Archives

Interbine - Free your Mobile video - delivery via Wifi...

is an automated service that grabs videos from RSS feeds and converts them to 3gpp for easy download to the N95 and other mobile phones running the s60 OS. There are a number of default shows including MobuzzTV, Zefrank, National Geographic, DiggNation, Rocketboom and a number of other well known shows. In the right hand column you have another four methods of accessing content, searching, browsing according to keywords, highest rated or what’s new. The second option is to browse through the directories they have selected to find the categories that are closest to your particular interests.

A Vertovian Reality

Look up Dziga Vertov and his ideas, then look at this video. Thinking of the documentary makers and their discussion about catching life unawares, getting real life to happen without the person knowing. It’s the creative treatment of actuality. That’s more Griersonian (if I remember right). Everyone has a camera on them and certain of us stream it from where we are. Now it’s time for the documentation of a society through audiovisual means for future generations to puzzle over.

Playing with overlay tv

I’m just playing with overlays to see how they work. Move the mouse over the video and see three products appear.

940 Kilobytes per second

quick download speed

That’s always pleasant to see, nice download speed via wifi on an adsl connection in the swiss countryside. Meanwhile in a “Virgin media” part of the world someone mentioned a 2KB a second connection. Such is the online lifestyle.

Twitter down, massive surge in users recently

twitter unreliable again

For all those that thought twitter was finally a reliable service with a crappy api there is some sad news. Due to a massive increase in the number of users (according to a number of sources) twitter is once again providing a truly rubbish service. We’ll see how long they’re going to be unreliable this time.

Twitter as a way of life

Twitter is not a social network, rather it’s a way of life. The more you use Twitter the further it gets into your way of life. It allows you to follow current affairs, geek out about social media and keep in touch with friends that uses the social network. What’s more it’s a network that does not require any specific device. At first it’s a confusing place. Look at the public timeline and it’s a torrent of junk and sifting through it will take hours a day. As you spend more time on twitter though you find people of interest to follow. In some cases it’s friends from the physical world, in other cases friends from other websites on the web and then more. In reality what makes twitter interesting, and part of what makes people use it is how efficient it is at getting a message across. You’ve got 140 characters to express yourself. In Paris I was told I speak in 140 characters or less. That’s not a bad thing. In fact it’s good. It’s about the continual flow of information. Imagine you’re swimming down a river but everytime you move to stay afloat you have to close your eyes. That’s what article and blog reading is. As you focus on one task so your ability to focus on anything else dissapears. That’s fine in the old media where pages are static and where airwaves are limited. In the modern world though it is necessary to absorb many sources of information at once. How many of you have your ipod, laptop and mobile phone with you at the time you’re reading this post? I’m sure most. How many of you have more podcasts than you can view or listen to? How many of you have more programs recorded on PVR than you can watch? That’s why twitter is a lifestyle. It’s about constantly looking for information and building an understanding of current affairs through constantly taking in little bits of information. Stop talking about the social media on twitter, rather start talking about the good old fashioned time efficient soundbyte. Want to be heard. Don’t take people’s time. Encourage interest instead. Many people are complaining about the decentralised conversation, the notion that blogs are no longer the center of attention, that twitter, friendfeed, facebook and others are killing the conversation. In fact quite the opposite is true. If you’re in New York you’ve got one set of people, if you’re in London you’ve got another. if you’re in Geneva you don’t have much… To have a decentralised conversation means that many ideas can be explored at once and as pillars of the online community meet at various events so the conversations can once more converge. Don’t worry about comments on a blog, think about the conversations and the people you’re having them with. That’s where the fun is to be had.

Alertthingy

I found yet another toy to play with in the form of alerthingy and one question springs to mind. Will this one be able to cope with my stream of actions. It’s an adobe air interface that allows you to keep track of friendfeed. I’ve only started playing with it but it looks like a useful tool for when i’m at home after a day’s work.

Qik gets 3 million

Qik is a service that allows you to stream video straight from your S60 enabled mobile phone (n95 and others) to the web. They’ve received more funding. i hope this means new functionality and an even better user interface.

Videocamp, Paris

A few days ago I was in Paris to meet the Francofous and in the process I passed by La Cantine where they were holding a Videocamp. It’s like a barcamp but rather than talking about radio and podcastng people talked about peer to peer video sharing, citizen journalism and other topics. I filmed a few people presenting what their seminars had been about and finally they’re available via my website. Please note that the videos are in French. [Video 1](http://www.main-vision.com/richard/video/paris0408/just got to work014.mp4) [Video 2](http://www.main-vision.com/richard/video/paris0408/just got to work015.mp4) And yes it is very lazy of me to distribute the videos like this but I don’t have time to edit the content at the moment. If anyone wants to offer a transcript of what’s said I’ll credit you for the work.