Internet-based communication is changing so quickly these days that there seems to be an endless stream of beta releases. Yesterday, Simon wrote about some of the latest browser betas; let’s look at a few products and services for interacting with social networks, Twitter and instant messaging.

I don’t generally like living on the bleeding edge, but some betas are very usable, and I’ve already incorporated them into my daily workflow. Others look promising, but are not stable or are lacking too many features right now. But all of the following are worth trying, and watching as they develop. We’ll review them more thoroughly as they mature.

Adium is my favorite IM client for the Mac OS. Its latest beta supports all of the instant messaging protocols, and also has rudimentary support for Twitter and Facebook Chat. Unfortunately, the latter is not working as I write this, although a fix is expected shortly.

VoxOx is an ambitious program combining IM; social networks (Facebook, MySpace and Twitter); SMS texting; faxing; private email; file sharing; video conversations; and voice connections. As I wrote a few days ago, it is very rough around the edges now, and desperately needs improved tools for managing contacts.

Imo.im is a web-based multi-system instant messaging client with some intriguing features, like shared whiteboards. This service is listed as being in alpha, so we can assume that it has considerable development ahead of it.

Brizzly is a web-based service that looks a lot like Twitter’s own web interface, but with improvements. It supports multiple Twitter accounts and has recently added Facebook support. The multiple accounts aren’t as well integrated as I would like, but I assume that will come.

Tweetminer is another web-based service that includes support for multiple Twitter accounts, tweet scheduling, and RSS feeds. Its interface is attractive, but features are minimal at the moment. There are also Adobe AIR or Fluid-based desktop versions, for those who prefer standalone apps.

Socialite (formerly EventBox, which Imran wrote about here) has just released beta 2, which seemingly broke support for Facebook updates. When this issue is fixed, Socialite could become my favorite, as it combines support for Facebook, Facebook Pages, multiple Twitter accounts, RSS feeds and Google Reader in one attractive interface.

Seesmic Desktop is another Twitter and Facebook program which has worked well for me, but it shares with many Adobe AIR programs some ugly screen fonts and a propensity for using large amounts of memory. Seesmic also has a promising web version, but so far, it lacks support for multiple Twitter accounts, and for Facebook.

Nambu only does Twitter, but does it very well, in what I think is the most attractive interface of any program of its type. I can choose three different layouts, and switch between them easily. Nambu’s development is very rapid, with a new beta released every couple of days.

I find the popular Tweetdeck to be totally unreadable and unusable, due to its AIR interface. I wish Adobe would make AIR on the Mac look as good as the native OS X fonts and windows.

There are lots more betas out there, of course. What beta software and services do you use?

Image credit: Stock.xchng user OmirOnia

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?

Video Production Careers

In video production, some stick to just one task, while others do several things, or even do all the jobs to take a video from start to finish. Here are a few video-related jobs:

Producer: Video businesses vary in the area of production based on the type of videos they create and the topics they cover. Producers may specialize in one or several different types of video. The title “producer” has many meanings, but a producer often oversees the entire video production process.

Post-production: Folks in post-production work with existing video to enhance it, edit it and add to it. These tasks could involve animation, audio, voice-overs, DVD menus, music and graphics.

Editor: Editors compile audio and video to create the final product that meets project requirements. “The editor is much like a cook. We take raw ingredients and combine them artfully into a video that meets the clients’ goals,” says Ed McNichol of EDcetera.

How to Qualify

Video producers and editors are a diverse lot when it comes to how they first entered the video business and gained experience. Tim Clark started on Ken Burns’ documentaries in the editing room. Jack Dever, director of post production at PACSAT,  literally started on the bottom floor by sweeping in a studio before and after shoots. After that, he climbed to assistant video editor, editor, producer, director and supervisor. Many folks in video started at the bottom and worked into jobs in the field.

Kim Brame, executive producer with creative illusions Productions, took every job available to her after college to build a network and learn the craft. Her coworkers have degrees and training in audio engineering, programming, graphic design and animation.

Steve Mann, owner of MannMade Digital Video, lost his job in the dot-com bust. “Over 50 and no higher degree made me virtually invisible in the collapsed high-tech job market. Since my passion was always photography and more recently videography, doing what I enjoy seemed like the best career move,” Mann says.

