Videoblogging Journal

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.