We have been informed by a few individuals that getting a Spidvid account through using their private beta code was a somewhat challenging and tedious process. Our team has been testing Spidvid’s platform for many months now and while we didn’t want to go into public beta until next month at the earliest, it just didn’t make sense to stay in private beta if getting an account was hard for the average person.

So as of today Spidvid is now in public beta where anyone can get an account in two easy steps. First go here and create an account, then simply click on the link that you receive in the confirmation email and you’re good to go.

While in your account for the very first time you should then click on the “Edit My Profile” link to upload a profile picture, tell your story and provide key information about yourself. Copying and pasting profile text from your Facebook or LinkedIn account is the quickest and easiest way to create a fantastic Spidvid profile.

We will be sending out an email shortly to everyone who requested a private beta invite but doesn’t currently have an active Spidvid account. If you are in this category you can save us an email by creating one now.

Tomorrow there will be a blog post written about how to pimp your Spidvid profile to get the most out of your Spidvid experience, so if you aren’t already subscribed to our blog via email or RSS be sure to do that now to stay in the loop.

A series of how-to posts will follow over the coming weeks and months to help everyone in the community get familiar with Spidvid’s platform, and we intend on creating The Ultimate Guide to Spidvid e-book later this winter as well.

So again, if you need an account you can now get one right away without waiting. Isn’t instant gratification a great thing!

Once you create your account and spend a few minutes putting together a quality profile, you should then post a video production proposal (if you’re a video creator), or look for projects to bid on (if you are a writer, actor, director, …). That’s where the true magic begins en route to creating new videos for the world’s viewing audience to watch and share but we will go into more depth on this important topic with a blog post next week.

For now just start off simple by getting a Spidvid account, the rest will fall into place in time.

Jeremy Campbell News create a profile, get an account, new account, new community, new media, new user, private beta, public beta, social media, spidvid, video production

So here we are on Christmas Eve and as promised we are going to begin sending out invites in a few minutes from now, how exciting!

Since we are in private beta our admin will be approving all submitted proposals and uploaded videos to make sure no spam or pirated content gets through. We expect that when we reach public beta (next month in January or February) we will allow the Spidvid community to regulate projects and videos to improve the entire work and content flow of the platform.

So for now check out how things are with your account, create a quality profile, connect with the other very early members, post a video production proposal (if you are a video creator) and our admin team will begin approving proposals on Monday December 28th. If you have any questions, feedback, or ideas be sure to contact us.

If you aren’t on our request list right now but want to be included in the next round of invites, visit our site, click the ‘join our video production community’ button on the left hand side, and provide us with your email address so we can make you a Spidvid insider soon.

Merry Christmas everyone from myself and the entire Spidvid team. An exciting 2010 lies just ahead!

Jeremy Campbell News happy holidays, invites, Merry Christmas, new media, online video, private beta, production teams, proposals, social media, spidvid, video production, web 2.0, web video

What you typically see today in the video creation process are video creators and producers paying out money in hopes of seeing a good ROI on their content investment, within a few weeks or months down the road. One of the largest expenses if not the largest expense are individuals who make the real magic happen. This is expected because having the best cameras, lighting, and sound equipment is important but without the right combination of talent using those assets it’s all worthless.

The model that most creators and producers use is to pay out money for everything, retain 100% ownership in the video content, and work hard to at least break even, and ideally turn a profit. But what happens when creators and producers view the individuals on their production team as partners (giving each member or key members a small content ownership stake) instead of employees? The result is that these individuals now have a vested interest in seeing the video content succeed, and are even more motivated to do a remarkable job.

Traditional actors, directors, writers, and story tellers may see this approach as more risky because they aren’t being consistently paid like they are used to, but the concept of building up content equity that could return a far higher amount (over time) than they would get from a paid contract has to be intriguing. And it also helps to build up their content portfolios which can act as valuable leverage for other future opportunities.

