I’ve lost count of the number of interviews with Mullenweg, Arrington and others that contain great quotes and insight. In order to report on them, I have to sit through the interview, put up with the inane questions and puffery responses in order to get to the ‘meat’ of the interview.

Videos without transcripts, for a working journalist, can be likened to putting out a release in PDF format. PR shops quickly got the lessen and switched to quick text. I’m hoping video-makers do the same.

We have to get beyond the ‘coolness’ factor of video blogging and return to the original goal: information exchange.

I, for one, will bypass videos that don’t include a transcript.

I must admit though that I find the vlogs where someone just sits there talking to the cam saying the same thing they typed on their blog post, boring and don’t get the point. I’ve podcast many of my blog posts but I think that makes sense because they can be downloaded a listened to on an mp3 player while someone is doing something else, but if you’re going to sit there staring at the monitor listening to someone talk, it just makes more sense to read it to me.