I was invited to an earlier version of The Venice Project, the TV-related project from the wizards behind Skype. An NDA has prevented me from writing about any details of the experience including screenshots, but I can and will admit that I didn’t spend much time with it. Sort of an in, check it out, look around, and get out experience.
I’m very interested in TV on the web. I just tried using my login to checkout the new version of Venice Project, strangely name changed to Joost and it didn’t work, so not sure if my beta status is still valid (anybody else able to get in?). Whatever the case, I know two things I don’t like that carry no NDA.
The name and the design.
How do you say it? Juh-ooo-st? Joooost? It doesn’t have the appeal that Skype had. Who wants to be a Jooster? Is the name easier to remember than The Venice Project? Perhaps, but it’s not very appealing.
And what’s with the psychedelic color scheme? Doesn’t work for me. Why not something that better represents it is a TV-related project? Do you like the name Joost better than The Venice Project? Premature name and design change and breakaway from the Venice Project linkage. Why not start out with Joost?
Not sure when Joost will offer a public beta, but their best move would be waiting as long as it takes to polish and perfect the software, not changing names and perpetuating the clubbiness of an invite only with NDA marketing strategy.
Thought it would be interesting for some other new video bloggers like me, or prospective vloggers, to share how my new Hmmcast (videoblog) quest in 2007 is going. I’ve been creating video for the web for a long time, but this year I made it a personal goal to create a new video or podcast every weekday. With two weeks in the bag, a few not so random newbie observations:
4:20pm PST / 7:20pm EST for each Hmmcast
It was important for me to have a daily updated date/time when each new Hmmcast was posted. I decided upon 4:20pm PST each day. It doesn’t seem to be a requirement for every video blogger to have a designated time when they post each new work, but for me, it created a clear deadline each weekday rather than something more arbitrary like “when I get it done.” I’m not certain if I’ll be able to make this deadline every weekday in 2007, but if I should miss one here and there, I’ll still have time to get the work published by the end of the day.
Still a minimum of 30 minutes to product and publish a couple minutes of video
These vloggers who just point, click, shoot and publish in almost real time must be video gods. In the best case it’s taken me a little under 30 minutes to publish a Hmmcast using the following steps:
1. preplanning, if any
2. recording. Usually in AVI format and then being titled and compressed down to mp4. Sometimes I can do it in one take, but for the longer works so far it’s been more like 2-3 takes.
3. editing. I’ll handle this one shortly.
4. FTP to media delivery server.
5. creating the preview screenshot
6. writing the blog post for the Hmmcast enclosure. In some cases I’ve included only a sentence or two and in others have included more background to supplement the Hmmcast along with links. I remain concerned about having almost no text because I think it makes it too hard for people using search, although a common video blog format is not to have much in the way of text or description. Rather than ruin the video — and the reason most might watch it — I try and use the text for additional commentary on the topic and/or Hmmcast itself. Not completely satisfied with this yet, but it’s developing.
Search now, search tomorrow
Searching the content within video and podcasts is still not a very well developed market. Sure, there are a couple of search engines out there which say they can do it, but from what I’ve seen the efforts aren’t very good yet. Until some search engine comes along that really can search through video, parse up what has been said and shown and then return based on keyword queries, the most logical way is for the publisher to include something around the video itself including a descriptive title and description.
This is the main reason why StumbleUpon Video doesn’t work for me. Chaining videos based on TiVO-style thumbs up/down in a collage without any other additional context or meaning is like stringing together a bunch of pictures without knowing who took them, when they were took, where they are from, etc. I can dig that level of randomness with websites, even by listening to radio, but not with video.
When I’m creating something search remains very important to me. Both for external and internal site search that I can use at a later date and time to piece together a larger work. It’s frustrating when you create something and can’t quickly locate it months or years later.
The wonders of editing
Most of my work hasn’t had much editing so far and it clearly shows. I’ve made verbal mistakes that have been published uncorrected in the video, but corrected in the text (another important way to use the video description). I’m hoping to improve my skill of editing multiple scenes and even complete videos into a single work. It would be nice to start editing out these flubs in the future.
Software
As far software for the video editing portion goes, I’ve primarily been using Visual Communicator, Windows Movie Maker and Windows Encoder (screencasts). To compress to MP4 I’ve been using Quicktime.
I’m not completely satisfied with how I’m using the PodPress Wordpress plugin. It creates a video client that doesn’t show or play in some browser environments (readers/viewers using Linux have complained, as well as IE users). Also, I must not have all the metadata right because it shows as “Your Author name goes here” instead of my name. I also don’t like how PodPress inserts messages into pages as comments (check your homepage footer, for example) even when you tell it not to. It’s possible I need to upgrade to a more recent version to fix all of this and that’s on my list, but PodPress seems like one of those plugins that tries to do too much. I’m grateful for what the author has created and given away freely, so please don’t misunderstand. Just wondering if maybe it would be better splitting up the plugin into two separate plugins that were more tightly focused: one for podcasts and the other for videoblogs. I’m sure many fans of PodPress will disagree with me, but remember these are my newbie thoughts; just haven’t seen the PodPress light yet and I definitely need to do more research and read up more on the best ways to use. In fact, thinking if the newest version doesn’t solve my concerns, I’ll stop using it altogether.
