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Since the advent of YouTube, we’ve been advising people that the average user attention span is about 4 minutes, and that making anything longer just means that people will click away.

But this political season has been challenging that assumption, when some of the most viewed videos have been extended speechs of thirty minutes or more.

Are we reaching the turning point for web video where users are willing to watch longer content? Are people willing to reach the Illiad in addition to a haiku? And how do you test the proposition of a long form piece of content versus a shorter one.

I explore these questions below the fold…

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I reneged on my promise to deliver my NTC presentation while juggling chainsaws and swallowing flaming swords. But I did have a PowerPoint! And here it is: The User Generators: What Makes Them Tick.

Thanks for the great questions.

Voting ends tomorrow for NetSquared’s Mashup Challange, a competition to find great mashups for social change. You can sign up and vote for your favorite here and be sure to check out the voter guide (pdf) for more info on the entries.

The twenty projects that win this round will move on to the conference for the final vote; it will be interesting to see which win funding, as well as how many of those that don’t win will be funded independently.

I haven’t had a chance to go through all the entries in detail, but there seem to be a lot of promising choices. Good luck to all who entered!

This week a few years ago, I jumped on the Facebook bandwagon so that I could compete against my coworkers in the NCAA tournament. The bracket captures the essence of healthy competition that largely fuels the social networking site. Therefore it’s not surprising that this year CBS partnered with Facebook to develop a multifunction application. What is surprising is how good it is.

Here’s why I think the CBS March Madness Facebook application is a model use of Facebook.

1. It’s a one stop shop across platforms: Unlike a lot of Facebook applications that are installed and forgotten about, CBS has built it to allow Facebookers to get all the information they need from the application. For example, each team, even those that aren’t in the tournament, has its own page that lists the scores of the games, schedule, player stats and links to team news off the site. You can also watch videos and monitor the live scoreboard.
2. It’s scored the way we like it: You can earn more points for upsets and you can even win money if you do well. There is a $10,000 prize that will be given to a randomly selected person in the top 10% (who is also at least eighteen years old.)
3. There are lots of ways to interact: CBS realizes that March Madness isn’t just about filling out a bracket and watching the games but rather a ritualistic event that spans many weeks. The application allows for creation of groups so you can compare standings amongst particular sets of friends and post on the “Trash Talk Wall.” As Greg Shaheen, senior vice-president for basketball and business strategies for the NCAA says, “more fans now have more ways to view, follow, debate and enjoy March Madness than ever before.”
4. It is consistent with Facebook’s audience: The application plays into school spirit prevalent amongst the heaviest users of Facebook and encourages the taunting that is common sporting behavior through “TourneyPoke.” This application within an application allows you to send messages to friends like “ran Ali out of the gym” and “Ali called Paul a waterboy.”

Google Maps is a free web mapping service application that allows developers to create “mashups” with other data and embed the map on third-party websites via the Google Maps API.

Tons of groups and individuals have come up with some really interesting map tools that display everything from American Idol contestants” hometowns to localized crime data. The best part about the Google Maps, compared to its competitors, is the high level of user interactivity that allows you to drag the map and double click to zoom (by performing asynchronous network requests using Ajax so grid squares are downloaded from the server and inserted into the page). While you can translate almost any data points into a map, the keys to a successful mashup are simple: a map should make the data more useful or relevant and there should be multiple data points that, ideally, can build over time with user input (i.e. the Seven Wonders of the World map falls a little flat).

Here are some examples of interesting Google Map mashups, including one that Beaconfire built, to show the breadth of what can be done (and what we can help you do!).

