Unsplash Sold to Getty Images

Lot of things going on in the social media space. In March 2021, Unsplash was acquired by Getty Images. Big whoop you might say.

Well, it kinda is. 

If you use Unsplash for making audiograms, IG stories or any kind of social media content. Can't begin to count the number of YouTubers using Unsplash photos inside of their videos. 

Home Page of Unsplash

https://unsplash.com/

Millions of people around the world contribute photos to Unsplash. Those photos have been used by social media services such as Canva, Relay That and dozen more. 

Getty Images is a huge stock imaging company. Their holdings include historical photos, video and so much other content. It primarily deals with corporate and professional customers. 

The current word is that Unsplash will remain a separate company. But I would expect that at some point, a few Getty images would be mixed in for purchase. Or there could be an opportunity for Unsplash contributors to access some income opportunities.

For those of us in the social media space it could have an effect on how long social media providers will continue to offer Unsplash images. 

Or will the also be required to include items from Getty Images?

I don't know.

But if you have a project you kinda, sorta want to do - you might want to get a move on it.

While you can.

A Look at TechSmith's Marketing Infographic

Writing like a fiend but wanted to give a heads up about a neat inforgraphic pdf from Tech Smith. I found it on the site's marketing tutorial page that TechSmith has for small businesses.

You should check out the videos on that page, either as an introduction to a structured video or as a refresher.

http://assets.techsmith.com/Images/content/mkt-solutions-business/Life_of_Videos_PDF.pdf

This is just a small part of a helpful guide to how to make an informational videos better. There are things you can do to improve demonstration, tutorial or explanation videos. And even if you don't have any intention of making those kind of videos there are some goodies to be gleaned from the entire graphic.

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A Look At The True Voices Poetry Channel

I will not step foot in a church if I can help it. Quite honestly, they wouldn't want me in the pew. I would be asking questions and disagreeing with some of the interpretations of a book that has been transliterated hundreds of times by man and by language. I say let's kick it back to the Aramaic version and then let's talk.

God's word may be infallible but human beings are by nature jacked up from jump street. What has this got to do with poetry videos?

I will tell you. True Voices is a Christian poetry video channel on YouTube. It is mainly performance and slam type poetry. I came across Thee Apprentice video which lead me to True Vocies and that lead me to a place of questions.




Thee Apprentice's video It is a good example of performance poetry videos, the man has some flow and I was curious so I as I checked out other videos on the channel I was willing to be open. I have to tell you my willingness dropped as I viewed other videos.

There are poets with talent but I have to tell you I have concerns about their interpretation of faith. There are people of faith using poetry to proselytize. There are poets who are speaking from life experiences and other who stand hip deep in the pulpit.

Some of the poetry is offensive. I either disagree with them or flat out reject their interpretation of Love and Spirit.

I am not a Christian. But I am human and I don't like it when people use the name and icons of Spirit to hate on others who are not Christian.

Is your faith so weak that you must damn Atheists? That is how you show your love?

Ain't having it.

So, I can do one of two things. I can pretend that I never saw the channel and walk away. Or I can honor my spirit that says in part to respect the act of discovery. Let the viewer decide what he or she wishes to view. There are exceptions. This isn't one of them.

In other news, still a lump of coal.


Other Posts of Interest

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Quick Look at Pond5 Stock Media

Every once in a while you should check an advertisement. I’ve seen commercials for Pond5 for royalty free audio and video content that you can re-use as you like. Royalty free meaning you find what you like, pay for it and not have to worry about the RIAA trying to take your home or savings from you later on.

Why Would I Want to Do This?

Well, you might have one of the following needs:

• A video introduction/closing
• A theme song
• A specific audio effect that you don’t have time to search
• Educational – maybe you are creating an lesson plan that involves audio and video.
• A rush job you have to finish and it needs a little boost that fits your budget.

For Users

If you need music for your video and you don’t want to go to the usual free resources then this can be an option. If you need it for a business video it is a safe option. Basically you purchase a license to use the stock media and then do with it as you will, short of trying to sell it as your own stock media.

Currently you can select content such as sound effects, music, photos and illustrations, Adobe After Effects project and templates and stock video footage.

You get what you pay for; prices range from $2 on up. As the quality of the media goes up so does the price. They do have the freebie of the week but it isn’t that hard to find what you are looking for.  You can search the gallery or you can just browse.