Vicky Poole didn’t start at the bottom. Rather, she started in a different job as a secretary working for a post-production company. Her boss gave her opportunities to work with equipment and on smaller projects.

A handful of folks say they received a college degree in mass communications, media, film production or something similar. But these same people say that job experience is what really matters. In terms of gaining skills, many say they just learned how to use the software and practice often. No matter where you are in your video career, everyone has benefited from attending seminars and trade shows. Jeff Davis of JD Savage Productions says, “Do what you love, and never stop learning new stuff.”

“There is a balance of technical aptitude and creativity,” says Tom Hinchey of HincheyStudios LLC. Not only do video producers need to know the technical side of things, but also how to create the message the video must communicate.

A person who knows how to use all the video production equipment and tools doesn’t always have the knowledge and skills to be a full-fledged video producer. “You need to first know how to be a storyteller. This is one of the key components that people don’t understand with video,” says David Spark of Spark Media Solutions.

Video Production Tools

Video production involves a long list of tools. After all, you can’t capture sound and visuals without cameras and microsphones, or put all the footage together to tell a good story without apps.

The following popular tools are a smattering of what the professionals use: Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, HD cameras (especially Sony and Canon), AVID, Adobe Creative Suite, Affect Effects and Premiere. Some also use mics, lighting, DVD authoring and scripting tools. Of course, many use a Mac computer to do their work. They often post their videos on web-based video services like YouTube and Vimeo.

Find Clients

Word-of-mouth and happy current clients rule the roost as the best way to get business. Networking both in person and on social network sites works well. Some do formal marketing or post on craigslist. Video producers create a portfolio for their web sites. “Gone are the days of DVD reels. If a client wants instant access to your portfolio, your website can help you lock in that client instantly,” says Kico Velarde.

Crystal Pyramid Productions’ Patty Mooney not only uses a web site and networks, but also finds clients through the Chamber of Commerce, search engine optimization (SEO) and advertising in online and print directories. Another way to break in the field is to volunteer to get experience and build your portfolio.

Thomas Hoebbel took the old fashioned approach by connecting with organizations that could benefit from his work, and they hired him. Some people like Clint Till of Parc Entertainment, Inc. hand out demo reels on DVD and make cold calls.

Would you consider a video production career?

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.

When you sign up for the service, you are assigned a telephone number in southern California (other locations are apparently on the way). Incoming calls to that number, and voice conversations between you and other VoxOx users, are free; other calls are charged at rates similar to other VoIP services. VoxOx has just begun offering flat-fee voice and texting plans, at prices it claims are significantly cheaper than Skype’s. VoxOx’s other services are free.

In recent days, VoxOx has released beta 2.0.5. The software has improved since I first tried it a year or so ago, but it is very definitely still a work in progress. Its dark background with white text theme is hard on the eyes and isn’t editable, and its contact manager has no provision for importing from or syncing with other address books.

VoxOx seems to be trying to collect the useful features from Skype, conferencing services, virtual PBX services, instant messaging and file sharing services, and putting them all in one place. It’s a pretty cool idea, and VoxOx is definitely worth trying, but I’m not quite ready to make it part of my daily workflow yet.

Have you used VoxOx? What did you think of it?

Have you ever wanted to do more than just send someone a web page, or post a link on Twitter? If I could, I would present every link I ever wanted to share in person, so I could explain to the person I was sharing with exactly what it was I wanted them to see, and why I thought they might enjoy it or find it useful.

You can always provide a covering letter in the body of your email when you send something along, but a recently launched web app provides a tool that’s much more useful in sharing that context along with the web content you choose to share. Layers.com allows you to layer images, text and video on top of any site of your choosing, and then to share your annotated version with whomever you choose.

Initial Impressions

At first, owing maybe its noisy interface, Layers.com seems a little overwhelming. There’s a lot of visual static going on, but if you can get past the initial shock, you’ll find it surprisingly easy to use. If you know how to find an article or blog post’s permalink, then you’re already well on your way to mastering Layers.com

To take full advantage of Layers.com, you should sign up for account, which takes no time at all, and allows to create and manage as many identities as you want for sharing your annotated pages with others. You can keep a separate identity for work and for your friends, or even create multiple work identities for different lines of business or if you wear multiple professional hats. You could also create individual client-specific identities.

