Live! On the Interweb

Sometimes the technology available to the world of Internet users blows your mind – unlimited photo hosting, free video phone calls, chatroulette … Right now, however, I am taken aback at just how hard it is to do something: Live Video.

uStream is great, totally free, it’s easy as pie to create a pretty page on your site and embed the video window and the chat module and then you are off to the races.  And this is completely fine for those times when live broadcast is an added treat as opposed to a required element.  I don’t think I would ever promote a webcast using uStream from a live event other than my desk – there are just too many variables.  Quality of internet connection – is it dedicated or are you sharing with an entire campus or crowd of other people? Quality of equipment – are the lights required to be dim for the live audience, therefore putting your video audience in the dark?

I find myself watching what the big players are doing.  Obama united CNN and Facebook, Seesmic teamed up with Microsoft & Silverlight.  Today, Facebook is partnering with LiveStream -a service that is on my list to check out asap.

If you haven’t seen Facebook’s set up, it’s very cool: