Today we published a new video called Cloud Computing in Plain English:

This title has been one of our most requested and for good reason.  Cloud Computing is a subject that has an explanation problem - people have a hard time understanding it because it's difficult to explain quickly.  Like Social Media, it's a subject that is very broad and lacks broad consensus in terms of clear explanations. Our hope with this video is to lay bit of groundwork so people can see the big ideas.

We asked a number of people for input on the video and I want to thank: Tony Wright, Chris Savage, Uri Budnick, Jeff Dickey and lots of others who I bugged over the last year.

Lastly, this video is available for embedding with a monthly subscription fee.  If you're interested, learn more or contact us.

Well, it was a good run. Twitter recently redesigned their home page and the link to the Common Craft video "Twitter in Plain English" has been removed. Here's the story of how it got there:

Back in February of 2008, I shared the video with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. After making a handshake deal, the video appeared via a "watch a video" link from Twitter.com.

Twitter decided to use the dotSUB player for the displaying the video, which enabled the video to be watched with subtitles in many languages.  The video has since been translated into 69 languages.  As of today, about 1.5 years later, that video has been viewed over 9.4 million times via the dotSUB linked from Twitter.com. 

The Twitter folks put a link along with the video to CommonCraft.com, which sent a lot of people in our direction. 

Now that the page has been redesigned, the link to the video and to Common Craft are no more. But we're not sad. We're so honored to have been a part of helping educate people about Twitter - a simple idea that's very hard to explain. In the end, Twitter helped raise the visibility of our work and the work of explainers in general. We heard many, many times "We want a video like you did for Twitter." Thanks to Biz, Ev and the Twitter team for giving Common Craft the opportunity to a part of an amazing trajectory.  We'll never forget it.

While the video isn't linked via on Twitter.com, it's obviously alive and well on CommonCraft.com. We recently published Twitter Search in Plain English as a follow on. 

Today we published a new video called "Preparing an Emergency Kit in Plain English."

This video represents a new kind of relationship for Common Craft. A while back, we were contacted by Public Safety Canada (PSC) about this subject and we saw a couple of opportunities.  First, we could work on a video that has the potential to have a positive impact.  Second, we saw an opportunity for a win-win in terms of the video's ownership - something we call a hybrid relationship.

Emergency kits are a widely accepted part of emergency preparedness and most agree on what a kit should contain.  The opportunity we saw was to work with PSC to create an emergency kit video that would fit their needs and give us an opportunity to offer a similar video for licensing on commoncraft.com. So, PSC received a video built for their Canadian audience and we have a video with versions appropriate for our American audience. We see this as a win-win and enjoyed working with PSC to make it happen. 

This video offers governments and organizations focusing on emergency preparedness a quick and effective way to help citizens get started on building their kits. It can be licensed and branded for use in training and education, or on public facing websites.

Watch the video here.

Siegel+Gale recently completed a year long study of 1,214 American
homeowners and investors that shows huge demand for simple, plain
English communications.  A few interesting quotes:

Fully 84% of all consumers say they are more likely to trust a company
that uses jargon-free, plain English in communications. And 79% say
they think it is “very important??? that President Obama “mandate that
clarity, transparency, and plain English be a requirement of every new
law, regulation and policy.???

Three-quarters of survey respondents (75%) say that complexity and lack
of understanding have played a significant role in the current
financial crisis. Moreover, 63% of those surveyed feel that “banks,
mortgage lenders and Wall Street intentionally make things complicated
to hide risks or to keep people in the dark.???

The survey asked how much of an impact jargon-free, plain-English
explanations and disclosures would make on consumer interest in a
number of categories. Consumers reported:

a 79% increased interest in investing in a financial product,
a 73% increased interest in selecting a broker or a financial advisor,
a 67% increased interest in purchasing a life insurance policy,
a 63% increased interest in taking out a loan, and
a 63% increased interest in applying for a credit card.

I doubt this comes as a big surprise.  I think we as a population have become desensitized to government, legal and financial jargon to a point where we assume it's the only option.  We muddle through it, hire people to translate it and hope for the best. It's a sad state of affairs and one that can change. We have to demand it.  We have to show that it's wasteful and counter-productive. 

The hardest part is admitting that we don't know or that we're confused.  When we're sitting in that office, we want to show that we're smart and on the ball.  When the jargon starts flying, it's too easy to nod and say "ok."  I do it too.  If we're serious about changing this kind of communication, we have to be ready to say "I don't get it" and "I need you to help me understand using simple language." It's nothing to be embarrassed about - as customer, we have the right to demand clarity.  In the end, it's the businesses and organizations that can provide this clarity that will have a better chance of finding success in the future.