Broadcasting Video on the Web
Caleb J. Clark (calebjc at well dot com) March 2007. For ITP/Xavier Digital Storytelling Project.
A how-to for beginners on getting video onto the Web for non-profits. Common techniques are focused on rather then technical specifics. You will need a Internet connection faster then “dial-up,” a fairly recent computer, and the ability to make videos ready to upload. See “Video Production for the Web” how-to here.
Ok, so you’ve made and exported a video. Now you need to complete the circle and get it out there for people to watch.
Contents
Two Types of Videos
Web 2.0 is in full swing. A big part of Web 2.0 Video on the Web. Video on the Web comes in two basic forms.
(Disclaimer: We’re in the middle of an explosion of new videos, so lot of things change every day.)
- Videos: Single subject. Think YouTube. Examples include: stupid pet tricks, friends antics, clips from TV or movies, reedits, concerts, etc. As an organization you’ll want to post more professional videos of course. We’ll get to that. But first, a little history. YouTube, and now many other sites, make it easy and free to upload a video and share with friends via a Web link. They also enable sharing by “cross posting” videos to your MySpace, FaceBook, blogs, vlogs, personal Web sites, etc. The video is still “on” YouTube, but you link to it from our site. Video has been on the Web for more then a decade. They key to the recent explosion of uploaded video was a combination of cheap video cameras, computers, fast internet connections, and “flash transcoders” that automatically convert any uploaded video into one uniform format (Flash), the same frame rate, and quality; making the videos viewable in most any browser without downloading any new software.
- Shows: Just like TV shows, but on the Web. Think Blip.tv. From one person rants, to well funded news, comedy and drama. The can be called Vlogs (Video blog) Podcasts, etc. Here’s some well known examples in different genres: Rocketboom, Make Magazine, and Treehugger, Alive in Baghdad, and RyanIsHungry. They have a name, consistent theme and consistent schedule of uploading of new episodes. They are changing Big Media (ABC, CNN, Hollywood, etc) by introducing short format media that is produced and broadcast wildly on low, or no, budgets. The new ease of uploading and viewing videos has freed many people who wanted to make TV shows but couldn’t due to the cost. Established organizations and media companies are also releasing shows. They usually differ from normal TV shows in three ways (They are the same in a most other ways!).
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- Length: They are short, usually 3-5 minutes.
- Syndication: They can be ’syndicated’ (aka RSS), meaning that you ’subscribe’ to the show. Once subscribed, new shows are downloaded to your computer automatically for viewing anytime. Shows can also be deleted automatically so your drive doesn’t fill up. This is somewhat like Tivo and other cable services, but on your computer.
- Comments: Right where you watch the show you can also comment on it. Communities can form around a show and become very powerful in spreading the word. This also makes it possible for viewers to communicate with each other and with the producers of the show. Popular shows often have very active discussion areas with tens of thousands of members.
Deciding between the two
Ok, so what do you want to do? Videos or a show? This depends on your content, time, and money. The less yo have, the father away you want to stay away from shows and more towards just posting videos. Lets say your organization has some good video of an activity that someone edited. Or one interview, a statement from your founder, and some footage of your facilities. These are videos you’d want to post on your site, and maybe on as many other sites as possible.
But lets say you want to do a short video every week, or once a month, of local people you help telling their story? That’s could be a show. You’ll need more staff and more of their hours. You’ll need a name of the show, a logo, and someone to manage the production and archiving of the episodes. At first it many not seem this way, but when someone gets sick, or you loose a camera and your time to post is coming, things get resource intense.
Either way, Videos and shows tend to escape into the wild of the Web and end up on other sites when people cross post them. This is good because it gets the word out. But it also mean videos need to be contextualized so they can stand alone. So any video on the Web needs the following:
- A title, episode (if applicable) author and date in the beginning with a name or logo of your organization.
- Credits at the end with attribution for any media used with permission that is copyrighted and clear contact information (Web address, email, etc)
Additional show needs
Start with a video from above. But add:
- The name of your show
- A logo, perhaps just your organization with “TV” after it, or “show”
- A consistent beginning
- Possibly a person to host
- A show page on your site where users can see back episodes
- Consistent thumbnail images with show name and episode title
- Syndication ability (usually automatic, but still a bit tricky)
Hosting
Videos can be uploaded to your blog, or a YouTube type site. We recommend both and all to get the word out! You’ll notice though that YouTube will ‘brand’ your show with their logo, so we recommend picking a “base” place, like your blog, and posting on a big site as well.
Shows can be uploaded to a blog, or you can use a free service to host your show, and post it on a blog or on your organization’s Web site. We recommend blip.tv as a good place to host shows. It’s free and caters to shows vs. YouTube type sites that cater more to single videos. Hosting at a place like blip.tv as the added advantage of giving you not only free server space and bandwidth (which http://ny2no.net will do too), But also making you part of a community of shows and giving you viewing statistics and easy cross posting and backup tools.
Uploading
Once you pick a place, or places, to upload your show you’ll to have a few more things ready to make it easy for people to view and find.
- Thumbnail: This is simply a still picture that is the same pixel size (320×240, 640×480) as your video that has the shows name, title, etc.
- Tags: Tags are keywords associated with your show. They look like “new orleans, organization name, show title, names, domains, subjects covered, etc)
- Description. A short sentence with the title of the show, date, place, and any names or Web sites mentioned with links to their sites.
Then you’ll need to upload. This is usually very self explanatory. You’ll see an “upload,” or “upload video” link or option on your blog or site. You’ll click it. “Browse” your computer for your video, and upload.
After a few minutes, usually less then 30 minutes, your video will converted to Flash at most sites. On blip or a blog, you’ll have options for viewing your original format, but your “default” video format should be “Flash” so most everybody can view it.
Publicizing
Once you’ve got your shows online, they will have a Web address and the ability to subscribe to them. You’ll want to draft an email with the title of the video, its address and a plea asking people to view, and more importantly if it’s a show, to subscribe to the show.
Syndication
If you’ve got a show, you really want people to subscribe. This mean your new episodes will automatically be downloaded to their computer where they can watch them anytime. Subscribing is still in a bit of a “wild west” stage, but it is getting easier. Once your video is uploaded to a place like http://ny2no.net, you’ll see symbols like “RSS” or “Subscribe”, or icons like “iTunes” and “Democracy,” (Two of the many free downloadable applications that let you subscribe and view videos on your computer on, or off line.)
Management
Uploading and publicizing is not the end of the line! Most places you post a video will have comments enabled (you can control the details). Hopefully people will start talking amongst themselves, either on their own, or with a little prodding from you. If they do, you’ll want to to monitor this and keep it growing. You’ll need to record/bookmark where you videos are and check back on them often.
That’s it. Yeah…right ;-). Now there’s just a lot of fun work. Plunge in, make mistakes, learn as you go. And just keep producing media!