Oh, Where, Oh Where Has My Little AVI Gone...

Revisiting the Pew Internet study ("Content Creation") discussing online content creation by Internet users (Mar-May 2003), it's amusing to see how much things have changed in a year.

According to the Pew study released February of 2004 (and to be fair, the study took one year to assemble, analyze the data and release the report, so it's understandably a bit outdated) content creators use very little digital media. It's not popular. Right? Uhh, not anymore.

Look how far we've gone. Photo sharing has become far more popular. This is due to two factors - the increasing size of photos (megapixel) precludes easy mailing from person-to-person, but with new photo sites placement on one site offers convenient storage, and now a lot of people can look, when before only a few could. And even better - tools are not required for anyone to use them - it's simply an upload.

However, video is an entirely different area. I see two different conflicting trends.

One trend is the incredible success of digital camera sales with audio/video clip capability and increased storage on CF / SD cards which can conveniently hold 30 minutes or more of video. Many cameras, like the popular Canon A60, can be purchased for as little as $130 on Amazon, and includes clip edit (cut off undesired scenes, split clips, duplicate) right on the camera. This is the one bright sales spot in a dismal consumer electronics market.

However, once generated, these video clips are raw clips - an opposing trend requires specialized production for efficient and enjoyable viewing on the Internet. This slows the rapid deployment of personal content. In other words, the tools are killing video content creation!

Production issues include choice of format, support for format, audio/visual insertion / correction, titling, notices (e.g. copyright,..) - something which requires specialized video editing tools / training, constant upkeep on changes in standards / updates, and a filmography for additonal materials to be integrated. If people find pasting photos in photo albums a drag, preferring to keep everything in the photo box, imagine how difficult it must be to sort and display raw video clips in a systematic way - much less produce them in an entertaining manner!

In addition, deployment and readiness for streaming / progressive download is a complex matter - requiring an end-to-end understanding of the quality issues from server to player issues. This is far beyond the ability of any novice - indeed, it's a difficult area for someone in the field.

I have spent four years working on generalizing the video production aspects (along with working on datacenter means to deploy efficiently) to allow a creative user the ability to produce instant movies without tools - only using a digital camera or cellphone and email. One of our partnerships has been recently written up by industry analyst Rob Enderle ("Valux Mentioned") and their product MinutePitch ("MinutePitch - Your Video Screen on the Web!") for business users to create instant movies to pitch their business plans. Well, I am in Silicon Valley, and I guess the VCs like the idea of video executive summaries.

Each business person has a confidential channel like my CTO channel ("Lynne Jolitz and ExecProducer Technology"). There are others directed solely at particular viewers. You need Quicktime 6+ (6.5 is the latest) to watch my shows. We can do any format ranging from wmp to 3G, but mp4s are broadly supported on Windows (QT6.5), Macs(QT6+, and Unix/Linux (many players) systems - and I'm also known for 386BSD too, so Unix must be supported for my audience. :-)

I have also been producing, using only a digital camera and email, movies for family and friends on my own personal site. The latest movies on the site were done by my children, using their own digital cameras. They simply take the clips, create an email, attach the clips in the movie sequence desired, title the movie (subject line), add a description (body of email), and send. It works in realtime, and in a few minutes the completed movie, with titling, technical correction (audio / video), introduction, conclusion, credits - is deployed, and ready for viewing in an Internet viewable format. It even sends invites to family to watch the "newest movie".

I've found a great deal of resistance to this process in Silicon Valley - it's been derided a bit as a "woman's idea" by some of my male technical peers (and you know who you are) who see no problem with spending weeks working through a thousand dollar video edit package. However, when I ask the guys if they have caught up on their video production for home, I've yet to find a single one who has completed more than one simple family movie - it seems once is enough!

But when I get home with a lot of video clips of the kids, I find it's easier to arrange the clips in a story and email them out, instead of using tools. As a mother, I find I have to communicate with family and friends, and it's just more efficient this way. My son has used this to talk about his science fair project, and my daughter used it for her 4th grade California Missions project.

I also do technical industry commentaries for In the DataCenter. There's a great deal of freedom in expressing yourself outside of the space / time constraints of traditional writing that is complimentary to it. It just seemed natural to create a video news commentary - but instead of sitting and the computer and writing about the business and emailing the text file to the magazine publisher, I just sit in front of a camera and talk about the business and email the raw clips to the video publisher. In both cases, they appear formatted, finished, beautiful on the web and I'm done.

So I do hope they update this study (and perhaps complete the analysis a bit faster given the speed of Internet change). So many things are on the move here - and it pays to look at what people are doing with digital media these days.