by davidleeking on June 29, 2006
Michael Porter (libraryman) has been talking about Netflix and fee-based services. It’s good stuff – go read and think! That’s what I did, hence this post… here’s my off-the-cuff thinking about the Netflix model and charging patrons for value-added services.
This can work just like a web 2.0 company’s services. Let’s use Flickr as an example: Flickr’s basic service is free, but to become a “pro” member, you’re charged $24.95 per year. Lots of users never mess with the Pro part, and use the free service happily; others start out with the free service, and then decide to upgrade to the pro, fee-based service for ease-of-use, more bells and whistles, more storage space, etc. So there’s a definite tiered, free-to-fee approach to their services.
Now let’s combine that tiered model with the Netflix/library thing… let’s allow patrons to check out videos for free (we already do this). Even place holds on them (again, we already do this). But then let’s jump a little off the deep end and offer an upgraded, “extreme movie addict” service that’s fee-based: if you pay a paltry fee, you’re entitled to services the “free” patrons can’t get, like:
- weighted holds, so you’re first in line for videos
- mail or courier delivery of videos to your door
- a cool newsletter/blog/email that provides stuff others can’t get (hmm… things like tickets to early screenings [need to work with community here], maybe invitations to a celebrity event, etc)
- personalized movie advisory guide – the “if you liked this movie, you’ll like…” type of service – but focused on the individual, fee-based customers
- ahem … a Friends of the Library membership…
- etc
The idea here is that:
- the fee would help pay for the added service
- this community-based version of a Netflix-like model would be friendly, personalized, and close to home – therefore more desirable than Netflix, et al.
- the normal, friendly, and free library service wouldn’t change – you’d just charge extra for the value-added, personalized, bells-and-whistles service
And now, let’s jump off the high dive – let’s not stop at videos. How about the rest of our content? What can we do to add some personalized, desirable, bells-and-whistles services to the rest of the library? Home book delivery? Emails from a friendly librarian telling me there’s a cool new fantasy novel out, and it’s already been placed on hold just for me (because I pay $25 a year for the service)?
So… am I off my rocker here? Let me know!
by davidleeking on June 23, 2006
I’ve wanted to play around with screencasting for awhile now, and recently when looking at job ads, it dawned on me – why not make a screencast of some bad website usability? That way, I can test out screencasting and at the same time, provide something marginally usaful to my blog, too.
So… here it is. In this screencast, I show and comment on some less-than-perfect usability on a college’s jobs page (basically, they let their jobs database get in the way of their design). I’m not sure how clear my points are, but then again it’s my first time doing this. It comes close to me thinking out loud.
For the screen capturing, I used Camtasia. Then I added a little video, titles, and editing via Windows Movie Maker, and then saved it as a Quicktime .mov file.
And let me add this: screencasting is COOL. I think screencasting could be extremely useful on websites – can you say quick, downloadable instruction sessions? Think about those subscription database tipsheets you make that explain, using text and screenshots, how to do a basic search. Why not turn those tipsheets into dynamic 1-2 minute videos that show how to do this earch, where to click, etc? And keep the original tipsheet, too – people learn in different ways, so the more reinforcement, the better.
Is anyone else using screencasting on their library websites?
screencast, screencasting, web design
by davidleeking on June 22, 2006
I FINALLY got around to adding content on my About page. So – if you’re extremely bored or extremely curious (or both), go visit my About page and find out a little bit more about me.
by davidleeking on June 22, 2006
Webmasters, check out this article: How to Plan Manpower on a Web Team (found at A List Apart). The article provides some pointers on figuring out how many people/hours are needed for web projects – something we could all use!
Shane Diffily (the author) describes website manpower in terms of “scale” – simply put, the larger the website, the more people needed to maintain it. But of course, figuring out size can be complex – some websites are large and database driven, while others are bunches of pages. So Diffily suggests calculating the number of hours required to produce and maintain site content, then using that number to figure out how many web staff are needed to support the site. Makes sense.
Diffily’s article has a couple of useful charts, and much more detail – go check it out!
by davidleeking on June 2, 2006
No more posts from me for 2 WHOLE WEEKS!!! I am officially on vacation. See everyone soon!
by davidleeking on June 2, 2006
I’m still experimenting with video, as you can see here. This was taken today, at my library’s First Fridays event. This month, we had a band performing on the stairs to our way-cool library parking garage. We also had free hotdogs and an information booth! It was fun (if you’re interested, I took some photos, too).
So… here’s an example of a video snippet taken of a library event. This snippet (assuming it’s good enough for the average joe – I’m no Steven Spielberg) can be used to showcase library events, future First Friday events, etc. If a library has a blog and/or an RSS feed, the video can be sent to patrons – what a great way to get the word out about cool library events!
And it’s done in more of a “story” format, rather than in a formal, “look we paid lots of money for a TV spot” style, which seems to be nicer for the web. The video briefly tells the “story” of the First Fridays event, and provides viewable snippets of the event at the same time.
Time spent on this? Let’s see… 45 minutes of actual video shooting (including time spent eating a hot dog). 1-2 hours of downloading, editing, and exporting to Quicktime. And that’s because I’m not used to it yet – it would be faster if … well … I was faster. And then the time it took me to upload the video to blip.tv and write this blog post.
Any thoughts?
by davidleeking on June 2, 2006
Yesterday, I taught another one of my Introduction to Web 2.0 classes – this time at the Missouri Public Library Director’s meeting. There were about 50-60 library directors there, which was pretty cool!
Afterwards, they asked some great questions. One of their questions really puzzled me at first – someone asked me to explain the difference between a portal and an RSS feed. Really. I said something about how a portal is really just a large website with lots of links on the main page, and how an RSS feed isn’t anything like that at all – but still wasn’t really satisfied by my answer.
So as I was driving back to Kansas City, I was mulling it over… and here’s what I came up with.
Anyone remember Netscape’s front page from, say, about 1999? It was a portal site – lots of links, and the page pulled up information from different sources – reuters, stock information, sports stuff, etc – and stuck it all on that single page. I think you could even customize it a little bit. Pretty cool for the time.
Even though it was customizable, it couldn’t REALLY do all I wanted it to do. It couldn’t, for example, pull up the list of new fantasy novels at the local public library. It couldn’t deliver just the news I was interested in. So there were some definite limitations.
As I was thinking about that library director’s question, and was remembering all that stuff about portals … it dawned on me just how excellent of a question that really was. Because, with RSS:
I am the portal
And that’s a huge shift. In 1999, I had to rely on a company to gather the information they thought I might want. But today, with RSS, I don’t have to rely on said company. I can, instead, rely on MYSELF to gather whatever it is I want.
I can get the information I want, when I want it.
So now I have my answer (not that it’ll ever come up again 
.
Anyone else have creative, useful answers to questions about emerging digital technology? I’d love to see them.
