iraq: Video-blogging Will Sharpen the Debate
—-After Web-logging became a news source for conventional media after the US-led invasion of Iraq, the next step, “Vblogging,” will enable those with a desire and a little technology the chance to write, shoot, edit and distribute video journalism on their own, even from the field,” forbes.com, the website of Forbes magazine, says. —–
The print magazines are getting into the idea of videoblogging.
It really is a no brainer.
CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH.
I’m in a moment.
I realize it.
I pull out my camera and record it with video.
I come home, load it up on my computer, and share it on my blog.
I want other people to do the same, especially people who live lives in cultures I’ve never experienced.
We learn from each other this way.
It’s sounds a little corny, but not really.
I’m confident it’ll be so crazy we’ll forget about the corniness.
Unmediated.
Like today, I’m on vacation from work.
My friend Tim gives me a haircut; I choose to eat horrible food; I gladly walk; and meet Mica to see “Shakespeare in the Park”..
The whole time I’m thinking: what is all this? How did I get to live this life?
I can’t explain it, but I can try to show it.
Andreas did this video for Videoblog week.
Here is his great explaining of the process.
He only had a cheap webcam and cheap software.
Here’s our man in Denmark.
Idea:
I was thinking about videoblogs last night and then I remembered the
Book-A-Minute website and I thought to myself that it couldn’t be
hard
to do a Book-A-Minute on video. And with a lot of stuffed animals
around I figured I could use those as actors. It’s all very funny in
my head. 
)
I should’ve done Hamlet though. Me being Danish and all.
> If a group of videobloggers want to make a playlist of their combined
>week’s output and some use mov and some wmv they are up shit
>creek. The web could not have become what it is if its components
>competed to the extent that video technology currently does.
>Competition, of course, can be a good thing but users are getting
>very little value from it.
so maybe we as a small group of videobloggers need to agree
on what we use.
Maybe we all agree on .MOV or MPEG 4 or REAL or WMV or whatever.
the people who are coding these players and need metadata and all that
should tell us what is best for them.
then we all start using it exclusively.
rigth now, we’re really the only ones on the whole web really doing
videoblogging to any extent.
also, we should make a list of what we like or dont like about certain
players and maybe we’ll can get some changes made.
So as the videoblog discussion group tries to make a videoblogging easier, I’ve noticed that there are several challenges that get mixed up together.
So I’ve broken down the process of videoblogging:
1. PRODUCTION
In this stage, I shoot and edit the video.
I been using I-movie to put clips together, crop, and put music/narration.
Maybe I don’t even edit, but this is when I prepare the video for my blog.
I think titles are good, like my website address somewhere, so if someone deep links to it, they’ll know it’s my work.
2. POSTING
Here’s where I optimize the video. I find that the video needs to be under 5MB to load quickly and look good. Peter says videoblogs should be like 200k, but then it’s very pixelated.
Right now, because of bandwidth limitations, it’s not an easy decision.
I use I-movie’s optimizing function because it’s easy, but Sorenson is really the best.
I also must open my blog program(I use Ecto), upload the video, and write my post.
I WANT ONE TOOL THAT CAN DO EVERYTHING UP TO THIS POINT.
Edit, optimize, post.
If Ecto could edit and optimize, I’d be flush.
Videoblogging would then be very easy to teach.
3. VIEWING
This is involves finding and navigating videoblogs.
This also involves creating a community to watch my videoblog, getting people to subscribe to my RSS feed, posting comments, back and forth.
Our group is doing some exciting work by linking everyone’s video together.
Though I don’t know how to code, there are lots of good questions coming up.
If you hot link to my page, how will people know it’s mine?
If too many people link to my video, how soon will I go over my bandwidth?
Can you include titles and my post next to the video as it plays on your site?
Basically what this means to me is that I can do my individual video blog which is important because I want control in how I express myself and the context of how the videos are watched.
But, I can also team up with other videobloggers and we can create a TV channel simply by someone smart making a playlist.
Though I want my individual blog to post my videos, I also want to be part of a larger whole.
I want comments. I want to be linked up to others.
There seems to be a lot of work going on for the Viewing side of videoblogs.
So here’s my take on Videoblogging as of 6.29.04:
Soon there’ll probably be a program that let’s me subscribe to video feeds, uses Bit Torrent to download DVD quality video as it’s posted, and let’s me play it on my TV.
Great, but who’s going to make all this video?
We need to really work on an intuitive production tool. (Edit. Optimize. Post.)
Not enough people are making videoblogs.
I don’t want to watch the same content made by the same media organizations, just is a different medium.
