BrandToBeDetermined

You Should Say "Kick His Butt"

Props to Kelsey for forwarding this link. Kids....

Video Publishing on Windows Recommendations

Video. We are all free and the new youTube nation, right? Um... no.

Recording and creating videos is still a real pain. Especially for newbies on Vista. In one experience last week Windows Movie Maker on Vista did a great job of letting a friend create a video. But you can't yet post the (new?) wmv file format to youTube. So create? yes. Publish? no. Or maybe we just couldn't figure it out.

From this post by Jon Udell in response to a question by Beth Kanter he uses the following tools:

1. Camtasia - like Windows Movie Maker but exports in various formats with less hassle. A must have.
2. Windows Media Encoder - free and few people know about it. Hard to use but it lets you screen capture on a local PC for integration into a video.

From our experience doing help videos for Tendenci, you pretty much have to go with Camtasia on a PC.

Best Recruiting Video Ever

Best Recruiting Video EVA! I want to work there (and I already have a great job!)!

HappyKatie on the Democratic Debate on youTube

From HappyKatie.com:

...lately YouTube has been making me look/feel so much smarter by smashing really great political content into my ordinarily chuckle-induced online video world.  This makes me really happy. (more)

Video - I'm not sick but I'm not well

Per Jason Calacanis' twittr poll, this is one seriously funny video. And I agree. See the full list of funny videos on his site here.

Lip Dub - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger from amandalynferri

Security Through Obscurity is a Bad Idea

Digg, a popular social networking site where alpha geeks vote up or down stories, is having an issue today. Specifically the "users" are voting up stories that link to the codes to unlock HD-DVD videos. This code, no longer secure of course, allows people to copy the full resolution of purchased HD content. Once unlocked they can be shared across pirate bay or whatever.

So the codes are out there and digg needs to stop deleting content that mention them. What IS funny is that the top story on digg as I write this has a simple link to an image. A pretty picture. The picture at the top left. It only makes sense (to a geek) by also referencing this image which provides the translation.

Take aways? First - don't fight a mob with censorship when they are busy copying and pasting content. You ain't gonna win that battle. Second - rethink the whole "security through obscurity" idea. It doesn't work long term.

For more on this particular story, try this post on Digg fights user revolt over HD-DVD ban. And a definite shout out to dsilverman for the twitter heads up!

Vudu - Won't Make It

And speaking of video we have another video start up called vudu as written up in the NYT. However, like many Americans when the ad copy uses the word "revolutionary" or "premium" my BS filter goes off. In this case Vudu states it is:

VUDU is a revolutionary new product that will transform the way you get and watch movies. VUDU is instantaneous—no more driving to the video store...

and then with a layout like joost they continue

All you need is the VUDU box, a TV, a broadband Internet connection, and a love of movies.

As observed on GigaOM, the problem is the cable operators already have a box in every home. And the satellite folks have a DVR in every home. And joost is doing peer to peer movie distribution. So what is revolutionary about Vudu? Well, nothing as far as I can tell.

I shouldn't be so hard on them for that opening sentence, but if that is the mind set then they aren't long for this world.

Unreleased Shaw Brothers Movie

The Shaw Brothers apparently have an unreleased movie!

Curse of the Serpent

Bring on the Class Clowns - Short Form Video Rules!

From Accenture on Consumer Generated Content (thanks for the link Dan)

Asked to identify which type of content offers the highest growth potential for their industry over the next five years, the greatest number of respondents —

1. 53 percent — cited short-form video, followed by
2. videogames (13 percent),
3. full-length film (11 percent)
4. music, (11 percent),
5. consumer publishing (9 percent) and
6. business publishing (4 percent).

Numbered bullets added by me because I like lists. Lists are simple. But back to the topic - this is a very interesting list indicating what is already very apparent. Video, short form, is the future. Bring on the class clowns!

The video at right? Just a cool consumer generated video tribute to smilemaker that I like.