Be sure to read the follow-up post about the status of future video posts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLu8_k46HT0&feature=youtu.be&hd=1
As I mention in the video, this is my first venture into video blogging.
And yes, it’s awkward, but a number of developers, bloggers, and friends who I respect have done this so I thought I might as well as try it.
Ultimately, this is an experiment but it can’t really go anywhere without input from you guys. I cover this in more detail in the video, but I thought it might be interesting to use this particular type of post to open up topics around discussing WordPress development.
Generally speaking, I’d love to keep the videos short – that is, no longer than 90 seconds – and relatively direct. This doesn’t mean that I don’t want to give thoughtful answers, but I certainly don’t want to give a lecture.
After all, those are the things we all fell asleep in during high school and college, right?
So, leave your honest thoughts about doing something like this as well as any questions, comments, thoughts, or whatever else related to WordPress development and I’ll see what I can do about turning those topics into future video posts.
I do like the video format and have considered doing this myself. Always have been in the same doubts as you are now, good that you have found the guts to publish this and we both will find our answer on wether or not this is a keeper. Big yes from my side!
Can’t say I have seen a lot of them before, do you have examples of the videos by other developers? Are they WordPress related?
I started doing a video blog a few weeks back at curtismchale.ca under the screencast category. Someone suggested that I did a good job explaining myself with speech that didn’t always come across in my written posts. So I started recording.
Tom: I’d love to here you talk more about craftsmanship. The video could also be a good place to talk a bit about ideas for things you haven’t quite nailed down.
Yeah, as Curtis mentioned, he’s definitely one that sparked my interest.
The Matt Report has also inspired me a bit as has John at TentBlogger.
FIRST!
dang YOU COEN!
Beat you by, what is it, more than 10 minutes! :D
Nope.
I’d really love to hear you video blog about simple, practice things that might go over the non-developers head. Sometimes verbally explaining can be easier than typing it out.
Gimme some concrete ideas that you struggle with and I’d be happy to see about doing that.
I just want to know who was in the background.
Also, I like this sort of format for time-sensitive content. It’s nice to be able to turn it on in the background and listen while you’re doing some work. But for content that has a longer value, this is a bit harder for search to be able to find it and identify as good content. Maybe I’m wrong there, but it’s my thoughts :)
Either way, keep experimenting!
I think that was Tom’s reflection. Had to watch the video three times, but when he did a thumbs up, I noticed the ‘person’ in the background doing the exact same. :)
I think a video podcast could be pretty cool if it incorporated things like screen casting, screen shots featuring development all in live action. Perhaps it would have to be a little more loosely structured otherwise it could end up just looking more like a tutorial. Anyways… just ideas
Thanks Steve – all good stuff. Just shared an updated here.
Tom,
Love the idea, I think it might be great format for any topics that don’t require code snippets.
I have a question (or a few), perhaps you could cover it in one of future episodes. Seems like you publish one blog post per day, at least here, then there’s other blogs, some with in-depth tutorials that take a lot of time to write, like WPTuts+ articles.
So, I’m guessing there was a point where you went from not writing at all to writing this much, possibly with at least one extra step, of writing every now and then. We all know why blogging is important in our industry, I was hoping you could explain how you made that step and perhaps even give as an insight into your process. Things like how you collect post ideas, how much time you spend writing, how difficult it was to get to and maintain this writing schedule and how much it has helped your career.
Does that make sense at all? :)
Slobodan – love this idea and it’s not the first time I’ve been asked this stuff. After the holidays, I’ll be sure to address this in a series of posts.
Thanks a lot for the ideas!