Layers of Research

The obvious application of this new site, for me at least, is with research-intensive engagements. Especially if you’re doing a literature survey for a larger company, the ability to not only provide links and an attendant context and analysis document, but to incorporate said document directly on top of the information in question (which ups its relevance considerably for a reader) might provide enough of a “wow” factor to ensure a client comes back to you for similar work again and again. It should make analyzing individual pieces much easier for you as a researcher, too.

Layers of Creativity

Of course, there are many other applications, too. As on editor of online content, and as someone who knows a lot of web designers, I can see how helpful layers.com could be for the creative process, too. You could provide direct feedback on top of the content you’re editing, including mock-ups via your own image files, screenshots of other sites for comparison, and/or video and audio feedback for that added personal touch, or if you’re more comfortable formulating your thoughts that way than in writing.

Layers of the Everyday

And then there’s the applicability on an everyday basis for sharing links among your network of colleagues, coworkers, and peers. You can share a Layered link via Twitter or any other social network, so that if you’re inclined to do so, you can provide more than just 140 characters worth of contextual explanation with something you’ve flagged as interesting. You could even provide additional related content as a Layer, like a video interview from YouTube from a few months back atop a print piece that’s just been released. In your textual comment, you could point out the apparent contradictions between the two.

Layers.com represents a new, more interactive way of browsing the web. Best of all, it encourages people to do more than just read and accept web content in a passive way. Instead, it actively seeks out your opinion, your perspective on things. It’s sort of like the idea behind CNN’s iReport, but more democratized and without the implicit patronization. Obviously, writing an essay to accompany every link you share isn’t practical, but having the ability to do so is a welcome development.

I’ve outlined a few possible uses of Layers.com in this post, but what would you use it for?

Many of us are increasingly working with multimedia online, including video and audio applications for everything from podcasts to video tutorials. While well-known tools such as Audacity and Blender can help you deliver slickly produced online audio and video content, really good producers make use of pre-production tools before they even start recording. Celtx is a free, open-source multimedia pre-production application that is very popular for organizing and scripting everything from screenplays, to audio/visual tutorials, to webcasts. You can download it here for Windows, Mac and Linux, and take advantage of an accompanying online Studios environment to collaborate with others on multimedia pre-production.

When you first begin with Celtx, you’re presented with several types of pre-built project templates for filmed content, audio-visual content, and more, as seen below:

Once you’ve chosen what type of content you want to produce, Celtx lets you build a Project Library, where you can house scripted materials, graphics, video and audio content, and more. If you click on the “My Studio” icon seen at right below, the application will take you to Celtx Studios, an online environment where you can collaborate on your pre-production with other people online.

Using Celtx Studios, you can track who you’re working with, and point each other to shared projects:

As you build your pre-production in the Celtx application, you’re gradually building the components in your Project Library on the upper-left of a multi-pane screen, a collection of scenes just below that (with your current scene on the right), and pop-up dialogs for adding materials to all of these repositories. The multi-pane view is seen below:

Celtx has an excellent reputation among professional storyboarders, screenwriters and producers of commercials. Many of us who have been thrown hurly-burly into producing multimedia online don’t have academic pre-production and production backgrounds. Celtx is a good, free way to get help with the pre-production part, which is important. If it interests you, I recommend beginning with these video walkthroughs.

What tools do you use to assist with storyboarding and pre-production?

Does your web work include video production? A major challenge for videographers is working closely with a client who knows what they want but doesn’t understand how to achieve it as they don’t know anything about the video production process. Clients also often don’t know when or how to give feedback in a way that keeps the project on track and heading in the right direction.

A tool that might help both videographers and their clients work through the video production process is Market7. This online suite of tools lets you upload a video to a private area of the site. Your client can then review the clip and comment on it. Their comments are embedded into the video timeline to match up so you can see the exact sections of the video they are discussing in order to help pinpoint and streamline the feedback process.

As the cut is in-progress, team members from both sides can continue to enter their input on the cut itself. Comments can be sorted, filtered and exported to an editing program such as Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere via XML so none of the valuable communication gets lost in translation.

