Our Product is Explanation
All posts for “thissite”
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... Continue Reading
This morning we learned that we're an official Webby Award Honoree in the category of Best Writing, Online Film and Video! Woohoo!
But what does that mean? Here's what it says on the Webby Award website:
As a result of the exceptional quality of submissions this year, the Academy has chosen to recognize work exhibiting remarkable achievement that was not selected as a Nominee. Out of the nearly 10,000 entries submitted to the 13th Annual Webby Awards, less than 15% are awarded the status... Continue Reading
We're getting close to rolling out a new and improved version of
CommonCraft.com and I have a favor to ask. We're planning to include testimonials in the new design. These are short quotes that will display the names (and organization names, if desired) of the people providing the quotes.
While all testimonials are welcome, short quotes of 150 characters or less would be perfect (about the size of a Twitter update.) Just a few words about our videos, how they're used, results, etc. Here's... Continue Reading
We experienced a problem with the Contact Us form on this web site from March 17th to March 23rd. Unfortunately, this meant that messages sent to us via the form never reached our inbox. We've been working with our host on this issue and the Contact Us form is now in fine working order.
We take "Contact Us" messages very seriously and get back to every person that contacts us. If you contacted us recently and did not receive a reply, please send the message again. Thanks for your... Continue Reading
People often ask how our presentation quality videos are used in professional and educational settings. From talking to educators and influencers, we've learned that our videos are often used to introduce a subject - to get everyone on the same page at the beginning of a class, workshop, etc. Recently, as part of our planning for 2009, we came up with a model that helps tell this story. We call it the A-to-Z Scale.
The scale represents the path to learning a subject. On the left side are... Continue Reading
In a word: Education.
Our goal in 2009 is to make explanatory videos that have a positive impact. To get there, we plan to focus of video subjects that are educational in nature and help address some of the big problems we face.
We plan to introduce new series of videos that diverge from our Web roots and cover subjects that we believe need to be covered. You'll see the first of these starting very soon and continuing into February. We're starting with the basics - big ideas that will be... Continue Reading
A few weeks ago, we posted "Seeking Producers of Video Explanations" and wrote:
We see an opportunity for a win-win. Every day, we receive multiple emails from organizations that are looking for custom explanatory videos... The opportunity we see is to create a way, through our website, to help organizations find video producers who can be hired to produce custom videos.
Since that time, we've been working on a project to bring this idea to life. It's called the Common Craft Explainer... Continue Reading
Seeking Producers of Video Explanations
We see an opportunity for a win-win. Every day, we receive multiple emails from organizations that are looking for custom explanatory videos. As we've changed our focus away from making custom videos, we can't help. Until recently, we didn't know where to point these prospects. Thankfully, we're starting to see producers who are developing a specialty in producing explanatory videos - and we're looking for more.
The opportunity we see is to create a way, through our website, to help... Continue Reading
For quite a while now, we’ve been flattered to see others create videos that appear very similar to ours. In many cases, these are positive videos that are used as classroom exercises. We encourage others in the education world to create Common Craft-inspired videos. Of course, some producers have taken the idea in new directions and mediums, which we also encourage. Further, some producers choose to publicly attribute Common Craft for inspiring their work - and we deeply appreciate this kind... Continue Reading
Through nearly 50 comments and 15-20 emails, you have spoken. You don't want to see politics on Common Craft. I agree that it is the right move - political discussions will not appear on the Common Craft web site. We may make videos about events that relate to government, but these will not reflect personal/partisan views. A couple of things:
1) First, wow. We are both so excited to see such amazing comments. The thoughtfulness is inspiring. Thank you so much for being involved - we are... Continue Reading