Category Archives: Video

Does the scary “cell phone popcorn” viral marketing hoax video go too far?

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Having had several people send me links to various postings of the “cell phone popcorn” video (like this one) where it purports to show several people simultaneously ringing cell phones and thereby popping corn through the microwave transmissions coming from the phones, I admit to having wondered how real this risk was or whether this was some clever trick.

Turns out… no risk whatsoever. It was a hoax done in the name of “viral marketing“.

The perpetrator? None other than the maker of a Bluetooth headset.

As shown here in the embedded video (at least until CNN requests YouTube to take it down), the CEO of the company responsible is very happy with how well the video has “succeeded”:

Essentially they dropped popcorn into the scene and then digitally removed the existing kernels. They do this in several scenes with different people speaking different languages.

Now the CEO claims that it was all meant to be “hilarious” and that “people found it to be funny” and that it wasn’t at all meant to be “scary”.

Huh?

So if I understand correctly, the central premise is NOT “Cell phones can fry your brain like they do this popcorn if you hold them up to your head – so buy our headset and stay safe” but that it’s just a “joke”?

I’m sorry, but knowing the kinds of forwarded email messages that I keep receiving from people over the years, I think there WILL be a lot of folks out there who will be scared by this and will promptly forward this to all of their friends. (And after having been online for 20+ years, I’ve pretty much given up trying to point the forwarders to sites like Snopes.com. It doesn’t seem to matter… people just hit “Forward” without really thinking about it.) And like most of these hoax emails that get forwarded, the person forwarding it will usually NOT go back and send out a message to everyone receiving it saying that is a hoax if they figure it out… and so the original email gets forwarded on to others who forward it on…

And the reality is that with the long memory of Google, such hoaxes will live basically forever – and long after the original video may be taken down, it will by that point have been reposted and remixed onto other sites.

Do we really need more urban legends floating around out there?

Do we really need more people scared? [1]

I’m all for viral videos that are fun or amusing, but there’s a line somewhere in there that this video seems to cross. It kind of reminds me of the Turner Broadcasting hoax two years ago where there were devices under bridges that looked like bombs… again, it wound up scaring a lot of folks. Now, granted, that was something completely different in that it was a physical advertising gimmick versus an online video. Still, there’s a line there between what is a good marketing campaign and what sows unnecessary fear.

Did this video go too far? Will it cause people to be unnecessarily scared? Or do I simply not have enough of a sense of humor to appreciate it?

[1] And yes, I do realize that there are multiple different studies out there weighing in on the different sides of the debate about whether there are in fact serious concerns about radiation impacts from having your phone next to your head. But do we really need videos like this out there scaring people more?

MTV releases music video library on Web – causes single biggest productivity drop in 2008

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mtvmusic.jpgRemember those music videos you used to watch when MTV first launched? C’mon, admit it… I’m sure you do. If you grew up in USA in the 1980’s, MTV was definitely part of our collective experience and probably most of can recall videos from that era.

Now, we can watch them. (and newer ones, too, of course)

Yes, indeed, MTV has released thousands of music videos in full form and from what I can see without any advertising at – http://www.mtvmusic.com/.

I have to agree with CrunchGear that perhaps the coolest aspect is that you can embed the videos and share the links. So here are a few that may take some of you back a few years…

This was perhaps one of my favorites (but then again, I’m a student of the German language):

And who could forget “Major Tom”? (Although I admit to being more partial to the German version…)

And whatever you do, STOP this video before you get to the chorus or it will infect your brain for the rest of the day:

Of course, some songs of the era are just classics (no matter what concerns we may have later had over the lyrics):

And no list would be complete without, of course, “Money for Nothing”, which I do recall hearing OVERPLAYED so many zillion times in the mid-1980s… but the lyrics definitely go with this blog post:

Ah, what fun… many more await you at www.mtvmusic.com/… what are your favorites?

Me? Now that I went there yesterday night I think I’ll be avoiding it for a while… way too easy to get sucked in!

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FIR Listener Contest underway – make a video, get a conference pass!

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Would you like to go to the Web 2.0 Expo Europe in Berlin in October? Or a conference about online video in Los Angeles in November?

If so, simply send in a video to the For Immediate Release Listener Contest and you’ll be entered to win! Shel and Neville are holding this contest and giving away these conference passes. (Note: It’s the conference pass only – no travel or hotel.)

It’s simple to enter… just “create a video that conveys a thought, a concept, an idea in an imaginative way“. Upload it to one of the zillion video sites out there and send the URL in to FIR. That’s it!

