Cory Doctorow recently made a statement that struck a chord with me:
“Conversation is king. Content is just something to talk about.” via
This is an intriguing statement, because, for so long, I’ve thought that content was the critical element. Cory raises an interesting point though – if stranded on a desert island, you chose to bring a DVD library over a group of friends, you’d be labeled a sociopath. He’s right, content is just something to talk about. Content spurs conversation, effectively crowning conversation as the new monarch.
How do we create a good conversation though? How do we engage our readers, listeners, viewers?
There are many ways to do this. The big media companies are starting to realize that conversation is king as well – they’re creating tools for us to hack up their content (as I’ve covered before), which spawns all sorts of discussion about the media itself. They’re afraid that these mashups will remove the focus from their original creations; they’re just realizing that these have the opposite effect — they put the spotlight back on.
The secret project I mentioned a few days go involves conversation, quite heavily. In our meeting about the project today, the team and I came up with an even more exciting way to keep the conversation up, and I’m extremely excited about it. I think you will be too.
In the meantime, why not start a conversation yourself? Comment below or email me (editor [\at/] youmakemedia [\dot/] com). I’d love to hear from you!
Avid has a series of 14 tutorials for editing on their Avid Free DV software.
The tutorials cover all the basics of Free DV, which is a fantastic free version of Avid’s professional editing offerings. Free DV is amazingly well stocked with features for it’s lack of a pricetag (the next version up being $495!). Even though it’s ability to output is limited to Quicktime, it presents a fantastic introduction to the confusing interface of Avid.
Because the entire Avid platform is an industry standard for editing – it is used in major productions such as Lord of the Rings, the presence of these tutorials is great for those who are looking to get a basic primer in professional editing applications (and I’m sure they’ve already been used by some going into this field).
Tom Jeffries, CEO of Divvycast posted a comment with an update on Divvycast and I thought I’d re-post that here:
[T]he inital response to Divvycast has been so strong that we have been able to open up a free hosting level that will allow bands approximately 1000 downloads of a 5 minute clip featuring music, tour dates, and interviews. We’re very excited about this new addition.
Tom Jeffries
CEO, Divvycast
This is a great improvement, since as I mentioned in my initial review I was rather upset about the cost of the service. Hopefully this will help them gain some users who can “move through the ranks” to the top subscription levels.
Embedding digital media is a pain in the arse. The browser wars of the early 90s led to all sorts of implementations of adding video to a site, and with different types of media (QT, WMV, SWF) it becomes even more of a hassle.
Fortunately, the University of California has a fantastic page that helps generate embedded media code. Simply choose your type, enter your details, and go. Easy as that.
Check it out here!
This one comes as a shock!
Adobe has bought Serious Magic, creators of fine software such as DVRack, ULTRA2, VlogIt, and all sorts of crazy programs that we video makers love to death.
Adobe said in the press release:
The purchase of Serious Magic accelerates our vision to make, not just video but all dynamic media, an even more ubiquitous communications vehicle, whether you’re delivering content for the broadcast market, over the web or on mobile devices.
The scary part for me was that they mention Flash Video so many times throughout the release. They obviously want Flash to be the ubiquitous platform for web video, but Serious Magic’s software is not aimed at that area of production — that’s where Adobe should be adding Flash export or similar features to Premiere.
Adobe has stated that there are no plans to stop selling any Serious Magic products. I can, however, see this making some of DVRack competitors like ScopeBox getting a few more glances.
Vara Software released version three of Wirecast this week.
Wirecast is a fantastic program for creating live broadcasts of live media or pre-created media. It’s one of the few comprehensive solutions that allows for the capture, layout, and (now) streaming of live events.
The newest version of Wirecast, which is available for Mac OSX and Windows XP features the ability to stream from the built-in streaming server as opposed to one that you provide, support for High-Def video, a Windows scripting interface, and some other small improvements.
I’ve obtained an evalutation license and I’ll be reviewing this fantastic program (Version Two of which I had the fortune of beta testing a year or so ago). Look out for that either tommorow or Saturday.
