Timeless Voices videos behind a paywall?!?

[cluttonfred]

As a former teacher, I was thrilled when EAA started collecting video interviews with WWII vets, early homebuilders, and others to document their first-person accounts. Per the EAA Museum page, "Under the banner 'Let No Story Go Untold,' Timeless Voices of Aviation ensures that the first person oral histories of aviation’s development are preserved for future generations of family members, teachers, students, historians and others."

https://www.eaa.org/eaa-museum/museum-collection/timeless-voices-of-aviation-video-diaries

I have just discovered, however, that almost all of those videos are now behind a membership paywall! That seems to go directly against the spirit in which those videos were collected over the course of several years and misses out on a huge opportunity to promote aviation with youth audiences. EAA, what happened?!?

https://www.eaa.org/Videos/Timeless-Voices

Cheers,

Matthew

[Sirota]

Hal???

Seems to me we'd want an exception for educational purposes. The next pilot EAA member might be in that classroom.

Dave

[dougbush]

EAA membership is very reasonable for all you get. You pay for all other documentaries you watch, or else someone else pays for it to include advertising. It's not free for EAA to record, edit and host these videos.

[cluttonfred]

Sorry, but I disagree 100%. Do you expect a teacher or small historical society to sign up for an EAA annual membership to access a couple of videos? It won't happen, the paperwork involved for even tiny purchases means most teachers end up paying for little things out of pocket, and in this case, it just wouldn't be worth it. Those videos were collected to be "preserved for future generations of family members, teachers, students, historians and others." At no point when they were collected did anyone suggest that only EAA members would be able to access them.

This could be an easy win for EAA in terms of public relations and recruiting new members, so why not make them accessible to all? And there is little or no cost to EAA if they are already hosting these videos on the site for members. Let's face it, it's unlikely that an interview with Molt Taylor or Ray Stits is going to be the next viral video that breaks the internet, we are talking very limited bandwidth needs here.


EAA membership is very reasonable for all you get. You pay for all other documentaries you watch, or else someone else pays for it to include advertising. It's not free for EAA to record, edit and host these videos.

[CHICAGORANDY]

I would support MY annual membership costing an additional $1 if it meant funding a school/special interest exemption to view said videos.

[Sara Nisler]

Hi all, I manage our digital content/marketing at EAA. I do understand the frustration of it being behind a firewall. We have been growing our digital content and some of it we feel is member-exclusive content based on membership with our organization (much like the magazine). I do understand the desire and important for educators to offer content to youth to get interested in aviation. We are going to be launching an exciting aviation program later this year centered around educators and youth in that I think will deliver exactly what you need, that won't require an EAA membership for educators. We also do offer a variety of inspiration aviation content that can inspire young people to get into aviation that is not behind the member firewall. I do understand the desire for Timeless Voices, but I think what will be coming will be a big win for all. Stay tuned.

[robert l]

Works for me Mrs/Miss Nisler.
Bob

[dougbush]

Cluttonfred, you pay teachers via taxes or tuition. Historical societies charge dues. Historians get paid for their publications. Librarians get paid. Museum curators get paid. You pay for the History Channel. You pay your internet service provider to watch "free" videos online and the producers get paid for the advertising in those videos. Why discriminate against EAA? How does it help with recruiting new members to give away member benefits? What incentive would EAA have to record new Timeless Voices?

[Airmutt]

Agreed, it’s almost a universal practice for museums and historical societies to charge for research and reproduction of archived items regardless of the format: print, drawings, photos, film, digital, etc. For example, the San Diego Air Museum publishes its fees on their website. Least we forget that EAA is a member organization and such things are created and provided as a service to its members. To answer Doug B’s question, the incentive is provide future members the historical perspective of those who lived and created aviation history.

[cluttonfred]

Ms. Nisler and all, I am going to have to continue to disagree respectfully on this one. These videos were collected with the express purpose of sharing them with "future generations of family members, teachers, students, historians and others." At no point did anyone suggest that they would be reserved for members only, which entirely defeats the point, and they were not behind a firewall before the latest EAA site overhaul. This is a change of policy by EAA that goes against the spirit with which these videos were collected and makes them almost worthless as a member recruiting and public relations tool. It's worth taking another look at this policy. Cheers, Matthew