Life on The EdgeXD

Grandmothers are not often viewed as technology’s early adopters or trend-setters. Yet if we all had been paying better attention to how our Nanas were using the ‘Net, and less to the Generation Y teens (or are we up to “Z” now? What happens when we run out of alphabet? Am I the only one who worries about that?), we would have caught the biggest online social trend since that Nigerian prince went on the lam with a suitcase full of Benjamins.

Sharing.

Give a grandma a computer, and the first thing she’ll usually do is ask how she can send pictures. (The first thing my Grandma did when we hooked her up was check the results of the third race at Belmont, but my family is not typical, I can never use them as a normal reference.) But generally speaking, grandmothers possess a fierce pride, and they want to share the objects of their pride with their family, friends, neighbors, strangers on the check-out line at Kohl’s – everyone really, it doesn’t make a difference. For the grandkid-less EdgeXD subscriber, it’s the pride he feels for the custom channels created from the videos he stores in his stash.

No one expects you to take your channels for a week-long sleepover in the summer, or keep copies of them in your wallet, but you are expected to share them with complete strangers. These are your video bookmarks compiled by you in special ways that are uniquely meaningful, clever, thematic, or just plain hot. And the ability to share your creations is one of the neatest aspects of EdgeXD membership. It’s like swapping mix tapes – or if that analogy is too analog for you, playlists on imeem.com.

At EdgeXd, we make it easy for our subscribers to create and share their own video playlists (“channels”). When you find a video that you like, or one that you think might go well as part of a larger “themed” offering, you can add it to your stash with one click of an on-screen button. From the stash, the you can create a name for and description of your channel and drag the videos into the playlist. That’s it! Channel created. So simple a child could do it. But since no children are allowed on the site, if you’re one of those guys who relies upon his eight-year-old to program the Tivo, perhaps you’d better pay attention.

The grandma part follows next: With a single click (are you beginning to sense a user interface design trend here?), the proud auteur can share his creation with the entire EdgeXd community of porn savants. It shows up in the search engine, can be rated by other members, and it’s popularity and merits tracked versus all the other shared channels. It’s like being able to beam the playlists on your iPod to everyone else in the gym while you work out. Except it’s video, not just audio. And the musicians are all naked.

Next Time: Succeeding yet again by bulding what they told us not to build – a glimpse inside the EdgeXD Video Arcade.