YouTube for Smart People
The New York Times profiles Big Think, a vid startup launching today that bills itself as "a YouTube for ideas."
The site's organized around meta concepts -- religion, politics, business, etc. -- and displays interviews with accomplished citizens, e.g. John McCain, Richard Branson, Calvin Trillin, etc. Instead of staid, boring reels, Big Think splices the interviewee responses together to form a pastiche centered on a single question: Who are we, What can we learn from Brutus, why did Sept. 11 happen, and more. The site uses a novel interviewing method that removes the interviewer (voice and all) from the process, then overlays a peppy soundtrack. Very watchable.
The site def has a good chance for success, and is a great successor to the beleaguered Arts and Letters Daily (I feel like everyone used to read that before, say, 2005). But I'm not sure I agree with its premise that there's a dearth of smartypants content on vid sites. Google Video, YouTube, et al., have a wealth of brain-feeding vids, you just have to search for them. If Big Think succeeds, it'll be because they collate and present effectively, not because they're bringing smahts to the interwebs.
"Beleaguered" Arts & Letters Daily? Huh? Other sites are losing traffic (so some colleagues tell me) and we're sitting on our highest numbers ever. Whatever our problems, beleaguerment ain't one.
Best wishes,
Denis Dutton
Editor
Arts & Letters Daily
Posted by: Denis Dutton | January 07, 2008 at 08:42 PM
I'm glad your numbers are up, Denis. I'm willing to concede that my perception of A&L has changed simply b/c I don't hang with as many academics and grad students as I once did.
But I've also found that, in the intervening years, I've discovered a variety of ways to get news and opinion content not involving static homepages, e.g., RSS feeds, google alerts, link blogs, del.icio.us, etc. A&L, meanwhile, hasn't changed much, and lacks the social aspects I've come to expect from my online media.
So perhaps "beleaguered" was a poor choice of words, and I should substitute "staid".
Regardless, I'm happy for the site's success and wish you continued success in the future.
Posted by: Steve Bryant | January 08, 2008 at 07:15 AM