Blab Over That Video: Google Buys a YouTube Add-On

Omnsio is to video what PhotoCrank is to photos - a way to add your own comments and captions (visually). See here.

Streaming Media Conference, The Quickie Download: One Product To Watch

Just back from KM World/Streaming Media conference, where hundreds of people gathered to see the latest and greatest.

One product worth mentioning is CaptionSync, automated captioning for your videos.

They can also provide transcription services.

UC Berkeley is one of their clients.

Many government agencies are required to put captions on video, and have been unable to comply with that requirement when it comes to web video.

Captioning also increases search retrievability of video content.

There's a good list of client samples of using their service here.

YouTube expands uploading capacity

Now you can upload not just 100 MB of video, but 1 Gig to YouTube, putting it more inline with other uploading sites (including even Google video).

Google Video: New and Improved for Businesses

Google announced a new video hosting feature this week as part of the Google Apps Premier Edition suite of services, which sells for $50 per year per user. The service is targeted at businesses.

This is the very topic - using business internal videos - I will be talking about at KM World, so I'm happy to be able to show you even more support for video distribution. In the past Google Video would host your video for free and make it unsearchable. However, that isn't the same as private and secure.

The new service lets you:
• Upload videos for viewing securely and privately
• Search the video library
• Permission videos for individuals to view (if you want to)
• Rate videos
• View highest rated and most popular videos in the library
• Move from scene to scene, using thumbnails below the video to navigate directly to specific segments or images


Where the new service really shines, and sets itself apart from the crowd, and really provides value worth paying for are in collaboration features.

The collaboration features include:
• Enables users to make comments or add feedback on specific scenes (i.e. the information here isn't correct or needs to be modified or is super helpful)
• Ability to embed (while still maintaining permission rights - that's a biggie) in web pages

On the other hand, YouTube still offers plain vanilla FREE video hosting service, with private video sharing for up to 25 users invited by you. But it doesn't offer the added features for collaboration nor the cachet or team-building fun of having your own group video area.

Watch this video to how some business and government users describe the benefits of the new Google video hosting service and what's included:



This should be a total win for businesses, who were so often overly challenged by trying to get a broadband video hosting solution. It was complicated, horrible, and unpredictable in the past trying to purchase a solution. (Been there, done that, have the teeshirt, etc.) The Google solution will work for a number of companies who thought that getting a video hosting contract was too complicated, time consuming and expensive. And IT may be relieved that it doesn't have to be involved, except to vet security.

For all the details on the Google Video for Business service, click here.

(To repeat, the $50 a year licensing fee (per user) includes a large number of features, of which the video hosting is just one of the components.)

This is a great solution for groups who want to have their own video nest for a low cost.

Educational groups will be able to use a special version for education which will be free through March and will then cost $10 per user after the initial period.

My Favorite Web Video Creation Tool: Visual Communicator

Combine a FLIP camcorder with Adobe's Visual Communicator and what have you got? All the makings of a Do It Yourself video network. It's so easy, even a child could use it - and that's just what's happening.

I've often thought Adobe's intro video overview of Visual Communicator was sadly lacking, in terms of really showing off the program. You can also find a pretty amateurish video on YouTube that reviews it, as well. But today I finally discovered the best source of all: hidden away on Adobe's web site is a great webinar, which gives you a very useful, in-depth view of just how the application - which is used by thousands of schools, businesses, and organizations - works.

See the Adobe Visual Communicator webinar video here.

One caveat: just because this webinar is filled with educators who want to use the product, don't think it's just for kids. Hardly! It's my favorite business news tool. Read about one of the first stories to break on this technology originally written in the Washington Post.

I invited the original creators of Visual Communicator to speak at a vendor fair for internal communnications back in 2005 (at Wells Fargo) and during three days of presentations, the Visual Communicator product demo was the only one to receive an enthusiastic, unequivocal thumbs up - and a standing ovation!

Don't Miss the NYTimes article about that most famous of all YouTubers - Blendtec

Get it here.

David Pogue Finally Discovers Flip Camcorder (Now That It Has 13% of the Market)

The Flip, which I wrote about three years in my book Create Your Own Digital Movies, has been my favorite camcorder since 2005. Like the Kodak Brownie, it's small, simple and doesn't have bells and whistles. Finally, my hero David Pogue has gotten around the reviewing it, in this video.

He admits he didn't take it seriously. But now he has. Take a look.



The model featured in this video is the Ultra...I have the Mino, which is a newer version, which I recommend over the Ultra. The Mino is smaller, lighter, and just as easy to use. For a comparison of the Ultra versus the Mino (and a more in-depth review) see the All Things Digital review from the Mossberg crew.

For me, the Flip has many advantages:

1. You can take it anywhere and you can strap it on pretty much anything.

For example
See here for a video of someone who's got it attached to their leg while rollerblading so you can get a dog's eye view of the street.

2. People often don't "get" that you're actually taking a video of them.

The Mino is so much smaller than even most digital photo cameras that people don't register that it's a video camcorder. That makes it a lot easier to get informal shots because there's not a lot of technology to get in the way between you and your subject.

3. Tripod

There is a tripod available, and it's also unintimidating.

4. Better than a web cam on your computer, too.

To me, there's something I can't quite grock about talking into a web cam on my computer. The angle of the lens is soooo wide and the lighting soooo bad, and I can see myself while recording. All of this adds up to a great big X-NAY on the webcam. I've deleted every one of myself using my computer. The Flip, on the other hand - well, it's just less intimidating. It's kinda cute.

See what you think - and let me know.

There must be a lot of us out there who love the Flip, because it's the bestselling camcorder on Amazon.

Get the download: here's everything you need to know about YouTube, the community, and its history

Finally someone has gone where no man dared to go before...and that is straight to the anthropological heart of YouTube.

The acclaimed YouTube anthropologist Michael Wesch - who's first YouTube video (The Machine Is Us/Ing Us) got more than 7 million hits and explained to most of us what Web 2.0 is - had his moment of glory in front of the Library of Congress in July.

Even though this video is 55 minutes, you won't want to miss a single minute once you start watching. Catch it here!



This is the single best introduction you can get to the heart of YouTube - useful info to know before you start planning how your business or group is going to use this worldwide video distribution channel.