Seesmic
Seesmic is to video what twitter is to blogging. Microvlogging, perhaps you can call it. But while the videos (vlogs) might be short, the Seesmic experience is far too consuming.
Seesmic is very much in alpha and there are only a handful of invitation codes going around at any one time as they control how many people get to use the system - preventing overload as they iron out the application and build a solid platform. It is also in alpha with regard its future - at least that is the impression. The concept is a straightforward and an obvious evolution from highly successful services such as twitter.
The problem comes in with the linear nature of time spent using Seesmic: watching videos, following and responding, involving yourself in conversations. Conversation threads are virtuously impossible to follow without considerable effort, and I would assess that most regular users spend a good hour or two daily keeping up and contributing. Great if they have the spare time.
If we take a look at text only services (twitter), we see significantly less time commitment. The text of ‘tweets’ as they are called, is easily and quickly scanned for relevance and interest, and the constraint to 140 characters for each message forces the author to be concise - everything is contained with the need for brevity.
The videos of Seesmic users are very different. many contain waffle and drag out significantly longer than the message they are trying to deliver, and I found with so many that by the time the poster actually got to the point, I had either already moved on to another video (or closed the browser out of frustration), or been thoroughly demotivated to respond. The bottom line for me is the payoff is far too low compared with the required level of engagement. Meanwhile, tasks are delayed from completion, and focus lost in yet more irrelevant noise - as if there isn’t enough of that already.
That said, I’ll still keep an eye on its development - maybe there’s some ace up their sleeves that they are keeping well hidden right now. They will need to find some genuine differentiation to make a viable business future out of what currently appears to be nothing more than a disorganised series of brief video clips of open and generally uninteresting conversations.
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It also, since I’ve been using it, doesn’t work very well. I uploaded my first video, an .flv file I created myself, and it worked fine. Any attempt to repeat that feat has failed. A direct recording I made when my uploads wouldn’t work, doesn’t play unless you start it in the middle. It doesn’t do much to encourage me to use it for anything.
P-Dub you are right, and it is alpha, and especially the upload module, sorry for this and we are fixing it.
As far as the time and commitment to watch videos is concerned, good point, but the purpose is to watch your friends and not everybody, I really like to see them, that is why we built it, but sure, it won’t be appealing to everybody, we hope you like it though when it is finished.
P-Dub, I think ou were unlucky, proper downtime aside, I didn’t experience the kind of issues you experienced. But as Loic says it’s still very much alpha.
Loic, thank you for the comment. Seesmic is definitely worth watching to see how it evolves, I’m convinced you guys have something up your sleeves to give the service some truly original touch - you’re not telling us about it just yet (and quite rightly!).