By A Correspondent
Leading news and views portal Firstpost.com has launched a new interactive, video views platform, YouSpeak. The platform allows users to express their views/ opinions via a 30-second comment on any topic on Firstpost.com and also allows them to start a conversation of their choice. A user has to login with their Twitter or Facebook credentials because this experience unlike text commenting cannot remain anonymous.
The product experience involves 3 parts:
1) The Firstpost video comment – where Firstpost editors/writers spend a minute or two explaining their stance on a topic.
2) Viewers can Reply to every one of these voices by simply hitting the reply button below the video. Firstpost detects if one has a webcam and records a 30-sec view, allowing users to preview and re-record as many times as they want to. Viewers can then submit their view with a headline and description. Post review it is published on the site and users are alerted through email.
3) Participants can also start any discussion that they wish by turning on the recorder and simply hitting record. These views are also published upon preview.
Said Durga Raghunath, VP-Products and Executive News Producer, “Firstpost, was conceptualized as a platform of relentless views, on all the issues that were of interest to a growing digital and social audience. Over close to two years now, we’ve fulfilled this promise through text, images, and as much interaction as a digital newsroom could put out. We’ve always felt that the digital editorial must find a video form and be treated as an important a pillar of Firstpost and hence the launch of YouSpeak. We are enormously excited because we see it as a democratic platform through which anyone can broadcast a view.”