As we have talked to customers about how they are using Faculte, it is clear that they are using our solution as much more than an online video platform, but are also creating communities of knowledge sharing. I wanted to talk about the benefits of video in enterprise social networking, and what are some of the critical obstacles to overcome to make Enterprise Social Video successful.
First, let’s talk about the power of online video. Have you noticed how video is cropping up everywhere on the web? And how useful it is? Even in selecting something like a pair of shoes, seeing a short video where someone shows and tells you what the features are gives much more insight than pages of specifications. Conversely, have you noticed how written information, particularly presentations, can be misinterpreted? Without seeing the presentation as given, and understanding the inflections and points of emphasis of the skilled presenter, it is difficult to take a PPT file and use it effectively. All this leaves social networks that don’t include video rather flat, and, although information is shared, skills are not spread. With video, experts across an enterprise can tell their stories and knowledge is passed on effectively.
However, it is difficult to get large numbers of people in a corporation to create online video. It is difficult to create online video in a business setting. Unlike a creating presentation or a document, employees do not have the tools or skills to create effective online video. In the marketing department or an outside creative agency there often someone who has significant training or even a degree in video production, along with high-quality cameras, professional lighting, and quiet sets. But where does this leave the rest of us? Have you ever tried to create a video in your office or cube? Even if you have a webcam, creating anything that looks good is difficult, and incorporating images or background information is tricky.
In addition, hosting video is a challenge for the corporate network, creating strains and access issues for network administrators and employees, particularly remote offices that have limited bandwidth connections to the internal network. Few IT departments want to add large amounts of video traffic to the internal network. Finally, security is critical for organizations. Posted videos may or may not be permitted to be shared, and some channels of information require moderation and review to ensure accurate, appropriate information is shared.
Faculte was created to help experts to teach online, and has evolved into a great tool that enables everyone to use the materials they already have – images, documents, presentations, video clips – to not just post information, but to tell stories using online video. All creation tools run in a browser and are designed to be intuitive for every participant to create good videos immediately, and fine-grained access controls are provided to allow videos to spread virally, or be controlled by specific moderated channels. And since Faculte is a SaaS solution, the storage and bandwidth for sharing the videos is managed by us, reducing the strains on your IT infrastructure. Our goal is to help everyone be able to teach, and create great video without training or huge investments of time and money.
Try out the Faculte Studio by joining our community or by starting a trial account that gives you full capabilities to control your own learning community. Let us know what you think.
And, oh yeah, Happy Holidays!