Howcast.com - instructional video channel
I imagine 9 months ago, when Jason Liebman, Daniel Blackman and Sanjay Raman were still working on Google Video and YouTube at Google, they must've had a pretty clear vision of the product they wanted to launch. Because in just 8 months, they've conceptualised, coded, funded (to the tune of $8million) and launched howcast.com. The story's sexy. But is the product hot?
According to the PR, howcast.com is a new How-To Video Site for Consumers, and directors program for emerging filmmakers. What it feels like is videojug.com - another site that's got lots of FREE how-to videos like How to Paint a Wall, How to Get Paid for Donating Plasma How Not to Get Mugged, etc etc.
The idea is slightly different - consumers are supposed to watch and share instructional how-to videos. The content is scripted by professionals, then filmed (for $50) by emerging filmmakers who also share 50-50 in the ad revenue. And then we're all supposed to participate - to rate, to comment, to suggest, to subscribe etc, while the ad guys sign up to buy relevant ad space.
howcast.com's technology's more advanced - when watching a video, you can follow step by step, play them in slow motion, zoom in on certain areas, or print a text guide.
Jason Liebman, CEO and co-founder of Howcast wants to bridge the worlds of user-generated content and professional vidoe and thinks 'instructional video is a perfect place to start.'
Well. The site's slick. It looks good. It embeds great community features. It's got a good search engine. It's got a hint of sleek apple design. They've got a revenue model for their content. And the logo's got the must-have 'beta' label attached.
Howcast.com isn't doing anything new. But will it take off? I blogged videojug.com last year. A great site, great concept, but I don't use it (not even in approaching all those DIY jobs I keep mucking up in my flat). I can't see why howcast.com haven't ticked every possible box for an Internet start-up. But only time will tell if it will work.
And although I searched and searched, I couldn't find a video on How To Secure $8,000,000 funding for your cool Internet start-up company. Although if I did, I suspect it might open with the words, 'First, resign from your job at Google...'
Labels: free videos, howcast.com, howcast.com review, instructional videos
posted by Michelle Gallen at
5:44 PM
4 Comments:
Great post, Michelle. Howcast looks interesting - I'll check it out.
The future of eLearning has arrived, and this is what it looks like. I've been thinking (and commenting) a lot recently about the push by companies to use eLearning as sales tools. It's about time.
http://www.equixotic.com
I agree regarding the slick design (I guess you can take the boy out of Google but not take the Google out of Jason Liebman...), but about the player - it just looks like an advanced rip-off of 5min's Smart Player, which also enabled the very same zoom and slo-mo features, only long before Howcast.
I like the new site for its entertainment value, but having such a mass of professionally produced content lacks a personal touch and feel, and has also been done before (and perhaps on some topics even better) by Expert Village and VideoJug.
I'm waiting to see how they fare.
I was having another think about short video clips and e-learning last night. I realised that I don't use video for personal learning because I can't speed through the content. Give me a text and graphics page, and within a few seconds I'll have scanned the content and I'll have made a snap judgement on quality and usefulness - if it's useful, I'll read it again, more slowly. But video frustrates me. I can't speed through it in a way that makes sense to me. I can't judge the quality. So when I viewed the 'how to extend our ipod battery life' on howcast.com I was hugely disappointed by the content - it taught me nothing new, and I wasted time in having to view it in real-time. If it had been a text page, I could've moved on in seconds (and not resented the information).
But this is another post I think! Chris I checked out your latest post and agree with your views on Apple ads as sexy, minimalist e-learning - I've often thought the same of Mr Jobs' presentations - engaging, concise, interesting. However, for those 30 seconds of loveliness huge amounts of time and effort are spent.
So does this come down to quality assurance? I know apple ads and products will be slick and good. How will howcast.com, videojug.com and the rest assure me that in their thousands of clips, I will meet with the quality I want?
Anna thanks for the info on the 5min's Smart Player - must go check out the zoom and slo-mo features. The creation and use of non-linear video for learning is currently eating up lots of space in my head at the moment...now that's truely interesting - and yet another post bubbling away!
This is a good site, but I personally am a huge fan of Graspr. It stands out in the how-to video crowd and just had a launch.
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