New Workforce Strategy Video and Audio Podcasts for Local Government Employers
Our latest project for LGE went live last week – we planned and produced a set of new video and audio podcasts focusing on ‘Local Government Workforce Strategy’.
The podcasts featured an array of the UK’s leading experts on the topic including Joan Munro – National Advisor Workforce Strategy at the IDeA, Jan Parkinson – Managing Director of LGE, Phil Howe – Assistant Chief Executive Human Resources at Rotherham MBC and Liz McQue – Chief Executive of North West Employers.
Check out the video and audio podcasts on the LGE podcast page or have a quick look at the video below.
Posted in: General
Advent Calendar Video Podcast
I’ve not gotten excited about an advent calendar for at least 25 years…far too mature for that!
But yesterday, I came across Grant’s Advent Calendar, which is a daily video podcast published by host Grant Baciocco – it’s kind of quirky, but seems to work…check it out.
Posted in: General
President-Elect Barack Obama launches weekly video address on YouTube
This week heralded the launch of Barack Obama’s new regular video address – he plans to publish weekly on YouTube throughout his Presidency.
The President-Elect used new media tools like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to devastating effect during his campaign…you can only wonder how he might employ social media to engage with not only US citizens, but also the wider World over the next four years.
It’s also going to be interesting to see how quickly politicians in the UK start to seriously adopt Web 2.0 tools as a means of engaging the electorate - I can see them playing a major role in the 2010 General Election campaign.
Posted in: General
New Kodak Zi6 HD Pocket Video Camera is a big hit!
I took delivery of one of Kodak’s new Zi6 pocket video cameras this week and have been testing it out…first impressions are pretty good.
The camera retails at £129.99 and let’s you record in HD and VGA – like the Flip Video Ultra and Mino it comes with software that let’s you easily edit and upload your videos to You Tube. It comes in two colours, black and pink and no, I didn’t go for the latter!
The internal memory is pretty small and only lasts seconds if you’re recording in HD – luckily though, the camera comes with an SD memory card slot that takes up to 32GB cards.
The HD quality is great, particularly when played back on an HD TV, but note when filming you’ll need a really steady hand or a tripod, since the camera doesn’t have image stabilisation.
All in all, I’d say it’s well worth £129.99 – check it out at Amazon.
Posted in: General
Witty web videos bring the Periodic Table to life!
We presented at a couple of events this week in Bristol and Manchester – the audiences were made up of training professionals who wanted to learn more about how web audio and video can increase the effectiveness of e-learning programs.
We always try to make our presentations as interactive as possible and showed a number of our latest favourite web videos. One that went down particularly well, was from Nottingham University – their Chemistry department have developed a series of videos that explain in a fun and engaging way, all 117 elements of the ‘Periodic Table’!
The series is a powerful example of how creative and well executed web videos can demystify a complex subject such as Chemistry and make it accessible to us all…and did I mention that the videos have been viewed over 2.7 million times to date!!!
Check out the trailer below for a flavour of what the videos are all about – if that wets your appetite and you want to see all the individual videos, visit www.periodicvideos.com or their YouTube channel.
Posted in: General
The origins of YouTube?
The following is a video of US based Professor Michael Wesch’s presentation on the ‘Anthropology of YouTube’ at the Library of Congress, on 23rd June 2008. A really interesting presentation…well worth a watch!
To find out more about Professor Wesch, visit his Kansas State University site on Digital Ethnography.
The following is a timeline of the presentation:
0:00 Introduction, YouTube’s Big Numbers
2:00 Numa Numa and the Celebration of Webcams
5:53 The Machine is Us/ing Us and the New Mediascape
12:16 Introducing our Research Team
12:56 Who is on YouTube?
13:25 What’s on Youtube? Charlie Bit My Finger, Soulja Boy, etc.
17:04 5% of vids are personal vlogs addressed to the YouTube community, Why?
17:30 YouTube in context. The loss of community and “networked individualism” (Wellman)
18:41 Cultural Inversion: individualism and community
19:15 Understanding new forms of community through Participant Observation
21:18 YouTube as a medium for community
23:00 Our first vlogs
25:00 The webcam: Everybody is watching where nobody is (”context collapse”)
26:05 Re-cognition and new forms of self-awareness (McLuhan)
27:58 The Anonymity of Watching YouTube: Haters and Lovers
29:53 Aesthetic Arrest
30:25 Connection without Constraint
32:35 Free Hugs: A hero for our mediated culture
34:02 YouTube Drama: Striving for popularity
34:55 An early star: emokid21ohio
36:55 YouTube’s Anthenticity Crisis: the story of LonelyGirl15
39:50 Reflections on Authenticity
41:54 Gaming the system / Exposing the System
43:37 Seriously Playful Participatory Media Culture (featuring Us by blimvisible: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yxHKg…
47:32 Networked Production: The Collab. MadV’s “The Message” and the message of YouTube
49:29 Poem: The Little Glass Dot, The Eyes of the World
51:15 Conclusion by bnessel1973
52:50 Dedication and Credits (Our Numa Numa dance)
Posted in: General
New website for Number 10…
News is out that 10 Downing Street is about to launch a re-designed website that will have video podcasts as well as RSS feeds and Twitter already integrated. The site is quite revolutionary and will completely change the way the PM communicates with the public – he’ll now be able to have a direct, two way dialogue with us all, online.
It’s great to see politicians using this technology in the government’s drive to communicate and engage better with local citizens.
We believe that this is the way most websites will develop from now on and given the response we’re getting from our clients – it seems they think so too.
To get a sneak preview of how the new Number 10 site will look, visit http://flickr.com/photos/downingstreet/sets/72157606224357503/
Posted in: General
Podcasting in Plain English
We’ve blogged about the team at Common Craft before when they published their fab video explaining Twitter. They’ve now produced one that explains podcasting, check it out below.
Posted in: General
Enhance your audio podcasts with a quick video 'hello' from you or your guests
I’ve just published a new show over at Business Ears – the fortnightly North West business podcast that I produce – and for the first time I’ve added a quick bit of video from my guest Dawn Gibbins MBE – the dynamic Chairman of Flowcrete.
The reason for adding the video, stems from the fact that I’m always thinking of ways to increase the level of my audience’s engagement and thought a quick video ‘trailer’ would do the trick – which it certainly seems to have done.
It’s really easy to do – just open a YouTube account, upload your video and then copy the HTML code to embed the video into your website or blog. Check out the following help page for instructions.
The feedback I’ve received has been great and I plan to add a video ‘hello’ from every show guest from now on. I’ll also be adding videos to my clients podcasts, as it will undoubtedly further help to engage their customers and employees.
Posted in: General
Management jargon should be banned
The new Chief Executive of a large County Council was in the news this week. She’s posted three videos on YouTube where she talks to the staff about her future plans for the organisation. She’s also using them as a way to generate input and ideas from the floor.
I applaud her for using an innovative approach to communicating with staff. However, I do feel that she might have rather missed the mark, as she’s committed that ‘senior management’ faux pas of using too much management jargon and therefore risks alienating the very people she wants to engage.
My advice is always keep the language simple, so that all staff can understand what you are saying.
Posted in: General