As a backup measure for the not seeing it in RSS part, I’ve also been using Google Video, but the problem there is if I upload the video to Google Video first so I can link in the post here, then before I publish the Hmmcast here, it would be available elsewhere. That screws with the publishing at a certain time deal. One possible fix is to publish initially at Google Video as “private” until after 4:20pm and then change to “public” at Google. I’d like to expand the number of places I submit the weekday Hmmcasts too other than Google Video.
Promotion
Not much promotional activity yet to report.
I just added the headline rotator for the Hmmcast from Feedburner to the single Hmm pages in a prominent location (top right sidebar). I also did some promotion when it was a weekly podcast, but that was in 2006 which helped the subscriber numbers. Finally, I signed up for the Yahoo videoblogger’s newsgroup and was accepted and will be following the basic instructions they offer about where to start. I’ll be making my first introductory videoblogger post there soon.
Haven’t broken the 2007 streak yet, 1/15 was holiday
Hmmcast will return later today and continue to have new episodes published every weekday save for holidays and vacations at 420/720. It arrives as an MP4 (video) or MP3 (podcast) RSS enclosure. For those already subscribed to the main Hmm feed and/or email it arrives along with everything else, but if you’d like to subscribe to only the Hmmcast you can use this RSS feed. As always, thank you for reading, listening and watching.
Now it’s your turn. Any early thoughts, suggestions, tips, tricks, anything that would help me improve my videoblogging efforts?
But, there’s something else that I’m sad to report. Christopher Coulter, who was running camera for me on last week’s Bill Gates’ interview, is no longer a PodTech employee. I wish him well on his future endeavors (I give him a glowing recommendation).
Then in the comments when asked the details of what Coulter will be up to next, Scoble replied:
I’ll let Chris tell you what’s up when he’s ready.
Once hired, Coulter pretty much stopped trolling Scoble’s comment section. Inquiring minds already wondering if Coulter will return to his former trollish self? Have to say most of Coulter’s credibility is shot now as far as job committment goes. The next time Coulter questions the committment of anybody else at their jobs, be sure to remind him that he didn’t make it past the probationary period at Podtech. Ouch.
Meanwhile, they hired up and coming videoblogger Loren ‘I’ll bed everyone at Podtech’ Feldman and all seems to be ok there thus far. Feldman doesn’t appear to have a Podtech show like Scoble does yet (coming soon?), but maybe he should give up the bed bit already. That was already done by Sharon Osbourne on her failed talk show (please don’t start selling breast molds, Loren) and could be tainted schtick. However, I must admit laughing very hard at Scoble doing some freaky sexual tongue thing in this video (consider yourself warned)
Troll–; // ?
Not sure what the circumstances were with Coulter and like most of these short term employment deals we’ll probably never know the gory details (and shouldn’t), but this certainly further diminishes the value of being hired as a star troll commenter. Trolls can dish, but rarely can take. And another one’s gone, another’s one gone, another one bites the …
Listening to Howard Stern live this morning and the crew vacated the studio because of an as yet unidentified gas smell wafting through the air and throughout the studio. The crew came back and they were taking calls from people saying: “You need to get out of [the Sirius building].” It’s on the news:
“We have numerous calls and reports about a gas leak from midtown to downtown, river-to-river but we don’t have any locations or any injuries reported,” an OEM spokesman said. He said there was no immediate threat to public safety.
For those of us who aren’t at CES 2007 in the never sleeping city of Las Vegas, there are ways to cover the action through the eyes and ears of others (will be updated as I find more):
- [video] Podtech.net and Seagate are sponsoring a Bloghaus at the Bellagio for people coming in and out to podcast, videoblog and blog. That’s one thing — bandwidth at CES — that has notoriously been an issue for attendees (even with an EV-DO card). Scoble already posted an exclusive lunch video with Bill Gates.
- [blog] Engadget has the keynotes covered
- [video] CNET TV has live and recorded CES action including a discussion with Bill Gates (lots of Gates coverage so far) on the upcoming Windows Home Server. Nathan has a bunch of additional details.
- [agenda] The day one agenda for CES 2007 details the major happenings.
- [RSS] Receive “late breaking news from CES 2007″ with international CES 2007 attendees feed — subscribed.
- [blog] CNET also has a Best of CES show.
- [blog, pictures] Gizmodo reporters dressed as construction workers and took over a dozen pictures of the pre-show floor from as early as last Friday.