You set up an account, select what you want and purchase the media file. I hear some of you out there grumbling about the price. Keep in mind that you might pay $79 for a video clip but if it is exactly what you want when you need it then it can save you money.

For Creators
 
Opportunity is where you find it and Pond5 is actually asking for new material.  I did a search for trolly cars, as in light rail, subway surface and traditional public transportation cars. If you are not in San Francisco you have an opportunity fill in a gap in their coverage.

According to the selling information page you get 50% commission of the sale’s price of the stock media.

Before you upload everything you ever recorded be sure to read the video requirements page before you even think about sending them content. They are looking for professional level created videos that meet certain technical standards.

You must also have a model release for anyone that appears in the video.There are other considerations as well.

If you can provide the content that the site requires this could be an additional income stream. Anyway, go check them out. It cost nothing to look around and it might give you some ideas that can inspire your own videos.


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Serendipity and Jesse Desjardins

Serendipity is what happen to me as I was looking for something on Slideshare.net. Sometimes folks present a text based tutorial that can be helpful. I didn't find any but I'm one of the goofy people that will actually go and read a web sites About page.

Anyway, I'm reading about Slideshare and one of their users, Jesse Desjardins, had posted a video about how the service has helped him improve his skills and other stuff.

Why I love slideshare

View more videos from Jesse Desjardins - @jessedee

That isn't why I want to show you the video. Take a look at how the video plays with the concept of the talking head. The use of color. The use of retro-style photos to accent a point.

For me, I guess the video is an idea generator. I have to say I almost bugged out of the video but Jesse's voice engaged me and then I made the time to listen. Once I caught up with what was going on I liked it.

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Digital Storytelling Examples - Promotional Narrative

The story starts with a person or event. An extension of the personal narrative is the promotional narrative. Businesses, corporations, and institutions often use a promotional narrative to showcase and individuals story in connection to their story or to a larger community.

Author Chitra Divakaruni is a member of the University of Houston's community. Take a look at how her story is intertwined with the story of the university. The video is only 2:39 second long but a lot of information is being transmitted.


It is simple video. The video begins with her story and then demonstrates how the University expanded her talents and gifts and has done so for other students. The promotional goal is for the viewer to connect that if you go to the University of Texas you will be welcomed and you will be supported in your writing career.

You can recreate the structure of the video. You have the technology and it won't cost six million dollars.

Black Title Card - Any photography or illustration program can generate a black photo, you can use the dimensions of your video as a size guide. If you don't have a photography or illustration program (and I kinda think you do) you also can generate title cards from programs like Apple Keynote, Microsoft PowerPoint, or LibreOffice Impress

If you don't have a slide show program that can export jpeg images not to worry. You can download that graphical Swiss army knife known as IrfanView to generate and manipulate images.

Not to mention that your video editing program probably has a fade from black or title card function.

Photos - Whatever you have you can use. Scan them, transfer them from the smartphone or camera or hold them up before the camera.

Camcorder  or Recording Device - Optional if you don't want to record a in-person narrative.

Music - understated but helps move the story along. There are places you can go for music that will fit the mood of the story.

Dan-O at Danosongs.com has a lot of good stuff in his archive. You can't go wrong at Kevin McLeod's Incompetech site, one of the oldest web music joints.

Which is why you should watch the video again to get clues on how do you handle showing a small photo? Transitions? Environmental visual accents as the speaker talks.

The tools are simple. It is what you do with them that makes a story yours.


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Documentary - Good Copy Bad Copy 2007

The year, 2007. All kinds of debates about what is legal, what can you use, re-use or mix into a new work of art.


Good Copy Bad Copy is a documentary about copyright, the constrictions that modern copyright has on creativity and the rights of creators to be fairly compensated for their work. Make time to snuggle up and have popcorn ready; this movie goes a while.

It has been five years from the creation of this video. Many folks are starting to move away from using copyrighted content but there is a valid place to use copyright content.

There is the right way and the wrong way. How you go forward is up to you.

Resources to Check Out:

Code of Best Practices - Fair Use for Online Video from the Center for Social Media

Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States - From Cornell University, this is a chart you can use to determine if a work has entered the Public Domain. It is a starter guide, it will not have all the answers. Also note that there is much mischief in the sound recording section. Those suckers are locked down to 2047 and beyond.

Related Posts

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ZeFrank Funded New Project in Hours

Just a follow up to yesterday's post. ZeFrank met his goal to fund his new show in hours, not days. The goal was to raise $50,000 in ten days for the new project.

