The Free Fall In The Pricing of Storage, Video and Still Images.
Look around. Virtually every person you can see on American Streets carries a portable video device and a camera. As they learn to use the tools they already have, the landscape will shift. The changes will take five or ten years. They will be pretty radical.
Cultural change happens at a pace that depends on the observer.
Most readers of this article are technological adepts. The have heard terms and hold opinions on RSS, video resumes and a whole host of topics. Their awareness is related to their interest in technical things. They own state of the art computers, cameras, phones and cars.
The funny thing about being at the front of the curve is that sometimes you get OBE (overtaken by events). While the technological adepts are very useful for beta testing features and functions, they are hopeless at forecasting the future. So, it is not only unusual to hear the high tech geniuses say that video resumes are coming, it is unlikely.
That’s because almost none of them use the camera in their pockets while everyone in the 25 and under cohort does.
Coincidentally, we were talking with Steve Fogarty (legendary recruiting exec now roosting at Adidas). Their video interviewing program is an interesting trendsetter. It’s part branding, part cost saver.
Steve figures that he can interview candidates for $130 apiece while giving them an Adidas branded web cam. Instead of flying a candidate in to Portland, at a cost of $1,000, the Adidas approach delivers value to the candidate while speeding the hiring cycle. If you make the short list, you are given a web cam that is yours to keep after the interviewing is done….whether or not you get the job.
(From here, this looks like a part of the trend to pay candidates for interviews.)
Communicating by video is going to become more and more mainstream. As the price for a camera and/or storage continues to plummet, the medium will flourish.
John Sumser .-. ©2008 Two Color Hat, Inc. Santa Rosa, CA
