Videoblogging Journal

For war enthusiasts and people that are interested in the war in Afghanistan, this might be the videoblog for you. This videoblog, in the Telegraph newspaper website, contains videos from the scenes of the war in Afghanistan from the viewpoint of the British soldiers. This is the description of the videoblog from the Telegraph website:

“In a ground-breaking departure for newspapers, The Sunday Telegraph has “embedded” a video camera with a front-line infantry regiment in southern Afghanistan.

Readers are given a soldier’s eye view of life in Helmand, where 8,000 British troops are locked in an increasingly bitter conflict against the Taliban and al-Qaeda forces.

In this week’s report, Corporal Billy Carnegie’s unit are ambushed by the Taliban as they provide cover during an operation to recover a US bomb south of the town of Musa Qala in northern Helmand.

US marines engage the Taliban with a anti-tank rocket and British Army Apache attack helicopters attack Taliban fighters – but Billy’s video camera fails just as the Apache attacks the enemy.

The Sunday Telegraph is receiving regular video dispatches from Cpl Carnegie, the commander of 1 section, 10 Platoon, D Company, the 5th battalion of The Royal Regiment of Scotland (5 Scots), which will appear on the Telegraph website on a regular basis.

His dispatches record how soldiers fight and survive in the austere environment of the Helmand Desert, where temperatures soar to 50C in the summer.

The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders are a tight knit family unit, which recruits largely from the highlands of Scotland and the Glasgow area. They form part of 16 Air Assault and are of the Army’s oldest units.

The regiment’s history goes back to the early 1800s and they were the original “Thin Red Line”, which repelled Russian attacks at Balaclava in 1854. When not wearing helmets they are distinguished by their Tam O’Shanter caps named after the character in the Robert Burn’s poem”

I found this videoblog quite interesting, because we can watch the activities of the soldiers in Afghanistan. By this we can see how it feels to be a soldier and the conditions of the war, from the viewpoints of the soldiers themselves, not from news programs. Moreover, it can give us education regarding the procedures that are there in the wars. However, the viewing window for the videos is quite small, and there are no subtitles available (some people may find it hard to understand English accents). Nevertheless, this is a very interesting vlog for all of us.

Now, it is not compulsory to videobloggers to include minute-length video in their blogs. 12seconds. tv presents a new approach to videoblogging. In 12seconds,  the video that we posted must be 12 seconds, hence the name. Here is an article about it from Mashable.com:

“What can you do in 12 seconds? You can make a fairly interesting video update. With new site 12seconds, you can create a video update to share on the Web, through your own channel on the site. Similar to Twitter’s 140 character limit, the video updates on 12seconds are limited to, well, 12 seconds. It’s just enough to get the point across, and short enough for easy consumption by viewers. Creating a video update is easy enough–just record with your webcam. There’s mobile support as well.

Every user receives their very own email address for sending mobile content to their 12seconds account, making it easy enough to create content on the go. Mobile support was pretty much a necessity for 12seconds, given the target demographic and the current presence of countless updating and microblogging

services, both with and without video capabilities. From Seesmic to Pownce, and a number of third-party applications that operate off the Twitter ecosystem, it’s clear that multimedia microblogging is here to stay.

Given the crowded market, I was glad to see that 12seconds also redistributes your content on Twitter, so you can post 12seconds content on other areas of the Web if you’d like. You can even import your Twitter friends to 12seconds. The good thing about 12seconds’ particular take on the microblogging video industry is that with webcam and its existing mobile support, its service becomes a niche tool for the average user. It encompasses much of the mobile user demographic as opposed to focusing on a smaller group that has a select mobile phone device that utilizes live video streaming capabilities.

As cool as live streaming is, there’s still a large portion of the population that doesn’t yet have a device to support this, so creating a niche community focused on short-form video updates that caters to both the Web and the mobile community is something easy for a lot of people to latch onto, though I wouldn’t mind seeing a few more options for the redistribution of content to other blogging and social networking communities across the Web.

There are also embed options and the expected sharing/following options you’ll see on most microblogging sites, so there’s nothing too unfamiliar here.”

I think 12seconds. com is revolutionizing the videoblogging scene, because nowadays most people tried to put as much information as possible in their videoblogs. On the other hand, longer videos may make people bored and thus makes the videoblog not visited anymore. If a person posted a short but sweet video, surely people would be interested to know the contents of the videoblog. The simple concept of 12seconds is backed up by a simple interface: once you sign up you can begin capturing video directly from your computer’s Webcam. You’re also given a dedicated e-mail address to which you can send video from your phone or desktop. You can name and tag videos as well as share the location where the clip was shot; the site provides a permalink and code so you can embed videos elsewhere. However, this project is still in the alpha phase and may have some bugs. When the project is finally released, be sure to try it.

