Note: This site is currently "Under construction". I'm migrating to a new version of my site building software. Lots of things are in a state of disrepair as a result (for example, footnote links aren't working). It's all part of the process of building in public. Most things should still be readable though.

Video How To and DIY

A play button

Continuing on the video theme, another place where video really fits the bill is the How To and DIY instruction world. Sites like Instructables offer a lot of content, but most of it is textual in nature. This is great for some forms of instruction, but in most cases a video would be better.

Dummies.com has a video instruction section up on their site with various offerings. These short little pieces on highly specific subjects are right in the sweet spot of the internet's communication medium.

For example, if you are looking to hang photos this 2 1/2 minute video give you all the basic info you need.

Finding what you are looking for is hit or miss. Sticking with the photo hanging, performing a Google search for "how to hang photos" returns this page on diynetwork.com as the first result. There are a dozen bullet points that cover basics of hanging as well secondary advice like, "don't overload a small wall with a large picture."

The original video provides the core info in a much quicker and easier to digest fashion and there is no doubt it's easier to learn something by watching it being done than by reading a description.

As with the product demos mentioned earlier, expect to see more and more of these types of videos in the future.

Note: While doing the searches for this post, I came across eHow.com which is a text instruction site, and Expert Village which is a very interesting looking video instruction site that currently reports having 131,537 Total Videos.

Knowledge transfer has always been one of the internet's strong suits. As increasing amounts of video instruction are created, we will be able to learn more and more things that on our own that required personal instruction in the past. For someone with a Jack-of-All-Trades mentality, this is very exciting.