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| 8/03/07 | | Using video to capture stories |
There are two examples on the web you should check out. 50 Lessons is a subscription video library of senior executives recounting their experiences. It’s called 50 Lessons because the original set of 50 companies they interviewed were ones that in the early ‘70s helped propel the stock market into a long bull run.
These clips are professionally produced and look great. The videos are categorised into business issues (such as change, innovation, managing people) so you can find stories that convey particular lessons. A good way to use these stories is to get a group of people together to discuss the ideas they trigger (sensemaking) and how the lesson is relevant to the circumstances of the discussion group.
There’s one shortcoming of 50 Lessons. There is no online ability to create a discussion around a particular video clip. Online discussion helps keep the content alive in an organisation. For that reason I love what they’ve done at Channel 9.
Channel 9 is a site for Microsoft technologists. It consists of video clips (which you can stream or download) taken of Microsoft engineers explaining what they are working on. It’s done with a hand held video, it’s roughly shot and edited. What’s great about this site is that anyone can view the video and make comments. You can also see how many people have viewed each clip.
Both sites provide organisations with examples of what can be done with video to share experiences. Both sites have recognised that capturing experiences as stories makes the content more engaging, and ultimately determines whether the content is ever watched again.
If you are interested in developing this capability within your organisation, give me a call.
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Comments
I came to yours as I am very fascinated about digital story telling. Your blog is very interesting and educating.
After attending a afternoon seminar at The Norwegian Computer Society hosted by the Oslo Collage University, I just had to give it a try:
Climbing the memory lande
Posted by: RennyBA at March 13, 2007 7:21 AM
Shawn
There is a new one about to be published on the NRM web site - called Mosaic. These are stories from the Australian Natural Resource Management regions and are due to be launched in April. There are 10 stories from each of the 56 regions www.nrm.gov.au
Posted by: Nerida Hart at March 22, 2007 12:30 PM
Hi Shawn - thanks for putting these links up. They came at a good time for me - I run a video production company in the UK that works with local government and not-for-profit clients, and I've been thinking a lot lately about how moving images can help them with knowledge management.
Moving images are not always the best format, but I think moving images are particularly good at six things:
- story-telling
- engaging the non-rational or emotional side of the brain
- explaining (showing) difficult concepts
- demonstrating tacit knowledge
- stimulating people with auditory and visual learning styles
- taking snapshots of unique events, people or places
I've found the ideas in some of your other posts on tacit knowledge helpful with this thinking too. For me, part of the difference between the 50 Lessons and the Channel 9 sites is that because the latter has the potential for a two-way conversation, it's potentially better at helping people to share/demonstrate/transfer tacit knowledge via moving images.
Stuart Reid, Producer
Black Mole Productions Ltd
Posted by: Stuart Reid at March 26, 2007 3:14 AM
Thanks for your observations Stuart. I think all the points you make about video are also true of storytelling generally. Are you aware of any other sites that use video effectively?
Posted by: Shawn Callahan at March 26, 2007 4:16 AM