. We've integrated our artwork, used a white background and tried to make the experience as focused as our videos.
Of course there are many more changes, but I think these points capture some of the big ideas that drive the new design. More soon...
When asked what sort of videos we make it's a bit hard to explain in normal terms. They're not really instructional or how-to, they have elements of marketing and promotion and some say they are entertaining. Here's a few options - maybe you have more?
Infodocutainmercials?
Explanatainment?
Docuinfotainment?
Explanapromomercials?
Explanadocuinfotainmercials?
or maybe just...
explainment?
By the way, don't expect to see any of this on the Common Craft business cards - just for fun.
Any suggestions?
Help Translate the Google Docs Video on DotSUB
Posted by: leelefever on September 20, 2007- 5:00pm
Categories: clientproduction, dotsub, google, language, paperworks, plainenglish, transcript, video
We've been friends and fans of dotSUB since we first started making video for The Common Craft Show. They make it easy for videos to be translated into multiple languages via subtitles.
The RSS in Plain English video has been translated into 20+ languages on dotSUB. A truly useful and innovative service.
I've gotten permission from the Google Docs team to share the Google Docs video on dotSUB so it's acessible for the hearing impaired and our non-English speaking friends.
Are you bi-lingual? Multi-lingual? Please help us get the Google docs video translated. All you need is a dotSub account and a visit to the video's page (right side) to start the translation.
Here's the video in the dotSUB player - you can click the arrows at the bottom to see other languages (once the translations are complete).
Would a Wiki By Any Other Name Smell As Sweet?
Posted by: leelefever on July 24, 2007- 5:00pm
Categories: friends, language, statistics, Technology in Plain English, wiki
Did you know that in a recent survey by Harris Interactive that only 16% of the online public know what a wiki is? For some, this will seem surprising. Others will say "what's a wiki?"
I had coffee today with my friend Kevin Flaherty of Wet Paint, the Seattle-based wiki company. He told me that they were perplexed that "wiki" was deemed one the 10 most annoying words on the web, so they ask Harris Interactive to do the survey comparing "wiki" to the terms social network, blog and online forum. Here's what they found (full results here):
16% of the US online population is familiar with what a wiki is. Even if you just look at the online trendsetters (18-34 year olds), only 27% of those online users are familiar with wikis.
Blogs, which have universal awareness among nearly anyone reading this post, are only familiar to 35% of online users. And familiarity with social networks as a category still ranks below that of online forums at 28% and 35% respectfully.
For context, consider that 76% of the same population know of search engines and 97% of toilet paper.
What does this mean? It means that we're making assumptions about what people understand about our online world. There is more misunderstanding than understanding and more confusion than solution.
What really gets me about this is that wikis, RSS, social networks and blogs are all accessible and potentially useful for the general public - but they're not being adopted as quickly as we'd imagine. The culprit, from my perspective, is the language we use to describe and promote them. It's too easy to forget that we're in the minority.
My advice to promote more awareness is to stop talking like a brochure and tell a story. Don't talk about what your product is or does - tell people why they should give a damn. Use real world examples and show how a problem gets solved. Look at every word you use and consider the simpler options.
You might not earn the respect of programmers, but you might just turn your Mom onto something that will save her time - and we all need more time.
Just after posting our first video on RSS , I learned a few valuable lessons:
1. Video is inaccessible for the hearing impaired
2. Video is not easy to translate into other languages
3. There is a new site that addresses both of these issues called DotSub .
DotSub makes it easy for me to transcribe the spoken words into text subtitles. Then, once the subtitles exist, it enables DotSub members to voluntarily translate the text into other languages and post the video to their blogs. This makes videos international and more accessible - for free.
So far, the Wiki video has been translated into Chinese, Dutch, German and Swedish . The RSS video has been translated into 11 different languages . I'm just amazed.
Here is the Wiki video in a player that allows you to change languages. Use the Up^ and Down arrows at the bottom to see the subtitles.
Are You Bilingual? Subtitle Translators Needed
Posted by: leelefever on April 28, 2007- 5:00pm
Categories: help, language, rss, Technology in Plain English, video
As we had hoped, the RSS in Plain English video has been a learning experience. One important lesson has been a better recognition of the needs of non-English speakers and the hearing impaired when it comes to video.
We want the video to be useful for everyone. Thankfully, (sorry I can't remember who) Darran pointed me to the Rocketboom episode where they reveal how they are using a service called DotSub to add user-generated subtitles in multiple languages to their videos. How cool.
So, I had to give it a try. I've loaded the RSS Video to DotSub and transcribed each line. Now that it is transcribed, any friendly bilingual person with the time (and DotSub membership) can create subtitles in their native language and share the video on their web site.
Updated: Here is the subtitled from DotSub, you can click the up/down arrow buttons in the footer of the player to change languages.
If you would like to translate subtitles for the RSS Video, sign up at DotSub and then go here.
Check out the subtitled version of the video with English subtitles.
The transcription process is slick and I'll use it again, but DotSub has some issues. The embedded player is too big and the interface is a bit confusing - "My Films" doesn't include films you've uploaded by default.
Updated: It's been great to see DotSub react to feedback. The first player I tried was too big for my blog. Since then, I have been in contact with Michael Smolen, the founder of DotSub and he said that others reported the same problem and today they rolled out an option for a smaller player.
If you haven’t noticed, lots of new frankenwords are making their way through the online lexicon. Napster was one of the originals, prompting a number of new names like Friendster, Feedster and Dogster.
Now we’re seeing the proliferation of new words based on Podcasting. Some that I’ve seen are Beercasts (credit to Greg Narain), Snapcasts (credit to Jake McKee), blogcasts (credit to Jeff Jarvis) and pocketcasting. Maybe soon we’ll see a new social network of podcasters: podster.
Note: All "credits" above are purely speculative and based on incomplete research.
I was thinking back about all the things I learned this year and something popped into my head that made be cringe, and laugh a little. A few weeks ago, I ran my first focus group. My teammates and I were sharing a concept with a group of managers and looking for their perceptions, ideas, thoughts etc.
I was the lead and really wanted to make a connection with the group as I described the process. Then, a phrase came out of my mouth that I would later regret. I didn’t plan on it and I’m not sure where it came from, but it happened. I told them that I want them to “Think outside the box, inside the box and around the box�?. Ugh. Even reading it now I cringe.
As much as I don’t want to be a “typical�? consultant, I pretty much cemented that perception with a single phrase. It’s one of my lessons learned from 2004, one of many.
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