Our Product is Explanation
All posts for “strategy”
John Lee Dumas and I had a really fun (and hopefully interesting) conversation for his podcast Entrepreneur on Fire. If you're interested in how I think about the business side of what we do, I think you'll enjoy it.
More Than Videos - How Common Craft is Evolving
Posted by: leelefever on September 6, 2012- 10:34am
Categories: business, Common Craft, Explanation, mission, strategy
Lately you may have noticed a change in the direction of my posts here at the Common Craft Blog, and you probably know we’ve written a book about explanation. I'd like to take a minute to explain how we’re thinking about our future and why this change in direction makes sense.
For a few years now, we’ve been focused on our video explanations and the idea that video is a powerful form of communication. I assure you, this is still an important focus for us and we’re currently working on more.... Continue Reading
When we opened the Common Craft membership service, we made every video in our library available for embedding on other websites. Our vision was to give organizations of all types a new resource for educating and informing their visitors.
Just recently we saw a great example of this idea at work. A small religious organization in Pennsylvania created a page that serves as their very own library of educational Common Craft videos. With this simple page, they can offer their fans and visitors an... Continue Reading
Late last year I was invited to present at an event called Big Ideas Fest, which focuses on change and inspiration related to K-20 education. My presentation, entitled "Viral to Valuable" was about 15 minutes long and appeared during a track of the conference called "Scale and Spread", which related to scaling and spreading an idea. If you're interested in the Common Craft story and how we came to focus our business on video as a digital product, etc., I tell the story in this video:
To find... Continue Reading
Today we’re announcing a new video: Twitter for Business - Explained by Common Craft.
Twitter has been a big part of the Common Craft story. In 2008 we made a video called Twitter in Plain English that was present on the Twitter home page for over a year, introducing millions to both Twitter and Common Craft. Since that time Twitter has evolved in many ways. As it became a powerful way to track news and discover information, we made a video on Twitter Search. Now that it’s become a... Continue Reading
How We Think About Creative Commons
Posted by: leelefever on February 16, 2012- 1:58pm
Categories: business, Creative Commons, licensing, strategy
As you may have seen, we recently published a video about copyright and Creative Commons. It tells the story of a photographer who discovers ways to use both for her goals. Recently, the Creative Commons organization saw the video and asked an important question in a tweet:
Nice video on how a photographer might use #CC licenses: http://t.co/rfmG5GEf (in draft) @CommonCraft Will you CC license this video? :)
Our answer is “no” - and here’s why:
We think Creative Commons is an excellent idea... Continue Reading
Recently comedian Louis C.K. has made a lot of news by offering his most recent comedy special for $5 via his website. That doesn’t sound amazingly disruptive in itself, but if you dive a little deeper, you’ll see that it's an experiment that shines a light on the future of media.
Let’s look at the normal process. A creative person creates something amazing; it could be a video, a album, artwork, whatever. They often work, under contract, with media companies to sell it. This gives them... Continue Reading
It's true! We just launched our new website and business. Here’s a quick review:
Common Craft is now a video subscription service. You or your organization can become a Common Craft member and have your own online library of all current and future Common Craft videos for use in classrooms and on the web.
Membership features include:
Instant access - your own growing library of Common Craft videos
Sharing tools - easily embed, display or download any video
Worry-free membership - no extra fees... Continue Reading
It’s taken years and lots of discussions with our fans to understand the answer to the simple question: what is Common Craft for? We’re just a small company, we don’t have a research department or salespeople pounding the pavement. We have to learn from what people say online, in email, discussion and phone calls. The summary of this input has helped us define the future of Common Craft and the new direction we’re taking this summer.
For example, just yesterday we received messages that... Continue Reading
For a couple of years now, through our work with videos, I’ve realized that licensing is an often neglected business model. Not only is a potential revenue source, it’s a way to work with people in a positive and permission-based manner.
Patrick O’Keefe, author of Managing Online Forums, recently wrote a post that got me thinking. It’s called “Rethinking the Cease and Desist - Don’t Threaten Fan Communities and Groups - License Your Brand to Them.” Patrick is a professional community manager... Continue Reading