Online Video Suddenly Gets Brainy

David Kesmodel writes "Several online-video efforts are under way that offer a more cerebral alternative to the typical fare seen on the Web, the Wall Street Journal reports. The ambitious Fora.tv, for example, intends to establish relations with all of the lecture series from the nation's scores of think tanks, civic groups, bookstores and the like, and then put tapes of their speeches and panel discussions online in an easily searchable fashion."

Won't work

[slusich]

No one wants an online video service unless it's filled up with whiney emo kids complaining about how badly their lives suck.

Seriously, while it sounds like a good idea, implementation is everything. It'll be interesting to see how they do.

That's better...

[JamesTRexx]

First thing I get here is the famous "Nothing to see here, move along." message. I hope that's not going to be the default when looking for intelligent videos on the net. :-P

I'm glad to see another opportunity to enhance knowledge on the net. Seeing more free course material (as in those of MIT) and getting more info from discussions etc. might just make it more accessible for people to gain knowledge and not hang around the tv all day because they can't afford a decent education.

Re:Right ...

[cyphercell]

Who is Sanjaya?

Re:Right ...

[cyphercell]

Googled him after I replied. I don't think it's that farfetched to think that one of these gets to slash and/or digg, from slash/digg to youtube, youtube to myspace, and bingo we've got the seething drooling masses being incredulously idiotic in public forum at someone's expense. Course you're probably right, 99% of the time people will not pay attention to what they don't understand.

Re:so...

[Red Flayer]

but as long you are not interested in this kind of things, you'll still type in "boobs" instead of "global warming".

Maybe it's just me, but even for those of us interested in those type of things, we still find our fingers typing in "boobies" despite commands from our brain to type in $SERIOUS_TOPIC. It's the unavoidable curse of being male and on the internet.

That said, I agree that it's not likely to draw a huge amount of interest among people without prior interest -- except by referral. If someone sends me a link to a good video, I'm likely to look for additional videos from that source. This is where the high signal-to-noise ratio pays off in attracting and keeping users.

Not free degrees, free Knowledge!

[JamesTRexx]

Not having a degree != being dumb, as is having a degree != being smart.
This is one convenient way to provide knowledge to people. Those that really want a piece of paper for proof can always do official exams.

Re:Won't work

[The Great Pretender]

Not too much different to reading Slashdot filled up with whiny IT guys complaining about how badly their lives suck.

Long Now

[Anonymous Coward]

I attend almost every seminar from the Long Now Foundation (http://www.longnow.org), they record and post everything on their website, powered by FORA.tv; it is very nifty, each session is indexed to the word, so you can click on any word in the context and the video will jump to that particular point.