Now royal figures are launching their own videoblog. The Queen of Jordania, Rania al Abdullah, launched a videoblog to voice her opinions on world issues and also to communicate more closely to Jordanians via the web. In addition, the blog also notes that here are a lot of misconceptions about the Arab culture and the Middle East and the vlog wants to break down stereotypes and engage in an international dialog.The vlog, which is hosted by YouTube, is quite popular between Jordanian and also foreign YouTube members. In the introductory video, the Queen says, “In a world where it is so easy to connect with one another, we still remain disconnected. There is a whole world of wonder out there that we cannot appreciate with stereotypes. So it is important for all of us to join forces, come together and try to bring down those misconceptions. And I have been surprised by some of the questions I have been asked about the Arab world and the Middle East. Do all Arabs hate Americans? Can Arab women work? Are there any YouTubers in Jordan?”. For these aims, Queen Rania launched the videoblog.

The latest post, posted on the 18th of May, is titled “Arab = Muslim = Terror = War?”. This post contains Queen Rania’s responds to the stereotyping of Arabian people as terrorists. See the latest post here.

I think this is a very good step. because as a queen, Queen Rania needs to communicate more closely to her people, and also all people around the world. Probably the government of Indonesia needs to follow Queen Rania, in order to know more about the opinions of Indonesians.

Reuters, a renowned news service provider, has made a videoblog for discussing and for news in the current worldwide soccer scene. This vlog is particularly useful for people who missed viewing the games, because they can still watch some segments of it in the videoblogs. In addition, the videoblog also features discussion and commentary by the hosts, Owen Wyatt and Jon Bramley. Actually, this vlog is located in the same site as the Reuters Soccer Blog.

The latest videoblog post is about the Champions League final, between Manchester United and Chelsea. As you might know, Manchester United won in a penalty round. Chelsea loses because John Terry failed to make a goal in the penalty round. The Vlog on the Pitch hosts compared this to the failure of the English football team in the Euro 2004 final match between England and Portugal, where England loses because of a missed penalty. They noted that both match losses are caused by English footballers (John Terry in Champions League, and David Beckham in Euro 2004). This issue is discussed in the videoblog. Other interesting posts include predictions about player transfer in the new season and outlooks on future matches.

In addition, the vlog also allows us to post our comments regarding the current soccer affairs. You can view the whole blog in here, but if you only want to see the vlogs, click here. The vlog is a must for soccer fans to see and contribute to.

Videoblogging is a fun and useful thing to make and experiment with. If you would like to start your own videoblog, this site is very useful. This site, hosted in PBwiki, tells about the most important things in a videoblog, such as the equipments that you need and ways to update your videoblog. There are also some useful tips on managing your own videoblog. According to the site, these things are vital for a videoblog:

• Pick a topic and have a plan. You don’t have to plot out everything you’ll do or write out a script, but having a bunch of points to bring up or goals to accomplish will help focus your shoot.
• Bring fully charged batteries, tripod, maybe lights, enough tapes….it’s completely common sense but people, including pros, always forget. Remove the lens cover…another one people forget.
• Make sure you get good sound..sound often gets glossed over and it shouldn’t. There are plenty of options other than the microphone on the camcorder, from shotgun mics (I’ll bring in my R0DE) to wireless (I can probably bring that too) to a $25 mic from Radio Shack that gets the job done (again, I have one kicking around.)
• Locations……pick them ahead of time and don’t go to that many. You ideally want your video podcast to be pretty short, so just like in indy filmmaking, minimalism is a virtue. No-one expects you to recreate Lawrence of Arabia.
• When shooting, don’t shoot a pile of footage you don’t need….that will just mean more stuff to plow through in the editing room. Shoot it with an eye as to what you’ll need in the final edit. Make sure if you’re white balancing outside not to take the camera inside without white balancing again, and vice versa.
• If you have the option, go for manual controls over automatic. If you have more control, the image will look better.
• Make sure you’re shooting in a format you can edit later. HDV and DV can be edited..new AVCHD cameras can do it, but it’s sometimes dicey and needs a powerful computer, even though AVCHD cameras are aimed at consumers who may not have a good enough setup.
• On the internet, close ups are good, not so much motion is good, long shots lose meaning, and lots of movement still deteriorates into artifacts.

An older site, posted in December 2006, focused on the best types of cameras for use in the videoblog. Since what makes a videoblog stands out is its videos, it is a useful site to see. However, because the website is already over one year old, some of the facts may be outdated.

Nevertheless, if you are planning to start your own videoblog, both websites are very useful.

Videoblogging is not always used as a social tool i.e to tell people about your thoughts and what did you do today, it is also very useful for use in education and business. One of the examples where videoblogging is used in business is Sunshine Rewards, an American loyalty site. Sunshine Rewards is a loyalty program that allows members to earn gift cards and prizes for shopping online, completing offers, and participating in the membership community. It features coupons, discounts, and exclusive shopping offers. The company will make a videoblog in order to communicate more effectively with their customers. Here is the full article (from here):

Sunshine Rewards Introduces Videoblog

Sunshine Rewards has introduced a new video blog that will feature product reviews, shopping news, instructional videos, and contests.

