Last weekend the FORA.tv channel on YouTube surpassed 2,000 subscribers and our video views climbed to nearly 1.4 million.
Congratulations to Nick Ryan and our newest team member Maureen Olund for all the hard work invested in building a FORA community over at YouTube.
Check out the FORA.tv Channel on YouTube by clicking HERE.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
FORA.tv and The New Republic
Check out the latest issue of The New Republic, not only for their great election coverage, but for the gorgeous full page FORA ad on page 4. I have been a reader of The New Republic since my days as a juvenile delinquent in East New York, Brooklyn, and so it's a charge for me seeing the ad opposite TNR's esteemed TRB column. The ad is part of a TNR/ FORA partnership which includes the airing of the magazine's public events at fora.tv/partner/tnr. The TNR channel features a new conversation with Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. My favorite is a video on Mike Huckabee and evangelicals in politics. Don't forget to buy the March 12 issue of TNR.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
FORA 3.0
Final touches being put on the next iteration of the FORA.tv user experience. New tools and design solutions that will allow you to get to what you want, share it, participate, create your own MyFORA space and think tanks. We have been fortunate to work with brilliant designers such as Michael Cronan, John Goecke and Dylan Schwartz, who push us down the path of ore experimentation and ever greater focus on the user.
We'd like you to have a turn too. How do we make FORA more fun, more accessible, more valuable to you? Write me with your thoughts, your critiques, your most subversive ideas at fora-ceo@fora.tv. I promise you we'll read them all and personally respond. We plan to have a lot of fun with the site in the months ahead.
Special thanks to Keith Burnett of Chatham House in London for giving us his FORA favorites on the front page this week. We love visiting the hallowed grounds of the world's great fora, meeting people like Keith who spend their days thinking how to bring the brilliant ideas to new audiences.
We'd like you to have a turn too. How do we make FORA more fun, more accessible, more valuable to you? Write me with your thoughts, your critiques, your most subversive ideas at fora-ceo@fora.tv. I promise you we'll read them all and personally respond. We plan to have a lot of fun with the site in the months ahead.
Special thanks to Keith Burnett of Chatham House in London for giving us his FORA favorites on the front page this week. We love visiting the hallowed grounds of the world's great fora, meeting people like Keith who spend their days thinking how to bring the brilliant ideas to new audiences.
Monday, February 18, 2008
2,000 Programs
FORA.tv has recently posted its 2,000th full length program. Since we break every prgoram into a dozen or so short form clips, that's around 25,000 videos, with plans to dramatically expand production capacity.
2,000 is just a number. Each program is curated, hand-crafted if you will, by our young, energetic, dedicated production staff. I hope to introduce each of them over time. I do want to pay particular tribute to our Director of Video Production Services, Trevar Mazza. Almost every program you watch is touched, literally, in some way by Trevar. He sets and manages our high standards of quality, of editorial attention, of user satisfaction. FORA's innovative content management systems, and almost supernaturally efficient production processes were either created or fine-tuned by him.
My office is right across from his desk. Amidst the manic pace of growing our young startup, it is a daily comfort to watch Trevar's intensive focus on delivering a great product.
Happy 2,00th program, Trevar, and congratulations to the FORA.tv production team.
2,000 is just a number. Each program is curated, hand-crafted if you will, by our young, energetic, dedicated production staff. I hope to introduce each of them over time. I do want to pay particular tribute to our Director of Video Production Services, Trevar Mazza. Almost every program you watch is touched, literally, in some way by Trevar. He sets and manages our high standards of quality, of editorial attention, of user satisfaction. FORA's innovative content management systems, and almost supernaturally efficient production processes were either created or fine-tuned by him.
My office is right across from his desk. Amidst the manic pace of growing our young startup, it is a daily comfort to watch Trevar's intensive focus on delivering a great product.
Happy 2,00th program, Trevar, and congratulations to the FORA.tv production team.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
MyFORA BETA Test launched
Next month will see the introduction of MyFORA, a bold new way for you to publish, manage and share your ideas and your favorite FORA videos. As we finalize the technology and interface, we are inviting registered FORANS to join us as a BETA user for the next 30 days. FORAN is a term sometimes used by our branding and identity strategist Michael Cronan. I've never used it before, but it has a ring to it. We have used Member, or user, or consumer, or viewer depending on the application. I never liked user or consumer in the media biz. Is the exploration of ideas another form of consumer consumption? Anyway....
On MyFORA, you can:
Bookmark long form programs or chapters for future viewing. Upload your own video commentary (video blogs) and original programming. Assemble "Think Tanks" with FORA program chapters and user generated content.
Keep track of recently viewed programs/chapters, recent forum posts, newly added friends. The "News Feed" keeps you connected to your personal activity, as well as that of your friends.
Add friends and colleagues to your FORA network. Find someone interesting in the forums? Become a friend and follow their life on FORA.
Moderate your own forum and invite others to talk about issues and subject areas of vital interest.
Track subscriptions to channels and areas of interest by email/text messaging/RSS.
If you are not yet a registered user, it's very easy to do. Just follow the instructions on the home page, upper right corner. Then join us for the BETA test. Full monty rollout in March along with our fabulous redesign and new user experience.
As they used to say in vaudeville, we think you're gonna love it.
On MyFORA, you can:
Bookmark long form programs or chapters for future viewing. Upload your own video commentary (video blogs) and original programming. Assemble "Think Tanks" with FORA program chapters and user generated content.
Keep track of recently viewed programs/chapters, recent forum posts, newly added friends. The "News Feed" keeps you connected to your personal activity, as well as that of your friends.
Add friends and colleagues to your FORA network. Find someone interesting in the forums? Become a friend and follow their life on FORA.
Moderate your own forum and invite others to talk about issues and subject areas of vital interest.
Track subscriptions to channels and areas of interest by email/text messaging/RSS.
If you are not yet a registered user, it's very easy to do. Just follow the instructions on the home page, upper right corner. Then join us for the BETA test. Full monty rollout in March along with our fabulous redesign and new user experience.
As they used to say in vaudeville, we think you're gonna love it.
Friday, February 8, 2008
FORAcast Video Highlights
Commencing in the New Year, we began posting a daily offering to the site dubbed a FORAcast. A FORAcast is a concise excerpt cut from our full-length video offerings. The function is simple: FORAcasts provide a straightforward and succinct approach to viewing video highlights. If you enjoy a FORAcast, then view the full-length video from which it was extracted when time permits.
We’re working hard on developing an intuitive User Interface to easily distinguish between FORA.tv’s full-length video programming and FORAcasts. Currently, FORAcasts are identified as such on their thumbnails and show-up throughout the site akin to their full-length counterparts.
All FORAcasts are archived here: http://fora.tv/channel/FORAcasts
FORAcast of Ben Stein speaking at The Commonwealth Club of California:
We’re working hard on developing an intuitive User Interface to easily distinguish between FORA.tv’s full-length video programming and FORAcasts. Currently, FORAcasts are identified as such on their thumbnails and show-up throughout the site akin to their full-length counterparts.
All FORAcasts are archived here: http://fora.tv/channel/FORAcasts
FORAcast of Ben Stein speaking at The Commonwealth Club of California:
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