Thanks to Will Richmond's "VideoNuze" email newsletter for bringing "Market7" into my ken. The software as a service (SaaS) space is filling up quickly since I first experienced it via pioneer salesforce.com. Today you can run your company online, design web sites and now, manage and direct video projects collaboratively with the tools from Market7. The offer includes a free "Production Assistant" package that allows you to test the waters before purchasing a higher level of space and support. In addition to the fact that it exists I'm taken with the method presented for describing the specifics of the service - a single video screen with standard links down the right hand side. Each link identifies a piece of the process and opens a short video that shows and tells. Having spent some time recently developing a couple of similar multi-clip players in Flash (see a bare-bones version here) I was grateful for yet another good example of where and how they can be useful.
This new service provides a meeting place for team members at all stages of the process. Writers may each work on the same script and review the progress of others, steps in the overall process are displayed along with target dates and completed tasks are checked off and so displayed as the production moves along. The free package is limited to 100 MB of storage space but assuming you can upload compressed formats like Flash or WMV that's plenty of space for putting short form pieces together, even if you're only asking a graphic artist friend to do the titles for your vacation video. If you do desktop video or are in the market for video production for your business spend a few moments with Market7.
