I had the opportunity to speak with two people about an interesting used of SightSpeed this morning. I'm a fan and follow SightSpeed closely. Yesterday I posted this article about some inroads SightSpeed is making through partnering with the political camping process. My interest in following up closely was driven by past conversations with Peter Csathy, but also by Cynthia Brumfied's story on IP Democracy yesterday about the use of SightSpeed in John Garamendi's campaign for Lt. Governor in California. Cynthia linked to this SightSpeed video, which was sent to previous supporters of the campaign.

This morning I had that chance to speak with two people directly engaged in this alliance, Dan Miller and Terry Leach.

Dan Miller is Managing Director of the Roda Group which backs SightSpeed and serves on the SightSpeed board. He is the former president of Ask Jeeves, Inc., a Roda Group affiliate company. He is currently working with a number of Roda Group affiliated companies to assist them with their business development efforts. Mr. Miller sits on the Board of several Roda Group companies.

Terry Leach is the Outreach & Strategy Director for the Garamendi for Lt. Governor Campaign at http://www.garamendi.org/. Terry decribed herself as a lawyer and writer who's primary field of work is in health care, but she's clearly well-engaged in political issues and this campaign.

My intent with these conversation was to put a podcast together, but sadly, my Windows software has been totally uncooperative this morning, yielding notes and thoughts from our conversation that I'll share here in written form.

I spoke to Dan first.

Ken: Dan, I'd like to get some history on where this idea came from and how SightSpeed and the Garamendi campaign came together with this idea.

Dan:  The process really began over a year ago. SightSpeed had done some market research on email and was interested in understanding how their video mail solution might improve the likelihood of email being read. They used both a control group and a test group of a thousand people each as part of the test, and learned that, based on that sample, the open rate of video email was significantly higher than other email -- nearly double.

SightSpeed's video email is available free to all users, with some added bonus for users that pay $4.95 a month for the premium service. Video mail is available to all SightSpeed users, but there are a couple of nuances that might not get the attention they should. First, SightSpeed video mail is a hosted service. Unlike a locally recorded file, which then becomes a huge email attachment, the recipient of SightSpeed video mail gets an email message with a URL link to the file. It's a web-based Flash player that displays video mail, so no special software other than a browser is needed by the recipient. This means smaller email because there isn't a big attachment, and it means anyone can view the message.

I met Terry Leach at a function we both attended and we began talking about how it could be used. What's resulted is they've done a couple of video emails so far, with more to follow. I understand they're very pleased and are adopting it as a regular part of their campaign strategy.

Ken: I guess one of the things I see is this is a technological extension of "pressing the flesh," for politicians looking to reach out to voters.

Dan: That's exactly right. Video isn't the same as meeting the candidate in person, but it brings the candidate closer to the voter. There's eye contact and voice inflection, things that help build a sense of trust and confidence, that just can't be achieved through normal email. We're very excited to see it being adopted. One big advantage to this solution is that it's free. Even the premium service is very affordable. While national campaigns have the funding for TV commercials and plenty of publicity, this approach lowers the barrier to entry and allows even local campaigns for mayor or city council to use video as an outreach tool. We'd like to see campaigns explore other new ways to use video.

Ken: One idea that comes to mind to me is the ability to hold a virtual town meeting sort of event. It seems to me that this provides easy access for a candidate via SightSpeed to meet with a group of people. The group could use a single PC with the video projected on a screen for everyone to see. Individuals might even take turns stepping to the camera to ask a question or interact directly with the candidate.

Dan: Exactly. Video strengthens the connection and lends a great deal of power to communications. We think that as people adotp video and become more acclimated to using it for communications there will be many news uses we never imagined.

Later in the morning I spoke with Terry Leach.

Terry:  First, I should probably set the stage. I have three sisters who are very tech savvy; two work in technical fields. I'm not nearly as advanced. I'm sort of the "luddite case" when it comes to technology. I'm not terribly tech savvy, but I do believe in the power of using technology. Many political consultants hesitate to embrace technology. Politics is, in many ways, still a very traditional process.

Ken: Given that you're the "luddite," how did SightSpeed mvoe this far into the process?

Terry: I brought the idea to the campaign because I did see an opportunity to use video to increase the open rate of our email messages. I think one of the key factors driving the open rate of email is the subject line. We all receive so much email every day, that a great deal of it goes unread. In our studies, an open rate of 4% to 13% is to be expected, with 8% being a fairly typical rate. That's on what we call an "email blast" that may go out to about 130,000 voters.

Subject heading being key, we felt a subject that said "Video message from John Garamendi," would provide incentive for more people to open the email. We tested with about a thousand recipients, all prior supportors or contributors, but who hadn't responded to our follow up messages. Of that test, we saw a 25% open rate, and about half of those we know clicked through and viewed the video.

Ken: It sounds like you've done enough testing to feel you've found a successful tool. Is it something you'll keep using?

Terry: Absolutely,. We're getting ready to do a larger email blast to that audience of about 130,000. My gut feel is that a subject line pointing out a video message from John will be well received and that we'll gain better than usual rates of people opening and reading the message.

Another thing we found encouraging is that email gets forwarded and the video messages get mentioned. We know other people, not on our list, got the email and watched the video. It got mentioned on Bill Bradley's blog, and we didn't send it to them. (Ed. - See Down Ballot Democracy).

We're encouraged by the value we see in the marriage of political campaigns and technology. John Garamendi is personally invested in technology and has worked hard to bring advances in research into places like the University of California. He continually demonstrates that he's open to new ideas. He sees the importance of new technology, and the value in using it to better reach the public.

Summary: First I want to thank both Dan and Terry for taking time out of their busy schedules to chat with me. They were both very generous with their time, and I appreciate how valuable it is. And I'd like to apologize to both of them for the technical problems that made podcasting our chat impossible.

There are some key points I see as takeaways from these chats. First and foremost, video is an enabling technology. It enables communication that is more meaningful and more powerful than email (or text messages or IM chat). People are visual creatures, and the eye contact, body language and sight of the other person, provide us wuth nuance that can only otherwise be gained through face-to-face communications. While we'll all have to become better socialized to using video on a daily basis, it's clear that the technology, as presented by SightSpeed, brings a new, powerful communications tool.

Secondly, like we see in the adoption in campaigns, some politicians, like Garamendi, are more facile at embracing technology and adapting to new communications styles. We saw this notably with Howard Dean and blogging in a previous campaingn. That analogy extends beyond campaigns into our business and personal lives. Some people will adpat and embrace new technologies lie video faster than others. There's a cutural shift ahead that will take time to fully develop.

Thirdly, I think it's important to recognize that creators and producers of technology never full anticipate how their tools can be used. As people use and grow comfortable with video tools, we'll see them more widely used in the political process, in business and in our personal lives. Just as I suggested a town hall style meeting using SightSpeed, there are other innovative ways to use the technology beyond simple one-to-one communications. I've turned my camera around to point the other direction on my laptop and used it to share a whiteboard brainstorming session with someone who couldn't be in the room. There are much more creative people that I who will unleash completely new ways of using video technology.

Unified communications is about the blending of network architectures with services and applications. VoIP was a step along that path. SightSpeed's video solution is another step toward a future of voice and data communications fully integrating with many aspects of our daily lives.


Technorati Tags: SightSpeed, Dan Miller, Terry Leach, John Garamendi, video email. unified communications