Why Don’t I Enjoy Written Interviews?
Friday, May 2nd, 2008
Am I lazy or have I just become more of a fast paced sophisticated web professional? I used to enjoy reading the odd interview among general blog posts but that’s changed dramatically since about Christmas. Now it has to be a particularly good and highly relevant written interview like Khoi Vinh’s Talk to the Newsroom. Perhaps it happened a little earlier in more subtle ways.
In the last six months I’ve been more and more impressed with the video interview or at least the MP3 podcasts that are coming out. Only a short time ago it seems that they were more often than not a bit cheesy and of variable quality but shows like BoagWorld, Debbie Millman’s Design Matters, and the almost never ending procession of high quality video presentations coming out of conferences have really lifted the interactive bar. My computer is becoming less about my scrolling and reading (and getting headaches) but more about watching presentations that have relevant demonstration and supplementary information.
I guess this post should really be an assertion that I no longer enjoy the five screen scrolling adventure of the written web interview, rather than the question I chose to run with. The fact is very rarely do I want to read more on the web and that’s an increasing issue. Between work and study I’m about all read out.
Is this the direction we’re all headed in? Am I the only lazy-cum-sophisticated web professional out there who has an addiction for listening to industry events while I’m doing markup or working on stylesheets? The office is deafening when there’s nothing interesting or new to listen to. I don’t think that I am alone on that score, either. My assertion is that richer communication streams, with faster broadband and improved compression, will only offer us more ways to interact with the web outside of the written paradigm. I, for one, would rather spend an hour watching an interesting presentation than thirty minutes squinting at 10 pixel text. And, I admit, while it wasn’t on my radar even 12 months ago it’s definately a force to be reckoned with now.
My office revolves around an almost continuous feed of interviews, conferences and book presentations. I’ve become somewhat addicted to their company. Yes, I am a lonely sad web professional with the luck to have a private office space.
While the web will probably always be primarily text-based, and my work is primarily text based, it makes me wonder what services I need to be offering clients from this point forward? Perhaps what I’m currently offering is losing some of its relevance.
