Web Worker Daily

WebWorkerDaily readers are a diverse bunch. Every week, I profile a different reader and ask them to share what they do, how they do it, and some of their favorite hints and tips.

Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Adam Valuckas, and I have an awesome full-time job creating online video advertising for a newspaper. My second full-time job is my startup VJIX Creative. At VJIX I make online videos that highlight how applications will befit their customers. I have two projects completed and a few more on the way.

What’s a typical day like for you?
When working on VJIX projects, my days are spent animating motion graphics. It can be painstaking work — I imagine that watching me work is about as exciting as watching my girlfriend knit. To keep myself entertained I stream films from Netflix on my Xbox nonstop unless I’m editing audio. Read the rest of this entry »

Israel “Izzy” Hyman’s passion is video. He’s a video podcaster who makes a living producing three different online shows:

• Izzy Video — How to shoot and edit video. It covers a wide range of topics like cinematography, lighting, recording good audio, gear, editing and distribution.
• Paperclipping.com — This show is hosted by Hyman’s wife, Noell, and it’s all about scrapbooking and design principles.
• Rolling R’s — This show is hosted by Hyman’s friend, Larry Keim, and teaches people the Spanish language.

All three are membership sites where some of the content is available for free, but the majority of the material is available to paid members only. I caught up with Hyman to ask him a few questions about the work he does, and how he does it. Below is an edited transcript of our interview:

Simon: How did you originally get into video? And what made you decide to start blogging about it? Read the rest of this entry »

Just about every organization can use video to tell its story. Video producers tell that story by creating a product that entertains, educates, informs, promotes, captures or markets.

While video production may involve location-specific elements where you need to go out to capture visuals and sounds, you can still make it a career where you can work anywhere you want.

Is video production the career for you? Read the rest of this entry »

I spend a lot of time each day communicating with colleagues and clients, by phone, email, on social networks, and via the occasional fax. But when I need to have a short conversation and get an answer right away, instant messaging is hard to beat. Unfortunately, there are several IM protocols, and most of them don’t talk to each other. That’s why I use the multi-protocol IM software Adium on the Mac and Pidgin on the PC. I can also use a web-based alternative like Meebo or the new Imo.im.

VoxOx wants to take multi-system communication several steps further. In addition to the various IM protocols, it supports social networks (Facebook, MySpace and Twitter); SMS texting; faxing; private email; file sharing; video conversations; and voice connections. VoxOx also supports Skype messaging, although you have to have the Skype software running, which sort of defeats its purpose. Read the rest of this entry »

Video conferencing is hot, and as such, companies are jockeying for position in the space. The latest to do so is Cisco, which as Stacey reported over at GigaOM, today offered $3 billion — in cash — for Norwegian video conferencing equipment manufacturer Tandberg. As Stacey notes in her analysis, this move will enable Cisco to move even deeper into the video conferencing market, and underlines Cisco’s belief in its growth.

While heavyweight fixed telepresence systems such as those offered by Cisco are aimed at the enterprise and so are unlikely to be used by many web workers, there is already a huge choice of web app video conferencing options available in this highly competitive space, from higher-end tools like WebEx (also a Cisco product) through midrange offerings like Dimdim (see my recent look at Dimdim Webinar) all the way down to no-frills options like Skype and Tinychat (see my review here). Investment and innovation in this market should bring benefits for us all, as video conferencing makes remote collaboration much easier, from one-to-one meetings all the way up to larger webinars and presentations. Fewer on-site meetings mean reduced travel costs, less time wasted on travel, and a healthier planet, too.

Additionally, as more of us work remotely, we are becoming increasingly isolated from our colleagues. In “Coworking in Rural Places,” Aliza explained how she uses video conferencing to create a “pseudo-coworking space” with her business partner, easing the isolation of working in remote Tok, Alaska. Video conferencing is a great way to establish the rapport that can be so hard to build without the benefit of daily face-to-face interaction.

Do you use video conferencing as part of your remote working setup? What tools do you use?

Increasingly, many of us are working with video and audio online, not just text and still graphics. From video-based marketing materials, to online tutorials, to videocasts and podcasts, multimedia offerings are a great way to engage your audience. Here are four good, free open-source audio and video software tools, including some available in brand-new versions.
Read the rest of this entry »

Where do you turn if you want to set up a video conference with your team at the drop of a hat? Tinychat is a simple, no-download, no-login chatroom that includes audio/video support and desktop sharing.

Getting started is simple — just browse the Tinychat web site and click the “Create your room” button. Tinychat will create a room that you can share with your team. Once in the room, just give yourself a nickname, hit the “Start broadcasting” button, and you’re set. Tinychat is dead simple to use, with a nice, clean interface. It’s Flash-based, so it should work in most browsers. Up to 12 people can join a video chat simultaneously.

There are some nice additional options, too, like a Facebook application and the ability to embed a Tinychat widget in your own web site, but it’s because the core product — videoconferencing — is so quick to set up and use that I’ll be returning to Tinychat. With no download required, setting up  impromptu teleconferences should be a breeze, even with fairly non-technical users.

Basic Tinychat is free. If you’d like private chatrooms, a Pro account provides up to five named rooms with password protection, higher quality video, and the ability to save your chats, at a cost of $14.95 per month.

(via O’Reilly Radar)