Deep tag it
At the recent TechKnowledge conference, I spoke briefly with Jeffrey Paul of Veotag. I was fascinated by his product at first, mainly because it integrates tagging so wonderfully. I’ve since been back and forth on the usefulness of the product for learning, but in the end, I’ve been convinced of the usability. I’ll cover my issues in a minute. (At the end of this post, you’ll find my own deep-tagged video.)
First, let’s address deep tagging. You’ll notice at the end of many of my posts are "Technorati Tags." Tags simply are a way for search engines, and sites like Technorati in particular, to pick up my posts. Since we all want as much attention as possible, tagging is a good thing. Tagging in media is a little different. It’s been difficult to tag rich media content, such as podcasts or videocasts. Sure, you can give descriptive tags but what about tagging INSIDE the media. Veotag, and a few other apps out there, are now offering the ability to do this easily. If I’ve got a video on wine in California, by deep tagging, I can then send my users directly to the spot where I talk about Sonoma Valley Zinfandel. In fact, from that tag, I can generate a URL. The tags are then searchable and indexable by search engines, leading people to my web site or podcast.
Think about the implications. Suddenly you don’t have to listen to an entire media file to get the information you need. More than anything, deep tagging represents just-in-time delivery of information. Information delivery can be quick, and personal. Your CEO delivers a podcast of mostly boring information. If the podcast is deep-tagged, then your employees can skip the boring parts and go directly to the part on yearly bonuses. Your shareholders dread the dull annual meeting, but they have to attend due to certain parts they need to hear about. Video the annual meeting; tag it; post it. Your shareholders can go to the parts they want to hear. As a marketer, you can release a promotional video into the wild and tag it. Each part of the video is now searchable by Google and other search engines.
In fact, the search engine optimization feature of Veotag is interesting in and of itself. In the above example, I talked about using Veotag for a wine-oriented video. Let’s say one of my tags is "Cline Winery Zinfandels from 2005." Google (and other search engines) will index that string. If a potential customer searches for "Cline Winery Zinfandels," not only will your tag pop up, but the customer will be able to go directly to that part of the video.
So, how does all this apply to education and training?
(Keep reading if you want to know, and if you want to see that video!)
Well, at first, I wasn’t so sure it was a great tool for the evolving world of collaborative learning. But it is. In fact, it’s a wonderful bridge between old and new. The samples I’ve seen, some of the marketing materials, and even a nanocast with Jay Cross, all seem to push the same thing: record your multi-hour training class, tag it, and put it on the Web. Sure, you can do that. And sure, your users could skip around. The thing is, I’m not sold on this method of learning anymore. I believe learning video should be delivered in small chunks, and I believe there should be interactivity. Sitting and watching a video, even if there are tags, does not constitute interactivity. It constitutes boredom.
But then I started looking at it from a different point of view. Here are some great uses for deep tagging a video:
- There are some things in this world that will always be better taught in a classroom environment than via eLearning. However, our students need to be able to reference that classroom content on the job and their notes or participant guides usually don’t cut it. Imagine being able to go to your corporate intranet and viewing the classroom session again. Except this time, you don’t need to go through the whole thing. You simply jump to the spot that provides the information you need. Just-in-time delivery of needed information.
- So many of us use or write job aid/SOPs/whatever you choose to call them. Imagine if instead of reaching for a huge binder full of SOPs, you simply went onto the Intranet and chose a video illustrating that SOP. In fact, you could go straight to the section that is problematic for you and see it demonstrated. Again, just-in-time delivery of visual information.
- I mentioned that I didn’t feel this was interactive, and it’s not, unless it is an assignment. Provide your students the link to the video and ask them to tag it. Not only can you tag "Chapters" or "Topics" within the media file, you can add descriptive text to each tag. Suddenly, working with the video or audio file becomes a class project.
The basic version of Veotag is available for free, although ad-supported. It’s important to note that Veotag allows you to tag videos already on the Web (yes, I think you can deep-tag YouTube) or tag your own videos and upload them to the Veotag servers. Your video is given a permanent URL (as are each of your tags) and you can email the link or drop it into your Web site.
There is also a paid version of Veotag that offers more options, such as the ability to embed your files into a Web site (as I did here). This version also gives you the option to add a slideshow to your finished product. The result is a slideshow, such as Powerpoint, synchronized to the audio or video file, all of which has been deep tagged.
I sent an email to support and received a phone call back within 5 minutes. The folks at Veotag are more than helpful. They are also excited about their product, which is always a good sign at a company. The app functions best in Internet Explorer, although with an ActiveX plug-in and some modifications to AdBlock, you can run it in Firefox as well.
It’s worth giving it a go with the free version. Here’s my video of professional dancers from a show I attended. I use this video to demonstrate some moves to my dance students (it’s a side career) and I even borrow a few moves from time to time. It will be infinitely easier to do that now that the video is tagged.
Technorati Tags: veotag, deep tagging
