grum lives here

12seconds is described simply as Twitter for Video – you have only 12 seconds of video to record your thoughts. 12seconds launched well over a year ago and I’ve been sitting on an account since TechCrunch handed out Alpha invites. When I originally looked at 12seconds, to be honest I didn’t like it. 12 seconds of video simply seemed too short to record anything. But a year later stats show that the 12seconds website is still gaining popularity.

So a fortnight ago I decided it was time for me to give 12seconds another go. Its not like me to ignore a social network like that so I gave myself 2 weeks to record a minimum of 1 video a day. I had noticed that 12secs started to build quite a loyal community that was very tight. Spam was almost unheard of and posts were a lot more interesting compared to a lot of the fluff that is seen on Twitter. So here I was, eager and willing to jump into the deep end and become a 12′er.

But there was a problem.

I had nothing to say.

For some strange reason I find it a lot easier to share brain farts with the rest of the world when its in 140 characters or less. However, taking those 140 characters and putting it on film looked really weird. I generally have a lot more to say when I have a camera shoved in my face and condensing myself was totally unnatural for me. But the website helped me by giving me a daily task to follow.

12seconds has a “Daily Challenge” feature – a question that you have to answer or a task you have to do that is judged by the powers that be at 12seconds. This challenge changes every 24 hours and the winner gets recognition by having a spiffy badge to stick on their 12seconds profile. I decided to do one of these challenges every day unless that little brain of mine thought up of something interesting to say in front of the camera. Trying this though still came up with a problem – I found that I STILL couldn’t condense myself into 12 measly seconds.

So I cheated.

This is where sped-up-grum was born. Generally I’d record 20-25 seconds worth of content while filming my 12seconds posts. I decided I wasn’t going to do more than 1 take so I shoved the video into an editor, trimmed it, sped it up and removed all color. At first I left the clips in full color but realised that the audio of the clip was easier to digest if it were in black and white. Dunno why, it just works k?

The 14 days came and went – fast. Actually 15 days came and went and I didn’t even realise that I had passed the deadline that I had given myself. During this time I gained a bunch of followers and even won two awards for my entries to the Daily Challenge – heck, my first video even won. So what did I think about the site? Do I stick around or do I once again leave my account in mothballs to possible re-activate in 12 months time?

I think I’ll stick with it. Yep, I ain’t going anywhere.

I say that now since I’m just getting into the site but I don’t know if this will last for more than 6 months. Yes there is a dedicated community however it is a lot smaller than I thought. Site stats are up however participation in the site is a lot lower. People are more likely to lurk and watch than to post videos. This might have something to do with 12seconds’ partnership with TweetDeck. I love sites like Twitter and Myspace (back in the day) because of the number of local people I could interact with – 12seconds has a TINY number of Australians participating, but on the bright side is that it is gradually increasing. But the important thing is that I love the service!

So if you haven’t yet signed up to 12seconds, do so now – you might like it. And whilst you’re there, don’t forget to ADD ME!

Not that I need my life to be validated by having hundreds of people follow me on social networks or anything…

Below is an example of one of the many Daily Challenges I submitted:

12seconds can be found at: http://12seconds.tv
My profile on 12seconds is at: http://12seconds.tv/channel/grum