His former viewers and assorted racers kicked the goal to the curb in hours. As of this writing, Ze is heading toward $100,000. For those that don't know, ZeFrank's show was a daily series for one year in 2006-2007.

That was five years ago and people not only remembered him but ponied up cash money for him to do another project.

My understanding is that the money will be used for the production of the new series/project and to hire an editor to take some of the load off creating the videos.

In the old series Ze produced a video a day each week for a year.

• writing
• performing
• recording
• editing
• distribution
• seeking sponsorship

Then repeat. Can you say burn-out?

Another interesting aspect is that Ze is asking backers about ideas, concepts and what would we like to see in the next project. From what I can tell there is a lot of desire for doing good, making music and general whimsy.

This is social media, social fundraising and hopefully another branch of participatory media will spork off into new directions.

Audio Sound Effects for Video - Free Sound Effects

There are times when you do need a knock at the door. A certain kind of knock. Like a fist on a wood door which is different from slapping your hand on a metal door. It matters and you can spend more time searching for the right sound than you ever thought you would.

You can make you own sound effects, if you have the time.  There are places to obtain sound effects. Some of them are free for use in any project if you meet certain conditions and understand about licensing.

Sound effects can be recorded in mp3, wav and other audio formats; these two are the most common but not the only file formats.

Mp3 audio will give you a smaller file size to download and almost all of the video editing programs accept this format. Wav audio will give you better quality but the file size will be larger.

Remember, Safety First

Before you get to downloading you do want to make sure that you are dealing with a reputable web site, that you anti-virus, malware and cootie detection software is at full power.  There are a lot of crummy web sites that are not safe to visit that offer free software.

You also want to print out the page of the place where you got the sound effects. The way things are going with the abundance of lawyers and congressional activities you might have to prove where you obtained the resources you used in your video.

A project binder or file folder is a mighty handy thing to have and to hold. 

Understand and Read The Fine Print

Before you download make sure you understand the web sites terms of use of the audio file. Just because you see the word free does not mean it is free for you to use any way you want to.

For example, you can’t go to any audio site, snag the content and try to sell it as your own.  That is stinky. It should be understood that you don’t do that.  Yet there are people who don’t gronk this concept.

Sad, really.

Free to Use in Personal and Commercial Video Productions

There are kind souls that will let you use the sound effects found on their web site for no charge. One of those places is SoundJay.com. You can use their audio with or without attribution but the folks wouldn’t mind a shout out on where you got the stuff. A donation wouldn’t hurt either but that is up to you.

Media College has a small but tasty group of sound effects. They have recordings that are in the public domain, recorded by staff members that are available for personal and commercial use. Double check the license and permission page to understand the usage rights.


Another place to find sound effects is good old FlashKit.com.

For some reason in Chrome and Firefox browsers you will have to move to the middle of the page to see the recordings.  It an old web site, it hasn’t been shown any love in years. Yet there is much goodness in that musty old house.

At FlashKit there are Freeware, Shareware and for purchase sound effects. You can test out a sound effect before you select it.  If you like the effect then and, you have made sure that it is freeware, then proceed to the download link and save it on your system.

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Audio Sound Effects - What Is Royalty Free?

A royalty free sound effect means that you pay for the right to use one specific audio file or a subset of similar files. The terms can vary from a yearly subscription or in perpetuity. It depends on how much you pay and the nature of use.

There are advantages in purchasing a royalty free sound effect for your video. For one thing, you could have a higher quality sound than what you find at the free sites. It depends on the vendor. The site might have various audio lengths that meet your needs or a wider selection of effects.

If your video is being used for commercial purposes it might be safer to use a royalty free service.


BeatSuite.com

BeatSuite.com does have a specific type of sound effects for sale. I'd describe them as futuristic, steampunky or functional. I could imagine that these effects could find their way into an audio drama or podcasts. The standard license covers use for Internet use, web videos and podcasts.

The quality is very good and the price of the tracks reflect the quality. Start at $50 and work your way up. You can sample the tracks before purchasing.  You might want to review their guide to royalty-free music so that you are clear on their approach and definitions.

Music Bakery

The Music Bakery has sound effects for sale starting a $1.98. I just tried out their squeaky door and it gave me the shivers. The audio files are available in mp3, wav and aiff use for you MacUsers.

