Educasting from Ireland

The Power of Social Video

SOMETHING SPECIAL HAPPENS when you produce social video because truly social objects have social currency--they are empowered by being passed around.

And that's how I feel after watching "Pacdog is Awesome" on the Flickr blog. It's a story of friends of Paul Collins, AKA Pacdog, and how they connected by sharing images that form a video postcard. Jake Rome tweeted the idea. As Jake explains, Pacdog has been active on Flickr more than a half decade. He has made hundreds of friends across the site on various groups, and has never made an enemy. Jake writes, "When he lost parts of five fingers in an accident, he seemed to be down and I resolved to organize his friends to cheer him up." The result is below the fold.

Producing class videos

JOI ITO offers some guidance on the standards many use when producing instructional videos for download across the internet. He uploaded a 50 minute production done by Digital Garage and directed by Hiroyuki Nakano for MX TV, licensed the work as Creative Commons Attribution 2.5. He explains that this show is about Creative Commons and has lots of scenes of Joi "just talking about stuff. It includes a walk-through of my house and is Joi-centric. t's also in Japanese". His work weighs 308 MB and it is a MOV file, which means it works with the iPod Video. Joi Ito will be doing a weekly 30 min live show from July.

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Joi Ito -- "First MX TV video"

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Boring Talking Heads

SOMETHING WE TEACH in Tipperary Institute is that talking head videos don't work well on websites. As Jakob Nielsen explains, eyetracking data show that users are easily distracted when watching video on websites, especially when the video shows a talking head and is optimized for broadcast rather than online viewing.

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Jakob Nielsen -- "Talking Head Video is Boring Online" on Alertbox.

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Roses of Tralee

THE FIRST TV signal I got in rented accommodation deep in the valleys of Tipperary came from Tralee where Ray d'Arcy hosted the Rose of Tralee competition. Although I've lived in Ireland for 10 years, I have not watched more than an hour of this traditional Irish event. Not knowing what to make of the current edition, I turned to United Irelander who explained, "it's a great traditional show and, if nothing else, it gives all those lovely girls a break from making the tea".

Right so.

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United Irelander -- "Top ten Tuesday: Roses of Tralee"

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20 Things that only happen in movies

NOSTALGIA CENTRAL -- Here are 20 things that seem to happen only in movies, taken from a list of "40 things" on the same subject.

1. It is always possible to find a parking spot directly outside or opposite the building you are visiting.
2. When paying for a taxi, don't look at your wallet as you take out a note. Just grab one out at random and hand it over. It will always be the exact fare.
3. Television news bulletins usually contain a story that affects you personally at the precise moment it's aired.
4. Creepy music (or satanic chanting) coming from a graveyard should always be closely investigated.
5. Any lock can be picked with a credit card or paperclip in seconds. UNLESS it's the door to a burning building with a child inside.
6. If you decide to start dancing in the street, everyone you bump into will know all the steps.
7. All bombs are fitted with electronic timing devices with large red digital displays so you know exactly when they are going to explode.
8. Should you wish to pass yourself off as a German officer, it will not be necessary to learn to speak German. Simply speaking English with a German accent will do. Similarly, when they are alone, all German soldiers prefer to speak English to each other.
9. Once applied, lipstick will never rub off. Even while scuba diving.
10. The Eiffel Tower can be seen from any window of any building in Paris.
11. Any police officer about to retire from the force will more often than not die on their last day (especially if their family have planned a party). (Caveat: Detectives can only solve a case after they have been suspended from duty).
12. Getaway cars never start first go. But all cop cars do. (They will also slide to a dramatic stop in the midst of a crime scene).
13. If staying in a haunted house, women should investigate any strange noises wearing their most revealing underwear.
14. On a police stake-out, the action will only ever take place when food is being consumed and scalding hot coffees are perched precariously on the dashboard.
15. All grocery shopping involves the purchase of French loaves which will be placed in open brown paper bags (Caveat: when said bags break, only fruit will spill out).
16. Cars never need fuel (unless they're involved in a pursuit).
17. If you are heavily outnumbered in a fight involving martial arts, your opponents will wait patiently to attack you one by one by dancing around you in a threatening manner until you have defeated their predecessor.
18. If a microphone is turned on it will immediately feedback.
19. Guns are like disposable razors. If you run out of bullets, just throw the gun away. you will always find another one.
20. All single women have a cat.

Blog TV Metric

RTE -- One day after Dave McWilliams aired his "Big Bite" segment on Irishblogs, the metrics arrived that measure the most popular blogger on the panel. A crude measure of numbers of Flickr page views was used to generate the result. The result of the viewers' poll of the most popular person among the six Irish bloggers on the show:

Pets as Movie Extras

MOVIE PETS -- Many authors of Irishblogs have photogenic pets that could do well being listed as a movie extra by an Irish website. There's good discussion on Irish Animals about the concept, and several long-time members of the community have started carrying signature elements containing their pets' pictures. Sign up--your pet could be a star.

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Movie Pets.ie -- casting animals in lead roles and as extras.
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City TV Dublin

SUNDAY TRIBUNE -- David Harvey is seeking to raise €1.2m for his new City TV venture that plans to broadcast a niche service in Dublin. City TV will be carried by NTL digital. The station will have short, sponsored and paid-for programming covering areas such as property, motoring and shopping.

Promoting videos

YAHOO -- Yahoo Launch is carrying the "All because of you" video shot by U2 in the street of New York. Videos deserve to be run in the wild not run in broadcast channels. Launch deserves to run on Firefox.

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U2 on Yahoo -- "All Because of You"
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DIY Producers

SBP -- Artists can bypass expensive productions houses when doing their own recording, provided they have the skill set necessary to handle the equipment. Mark McCabe and Damien McCaul have done just that in Future Code Productions, a multimedia partnership in the Factory beside Dublin's Grand Canal Basin. David Bowie, The Corrs and U2 have rehearsed and recorded there. It lets out space at reasonable rates.