This week’s Brainmesh was a cornucopia of relevant news and views from the team. From tools that are making it easier for nonprofits to create rich content to moves in the market that nonprofits should definitely watch, we’ve tried to capture some of the most intriguing things happening this week and hope you enjoy.
YouTube’s Free Video Editing Tools
YouTube’s Free Video Editing Tools
Google just announced a built-in video editor for all users. This announcements makes it really easy for anybody to do the 90% of editing that most need to do when they’re trying to get a simple video online and look better than the rough cut.
As Zach said, “The more tools the better is the bottom line.” In the end, it’s still not so much about the tools used as the content of the message on which those tools are used. In that light, we brought up a couple service providers we know who specialize in helping nonprofits produce good videos (AlivePitch, GorrillaSpot).
A Patent for Social Networking?
Brad resurfaced our previous discussion on software patents by talking about how Amazon has just patented social networking. If nothing else, it’s confirmation of the consensus around “absurdity” that we arrived at last week.
Has Twitter found a good way to incorporate ads?
Toy Story 3 Ad on Twitter
Brad also started a discussion around Twitter’s recently announced approach to advertising. We all basically agreed it is definitely a “Twitter” approach in that they haven’t just slapped banner ads around the site. This advertising is deeply integrated into the essence of Twitter. On that note, we all felt that when Twitter messes with things like trending topics by placing ads alongside legitimate trends, it starts encroaching on its own value.
A larger question surfaced around Twitter becoming a product more than a platform. They continue to launch products and services that squash other developers’ hard work, yet they still want to developers to continue to help them spread their presence across the web.
For now, the move means another potential channel through which nonprofits may be able to reach out. We’ll see whether it sticks or not.
iPhone: “The Bloom is Off the Rose”?
This quote comes from Peter, who opened a discussion about mobile market share. Android’s doubled last year, Apple’s declined a bit. Peter feels that maybe we’re starting to see too much of a good thing with Apple staying the course on what has been successful for it, rather than being proactive to curb the growth of Android as its new foremost competitor. Some of us believe that a closed OS simply won’t stand a chance long term versus Android which is open and free for manufacturers to use. Others think iPhone’s experience will continue to be better and therefore command the customers. Others think that even if Android becomes the predominant player in the market, Apple might not mind and usually enjoys being seen as the top-tier, luxury brand.
No matter how you swing it, what the numbers are saying is that phones are getting smarter, better, and usage is spreading amongst the population quite quickly–and phones are going to be a primary device for which to develop for many nonprofits, greater than the standard web page in many cases.
Further reading:
Gaming as fundraising
Kemper wondered how gaming could be used to help nonprofits raise awareness and funding. There is a lot of promise, we think, with sites like Playtogive and FreeRice bringing a new level of immersion and interactivity to helping a great cause, not to mention companies like Impact Games that seek to make a living by changing lives through the power of games. Even Zynga, a powerful social games developer, recently did a campaign that helped raise $1.5 million for Haiti relief.
Further Reading:
Linked Data, Relating Content, and the Semantic Web
Zach gave us a crash course in the semantic web (which some people want to call Web 3.0) and why it’s important to keep up with as it gains traction. The main premise behind the semantic movement is that the overwhelming amount of data on the web right now is causing a lot of noise and loss. You look for something and you don’t find the best piece of information because you didn’t *quite* get the right keyword in your search. The semantic web seeks to make every piece of data relatable and contextual to all others. Pretty exciting stuff, Zach.
Further Reading:
