CommonCraft in Plain English

Every other Monday a small group of us try to get together and talk about writing. It started around the idea of screenplays but has broadened a bit. Unfortunately I missed yesterdays get together as I was in another meeting at the time. Yet I still benefited from a bit of information from the groups discussion.

Mary Lloyd, who completed her book “Bold Retirement” last year, has been looking at ways to support the book and develop her website. Erik Hanberg (who did make it to the meeting) wanted to help her understand in simple terms what RSS was, and presented her with a YouTube video which explained it. Because we copy each other in our correspondence I received the link as well to a video titled "RSS in Plain English".

Simple and to the point, the video uses a low tech format the producers call Paperworks to present technology concepts. It was both informative and funny. As it turns out, it is only one of many videos available through Common Craft, whose tag line is “Our Product is Explanation”.

The company has been around since 2003 and is operated by Sachi and Lee LeFever out of their home in Seattle, Washington. Since 2007 they have been producing short videos, many of which can be viewed from the leelefever channel on YouTube. Companies also hire them to do videos for their corporate we sites and they have opened the Common Craft Store.

If you are interested in straightforward explanations of how Wikis work, what Social Networks are or how to use Twitter, then you will find what you are looking for within these videos.

My favorite however, is the decidedly non technical “Zombies in Plain English”.

Thanks for passing this on Erik.