1. NetDoc.com: This mash-up shows hospitals around your zip code and their performance on major standards of care measures (Heart Attacks, Heart Failure, Pneumonia, and Surgical Infection Prevention) set out by the US Department of Health and Human Services.
2. We’ve all heard it: Location, location, location - the most important thing when it comes to real estate. Housing Maps is a marriage of Craigslist and Google Maps makes it easier to search for housing based on neighborhood preference and also makes it easy to search by pictures, price, number of bedrooms, city and date posted.
3. Ironic San’s Guide to Ghostbusters: Photographer David Friedman was apparently just playing around when he developed this virtual tour of the filming locations of the classic Ghostbusters.
4. Campaign Tracker: The Washington Post’s Presidential Campaign Tracker “uses information from campaigns, media reports and other sources to compile a listing of events involving presidential candidates and their spouses.”
5. This virtual protest map (which is a replica of one that Beaconfire built for a client) is a great example of how to use Google Maps for online organizing, advocacy and supporter engagement. The message was “Join the online march. Pick your sign. Get it on the map.” helping supporters see how they connect with other people standing up for the cause.
6. Like the Ghostbuster map that is a virtual tour of a movie, BibleMap.org facilitates a virtual tour of a book, The Bible. Interesting concept though I had trouble finding a book and chapter that actually had points on the map. If you want to explore it yourself, try Genesis chapter 13.
7. Unfortunately only available in the UK, Bar Crawl allows you to pick your area, rank of the bars you’re interested in going to and how many you want and it will plot out a pub crawl on a map for you, complete with address and phone number of each. An Americanized version Pub Walk doesn’t appear to be as good, mostly because I live here so know they are missing a whole lot of local bars.
8. With the tagline “Make it personal. Explore options. Find Providers,” The Funeral Site map tool is done by the national registry of American Funeral Homes. I am fortunate to have no use for this one but I imagine in a time of need, this is more useful than a phone book.
9. Washington Post’s Local Explorer: On this map you can search for practically anything in a DC-area neighborhood: crime, schools, places of worship, post offices, gas stations, metro stations, you name it. I’m not sure if there are maps like this for other cities but it’s quite comprehensive and useful.
10. Safe2Pee.org is a resource where people who do not feel comfortable with traditional public restrooms can find safe alternatives. It is part of a larger advocacy and research project tackling gender free, inclusive bathrooms and another good example of a public policy issue being addressed using Google Maps.
11. GolfFinder.net and CaddyMap.com are perfect examples of how a mashup is only as good as the data in it. I looked at six separate golf course locator tools and these had more than twice as many points on the map for the DC area, though I still can’t figure out from the two which is better.
12. Though definitely not the most attractive mashup, Hurricane Information Map is a concept well worth highlighting. It is “intended for the use by people affected by Hurricanes Katrina or Rita who have or are trying to find information about the status of specific locations affected by the storm and its aftermath.”
13. MapSkip: Launched in August 2007, this tool “makes the world a canvas for our stories and photos” and is very well done (and my personal favorite). Though they have only collected 200 stories so far, their mission is to “create a weave of stories about the places in our lives” because “…many of our stories are about places. Where we fell in love, had the dream vacation, took that great picture or, well, joined the rebellion.”
14. BookWormz, Starbucks Finder, GymPost, Bank Anywhere and Gawker Stalker can help you find your local bookstore, Starbucks, gym, bank and celebrity respectively.
15. Despite all the useful things you can do with mashups, I found a handful of odd but amusing maps that I’ve lumped together to share: “If I walk in a straight line around the world, where will I pass?”, If the Earth were a sandwich?, Who is sick?, and OurDumbWorld

For more, check out NetSquared, Google Maps Mania blog or this website.

I was perusing the Presidential candidates’ blogs a couple weeks back, looking to see where they were headed in my old stomping grounds in Wisconsin, when I came across this item, at the bottom of a post about a supporter-created video:

You can create your own video ‘mashups’ too — feel free to download high resolution footage from our resource library today

Though I was annoyed that they put mashups in quotes (putting web 2.0 terms in quote marks, as if you’re not quite sure it’s a term yet, is almost up there with saying "online blogs"), I was fascinated by how open they were to releasing raw video footage to their supporters.

Looking around the internets, it looks like Obama’s campaign isn’t alone in releasing semi-raw video footage to supporters, but it’s a practice that hasn’t trickled down to non-profits yet. Below the jump, I explore the how this has paid off for some candidates, and why NPOs should join them.

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Editor’s note: Each week, we do a survey of Beaconfire staff to get impressions on a variety of non-profit technology issues. All opinions expressed here are solely those of their authors. Since video is becoming a more and more important medium for non-profits to use, we asked: What’s a youtube video that you would pass along? Note that these aren’t specifically videos we think non-profits should emulate, just examples of the diversity of opinion as to what makes a viral video.

Jeff, Principal Consultant: I usually pass along the videos I’m just seeing after everyone else has seen them. Here are two:

• Thai prisoners doing thriller dance
• Obama “Yes We Can” video

Eric, Senior Consultant: Cat playing the piano!

Taylor, Software Engineer: My top 5 youTube videos that make me laugh (I’m pretty sure they are appropriate)

• How to stop a kitten fight (depends on your sense of humor)
• Kick his Ask!
• Charlie bit my finger - again!
• Serious Baby… sometimes
• Grape Crusher

Marissa, Functional Consultant: Yo Gaba Gaba - the Party in my Tummy.

