File Exchange Pick of the Week

January 24th, 2008

Steve just celebrated his second year of blogging about image processing with MATLAB. Loren has been at it for just over two years now, and the Desktop team is coming up on their first full year. That got me wondering how long this blog has been going. I was surprised to note that I have been scouring the File Exchange and making videos for this blog for four years!

It has been quite a journey doing this. Scott and I started by just mentioning our favorite files each week, then we learned to add screen shots more regularly. Scott left the blog to me at some point, and I eventually learned the joys of video blogging. There has been no looking back since then. I have moved to a much more regular schedule of video blogging, with new posts showing up twice a week.

We also just had our first reader survey. Here are the highlights of the results:

This was my first surprise. I thought that the blog was attracting more new users of MATLAB.

It looks like a fairly normal distribution of video views, with a second mode of people that watch virtually all of them. It is nice to know that people are really enjoying these videos.

With the new knowledge that this is a more experienced crowd watching the videos, it is no surprise that the advanced videos are more in demand. This knowledge is being used to guide what videos I make from now on.

When asked to comment on the videos, this tag cloud shows the phrases that were most prevalent in the comments.

I can summarize the other comments as follows:

• Videos enhance documentation
• The videos are good for non-English speakers
• The videos are ‘Infotainment’
• This is the best way to do examples
• The videos are like a friend or tutor explaining things
• People watch the videos to learn unexpected things
• Videos are clearer than written documentation
• Documentation is more for reference, not learning
• Videos combine skills from different areas

My take aways from this survey are:

• Make videos longer: I take this as an action item to make more series with short segments since most liked the length
• Cover advanced topics more often
• Get a better audio set-up
• Encourage others to make videos
• Consider blog name change, or splitting off the video blog since the charter of the blog has shifted from the stated purpose.

Congratulations to the winners of the random drawing- there were a lot of people in the survey, so we added some extra prizes:

• Dennis Wouters
• Holger Roth
• Jouni Paulus
• Colin Thomas
• Markus Buehren
• Simon-Shlomo Poil
• Dave Jones
• Shane Robinson
• Sébastien Guérard

If you want to win your own gear, be sure to answer the survey at the end of each movie.

10:12 UTC | Posted in Uncategorized | Permalink |

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6 Responses to “Four years of picks and reader survey results.”

1. Scott Hirsch replied on January 24th, 2008 at 11:34 UTC :
   

   Congrats, Doug. I tell you, dumping that Scott guy was the best move you ever made. This blog is way better without him! :)

2. Markus replied on January 24th, 2008 at 13:06 UTC :
   

   Hi Doug!

   You write “This was my first surprise. I thought that the blog was attracting more new users of MATLAB.”

   I guess the reason for this is simple: New users do not know about your blog! Maybe it would be better - as you also mentioned - to open an own “Matlab Basics Blog” to attract new users.

   Regards
   Markus

3. naor replied on January 25th, 2008 at 06:15 UTC :
   

   Doug,
   Please don’t make the videos longer! The convenient 2-3 minute format is what makes it possible for us to watch videos even if we are not sure the topic is of particular interest to us, and to be surprised occasionally. I for example subscribe to the RSS feed and watch the videos whenever they come up, even if I’m in the middle of doing something else. If I had to set aside time for video blog watching I probably wouldn’t…

   Thanks,
   -naor

4. Doug replied on January 25th, 2008 at 12:00 UTC :
   

   Naor,

   The plan is to take on longer topics in multiple parts. Three Five minute videos are very different than one fifteen minute monster.

   Doug

5. Eddie Mayhew replied on January 30th, 2008 at 00:46 UTC :
   

   Doug,
   First, and foremost, the dumping of Scott was a bad idea. I am certain that I’m not the only MATLAB novice who has learned more than a few things from Lord MathWorks. Alas, all good things most come to an end…

   There is just too much to cover in a video like this so the length was just right. Sure, there is so much more one could learn about the ICT but where do you stop? Good choice for length.

   If a loyal MathWorks customer needed to connect atypical hardware devices to the ICT, could they ask for assistance here or is the only acceptable protocol MW Tech Support?

   Assuming I can ask here,… I would like to connect three different hardware devices to a single USB port by using a
   4-Port Serial to USB Adapter. (Couldn’t find any 3-Port Serial to USBs). Each hardware device outputs to a DB9. Each DB9 is connected to the USB via the adapter. Can the ICT read something like this? I want to read directly from only one USB.

   I bet Scott could do it.

   Eddie Mayhew
   Proud Graduate of the Scott Hirsch Academy

6. Doug replied on January 30th, 2008 at 10:47 UTC :
   

   Eddie,

   For something that specific, an e-mail to support is the best method.

   http://www.mathworks.com/support

   Doug

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<pre class="code">
a = magic(3);
sum(a)
</pre>

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