Archive for the ‘Video’ Category
Smibs visits Silicon Valley: The real-time web is coming on fast
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009Last Friday I flew down to San Francisco to attend the TechCrunch CrunchUp conference. This year the conference topic was ‘The Real Time Stream’. The conference was aimed to capture the opportunities and latest developments arising from the the rapidly growing amount of real-time data that is generated on micro-blogging services like twitter, friendfeed and soon facebook.
The conference was an excellent event for me. It gave me real insight about where the web is going next and on the seriousness and progress rate of the current developments. In the opening panel (video below) Ron Conway describes the real-time web as having multiple multi-billion dollar opportunities. He goes so far as to compare the current development with the early days at Google, when they still hadn’t figured out a business model and could only imagine what an impact Google would have on how we use the web today. Watch the video below for the full opening panel on ‘The Realtime Opportunity’ …
The day was packed with interesting panels and presentations and after getting an idea of how far people and companies are along in developing new platforms, tools and services, I have to say I am once again astonished. The world might be in a recession but Silicon Valley is bursting from the mass of innovation it’s producing, and its buzzing with people who will eventually turn that innovation into striving businesses.
I keep repeating myself but every time I am in the Valley I notice its biggest advantage in the tech sector: A huge amount of people who want to try new stuff – not just entrepreneurs but also consumers and businesses of all sizes. This results in new ideas getting traction early on. By the time the rest of the world notices a new idea like twitter already has a couple of million users, and the rest of the world watches as they reach critical mass.
TechCrunch put on a nice after party and I met a lot of people from last year and some people I have only met online so far. All in all it was a great trip that opened my eyes with regards to the next big wave of innovation. I look forward to taking the opportunities that come with it 
.
Oh, at the conference someone noticed that I didn’t wear socks in my business shoes so I had to explain my reasons on camera. Watch the third video under the ‘Channel’ button in the embedded video box below!
Video blogging – a new era
Monday, April 27th, 2009
This is the first post in a 5 part series of articles I will be sharing discussing how audio and video blogging are changing the landscape of the Internet and how you can use these tools in business and in your personal life.
How we share information online is transforming. A decade ago, simply having a website made you more innovative than your competitors. In the beginning, online communication was completely controlled by the author allowing the read
er little control over the content they were exposed to. Today, several innovations have changed the way in which we share information online. For example, the ability to hyperlink to content within a site/blog or to a completely different site provides more flexibility for the user by letting them finish the blog post or follow a suggested link.
More and more information sharing has become vertically integrated and hyper-specialized. Conventional, generic text-based websites are growing obsolete. Now, websites are being constantly upgraded and integrated to include images that act as links to audio, video and themed music. Your online content must provide a specific service, or solve a specific problem. Users are searching for exact solutions to solve defined needs. Generally, if the user is not satisfied with the content on the page he/she will link out to a site better suited for their query. Using audio and video to support your online content will help satisfy a users specialized needs.
Greater network bandwidth, the use of standardized formats, and the overall commercialization of the Internet has changed both the geography and how we communicate online. A newer medium of communicating online is via video blogging and podcasting. Podcasting emerged into the mainstream in 2005 after Apple added Podcasts into its Itunes platform. Immediately exposing podcasting to 40 million people. Within one week there were over a million new users. When implemented properly it can help you to gain exposure, market, and gain an edge over your competition.
Podcasting supports your desired message to the user by providing an easy and effective way to distribute audio and video files. Previously, if I was having problems figuring out the sum function in Microsoft Excel I would have to look for an online forum, or find step by step textual instructions to help me out. Today, I simply go to websites like youtube.com or mrexel.com and watch step by step instructions on how to effectively use excel via video. In this way, video blogging increases the efficiency by which we share information.
Not only do podcasts and video blogs help you to share information to a targeted audience but they are an excellent way to give voice to your business. Video blogging enables you to tell an online story about your business. Who you are, what you do, and what your product is. Over the next couple weeks, I want to discuss ways to instigate, develop, and market video casts into an effective tool for your business.
Check Digg’s founder Kevin Rose’s video blogs on his vimeo page . Through his videos Kevin demonstrates new applications he has implemented into his websites and educates users on how to integrate them into his existing platform. What’s really awesome is that besides marketing his product, he essentially grants the viewer a window into his personal life, sharing his interests and experiences with them through his video blogs. Another great place to visit for video blogs is right here at SmibsTV .
My next topic will deal with the steps around planning an effective video blog.
[Inspired] Animated origami tells a corporate story
Monday, March 9th, 2009This video employs animated origami to tell the corporate story of asics , the sports shoe manufacturer, from its founders viewpoint. It seems like the founder himself is narrating it and the simple, almost black and white animation gives it a back to the basics kind of feel that underlines the message of focusing on what matters, providing athletes with the finest footwear possible. The piece was commissioned by Geraman ad agency Nordpol+Hamburg which seems to be winning tons of awards for their commercials. Interestingly the agency also has one of the most annoying agency websites I’ve ever encountered (the kind with micro font navigation that escapes when you try to click on it). Great work on the video, some work to do on the website. Enjoy the video.
Origami In the Pursuit of Perfection from MABONA ORIGAMI on Vimeo.
Christy’s product pick of the week – iShowU HD Pro
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
iShowU HD Pro
iShowU is a very cool capturing application (realtime screencasting), that captures online/offline media that can be imported directly into Pro Apps such as Final Cut (you can even choose pro level settings). The image quality of the captures is quite amazing. Ironically, the demos on their website are not that impressive which is a pity, but the software can produce very high quality captures. The price is also very reasonable compared to other, less feature-filled apps, at just under $60 US. You can use this product to enhance video projects, you can use it for software demos, you can create support videos to E-mail to customers addressing their technical problems..etc. When I first installed it, it didn’t work properly but once I closed it, restarted it and put in my registration number a second time, it worked perfectly.
Some other features include:
- Recording from iSight and DV cameras
- Upload to YouTube/Blip.TV
- Realtime scaling for captures
- Key recording and Mouse actions
- Real time preview
- Watermark editing
- Low CPU usage
Website: http://www.shinywhitebox.com/ishowuhd/main.html
Cost: $59.95USD
Requires: Leopard 10.5
