Returning to CiviCRM videos after some time on other projects, the team at Circle Interactive are now starting to think again about developing a CiviCRM community video project based on the ideas in Young Jin’s blog of Feb 2012.
We specifically see the need for the short instructional videos aimed at the new user (identified as Type C), ideally, less than three minutes long covering common aspects of configuring and using CiviCRM in bite-size pieces. We think this would provide not only a useful set of how-tos but also if they’re done in the right way it will contribute to general marketing - providing more reassurance to decision makers that the support network and documentation is actually just as good if not better than commercial products. We also want everyone contributing this type of video to work on a standard demo site for consistency. We think this should use the Seven theme on Drupal with some minimal modification to bring in some CiviCRM branding across the top. Seven works well with Civi and gives it a clean modern look. We've got a site together and will give anyone who wants to help, a login to this. Ideally we'll move this to something.civicrm.org
After some discussion we thought the best way to put the videos together should be in an open modular way, that can be reassembled in translation. It should be easy to create new content and produce translations of existing content.
We're starting with a list of videos that we think will make a good basis for people to get started with Civi.This is currently
- add custom field set
- add contacts to group
- use advanced search
- create a smart group
- send mass mail
- view mailout reports
- record an activity
- create custom activity
- create event
- configure a membership
- simple import contacts - include debugging
But we're happy to listen to any other suggestions and have a longer list for the subsequent 20, 30, 40... Each video will have a public project page perhaps on Google Docs to start with, though we might move this to the wiki or elsewhere on civicrm.org. There should be the following for each
- Video Title and an introduction to the topic
- A script probably in English first, but eventually translations in other languages
- Any translated scripts
- An audio-free accompanying video based on the script, (ready to have a soundtrack added)
- An audio file for the soundtrack
- Any full versions with audio editing already done
- Links to generic resources such as top and tail graphics
We’re also planning to document the production process in more detail and make the demo site available for anyone else who wants to contribute.
We have made a start on this and hope to have a set of videos ready for the next European Civicon. We’ll keep you up to date.
DaveM
