I’m working on a video series for O’Reilly that aims to de-mystify Hadoop and MapReduce, explaining how mere mortals can analyze massive data sets. I’m recording the first drafts of my segments now, and I’m finding it incredibly tough (it’s taking me about two hours to prepare and record a 2 minute piece on average) but it’s also been a great way to round out my own knowledge.

I need to get feedback to help me improve the final versions, so I’ll be posting some excerpts to get ideas. Above I’ve included the introductory segment, where I try to cover the fundamental strength of the MapReduce approach. I’ll be cutting down on the wild-eyed look for the final shoot, but I’ll be interested to hear your thoughts on the content.