Sunshine Rewards, an online loyalty program, has traditionally communicated with members via emails and its forum. The addition of the Sunshine Rewards Videoblog will allow it to take advantage of the quickly growing medium of video.

“After attending the Affiliate Summit in January, I knew that we had to find a way to work videos into our site,” said Tricia Meyer, Owner of Sunshine Rewards. “It was clear to me that if we want to continue to be seen as a cutting edge cash-back site, we need to give our members the new technology that they expect.”

The first two weeks of videos on the site range from product and merchant reviews to a “live” drawing to give away a Disney Cruise. While some videos are hosted on YouTube, others come directly from the merchants themselves, like FetchDog.com.

One of the first merchants reviewed in the videoblog was NutsOnTheNet.com, whose affiliate program is managed by Andy Rodriguez Consulting. “With knowledgeable content, videos can add a high value to product marketing,” said Stephanie Lichtenstein of Andy Rodriguez Consulting. “In their video blog, Cindy Ballard and Tricia Meyer use this media tool to their advantage. They share their product knowledge with passion and bring products to life for their community site. Sunshine Rewards is an innovative part of our industry.”

Over the coming weeks, Sunshine Rewards will be adding instructional videos as well as giving members a chance to have their videos featured on the site. In addition, members will be able to watch weekly videos that feature current online shopping coupons and discounts.

This type of videoblogging application is very beneficial to customers, because it enables them to get a greater understanding of the services that the company offer. It can also attract new customers that will use the service, thus benefiting the company.

Relating to my previous post about videoblogging, I mentioned that there are huge advances in the world of camera phones, such as the megapixel count (VGA to 5 megapixels). However, one of the most advanced features is the ability to record 120fps high-quality videos, four times better than most camera phones (most can only record up to 30fps). This gives high-quality recording, similar to standalone recorders. One of the phones that can record videos in 120fps is the LG Viewty KU990 mobile phone. Its basic specifications is a 262000 colours 3 inch-sized screen, 3G, EDGE, triband, MMS, Bluetooth and other features that you would expect in a mobile phone nowadays. The phone’s main selling point is its DivX Certified playback and 5.1 megapixel digital camera with Schneider Kreuznach lens, a xenon flash, auto focus and an image stabilizer, which can also act as a 120fps(320×240 resolution) digital video camera. It has an ISO800-equivalent High-Sensitivity mode for night scenery shots and a “Smart Light” feature for bright and clear images in the dark. According to the manufacturer, the camera’s frame rate is high enough to film a balloon bursting.

This phone is already available in Indonesia at a price of Rp. 5 million. With its advanced photographic features, unique design and good specifications, this phone is perfect on starting your own videoblog.

Phone specifications and pictures from GSM Arena.

Nowadays, believe it or not, we at least use one Web 2.0 feature. Web 2.0 defined as “a trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to facilitate creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users”. Examples of Web 2.0 tools are social networking, blogging, wikis, among others. One topic that I will explain is videoblogging.

Videoblogging or vlog is a type of blog that uses videos to convey information instead of using text and pictures like a conventional blog. The manager of the blog uploads videos instead of typing texts.This is far more interesting than a normal blog because with videos, we can visually see the actions of the person rather than hearing descriptions or seeing pictures of it. Some popular videoblogging providers are the YouTube? blog (http://www.youtube.com/blog) and Yahoo! Videoblogging Group.

I think making videos is far easier now because there is no need to purchase an expensive video camera. We can see that most phones are now equipped with an internal camera that can also record videos.Although the quality of these cameras are no match for standalone recorders, the frame rate has improved from 30 fps (frames per second) to 120 fps. There are also affordable digital cameras that can also record video. this contribute to a larger videoblogging community.

Technological Situation

The computing device that I use the most often is the Sony VAIO SZ483 notebook computer. It is mainly used at school, but sometimes at home I use it too. It is powered by the Intel core 2 Duo processor model T7400 (2.16 Ghz), has 2 GB of RAM, nVidia GeForce Go 7400 graphics chip and a 160 GB hard drive. It has a 13.3 inch sized screen and uses Windows Vista Business. Although the laptop does not feature the latest Core 2 Duo processors (T8xxx and T9xxx series) and the latest Direct X 10-enabled graphics chip (GeForce 8 series) it is more than enough to do schoolwork and also gaming. Actually there is also a desktop at home, but it is seldom used.

Technological advantage

I am quite interested in technology, so I followed the technological news. I am also relatively proficient in technological issues. I can also resolve software problems without any help. The issues that I am interested is not only computing-related, but also other types of technology such as handphones, media players and audio.

Technological disadvantage

There are some disadvantages in my technological situation, because I am not too familiar with complicated programming language, such as C++. I am also not too good in making Flash animations.

How I keep up with technological issues

I subscribed to PcMedia, a local technological magazine. The magazine is quite good, because it contains a lot of issues and reviews about computing technologies. One of the main attraction of the magazine is the PcMedia antivirus, a home-made antivirus that can effectively local viruses. In addition, I also regularly open CNET technological news (http://www.news.com), a technological news website for new updates in technological issues.