Google paves the way for online video in the workplace

In its continuing effort to change the way humanity operates, Google is poised to start a revolution in employee communications. A CNET story reports that the internet giant is adding a video function to its Google Apps service.

This is big. I think it's a watershed point that could lead to the broad adoption of online video as a powerful new channel for internal communications.

Of course, internal video has been around since the days of VHS tapes, but Google Video for Business might just be the "killer application" that finally makes it easy to produce and distribute video in the workplace. Here's an excerpt from the CNET story: 

With the help of Google Video for Business, a company's employees can upload and share clips with the same ease as posting a clip to YouTube, according to Matt Glotzbach, Google's product manager director. "Think of this as user-generated video for businesses," Glotzbach said. . . .  Some of the service's other features enable administrators to track usage, and employees can leave comments, insert tags, and embed a video into any Web page. Companies control who sees the video because only authorized users are able to watch. . . . Google is hoping that companies will flock to a service that doesn't require them to host servers or worry about huge amounts of data. This is a bottom's up approach, according to Glotzbach. It used to be that companies were willing only to pay for high-level executives to make videos for internal communication, but Google Video for Business enables a company to allow employees at any level to distribute video content.

Wow. And you can sign up for $50 a year.

At this point, there's almost no excuse not to start making more use of video in the workplace. Managers can update their teams with a quick video, recorded right on a webcam at their desk and uploaded effortlessly to Google's secure servers. Employees can train one another by sharing video of what works and what doesn't. Safety reps can send out quick safety updates, shot in the field and quickly posted to everyone who needs to know.

The possibilities are endless. The technology is now here. The internal bureaucracy can be overcome. Let's celebrate the birth of a new era in internal communication.

Comments

[isabel]

Hi Ron!!
Don't you think that internal communication should try to be as personal as possible and only resort to technology when this is not possible?And also, do you think computers should bring cameras within in order to facilitate recording videos? What is your opinion?
Thanks and greetings from Madrid!!

[Ron Shewchuk]

Hi, Isabel. Thanks for your post. I agree that employee communications should be as personal as possible, and there's nothing like face to face interaction. But what's happened in recent years is many big organizations have de-personalized their communications by shoveling all kinds of cold, inhuman, indigestible information onto intranets that no one wants to read, with few photos of employees and even fewer actual quotes because there's no room for them. Internal communication has been horribly blurb-ified. You can't fit much humanity into a 200-word article on a company's portal. But with video you get to see actual people, saying things in their own words, and you get to see what they're doing. I think video can put a human face back on what has become an increasingly sterile work environment.

[Ron Shewchuk]

One other thing: I believe that in the years ahead most computers are going to have built-in cameras, which will be used for desktop videoconferencing in this new age of high travel costs. Those cameras are also going to come in handy for social media/Web 2.0 uses like video podcasting, training, etc.

[Ross Monaghan]

Hi Ron,

I've been chairing the New Media Summit in Melbourne this week, and I totally missed this launch. Nobody at the conference mentioned it. However we did hear from Ben Edwards, from Victorian Police, who talked about "BlueTube" - the Victorian Police internal YouTube-type channel. VicPol is using it for internal communication, especially training. It's an important tool when video is used to train employees in highly regulated areas (like law enforcement) where having easy accessed to the most recent edition of a training video is crucial.

On the "camera in every computer" issue, I hear Microsoft is already looking at ways of using that to analyse facial expressions as you're working. Imagine that annoying paper clip popping up on your screen and saying "You look very frustrated, would you like some help getting approval back for that story?".

Hope you and the family are well.

[Ron Shewchuk]

Thanks for your post, Ross. Yes, the Google Video for Business launch seems to have been totally overshadowed by the big news about the new Google Chrome browser. It looks like the right hand isn't communicating with the left hand on that one.

And, you're right, it's going to be interesting when everyone has a camera on their computer. There's going to be lots of instances where people will leave the camera on by mistake. I can imagine we're going to see "America's Funniest Webcams" coming soon. Of course, that's what half of YouTube is already.