Momentshowing

Node101 NYC is now open

Ryan and I are officially opening Node101 this saturday in Manhattan.
Anyone can come down on saturdays or sunday from 2-5 pm.
You can learn how to videoblog, troubleshooting your videolbog, help us teach, or just hang out.
Bring your laptop and camera...or we'll have a couple extra for you to use.
WiFi all around.
Please see our Node101 blog for more details.

Node101 is a concept that developed out of our realization that meeting face to face is important.
The vision is to have different nodes throughout the world.
Over the next several months, we'll be creating a "teacher's kit" and other resources so anyone could start a node. Though our nodes are run by volunteers out of cheap spaces, we believe each node should have a reliable, published schedule of classes. Sustainability is the key.

Node101 will teach how to videoblog...but also provide a place where people can talk about the world and why they want to start making media in the first place. Especially here in the US, there are so few places public meeting spaces.

There are already nodes in San Antonio and Ojai.
Yehaw.

Videobloggers are now taking over this Planet

Want to where all the videobloggers are based?
This just in from Matt at VlogMap:

The VlogMap.org data is now available for Google Earth.
The Google Earth application is currently only available for Windows,
but I highly recommend you check it out (especially the 3D buildings
in major cities).

Instructions are here.

A new Directory for Videoblogs

At Vloggercon in late January 2005, there were about 20 regular videoblogs.
Three months later there are well over 200...with new videoblogs popping up everyday.
I see no sign of this slowing down.

So how do we keep up?
Linking, filters... and directories which Michael Sullivan has done.
Introducing VlogDir.

Michael says,

VLOGDIR is a new Videoblog Directory Service that allows you to add a link to your vlog along with descriptive details, rss feeds and attached media.
Every VLOGDIR entry will ping and inject itself into the videoblogging.info community page which will display the most recent 20 vlogs added to the VLOGDIR.

So add your videoblog to the directory and get listed.
This way everyone will know how to find you and subscribe to your feed.

VlogDir is a great complement to Videoblogging.info, which is the public site for the Videoblogging Group. We are building a smart ecology of tools. A real community is developing.

Keep up with all the new Videobloggers

There is now a videoblog listing all the new videobloggers.
You will get the first video of every new videoblogger that comes through the Freevlog tutorial.
Subscribe with ANT.
Vlog: http://freevlog.org/wordpress/
Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/freevlog/newvloggers

It's just blows me away the variety of people creating video.
Since Freevlog opened up last week, a bunch of people have already followed the instructions to make their own videoblog.
If you have a video on your desktop, it's easy to get it on a blog.
All hail Verdi and Ryan who made Freevlog.

How will we watch all these videos in the year 2005?

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          "Feedster.tv :: Rich media feeds for your aggregator"

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Right now, the only way to watch videoblogs is to go to each individual blog and watch each individual video.
As of November 2004, there is no way to see videos all in one place.
It's as if when I want to hear a story, I got to run around town to each person's apartment to hear the story.
I want a stage where we can all come together and tell stories to each other.

FeedsterTV is a site that lets you subscribe to RSS feeds with enclosures.
For instance, you can get a feed with just music files or just video files.
Blogdigger has been doing this since the summer of 2004.

For audio, this is great because you can use a free application like iPodder to automatically download the music files to your iPod or MP3 player.
The feeds need to have Enclosures, so it works great.
(although Andreas will tell you that bits all very sloppy and asking for trouble. Ask him why.)

But for video....there is no device that lets you play video files other than your computer.
So who cares that there's a RSS feed with video enclosures?
You'll notice that the Feedster site doesn't really talk about video much..no one knows how to handle it. How will we watch all these videos in 2005?

Im sick of having to click to each individual blog to see each video.
I want a viewing experience for videoblogs.
A viewing platform.
It will only be like TV in the sense that it's video on a screen...from there we can do anything we want with it.

I believe that we need to create a tool to bring all these videos together.
Like an RSS reader for video...and I think it's got to be for video only.
Ill subscribe to video feeds that certain people that I trust create...they'll be great video collectors with taste.
Kenyatta made a prototype tool. The beautiful VOG BROWSER.
Who's going to finish it off? (it needs an interface that allows you to add RSS feeds.)

The other thing we need an iPodder-like application that sucks in videos while you sleep.
We already have FeedsterTv which sends our an RSS feed with video enclosures.
Then you can wake up and watch them in a nice viewing window.
We're working on this right now. (Mac only for now)
And this tool be necessary once there's some portable devices to watch these videos.

I spent the afternoon with Peter today.
Hadn't seen him since he videoblogged in India this summer.
It's all making sense. The biggest success are people videoblogging now.
i see it coming; the tools we need are clearer and doable.

Why Im excited about video on the internet

I've said it before, but let me say it again.
Up till pretty recently, the only videos you could easily find online were movie traliers and porn.
If you wanted to use the Internet to "connect" to the world....you could really only do it through text.
Since the late 90's people have tried to put video on the web...but only the big guys who could afford fast servers could really do it.
Even then, not till 2003, did more people ditch their dial-up and get Broadband connections that can handle video.

Im interested in people.
Im interested in people in other parts of the world.
I spent a lot of my 20's working and living in places I wanted to learn about.
Now I could go online and read about these places, probably find some pictures, but its not the same.
I like to know about the people..what is it about them that makes them interesting?
And you got to see and hear them to get it.

I like the fact that we live in a "Global World"...not like the way corporations say it...meaning bigger markets to sell to and cheaper labor force to exploit.
No, we live in a world where increasingly we can talk to each other.
Let's start sharing experiences and understanding of our lives.
let's trade notes.
There's going to be some madness that will come...since this can be overwhelming...but it's worth it.
if our two countries are going to fight a war, let's get to know each other first.