It vastly reduces the financial risks on the part of creators and producers because each individual member invests their time with the optimistic belief that financial compensations will come their way as the content goes through the distribution and monetization process. This leaves the creator to only have to spend money on the things that aren’t human beings. Now planning those production budgets have to sound much more fun than crunching all the numbers for each employee and contractor on the team.

Active people in the video production space may not like the approach mentioned here because they like their safe paychecks, but Spidvid has been developed and targeted towards the new crop of up and coming star actors, directors, writers, and story tellers, who want low barriers to entry with lots of potential upside.

Spidvid levels the playing ground for anyone who believes that he or she can add value to the video production process, and the end result which is the quality content. After speaking recently with a friend of mine who’s a real estate agent, he made it clear to me that he wanted a Spidvid beta invite because he believes that his writing ability is pretty good and so writing a script for a short film peaked his interest. His script without individuals to carry out his story has a low amount of value and can get little traction, but because he can connect with the talent he needs on Spidvid his video can actually get produced, and that’s something very exciting for him. I’m sure there are stories like this all over the place and it will be interesting to see how other types of people with day jobs feel about the new opportunities within the video entertainment space.

If you are a creator or producer who would like to partner up with individuals then Spidvid would be valuable to you, and if you are an individual looking for a production team to join then you may also fit well within our community. Visit our site, click the ‘join our video production community’ on the left hand side and provide us with your email address. We send out the first batch of invites next week so be sure to have your name included on our request list.

Jeremy Campbell Visionary actors, collaboration, collaborative team, community, connecting, empowering, leverage, next-gen media, online video, partnerships, private beta, production teams, relationships, social media, social movement, spidvid, video creation, video creators, video production, web 2.0, web video

Things are looking good as we are getting a few new invite requests from remarkable people each day who want to join our private beta community. Our goal is to hit at least 200 individuals by the week of December 14th so that we can send out a first batch of invites to everyone on the list. From then after for every 200-300 invite requests we get we will issue a new block of invites. We considered sending out new invites every day, but to us it makes more sense to build and add to the community a couple hundred individuals at a time. If it gets to the point where we are seeing 200 new invite requests/day then we will need to work extra hard to successfully scale up the community.

During the next couple weeks leading up to this momentous invite distribution event we are developing a few new features that we feel fit well into the core of Spidvid’s platform. Going forward after our video production community will heavily determine what new developments we do, how to make the usability experience as easy as possible, and how to grow this social movement across the world.

Our exclusive distribution partner for the private beta is UnleashVideo, and with that comes the need of customization. So as the sneak peak prototype image (below) shows, a major redesign/layout is well underway to accommodate video content from Spidvid’s production community. The most unique aspects are showing each team member who was part of the video production project, showing where the members are located geographically across the planet (via Google Maps), and the open ability to interact with videos through Facebook Connect and Disqus.

If you have already provided your email address to us for private beta access thanks for doing so, if not why not head over to Spidvid right now to click on the side ‘join our video production community’ button and reserve your spot as an early Spidvid adopter.

Jeremy Campbell News community, disqus, facebook connect, google maps, internet video, invites, join, new interface, new media, online video, private beta, redesign, social media, social movement, spidvid, unleashvideo, video sharing, web 2.0, web video

We have taken a big step today in terms of attracting increased attention and awareness for Spidvid by issuing a press release which has been already picked up across the Web.

You can read the story “Leaving Hollywood, Welcome to Hollyweb” from any of these sources: MarketWire, AOL Money, Canadian Business, Sys-Con Media, Alpha Trade Finance, Earth Times, Euro Investor, and PR Inside are a few sites already that have featured our story.

Our goals are to get attention, build awareness for what Spidvid is all about, and to get a couple hundred individuals in the video production space to sign up and become part of our early private beta community.

If you are a video creator, actor, director, writer, story teller, or music artist we invite you to visit our site, click the “Sign Up” link, and provide us with your email address to receive an invite to phase 1 of our private beta roll out.

Jeremy Campbell News new media, new media model, next-gen media, online video, open ecosystem, press release, private beta, production teams, social media, spidvid, team collaboration, video creation, web 2.0, web video, www.spidvid.com