We need to make it easy for anyone to make a video and put it on the web.
If I have a 100$ digital-still camera that captures MPEGs, this should be all I need to show you what’s up.
> Is there a definition of ‘what a videoblog is’ that we all or mostly
> agree on?
Right now, a videoblog is just a need to share information, to connect.
It’s also being done by people who know it’s never been done.
a challenge.
one we’re up to.
I believe that videoblogging is similar to the beginning of photography.
A small group of serious amateurs concocted the chemistry needed to make
photographs happen.
It was very very clunky and needed a lot of equipment and free time.
But it spread through Europe and into America.
People took mainly photos of themselves, their surroundings.
Portraits were a huge business. only professionals could really afford
camera equipment.
Companies sent photographers all over the globe to take pictures of exotic
lands. Most of humanity had never seen these places before…ever.
Then, a guy name George Eastman in Rochester NY developed a photographic
process that was dummy proof so everyone could take pictures.
and everyone did. it was cheap.
people took photos of their families. artists took different kind of photos.
business blew up with photo advertising.
now is videoblogging exactly like this? no.
but it’s starting out with dedicated enthusiasts with tools and time. no
money involved.
now they have to find a way streamline the process.
make the tool, develop a community who gets it, and see what happens.
Let people play.
Videobloggers will be:
college kids will use it for pranks and some serious navel gazing.
families will use it to keep in touch across the country.
the extroverts who discover the videoblogging tool will bring even more
attention to themselves. they’ll be definite stars.
Activists will use it to spread realities and witness…because video is the
most rich information we can record other than real life. think Rodney king.
minority and subculture groups will use it to connect to each other.
it’ll be the weirdest and hottest new dating tool.
I believe Videoblogs are best when they’re short and spontaneous. easy to
make.
we all tire of TV because it’s so filtered.
Videoblogs also allow you to express yourself to people in ways you might
not do in person.
Just like a text blog.
But unlike a text blog, i can be face to face with people all over the
world. I can get a sense of place, see the lines on the face, truly be in
their moment. Just by sitting in front of my computer. Nothing between me
and them. And this has never happened to humanity…ever.
Alright, we got another project to work on.
We’re going to dream up a videoblogging tool for Steve’s mom.
She’s the oldest blogger on the internet. Mildred Garfield is 78!
oldest blogger on the internet
Here’s her blog.
Steve said:
“My Mom is 78 and I asked her what she thought about Videoblogging week.
She loved it.
She liked it better than text blogs because it gave her a great idea of
what I was doing.
It’s really a whole new way of thinking about blogging.
She said she’d be interested in video blogging if she had a camera and
if it was easy to do. “
Now is videoblogging easy to do?
Debateable. Maybe, if you know a lot of tools and applications.
There’s a definite learning curve.
So Steve’s been exploring and will hopefully get his Mom videoblogging.
maybe with an I-sight web cam, Imovie, and emailing it straight to her blog.
A Mac workaround.
What we need to do is encourage her when she posts.
I know I make better videos if I know people are watching.
Now here’s the project.
Let’s imagine the perfect videoblogging tool.
One that is simple enough for Steve’s Mom to use, and powerful enough for
the more experienced like us.
Many of the people in our group havent posted videos so I dont know how much
they understand the process of videoblogging.
Peter drew up real rough plans for a tool a couple months ago.
The Fabled tool..
Take a look.
Already I see that it needs an editing function.
Maybe just being able to put clips back to back, and cropping.
Maybe be able to add a soundtrack and narration.
Then, it should optimize.
Then, it should post.
What am I forgetting?
As your coments come in, we’ll redraw the plans and take another look.
No one will build our dream tool till we get it straight for ourselves.
Remember this is for Steve’s Mom.
David Wolf posted this video in December ’03.
It’s weird because you can affect the movement by running the mouse over the image.
There are so many things that we’ll be able to do with videoblogs.
Peter and I were talking yesterday about hooking my computer up to the TV and watching videos on the big screen.
Just wait, it’ll happen when someone creates player that uses Bit Torrent to automatically download videos streams I subscribe to, so I can watch them at your leisure.
The great thing is…I’ll then be able to make DVD quality video(huge files) because Bit Torrent can handle them.
The DVD quailty video will look like TV on my TV when I play it from my computer.
Who will be the first to set this up and when will it happen?
It’s just a matter of time.
“The videoblogging discussion group has designated June 20th to June 27th as Videoblogging Week. A handful of participants have vowed to post a videoblog entry each day for the duration of the week. This page collects entries from all participants in one central spot.”
Thanks to Andreas for setting this compilation up.
Solitude.DK