Explaining Prediction Markets to a “newbie” (video!)
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Prediction markets truly harness the “Wisdom of Crowds,” but not that many people really know what they are. They understand the two words individually, but they don’t necessarily “get it.”
I decided to set myself a little bit of a challenge; to create a short video that explained the key concepts of prediction markets in three minutes or less. It took a while to really distill the ideas down to the core, and some of you may criticise that I’ve glossed over some details. But I hope the video below is something that busy executives can take the time to watch and understand. (I’ve created a separate page for it that you will also see on the right-hand sidebar.)
I look forward to reading your comments! (And if you like it, please Digg it!)
RSS readers - if you can’t see the video, please click through to the post on Mercury’s Blog.
UPDATE: Video is now via YouTube.
Cross-posted at Midas Oracle.
[…] The goal I set was to explain prediction markets to a layperson in three minutes or less. That meant that much of the finer details weren’t addressed, but I was able to address the core concepts. Today I posted that video on Mercury’s Blog, and you can see it yourself by clicking on this link. […]
Pingback by Midas Oracle .ORG » Blog Archive » A prediction markets explainer — 4 September, 2007 @ 2:04 pm
Hi — Be good to post in YouTube. -j
http://tinyurl.com/33mdy4
Comment by jheuristic — 5 September, 2007 @ 11:00 am
Pretty solid work–you imparted a clear, concise understanding of prediction markets. Further, as a person who is in the process of learning about these markets, I found your presentation informative, interesting, and fairly compelling. I only have a few critiques:
First, there really isn’t any apparent reason to mention The Wisdom of Crowds at the beginning of your presentation, and it distracts from your point.
Second, the power-point presentation method is used to its best advantage here, but it is still a fundamentally flawed means of conveying information. This means that there are times, such as when you put up a header reading “Web 2.0″ that your visuals not only don’t support your point, but actually distract from it. I would work on streamlining your message a little bit. To put it another way, if something doesn’t directly help you to communicate your message, then it actively hurts it.
Third, I might try to record your voice-over in shorter bursts, as it would make it easier to fix sections when you get a little tongue-tied.
Comment by bruce — 6 September, 2007 @ 3:32 pm
Hello, Bruce.
Thanks for your comments. When it comes to putting presentations/explainers up on YouTube, I defaulted to presentation software because it’s straightforward, and I wasn’t going to video myself as a talking head. If it’s “fundamentally flawed” what else would you suggest?
I certainly agree that I could work on getting some of the visuals to match up better; my background is as an engineer, not a graphic designer!
Again, thanks for the comments.
Comment by Jed Christiansen — 6 September, 2007 @ 3:45 pm
[…] The first video in the series, “What is a prediction market?”, has been viewed nearly 200 times on YouTube. I was pleased with the responses I received on this blog and via e-mail. Thank you to those of you who took the time to provide feedback; it was very valuable. […]
Pingback by A new prediction markets explainer video | Midas Oracle .ORG — 19 September, 2007 @ 8:38 am