Digital Media Solutions

I’d like to quote extensively from a blog that we follow, http://wsuccess.typepad.com/webinarblog/  which is written by Ken Molay. Ken was recently at a customer summit where a presentation was given by Chris Gosk of Global Knowledge. Chris is in charge of delivering services and support to large enterprise customers and his company provides fee-based training to business students around the world. Much of their subject material is highly technical in nature. It is common for their classes to be five days of eight-hour sessions, with a 300-page course manual.Global Knowledge uses local classroom training, but it also delivers many classes remotely and they are running about 30 virtual courses per monthOne of the key topics in Chris’s presentation was a quantitative look at carbon footprints and environmental impact. He showed a slide with calculations of total carbon emissions associated with one of their average classes as delivered locally and remotely. Looking at impacts associated with facilities and overhead, physical materials, and travel, Chris came up with an estimated 15,941 pounds of CO2 emissions for a local class and 11 pounds of emissions for a virtual class. That isn’t 100% savings, but it’s close enough for most of us.He went on to point out that from a sheer profit perspective they find that their cost per session and cost per student drops dramatically (75-79%) when using virtual classrooms. But more than that, they get benefits from the green perspective. They are still relatively small in measurable terms… They are able to meet client RFP requirements for green sourcing strategies and they can show some market leadership that benefits them in publicity and marketing.But the interesting perspective is a look at the near term future. Chris predicts more legislation associated with the politics of global warming. Companies will need to show compliance and need to show measurements to get tax credits. A few technology vendors are now offering simplistic carbon calculators that will allow clients to gain a simple estimate of CO2 savings by having virtual presentations instead of physically attended ones. In fact we’ve commissioned one ourselves for a large virtual press conference that we’re webcasting from

Berlin later this month. So in answer to Ken’s question “is Green measurable?” – we at In Situ believe it is and will be taking further steps to help clients and all of us take positive steps towards environmental savings.

I’ve recently been asked to explain the difference between all of the different ‘video type’ technologies that are around such as podcasting vs streaming video and webcasting vs web conferencing etc.

So I thought that I would write up a short article to try and help anyone else with the same type of question as I have even been asked in the past if we could do live podcasting!

To begin I think the main point to remember is that video is a communications medium and the main thing to ensure is not only that the video and the content are of high quality but that the contents meet your objectives for creating them in the first place. What are you trying to achieve? You then need to consider what is the best way to deliver this content to your potential audience and this is where all of the different technologies come in to it.

The first thing to consider is simple video, a medium with which people are very familiar thanks to TV, CD & DVD’s as well as the growth of site’s like YouTube and MetaCafe introducing many to video on the web. Video can be delivered to the web audience via a stream, this means that when you click on a link to watch the video it will start to play immediately (there are variations on streaming such as progressive downloading etc) or the video can be delivered by the viewer clicking on a link to download the video as a file so that it can be viewed later in your own time on the PC, on an mp3/mp4 player such as an iPod or on some mobile devices. This type of viewing is referred to by many as podcasting (podcasting normally refers to an audio file but can also be video and is sometimes then called vodcasting!) although true podcasting allows the file to be downloaded by an application like iTunes and normally on a subscription basis.

The main advantage of streaming video is immediacy and the disadvantage is picture quality (although the internet bandwidth is improving all the time allowing better and better quality). The disadvantage to downloading (podcasting or any other type of download) is that you need to go through the download process,which can take some time before you know the content of the video and whether it is what you want to watch. The advantage is that you can make the picture quality higher than you can with streaming video (although this will increase file size and therefore the time it takes to download it). There are other issues to both such as digital rights management, access control, payment mechanisms etc which I won’t touch on here but will if you contact me to discuss.

Both of these technologies,however, relate to simple video whereas webinars or webcasting (basically the same thing) allow the use of video plus other types of content. For example a training webinar might show video, slides that change automatically (synchronised to the video) and provide downloadable content such as workbooks and pdf’s etc. They could also include a text based version of the audio for the hard of hearing (to meet DDA requirements) or even in another language to meet international needs. In this case the webinar is using a streaming technology but is pre-recorded and available to view whenever the client would like. This is generally referred to as an ‘on demand’ webinar or webcast.

The next stage on from that is a Live webinar/webcast which is fundamentally the same as described above but delivered in real time and with the ability for the audience (which can be very large - even in the thousands) to ask questions of the presenter(s) and have them answered there and then.

Webinars and webcasting are quite different to live meetings and video conferencing which are aimed at much smaller audiences (2 - 10 generally) and used as an online meeting solution where everyone can interact at the same level (much like a normal meeting), although it is normally chaired by one person. This type of solution generally also provides collaborative working or data sharing applications again meeting the needs of a typical meeting.

There are many different technology solutions to meet all of your requirements for streaming, podcasting, webinars, webcasting, video conferencing and online meetings and they all have different advantages and disadvantages over each other but as well as comparing different technology providers against each other make sure that you are also comparing different technology types against each other to make sure that you are using the right type of solution (or mix of solutions) to meet your needs.