Under their terms of use the sound effect can be used under a lifetime license for everything but theatrical movies or retail businesses. You would need another type of license for those activities. They are also asking for a title card in your video; in my opinion that is a bit much to ask.

It is your call if you want to do that kind of thing. The point of royalty free is to be able to use it they way you want without attribution.Be sure to read the web site's legal notice as well as the terms of service.

RoyaltyFreeMusic.com

RoyaltyFreeMusic.com has sound effect albums for purchase. They also have individual effect audio for sale but this is where it gets tricky.

You can buy an individual track for around $5 or get a whole album for about $100. Sounds about right.

For personal and non-profit use they are free with required attribution of where you got the sound. For commercial use you must purchase a license. The free sound effects are short and are in the mp3 audio format.

These web sites are easy to use, you can review the tracks before you purchase and they make clear what you need to understand before you buy.

I'm not a musician or sound effect expert. I do know with the growing evolution of media consumption that there are hybrid products like books that will have videos embedded in them or textbooks with practical exercises with beeps and clacks a plenty.

If you think that you might need a creaking door or a metallic zapper you might want to check out these or other vendors.

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The Vimeo Festival and Awards - Are You In?

I have been watching a promotional video about the Vimeo Festival and Awards thingy that is gonna happen in June 2012. There is a sentence that sticks in my head. "This is the age of access and we need to take advantage of it."

Yes. Now is our time. And make no mistake, various political, social and commercial entities want nothing more than to return to the time of the passive consumer.

I'm not saying you have to be active if you do not want to. There is nothing wrong with just consuming content.

I'm just particular about what I want to see and hear. It ain't necessarily on broadcast or cable television. It isn't just regurgitated content dispensed from Hulu or Amazon. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

But if you want to create and bypass the gatekeepers then what could it hurt to check out the action in New York in June? 

Just saying is all.

Now I'm not much for contests and stuff but there will be an award ceremony with cash money grants for those that need a little sugar to make future magic.


This is a promotional Vimeo video about the awards.
So if that has got you curious then head over to the Rules and get to studying. There is a lot you have to  understand before you can enter such as:

1. You have have to be old enough to enter.
2. There is an entry fee of $20 if you are one of the teeming masses. If you are a Vimeo Plus or Pro member it is $5 unless you live in Arizona, Maryland, North Dakota, and Vermont in which case Vimeo will kick back the entry fee.
3. The video must conform to the video compression guidelines, so no .wmv, xvid or ogg vorbis.
4. It must be an original work.

There you have it. New York is a rocking good time in the spring and summer so I'm thinking about counting extra pennies to check it out.

Could be fun.

Solar Powered Recording - Riding the Rapids

You have to mean it when you decide to power your camcorder with solar power. You truly walk the walk when you use that same camcorder to record your adventures while you are bouncing up and down water rapids.



This is a video by Five2Nine Productions in Canada on a kayaking trip that was powered by the sun and devices from a company called GoalZero.com

Many years ago I took a standard whitewater rafting trip. Scared the hell out me but it was so much fun. Gotta put that as a do-over for the bucket list. Anyway, I am interested in alternative power sources because I do want to keep recording when the power goes out.

I'm silly that way. So yeah, besides this is a rocking video.

Finding the Story at The Ladies Market

Kai Wong is the host of DigitalRevTV and he is photographer. What interest me about sharing the video below is the unintended travelog he and his videographer Lok created about the Ladies Market in, I believe, Hong Kong.



There is more than one narrative going on in this video. Kai is certainly talking about the lens for the Nikon camera but you also get a sense of the environment and his connection to that place.

I loved it when he stopped to point out that there was fungus on a collection of old 35mm film cameras or that there was a huge collection of remote controls for sale.

I've seen other videos in the series. A minor quibble is that the videos tends to go long, but most of the time I don't mind. Kai can get silly but that is part of his charm; you are getting the authentic person and not a smoothed over manufactured presenter.

So what did I learn?

Don't just record the environment. Actually look at where you are and find the story that is waiting to be told. There may be more than one story, the one that you intended to tell and the one that you find.

A Love Affair of Sorts - Theatrical Flip Cam Movie

Over the next coming day or so you will see a lot of film critics write about how much they hate, dislike and totally trash the movie A Love Affair of Sorts. That is their job. You bring what you know to the table based on your education, experience and preferences.

If you put it up for public display then part of the risk you take is feedback, positive and negative. Much of that criticism is directed toward using The Flip camcorder to make a feature movie.

