Apply HN: lumiverse – the best place to discover educational videos

ajsgarage · on April 8, 2016

This is a practical idea. With capital I think you might even be able to recruit existing talent (video series on YouTube or specific person/team who makes them) to help consolidate the utility. I've seen first hand how educators of different levels strive to find good, usable content online in a variety of subjects. The hard sciences is of particular interest.

Related idea(s) for revenue: Purchase of 'supplemental' course materials (PowerPoints?) and/or "asset packages" that bundle relevant, high-quality graphics for educators to use in their own classrooms.

The layout is straightforward and I appreciate the tags for the type (Tutorial, Math, Chemistry). Feels just slightly busy but it's easy on the eyes. Hope it goes great for you and the team!

rayalez · on April 8, 2016

Thank you very much for your feedback!

I'll think about supplemental materials, it's an interesting idea....

And I am definitely planning to create original content. I have just started working on my own video series about rationality - http://lumiverse.io/series/orangemind. Right now I'm working on them alone, but in the future I would love to assemble a team. And it's possible that I'll recruit other video creators as well.

I am also very interested in producing series about hard sciences, it's one of my major goals. I will start CS and programming, and then possibly do math and physics. But that's a more of a long-term thing.

christudor · on April 10, 2016

I make educational content for a living, so am fundamentally quite interested in this. A couple of questions from me...

Why would I use a platform like this when I've already got my own site which attracts lots of users/customers?

Would the site be free to use? Would you pay the content providers? How would you make money?

How will you maintain the quality of the videos on the site? If I'm a creator of videos, I want to make sure they only appear alongside similarly high-quality videos. But the higher the bar, the fewer videos you'll have on the site. Where do you see the balance between quality and quantity?

There are /surely/ other people out there who make platforms of this kind (right?). If so, how do you think this will be different from any of the others already on the market?

[Note: I'm sorry if these come across as a bit blunt. Just some questions that came to my head as I read about the site, and I typed them out quickly. If I were a potential customer, I probably wouldn't beat around the bush with niceties...!]

wturner · on April 9, 2016

To be contrarian...

"hosting and selling high quality video series"

As a creator coming from a business perspective I see these platforms as mostly a liability to be avoided.

I write videos and have decided to create my own subscription site that is coupled with other services/features. I look at Youtube as nothing more than a free promotional tool to release sample content. Why include a middle man when it is unnecessary ?

rayalez · on April 9, 2016

1. lumiverse has reddit-like discovery system, so it will be a great way for creators to be discovered, being on the front page brings you a lot of traffic and subscribers.

2. Building your audience on a platform is much easier than building traffic to your own website. Basically I want video creators to be able to focus on making great videos, and not have to worry about self promotion, monetization, and other business aspects.

3. We will have a convenient system for selling video series, which makes it much easier and more convenient than doing it on your own website. Users connect their card/paypal once, and then can buy videos in one click.

4. I want lumiverse to be generally a much better place for hosting videos than youtube. Better interface, no nonsense ads, intelligent and friendly community, high quality content, etc. I focus on building the perfect platform instead of trying to manipulate people's attention. Youtube has a lot of flaws, and it's time to make a better alternative.

6. Not all video creators want to develop and host their own video subscription website. It may make sense to you, but I think that most people will prefer to use a platform, if it's really awesome and convenient.

7. You can have both. You can sell your videos on lumiverse and on your own website. Or you can build your audience and subscribers on lumiverse, and put a link in the header to drive traffic to your site if you prefer.

8. Perhaps we will have pro accounts, allowing people to buy their own domains and create their own easily customizable websites. So if you want your own design with some extra features/services, it might be an option. Though I am not sure that we will go in that direction.

wturner · on April 10, 2016

If I'm not your target audience then ignore these words as they might sound a bit harsh. My primary concern in using any service like this would be how easily I could port all content over to my own servers when ready. This includes not just videos but user accounts, email lists , video comments, payment system, authentication, etc. I want the freedom associated with independence and not to feel like a tool of another business designed to make me reliant on their platform.

rayalez · on April 7, 2016

Clickable link - http://lumiverse.io

After I've deployed the beta(couple of weeks ago), lumiverse gained 239 users, and 105 subscribers to the mailing list of our best videos.

We already have some amazing video creators, 98k views, and people keep joining. Feedback is great.

I am planning to monetize by allowing people to sell video series, and by producing original content(starting with awesome educational videos about rationality).

kumarski · on April 9, 2016

This looks cool. I think hyper-niching is important in anything related to educational videos online.

TED talks is presentations. Udemy is lectures/courses.

Etc...

The video format is well defined for each site.