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August 25, 2006
Future of Flash Video?
Last night I attended an interesting user group meeting with Kenny Bunch about the Future of Video. We saw some pretty cool applications he was doing with video and he discussed the future of video.
When it came to discussing the future of Flash video, I was a bit surprised that people were putting the focus on deployement platforms rather than the actual asset itself.
Sitting down to watch a tv show is generally a passive experience. In terms of timecodes, you move ahead in a linear fashion. And its the linear experience we seek, when we sit down in front of that couch.
But what if video, especially in the web realm, became more conversational? Conversation is not necessarily linear, but a series of connected diverges and sidethoughts and interruptions. Think about a convo you might have with someone - even if you are relaying a story, which most tv shows do, you may diverge by explaining where an actor is from, or explaining part of the plot more in detail as it was revealed in another connected story ... etc etc. What if video was delivered in a more conversational way - making it inherently more interactive? Video itself doesn't have to be interactive- but the way it is presented can be..
Not everyone would want to watch their video like this - for most they want it to remain a passive experience void of the necessary commercial breaks. But for some, maybe a sports fan, someone watching a cooking show etc, they might want to have a more interactive experience. Imagine watching a cooking show and having non instrusive ads telling you where to get items the person is using - going to purchase the item and returning to your video where you left it, without leaving the house, without opening a new browser. Of course much of what I am suggesting is marketing driven - but it could be expanded to go beyond that if the current infrastructure can support it.
Kenny talked about the social movement of tagging in regards to video, and if you take that one step further, it would be cool to say tag a video and then have related ad rolls, links etc come up on the tagging.
Lots of companies out there are pushing this idea of how to present and interact with video - Tony MacDonell and Robert Reinhardt are two flashers I can think of that are really pushing not just the technology but the very conceptualization of video as a linear and passive experience.
I agree with much of what was said, deployment platforms for video will change with the progressive development of gaming consoles,mobile phones, even as Kenny suggested the ipod. But I don't think the deployment platform is going to be the only thing to consider when it comes to the future of video in regards to Flash and some flash developers out there have proved that.
Posted by bitch at August 25, 2006 01:56 PM
Comments
speaking of conversational software, i'd like to see an audio/video enabled forum software. youtube is getting close to it with "video responses", but id like to see it support threads and direct webcam recording -- i am guessing that some threads in some forums somewhere in the world might get so interesting as to be able to be watched passively.
and of course flash is the only platform that could handle this easily.
Posted by: alessandro at August 25, 2006 11:01 PM
Thanks for coming out and asking questions. The presentation was meant to be a very broad overview of video's positioning in the market. Flash really was an implementation note and the future was just a side note. I tried to keep it that way to appeal to anyone. I could have had an entire presentation on interactive narrative, which you are eluding to, but wanted to introduce some people to the subjects first and get a feel for what variant audiences interest were.
I'd also note, though interactive narrative was only a single point, I'm highly interested and involved in the field. The implementation in the industry is weak in this nature, and why I referred to the players I did for CBS 2 years ago and the Cartoon one as "ghetto". I've got tons of ideas and things I'm working on in this context, so hit me up for lunch one day if you want to talk.
Kenny
Posted by: Kenny Bunch at August 28, 2006 03:33 AM
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