Mathew's comments - Latest Comments in Scoble’s Achilles heel is video

Re: Scoble’s Achilles heel is video

Mathew Ingram — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 15:34:48 -0000

Sorry, Robert -- my mistake. Thanks for clarifying.

Re: Scoble’s Achilles heel is video

Robert Scoble — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 15:16:49 -0000

Mathew: my video was not paid for. Only Seagate has paid me to do video. The other video on PodTech WAS paid for by Intel.

Re: Scoble’s Achilles heel is video

Mathew Ingram — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 14:39:14 -0000

Dominic, the answer to your question about whether Intel paid for the video is here:

http://scobleizer.com/2007/...

Re: Scoble’s Achilles heel is video

engtech — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 14:24:03 -0000

Maybe Robert needs to do trailers for his video :)

Re: Scoble’s Achilles heel is video

OZaC — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 09:44:55 -0000

This debate is like a fence; a fence of which I want to stand on both sides. There's something about video on the web that is powerful in a grassroots way - in a similar way to the grassroots nature of blogging. Additionally, video carries a lot more emotion with it, and even entertainment value. I always enjoy watching episodes of The Scoble Show, MacBreak, and the link.

Here's my counterpoint, though: I read a hell of a lot faster than anyone can talk to me in a video. Scoble himself is a feed machine, as he's noted on his blog many times. When considering my own pattern of consumption, I get my information from words, and then check out some videos as an after-thought.

Re: Scoble’s Achilles heel is video

Mathew Ingram — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 08:56:06 -0000

I actually like the raw, unedited feel -- I loved the informal nature of the one you did with Jonathan Schwartz, for example (and said so here). I just like 'em a little shorter I guess :-)

Re: Scoble’s Achilles heel is video

Robert Scoble — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 01:06:54 -0000

Steven: is that unexpected? Mathew is an interesting guy, I'd expect an interesting conversation to happen here thanks to the audience he's aggregated.

Funny, here I linked to a video that has none of the problems you discuss above (it's edited, was professionally shot, had an audio person, a producer, etc etc).

Yet look at the first comment that came in.

http://scobleizer.com/2007/...

Re: Scoble’s Achilles heel is video

Steven Hodson — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 20:40:04 -0000

it's interesting that the more interesting converstion on this is happening elsewhere than Robert's blog

Re: Scoble’s Achilles heel is video

Mathew Ingram — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 20:26:43 -0000

Robert, I'm only comparing your videos to the NYT because I think that's the same kind of comparison the editors at Engadget might make when deciding whether your video was worthy of a link or not -- that's all.

I think your videos have a lot of value, and it's obvious that you put a lot of time and thought into them.

Re: Scoble’s Achilles heel is video

chuck olsen — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 20:09:47 -0000

But as I've suggested to Robert, it's possible to do *both*. Attract an audience with a shorter, nicely edited video that packs some information and doesn't waste a casual viewer's time. In addition, offer the full raw interview for those interested enough to "go deep."

Re: Scoble’s Achilles heel is video

Robert Scoble — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 19:30:18 -0000

Mathew: you assume I'm going after a broad audience. I'm going after an audience that cares to chew on something in more depth. If you have only two minutes then I'll send you to TechMeme (or, my blog, where I put a "quick transcript" of the Intel video up, with all the pertinent facts).

I don't think you should compare my videos to the New York Times. Not the same thing.

I'd rather have a senior technical fellow explain directly to me what's important about something than read the NYT article. But, then, I'm interested in the topic. Passionate about it, even.

I care about the passionate ones. The rest can read a newspaper, or, worse, watch CNN where they'll spend 30 seconds on a topic like this.

Re: Scoble’s Achilles heel is video

Mathew Ingram — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 19:10:15 -0000

I agree, Nick -- Robert as Achilles is a stretch. Narcissus, maybe? :-)

And thanks for the comment, Robert. I can sympathize with your desire to approach a conversation holistically, but don't you think a little editing would serve your purposes better in terms of appealing to a broad audience?

And what do you think of the thesis of my post -- would I be wrong to assume that you disagree?

Re: Scoble’s Achilles heel is video

Robert Scoble — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 18:34:21 -0000

Dominic: part of my thing is I don't edit. My videos are of conversations. Even a boring part of a conversation might be interesting to someone, or might have an interesting fact, or an interesting insight. Not everything will be an MTV-edited video of Paris Hilton. Compared to that everything is a little boring.

Re: Scoble’s Achilles heel is video

Kevin Edwards — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 17:36:48 -0000

What are your thoughts on the other PodTech Intel 45nm video, done by Jason Lopez?
http://www.podtech.net/home...

Re: Scoble’s Achilles heel is video

Mark Evans — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 17:33:25 -0000

If Scoble is blogging for the links or they're that important to him, then he should take a good look at why he's blogging. The way his rant comes across is he would be upset if the video was viewed 500,000 times but only a handufl of people linked to it. Strange.

Re: Scoble’s Achilles heel is video

Nick — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 17:32:47 -0000

You're getting very retro, Mathew. You're also right, even if I have trouble picturing Scoble as Achilles.

Re: Scoble’s Achilles heel is video

engtech — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 17:30:15 -0000

Like I've said before, I don't watch a lot of video online.

What would make video more attractive to me?

- Integrated table of contents
- Searchable transcript that links directly to clipmarks
- Pop-ups to more info

I have to agree on the attention span thing that I'm much more like to watch a 3 minute video than a 10 minute video. Even if I'm looking at a photoshop tutorial video I have a tendency to skip forward through it because I find it's going too slow.

Re: Scoble’s Achilles heel is video

Paul M. Watson — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 16:26:20 -0000

Absolutely agree.

Re: Scoble’s Achilles heel is video

Dominic Jones — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 15:13:21 -0000

It would have been different if Robert had scooped everyone a day or two ahead of the official announcement.

Also, if it was a nice three-minute job explaining the process, then perhaps it would have been more attractive for people to link to it. I saw on one of Robert's pieces where he said part of the video was "boring." Now, why would I send my readers to something that the producer says is boring?

Re: Scoble’s Achilles heel is video

Steven Hodson — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 14:27:16 -0000

robert can somtimes provide a jumping pointfor ideas anddiscusions that h maynot have realized when he goes off on these rants which is where I went with my post on his most recent firestorm

http://www.winextra.com/?p=265

Re: Scoble’s Achilles heel is video

Mathew Ingram — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 14:15:58 -0000

If anything, I think they should be shorter, Howard. And they should have more text to go along with them if Scoble wants to have more impact and get linked to more. Just my two cents.

And Dominic, I can see why you would say that about the Intel videos -- Podtech does do corporate podcasting, and as far as I know Intel has been the subject of said podcasts, which would effectively make them a sponsor.

However, Scoble's video was a pretty good introduction to Intel's new process, and that is definitely newsworthy, as the NYT story showed.

Re: Scoble’s Achilles heel is video

Dominic Jones — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 13:54:42 -0000

> But is it a great information-delivery tool? I would argue that it is not.

Hmm, let's see. You can't print video. You can't easily skim it for relevant facts. You can't copy and paste passages to quote in your posts.

OK, online video is not a great information-delivery tool.

Let's also not forget that the video looks to be paid PR for Intel. I don't know this for sure. I tried to see what the relationship is between Intel and PodTech. This should be easy to find on PodTech's website in the About section. But it's not spelled out. So I don't know.

Re: Scoble’s Achilles heel is video

howardlindzon — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 13:49:42 -0000

you are in trouble for that :)

Maybe his videos should be longer :) ?