We have been getting good feedback from our Alpha testers of VideoSticky. Thanks Everyone! The video community design team has been hard at work trying to simplify the design and usability. For the upcoming Beta launch we have redone the logo, page layout, Navigation, website design, etc…

Making the site EASY and intuitive is critical. We are going to bury some of the functionality further down into the Video Community site so that users are not overwhelmed initially with the feature set and power of the service. We would like to hear what you think of the new home page design. The large area that says “Create” is actually a flash animation that walks you through the 3 main concepts on a high level. Create | Share | Connect. in about 10 seconds.

We think it allows users to rapidly see & quickly grasp the concept of how they can use video sticky to create a video aggregated channel, and share it several ways and use it to build community and connect with other like minded individuals.

It ties into our design mantra of “Don’t Make Me Think”. Simple is better, Less is more.

Tell us what you think of the new website design, it is still a work in progress and we will have more changes coming. Thanks for your feedback.

p.s. We also did a total redesign on the blog as well. We hope you likey.

Technorati Tags: YouTube, Youtube community, design, alpha, beta, online video community, video community, video sharing, VideoSticky

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Online Video Community is a loosely defined term. If you look at the “Online Video Community” of YouTube :it is really not a video community in the true sense of the word. YouTube has a “swarm” of people that consume what are effectively short attention span types of videos. It is what i like to refer to as “Drive By Video”, boom… you are in… you see the funny viral video… and you are gone… there is no true way to connect with other users in a meaningful way. Therefore, I think that they tend to fall very short on the “Online Video Community” definition.

An online video community should allow users to connect, interact, learn more about the other members, create, aggregate and share content and thoughts. Get your head around this: How nice would it be to find someone else that shares the sames interest as you by seeing what videos they consume and like? That connection will allow true online video communites of shared interest to form. Members can join channels of content and connect with other people in the online video community that share their interest. In this way, consuming video content online becomes much more engaging and entertaining and fosters a real online video community.

Imagine if you could have a room full of people to discuss a channel of content that is themed (on any subject imaginable) and they could connect and share their thoughts as well as their viewing habits? Much in the same way that you would discuss the latest TV episode of “The Office”, channels center people and act as a point of gravity and connection. This is one critical component of what makes a strong online video community. This is what we are trying to foster at videosicky.com

Your thoughts about what makes a good online video community?… We would be interested to hear.

Rodney Rumford

Technorati Tags: YouTube, Youtube community, video, online video community, video community, video sharing, viral video, Rodney Rumford

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I was talking to someone on the team yesterday and we were discussing difference in video sharing sites. One of the key components that is missing from virtually every site is a way to share video efficiently outside of that particular sites inventory of video. This really means that there are no easy video widgets that allow you to aggregate from multiple video community platforms and share video channels… this is a problem when there are many great videos to share and they are on multiple sites…

Cross platform video aggregation is a part of the solution… and a part of what we allow users to do with video.
That is one of the big problems that www.videosticky.com solves. You will notice video channel widgets in the sidebar of this blog. These widgets combine video from multiple sites… pretty cool… tell us what you think… thanks for the feedback.

Rodney Rumford

Technorati Tags: YouTube, myspace, stickyvideo, video channel, video aggregation, video sharing, video playlist, google video, video community, Blog, video search, google video, startup, vc, business, videosticky, videosticky.com, Rodney Rumford

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UAV (User Aggregated Video) is a concept who’s time has come. There is a ton of pain in finding the gems of user generated video online… lots of gems hidden in the mountain of garbage. User aggregation across multiple online video services such as youtube, google video, yahoo video, myspace video, etc… is key.

Content syndication via rss for user created channels/playlists/connections/etc. is also key. Easy discovery of the user aggregated content is also critical. Having an easy way to allow the 10% of community users that don’t actually create video content, to create a channel of content that they are passionate about is really critical.

The video marketplace is very fragmented and there is room for multiple solutions. New startups might partner with the tradional media giants. But there is also an opportunity for solutions that are not connected with the media giants.

Users are watching less and less TV and are consuming video more often online. This trend in user behavior allows for virtually unlimited channels of content to be created beyond just “My Personal Favorites” sort of lists. Worthy of note is that online users are consuming new media not created by the media giants.

Consumers ideas of entertainment is shifting rapidly towards online with UGC playing an important role. There are nearly 80,000-1000,000 new videos uploaded online every day, they can’t all be crap, there are some real gems in there. Users will aggregate videos for many of the same reasons people blog, to voice their opinions and tastes, to make connections, to share content, to take ownership of their ideas and principles, to be their own channel programmer, to create a communication channels that is syndicatable, to build a community around an idea/concept/theme/product/person/personal taste, etc…

There are literally tens of thousands of virtual channel opportunities that will support very narrow niches online. We will be launching this week in alpha at www.videosticky.com There some other ideas I have around this subject, technologies under development and how the model for online video is shifting, but I will save them for later.

Rodney Rumford, CEO

www.videosticky.com

Technorati Tags: UAV, RSS, User Aggregated Video, YouTube, myspace, video sharing, video playlist, google video, video community, Blog, video search, google video, startup, vc, business, videosticky, videosticky.com, Rodney Rumford

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We wanted to let our readers know that VideoSticky will be moving forward with the Alpha launch next week. We have been working really hard to get to this point. We have had a team of people using the platform for a while. So starting in the middle of next week we will be sending out the invites to the first phase of alphas users that registered on the site.

We really want the service to be easy for users to create a video channel from video content online. So when you get your invite. come on in, create a video channel and play with all the cool features to your hearts content. There is a feedback link at the bottom of every page, please use this to tell us what you like and do not like about the site. We want you to tell us if there are any issues that you come across, bugs, features you might want or things that are just plain confusing. The only way that we can make VideoSticky the best service is with your feedback.
We want to thank everyone who registered for their interest. The first phase of invites will go out this week, and then additional phases in the following week. Tell your friends to register for an invite so they can get in before the public beta launch.

Rodney Rumford

Technorati Tags: YouTube, myspace, alpha launch, video channel, video sharing, video playlist, google video, video community, Blog, video search, google video, startup, vc, business, videosticky, videosticky.com, Rodney Rumford

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