This is the trailer:


I love a good film. I have a long passionate relationship to many movies. Many movie critics have that same passion so I can understand why they do not like the aesthetics, performances or the video quality of the movie.

So yeah, this movie is like shark food to movie critics.

But there is a nasty undercurrent about how glad they are that The Flip is dead so that others will not be able to follow in the producer's footsteps. The snark level is high.

One day, a theatrical movie will be made with a consumer camcorder that will be fantastic. It will be made for under $2, 000. There is no question about it.

Now professional critics and to the bone movie lovers might not want those of us outside of the studio or independent studio system to make theatrical movies.

Yet there have always been "the outsiders." How many movies did Edward G. Woods make? We laugh and celebrate them now but he cranked them out didn't he?

Without the outsiders we couldn't have Mystery Science Theater 3000. I'm not picking the best examples of outsider movies, am I? Maybe that is the point.

We need new blood. The willingness to try. Some of the efforts might fail. We learn as we go. Some day a gem of a movie will come out of a PC or iPad. A new story will be told and there will be a cinematic shift.

I don't think I'd want to make a theatrical movie. I don't have the skill level or the desire. But I will absolutely support anyone who wants to do so via, smart phone, iPad or Creative Vado.

Because I've stop looking to Hollywood to make original movies. As much as I like comic books I don't really need to see them on the screen. How many sequels were produced this summer? What holds the current practitioners up as the gold standard? Explosions?

I'll take a chance on original content. I don't care on what device or technology it is being created on.

Gone With A Handsomer Man Book Trailer

I like to reverse engineer videos to understand what works and what doesn't. It is one of the ways to create your own style by looking at the works of others in different disciplines. I'm also looking at this for header graphics ideas. Still looking at all kinds of idea sources.

I like books. I like video and movie trailers. Sometimes, well, most of the time it is a bad fit. Either the spirit of the book is lost or the whiz bang features of the video don't quite sell the book.

It is a balance of a proper introduction and a seduction.

This is a book trailer for the book Gone With A Handsomer Man by Michael Lee West



It is short, simple and allows the viewer to get a feel for the story. The visuals help you to become curious about the book. Thirty nine seconds is just right.

The music is contemporary so I'm not sure I'm the demographic market for the book. Then again, I was more focused on the the words and visuals.

Jennifer Pearson's Tutorial - Resource Blogging

There are all kinds of reasons to create resource web videos. Photographer Jennifer Pearson has a blog called The Dedicated Photographer. Jennifer is a photographer who is using her site to promote her business experience to photographers.


In this video she is demonstrating a Photoshop technique to help photographers make a visual example of how the photos would look in certain areas of the client's home.

There is a couple of things happening here:

• Jennifer is providing a tutorial for her blog visitors
• Cultivating future clients for her mentor, photo workshops and tutorial services
• Giving back to the community who will spread the word that their is this business photography blog that you might want to check out.

Every one is chirping about making money on the Internet. There is no magic formula or quick snatch and grab.

One of the way that has worked for a lot of people is to build a credible space with information that people value. Let it be known that you are out there and folks who are interested will stop by.

There is another word for this concept; Freemium. These are a few examples of how the Freemium concept is applied:

• Om Malik How Freemium Can Work for Your Start Up
• Mail Chimp Going Freemium One Year Later
• The Rapportive Blog Will Freemium Right for You?

Most of us can't follow the prior mantra of "sell, sell, and don't let them leave until you make the sale." For many bloggers the product is intangible. For the right products and services this could be an helpful approach. Or not.

I do know that web video plays a role.

Nokia N8 Vimeo Channel

With all the yacky-yack about the iPhone/iPad video recording capabilities you could be forgiven for not remembering that other mobile devices can record HD video. Nokia from time to time has contests and video exhibitions on their Vimeo channel.

This is Wouter Kapteijn's video Fruitylicious recorded on the Nokia



Gotta say that is great looking 720p video from the phone. Here are some of the specs:

• 12 megapixel with Carl Zeiss optics
• HD quality 720p resolution
• Shoot 16:9 videos in HD
• 3x digital zoom
• Video capture in 720p 25 fps with codecs H.264, MPEG-4
• Ambient stereo audio recording in video (AAC 128kbps, 48 kHz sampling)
• Settings for low light (reduced frame rate), white balance, colour tone

Also on the specs page it seems to have built in video editing software and video catalog.

For USA users you'll want to go to the Nokia USA site for more details.

