I was really excited to hear about the launch of Robert Scoble’s Video Blog in the past week. It certainly caused a stir around the blogosphere as it got lots of mentions on launch and some pretty positive reviews from viewers.
When I saw some of the segments included in the show I was even more excited – some of what he was covering was right up my alley. So I immediately loaded up a couple of segments to watch….
So what did I think of the show?
Ummmm…. well…. as I look at my browser at the moment I still have the two segments loaded up and ready to watch – they’ve been sitting there now for a few days – unwatched. I’ve sat down to watch them on a couple of occasions but each time got distracted.
I’m sure they’re really good but I’m wondering if I’m ever going to get to them. The thing with video is that you really need to set aside time to do it – especially if the videos are more than a minute or two in length (Roberts are mainly between 8 and 35 minutes).
Perhaps I’m just not cut out for being a video blogging viewer – but I wonder whether I’m the only one?
By no means am I saying Robert’s show is no good (I definitely want to watch a couple of them over the weekend…. or next week) or that video blogging will never succeed. I guess I’m just thinking out loud about one of the challenges that video blogging (and probably podcasting and blogging in a written format) has – busyness of readers/viewers.
Video blogging has a distinct advantage in that it’s both a audio and visual medium which means it can go onto ground that blogging or podcasting can’t – however it also means it’s a more intensive process to interact with (at least the way I use it).
Podcasting can be played in the background while you do something else and blogging has the advantage of being able to scan through to find the interesting bits – but video blogging (in the way I’m seeing it used) needs those using it both to listen and look at it for them to fully interact with it.
Of course TV and Movies have big followings, which shows people are willing to give their full attention, but I’m interested to see what type of people will fully interact with video blogging.
Interested in what others think. Do you watch video blogs? Why/Why not? If so how many per week?
PS: I do understand that this week at the Scoble show that they are in launch mode and as a result have launched with quite a few videos all at once – I guess in time the frequency of posting will be lower which will help people digest it – but I guess the challenge remains.
