New format for Spacevidcast dailies
Wow!
I mean WOW!
The response to the last Spacevidcast daily was phenomenal and we’re only part way through the day! It is pretty clear that the community prefers the more creative, humor filled space news. By far our two most talked about daily clips are these:
There are some interesting data points when it comes to these two videos:
- We have had more subscriptions in the last week to our YouTube channel than the last 2 months combined.
- Most of the new YouTube subscriptions have come in within the last 8 hours (from the writing of this post)
- In addition to higher subscriptions we also have higher views. An average daily gets around 350 views a week whereas the Space Elevator has just under 1,000 views and the MRO video is on slate to get around 500 views by tomorrow.
Then there are some lessons learned as well as some lessons that are simply reenforced by looking at these stats:
- Content always trumps quality. We have been working so hard to improve the quality of our dailies that I forgot that we have to script everything better. To this end I ripped everything off the set and am starting from scratch. You’ll note there was no HDTV in the MRO video and the quality was poor (by design of course).
- People like humor. You can get space news in about a kabillion great places on the Internet. The same space news rehashed in video form is, well, boring and a waste of time. Adding our own unique spin to it is what makes it entertaining and engaging which is what we’re after.
- It takes a long time to produce good content. These videos took twice as long to produce as their straight news counterparts did.
We have already pre-shot most of the rest of the dailies for this week, so we may not have as much fun with those, but going forward we sure will. I think somewhere in 2009 I lost my way and started making Spacevidcast too much like a serious news show. That’s not true to who we are, it is not what people want and it isn’t where we should go. I got rattled by the very vocal minority that told us how horrible we were and how terrible it was that we gave everyone a voice and should take space travel more seriously. We were not good enough to play with the big kids was the general impression. Well screw that. The big kids are old and decrepit and can go mumble to themselves in a corner. We’re the new blood in space, we’re having fun with this stuff and we’re not going away. OH, and just because we’re going to have some fun with this stuff doesn’t mean we won’t get awesome interviews with astronauts. I have a feeling some of them like to have some fun too!
Personally, I started following you guys for the space news, but also for the fun and humor in the pre and post show. Incorporating more of that humor into the show itself can only boost interest (I think those stats speak for themselves).
Keep up the good work!
One of the things that makes Spacevidcast stand out is the fact that it allows the community at large to have a voice — and an interactive voice at that. Good, bad or otherwise (all the Ares I-X naysayers being a prime example), everyone has a chance to voice an opinion. I think that is great! I don’t see NASA providing a chat room with their broadcast, and I certainly don’t see people imbedded in other chat rooms that have the breath and depth of knowledge that the Spacevidcast community does (and is willing to freely share). Carry on, Ben and Cariann! My only request — more cowbell!!
The Space Elevator episode was, in my opinion, the perfect mix of humour and news. I absolutely loved it. At the polar opposite end of the scale, though, the MRO episode had waaaay too much humour and not enough news. It was very well executed, but I believe it should be set as the example of what not to do: do *not* let the fun interfere with the content. While the system resets and video/audio fallout was fun (to a point…it did take up more time that it should have), it really interfered with trying to get anything meaningful from the episode, and by the third reset and actual begin of the content, I found myself not caring anymore.
Sorry to be so blunt, but that is my honest feedback.
Also, if SVC is intended as being licensed under Creative Commons 3.0, then you’ll really need to provide a non-free license specific to this video, since, IIRC, the use of the Windows logo nullifies the validity of the CC license.
Humor is a tricky beast in that what one person may find hilarious doesn’t work for another. So too will be the case with many of our videos. Everyone has an opinion on what we should do, what we’re doing right and wrong but in the end we are just going to be true to ourselves. From time to time we’ll create videos you won’t like. Other times we’ll create videos you love. Of the users that have watched the current video it seems that most see the humor and like the mix with a small handful that don’t. Tis the way it goes.
Since the whole thing is a parody I don’t believe we’re restricted under copyright license. This is how SNL and other shows are able to get away with having logos from other companies in their show. Same should apply to us, so there is no need to create an additional license.
Oh, believe me, I’m not dogging ya’ll in the least. It was just my opinion. I love SVC!
As for the license issue, the thing is, SNL doesn’t use a free license, nor do news outlets that take advantage of the fair-use clause. My concern arises from my understanding that, for a piece of media to qualify for a free license like CC, all parts of it must be eligible for CC, including derivative elements. I just don’t think fair-use applies in this case. Dunno…I’ll have to ask around.
As I read it we fall under fair use: http://www.publaw.com/parody.html which should trickle throughout the license to anyone who choses to embed or utilize it as a whole. It could get sticky if someone decided to re-edit the piece and change the nature of it away from parody.
However, since this is not something we normally do, I’m not too worried about it. We’re really good about copyright and licensing (making sure we stay within the confines of the law). If this comes up as an issue down the road we can attack it then, but we’re so small and the viewership is also so small that I don’t think we’ll run in to users utilizing our media for anything anytime soon.