But Market7 provides more features than just an embedded video commenting tool. It offers modules for collaboration on every step of the video production process, from building a creative brief, composing a script, organizing stored files and planning tasks and events related to the video production process. There is no software to download — every tool is web-based.

The creators of Market7 are former video producers and video clients who say they recognized a lack of tools and services for video production collaboration, a void that was causing both sides of the production process a great deal of frustration. Market7 is meant to help producers get more detailed feedback to produce an end product that the client is happy with, while for clients the tool should be easy to use and understand, even for the person who knows little to nothing about video production.

I saw a demo of Market7 at SXSW. Although video production is a very small portion of my web work, I can clearly see the value in having a collaboration tool on those few occasions when it is part of my project mix. There are definitely occasions when I feel like I’m going around in circles, with the client asking for one thing, the video editor delivering something else, and me not getting the information I need from either party to realize why we we’re all heading in different directions. Market7 could probably help me avoid some costly mistakes.

Market7 uses a freemium model, with free accounts offering a single admin account, one project, 100 MB of storage and up to five project members or participants. The premium level starts at $49.95 per month for 500MB of storage and unlimited projects and participants. Higher levels include more tech support, branded hosting, and more storage (up to 15 GB in total, with fees per additional gig).

How are you managing your web video production process?

Alex Hillman is the co-founder of Independents Hall (colloquially known as IndyHall) a “coworking space and community” in Philadelphia. IndyHall is home to designers, developers, writers, artists, entrepreneurs, scientists, educators, small business owners, telecommuters, marketers, videographers and game developers, amongst other industries.

I spoke with Alex about his motivations for bootstrapping IndyHall, the experience of running the community, his hopes for the future and advice for others. Incredibly, Alex recorded an extraordinary and engaging 30 minutes of video for us, telling the fascinating story of IndyHall’s history and future.

We edited together some highlights on the background of IndyHall, along with plans for the future of Philadelphia’s coworking community as a single video here for readers who want a brief introduction to the IndyHall story.

You can find the full set of questions, answered as short video clips, over on YouTube:

• Introducing Alex and IndyHall…
• Tell us a little about the background of IndyHall – what were the motivations for coworking in Philadephia?
• What’s the breakdown of residents in terms of permenent residents, drop-ins, part timers. What kind of work are they involved in? Do you see much cross-fertilisation between residents?
• What were your greatest challenges and surprises in bootstrapping IndyHall? And the largest operational challenges?
• What’re your plans for the future?
• What’re the key pieces of advice you’d give to people thinking about coworking and people thinking about establishing a coworking space?

Incidentally, the relaunch of the IndyHall web site site just a few days ago is noteworthy in its approach to cohering and aggregating the community of coworkers in the city, providing a platform and a voice for their agenda.

If you’re interested in the experiences of coworking community founders, you should also check out our earlier interview with Stephanie Booth, founder of Lausanne’s Eclau coworking community.

Like Stephanie, Alex’s insights and experiences are invaluable. Do share your own experiences of coworking or founding a coworking community in the comments below.

If you need to create a screencast, perhaps to demonstrate an app, there are many tools out there that can help you get the job done. We’ve covered Jing and CamStudio previously here on WebWorkerDaily. If you want a really simple free solution that you can use from any browser, though, you might like to check out ScreenToaster — especially in the light of some great new features that have been announced today.

ScreenToaster is an eay-to-use application that runs as a Java applet; it works in pretty much any browser on any operating system. It can record audio from a microphone and video from a webcam, as well simultaneously recording the action on the screen. The results are high quality and you can add subtitles after you’ve finished recording. Here’s a quick screencast of ScreenToaster in action (made using ScreenToaster, naturally!)

WWD Screencast: ScreenToaster from WebWorkerDaily on Vimeo.

ScreenToaster announced some nice new features officially today, although I believe they may have actually been available for a little while. You can now choose to upload your screencast to YouTube in HD, or download your video in .mov format. This greatly increases your flexibility: it means that you’re not stuck with hosting your screencasts at the ScreenToaster site, and you can also edit your screencast videos. Choosing one of these options has a few drawbacks though: you’re left with a ScreenToaster logo on your videos, and you lose your subtitles and webcam footage (as you can see in my video). The other new feature is a beta test of the Recorder API, which might be interesting if you’re a web developer looking to add screencasting into your app.