John Brian, Marketing Consultant: I’m generally a fan of anything that makes me laugh with or at political figures. Consequently, some of my favorites are:

• Barack Obama - The drawing board
• Any Mike Gravel music video
• Michigan for MItt
• The better John McCain “No we can’t” videos - John.He.Is and the Billionaires for Bush remix

I was also impressed by the responses to some of the user-generated content contests - particularly the Colbert Greenscreen Challange and The Office - make your own promo contest.

Michael, Principal Consultant: There’s no question in my mind what the greatest YouTube is of all time: Ask A Ninja from digitalfilmaker

This comedy series with witty repartee about all things pop culture has a dedicated (albeit highly disturbed) following - including me.

Tim, Functional Consultant: There are just too many to choose from, but I always enjoy Barats and Baretta. They’re great at short bits that deliver just exactly what they intend to delver. No fluff, just funny.

• Mother’s Day
• Mantage
• Maxwel Dorian, Valedictorian
• Completely Uncalled For
• To Do List

David, Software Engineer: http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/

Mark, Functional Consultant: Anything with monkeys in it… especially…

Trunk Monkeys

Lancelot Link

I could go on and on… River Dance Monkeys

Kate, Administrative Assistant: Here are the only YouTube Videos I’ve ever passed around:

• Hillary Clinton’s “Caucusing is Easy” video, because it was genuinely humorous and informative (now I know how easy caucusing is!)
• Mike Gravel’s throwing the rock into the pond video, because it was weird and therefore funny.
• The cartoon parody of Mike Gravel’s throwing the rock into the pond video, because they apparently agreed with my assessment of the first video.
• “Series of Tubes” music video
• (I was also a big fan of Jib-Jab, but it hit the streets before I knew what a U-Tube was.)

The common link for me is being able to have a laugh either with or at politicians. The Clinton brand of self-effacing humor really tickled me, which was great for them, because it lead me to help get out their message. The rest were videos where the politicians involved probably would have been better off if their videos hadn’t made it into my mental space.

Erika, Operations Manager: Vista Wonders

Several Beaconfire Clients also have videos you should check out - like this introduction to Bread for the World’s Hunger Justice Leaders event or NPCA’s Teddy for President campaign ads. If you’re interested in learning more about how Beaconfire can work with your non-profit to create a viral video, please give us a call or send us an email!

One of the most interesting things about the Internet is its impact on the evolution of language, turning verbs into nouns and nouns into verbs (ala “Facebook” me). A more recent emerging trend of web 2.0 technologies doing just that is Twitter, a simple service that allows you to communicate quick and concise messages to your “followers” - friends, family and co-workers - about what you are doing. You can now Twis or Twoogle with Tweeple all day and night (not my words. You can get your own at Twitter glossary)

More interesting than “what” is “why” Twitter? As the site says, “Because even basic updates are meaningful to family members, friends, or colleagues - especially when they’re timely. Eating soup? Research shows that moms want to know…”

Though I don’t think it will take me 10 years to latch on to this trend (i.e. how long it took me to take up blogging), “microblogging” is going to have to evolve past its hyper-connected, information overload, time sucking, egocentricity before I add another tool to my box. To be fair though, here are some “tweets” about Twitter in true Twitter form, which limits all messages to 140 characters. What do you think? Over hyped or exactly what you’re looking for?

1. Launched in Oct ‘06, many point to last year’s SXSW conference for its take off. More info & useful links from Mark Glaser & DoshDosh
2. In Jan ‘08 Twitter reported just over 750,000 registered users with 3,399 new users daily (for sake of comparison, Facebook has 250,000).
3. “…its status & image has been upgraded from toy to tool - can [it] ‘leap from’ a small, enthusiastic group of tech-savvy people to the mainstream.” ‘ Mark Evans
4. “A hybrid of chat, social networking and blogging,” it’s built on the attraction to community, need to be social and desire to matter.
5. Pres. candidates are twittering “the new reality of Campaign 2.0, where web-savvy campaigns are trying to attach themselves to as many social networking sites as possible.” (ABC)
6. Even if you don’t use it to chat, there are a number of practical uses of short, concise messages like RemembertheMilk.com
7. “…as with most Internet phenomena, users hacked [it] into something completely different - place I turn to if I need a quick question answered…”‘ Patrick Ruffini at TechPresident
8. “Twitter hate is the new black - [though haters] do have a good point. Do you really need to know that I’m eating a tuna sandwich for lunch? Probably not…”  Robert Scoble, a top Twitterer with almost 7,000 followers
9. “…intriguing, useful & addictive for those who live on the move. One observer called it “the Seinfeld of the internet…a website about nothing.”  The Guardian
10. “More than a status app, it is being used as a 1st alert mechanism for the dissemination of news & for immediate discussion surrounding [it].” Josh Catone, ReadWriteWeb
11. Is it worth it? “the average Twitter user lists six to 12 “friends” on the site and choose to receive cell phone updates from three friends.” (ABC)
12. ‘[it's] different from other e-tools. “When u get an email, you have to respond to it, but with Twitter, there’s no expectation of a response.” ‘ Twitter founder Biz Stone
13. “…has turned distraction into an art form. It’s like hanging out at a bar with a bunch of interesting people…& forgetting that you have to go home.” Scott Karp
14. “…inability to immediately embrace Twitter means you’re old…Admitting you don’t ‘get’ [it] is like admitting you can’t hear those specialized ring tones only audible to the young.” - Helen A.S. Popkin, MSNBC

