Multimedia at the Kauffman Foundation: Cool…FAIL

April 15, 2009 by Ken Kennedy · View Comments

So…found the the Kauffman Foundation Multimedia site via I, Cringely; there looks to be quiite a bit of fairly nifty video there. So much, in fact, that I’ll never see it.

It’s all video, even though much of it appears to be talking head-style interviews, and it’s all only hosted here, via magic clicks off of a single landing page (though at least they do have link and embed codes available for single videos). Seriously, folks…I see no RSS feeds, no audio podcasts, no YouTube or blip.tv channel. Audio is tough enough to manage on the Internet; not that I don’t go to sites and watch video if I’m really motivated, but it’s competing with a LOT of other stuff.

Why not an audio only option, with a podcast feed? At first glance, these programs appear to be very usable only as audio, and with a podcast feed, I could just throw in the my podcatcher and it would show up (like similar audio from fora.tv, the LSE, and C-SPAN already does). And not that the video isn’t nice, but I’d suggest either picking one of the big boys for distribution, like YouTube or fora.tv; or use a service like blip.tv, which would let you brand/skin your player and URLs, but still give automagic RSS feeds, commenting capabilities, etc. Or do both! Have your own site, but copy it around as well.

Too many places do this. In their zeal to control their message, they limit it to practically no one. Video in particular is vulnerable to this, as it not nearly as amenable to background multi-tasking. I have to search out video, and mostly pay attention directly to it. There are only a limited number of places that is going to happen. www.kauffman.org/KauffmanMultimedia.aspx is not one of them.

Sorry, Kauffman Foundation…I probably won’t see much of this material. Bummer.

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About Ken Kennedy

Brian Gruber

Would love to help if you would like to post your video at FORA.tv. I am the site's founder and chairman.

Keith Mays

Hi Ken -- thanks for visiting kauffman.org and for your comments. We were proud to roll out our extensive video offerings only a few months ago, but as you know, there's no standing still when it comes to the Web. We'd invite you to visit our space in iTunes University, which we are just rolling out: http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Br.... We've got a good portion of our content up there for download, for your viewing convenience. And yes, we're certainly considering many options for the distribution of our content. Best regards, Keith Mays, Kauffman Foundation

Ken Kennedy

Whoops...thanks very much for your thoughtful reply, and for taking my (perhaps overly ranty) criticisms in the spirit in which it at least SHOULD HAVE BEEN intended. *grin* I'll be honest; I expected any direct feedback to just go down the circular file, which is primarily why I just decided to go on a blogrant instead. Ooops. I stand corrected!!

I appreciate the offer to check things out in iTunes, but I'm not an iPod/iTunes user, so I can't take advantage of it. That being said, iTunes University certainly is a great way to expand your audience; thanks for pointing it out. You might want to put some sort of link or notification about that (and other options, as you add them) on your multimedia page...the more the merrier!

Again, thanks for the response. I'm convinced...I'll keep an eye out for your content around the web, and in the meantime, I'll check some stuff out at the site. It really does look like some compelling content.