Comments on: We’re Watching Live Streams

By: Corrie Bergeron

Corrie Bergeron — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:21:59 +0000

YouTube and UStream will go the way of desktop publishing. The tools make it easy and cheap to create useless ugly garbage (UUG), and so we see a lot of that. But you also have good storytellers using the medium to tell stories well, albeit in a similar fashion to what we have seen before.

Many UUG producers will get bored with it and quit after the novelty wears off. Others will realize that they are producing UUG and decide to ramp up the production values and content. They’ll copy the techniques of the good storytellers. Some of them will realize that gosh, this is harder than I thought it would be , and quit. Others will persevere, and continue to create and experiment because gosh darn it, I can do it better the next time.

And at some point, the YouTube/UStream version of Sergei Eisenstein or Alfred Hitchcock will come along and use the unique affordances of the new medium to tell stories in a completely new way.

Let’s just hope it’s something better than http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5tr4_Jh8dg

By: Ewan McIntosh

Ewan McIntosh — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:35:58 +0000

I’ve been working a lot with Channel 4 over the past year on how we get thousands of contributors to online communities attached to TV programmes to become ever more creative. So far, so good, but the real test is on a project that launches June 30. The write-up is here:
http://www.lastbroadcast.co.uk/students/v/4773-channel-4-and-myspace-launch-year-dot-project.html

If you fancy hearing about it, I’ve not got any talks lined up for NECC (I decided to be a tourist for once) and would happily share some energy on the podium with you guys. Question is, can you organise subtitling at such short notice

By: Lyndsey Koestner

Lyndsey Koestner — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 19:19:58 +0000

Hi Will,
I think it is pretty amazing that a one year old site could have over 10 million visitors in one month as well. I think the numbers alone show that this cite has something great to provide people. As an educator, I think it does have a lot of great ways that it can be used. I know several teachers that have used videos from UStream in their classroom. I think it is a great educational tool because it is something new that students are into. I think it is the job of educators to set a standard and an example to the types of material that is allowed. I think we should keep our standards the same but open up to new ways of sharing and presenting material.

By: John Maklary

John Maklary — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 03:03:18 +0000

Marshall,

yes, I used Ustream.tv literally for teaching a lesson. My kid got sick that morning and I had to stay home. We were at a point in class where I was going to go through a technical demo of a software app we were using and I couldn’t expect a sub to effectively deliver it (and the sub plans would have taken forever to write). It was a little bumpy at first as the kids got used to me remotely teaching but it progressed to a very usable instructional delivery tool.

By: Marshall Kirkpatrick

Marshall Kirkpatrick — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 01:24:04 +0000

Thanks for bringing my post into the conversation, Will. I wonder whether there will ever be a mass media that is primarily high quality. Many people are experimenting, having fun or not that good at the hard skills of producing content. They still have a right to have the experience and possibly find community. A relatively select few will have the motivation, skills and life circumstances to invest themselves in making high quality content. Just some thoughts. Good luck with your presentation.

PS – John Maklary – did you literally use UStream.tv for teaching those classes? That’s awesome!

By: Jason Levy

Jason Levy — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:23:45 +0000

Hi Will,

I think a first answer to the quality problem is to encourage kids (and adults) to think about the purpose of the content they create. Is it to entertain? To inform? To inspire? To clarify a misconception? Imagine if each site where users generate content (youtube, ustream, myspace et al) asked before each post: What is your purpose? And there was a checklist (multiple checks allowed.)

This would allow the creators to realize “Hmmm…I’m making my fifth mindless video of the week. Maybe next week I’ll check off the “educate” box.” Clearly quality control wouldn’t still be firmly in place–but for adolescents (and grownups) to realize that there’s more to sharing than entertaining, we’d have a step in the right direction.

By the way, this post comment was intended to be educational yet mildly entertaining.

Thanks!

Jason

By: John Maklary

John Maklary — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:37:04 +0000

Hi Will,

one way I effectively used Ustream is when I had to stay home to watch sick kids. Instead of writing sub plans, I “ustreamed” into my students’ classes and delivered the lesson from home. I used webmax (like camtwist) to show my desktop and to demo procedures. The kids used the chat to ask questions and I would be able to answer them in real time. This became a very useful way to still be able to connect with my students and interact in a meaningful way. I’ll definitely be there for the session on Monday.

John