Just Say No to Video Monoliths

Video is Monolithic. It's a black box. It cannot be searched with any level of precision. When time is critical, most viewers will not watch 10 minutes of video to find 30 seconds of relevant material. Many how-to video companies provide users with search capabilities; however, the level of granularity for these videos is usually too high to be applied to technical, task-based documentation where the ability to quickly find and understand discrete steps is key. Jay Cross, who is an e-learning guru says: "Life is too short for linear videos." Yet this is exactly what online viewers get if they are confronted with monolithic videos. The video starts, the middle plays and finally they reach the end. Or worse, they become bored, frustrated and give up. So what do we do about it? CHUNK IT! Wild Basin Media will show you how to create segmented, searchable, videos all with open-source tools and standards. These video segments can be integrated with documentation and training material in a way that finally makes sense to your online readers/viewers and respects their time through fast searches. See The Content Wrangler for a series of tutorials that will help you use online video effectively.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• DITA
• Wild Basin Media
• Docbook
• XML
• SCORM
• Michael Wesch
• S1000D
• Technical Documentation
• video
• multimedia