Editor’s note: as a new feature, we’re doing a weekly survey of Beaconfire staff to get impressions on a variety of non-profit technology issues. All opinions expressed here are solely those of their authors. This week, we asked what people thought was the most influential web 2.0 site of 2007 - here are their answers:

Michael, Principal Consultant: What Web 2.0 category had 15% of Internet users engaged yesterday? What 2.0 revolutionary medium has Seniors, Boomers, GenX-ers, Millenials, Right Wing, Left Wing, Centrists and outright wackos using it? My vote for 2007 Most Influential Web 2.0 Site goes to YouTube.[...]

Tim, Functional Consultant: Facebook for three reasons: It successfully bridged the gap between the rockers and kiddies on MySpace and the fine upstanding professionals on LinkedIn, they had a huge jump in registered users in the past year…and everybody says so, and that’s a huge part of web 2.0.[...]

Mark, Functional Consultant: Flickr is one of the most useful Web 2.0 sites out there. While YouTube may be its more glamorous headline grabbing cousin, Flickr is more useful to more people as the taking and sharing of digital photos is much more pervasive than video.[...]

Milo, Marketing Consultant: Niche social networks: in a world of media fragmentation and long tails, it only makes sense that impersonal behemoths like MySpace and Facebook will lose ground to a smaller, more intimate and focused online communities — like the soon-to-come Shoe Tube — where users can more easily find others who share their passions.[...]

John Brian, Marketing Consultant: Social news sites, and Digg in particular. As I’ve noted previously, social news sites let you pick your own like-minded editor and are becoming a necessary commodity in a McNews world.

Brad, Client Manager: I’d like to suggest the widest influence wasn’t a particular site, but a type of site: the RSS aggregator, which not only makes user-contributed content much easier to manage and access, it also puts the user in editorial control…The power of 2.0 isn’t simply in content generation, but in content distribution.[...]

Kate, Administrative Assistant: I would suggest Facebook, because it’s very accessible to the masses. Also, there’s very little that will be more tangibly influential to the younger generation than their friends telling them when something’s cool.[...]

Eric, Senior Consultant: Yahoo! Groups. In 2007, listservs reached a big milestone: more than half of all Internet users now subscribe to at least one listserv, up from about one in three in 2001. Not only that, email that goes viral has more real world influence that the hot topic du jour at the web 2.0 hype leader du jour. That’s because older adults are much more likely to actually act on their opinions…and older Internet users disproportionately favor email for staying in touch over newfangled web 2.0 alternatives.[...] [for more, read Eric's report on Listserv use for nonprofits (pdf) -ed]

Amy, Functional Consultant: I’d have to 2^nd Kate’s nomination of Facebook - great minds and all of that. It’s most important to me because it’s helped me re-connect with family and friends who I haven’t seen in 10+ years.

Jennifer, Project Manager: The growing popularity of user reviews and ratings on products and services offers great promise for engaging the lowest common denominator…We believe it more when we hear it from our peers. From Netflix to Angie’s List, this Web 2.0 feature has had increasing influence on the American consumer in 2007, and offers great promise in 2008 for influencing consumers of nonprofit resources, services and ideas.[...]

Erika, Operations Manager: I would vote for Facebook as well… One of the things I’ve enjoyed the most about setting up my own page has been being contacted by people I haven’t heard from in a very long time, simply because they found me on Facebook. [...]

There were also submissions for less-heralded, but also important user-generated content sites like KittenWar and StuffOnMyMutt. Some answers were longer than we had room for - read full responses below the fold. And be sure to stop by next week to find out about the browser preferences of the Beaconfire team.

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My Must Haves:

• Web Developer
• Firebug
• Tab Mix Plus
• View Source Chart
• IE Tab

For Convenience/Fun:

• Context Highlighting
• Cooliris Previews
• del.icio.us Bookmarks
• Download Statusbar
• FireShot
• Split Browser

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