Internet Video: Boomers Are Finally Coming
into Their Own
By Mark Rukavina, CEO and
founder,
www.imemories.com
I think 2008 is going to be
known as the Year of the Boomer. You know
them, the generation born roughly between
post-WWII and 1965. I’m a bridge baby –
born in 1966, so I’m part boomer, part
Internet generation. A New York
Times article, “New
Social Sites Cater to People of a Certain Age,”
points out that investors and entrepreneurs,
who have long been “obsessed with connecting
to teenagers and 20-somethings,” are now
turning their focus to social networking
sites that target older Internet users.
At the same time, a new
Forrester study predicts that digital
homes will become mainstream – all equipped
with broadband and other capabilities to
make the environment a complete digital
“nest.” And
In-Stat predicts that the installed
based of home networks is expected to grow
by over 35% in 2007.
Consumers no matter what
their age are driven by a need to share
experiences. But the older users are more
loyal and stick around the site longer.
And these Boomers are the
ones who have closets and basements full of
home movie reels, tapes, slides and photos
that are degrading. They are the
family legacy-keepers – interested in
preserving the past, rather than getting 15
minutes of fame.
Baby boomers
are getting on the bandwagon when it comes
to Web 2.0. Using O’Reilly and wikipedia as
a resource, one might simply explain Web 2.0
as the acknowledgement of a noticeable shift
in the Web toward a two-way conversation,
rather than one-way publishing. The user
both accesses and generates content, rather
than merely receiving it. A shift has
clearly taken place since the Internet first
became "popularized" in the ‘90s, and online
video sharing has exploded in popularity,
expanding from younger generations to
older. Key Web 2.0 features help facilitate
the transfer, sharing, editing, organizing
and storing of what was previously a very
difficult medium to manage: old-format home
movie film reels and pre-digital analog
video tape.
Why Video
is Difficult to Manage Online
Online video
is a relentless, demanding master. It
requires significantly more bandwidth and
storage than photos. Consider that there are
an average of 30 frames per second of video.
Just a five-minute video alone, therefore,
consists of 9,000 different frames. Online
sites that enable users to post short clips
have solved the problem of how to publish
brief videos that are already digitized,
such as those from digital camera videos and
cell phone videos. They allow users to post
only clips under 10 minutes or so, and
occupying less than 2GB of raw video
storage.
But how do
you manage the transfer, editing,
organization and storage of the old physical
media that most Baby Boomers own? It isn't
in digital form yet; it is rather old film
reels in 8mm, Super 8 and/or 16mm format, or
analog video tape, and their shelf life is
rapidly diminishing. The footage is also
much longer in duration than the quick clips
we've become accustomed to online. It's
straightforward to upload video that is
already digital, and this has contributed to
the popularity of online video sites. Yet
over 95% of all home movie content is
current stored in legacy (pre-digital)
formats, and most people have a mixture of
these formats: 8mm and 16mm film reels they
inherited from their parents, VHS tapes that
were popular in the 80s and early 90s, and
digital video from the later years.
To
coordinate the intersection of the Internet
and old home movies requires a certain
technology expertise and investment. Not
only do you need to know how to work with
physical media, which can often be brittle
and extremely fragile, you need to be
comfortable in a Web-based service model and
have the technology processing and storage
equipment available – a significant
investment that raises the bar for most
individuals and cottage industries
attempting to provide this service.
Yet the
wonderful irony of Web 2.0 is that as the
interactivity becomes more powerful, the
benefits to users also increase
exponentially and it becomes more intuitive
to use. Previously, online video was
primarily accessible to a YouTube generation
of computer-savvy individuals who owned
already-digitized, short-form video that
they wanted to share and enjoy. Now, a
comparatively older generation, who has
slightly different motivators and older
video in a physical format, can utilize
software services from specialized vendors
in order to participate in the Web 2.0
revolution.
Benefits of
Web 2.0 Features for Internet Video and
Older Users
The nature
of Web 2.0 is that it changes the "landscape
of communication, collaboration and personal
interaction," as Dion Hincliffe describes
it. It consists of numerous features that
make it different from what we will call Web
1.0, and these features are inherently
suitable and timely for the transferal and
sharing of old home movies. Although there
are probably dozens of differentiators, I’ve
condensed them into 3 major points as they
relate to video:
-
Software
as a service - Until recently, software
was most typically delivered as a point
product. It was developed according to
milestones, rolled out in sequence, and
required individual installation on
every individual desktop. Updates were
announced and delivered at regular
intervals by the vendor who developed
the software. The new model, however, is
that software becomes a streaming
service, rather than a point product. As
a service, the software is not installed
on a desktop or device but rather
connected with it through the Web.
This means that once the old
home reels and tapes have been transferred
to digital format, they can be easily
delivered to individual users, no matter
where they live. No custom software is
required to install on their PC. The
software has no software "releases" or
cycles, and instead evolves. The user
benefits from the horsepower of downloaded
software without the inconvenience.
-
User-generated content - the power of
the individual has increased: The
traditional communication model favored
specialized vendors who communicated or
published one-way information to their
target markets. Now, the individual
controls his/her own data, choosing what
information to access, how to share it
and with whom, as well as whether or not
to edit it and generate his/her own
content. It is more of a "pull"
environment rather than a "push" one.
There can be collaboration between and
among individuals and vendors to an
infinite degree. And, the user can
enable his system through RSS feeds to
alert him/her to when new information is
created as soon as it occurs.
-
Delivery
to multiple devices - the lines between
devices are blurring: Under the old
scenario, the different consumer and
electronic devices were fairly discrete
and separate: PCs, TVs, etc. Now, a
software service can be delivered or
connected to multiple devices besides
the PC, such as iPods and cellphones.
This new interactivity and
power of Web 2.0 means that the user
experience is much richer and more
interesting. The customer can enjoy the
experience and receive a better home video
product if the potential of the Internet is
leveraged properly. HTML was a step up, and
Web 2.0 has gone a step further by providing
two-way conversation instead of a monologue
or lecture.
Conclusion
It's
probably not so important that the average
consumer or videographer understands how Web
2.0 works, but rather that they understand
that there has been a major shift, and the
benefits it brings to a new, older
generation. Thanks to Web 2.0, boomers are
mastering the game when it comes to Internet
video.
By Mark Rukavina,
CEO and founder,
www.imemories.com
