WonderHowTo
Encyclopedia
WonderHowTo is a community
-developed instructional
video guide
website
launched on January 30, 2008. WonderHowTo acts as both a directory
and search engine
for how-to video
s on the web
. The free-access website is privately
owned and operated by Wonder How To, Inc.
WonderHowTo was founded in 2006 by Stephen Chao
and Michael Goedecke. Backed by Cambridge
, Massachusetts
based General Catalyst Partners
, WonderHowTo.com launched as the world's largest free how-to video resource with almost 90,000 entries, hitting the 100,000th mark in less than two months. By March 2008, the site’s audience
grew to 300,000 monthly unique visitors and 800,000 by July (source: Google Analytics
). Partner Scripps Networks contributes instructional segments as well as handling advertising for the site.
Employing both human
and automated curation, the how-to supersite aggregates and organizes links to thousands of videos featured on other popular how-to video site publishers, as well as specialized collections of how-to video from niche-targeted sites and servers worldwide. WonderHowTo is headquartered in Santa Monica
, California
.
. Under the terms of the agreement, VideoJug will provide the video content to the website in return for licence fees and/or a cut of ad revenues.
gained notoriety for being fired as President
of Fox Television in 1992 for hiring a male model to strip naked during his speech at a management conference for FOX executives, board members and world dignitaries, including Rupert Murdoch
and wife Anna Murdoch, and former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney
and wife Lynne Cheney
. Chao spoke on “The Threat to Democratic Capitalism Posed by Modern Culture”. Strongly emphasizing that television programs tend to be less critical of violence than nudity and sexuality
, Chao hired a local waiter/model Marco Iacovelli to strip naked during his speech to illustrate his point about censorship
and that network standards were not keeping pace with modern day experience. Not at all amused, Murdoch fired Chao immediately afterwards.
Social network service
A social networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, who, for example, share interests and/or activities. A social network service consists of a representation of each user , his/her social...
-developed instructional
Instructional technology
In education, instructional technology is "the theory and practice ofdesign, development, utilization, management, and evaluation of processes and resources for learning," according to the Association for Educational Communications and Technology Definitions and Terminology Committee...
video guide
Video search engine
A video search engine is a web-based search engine which crawls the web for video content. Some video search engines parse externally hosted content while others allow content to be uploaded and hosted on their own servers. Some engines also allow users to search by video format type and by length...
website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
launched on January 30, 2008. WonderHowTo acts as both a directory
Directory service
A directory service is the software system that stores, organizes and provides access to information in a directory. In software engineering, a directory is a map between names and values. It allows the lookup of values given a name, similar to a dictionary...
and search engine
Search engine
A search engine is an information retrieval system designed to help find information stored on a computer system. The search results are usually presented in a list and are commonly called hits. Search engines help to minimize the time required to find information and the amount of information...
for how-to video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
s on the web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
. The free-access website is privately
Privately held company
A privately held company or close corporation is a business company owned either by non-governmental organizations or by a relatively small number of shareholders or company members which does not offer or trade its company stock to the general public on the stock market exchanges, but rather the...
owned and operated by Wonder How To, Inc.
WonderHowTo was founded in 2006 by Stephen Chao
Stephen Chao
Stephen Chao is an American web entrepreneur and media industry executive. He has worked as the President of Fox Television, an independent television producer, President of USA Network, and co-founder of instructional video website WonderHowTo.com...
and Michael Goedecke. Backed by Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
based General Catalyst Partners
General Catalyst Partners
General Catalyst Partners is a private equity firm focused on venture capital investments in early stage technology-based companies including software, infrastructure software and applied technology businesses. The firm has also includes a growth capital team that focuses on later stage...
, WonderHowTo.com launched as the world's largest free how-to video resource with almost 90,000 entries, hitting the 100,000th mark in less than two months. By March 2008, the site’s audience
Audience
An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature , theatre, music or academics in any medium...
grew to 300,000 monthly unique visitors and 800,000 by July (source: Google Analytics
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to a website. The product is aimed at marketers as opposed to webmasters and technologists from which the industry of web analytics originally grew. It is the most widely used website...
). Partner Scripps Networks contributes instructional segments as well as handling advertising for the site.
Employing both human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
and automated curation, the how-to supersite aggregates and organizes links to thousands of videos featured on other popular how-to video site publishers, as well as specialized collections of how-to video from niche-targeted sites and servers worldwide. WonderHowTo is headquartered in Santa Monica
Santa Mônica
Santa Mônica is a town and municipality in the state of Paraná in the Southern Region of Brazil.-References:...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
Partners
On October 7, 2008, WonderHowTo signed a syndication partnership deal with VideoJugVideoJug
Videojug is an instructional video website, It launched as a beta online in 2006. The website provides both professionally made videos produced internally, as well as some editorially selected quality videos produced by amateurs....
. Under the terms of the agreement, VideoJug will provide the video content to the website in return for licence fees and/or a cut of ad revenues.
CEO Stephen Chao
WonderHowTo's CEO Stephen ChaoStephen Chao
Stephen Chao is an American web entrepreneur and media industry executive. He has worked as the President of Fox Television, an independent television producer, President of USA Network, and co-founder of instructional video website WonderHowTo.com...
gained notoriety for being fired as President
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
of Fox Television in 1992 for hiring a male model to strip naked during his speech at a management conference for FOX executives, board members and world dignitaries, including Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....
and wife Anna Murdoch, and former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
and wife Lynne Cheney
Lynne Cheney
Lynne Ann Cheney is the wife of former United States Vice President Dick Cheney and served as the Second Lady of the United States from 2001 to 2009...
. Chao spoke on “The Threat to Democratic Capitalism Posed by Modern Culture”. Strongly emphasizing that television programs tend to be less critical of violence than nudity and sexuality
Nudity and sexuality
In most societies and cultures, human nudity is often associated with sexuality. Many people are sexually attracted to nudity, which they find to be erotic and sexually arousing...
, Chao hired a local waiter/model Marco Iacovelli to strip naked during his speech to illustrate his point about censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
and that network standards were not keeping pace with modern day experience. Not at all amused, Murdoch fired Chao immediately afterwards.