Since my first post on video sharing, I’ve received suggestions for other sites that should be included in my evaluation of video-sharing networks. After reviewing these suggestions, I decided to add Viddler (www.viddler.com) to the list. With this addition, these are the 15 sites chosen to participate in the showdown:

For each evaluation category, each site will be ranked 1-15 (1 being worst, 15 being best) in each of the evaluation categories. Important or crucial categories will be given a multiple to give them extra weight in the rankings. The cumulative scores will be tabulated and the site with the highest score will be declared the winner.

Evaluation Criteria (with multiplier weight in parenthesis):

User Experience (3x): With regard to user experience, I am focusing specifically on simplicity. How easy is it to go from being a new user to uploading a video and organizing as needed? How many steps are involved in uploading each video? I rewarded sites with a clean interface and downgraded sites with a busy MySpace feel.

Sharing/Embedding (3x): Can the video be embedded in a web page or within a Blackboard class? Does the site provide the code (html or java script) to make embedding as simple as cut and paste

File Size/Storage Space (2x): What are the size and storage limitations, if any? Is there a limit on the number of videos that can be uploaded? Are you limited to a certain volume of uploads per month/week? Is the limitation based on upload file size or the encoded file size? Are videos limited to a certain length of time such as YouTube’s 10-minute limitation?

Ownership (2x): What are the sites terms of use and privacy policies? Are the terms of service easy to read and understand? Does the sharing service claim exclusive or partial ownership of the video?

Privacy (2x): Are uploaded videos available to the web audience at large? Can the videos be protected and only shared with a private group?

File Formats Accepted (2x): Does the video need to be converted to a specific format before it can be uploaded? How many file types (.mov, .mpg, .wmv, .rm) does the site accept?

Conversion/Encoding (2x): Are the files encoded to a file format that allows for optimal playback? Where does the encoding occur? Some sites require encode the video on your machine before it is uploaded. That allows for faster upload times but requires you the download the conversion software tool or applet. Does the site support encoding in multiple file formats?

Downloads/Full Screen (1x): Can viewers download the posted video to their computers? Can videos be played back in Full Screen or are viewers required to watch the video in a little player?

Site Management (1x): Is there any danger that the site will go out of business and the videos will be lost? Does the site have a stable and well-established ownership group such as Google’s ownership of Youtube or Yahoo!’s ownership of JumpCut? Does management seemed more focused on being bought out or on building a long-lasting product?

Extras (1x): In an effort to compete with the popularity of YouTube, several of the new sites are launching new features to allow for greater control and manipulation of the video. Are these features useful or just fancy window dressing to attract users? How stable is the new functionality? Do the features work across platforms (Mac & PC)? Examples Include:

• Editing/Remix: Several sites now allow you the change or edit your uploaded clip and combine them with additional clips. This allows you to add new material or update your previously posted videos without having to re-encode. This keeps videos current and reusable.
• Direct Recording/Post from a Camera: Allows you to upload directly from a web-cam or camera attached to a PC.
• Viewer Interaction: You can create a room to watch and interact with other users while sharing your videos.
• Timeline Tagging: You can tag the timeline of the video with keywords and/or comments. This is great for note taking.

Score Charts

Final Scores

Conclusions

The top four—Viddler, Vimeo, Eyespot, and Blip.TV—all scored over 200 points in the survey and are all excellent options for use in an educational setting.

Viddler’s strengths are excellent interface coupled with very useful and easy to use extra features. I thought the direct web-cam capture provided a simple way to leave quick video comments and instructions, but I was really impressed by the ability to add comments and tags within the video timeline. This provides students with a great way to manage notes. Viddler is also the only site that allowed full-screen mode functionality with embedded videos.

Vimeo came in 2nd and was the site that was the most fun to use. The ease of setup and uploading surpasses the other sites in the showdown. In addition, Vimeo allows you to set the size and settings of the video and generate the new embed code on the fly. Vimeo’s only limitation is its 250MB per week limit (about 50 minutes of compressed video). Compare that to Viddler’s 500MB per file limit with no weekly maximum and you can see it’s a serious drawback if you are posting lots of video or plan on pre-posting a large amount in preparation for an upcoming quarter or semester. If you remove the file size category from the review, Vimeo actually comes out on top. That’s pretty remarkable considering Vimeo provides very little in the extras department. In short, what Vimeo does do, it does very well.

Blip.tv was easy to use and had a wide array of features. Especially useful is the one-click distribution which lets you quickly post your videos to your blog or as an iTunes podcast. Blip also accepts every video file format you can throw at it, including real media and 16×9 aspect ratios.

Eyespot also had a clean and user-friendly interface. Its big advantage was the ease of use of its editing and remixing features. If that’s a feature you want, Eyespot is the best.

So, those are the best of the bunch and the ones I would recommend to faculty who are interested in using video in their online classrooms. If you any questions or comments about my rankings or want to know more about the sites I reviewed, feel free to comment on the blog or send me an email at rsalisbu@depaul.edu.