 In onBeing, you can browse video in three dimensions and then watch them in a full-screen format. |
The Washington Post’s onBeing feature surprised me for its subject matter. Ordinary people talk about what they’re passionate about, whether it’s painting portraits or pretending to be “orange” for little kids. There’s no news and little context, just a whole lot of personality. Pretty entertaining.
But the content’s not that special: anyone can talk to the world through a video camera. OnBeing is more noteworthy for its creative presentation, and for solving problems with news video on the Web.
I generally flee from Web videos. They’re small, grainy and worse than TV. On the front page of TV Web sites, small Flash-video players are atrocious, the broadcast equivalent of when newspapers just listed their top stories down the page. Even with compelling stories it’s hard to get excited about seeing a traditional news package on YouTube. As much as it looks like it’s television, it fails capture the strength of a good broadcast.
OnBeing makes you forget you’re online and immerses you in a more cinematic experience. It reminds you video is about the visuals. When you select a clip, everything but the video fades away, leaving a clean and simple interface. You can also drag and resize the video to make it as large as your screen.
As you’re browsing videos, the previews scroll across the screen and pop out when you put your mouse over them. The sense of three dimensions makes you feel you’re physically exploring a space, or maybe someone’s mind. Even if it’s a subconscious effect, it makes you want to see and hear these people just a bit more. As onBeing presents a new clip each week, Neotenous tech notes that it’s also a re-imagining of the video blog.
You can see the same technology deployed less effectively on Slate for “Clive’s Lives“, where Clive James talks with various famous people. (The Washington Post Company owns both the Post and Slate.) Slate’s version is cluttered and clunky though, with different colored bars and gradients everywhere. What’s the point of taking readers to the movie theater when it’s just as cramped as the TV?
Rob Curley, one of the people who developed onBeing, did an interview about the project, multimedia and journalism vs. Journalism. He said that small stories and basic community info matters a lot:
Newspapers have to be the Fourth Estate and look under the table for things that aren’t right, but we can’t forget that doing little things that help our readers live their daily lives better is a very admirable and honorable profession.
Curley notes most newspapers fail as a guide serving the community, and offers up a list of questions that newspaper sites must be able to answer:
* What’s going on tonight, and if there’s something I really want to do, will you remind me of it?
* Where can I still get a good meal at midnight?
* Which local church is the best fit for my family?
* Tell me about our local schools.
* I heard the neighbor kid ran for a 52-yard touchdown on Friday night. Can I see video of that?