Armchair Theorist

Ever struggled with trying to explain to someone not in the IT industry what Web 2.0 is?

Or describe how social networking works? Or why would you want to use Twitter?

Well, fret no more, because Common Craft is an innovative company that specializes in creating simple as heck videos to explain difficult concepts. As their home page explains:

Our product is explanation.

We use video and paper to make complex ideas easy to understand.

And in the true spirit of Web 2.0, Common Craft is sharing low-resolution versions of their videos under a non-commercial Creative Commons license for anyone to use freely. High-resolution versions of their videos can be licensed for commercial use by paying a license fee.

Here are just some of the free videos that you can find on their site:

Social Media in Plain English:

And here you have Twitter in Plain English:

Or how about Social Bookmarking in Plain English?

You can find Common Craft’s YouTube channel here. Please do check it out. I know I definitely will start using these videos when I need an easy way to explain to people what all this “web-two-oh” stuff is all about.

Finally, I should mention that the reason why I was able to find out about this wonderful resource was because Daryl wrote about them on his blog. In this case, you really don’t need a video to show you that this is an example of social media working at its best.

Bonus Video - One of my favorites of all time:

This video was not produced by Common Craft, but it is by far the best video that I have seen which broadly describes Web 2.0 in a visual and engaging way that makes it easy to understand. This is a must have in every Web 2.0 or social evangelists’ toolbox.

This video was created by Dr. Michael Welsch at Kansas State University, and is rightfully named, The Machine is Us/ing Us:

See Also:

• Takeaways from Singapore Digital Media Festival 2008
• 5 Reasons Why Microsoft’s New Seinfeld Commercials Don’t Suck
• I’m a PC. How About You?