What do you use for recording screencasts?

Last year, in a post called “6 Free Apps and Utilities for Working with Video,” I discussed how many more web workers are dealing with video on a daily basis. Video content is good for everything from promotional materials to embedding on sites and blogs. Screencasts, for which you can use easy tools to record the goings-on on your screen, then share the results with others as streaming video files, are also on the rise. One of my favorite, quick-in, quick-out Windows applications for this purpose is CamStudio.

Here’s a look at how easy it is to get started using it.

CamStudio is a very lightweight (under 2 megabytes) application that records all screen and audio activity on your computer and creates AVI video files out of them. Using its built-in SWF Producer module, you can turn the AVIs into Streaming Flash videos (SWFs). The application is easy to use, and light enough to carry around on any USB thumb drive; you can then save your creations right to the thumb drive at file sizes that you control.

In CamStudio, you can record the actions you’re performing using the red circle control at the left of the toolbar, as seen below. The Pause Recording button is just to the right of that, and the blue square is the Stop Recording button. CamStudio records audio in real-time, so you can voice-annotate what you’re doing. If you click on the second tool from the right on the toolbar, a dialog box pops up through which you can type annotations that you want to show up as your video plays (useful if you’d prefer no audio in your screencast).

CamStudio also has a Movie Player module, where you can playback your recordings, and the Zoom menu option will let you look at what you’ve recorded in either larger or smaller formats. The Movie Player is seen below, and its as easy to use as a DVD player.

One of the best applications for CamStudio is recording a tutorial on any software application, or showing another user how a particular web site works. You also have a lot of control over how you want to customize the look of your videos. You can use custom cursors, specify portions of larger screens that you want to record on their own, and you can also ratchet the quality of your videos up or down, according to the file sizes you prefer.

CamStudio is completely free, and it’s a lot easier to learn how to use than higher-end applications such as Camtasia. Try it out for tasks such as showing on-screen tasks and applications to others.

As an aspiring videoblogger and indy filmmaker, I’ve been eying mDialog for a while but had yet to wrap my head around what it actually offered.

I also had a strange first introduction to mDialog that may have clouded my view of the site. Luckily, I had a chance to speak with Greg Philpott, founder of mDialog, to learn more about the site and services, straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.

mDialog is for any video publisher who wants to upload and manage high resolution video. The site utilizes a desktop app and a plug-in that works with the Safari browser and is compatible with Apple TV and the iPhone. Both Mac and PC users can use mDialog’s apps.

Philpott says the client side video coding solves issues of working with high resolution video online. The crunching generates MPEG4 files – perfect for playing on an iPhone with the mDialog iPhone app.

The site offers drag and drop video management. Just create a free account, log in, and you can choose from channels where you can place your videos or create your own. The site also builds in social tools to create and collaborate on channels including creating and managing video contests.

Right away, I could see that mDialog might be the ideal application for a client of mine – the Wyoming Film Office – and their annual Wyoming Short Film Contest. They need a site where filmmakers can easily upload their video submissions, then a private area to let judges rank and comment on videos, and then a public channel where the winning video and other submissions can be viewed. mDialog could fit the bill.

mDialog is not just about uploading and hosting high rez video but also about distribution. mDialog content can be distributed through an embedded player and is also submitted to iTunes. The embedded video player can also include a survey within the player so before or after viewing a video, the viewer could be asked to fill out a survey. If the videos were training videos, the survey could be in the form of a quiz to test one’s knowledge.

According to Philpott, mDialog was not intended to be a destination but rather a place to manage videos. “The publisher should be the destination,” says Philpott, that is the broadcaster, the video blogger, the filmmaker. The idea for mDialog came about when Philpott was working in the broadcasting sector and was wondering why everyone was settling for low quality video when it was possible to deliver high quality video on web sits. He was also enthralled with the “back channel” of audience engagement by adding social features to videos.

Coming up next for mDialog? A new player that you can embed into your blog or site that will include the ability for visitors to sign up for mDialog straight through the player. And after that? It’s a secret, but I’ll give you a hint…shhhhh…”monetization.”

What are you using for your high rez online video, and how does it work for you?

