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While this is a subject I would be interested in, I took one look at the front page, saw that it appeared to be video-only, and gave up. This is precisely the
by nwp90 13y ago
While this is a subject I would be interested in, I took one look at the front page, saw that it appeared to be video-only, and gave up.
This is precisely the reaction that news sites get from me when I click on a link to a story and find video-only content.
Am I the only one, or would it be a really good idea to provide transcripts of the interviews?
- skylan_q 13y agoAm I the only one, or would it be a really good idea to provide transcripts of the interviews? No, there are at least a few of us.
- frabcus 13y agoI feel the same, and have filed a bug https://github.com/frabcus/redecentralize-website/issues/22 https://github.com/frabcus/redecentralize-website/issues/22
- serans 13y agoI stopped doing Coursera courses because of this.
- NoodleIncident 13y agoThe only thing that saved coursera for me was VLC. It all makes such more sense at double speed; if I miss something I can always pause.
- mayanksinghal 13y agoYou should use their HTML5 player instead of the Flash one. The former has speed controls.
- ics 13y agoIt's good that you mentioned it, but it should be said that the experience is far from perfect (at least in FF). Playback speed resets at every question break, each new video, etc. Audio drops out of sync frequently and seems to have more issues when sped up than in VLC.
- mayanksinghal 13y agoI have had little to no issues with quality of playback in Chrome. However, like your sibling comment suggested - it does lack keyboard shortcuts.
- repsilat 13y agoI'm more comfortable downloading the lectures, but there are a few upsides to using their HTML5 player: - When I speed up the video in VLC the pitch of the sound goes up. This doesn't happen for me in Chrome. - You don't get the "in-video quizzes" when you download the lectures. Some courses put them up for download separately, for others there is no other way to get to them but through the online player. The quizzes don't typically (never?) count towards your final grade, but they can reinforce concepts and correct mistaken understanding early. On the other hand, - I have finer speed control in VLC, and - The video players on my computer are just "nicer" than the web alternative, maybe better than a web alternative can be.
- csense 13y ago> video-only Videos are a lower-bandwidth medium than text for explaining things. I can read a lot faster than I can listen to a person talk. Seriously, this website doesn't realize that?
- anxrn 13y ago#1. A commenter is not a website. #2. There are a lot of considerations apart from bandwidth when it comes to disseminating information. For eg., having to use speakers or even reach for a set of headphones is reason enough for me to skip to the text.
- gottagetmac 13y agoYou're agreeing with csense without realizing it. He said "this website" to refer to the site with the videos (not the comment above him), and saying video is "lower-bandwidth" to mean that is less quickly communicative, not that it somehow takes less internet bandwidth than text.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- Blahah 13y agoI think csense meant bandwidth in the sense of rate at which the audience takes in the information, not network bandwidth. You're in agreement with one another.
- csense 13y agoYes, by "lower-bandwidth" I meant "video usually [1] takes more of my time to transfer ideas from the author's mind into mine than equivalent text." I wasn't referring to bytes-on-the-wire [2]. [1] Sometimes video is more efficient than text. E.g. with respect to video games, gameplay videos can convey a lot of information in a short time. Basically if you want to teach someone about some system that changes over time, showing how it changes in video is often a lot clearer and faster than trying to describe it with words or static diagrams. But a video that just involves listening to a person talk -- or, worse yet, read slides from a projector -- usually just ends up wasting my time compared to equivalent information presented as text. [2] It's obvious that video consumes way more bytes-on-the-wire than text.
- grumps 13y agoI'm also with you. I rarely have sound on, actually at the moment there seems to be a bug with my sound. I don't plan to investigate it. I strongly dislike video content.
- bbwharris 13y agoYou're not the only one, but videos actually have higher engagement across the board. A lot of us prefer to read. Most don't however.
- kijin 13y agoDepends on the target demographic. If you're trying to engage people who enjoy watching lolcat videos every day, a video is probably the best medium to use. But I suspect that the majority of the people who are likely to be interested in this topic (programmers, mathematicians, engineers, internet freedom activists) prefer to access the most information possible in the shortest time possible, accompanied by the least possible amount of unnecessary bytes, and in a format that allows quick skimming. Ergo, text.
- anxrn 13y agowrt "Most don't", how do you know this? Is there a study or a poll you could point to? I'm genuinely curious about this.
- vacri 13y agoThis being said, some salient dot points could be put forward to summarise the videos and what they're about. As it stands, it's largely a mystery, and not an enticing one. There's no 'hook'.
- shevski8 13y agoThere is an informative textual index of projects we are working from here: https://github.com/rossjones/alternative-internet https://github.com/rossjones/alternative-internet
- fragsworth 13y agoThe problem isn't just "information bandwidth", but also an audio problem in a public environment. If you're in a public place, do you want to put your headphones on, or would you rather have everyone listen to what you're watching?
- sfbsfbsfb 13y agoI'm not viewing 6 videos. I came right back to HN to read the comments hoping someone would summarize for me.
- richardjordan 13y agoExactly. With a well laid out webpage of text I can scan fairly quickly and get the gist - and also figure out how much time to spend on it or wherever to defer it etc. video only I tend to skip.
- WalterSear 13y agoI skipped straight to: https://github.com/rossjones/alternative-internet https://github.com/rossjones/alternative-internet
- grogenaut 13y agoAgreed, I can't watch football and this video at the same time. I can read and listen to football though. How dare you try to consume all of my bandwidth?
- dredmorbius 13y agoThere's both an "About" link (text) and a list of alternative internet projects: http://redecentralize.org/about/ http://redecentralize.org/about/ What's this all about? Over the last few years, we've noticed quite a few people trying to spread the Internet out again. Back to the edges, like it used to be. Sometimes they do it for privacy. Sometimes they do it for resilience against disaster. Sometimes they do it just to bring playfulness back to computers and how we use them. We've a list of the kind of projects we mean (any missing? send a pull request). On this site, we interview one of those projects each month. https://github.com/rossjones/alternative-internet https://github.com/rossjones/alternative-internet
- hyperbovine 13y agoIn addition, lack of any text makes it seem like vaporware.