ZD Net has begun to offer snippets of video from their editors such as this one on Infrastructure as a Service. It's only two minutes long and plays in a small window with either Real or Windows Media Player. The camera focuses on Dan Farmer at a whiteboard, jotting down points as he ponders the evolution of software.

Dan explains that we're shifting from client/server to something new. We've called it SOA and software as a service; we usually also mean pay-as-you-go. The point is to reduce the extravagantly expensive human labor component by relying on automation, grid computing, and the intelligence that's already in the network. As he explains this, somewhat off-handedly, he's writing automation, grid, and intelligence on the board.

Learning Designers would benefit from adding Whiteboard Videos to their bag of tricks.

• The appearance of an unrehearsed communication invites the viewer to ponder what's being said.
• The novelty of the whiteboard grabs attention and introduces on-the-spot graphic support at zero cost.
• Rapid. Did someone say rapid? You could do one of these in half and hour, start to finish, i.e. from rough idea to content on the web. I'd do it now if I weren't in my PJs.
• You couldn't pay me enough to listen to 60 minutes on a topic like this. My one-hour chunks of discretionary time are already spoken for through the end of next week. Two minutes? I can always find a couple of minutes.

Training has been hamstrung by over-reliance on old packages. Some folks are still producing 30-minute and 60-minute courses when a two-minute whiteboard video would suffice.

You say people don't learn from watching a video? Suggest that people chat about how the Whiteboard Video topic might apply in their area with anyone they meet in the coffee room.

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I'm going to experiment with marking items that have to do with Informal Learning with a common symbol.