Though I don’t have the exact numbers, I’m pretty certain our family didn’t buy less DVDs in 2006 than 2005. Our VHS purchase days are over and that seems to align with a recent study that a surprising $100 million VHS were still purchased in 2006. We’ve mostly divested our VHS collection except for family videos we’ve shot and still need to convert to digital.
DVD rentals rose strongly from 2005’s $6.5 billion to $7.5 billion, while DVD sales inched up from $16.3 billion in 2005 to $16.6 billion last year, according to figures due today from the Digital Entertainment Group, an industry trade group. Overall, $24.2 billion was spent on DVD and VHS, lower than in 2004 ($24.5 billion) and 2005 ($24.3 billion). VHS accounted for just $100 million in spending last year; as recently as 2004, VHS spending topped $3 billion.
$100 million is a lot for the clearly inferior and near dead VHS media format. I wonder if this is people raiding VHS bargain bins?
Tipping point for DVDs or no?
Does this study above show we’ve reached a tipping point for DVDs? I don’t think so. Too many DVD players out there and as I noted in last Thursday’s Hmmcast, the difference between DVD and Blu-Ray isn’t as dramatic as it is going from VHS to DVD.
I think the DVD format still has a good couple years, even if they aren’t selling more. There are still some great TV shows and seasons yet to be released, not to mention the new shows being developed.
With CES 2007 this week it will be interesting to see what developments come out as far as replacement media. I’ve already seen a post on the promise of a dual HD-DVD/Blu-Ray format player which if it is affordable (it won’t be in the forseeable future) it could help consumers decide on one over the other.
Right now, not counting the HDTV or cable, $500 will get you into HD-DVD (Xbox 360 + HD-DVD player or a standalone player) and about the same for Blu-Ray ($599 for PS3). Until either of these formats are available on players under $100 you can forget about any hope of widespread adoption. It’s the same thing with HDTVs which were supposed to already be here. We have seven TVs and two of them are HDTV and we like buying next generation technology. It’s like going from dial-up to broadband. It takes time meaured not in months, but years, and most people wait to buy these things until the prices come down.
I still think HD-DVD and Blu-Ray won’t be the next generation format. They will be at best an interim solution until something with moving parts comes into play like holographic storage. Sure I’ve said that before, but when there are no moving parts, when you and I can carry our entire movie collections around on data the size of a credit card, then we’ll have the next breakthrough in the format wars. What we have now with HD-DVD/Blu-Ray — and admittedly I don’t have an HD-DVD player yet — seems more like an intermission than a new movie.
What will your 2007 movie/TV purchases be like?
I predict we’ll buy less DVDs in 2007 than 2006, but not because we think the format is going away because we’ll be buying in different formats like renting movies through the Xbox Live Marketplace, the iTunes store for transfer to the iPod and perhaps even reinstating our Hollywood video unlimited rental plan. Oh and yes, we will probably buy an HD-DVD player and a few more Blu-Ray movies.
With a collection of DVDs around 500 and still growing, we’re watching this closely so we can sell most of our collection before the format starts to tank like it did with VHS. I don’t think this will be in 2007, but it’s possible we could be in the market to sell in late 2008 maybe.
What’s your story on the movie front? How many DVDs/VHS/Blu-Ray/HD-DVD did you buy in 2006? Was it more or less than 2005? What’s your outlook for purchases in 2007?
Talk about a meltdown. Perhaps my favorite part is the commentary at the end of the video. I laughed out loud with the commentator saying it was “beautiful playing of Amazing Grace by a Bagpiper.”
I know this was intended to be a touching tribute and it’s inappropriate to make jokes over something at a ceremony like this, but the bagpiper … well, just watch the video and you decide. It’s hard not laughing. Bagpipers everywhere doth protest!
While on the subject of strange iPod accessories, cue the i-Dog.
My wife bought an i-Dog recently and left it on my desk. The i-Dog reacts to sounds, moving its head and twitching its ears. It barks and flashes different colors on its face to indicate what mood it is in.
A couple weeks back, I made the video at the top of the post (and repeated in the Google Video above for those who can’t see the embedded video player) of the i-Dog reacting to Amanda Congdon’s second ABC video blog and submitted to ABC, which is today’s Hmmcast (#32). I’m not going to put numbers in the title with every update any more. Ch-ch-ch-changes, but you can follow the Hmmcast TV and Hmmcast (podcast) in your favorite RSS feed.
2006 was a good year and it’s time for me to lay down some goals, resolutions and changes this new year.
1. Goodbye existing RSS feeds, hello new RSS feeds
I’ve completely reset my warm, comfortable RSS reading list. All day long, in fact, I kept checking to see new posts … that were no longer there.
