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Visit a website, and watch a stranger work. It’s a concept that feels surreal, voyeuristic -- like a scenario in a dystopic science-fiction novel. To one Chicago startup, however, the idea simply offers a new, pragmatic way to learn.
Watch Me Work allows individuals to live-stream their progress as they work on art, video, and gaming projects using software programs within the Adobe and Final Cut suites, as well as programming frameworks. Other users can view these videos as they stream, with the option to participate in a Google Hangout and/or in a corresponding chat session with the person working. (A user named Erika, for example, recently streamed a video in which she created colored and edited a comic strip she'd created using Photoshop, while user tsaltas streamed her work on a website called CreativeLittleCoders.com in Angular JS and Django.)
Company founder Chris Weiher, a producer and director of Web commercials and Flash animation videos, said the idea occurred to him after a search for tutorials on Adobe Illustrator.
“A couple of years ago I was learning it, and I just wanted to be able to look of the shoulder of an expert for an hour and see how they used all the tools together,” he said. “I spent a lot of time Googling for a place to find this type of content but as far as I could tell, it didn't exist.”
Weiher’s production background informs his target audience: professionals in the digital arts, gaming, and tech industries. Members of this field, who are required to be proficient in a host of software programs, can benefit from responsive, specialized online tutorials with individuals. Furthermore, he said, many artists and game developers work as freelancers, operating remotely, without the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues -- an experience he intends to restore.
“I believe opportunities for collaboration have been lost as more people have moved from working in offices to working in their homes and apartments and I believe Watch Me Work will help bring collaborators together again,” he said.
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However, Weiher doesn’t limit the startup to creative professionals; he foresees Watch Me Work as a potential resource for users in nearly all occupational fields.
“I see Watch Me Work growing beyond that to programs like Auto CAD and even office programs like Microsoft Word and Excel. Programming and software development are also areas where streaming is taking off,” he said.
Like any young startup, much progress lies ahead for Watch Me Work. It lacks a search function, and there’s no private-streaming option yet -- though Weiher said both of these are in the company’s project queue. As the startup’s two part-time developers implement these features, Weiher plans to bolster marketing efforts and funding.
“Our immediate plans are to release an IndieGoGo campaign to help with PR as well as fundraising,” he said.
Ultimately, Weiher hopes Watch Me Work will be a symbiotic, egalitarian educational experience, encouraging professionals of all skill levels to contribute, and giving streamers and viewers alike repeated opportunities to hone their respective crafts.
“I see Watch Me Work as a passive learning peer-to-peer co-working space. Basically a space where the streamer is as-likely to be educated by his or her viewers as he or she is to educate them,” he said. “The true power of it exists when users show their process no matter their level of expertise. I've probably learned more about my work and process by streaming it than I have taught others at this point.”
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