If I'm not mistaken, access to these videos previously required an account from a GV-funded company. It looks like they've opened up content to everyone. Very cool.
I tried the "request access" option on a movie I wanted to see (Effective Story Telling). Hope the author grants me access.
BTW, when I worked at Google as a contractor, I had to request access to many papers I wanted to read that by default were just available to employees. Almost always the author/owner would grant access.
I am disappointed to see that the two security engineering videos are blocked by privileged access control. Improved overall internet security benefits everybody, and it's surprising that GV does not share that ethos.
If anybody from this project is reading here, are you abel to change that, or can you comment as to the motivations for how things are classified as public vs privileged?
I'm a member of the GV team, and one of those who helps run the workshop series. In many cases, workshops are available only to employees of the portfolio because it supports more open and candid conversations.
In the case of our security videos, we've restricted them because there were discussions about particular companies' security needs that aren't appropriate to share publicly. It's unlikely the talk would have been as beneficial to our portfolio companies if people felt the need to hold back knowing the details would be made public.
As casca mentioned, we've opened many of our videos to the public and we'll continue to do so when the workshop leader and audience participants agree: https://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleVentures/videos
At GV our mission first and foremost is to serve the employees of our portfolio companies. Google as a whole is of course dedicated to improving internet security and the company dedicates tons of people and resources to that.
Funny that within two posts we've gone from "Why isn't GV more transparent" to "Why is GV so transparent".
I agree that from a UX standpoint it isn't great, but I think it achieves two things:
1. gives a hint at what you receive when you're a GV-funded company. Something for potential companies to think about.
2. stops any conspiracy theories about the "Secret Training Videos Google Won't Let You See".