If you’re not familiar with screencasting, wikipedia has a helpful entry. Screencasting has been around since at least 2004, and maybe even earlier, but I just have gotten into it in the past month and I have a sense that it could be an excellent freelance business that has yet to really hit the mainstream. I wonder if in the future every software product will strive to present themselves through well-designed screencasts. I’d like to be a part of that. You can check out a few videos I’ve made that are public work product for Pelago, and I have a lot more in production now.

Introspection. Making a video under three minutes in length requires a clean distillation of the key ideas behind a product or feature, which can be very revealing when someone who isn’t as close to the product tries to do it. For example, sometimes I give more attention to certain areas than the product creators would like – simply because those are the parts of the product with a value proposition I can grasp, get excited about, and explain to others with confidence.

Engagement. Show instead of tell and even ADHD viewers will engage their brains actively for a short burst of focus, as long as the content is interesting and well organized.

Portability. Video is unbelievably easy to distribute on the web, and can immediately influence SEO for your product or product blog as well. Embedding video into blog posts, FAQs, and licensing it under creative commons can virally promote your product for free if the content is worth watching.

So far, this conference has been great. I’ve met a really diverse crowd of people (and not just geeks either) and I’m pretty blown away by the level of really human connection. The audience has remained engaged, and the enthusiastic and passionate speakers are a great mix.

How can you keep up with all that’s going on at Gnomedex?

Gnomedex Schedule: http://www.gnomedex.com/schedule/

Live streaming video: http://chris.pirillo.com/live/

Chat: http://widget.meebo.com/mcr.swf?id=QanRtCQrXr

Meet my son, a sweet and slightly neurotic 5 month old chocolate lab. He’s my companion whenever I’m in the downstairs of our house writing, reading, cooking, cleaning, and whatever else I do around here when I’m actually home (which hasn’t been that often lately).

In this picture he’s just finished chewing up a huge poster mailing tube and seems surprised that I’ve discovered him.