Other Posts of Interest

• Audio Sound Effects for Video - Free Resources
• The FreeSound Project Audio Sounds for Your Videos
• More Posts on Mobile Video Concerns

Push Button Video Creation with Muvee Software

Me? I don't really care how you do it so long as you do it. I like the process of video editing but I know there are folks that truly just want to quickly put a video project together. They don't want to know about codecs, frame rates and white balance.

I've written before about Muvee Reveal which helps casual users to create movies from photos and video. The program really locks down what you can and can't do but you will have something to display in a very short time.

Muvee has other products of interest. I thought I'd share a look at the video and the software.



Muvee Pixie is designed for Netbooks and possibly by extension table computers. So if you have to need to create and you are on a Netbook this could work out. The program helps you assemble photos, videos, titles layouts and captions to make a movie in a short amount of time. Think of it like shake and bake video making.

If you camcorder records in QuickTime .MOV, or H.264 MP4 at $29 this could be a keeper.

Muvee AutoProducer 6 has a little more power under the hood. It does things similar to Pixie but you get more style layouts, the ability to add a voice over and the ability to preview before making the video. What it doesn't do is render high definition videos.

This is not necessarily a deal breaker. Do you really need high def in all video situations? Widescreen sure, but high definition viewing on a phone or over a Wi-Fi network that is not your own? Which you should not do but still, think of the bandwidth.

If you don't own a HD camcorder but you want something easy to use $59 then this software might be your answer. If your camcorder records in QuickTime .MOV, MPEG2, MP4 or .AVI you can make magic.

If you need more options then you can check the tutorial by Pete about Muvee Reveal.

Disclaimer. I have used an early version of Muvee AutoProducer that came with my computer. I have nothing to do with the company; I'm not even a customer. This is presented as an video editing/composing option to those folks that just want to get it done.

This company has been in business for a long time. To my knowledge they are not pushing spyware. The products do what they are designed to do, help novice users create videos quickly.

Motorola Ad and Short Film Contest

Adobe and Motorola have teamed up to create a video contest to promote the use of Flash video on Droid phones. Those that love their Droid phones need to represent their creativity. Why let the other device (iPhone) get all the action?

There are two separate contests, one for creating an ad and the other for creating a short film. In either case you should read the terms and conditions of the contest before you enter.

From the FAQ & Tech Requirements:

We do not accept tapes or DVDs or anything that needs to be posted in the mail - only digital video uploads.

The Video file size should be kept at or under 100 MB for quicker upload/encoding time (max file size is 300MB).

Video files must be provided in one of the following file formats: .MPG; .MOV; .AVI; .WMV; .MP4; .M4V. Neither height nor width can be odd numerically (eg dimensions of 1023 x 768 should not be used because 1023 is an odd number).

Do not export any black borders and we prefer 16:9 aspect ratio but will accept other ratios. The video frame rate (fps) is not important but bear in mind the intended use – if the brand intends to display on TV then they will prefer 30fps

We recommend shooting in HD because lots of winners get their films shown on big screens and on the web and even on TV - so you want it to look good. Don't use a resolution below 640x480.

The frame rate is unimportant, but, if you can, shoot at 30fps or higher. Old school 24fps is great for the movies but not great for TV or the web (especially with fast action).

If You Win - From the Web Site

• Trips to Barcelona to join Adobe, Motorola and MOFILM at their famous filmmaker awards
• Adobe® Creative Suite® 5 Master Collection software bundles
• Motorola Devices
• US$5,000 in Cash Prizes (total)
  

There isn't a lot of time, the contest ends on January 31, 2011 GMT so if you want in then get busy. H/T to the Videoblogging Group where I learned about the contest from Randy Ksar

Hans Rosling's 200 Years that Changed the World

I first learned of Hans Rosling by watching one of his TED videos. He does a very cool form of show and tell. Anybody who can hold an TED audience attention while talking about statistics is a person to keep an eye on.

This is one of his videos on how the world has changed in 200 years.



Looking at the video construction it is extremely simple. A screen capture of the statistical animation program and a picture in picture of Hans Rosling explaining the changes.

It isn't just the tools. It is the growing need to explain complicated information in an accessible manner. Part of what is happening in web video is that there are a group of people, from teens to professors that are trying to figure it out.

It is an exciting time. For more information about Hans Rosling and his work you can visit his web site Gapminder, where you can find more about him, his work or resources.