This week I spent most of my time at The Sedona Conference, on jet planes, or preparing online discovery lessons for law students (and sometimes all three at once). This is one reason my blog this week is a video. (Groans all around by those over 30!) If you are a protodigital who is reading this in the confines of a last-century organization, you know, one where videos are synonymous with games and frivolity, then first go close your door, put on headphones, and hope your dated colleagues don’t see you. Either that, or wait and watch this when you go home or to a Starbucks or something where they will think its cool.
Those of you under thirty are probably wondering what the “___” (fill in your own favorite curse word) I am talking about. I suggest you ask any old-timer what they think of YouTube. Still confused, ask them what they think of any writing that is not dependent on alphanumerics. Be prepared to explain a few things.
Yes friends, I said writings, because in the world of law a video like some of you are about to see, is a writing, a piece of electronically stored information. It can include words, usually spoken. But it can also include information above and beyond mere words. It can convey feelings and energy in a direct manner. It can entertain while it educates (or not). If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is a video worth?
The video below is the first few minutes of a presentation that I made a few weeks ago in Kansas City. This is how I begin a CLE where I am allowed to do whatever I damn well please. Of course, since I was in Kansas City, I started with an homage to fountains, and then to the great man of e-discovery from Kansas, my friend David Waxse. They all know him as the local federal Magistrate Judge, of course, but not everyone locally understands what a legend he has become in the world of e-discovery. This is a common problem people often face in their our own home towns. So, I started off by explaining to the good people of Kansas City what a treasure they had. I was brief though and did not wax on.
Next in the video I explain what we are going to do. (You know, the first of the three tell, tell and tells.) Then I provide an introduction to my favorite subjects in the e-discovery world, search and ethics, followed by an introduction to my video with Jason R. Baron, e-Discovery: Did You Know. This video helps people to understand why search is the key problem. So too does the little video within a video about a needle in a haystack that I started with. By the way, have you ever noticed my Supreme Court quote at the bottom right hand side of the blog? It’s by Justice Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954) who said:
He who must search a haystack for a needle is likely to end up with the attitude that the needle is not worth the search.
Brown v. Allen,344 U.S. 443, 537 (1953). You may laugh at my citing a Justice born in 1892, but after reading the transcript of the oral argument in Quon, I’m willing to bet he knew as much about computers as any of our current justices.
The video also contains a reference to a career change that I will announce in print next week. Some of you have already heard, but if you have not, and are curious, watch this short video. Of course, until it is in print, or font, or some other alphanumerics, it’s not really real.
Finally, I must offer thanks to the terrific sponsors of this CLE event in Kansas City, Continuum Worldwide, and my fellow presenters, Judge David Waxse, Denise J. Talbert, Deborah H. Juhnke, and Jennifer K. Vath. Continuum asked me to be the KeyNote of this half-day event and gave me carte blanche on what to speak about and how to run the event. Then they did everything for me, and did it all just as I had suggested. (Hint – that is the best way to get me to your event!) In the process, as per my request, they also made a terrific high-definition video of the event.
I plan to use the rest of the video of my keynote in the online course I’m working on. There is more good news on that educational front, which I will publicly announce soon. For now, I will just say: dare to dream big. If you work hard, most dreams seem to come true, although probably not in the way you expected or planned.
Right after the introduction above in the video I went on to play the e-Discovery: Did You Know? video. In case you have not seen it yet, or want to see it again, here it is:
You can also find it on YouTube.
[…] Losey pays homage to Judge Waxse and Kansas […]
“If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is a video worth?”
50i (50 interlaced fields = 25 frames) is the standard video field rate per second for PAL and SECAM television.
25 frames per second (1 frame = 1 picture)
Video Length 6:48 -> 408sec -> 25*408
The video is worth 10,200 words.
The average American adult reads prose text at 250 to 300 words per minute.
Given 6.79 minutes, the average American reading 275wpm will have read 1,867.25 words in the time it takes to watch your video.
At that rate they would have to read for 37.09 minutes to see what your video offers in 6.49
Thanks for the upload!
Almost there, I forgot a step…. I should have QC’d my work. If someone else wants to figure it out, have at it.