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How Does Live Streaming Change Your Life?

Chris — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 07:08:51 +0000

How Does Live Streaming Change Your Life? is a post from Chris Pirillo

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I recently gave a short presentation at Microsoft’s Social Computing Symposium. I spoke about streaming my life live for the World to watch, how it has affected me, and how it could and will affect any of you. Here are my ten ways it would change your life if you choose to stream 24/7.

You begin to see yourself through other people’s eyes. It’s no longer just “you”. It’s what everyone else thinks you are.
Family will begin to avoid you at all costs. This could be either very good, or very bad, depending on how you see your family. Trust me, not all of them want to have their idiosyncrasies broadcast to the World.
Your life gets a rewind button. There are many moments you will inevitably miss… like the dog falling off your desk. Thanks to your stream going constantly, and others recording what you’re doing, you’ll get a “rewind” button in order to see those moments yourself.
Your sense of loneliness becomes non-existent. Several of us work at home, and that’s how much of a social life we get. When you have an audience watching, you are no longer alone.
Your privacy is in the World’s hands. You can no longer do things without remembering that everyone is watching. You have to leave the camera if you want any privacy.
You can no longer lie about where you are, or aren’t. People have called me on occasion, just to see if I’ll pick up the phone. Then they get irritated with me, because they saw me sitting at my desk. Well yeah, I was there. I was busy! Really!
You monitor your idiosyncrasies like never before. Admit it! You do things in the privacy of your own home or office that you would never do in front of others. We all do!
The threat of lawsuits from places like the RIAA is real. I watch television shows and listen to music all the time. I do so legally, but the sound comes out across the stream. I *could* get into trouble.
You can become an event’s superhero. I wasn’t planning to live stream this event. However, since the need arose, I filled that gap.
You become more honest with yourself and others. “Yourself” is the most important part of that statement. You can no longer lie to yourself about things you do or don’t do. People will point out everything that you do, and you can’t deny it.

I only had time to take one audience question, sadly. Someone asked me what I have changed since beginning this live streaming journey. The answer is simple: I have changed myself.

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Any Tips for Creating Video Tutorials?

Chris — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 04:32:08 +0000

Any Tips for Creating Video Tutorials? is a post from Chris Pirillo

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I know that screencasts are all the rage, and I enjoy watching them. I don’t enjoy making them myself, though. There’s something that seems so impersonal to me. Community member Firebucket sent in his list of top five tips on creating a video tutorial to pass along to all of you.

If you’re going to be demonstrating how to setup and install a program that you can download from the web… NEVER show yourself downloading the program. You can give links if need be, and show yourself being on the web page. Never download while recording, though. Have them already downloaded and ready to go. Even better, install the software first. Installation wizards will bore your audience to death.
Make it simple. Don’t use words that your audience won’t understand. If you have to, define it in an easy way that they can understand. For example, don’t say something like ‘Scaling your images down changes the pixel size’, say something like ‘Scaling the image down, makes the picture smaller’. You will catch more people that way and it will sound like you really know what you’re talking about.
Get a microphone and explain using your voice, not Notepad or Microsoft Word. I have seen tutorial after tutorial explaining something that I really want to know. However, once the video starts, the tutorialer loses me by playing distracting music in the background and SLOWLY typing the instructions in a word processing program. This is painful for your audience. They want to be able to hear you, not constantly go back and forth between the program/feature you are demonstrating and Notepad, slowly typing up the instructions.
Get proper screen capturing software. If you are willing to pay for good software, you can buy something like TechSmith’s Camtasia Studio. There are also free, open-source alternatives out there that will do a similar job. One is CamStudio. I have used this before and with their Lossless Codec, my videos were looking fantastic. CamStudio records in AVI or SWF. You can use the AVI video format to burn to a DVD to distribute to your classmates, friends, co-workers or family. Or, use the compressed SWF file type for uploading to video sharing sites or your own website. This will save you bandwidth and hard drive space. For a Mac, you can use iShowU.
Make sure you put the tutorial online somewhere where it will pull in an audience. Places like YouTube and Blip are great places that people go to. They’re usually looking for something to watch because they are bored, or they need to find how to do something. You will at least get 50-100 views minimum… and maybe even a few subscribers, which can inspire you to become a regular video tutorialer.

These are some of the reasons I don’t do screencasts. In order to make good ones, you have to do it well. There are too many people not doing it well, in my opinion. Not only do the videos I record get uploaded to YouTube, they also get placed into my blog, thanks to Kat. This way, you can read the show notes. Kat will add additional information, notes and links to whatever we’re talking about in the video. I believe it gives things a more in-depth perspective to go along with what I’ve recorded live.

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Live Streaming Tips for you and your Community

Chris — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 21:41:58 +0000

Live Streaming Tips for you and your Community is a post from Chris Pirillo

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Ian Quinn is the President of Products and Services with Lonick Internet Solutions. He has sent in a top five list of tips he compiled to help you have an excellent live stream.

Have a place to host your video and chat room. If you don’t need a chat room, don’t get one.
Make sure you have what it takes to be watched by complete strangers. If you can not speak in front of people at your school, job, or anywhere, then being an online streamer might not be the best for you.
Have interesting topics. If you are on a tech show and you are talking about wood cutting, or something completely off topic, you will lose your audience.
Make sure you have the proper equipment. If you have the money, spend it. A good start would be an external microphone that is not a headset, a webcam or camcorder with mediocre to great video quality, and most importantly, a computer that can run the software required to stream.
Get your name known. An easy way of doing this would be to “guest star” on a friends live stream and tell people where to find you.

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How to Handle Remote Tech Support

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:30:00 GMT

Using GoToAssist is the easiest way to view and control another person's computer online. Use it to provide instant technical support to family, friends and customers. Start a session with just one click, and instantly connect with the other party.

Network Tools for Windows

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

You need these network tools, no matter which operating systems and networks you have to support. SolarWinds ipMonitor: Affordable Network Monitoring for SMBs. Get turnkey network, server and application availability monitoring with SolarWinds ipMonitor v9.0. This easy-to-use, reliable solution for SMBs delivers out-of-the-box availability monitoring so you always know exactly what's up with Active Directory, DNS, Exchange, FTP, Web, IMAP, MS SQL Server, and SMTP. Download your free trial today. Or, try their totally free tools! And, through 2/29, save 20% when you purchase ipMonitor 9.0.

Get Your Own Web Site

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

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VMware and Parallels for Virtual Machines

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

It doesn't matter if you're running on Windows or Mac OS X - every power user needs either Parallels or VMware (or both). There's never been an easier way to test software without destroying your primary operating system's stability. Think of how many times you wish you could press a 'reverse' button on your computer. Plus, there's no easier way to try new Linux distributions - see what all the fuss is about. Run Windows in OS X, run Linux in Windows, but the best way to do either is with VMware and/or Parallels.

Coupons for Online Shopping

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:56:13 GMT

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