[ NNSquad ] Re: nnsquad Digest, Vol 3, Issue 10

["Craig A. Finseth" <fin@finseth.com>]

   Following Lauren's post on YouTube as a research tool, think of "video as
   the new text." For instance, the operating instructions for my Uverse system
   including not just a tiny paper pamphlet, but a series of "on-demand" videos
   walking the viewer through how to use features of the system.

Deity, I hope not.  Unfortunately, I think you're right.

I object to the proliferation of video for two reasons.

First - and this one will go away with time - it's a pain to keep all
of my browsers current with the latest video players.  I have six
different computers - some with multiple browsers - that I use on a
daily or near daily basis.  I have better things to do with my time
than keep dealing with "you need to upgrade to the latest version of
..." problem.

Second, my time is valuable.  If you give me something in text, I can
glance at it and determine whether it is important, or quickly locate
the relevant part.  If you give me a five minute video, it takes on
the average of 2.5 minutes to come across the part that I care about.
And, while the whole of the video may be of immense importance to its
creator, I couldn't care less about the video as a video: I only care
about it because it is between me and what I need to know to do
something else.

Of course, this does't apply to entertainment videos, but this thread
is dicussing video as documentation/teaching.

Craig