jeffchin.com

I’ve never seen something like this before. Watch the video of the zoetrope below…at first it looks like it’s just a bunch of Toy Story figurines spinning, but then add some strategically timed lights and they come to life. I think my brain just exploded…and I might have to see this in person.

I threw this together real quick to show how super loud and red the Verizon Center was yesterday. Unfortunately, the Caps came out flat and got shutout in game two. On Vimeo.

I frequent digg.com fairly often, but just happened to notice that they were going to have a live broadcast via uStream.tv to address users issues and questions. This is something that I have never seen before from any (albeit a startup) company. Before the townhall meeting, they collected comments and questions from users on this Digg story and went through the top 20 questions.

This townhall meeting could be viewed as very successful in my eyes, because it achieved two things:

1. Allowed users to submit issues to the creators of Digg.com about usability and features that are/aren’t working for them - and have them addressed.
2. Allowed the creators of Digg to collect opinions about the site and have them essentially ranked in order of importance by the avid user base.

Now, as a web analyst, one thing pops into my mind about the value of this type of forum. The goal of being a web analyst is not just to to learn what the user is doing, but to understand why the users are at your site and how they are using it. It is rare that you will have a very clear cut survey telling you exactly what users are concerned about. Currently I am working with my main web developer at my new job to create event tags on main functions of one of our sites to find out if they are actually using certain features or not. This requires man-hours, testing, implementation, and this method is not scalable for a massive site (we’re only measuring clicks on the home page) - and that’s just to measure a behavior, not to add a new feature/functionality/content! In the townhall format, they ended up with a much more dynamic and democratic version of a user survey from real users. (extra reading: Kaushik.net - the importance of surveys) They also appear to be more open to the public (in addition to diggnation) which builds trust from the user base that they are actually doing it for “us”.

Anyways, that’s enough nerdy web analytics talk for one post. I also wanted to point out that while having Digg.com CEO Jay Adelson answer some of the questions was good, he comes off as a huge dork, and definitely needs more time on camera before stepping up to another live Town Hall broadcast. Kevin Rose should not let him talk as much as possible. Don’t believe me? Watch the archived live broadcast for yourself on Mashable or Digg.com/Townhall. Jay’s the one on the left.

In web analytics news, I will be attending the Web Managers Roundtable tomorrow in DC…see you there!

On Vimeo

After editing this video together, I realized that I’m not even in it. Think of it as supplementary to Dave’s video - his video proves I was really there!  And as a side-note, I’m kinda disappointed with iMovie 08’s lack of video editing.  Apparently that’s going to be addressed in future updates.

Dave just compiled a video of our trip to San Fran from a few months ago. Beware, it’s random, strange, extreme and contains a lot of slow motion videos! I guess that’s what happens when you get together with your old band from college. I can’t wait to get out there again soon. (on Vimeo)

It has been a while since I’ve posted a video to Vimeo. I still have yet to mess around with iMovie long enough to feel comfortable editing together some videos from San Francisco and ones of my Grandma teaching us how to make some Chinese dumplings and pastries.

This video was taken last Christmas (2006). My grandfather has a tradition of “feeding” my great grandparents whenever there’s a family get together during the holidays. It usually involves chicken, oranges, whiskey and burning incense. In this clip my grandfather on my mom’s side tells us the names of my great grandparents.

Speaking of hilarious original content on Vimeo…I shouldn’t be hogging it all to myself. This is an old one, so check out the rest at JakeandAmir.com.

It’s not my TV anymore. It’s my Macbook laptop. I’ve found recently that it is turning more into what TV executives fear (at least non-forward thinking ones): a world where there is no difference between watching TV on TV or watching TV on your computer. What they need to realize is that the ultimate goal should be, is to gain viewership in any way or fashion. This starts with good television shows, then accessibility. With an innovative business model, you should be able to generously supplement your commercial income from broadcast TV with ad sales from internet broadcasts. Nothing bad can happen from more people watching your show. So, make it more accessible for more people.

My first steps into internet TV started off a little shaky with Joost, and has been rejuvenated (for me), by sites like Hulu.com, or actual network sites that stream full length, high quality shows after they’ve aired for free. Each of these solutions integrate limited commercials into the show, but are still considerably less intrusive than watching it live.

Between Joost and Hulu.com, I prefer Hulu. Joost for some reason went with mandatory downloadable application that you need to run to access the programming, where Hulu, very wisely, just has a web interface with no install. The interface for Joost is not very user friendly. I realize that they’re trying to emulate old-school TV with their gimmicky TV fade out when you “shut off” Joost, and auto-play when you start it up, but I find that annoying. Just play what I want, when I want - please. Hulu.com is much more simple, requires no install and in my non-technical eyeball tests, has better video quality than Joost. Not to mention available programming. Hulu has real TV shows, while Joost has some real shows that I want to watch, but is mostly made up of a bunch of fake channels. This is definitely where Internet TV should be moving, but I just haven’t found the quality of the shows to be very high.  [Edit, don't have an invite to Hulu?  Go to OpenHulu.com]

Finally, there is Vimeo. I post videos there semi-regularly whenever I have time to edit, but there is a bevy of original, entertaining, and high quality (production & video) videos posted there regularly. It is YouTube, but done with class. Vimeo was the first major video sharing site that streams your videos in full HD. If you have been stuck hurting your eyes watching YouTube, Vimeo will feel like freakin’ Lasik for your eyes.

So there you have it, you can see why I’ve been watching my Macbook more often that I’ve been watching my 40″ LCD TV. The convenience, quality, accessibility and availability have really been stepped up in the Internet video arena. Have any of you started to make the switch to Internet broadcast TV?