iPOV's Blog Articles
- Tue. Apr. 29, 2008iPOV has refined a way to embed sophisticated, animated Flash videos inside a standard Adobe PDF file. The result is an integrated, thoroughly standard PDF. If you give us a Word document and a video (in almost any format), we will return a polished 'Rich Media PDF'.Number of Comments0
- Sat. Apr. 26, 2008The root cause is the invisibility of distance. Suppliers can't see what you see. Anyone watching as the device powers up would see that it's broken. But the supplier can't see that. They have your description and their (understandably paranoid) imagination. This scene plays out thousands of times each day. In our global, 800-number, FedEx, e-commerce world, you can't "open the box in the store". You can't ask the salesperson to plug it in to see if it works. You can only ship it back and wait ... and maybe wait some more.Number of Comments0
- Fri. Apr. 4, 2008I wrote a blog article a little while ago entitled 'Video Speaks Every Language'. I thought it made a useful point about the difficulty of transmitting technical knowledge across cultural and linguistic borders. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I had seen this problem before. Then it hit me. Its just another supply chain.Number of Comments0
- Fri. Mar. 28, 2008
You have a critical, but tricky, procedure that must be followed throughout your global operation. You have vendors in China, plants in Portland and Valdosta, offices in Seoul, Stuttgart and Cairo. So far, you have relied on emails and memos, but there are clear differences in the way they are applied in different locations. Is it language? Is it local preference? Are the memos just unclear? Whatever the reason, you need to solve it. Conflicting procedures are almost worse than no procedures at all.
How can you get everyone on the same page - quickly?
Number of Comments0 - Sat. Mar. 22, 2008Donald Travis is the company's go-to expert on equipment and systems that were installed over the past 30 years. He knows the 'why' behind all of the odd configurations, procedures and workarounds. When a weird problem surfaces, he can recognize it instantly and fix it effortlessly. He's seen similar problems 4 or 5 times over the years. His 30-something protoges might struggle for weeks before they figure out what he already knows. There's just one problem. Donald retires in 4 months. He's building a cabin on a lake and has no interest in contract work. Once he's gone, the next weird problem might shut you down. What do you do?Number of Comments0
- Sat. Mar. 15, 2008You customized an ERP module with 15 new fields, 4 new screens, 5 significantly changed screens, a significantly different workflow, and an updated graphics 'theme'. It takes you about 30 min just to walk a co-worker through all of the new features and methods. Now, you're tasked to deliver end-user documentation and training materials ASAP. Your options are:Number of Comments0
- Mon. Mar. 10, 2008You're have a new software package with more menus, tools, windows and recipes than you can count (e.g., Photoshop or Eclipse), but learning it is a real pain. You open help files, close help files, leaf through outdated books, and constantly switch from one window to another. You copy and paste snippets and commands and you always seem to lose your place. Arggh.Number of Comments0
- Sun. Mar. 9, 2008Remember the last time a manual told you to press a button and nothing happened? So you spend fifteen minutes on the phone waiting for customer service, and then you're told you just have to press it past where it starts giving pressure, but you were too afraid you'd break it? These are details it's almost impossible to capture with simple text. It's like asking the average concert-goer to read sheet music.Number of Comments0
- Sat. Mar. 8, 2008
While iPOV can apply powerful visual transformations to client video clips, it really excels at transformations of subjective content.. The essential insight lies in the fact that video is a powerful and comprehensive knowledge capture medium. If an expert could explain something complicated to you in person, a thorough video recording of that interchange will contain most of the information that someone in your situation would like to know. As simple as the idea seems, it is surprisingly hard to apply to practice. It was only recently that iPOV discovered systematic transformations that could make most of the problems go away.
Number of Comments0 - Fri. Mar. 7, 2008
Video is far more than a publishing or entertainment medium. It can also be a powerful tool to record expert knowledge. Unfortunately, the video that emerges from a typical knowledge capture session is too fragmented, error-filled and poorly structured to be used directly in professional presentations or documentation. A video producer will have to make extensive (and expensive) edits to render the video clips presentable. Typically, the producer will use sophisticated software (e.g., Adobe Premiere and Apple Final Cut) to slice, dice and dramatically transform the raw material. However, conventional tools create two problems that complicate later revisions and iPOV's approach is totally different.
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