1. News. I've become an election news junkie and have been watching a lot of online video about the 2008 primaries.
2. Poops and Giggles. Friends sending great video clips, mostly for pure entertainment purposes.
3. How-To or Informational Videos. Vids that will show me how to get something done, or what a product or service does.

I've been cruising around Howcast, a new video site launched to support How-To videos, and I LOVE IT.

What I love the most is the brilliant connection between a video and an associated wiki.

Trying to explain wikis to a lay person, or even a relatively technically sophisticated marketer is a struggle. They just don't get the collaborative power a wiki can bring to a project or community. It'' not that they don't get the concept, they just can't see tangible uses of it.

The Ultimate Wiki Test
So I put the Howcast wiki test to the toughest of them all - my wife. She plays well as I try to show her new technology concepts and she simply gives it a thumbs up or down.

We've been talking about preparing sushi at home, and everyone says, "It's all about the rice," and I've yet to come across a good reference on how to make sushi rice until I found it on Howcast:

Included with the video on the site is an associated wiki, where the author can post notes such as the ingredients or utensils needed. This is awesome for watching a video and then giving the viewer everything they need to do it.

Beyond video notes in the wiki, viewers can add their own input in the form of a Comment, Tip, Warning or Fact. Now this makes it awesome. So for instance (just imagine as there are no current comments in the feedback image below) I live in Boulder, Colo., maybe there is a comment about cooking in high altitude. Or maybe someone puts a warning about avoiding scalding yourself with the steam.



Now there is a tangible and easy to show reference about the great use of a wiki. Nice work Howcast - great videos too.

Well, as often happens when I don't get around to writing something down, some smart blogger beats me to it. That's just what Beth Kanter did. See her Aug. 25 post, Collaborative Models for Capturing and Sharing Conference Notes at Nonprofit Gatherings.

As a matter of fact, go read her post first. What I'm about to say will make more sense after you read her excellent overview of tools and techniques.

(Really, go read it. I'll wait. It's cool.)

...OK, now that you've read Beth's overview of collaboration tools and strategies that can help capture the value of conferences (and hopefully followed her links to some examples), here's my bigger-picture thought for today:

Conference planners should consider how to capture and extend the value of the conference during the planning process. Because for many people and organizations, what gets captured from a conference is more valuable than the event itself.

So here's a quick checklist of what I think conference planners should start taking into account...