The purpose of this blog was to learn as much as possible about the topic of interactive video. Through my investigation this is what I have learned.
What is interactive video? Interactive video is, obviously, video that a viewer can interact with in some way. I have broken this down into three levels of interactivity.
First is the lowest level of interactivity. This is done through audience choosing what they want to watch and when they want to watch. An example of this is the New York Times website .You can choose from a variety videos from breaking news to technology and you can also choose to share the video by emailing it or posting it on a social network. Beyond that there’s not much else for the viewer can do.
An example of the second level of interactivity is also from the New York Times but in this instance we are looking at their YouTube channel.
As with the previous level, the viewer can choose which videos he or she wants to see; but, now, the viewer can also interact with the creators or at least those who post the video as well as other viewers. This is done in the form of comments and ratings. The video titled, “World: U.S. Concerns As Taliban Advances-NYTimes.com/Video” had 3,722 views, 40 comments and 12 ratings at the time this was written. When viewers are allowed to interact at this level, a community begins to form an as we will discuss later on, this could be valuable to both journalists and entrepreneurs.
The third level of interactivity comes about when viewers can affect the video. At this level, videos can be affected in two different ways. The first is by using preselected video components and the second is by choosing what happens next in the video or in the next installment of the video. Journalists, for obvious reasons, cannot choose what happens next in the story; but they can find out what the viewer wants next from them. In the last post, I mentioned the web series I Heart Vampires.Instead of telling the writers how to behave in an upcoming scenario, viewers can tell journalists how they should proceed in the coverage of a certain topic. 
The last level of interactivity takes the form of mash-ups. Mash-ups, the way I am using the term, means things are being done to add to the video. Allow me to explain in more detail. With certain websites creators can place links and other effects onto the video. As discussed earlier, with Overlay.tv, users can take a video and add products, karaoke, add text, record video, add a Twitter feed, draw on the video, add sounds and links to a video. The viewer can then interact with the modifications made by the creator.
In the examples, we touched on how interactive videos are being used but I would like to spend a little more time with that. From my research, news sites spend much of there time in the first level of interactivity. They are stuck in the top down approach to video. They put the video out there and we the viewer watch it.
The second and third levels of interactivity are for people with shared preferences and the desire for community. The third level differs from the second in that it is the beginning of more professional content that also has good interactivity. The fourth level seems to be more for professional for profit organizations.
How can entrepreneurs use interactive video? Depending on the type of venture, this could vary. Generally, interactive video could be used to get your product or service known. Placing videos on sites like YouTube can bring awareness to your product. It can also help develop a community that would keep people coming back to your product or service.
YouTube and Ooyala both have ways to track the audience viewing your video. This could help entrepreneurs in two ways. The first could be in the early stages before you put your product on the market. If the video was done properly to attract who you believe your target audience to be, then you could use the metrics of the video to see if those are the people you are actually reaching.
Second, a similar plan could be implemented for after the product goes public. Once you know whom your target audience is you can use the metrics of the videos to see if you are still reaching those people. The metrics can also tell you if there is a group that you could be reaching more but are not and they could also tell you if you need to change anything about your target audience. If you have targeted a certain group but none of them are interested in your video, then you know you have to find a new way to reach your audience or modify your marketing strategy to better reach the people who are interested in the product.
Here is an example of YouTube’s Insight, their way of keeping track of video performance.
Along with the other reasons, interactive video can be helpful in entrepreneurship, companies like Overlay.tv can also bring some revenue in by selling appropriate goods through the video. Its ability to link to other sites from the video can improve community if that is the type of venture you are starting. It can also point to related products or other helpful information that might draw people to your product.
Now that we have touched more on interactive video’s entrepreneurial implications, what are some of its journalistic implications?
Because, journalists now need to think more entrepreneurially than they have before, there are a few overlaps between the journalistic and entrepreneurial implications. Similar to entrepreneurs, Journalists can use all levels of interactive video to get their brand out and depending on the type of journalist, he or she can also get their product out. There are millions of different websites and content creators on the web and with that much competition, it is difficult to gain an audience. Interactive video allows the journalist to do that.
With new means of collaboration, community on the Internet is becoming increasingly important. Interactive video allows journalists to build that community. That is not to say that once the journalist builds his or her audience community, he or she can just let it go. The community must be worked on to keep it alive.
The community coupled with the ability to interact can help journalist do their job better. Journalists can hear from their audience what they want to be covered. The audience can have a say in how a specific story is covered going forward. They can also tell the journalist what else they want to know on a topic or if they have any unanswered questions. They cal also tell the journalist if there is a story that needs to be covered but has not been yet or if they’ve had enough coverage of a certain issue and would like to move on to something else.
Links in videos either through YouTube annotations or through overlays can allow online video journalists to link to other stories either in print or in video or other background information. One of the more interesting features of Overlay.tv is that it allows you to put Twitter feeds on your video.
Journalists can use this function to show their Twitter feed or other pertinent Twitter feeds depending on the subject of the story. This will give the audience more information on the subject at hand.
This and other interactive functions make the experience of gathering video news more customizable. A viewer can choose to have a story with more in-depth coverage by viewing the story with the Twitter feed or through going to other linked items or the viewer can choose less in-depth coverage, in this case, by “hiding” the Twitter feature or by choosing not to click on linked portions of the video.
The other Overlay.tv functions can provide some sort of income for the journalist. The journalist can let viewers purchase topic related products. Given that Overlay.tv works with specific companies, the journalist may need to find a company that has more appropriate products.
To learn about interactive video, I spent a lot of my time on Google News searching for interactive video.
I used Mashable a lot as well. Again, I searched for “interactive video” to get information but I also used their YouTube channel. Along with going to the website I am also following them on Twitter.
I spent a lot of time actually on the YouTube site looking at videos as well as looking at their videos that dealt with more of their business functions. I am also following them on Twitter and I read their blog.
After reading about a website that seemed interesting to me, I would spend some time with it and in some instances try out some of the features. These are some of the things that you could do to get more aquatinted with interactive video.
