Video is back for the next iteration

Video is back. The last big iteration was when Youtube exploded in popularity and anyone in the world could upload a video to share online. While that was cool, not many people were uploading video because the tools were still fairly difficult to use and there was no easy way to share videos privately.

But video is back, in a big way. Macs come with built-in webcams, and the iPhone 3GS records video that you can upload direct to Youtube. The hardware and the online services are ready.

twitcamsamma Video is back for the next iteration

Yesterday afternoon I saw Twitcam explode onto the scene and after playing around with it for 20 minutes and exclaiming at how cool it was, I saw Darren Rowse’s stream link pop up on Twitter. As I watched Darren was taking questions from the audience and replying in realtime! Now none of this is new individually but when you combine the package of signing in with your existing social graph through Twitter and having one-click broadcast to a short url – that’s a pretty impressive package!

Tonight Steve Sammartino ran a stream for an hour, taking questions on Rentoid and Startup Blog. It was really quite engaging and reminded me of just how much it is TV turn to die. There is going to be an avalanche of video content streaming all over the place very soon, and you can be sure that this stuff will be available on mobile devices very soon. The reach and potential of live mobile video is really amazing especially when you factor in that people will be notifying their social graph when they start broadcasting and that those followers can not only share the stream but comment back in realtime.

Everyone is connected, and everyone just became a live news reporter.

By Ross Hill - July 22nd, 2009 at 9:17pm with 922 views -

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  • When will we see The Hive events broadcasted via twitcam?
  • Good question! I'd love to see it happen.. I might be able to rig
    something up for the next one.
  • Good question! I'd love to see it happen.. I might be able to rig
    something up for the next one.
  • I remember the excitement around some earlier "live video" startups around the launch of the first Apple iPhone, but at the time Twitter wasn't big so they were using a chat applet. People had spread links manually, and it was very confined. With the addition of twitter and each participant so easily able to invite others, I can see how this is going to be more sticky.

    But "TV['s] turn to die"? There will always be a place for well-written quality medium-high budget (relative to amateur) fiction (and non-fiction) content. In the context of content, I don't see TV (serials, documentaries, movies) dying too soon - perhaps the TV as a medium will die we'll just be watching it in our hand on our Touch or maybe on our Aspire Ones :)
  • I don't think many things ever fully 'die'. Vinyl is still awesome for
    example.
    TV broadcast is going to become a lot less relevant though as we get the
    tools to browse Youtube-style content on our big screens at home. I spent a
    few hours the other night watching Youtube instead of TV and it was great
    because there was so much more relevant content on there. How often do you
    see high speed low passes on TV? Never!

    High quality content will always have a place - the magazines that survive
    will be those that have high quality information that isn't time-specific.
    Low quality and time-specific content is going to
    change drastically though!
  • Vinyl is awesome, yet is now very unpopular in the mainstream (sales wouldn't be 0.001 percent of CDs + Downloads). The fact is that *music* is still very popular. The medium changes, but the content is still *very* relevant.

    TV broadcast dictated by program directors will certainly become less relevant as generations age. We're already seeing that with PVRs such as TiVo and iQ - people are choosing *when* to watch. Soon enough, they will be choosing *what* to watch and *how*. Scripted, high-medium budget telvision shows, the content, will still exist - but the medium, broadcast television, will slowly die off.

    High speed low passes are totz awes (totally awesome).
  • Yeah, I loved the chat with @problogger yesterday. I think this really opens up some interesting possibilities where face-to-face comes in, but more so...

    1) News, streamed live. Imagine witnesses streaming twitcams live and then starting conversations around it.
    2) Sports broadcasters streaming their vision into twitcam and then having tweeps watch and comment along (boxee is doing this?). Imagine LE Tour!!!
    3) Local events, such as local sport which have small, hyper-local followings, being able to broadcast games in real time and then allow for comment by those watching through facebook, twitter etc etc.

    Huge. The world has changed in the last week.
  • Qik took care of the mobile streaming, twitcam added an instant
    audience by linking Twitter, and boxee will bring it to your TV as a
    viable entertainment alternative to traditional broadcast.
  • edwardharran
    Right on @rosshill #thevoice.

    As instructure and data portability becomes more and more seamless....the ability for different platforms to connect with one another, it encourages more broadcasters to step up. Persuasive Design kind of - if the user design interface makes it easy (especially video), more ppl will do.

    On a side note, any opinions on tinychat vs twitcam?
    I've seen @chrissaad and few others use tinychat
    I like twitcam in that conversation goes straight into the twitter stream?

    Eddie
  • Tinychat is great as well - it depends on the context for which tool
    you want to use, but the underlying fact that we have higher-bandwidth
    communication channels becoming available is awesome all round :)
  • It certainly was an excellent use of technology. It also shows balls of steel to improvise like that.
  • I've found that Australians in particular don't like being put on the spot in front of a camera! We're funny like that...
  • Blogging is super fun - there is nothing more rewarding than sharing your ideas. But when I did this live stream, it just took it to another level. it did this because it was live. I could get immediate feedback and respond accordingly. Which quite simply just increased the value of the session for everyone by a million miles.

    Steve.
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