I know I'm a drop in the ocean

When I first launched my books a few years ago I was using Amazon Print on demand services and selling my books on Amazon. Back then, about half of the little money I got out of my books came from Amazon. But after reading more about the conditions of the workers at Amazon, I stoped using Amazon for producing and selling my books.

I'm not making a lot of money with my books and course online, in about 5 years I made a bit less than 40k, which makes . Which is nothing if you consider the amount of time I spend on the Swiss Innovation Academy and the costs for running it.

But still, the idea of "voting with your money" is one that I find very interesting, so I decided to stop using Amazon services.

I know it's a drop in the Ocean, but still it's a drop that makes me feel that I can look myself in the mirror and say: this guy at least tried to do something at his level.

In the last months I've been moving a lot from text to video. That hasn't been an easy challenge as at first I really hated video. Especially when it wasn't scripted to the second. But now after enough months I start to feel comfortable in shooting videos with just a few bullet points, and I've found the toolbox that allows me to have pleasure in that way of making Service Design more accessible.

I'm having fun with videos. But...

The issue is that videos are using, from what I assume a lot more energy than what text needs. So I'm wondering: should I do the same than I did a few years ago?

Drop a way to make my content accessible because of the ethics behind it?

I'm not a sustainability expert. But I want to take the opportunity of this blog post to reflect on the impact my videos have and start questionning what's a better format for sharing ideas and tips about Service Design.

Calculating the difference between video, audio and blog posts

I've looked for data to compare a blog post to a video, but I couldn't find much.

The lion’s share of the digital footprint is caused by video streaming due to large data sizes of videos. By comparison, using a search engine or sending text-only emails has a negligible impact. — My Climate

A lot of the time video is shown to have a bigger impact, but there isn't much data out there that shows what's your personal impact.

So I'm doing a rough calculation, that is certainly very wrong in the details, but where the general trends might help my reflection.

If I take the last webinar I hosted, here is a quick comparaison of the weight of that webinar in different formats for a 49 minute recording:

• Video 414.4mo: including the full text of the webinar and an image. The two last elements make up for only 220 ko of the total.

• Audio 47.1mo: including the the full text of the webinar and an image. The two last elements make up for only 220 ko of the total.

• Blog article 24.2mo : including a slide deck, 5 high res images and the full text of the webinar

Obviously these are very rough estimates. But they show how much data is downloaded for each person who loads the whole thing.

Said in another way, going from video to a good looking and richly formatted blog we reduce the file size 17 times! . Even if I'm very wrong and it's only cutting it by half, that would already be a huge change.

From my basic understanding, downloading or streaming 17 times less data will also use considerably less energy resources. Even if it's still a drop in the ocean. But it's a drop that I have power on.

Why this estimate helps me

I know, this is a very shitty made estimate, but it helps look at the situation in a less emotional way.

Yes video is a great tool to get the emotions out, and it's great because it helps people learn without the effort of reading. But just from a size of stuff to download, the difference is huge.

A great blog article about a webinar that has high rest photos, a slide deck and the full transcript is still very good at helping people connect with the emotions.

And in the end, helping people re-learn to concentrate through reading is in a way a good service we're giving them too.

So what could this mean?

This is still a very early reflection, but it shows that it's pretty easy to reduce by about 17 times the amount of data that people have to download to get access to the results of a webinar discussion.

But if I'm looking at this in a bit of a radical way here is what I'm learning:

• Stop the video by default: I should stop to create so much videos and instead go back to richly designed blog posts that still give the full emotional range

• From video to audio: for webinars the archive should rather be a good blog post with the audio recording (let's be honest most of the time we're just chatting and nothing more happens on the screen).

• Go for video when video adds real value: I still think that videos are great for the emotional connection. So I think it's valuable to keep the remote events with video so that people can build relationships. And I think also it's pretty great to have from time to time, a short video teaser that shows how excited I'm about my new book or to animate something that isn't clear if it's not animated.

So practically here is what I'm gonna try out:

• Go back to writing for my Service Design Q&A content

• Keep the webinars, but keep audio versions for the archive and for people to rewatch.

Where it stings a bit more:

• Coaching sessions and courses debriefs: it think it's valuable to see the faces of the students as it's putting them out there in the world and helping them build their network for their future career. But let's be honest, a good photo and audio would be also very good.

How I could go further in the future

Let's take first steps for now. But just as a note for my future self, I could once I have done that transition also do this:

• Bring the archives from video to audio: especially all the webinars from the Swiss Service Design Network

• Get better at image compression and re-use: I have to make more efforts to reduce the image file sizes I use (it's just a few clicks!) and make sure that I'm not re-uploading 10 times the same image (for that Podia has a solution now). I just have to better name my files so that I find them more easily.

I know it's a drop, the return

I know that all of this is a drop in the ocean. But at this stage, it's a drop that I have power on, and I feel that it's important that I show by example to my kid that I'm trying. There is so much more to do, but one drop is already a drop.

If you feel poetic, read the Starfish tale, it shows a bit the motivation behind this.

Thanks to my mate Loris who helped me get this reflection get started.