Video Hosting: Where Vloggers Should Upload

To go from Blip to our site, follow the video and these instructions:

1. Upload your video to Blip in MP4 format (best choice if you want to make it work on iPods and iPhones and the likes… (you can do that with iMovie on the Mac or just follow this extensive tutorial, with some easy solution for both PC and Macs)
2. After uploading, copy the link to the file from your video’s blip page’s Files & Links box. Be sure to copy the link to thefile you uploaded and not to the Flash file.
3. Past the link in the URL line in the podcasting aread in our blog post authoring interface
4. That’s it. All the rest are optional (you might want to resize to 480×360 size which makes the best of our blog size).
5. Enjoy.

1. Write a script. The public firebug screencast was probably take fifteen or so – the first ten of which I tried to do without a script. Let’s just say those ten takes included a good bit of French (in the “pardon my French” sort of way) as a result of my frustration. After I wrote a script, printed it out in large type, and set it by my monitor, things went much smoother.
2. Memorize the script. The next five tossed takes were the result of me not looking at the screen while I was recording the screencast, but rather looking at the script. Once the script is memorized, you’re free to focus on what’s happening on the screen.
3. Enunciate. If you’ve never recorded your voice for any published work, take a look at Ryan’s Training Your Voice for Podcasting guide. His tips are right on the money, especially this one: “Overcompensate. You’ll probably think you sound weird, but that’s when you’re doing it correctly.”
4. Go for it! Enable Mouseposé, invoke Snapz Pro X, and give it a whirl. Expect to repeat this step several times until you’re happy with the end result.
5. Publish. Compress your final take using Quicktime Pro, upload it to your favorite (preferably un-metered) webhost, and blog about it.

For the more ambitious, here are some more tips: How to Master Screencasts in Seven Step.

Some tools:

• 12 Screencasting Tools For Creating Video Tutorials
• CamStudio – Free (PC)
• ScreenFlow – Free trial, includes editing, looks impressive (Mac)
• Snapz Pro X – Free trial (Mac) – that’s what I use.

I recommend you start getting into it, and share your experiences (in the comments or in individual posts).

Enjoy!

I did my critique on Ning, an interface for creating social networks that is highly customizeable and is being used as the base for a lot of well known social networks — like ThisIs50.com, Britney Spears’ Fan Club, etc. 

Basically, Ning lets anyone who wants to create their own social network for whatever cause or interest, for free.  They’ll be able to manage members, create their own flexible designs, create their own widgets and badges, blog, upload media — all the fixings for a great social network.  While there are a ton that look pretty generic and have just a few members, the ones that put time and creativity into it (like 50 Cent’s for example) can be highly successful standalone sites.

And I like that.   I was a little skeptical of Ning at first, because I thought the feature set would be too limited to not become another “Yahoo! Groups” situation (lots of forums and groups, little activity), but they have some really innovative plugins and you can work with the designs to make them all your own, that I’m excited by the idea.  

I thought it would be appropriate to leave my notes on TeamObama.com for election day — it’s a Ning I’ve been working on through my internship that I’ve been able to learn (skim the surface really) of Ning.

A web feed is a data format used for providing users with frequently updated content. Such web feeds include formats like RSS, Atom and Json. An RSS feed looks something like this (select view>view source to see the code). When you see this icon you should expect to find a link to some sort of a feed.

Obviously a feed is no fun unless there’s a convenient way to read it. One way we are already reading feeds is here on our blog, where we’re using a built in RSS reader to present a feed from del.icio.us/tags/vivaparsons. The big deal about feeds though is not only the fact you can present them across sites, but the fact you can arrange and customize your own feed aggregator. Feed aggregators can come in different shapes and colors, some are built in to your email software, others are standalone apps, and others can be totally web-based. My favorite is Netvibes – a very flexible and customizable web-based aggregator. Safari & Firefox have built in feed aggregators, other popular ones are FeedDemon, Bloglines, Thunderbird e-mail client, Newsvine, You can get some more recommendations everywhere around the web like here, here and here.

Basically iTunes is a feed aggregator for feeds in the format of a podcast where the items include a link to an MP3 file. iTunes can use this feed to sync your iPod and download podcasts into it.

Feeds are also used to create mash-ups – take information from different sources and mash them together. The classic example for a mash-up is HousingMaps – a mashup that takes a feed from Craigslist’s apartment search and mashes it into Google Maps – which allows to display rss data as information on the map.

The use of web feeds is a revolution, as we should understand that information on the web functions as a public database – it does not necessarily stay on one page, but can travel a long way and be used in different contexts.