The addition of Gmail Voice and Video Chat to Google’s list of services brought back to mind a question I’ve been thinking about for a while: have we gone past the saturation point in having different ways to chat with people? Even if you count only real-time ways to talk to people, there are a pile of instant messaging applications, more audio chat options and conference call providers than you can shake a stick at, and video options including Skype, Oovoo, and Gmail – to name a few.

And that’s not to mention just walking down the hall to talk to someone in person, which is not an option for a lot of web workers.

So, given all the choices: which ones do you actually use to communicate with friends, family, clients, and co-workers? And how do you decide? Is it technical superiority, multi-platform availability, installed base, or something else? Do you find different chat tools work better for different tasks or types of conversations? Or are you firmly stuck in a model where realtime chat wastes your time, and you settle for email, or picking up the telephone when you really need to talk to someone?

Yuuguu is a favorite amongst Web Worker Daily’s writers, with new features being added continuously to the popular screen-sharing service, largely driven by the real needs of its users.

Around a month ago the company added Linux and Flash clients, but I suggested that this perhaps needed to be enhanced with Yugma-style plugins for existing social networks.

Fortunately, Yuuguu’s been thinking ahead and at this week’s The Future of Web Apps in London, announced that Gmail and Google Talk users will be able to invoke Yuuguu screensharing sessions with existing contacts, rather than those within the Yuuguu client. Coupled with the earlier launch of a Flash-based viewer, this helps to broaden the usefulness of the service as its reach extends beyond previous technical barriers.

Google Talk is available from within a bunch of Google’s services, including Gmail, Google Apps For Your Domain and iGoogle, potentially drawing in many more users to Yuuguu, but also signalling that other IM networks, such as Yahoo, AIM, Skype and MSN might be part of the company’s plans.

Following the quick-start guide, existing users will need to update their Yuuguu client to take advantage of Google Talk integration and will need to enter their Google account details into the client’s preferences.

Once configured, your Google Talk buddies will appear alongside Yuuguu buddies in the client and you can simply click on any combination to invoke a screen-sharing session. Other participants are each messaged a URL which starts Yuuguu’s Flash client in each user’s browser (as illustrated above). It’s a simple and elegant process that appears to work well.

Find out more at the company’s Google Talk information page.

Interestingly, Yuuguu is now stating that it’s beta phase is complete, gaining over 100,000 users and is planning premium versions for release in 2009.

Image via Wikipedia

I was poking around the comments on my Preparing to Live Blog an Event post and came across a conversation about live blogging events at ProBlogger that made me think more about how I’m going to handle single-handedly “live blogging” a 3-day conference. The discussion also made me think more about what exactly “live blogging” means.

The social media maven for nonprofits Beth Kanter defined Live Blogging as: “basically taking notes, photos, or recordings at lectures, conferences, and presentations of what was said and posting it to your blog.” (quote found here) I agree with Kanter’s basic definition, but for anyone who hasn’t tried live blogging before, I think this definition isn’t detailed enough.

If I had to define live blogging, I’d define it this way:

“Live (multimedia) blogging is capturing the words, sounds, and images at an event and posting them online to a variety of Web 2.0 enabled sites with the goal of sharing the experience for those who cannot attend while preserving key moments in an archive.”

Here are some more of my thoughts about live blogging.

1. The view is skewed.

I think that there is no way to avoid the fact that each live blogger will bring their own personal perspectives, experiences and understandings to the multimedia content they share. Is this good or bad? I think it can be both. Knowing where a live blogger is coming from is key – although they will quickly reveal their POV after a few posts.

Should a live blogger remain totally neutral? Sure, like a journalist should. Is that realistic? Not at all, but it is worth striving for. When I live blog the upcoming 3-day event, I’ll be covering specific sessions requested by my client. However, I may hear things differently than others in the room because I’m not in the same field as the attendees. That can be a good and bad thing. The client sees it as a good thing as I will likely bring a fresh perspective to the coverage.

2. Live Blogging doesn’t necessarily mean real-time.

I think some people mistake live blogging for real-time coverage, which you can’t really achieve if you are typing, even if you are a phenom typist. So unless you stream live video or audio, you can’t consider live blogging real-time. With microblogs like Twitter, you can certainly attempt near-real-time live blogging, but if you’re flying solo like I am, I’m not as concerned about near-real-time or real-time.

