Done21

When Jim and I first discussed creating a video show, we decided that we didn’t want to do it unless it was fresh; Something people hadn’t seen before. I was reminded of this during a WordCamp Miami session when Angie Moncada said that you have to find what makes you different.

The question we had to ask ourselves was, “What makes us different?” - What can we offer that nobody else is doing right now? With online video in its infancy, there’s still a huge possibility space. There’s no predefined show formats and there’s very few expectations.

When we were trying to find a differentiator, we looked at a lot of different screencasts, vid shows, pod blogs, or whatever they call them these days. After checking out lots and lots of tutorial-style videos, we noticed some common characteristics. Just to name a few:

• People very rarely show their face and choose instead to only their computer screens.
• There’s too much rambling about unimportant details and not enough information.
• Most videos put more focus on the video, rather than the audio.

We started finding differentiators by doing the exact opposite of these observations. In Doctype, we show screens and our faces to make the show feel human. We write scripts before we start recording so that we stick to what matters. And lastly, we spend time making the audio just as intelligible as the video. These aren’t new ideas (in fact they’re older than the Internet). They’re just different ways of approaching the medium and subject matter as it exists today.

It’s hard to make the time to find a differentiator. And you shouldn’t do something differently just to be different. However, you should always question the status quo when creating something new. Chances are, there’s already something special about your idea. You just need to figure out what that is.