Politics, Technology, Video, Web 2.0, Website review

Jan 17, 2007

When I saw Senator Barack Obama’s annoucement video yesterday, I was impressed by the Flash video player the campaign is using. I’ve looked into this before, and the Flash player Obama is using has the critical features I look for: (1) subtle design, (2) the ability to email the video, (3) permalink and (3) embeddable HTML code. I’ve embedded the player below so you can take a look:

It turns out the Obama campaign is using a service called Brightcove for their videos. I took a look at Brightcove and it seems like a great service.

Interestingly, one of the features that sets Brightcove apart from its competitors is their emphasis on the management of consumer generated content. Brightcove has a set of powerful tools that allow you to invite users to submit their own videos to your account. You can then review the videos and publish the ones you like to Brightcove and/or your own website. It is cool stuff.

Obviously you can do the same thing in homemade fashion using YouTube. But Brightcove gives users a bit more control over the process and gives you access to the videos in a variety of formats.

Speculating wildly, I’d say the choice of Brightcove is a decent clue that the Obama campaign might be experimenting with consumer generated video down the line.

Update: I see on Techmeme that Brightcove announced topday that they have raised an additional $59 million in venture capital money. Here is their press release and here is GigaOm’s story on it.

Update 2: It looks like I’m not the first to take notice of Obama’s use of Brightcove. Beet TV has more information. Here’s the key quote:

"Beet.TV has learned that Brightcove’s arrangement with Obama will be multifaceted. It will include ongoing publication of campaign videos, the creation of a Obama "channel" on Brightcove and a syndication function which will allow bloggers and Web sites to have campaign clips published directly on their pages."

Tweet

http://blogbusinesssummit.com Teresa Valdez Klein

I’m curious if Barack will take the time to respond to some video comments from his constituents using this model.
http://blogbusinesssummit.com Teresa Valdez Klein

I’m curious if Barack will take the time to respond to some video comments from his constituents using this model.
http://blogcampaigning.wordpress.com Parker

I know that the the Students for Barack Obama organization have also tried to get at least one viral/user-created video contest going in support of his campaign.
http://blogcampaigning.wordpress.com Parker

I know that the the Students for Barack Obama organization have also tried to get at least one viral/user-created video contest going in support of his campaign.
http://www.bivingsreport.com/2007/the-politico-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/ The Politico: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly » The Bivings Report

[...] I love that they are making their own videos, but the video section itself needs some help. The design is not visual enough and the Flash player they are using bare bones. At a minimum they should quickly figure out a way to let people embed their videos in their own sites. Also, how about an RSS feed so I can get these things on my IPod? They should take a look at what folks like Blip.tv and Brightcove are doing and take notes. [...]
http://davidallgroup.com David

Looks like someone at brightcove has turned out the lights. I’ve been waiting 5 minutes for the video to start and still get nothing. I’m patient – but not that patient.

My assumption is that the Obama campaign has to pay for bandwidth – even on videos which are embedded throughout the blogosphere. If that’s the case, it’ll be interesting to watch and see if folks create bots to watch the video time and time again – costing the campaigns thousands of dollars.

Why pay when it’s free? Seems like a silly use of resources when the alternative seems more reliable and easier to use.
http://davidallgroup.com David

Looks like someone at brightcove has turned out the lights. I’ve been waiting 5 minutes for the video to start and still get nothing. I’m patient – but not that patient.

My assumption is that the Obama campaign has to pay for bandwidth – even on videos which are embedded throughout the blogosphere. If that’s the case, it’ll be interesting to watch and see if folks create bots to watch the video time and time again – costing the campaigns thousands of dollars.

Why pay when it’s free? Seems like a silly use of resources when the alternative seems more reliable and easier to use.
http://www.bivingsreport.com Todd Zeigler

Brightcove does charge usage fees. However it has got a ton of features, most of which are more for professional video bloggers than political campaigns. They may have cut Obama a great deal for exposure.

The free one that I use is Blip.tv. It has more features than YouTube, better copyright protections and a more subtle player. YouTube is great in some cases though, obviously.
http://www.bivingsreport.com Todd Zeigler

Brightcove does charge usage fees. However it has got a ton of features, most of which are more for professional video bloggers than political campaigns. They may have cut Obama a great deal for exposure.

The free one that I use is Blip.tv. It has more features than YouTube, better copyright protections and a more subtle player. YouTube is great in some cases though, obviously.

blog comments powered by Disqus

Notice

We are pleased to announce the launch of the Brick Factory, a Washington, DC-based digital agency founded by former employees of The Bivings Group. You can read the details of the transition here.

As a result of the change, The Bivings Report will no longer be updated, although we intend to keep it up for archival purposes. You can read the Brick Factory's new blog here.

Is the Obama Campaign Going to Embrace Consumer Generated Video?

Notice

Categories

Archives