In my case, the goal isn’t to create a real-time experience for people who cannot attend. If that were the case, I’d stream it all live using Ustream.tv, Qik.com, Justin.tv or another such site. I’d even look into CoverItLive which many live bloggers are raving about. But the tools you choose are based on your goals.

My goal is to carry out a proof of concept, demonstrating how Web 2.0 tools can work in concert to create a rich, dynamic and unique presentation of an event that can be distributed/shared and archived for future reference. They key is to know your goals before live blogging and pick and choose the tools and methodology that will best achieve those goals.

3. Live blogging needs to be “vibed.”

By “vibed” I mean that the live blogger should use their social media instincts to pick and choose the right medium at the right time for the right effect. I don’t think that there is any way to dictate in advance which tools you will be using at what point of the live blogging project. Each session requires a creative gut check.

If one session features an incredibly dynamic speaker, a little live video streaming might be in order. If another speaker relies heavily on PowerPoint, a few photos of choice presentation slides could pepper a culling of key points that are posted as text quotes. Picking up audio often can be helpful, especially during post production to fill in the gaps and go back to post quotes that you missed during the session.

I don’t think a live multimedia blogger has to feel obligated to use all tools or stress out over using more of one over the other. Sometimes the decision of what medium to go with is also a comfort level. A writer may lean more toward text, a photographer more toward still images, a videographer more toward video. The key is to be open to the instinct to grab an audio recorder when that feels like the tool needed at the moment or even to put down the digital tools altogether and use pen and paper for a while then transcribing the notes later.

4. Go deeper.

Because I’m not attempting to document every moment of every session I attend but instead to capture standout moments (which, of course, will be subjective based on the way my brain responds during a session), I want to supplement the session content. I’ll be conducting spot interviews with panelists and speakers before and/or after sessions in a catch as catch can fashion.

Having been a reporter for a number of years now, I feel very comfortable posing a few questions to total strangers. Not everyone feels comfortable interviewing others, however, so that activity would not be in their bag of tricks. I’ll toggle between video interviews with my Flip camera and audio interviews with my Roland Edirol. I’ll also grab interviews with session attendees to get their feedback and takeaways.

5. Flexibility is key.

If I happen to have my Nikon Coolpix still camera in hand at an opportune moment to grab a soundbyte, I’ll just use its digital video capabilities rather than digging through my bag for another device. If the wifi goes down for a while, I’ll just type my text offline and archive images, video and audio to be pasted into a blog post later. If one device runs out of juice, I have several fallbacks and won’t stress over it.

Live blogging isn’t about perfection. It is about spontenaity and point of view. It is a collage and montage. It should be dynamic, organic and flexible. Too much structure or rigidity can kill a live blogging project (or the live blogger).

6. Do your homework.

I’m going to score over the session descriptions and panelist and speaker bios and make some notes to trigger some interview questions and give me some background as a framework. But I’ll also be careful not to let the description or bio color my perspective or limit my thinking.

How many times have you attended a session based on what the description said only to find that it wasn’t about anything related to the blurb? In those cases, we often spend more time examining the disconnect than we do listening to the actual presentation – we’re so worried that we’re in the wrong room or peeved that the description wasn’t accurate. Just letting go and being open to the new, unexpected information is important – especially as a live blogger.

7. Be at the top of your game.

For me, getting plenty of sleep, limiting my evening alcohol intake to one glass of wine, and drinking plenty of water is key to being fresh and alert for work as is eating carefully to keep my energy level up and sugar level even. I’m partial to eggs for breakfast and fish or chicken with a salad for lunch. I need to avoid caffeine until I can no longer avoid it and try to take it in the form of chocolate when my energy really starts to flag after lunchtime. While I love the clarity my brain thinks it has with coffee, the crash is often too staggering to be productive.

Another very important tip for any live blogger: Identify the nearest bathroom at all times. Then run your audio or video device while you are taking a bathroom break to review later and see if you missed any nuggets.

8. Not all live blogging is public.

My challenge live blogging the 3-day event is that the client wants all the elements to be private. I had to verify that each site I’m using online offers private posting. Twitter does. As does Utterz. And Vimeo for video (as well as YouTube, of course). Also, I have a feeling that those who cannot attend this conference don’t have the time to sit around and watch Twitter and the blog all day to see what new content has popped up. I think they’ll eventually poke around out of curiosity when pointed to the archive of content from the client’s e-newsletter or web site home page.