Different technology solutions, each with different positive and negative points are provided by vendors such as these:

Stream57
Webex
podia
Adobe Connect Professional
GoToMeeting

and I am happy to discuss these pros and cons with anyone that is interested but you can also find some very useful info from the web such as this very informative blog about all things web conferencing and webinars by Ken Molay, it is however very US centric.

Just so that you know at In Situ productions we are ‘technology agnostic’ and deliberatly so, which means that we can take advantage of the right technology solutions to meet the needs of our clients as we think that no one solution is a panacea to all situations.

If anyone has any other question in this area then feel free to ask them here in this thread.

Regards,

Chris Mitchell
Digital Media Strategy & Solutions
podcasting, vodcasting, streaming video, interactive webcasting, webinars, web meetings, pay per view video content

source: Guardian Tuesday 14 Aug 07

Apparently a Minihompy is a mobile homepage (profile) on a social network!

In Korea they have been doing this since 1999 and more than 90% of all Koreans in their 20’s already have a minihompy, why are we so slow in these technologies here in the UK and the US to catch up?

Juniper Research expect revenue from User Generated Content (UGC) to jump from $571 million this year to $5.74 billion in 2012

I wonder if there is such an interest from the mobile providers in Business/Social Networks? I am an active member of Ecademy and Ecademy says about itself “Ecademy is a Social Network for Business People” so does that make Ecademy a Social Network? I’ve always thought of Ecademy as a Business/Social network rather than a Social/Business network with the emphasis being on the first word. Am I looking at Ecademy the wrong way, it is certainly very useful to me in Business and I do get a lot of social interaction on here too but would I be a member without my underlying business reasons? I need to think about that some more!

Is there an opportunity here for Ecademy to take a leap of faith with a mobile service provider to act as a ‘guiding light’ to the larger social networks and thereby helping its own credibility and security?

I think there is. If so who should it be with? I would think Vodafone would be the best fit.

Having worked in the mobile industry and now in the business of Digital Media strategy I find this all very interesting and would welcome your thoughts.

Regards,

Chris

We were lucky enough to be chosen to capture video pearls of wisdom with a selection of VIPs and MPs at the Prime Ministers home recently. Our client, www.horsesmouth.co.uk is in beta stages of launching a mentoring site and the recordings can all be viewed within the site. We used a new piece of kit for us that allowed a quick chromakey set up with a lot less lighting - we’re impressed with the results of reflecmedia.

at In Situ Productions we have been working with Management Today magazine, published by Haymarket for a few months now and decided it was about time that I started reading it.

What an excellent magazine and even more impressive, and relevant for me, is the quarterly publication ‘accelerator’, a sub brand of MT for Entrepreneurs and small businesses. Every single article in it resonated with me and my experience in small business and it’s only on it’s second edition.

Have a look at the ’special issues’ section for some really interesting downloads such as ‘Britain’s Top 100 Entrepreneurs 2007′ and ‘35 women under 35, 2007′, a showcase of the brightest and the best young women in British business.

Anyway I thought that I’d bring it to your attention as I found it really useful and a good read but you do need to subscribe to Management Today to get the accelerator quarterly magazine. Have a look at the events section and you’ll even get a chance to see the archive of the 2 live webcasts that we’ve done for them so far!

Hope you find it useful too!

Chris
Digital Media Solutions

In Situ Productions held its inaugral free interactive webcast today, entitled 9 simple ways to improve your on line presentations. The archive of the event can be viewed from here: http://insitu.webseminars.co.uk/?c=422

The event featured media coach Alan Stevens and New Edge’s Richard Flewitt and was hosted by In Situ’s chairman Richard Bednall.

The show lasts 30 minutes and you’d be well advised to watch it if you are planning your first on line seminar or interactive webcast as it is jam packed full of tips and of course it is free.

Are you interested in improving your presentation techniques? Then join In Situ Productions for a free webcast that will show you 9 simple ways to make your online presentation more effective.

You will be taken to the registration page for our interactive webcast on 20th June at 4pm (BST). Please fill out the short form and then click “Submit”.

Upon completion, an email will be sent to you confirming your registration, and you will receive a URL for the event. You will need the URL and your email address to login and participate.

Revolution is in the air. Well, kind of. Last month we produced “The Future of Search” sponsored by Latitude and brought to the readers of Revolution. This was one of our most successful events to date and Revolution promises to be holding many more. You can register to see the event yourselves right here:

Click here to view the Revolution webcast

Low Carbon World used In Situ to capture their first low carbon world conference in April, we’re pleased to say that the event was a success and plans are now afoot to save further carbon footprints by broadcasting monthly webinars. This will enable delegates to maintain contact without the need to travel. April was a busy month again, with trips to Dubai for British Publishers, Boston for Tastoria and continuing webcast production for Haymarket and Information Age

In Situ will be continuing its series with SC Magazine during March, if you are interested in registering for the next event – ‘The cost of a data breach’, visit www.scmagazine.com/uk/events. Also coming up in March are webinars for Management Today and Information Age. As we mentioned in January this could well be the year that webinars really break through in the UK. In the early part of March In Situ will be working with The Institute of Direct Marketing to capture one of their events in central London, we’re editing video for Kumula and Pfizer and we were the production company behind Wine Relief’s interactive wine tasting in support of red nose day.