ABC should enlist Amanda Congdon's help with videos and the debates
On August 5th, ABC will host it's 2008 Republican Debate called "The Iowa Debates." For the first time for ABC, it's allowing uploaded video questions, just as the CNN / YouTube Partnership has done.
Now you would think ABC -- in copying CNN -- would have a ton of videos by now, but not at all. So the obvious question is "Why?" The answer is basically simple, but the explaination behind it can become technical for those not in the web industry. Still, we can break it down like this: the website where videos are to be uploaded is terrible.
The first problem is that ABC failed to establish a relationship with a video distribution firm, if it ever tried to create on at all. In other words, leave the video distribution work to the specialists. Second, the website established to upload videos and respond to those already posted is faulty. One has to login to use it, which is no big deal, except the login itself doesn't work properly. Third, the upload system itself is tempermental and seems to struggle to capture your video. Now, when it does do so, it works like a charm.
The other problem is in responding to a comment on a video with a comment. When I try to do this, the system kicks me out, so I have to login again, and then get kicked out again. This has happened so much it's silly.
The other problem is that one could press the wrong link button and wind up at the ABC home page, which has no obvious link about the debate, but you can learn a lot about Grey's Anatomy!
All of this adds up to failure. ABC should have asked Amanda Congdon to help here, after all, she's on the ABC payroll and knows a thing or three about video distribution.
And the matter of Amanda brings up another grip I've got about ABC; they don't understand how to mate their online effort with their television activities. They're two separate worlds, and that's a serious mistake. Amanda should be ABC's bridge, between TV and Internet, but it's not happening, and my sense is that it's not her fault.
Who's minding the store over there at ABC? Well, here's my video on the matter...
