TEAMS VERY RARELY LEAVE AN ACCELERATOR WITH THE SAME IDEA THEY BROUGHT IN.
Some ideas shift, some change entirely, and some teams leave altogether. Sometimes the effects are jarring, and it can all happen very, very quickly.
A month ago, Betarocket sat down with each of this year’s Ignite100 teams and asked them what they were doing. This week, we met up with them again to discover what’s changed.
In a series of articles over the next few days, we’ll be giving you the lowdown on each of them.
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Now it’s time to catch up with Reframed.TV…
Reframed.tv is a different, less cluttered way of bookmarking and leaving comments on video.
Developed by Jo York and Kev Price, it gives people the chance to pick out specific moments of interest, and start conversations around them.
So if you want to highlight or discuss a scene that’s buried deep in a 20-minute YouTube video, you can bring it up on the Reframed.tv site, find that exact spot, and leave a comment there. That comment – and any discussion that comes out of it – is displayed in relation to where it pops up on the video.
Jo says:
“It’s all about moments that you want to discuss, or mention that something is happening.
“At the moment, it’s chronological and we time-map comments to a specific moment in video. We put other people’s bookmarks over the top, so you can really see what’s engaging people.”
THEN
When we first talked to the startup four weeks ago, it was called Temene. It was originally pitched as a platform to integrate several different types of content into live video, giving users the ability to splice Twitter comments and other media into the mix.
However, Jo and Kev were gravitating toward a slightly new approach. They were investigating the potential of weaving different forms of media into livestreams, so that conference organisers could integrate Twitter comments, link to extra reading or sell items. Users would also be able to pause footage and comment at certain points.
Kev said:
“We want to leave the production to producers because there’s an art to production. However, we’re keen to take their live event stream and enhance it with other streams and metadata, allowing them to do things such as sell stuff through the browser. If they’re plugging their book, for example, this would let people the chance to use it.”
The team believed this would be particularly useful in terms of raising the value of live streaming, especially after the event.
Jo says:
“I tend to write loads of notes inside a conference, and they never make sense. However, if I can bookmark them at a certain point, then they’ve got some context.
“You can also build up genuine social interaction around the conference. Producers can create a highlight reel quickly because they can see where the most interaction is. On top of that, speakers get feedback on which bits the audience likes, and can sell or link things if they wish.
“You can almost get to the stage where you’re selling some tickets post-event, as people can use it for professional development. That gives you the opportunity to grow your brand, reach people you wouldn’t have reached otherwise, and maybe get them to the conference the following year.”
Jo and Kev are co-founders of Newcastle-based web design and development firm Ki Media, which has worked with clients including Active Sussex, Bubblegum Vegas and Sage. The rest of the Ki Media team are manning the ship while Jo and Kev are away.
Jo said:
“I’m glad we didn’t start building anything before we came. We originally thought we were building a platform, and now it’s more of a wrapper.
“The Lean stuff we learned was really interesting. It really reminded us that you’re not building a product. You’re building a showcase. It’s like a research project. You do your analysis and build the minimum you can.”
Kev added:
“It’s been pretty intense, having mentors batter your idea. Especially when the stress is on, my reaction is to jump into code because I can do that. To sit back and not do that for three weeks is hard. But we learned more in three weeks than we did in those early days at Ki Media.”
NOW
Jo and Kev have been let off the leash to start building. And the first thing they’re putting together is the bit that got most people listening.
Kev says:
“We’ve always had this bigger TV concept, and this idea of pulling lots of different media together. However, the bookmarking element seemed interesting, and seemed to really resonate with people. So we’re building that as the first tool.”
Take this video promo for the Ignite100 programme (click this link to see it in action on the Reframed.TV site).
The video itself is in a box to the left of the screen, with comments popping up at set moments on the right. These can either be bookmarks left by a viewer, or comments left for discussion. There’s also a small graphic at the bottom to show which bits are engaging people the most.
You might also notice there’s been a name change from Temene to Reframed.TV.
Jo says:
“We’re in beta right now. We threw the site up there to see whether the interface is right. We’re using a generic flat design and we want to just drive people to the content. Until we drive people to it, it’s hard to know what works and what doesn’t.”
Reframed.TV uses the YouTube API, so it’s limited to YouTube videos at present. Users paste in the Youtube link at the bottom of the page, and then get to bookmarking and commenting. There’s also a search function, so that users can search for Youtube videos within the Reframed.TV interface, and a live chat box that enables them to turn a certain point in the video into a topic of conversation. It is also possible to tweet out a link that brings you to the exact point in the video that you want to reference.
Kev says:
“We think it can have real value as an embeddable tool that keeps discussion on your site. It’s also an analytics tool that can gather data.
“However, we wanted to find out where people could see this tech fitting best. Saying that it was a tool for conferences wasn’t really something we had a lot of data for. Now we’ve got a feature running, we decided we’d make it available and see what vertical it fits into, and where the most value is.”
Among the early users playing with Reframed.TV is Channel 4 News. Jo believes that it can also be applied as a “lightweight” editing tool as well as a decent feature for livestreams.
The pair are watching how people use Reframed.TV, and are having discussions with a variety of people about how it can be applied.
Kev says:
“It could make a good professional development tool, as you can have training videos, with questions that people have to answer popping up at certain points.
“Even as a simple viewing tool, it’s interesting. I don’t really use YouTube that much, as I don’t have time to watch a lot of the videos all the way through. If I have something like this, I might use it more.”