Article


So You Want to Create a Video Product… 10 Steps to Consider

September 14, 2022

Many societies and publishers are realizing they are well-placed to meet the increasing demand for video resources for both professionals and students. The combination of access to subject-matter experts, content management skills and workflows, and product sales and licensing expertise provide the foundation for excellent product development. But creating streaming media products is still new to many, and there are a few things to be aware of before diving in.  In that spirit, we’ve outlined some points to consider, gleaned from observations made from years on the frontlines.

  1. Video ingestion workflow
    • You will be managing lots – perhaps even thousands– of video files. Ingestion of the files shouldn’t be manual; a workflow needs to be set up to pull files from the right places and ingest them in an orderly fashion.
    • If prerecorded conference content is involved, there can be a workflow that starts from your abstract management system.

 

  1. Metadata modeling and management
    • The site should be metadata-driven, like a journal platform, with pages created from structured content (like XML).
    • The metadata needs to be modeled according to industry standards and user expectations.

 

  1. Closed captions and transcriptions
    • Captions and transcripts are a must-have for video resources. They not only make the content accessible to people with disabilities (a legal requirements in many countries and US states), but they also make it possible to understand speakers with accents or presentations with poor audio, and they enable powerful search functionality so users can discover the video content.

 

  1. Accessibility
    • Captions and transcripts aren’t the only piece of accessibility. At the minimum, the site needs to be compatible with screen readers and navigable with a keyboard.

 

  1. Search and indexing
    • Just as search is essential on a journal platform, you need robust search when you are offering thousands of videos. Search can be implemented thanks to a good metadata model, abstracts, and transcripts.

 

  1. UX/Design
    • User experience is key to facilitate browse and search – again, similar to a journal platform.

 

  1. Authentication
    • Authentication can be very complex, especially if you implement a token model for members, coupled with institutional subscriptions. You could potentially need to integrate with your membership system, the publishing platform, and event registration.

 

  1. Interlinking and related content
    • If you sell bundles with proceedings, you will need to make sure that the paper proceedings are properly linked to the corresponding videos. This is all DOI-driven and very much a special skill of publishing folks!

 

  1. SEO
    • This one is self-explanatory – again, structured metadata and full text will help (as will ease of usage of the content, of course).

 

  1. Metadata delivery to discovery services
    • You may want your content indexed on aggregators (EBSCO, ProQuest) or discovery systems (Web of Science, SCOPUS). This is a priority for any products that are licensed to libraries to ensure usage, but can be complex to set up.