Knowing who you are live blogging for is just as important as knowing why you are live blogging. A non-techie audience will be much more forgiving about the speed of posting because frankly they are just not that into the instant gratification of Twitter, Seesmic and the like.

What other things do you do or think about as you prepare to live blog?

I’ve been joining a number of video microblogging sites (Seesmic, Phreadz, 12SecondsTV, Utterz, ViddYou) and maneuvering for alpha invites for several more (Hictu and what else is out there…?) but I still haven’t gotten into the groove. More than anything, I am wondering about real business applications for video microblogging. I can immediately rattle off the business benefits of microblogging, especially via Twitter, because the adoption rate with essentially text microblogging sites is still way ahead of audio and video ones. And when it comes to networking for business, for example, size does matter.

So when you add audio but even moreso video to the mix, you end up with a much smaller pool of potential contacts. Not everyone feels comfortable enough in front of a camera, much less broadcasting their video image to others. So is video microblogging nothing but a fun way to waste time and procrastinate from work? Or are there really going to be business applications for these sites once they get out of their alpha and beta phases?

Here are some of the ways I see video microblogging could possibly be used for work, but I’m open to any and all other viable suggestions:

1. Enhanced comments. If you are going back and forth with a client, you could video your responses to one another and have a record of the dialogue that is much easier to follow than text where misunderstandings can be rampant.

2. Time zone busting. If you are working with others in another time zone, coordinating video Skype calls might be too much effort all the time. With video microblogging, you can record your thoughts then when you get up the next day, your colleague’s video thoughts are waiting for you.

3. Easy demos and feedback. You can’t beat a video when it comes to demonstrating something when you can’t be there in person. You can record a demo of something, and then put it out to your team for feedback. Then again, most of what we do is on the Web and screencasts may work better for many of us.

I was at the BizJam Seattle conference this week and I asked about some potential business applications of video microblogging for Web workers. “Use it for how tos for your products and to show examples of your work,” answered Jim Turner of One By One Media.

4. Cheap video. It was only a few years ago that many of us avoided doing video because of the production expense. Now using the little built-in camera on your laptop is perfectly acceptable recording equipment for Web broadcast quality.

“Press releases are dead,” says Saul Colt of Freshbooks.com, who was also at BizJam. “You can use video microblogging to announce new information, use it for customer testimonials.”

Some Other Pros of Video Microblogging

• Web-based. Doesn’t require special software to download or configure.
• Fairly easy. It is pretty simple to get up and running on a video microblog as long as you have your computer camera and microphone working correctly in the first place.
• Archives. You have a video record of recordings and threaded video “conversations.”
• Motivation. If you know you are going to be on video, you’ll probably be a little more motivated to look your best and to act your best.

Some Real Cons of Video Microblogging

• The Gaps. Video microblogging is not real-time unless you are using some of the live video broadcasting sites which then aren’t really video microblogging.
• Bandwidth Issues. You simply must have a fast connection to get any semblance of video and audio quality.
• Privacy Issues. How private are these video microblogging sites? Even if you can keep your account access limited to clients, vendors or members of your team, what are the chances of a privacy breech?
• Bad Hair Day. Let’s face it. For those of us that work at home, do we really want our colleagues to see us? Isn’t the beauty of working from home that we can wear our pajamas all day and not have to brush our hair (or shave)?

I also posed my question to Leif Hansen of Spark Social Media, and he brought up a good point. Some of our potential audience may be in a work environment where they cannot watch video so keep that in mind – who is your audience?

But, Leif added, “there is still a lot of wow factor with video microblogging. If you are a Web worker, it doesn’t matter what you’re doing with it.” He pointed to the positive reaction he gets by adding a video welcome greeting to each person who joins his Ning network. “They always say it’s the coolest thing they’ve ever seen!” He’s been using Seesmic and Eyejot.

So what do you think? Is video microblogging just too cool to be practical or can you see useful business applications for it at this stage? Do you have an example online of how you are using video microblogging for your work? Or are we just having fun and wasting time?