So Im searching around and find a posting about these French soldiers who opened fire on a crowd in the Ivory Coast about a week ago.
Amazing.
Some guy with a camcorder, recorded the event, and it got posted.
I can see it sitting at my shakey desk.
You can too right HERE.

The video is graphic.
Meaning?
it's real life. this is what happens when men with guns on tanks are threatened by a crowd who is angry.
They shoot...people get shot...15 seconds of violence..then people stand around trying to figure out what happened and what to do next.

The recording starts...gunshots...the camera goes blurry...
We see all the people...the camera strap is dangling in front of the camera...as it moves back and forth trying to figure out what's up.
Then, we look at the most obvious thing. Who got hurt?
People laid out on th sidewalk of an ordinary city.
Solid shots of each wound.
This is what it looks like when a bullet grazes you.
This guy got hit pretty badly, but he's alive.
This is a human body with no head that people are standing around.
This is what happens when a high-caliber rifle hits a human skull.
People are angry at the French soldiers on their tanks.

So why would i watch this?
Because I want to know without some "reporter" who was not at the event choosing the shots and pushing the "official" interpretation of the event.
I wish there was a whole network of bloggers in countries around the world who recorded the struggles they go through.
Then I could share in it.
I want daily life stuff too...but the world is pretty chaotic right now...true reality programming.
I mean, who do you want the story from?

I like the video because it's unedited..or at least minimally edited.
Unfortunately the video is not attached to a blog.
I wish the person who taped it...wrote a story on his/her experience.
These are unmediated moments from the Ivory Coast, November 2004.
Now we know.

INdTV videoblog

Al Gore is starting a cable network called INdTV.
Get it?
But check out the site.
Seems they want to hire a bunch of younger people who can roam the country and record stories.
seems kind of chaotic.
But isnt this what any of us have dreamed of?
Now some money is behind the fantasy..i wonder if they can pull it off?
good luck to them.

Anyway, they also have a videoblog or Vlog.
Check it out.
and here's a little training video using some kind of streaming Flash format.

This "video stuff on the internet" is getting normal....and through the perfect medium..blogs.

An online show about videoblogging et al. EVERY WEEK

The unmediated guys are busting out:
unmediatedtv
(Look to the left of the screen).

"Monday's show starts at 2PM EST and will last at least an hour. The show's homepage will only go live at 2PM, but access the show here: The Weekly Show"

Basically, they are building on some ongoing projects...especially Shawn Van Every's Interactive Tele-Journalism device which was officially (and successfully) tested at the RNC here.

With a computer, a camcorder, a wifi connection, and custom interface....these guys are going to go LIVE each week from NYC.
You can watch and write in the chat window to the people on screen.

During their first episode, I had the weird experience of being caught at work furiously typing away at the keyboard while two guys sitting in my computer screen were talking to me.

This is a great step for videoblogging.
Like Adam Curry's Daily Source Code for audiobloggers.
We just need to find a way to get this onto our TV's.

So log in and watch and PARTICIPATE every Monday afternoon, 2pm EST.
BOOKMARK

The Audio guys are kicking fucking ass

Ive been away from videoblogging these past couple weeks because Ive been watching the audio guys going nuts.

Adam Curry has a daily audio show that he posts on his website.
The Daily Source Code.
"where users and developers come to party".
For about 30 minutes, he plays a little music and discusses the new world of P2P sharing, podcasting, and how audio can and should be made by regular people.
Like what we do want to do with videoblogs.

Here's the cool part...check out the distribution they've set up just in the last month.
I can go to the site and listen to the MP3 of the show.
I can subscribe to Adam's RSS feed and am notified of new shows.
I can of course download it to my computer for later.
I can even put the audio show on my iPod and listen to it on the streets.
THEN he put the call out to developers:
"I want to have a simple program that will automatically check for audio feeds and download them to my iPod without me doing anything."
he talked about on this on his show for a couple weeks, some developers started getting together online, they formed a yahoo group, and BOOM several versions came out...and now they have iPodder.

iPodder, though i haven't put it through the tests, looks great.
simple, intuitive, automatic.
Took 25 seconds to install.
Took another minute to set it up with the feeds I wanted.
My iTunes then starts to fill up with stuff. (again not fully tested yet)
These guys should be proud.

Adam has done a great job rallying everyone.
He wanted to make his iPod/MP3 player be more than just a music box.
"Let's talk to each other through this device....easily."
He is the ultimate user and used his natural broadcasting skills to bring people together.
Then, some very talented people made this great thing for free.
Amazing to watch...and use.

I now listen to all kinds of audio on my iPod.
Audio books.
A handful of homegrown "radio" shows are popping up from people's living rooms.
Audio is really easy to make, and easy to store and transfer.
Listen up: audio is about to go mad soon.
These companies probably had no idea that users would figure this stuff out.

But we videobloggers can take note.
We have some huge hurdles to cross, but it can be done.
I see it all in the works.
Video, uploaded to the internet, onto the TV in my living room.
By the way, i noticed that iPodder supposedly grabs any enclosure in a feed...even a video!!

The tool that could have been

Steve Garfield sent me this link:

It looks like an all-in-one videoblogging tool that we are looking for.
But we'll never know because the compnay went out of business in 2002.

ChapmanLogic

"Javu ClipCompiler: a browser-based tool for users of Media Asset Management (MAM) systems to select clips, create In and Out points, preview their selections, and either create new assets or save EDLs (Edit Desicion Lists)."

But if it can built once, it can be built again.
And just to refresh, we need an all-in-one videoblogging tool so new people can jump without having to buy all kinds of new software.
The tool would edit, compress, and post.
Right now, you (especially PC users) need several applications to do all this.
We are looking for a server-side application that would do all this for you.