Alec Saunders SquawkBox

In Why Video Blog?  Because We’re Visual Paul Kapustka adds his view to the conversation around videoblogging.  Paul provides a view which basically says “use the appropriate media”. 

And Brad Templeton, in Please Don’t Vlog, offers a very interesting take on readers versus viewers.  Perhaps his best suggestion is this:

There is one potential technological answer to some of these questions. Anybody doing an audio or video cast should provide a transcript. That’s writer-unfriendly but very reader friendly. Let me decide how I want to consume it. Let me mix and match by clicking on the transcript and going right to the video snippet.

With the right tools, this could be easy for the vlogger to do. Vlogger/podcaster tools should all come with trained speech recognition software which can reliably transcribe the host, and with a little bit of work, even the guest. Then a little writer-work to clean up the transcript and add notes about things shown but not spoken. Now we have something truly friendly for the reader. In fact, speaker-independent speech recognition is starting to almost get good enough for this but it’s still obviously the best solution to have the producer make the transcript. Even if the transcript is full of recognition errors. At least I can search it and quickly click to the good parts, or hear the mis-transcribed words.

Right on!  Which vlogger tool provider is going to take Brad up on his challenge? 

This is fun!  What’s your view? Join the conversation.

Garrett Smith asks “Was the fall VON show a disappointment?”, and points to my comments about the blogger panel to indicate that I was dissatisfied with the show. 

For the record, this VON was the best VON I have ever attended.

From the opening buzz around iotum at the voice over IM panel on day-1 right through the exhibits, presentations, panels and social gatherings …. the message was clear: VON is where VoIP, Voice and Vision, happen!

For iotum, it was a stellar show - the fruit of three years of hard work - and a lot of behind the scenes good faith, planning, preserverance and vision that is slowly coming to reality.

Thanks to the work we’ve done, and to the help we’ve had from our advisors, people couldn’t talk about presence and real-time communications, without referring to iotum.

And, for the record, my comments on the blogger panel were simply intended to provoke a discussion about whether that particular event could be improved, or whether (like many sessions at similar shows) it should be replaced in the future. 

Congratulations to Jeff Pulver and his team on a job, well done.  We certainly feel that VON created opportunities for us.

Dina has posted some thoughts on Andy’s video blog.  Perhaps the most interesting comment she makes is this:

When we started blip.tv, we wondered: would videoblogging attract bloggers lured from text to video, or TV producer-types lured from traditional media to the net?

In a email conversation with me, Dina revealed that she was at one point a television reporter.  That would explain her on-camera presence, and the ease and speed with which she constructs a story.  It also might provide the answer to her question. 

Blip TV’s Dina Kaplan has posted a short rebuttal to my comments on video blogging yesterday.  It’s in the comments to the original post, and reproduced here in case you don’t read the comment trail.  Andy Abramson also posted a rebuttal, with video, and this time a better camera angle.  And Mark Evans says he’ll probably do a vlog, after he gets a bit better at podcasting. 

Thanks for taking the time Dina and Andy!  You guys make it sound really easy.  And good luck Mark!

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Dina says:

Two thoughts: First, I believe it is within the realm of possibility that videoblogging could become even more mainstream than blogging. Many people have insecurities about writing (worried about semi-colons and colons and commas and spelling…) that they don’t have about talking. And vlogging can be just talking…or shooting an interview with someone interesting…or capturing a beautiful scene…

Also, some people might consider it easier to shoot video on a cell phone and email it to a vlog (directly from the cell phone) than to sit at a computer and write something that will be available on the internet forever.

Second, doing a vlog on an issue (or a film review or a book review or covering what happened at a conference like VON) is actually pretty easy. I have a tripod I keep in my apartment ($75), a semi-professional light ($75), a $250 Panasonic camera and a $50 lavalier mic from Sony. I do futz with make-up a bit, fix my hair a bit, but then I basically write out a script, tape it to the camera, and read for a minute (usually doing a few takes.) If I am just talking, I do only one take with no script. Then I download the video to my computer and post it to blip.tv. The process takes about 20 minutes from start to finish, or 5 minutes if there is no script.

We hear all the time from people want to be on more news programs and talk shows, and many “experts” are thrilled to espouse their point of view on CNN or ABC News. I love the idea that people can do a commentary and be seen around the world…and answer exactly the questions they want to address…all on their own terms and in video (without having to deal with bookers at the TV networks.)