Since March 20 2006, I averaged following 185 RSS feeds and personally skimmed through over 150,000 posts marking 14,717 as ‘publish’ed. In a new directory and database I installed a fresh reBlog install for 2007 and am now looking at this:
I’ll be resubscribing to some of the 180+ feeds I was subscribed to in 2006, but I’m going to try my best to add primarily new voices, new feeds and new sources to my daily reading list. I also reset the Hmm front page blogroll.
Nothing against the many sources I enjoyed in 2006, but I’m not the kind of guy who likes staying in comfort zones and coasting along for an extended period of time. I like to keep doing new and different things, experimenting and exploring. You’re welcome to make your case for why I should resubscribe in 2007 below either by comment or trackback. Tell me what you will be doing differently in 2007? What will be new about you/your site? If the answer is nothing, then this is your opportunity to make a post like the one I’m making here and share.
Along the left hand side of the homepage (location subject to change) you’ll see my OPML file for 2006 and 2007. As of this writing 2007 I have only two subscriptions, one for here so I can monitor how the feed looks and the other is the next item I’ll be discussing.
I’m also working on a public shared reading list experiment that you can get involved with (keep reading for clues) and help influence what I post about here at Hmm in 2007. This means even if I’m not subscribed to your blog, there will be a familiar and easy way for you to submit posts you’d like me to skim/read.
2. Virtual world (MMO / MMORPG) focus changes
In January of 2006 myself and several others started a group blog called VTOR (Virtual TO Reality) to cover the virtual world landscape. We chose to use the new freehosting service from the people behind Blogexplosion called Blogcharm. Within days of launching the service, unfortunately, the BE owners announced they were selling the entire service and from there Blogcharm never really got much attention and the service went from new to bad to miserable.
It turned out to be a horrible move starting our blog at Blogcharm, especially over the last 60 days when the hosting has had numerous site outages, so we jumped to our own server. The VTOReality site migration is now complete and the new group blog is available at vtoreality.com on a server that is dramatically faster. We’re hosting on one of our dedicated servers. The RSS feed was being served by Feedburner so existing subscribers don’t need to update their links.
I’m looking forward to some exciting developments in virtual lands in 2007 and hope to be contributing even more than in 2006. I started out 2006 very involved and after summer things kind of tapered off. I downsized my virtual land holdings in Second Life so I’ll be starting lean and mean in 2007.
3. Removed sharing links
I’ve removed the digg, del.icio.us and sphere links at the bottom of each post. While I considered these convenient and useful for readers in 2006, those who use these services can use bookmarklets from these services if they want. These links just seem redundant to me any more. Maybe I’ll change back to thinking it was a good idea, but they’re gone for now.
4. Hmmcast — video or audio — five days a week
Vlogging here I come!
One of my 2007 goals is to publish at least one originally created video or podcast every weekday, save for holidays. They won’t necessarily all be related just like text posts here. Some might be short clips, others longer with higher production value. Expect screencasts, one on one commentary and more. This starts today and now below (on a holiday too, oops):
That video may be more of a strange vignette, but my experimenting and exploration will come into some sort of regular production (or quit after a serious concerted effort). Yeah, guess I’m saying the Hmmcast will be a regular production, which is what I alluded to in my last post and have wanted to do for quite some time now.
This will be replacing the bi-monthly most hmm-worthy posts. I liked the concept but it’s kind of out of gas in the current format and want to try something different.
5. Back in Black Labs
Many of the new experiments we’re working on related in some way to Hmm will be listed in a new labs.makeyougohmm.com. You can poke around there now and see some of what’s happening behind the scenes, away from the RSS feed and website. This isn’t some promotional thing, it’s a place for us to play mad scientist together and check out stuff. You will be a part of this, if you want to be.
I probably won’t write posts about all these lab experiments, but you’ll note a new category called “labs” which is bound to follow some of these experiments. One of the things I want to do a better job at in 2007 is making things being worked on and experimented with behind the scenes a little more publically accessible. Also will allow me to get feedback from you about ideas you might think would be cool more fully developed for here or related sites.
6. ???
This list could go on but I’m going to leave it there for now. Tease, tease. Hopefully you’ve noticed most of these personal and site goals lean towards creating more original content. I’m not planning on getting too far removed from commenting on news and what other people are saying/doing, what’s happening in tech, and ultimately things that make me and hopefully you go hmm, but I do want to focus more on producing and publishing a greater amount of original content in 2007 than in prior years, if that’s even possible with my frenetic schedule. We’ll find out in 12 months, won’t we?
Look around the site, leave comments and if you like, get involved here in the many other creative ways to be available throughout 2007. Thank you for reading and supporting this site with your time and energy. It’s contagious.
All my life I’ve been waiting to learn about the Crease Theory. It only seems natural that a teenager would teach it to me less than 12 hours before Christmas Eve.
If you’re looking for something longer to watch over the holidays, how about a movie some consider to be the worst movie ever: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
