Tag: Blogging

Blogging 130: Video Blogging with Flip and iSight

Note: Every required course in the Social Media University, Global curriculum is free. In this one, I’m reviewing a product for video blogging that isn’t free, but it’s certainly inexpensive. Because of the cost, however, this course is an elective, not part of the core curriculum. But please at least do the course reading below, even if you’re not able to complete the homework assignment.

For the last several years I’ve been using my miniDV camera for producing amateur movies, whether for fun work projects or family videos. In fact, I have a huge drawer full of miniDV tapes that have captured many of my family memories, and which I have used to create high school graduation retrospectives for my two oldest kids, and for some wedding videos. And although I’m a self-taught producer, I’m pretty pleased at what I’ve been able to create with relatively simple tools.

One thing that makes producing these videos, well…a production is the need to digitize the footage, connecting the camera to the computer via Firewire, and playing the whole tape to import files that can be edited in iMovie (or one of the Final Cut versions.)

But thanks to recommendations from Steve Lubetkin and Monty Flinsch, I’ve recently (this weekend) begun exploring the Flip camera as a video blogging alternative. My one-word review:

Amazing.

I’ve seen Scoble do his Qik gig, and it’s pretty cool to have “a TV station in your pocket,” which you can use to stream video live to the web. But while I personally find my life really interesting, I think most of my readers would prefer the edited version. And besides, the quality of the live video stream (even from a 3G phone) still needs some work.

That’s what’s so compelling about the Flip: for a ridiculously low price ($119 for 30 minutes, $149 for 60 minutes), you can get a camera that records 640 x 480 video with decent sound into files that you can edit instantly and upload to YouTube or another video blogging platform, or to Facebook.

In fact, I started shooting the segment you see below at 7:15 p.m. CDT Tuesday, using a Flip Ultra and a cheap tripod. It took a couple of tries to say something close to what I wanted. So I was done recording by 7:20. Then I plugged the camera’s built-in USB extension that flips out (Get it? Flip?) into my computer’s USB port, and completed the editing by 7:25 using QuickTime Pro. I exported at 30 frames per second and best quality, which took about four minutes for this 75-second clip. By 7:32 I was uploading to YouTube. Total time from shooting to uploading: 17 minutes.

Then my youngest son asked me to go out for a run (with him on his scooter), so I took a blogging break. I’m not sure how long the upload took because I was away while it finished, but that will vary for you anyway, based on your Internet connection speed.

One hour later…

Continue reading “Blogging 130: Video Blogging with Flip and iSight”

Driving While Blogging

Once concern people have with starting a blog is whether they will be able to keep it fresh and updated. One partial solution to this problem is Utterz. My friend Chris Heuer introduced me to this service, which he uses quite frequently on his blog.

The audio post is one I did on the way home from the Rochester Airport last night. One drawback, as I mentioned, is that adding text like this, or links, or a title like the “Driving While Blogging” above, requires you to still go to your blog and edit. You can set some default categories for your Utterz posts, but tags also have to be added manually.

I’m going to experiment some more with Utterz, using a picture uploaded from my camera phone to combine with the post. I guess you can have video, too.

Maybe I’ll suggest Utterz to my daughter, who seems to have trouble keeping The Borg Blog updated.

And no, I’m not typing this part while driving…I’m editing the orginal post while riding the bus to work on Thursday morning.

Mobile post sent by leeaase using Utterz. Replies. mp3

Cold Weather + Lousy Record = Cheap Ticket + Souvenir Baseball

My Visit to AT&T Park in San Francisco. I did this post using Utterz. The matching up of my emailed photo with the cell phone voice message didn’t work so well…so I had to upload manually from the Utterz site.

I will be doing a review of Utterz as a 200-level SMUG class.

Mobile post sent by leeaase using Utterz. Replies. mp3

Social Media Motto

In a discussion yesterday with a couple of colleagues at work, I think I may have stumbled upon (if you’ll pardon the social bookmarking pun) an official motto for SMUG:

It’s not that hard.

I was talking with these co-workers (let’s call them “Karen” and “Cory”… since those are their names) about an exciting new blogging project that’s part of an internal communications program Karen is leading, and as we began the conversation I heard myself saying something I hadn’t planned but that really resonated with Karen. I’m not sure I can reproduce exactly what led to the magic phrase, but it was something like this:

You’ve got just a few weeks to get this blog launched, and that may seem like a short time compared to some of the projects you’ve done, but I just want to you to remember one thing: it’s not that hard. We launched the health policy blog in less than a week, and we also got a tile developed to bring a feed of the latest posts into this static page. That doesn’t mean it’s not work (how’s that for a double negative?); but it does mean you can do this. We’ve got a talented team that has done elements of everything you need to accomplish here, from the web video to customizing the blog’s look and feel to developing the RSS widget for the static page. It’s just a matter of pulling it together. It’s not effortless, but it’s not that hard.

I realized pretty quickly I was on to something with that phrase, when as we were discussing elements that needed to be completed between now and May 1 or so, Karen repeatedly chimed back: “But it’s not that hard, right?” “No, it’s not that hard,” I reassured her. I know we all left that planning meeting feeling that we had developed the start of a good game plan, and now we just needed to execute.

As I reflected on this, I thought those four words accidentally uttered do a great job of encapsulating what Social Media University, Global is all about: It’s not that hard. My mission with SMUG is to encourage people to learn about and experiment with social media tools to improve their lives. Maybe the applications for your are avocational, such as a blog or a Facebook group for a club or amateur sports team. Possibly you’d like to recruit and organize people for your non-profit cause. Perhaps you see social media as a way to engage employees in a large organization. Or you see potential “marketing” benefits, not in the traditional “push” sense of sending our your messages, but providing an opportunity to connect in a meaningful way with current and potential customers or clients.

Whatever your situation, the SMUG motto holds: It’s not that hard. It’s not get-rich-quick internet secrets (like the one I saw on the infomercial at 4:45 this morning.) It’s real work, not auto-pilot. But it’s not that hard.

Business Blogging Capstone Project

Yesterday was a big day blogging for me…not with SMUG, but on a work-related blog.

brokawpicture.jpg

Tom Brokaw was the keynote speaker and moderator for the opening session of the Mayo Clinic National Symposium on Health Care Reform. I hope SMUG students will check out Mayo Clinic’s Health Policy Blog, which I’ve been using to capture the essence of the symposium proceedings and to help extend the conversation both geographically and temporally.

This is the equivalent of a capstone project, enabling me to apply for a business purpose the things I’ve been learning through my personal blogging. It’s been an interesting experience, and I’d appreciate any comments or suggestions here on ways I can improve what I’ve been doing there.