photo credit: jespis (a.k.a. Friends Friends Friend)
Like Leigh and many others (apparently “a hundred thousand” people), I got a Dear John letter from Eyespot announcing their departure from the video editing/publishing service.
It’s not all that surprising; what is surprising that there are not more Web 2.0 dead sites, at least ones that will let you know they are tanking. It’s a useful reminder for anyone who puts all their assets into one bin (if there are such people) as well as the transient nature of the fun web cloud; like the economy it may just collapse on you leaving you to cry, WHY WHY WHY? (or WTF? WTF WTF?).
I am thinking it is the beginning of some Darwinian evolution of only the ______-iest will survive (help me out with what the blank means… Bankrollediest? Funniest? Bought by Googliest?).
The honesty of the first bits of the letter are bottomed out by the plaff in the reason why section
We have spent three years providing over a hundred thousand of you with a unique video experience. We believed that by putting creative tools and rights-cleared media into the hands of influencers and connectors, Eyespot would enable social media and participation culture like no other company.
After playing over two hundred million of your video creations, we have to stop. After assembling possibly the most potent team in digital media ever, we’re now moving on.
That is more likely written by Cupid’s Dear John Letter Generator or some other buzzword spewing bot.
“We have to stop” Is your mother calling? Did you get called in to the principal’s office?
After assembling possibly the most potent team in digital media ever, we’re now moving on. Sounds pretty impotent to me. Moving on to where? Beverly Hills? Public assistance?
I don’t really care all that much about this, but am surprised that people have the gall to spray transparent no-speak words out like that and think the public will just nod and say, yup, you, yup.. Even give us a bit of truthiness.
Well actually I do care. Now My 50+ Web2.0 Ways to Tell a Story is gonna be knocked back down to 62 (once I can edit my wikispaces site; editing seems to be on the fritz tonight). Or I have to go and poke around http://www.fliqz.com/.
Yep, Eyespot shall soon be making an appearance on Ghost Sites of the Web.
So long and thanks for all the fish videos.
I remember when I first started going to NECC about 10 years ago. I would see all this cool stuff like eboard, Blackboard, Riverdeep, Classroom Connect, Big Chalk, etc. All of them were free. That didn’t last long, soon they were either gone or charged a fee. That’s got to be what’s going to happen with the Web 2.0 tools. All of the sites have to eventaully make money, I would think.
@Nancy Bosch: I’m not so sure it is necessarily the same path for all Web 2.0 tools, but there’s little reason to assume a free tool/app will be around forever. See “Free! Why $0.00 is the Future of Business” from Wired; I am not in 100% agreement with it, but some services have shown there is a business model in offering free services.
Bottom line? Why do we need 15 timeline makers or photo manipulation applications or avatar generators? Eventually the best will rise to the top, the rest gone and hopefully the good ones will still be free.
I also think that the real effectiveness of the applications in the classroom will be realized and the good ones will stay around.
You might be familiar with Kaltura from WikiEducator, I know that Leigh Blackall has used it quite a few times there.
In any case, as noted in the letter from Eyespot’s CEO, Kaltura is offering promotional pricing to former Eyespot customers looking to seamlessly transition their online video solution. http://corp.kaltura.com/static/eyespot
Kaltura offers a full video platform that is open source, thus providing a great alternative to proprietary solutions in the market.
Lisa Bennett
Kaltura
@Lisa Bennett: Thanks Lisa, will give it a go to see how the process works!