Ryanne just posted this video showing one of the workshops we taught in India.
We took a train all the way to New Dehli and ended up crowding into a local professor’s apartment to teach a group of Nagas how to videoblog. Nagaland is a part of little-publicized East India, an offshoot piece of land that most people don’t realize is part of India. Inhabitants look more Asian than Indian…and the Nagaland government has unsuccessfully tried to become independent from India for years. Who knew all this? The Indian media certainly doesn’t discuss it much. The US media wouldn’t touch this stuff.
So the woman who asked us to come teach a videoblogging workshop is a Naga Advocate…and saw the importance of getting them to start documenting themselves online through video.
We spent a whole day with about 10 young men and women who were extremely sharp.
They had no problem following the Freevlog tutorial…and had good skills editing for the first time in iMovie.
But 2 months later…their videoblogs are almost untouched.
So what’s the problem?
It’s such a great idea to get people from around the world to tell their own stories.
But there’s a lot more at work behind this ideal.
Let me give you my take on it.
First, the Naga kids are smart and talented. So thats not the problem.
But I dont think they really understood why videoblogging was so important to the adults.
Why should they spend time to make and post video for middle-aged white people in North America?
Until they are making it for themselves and their friends…this will always be a boundary.
Second, the Naga kids had access to computer and cameras.
Internet cafes were everywhere…they all checked their email regularly…and were members of the social network Orkut (which is hugely popular with Brazilians and Indians). They did have access to video cameras as well.
But since none of them really owned their own equipment…videoblogging becomes a real chore.
Think about it….when you have a camera and computer of your own…you can work on projects.
If you’re just borrowing a camera and paying hourly to get online, how do you edit and post video?
So a couple things need to happen before we really start seeing video out of developing countries.
- People got to have computers and internet in their homes.
- People got to have their own cameras. (even a $100 camera could be a month’s salary or more)
- And social networks like Orkut need to incorporate video into their sites like Youtube. Instead of direct conversations between Naga kids of a US audience, I think we’re more likely to watch conversations among themselves first…then we’ll get to know each other.
- If someone could make even $10 dollars a month from their videoblog, they’d have much more incentive in a place where you can live off a couple dollars a day.
To give you a different example…we did also hook up with a group of Indian guys who are now videoblogging. Swajana.com
Why does this project work?
- The guys are paid a salary to make it.
- They have their own cameras, computer, and internet access.
- We have been helping them over the past 2 months. Building the blog, walking them through compression, storytelling, moral support, etc. We are essentially making work for each other.
- They are video geeks like us.
So here are some notes and experiences on building bridges.
I would love to see examples if you know of any.
I’d also love to be proven wrong in any of this thinking?
Think mini! When I go to Wal-greens, I see really crappy cameras for $10 that come with a USB cable… networks of cafes that are friendly to a specific crappy camera could use software to make a cafe-centric video blog… perhaps the store itself could buy some of the crappy cameras for loan.
The low bandwidth of a crappy camera could even be suitable for dialup connections as the file sizes would be small.
If the crappy quality is an issue, I wouldn’t discount the vast industrial capability of developing country resources… couldn’t they hack up better lighting? light-tents with white sheets? steady cams with old big pieces of metal as counter-balances?
The mass production that fuels our insanely wasteful consumerism ultimately produces crap as far as we are considered, but are actually the refined process of countless hours of work trying to produce something really cheap.
Moral: The $100 pc isn’t all we have… there are tons of crappy devices out there that could possibly be exploited with a little creativity.
I think you are absolutely correct! Particulary the incentive part. If it is fun with my pals and we can have fun with each other playing with stuff then the greater the uptake.
Another point is my naivety. I was once called obstinately optimistic! Correct, telling stories this way is powerful, and there is no doubt in the potential, and dang there are so few stories from Naga youth out there online. However, i should have factored in that learning you outlined in this post and the little bit you and i gabbed about into the process. Some build up and preparation work for participants would also have been great. There was some follow up but not much emails back from the great gang we met. I like that we just did it though, even though it was tons of work and we will see with the results. Hopefully the folks in india will respond to this post and we can gain a greater understanding. Also, i am not sure the kids new what we had to do to make the workshop happen! Again, something perhaps i should have communicated.
There is also a cultural element, there are so many peers watching that people are afraid to say the wrong thing, so instead say nothing at all. There is also the elder youth dimension that is really important.
I am going to keep encouraging and lets see what happens!
Antipasto, it is not just the devices, it is the whole context of access, travel, cafe monitoring, time, expense etc. in India. It was really quite amazing that we did what we did, among strangers organized from the foothills of the Himalayas!
yep, Tracey is the woman who set up the workshop.
We were certainly glad to do it.
I agree that with these Naga kids…we could have done a better job preparing and following up. The least we did was to plant the seeds for when they’re ready.
Getting a new trends to take hold in a different culture is THE question of our generation. Ryanne and Jay’s experience highlights the major challenge not only in videoblogging, but in all cultural and economic exchanges and (for me personally) development assistance.
One point that I would add to Jay’s list, is that large numbers of people in these countries need to start watching videoblogs. That would fundamentally change the perception of videoblogging from a Western gimmick to a new form of mass media.
Maurice
Maurice is exactly correct.
I didnt mention that videoblogging thrives when the people in that country are actively watching video online. I know I first made video for the people I knew…then I sought a larger audience outside my own country.