In our November newsletter, Video Just Got Easier, I wrote about how businesses can easily use existing video technology online. A portion of the article was a broader look at how video technology has affected the internet at large, as well as the general viewing habits of consumers. But one aspect that I didnt really mention was how video is popping up all over the place, from various sources that are not necessarily entertainment or business-oriented. What amazes me is how easy it has become to communicate using video, so much so that I find myself encountering and using video every day now without even thinking about it. This was definitely not the case even just a year ago!
Below is a screenshot of a video chat between Able and I using Skype. Skype makes it so easy to communicate with a friend, either just by audio or video, at no cost! My brother is a student at the University of Edinburgh, and we chat just about every day using Skype. Awesome.
Below is a screenshot of a message I sent to my brother on Facebook (re: The nerdy title- Im reading some books that Im pretty excited about. I sent similar messages to several friends that night). I was able to record a video using my laptops video camera and attach it directly to my Facebook message. It took only the amount of time I needed to talk! I dont have to worry about encoding, storing, or transferring the video.
Below is an image of an RSS feed in my Google Reader that I shared this morning. Embedded in the blog post is a video shared using Vimeo. Whats amazing, though, is that the author of this post was able to quickly embed a 23-minute video and then send it out using RSS so that I can watch it directly through my feed reader. It seems like no big deal, but thats whats incredible. I can watch a sitcom-length video that gets delivered to my computer with almost no glitches or playback issues at all.
Lastly, the image below shows a video that Dave shared on Facebook this morning of Scott McCall (a former Newfangled Project Manager) performing at a nearby club last night. This just shows how radically easy it has become to capture and share video online. Dave recorded this high-def video just hours ago and now anyone of his friends can watch it too!