More info is on the FIR contest page… let’s see what you can do!

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Some example screencasts created with Screenflow

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screenflowlogo.jpg
Those following my tweets or listening to my reports on For Immediate Release know that a few weeks back I was experimenting with a new screencasting application called “ScreenFlow” available only for the Leopard o/s on Mac. As a result of Voxeo’s launch of our new “Prophecy Log Search” feature, these screencasts/video tutorials are now available publicly and I can show what I did with ScreenFlow. In fact, I uploaded them to YouTube to make it incredibly easy for me to embed them.

INTRODUCTION SCREENCAST

The first “introduction” screencast, embedded here, was actually the fourth one that I did. It had to be last because I needed some shots of the web page which weren’t finalized before launch (and have already changed such that I’ll be reshooting this screencast). It’s also the only one to use video. ScreenFlow is very cool in that it can capture the video from my MacBook’s built-in webcam and lay that out as another track that I can incorporate into my screencast. As you’ll see in the intro, the video zooms up and then after the intro fades away. I actually just give the video an opacity of 0% so that it’s invisible. The audio you hear throughout the screencast is actually coming from the video track.

I’m fairly happy with how this screencast came out. The video and audio don’t seem to be exactly in sync which I find a bit strange. There’s also a brief flash of black in there in the transition from the slide that forms the intro into the actual browser screens. One thing ScreenFlow currently lacks (or at least I haven’t been able to find) is an easy way to transition between clips along the lines of the transitions available in iMovie ’08.

Now that the service has been released, I’ll be re-shooting this screencast and look forward to seeing if I can make some technical improvements to it.

THE OTHER SCREENCASTS

The other 3 screencasts are just the screen and audio. I like how ScreenFlow can let you zoom in on the cursor and highlight only the area around it:

DIVING INTO SEARCHES

REPORTING

SAVING AND EXPORTING
I’ll be re-shooting this one as well since we have already changed the interface so that people don’t have to type in “| reverse”. (This is, after all, a beta release for this very purpose.)

COMMENTS?

Comments and feedback about these screencasts is definitely welcome. The Voxeo blog post explains a bit more about what this product launch was all about. So far I’ve been quite pleased with ScreenFlow. As I use it more I’ll write more about the experience.

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An easy way to add video comments to your WordPress blog via Seesmic

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seesmiclogo.jpgDo you want a quick way to record and embed videos in your WordPress blog? Would you like to make it so that visitors to your blog could leave you video replies?

If so, Loic LeMeur and the Seesmic gang have come up with a rather cool option in the form of a WordPress plugin for Seesmic video. First announced yesterday on TechCrunch and then on Loic’s blog, this plugin simply installs into your WordPress site and lets you both easily embed videos in your blog entries and also lets people leave video comments.

Given that I run this site on TypePad, I can’t demonstrate the plugin here… but I built Voxeo’s corporate blog portal using WordPress MU which does work with the video. You can see the plugin in action in this blog post in both the main post and also in the comments. (Please feel free to leave a comment as well! I’d love some more testers, especially “anonymous” testers without Seesmic accounts.)

CONTEXT MATTERS

One curious thing I did notice about using the plugin. If you have a Seesmic account, then the videos you create with the plugin also go out in your Seesmic feed. On one level, this is rather cool as it means that anyone following you in Seesmic will see the videos you create. However, when you are creating the videos you MUST remember:

Your video will be viewed in two different channels – with and without the context of the blog post.

For instance, here’s the video I recorded this morning when I got the plugin working with the site:

Viewed within the context of the blog post, this video makes sense. However, just as a raw video in my Seesmic stream, the context isn’t there. On what blog site was I testing out the plugin? Who is the “we” to which I was referring?

To make this make sense in both channels, I probably should have started off with something more like this:

Hi, this is Dan York and today I’m experimenting with adding the Seesmic video plugin for WordPress to our corporate blog site, blogs.voxeo.com, …

Or something similar that clued people in to the blog site I was talking about.

Likewise when leaving a comment to a blog post, you will be commenting on the contents of the blog post. Someone seeing that within Seesmic will have no clue what you are talking about. Should you then start your post with something like this?

Hi, this is Dan York commenting on the blog post at <URL&gt:… blah, blah, blah…

Now here we have a problem. Without an intro like that (“commenting on the blog post at…”), the video comment makes perfect sense within the context of the blog post, but doesn’t make sense in the Seesmic video stream. With an intro like that, the video seems a bit strange in the context of the blog post (you already know the URL of the site so why are you mentioning it), but does make sense in the Seesmic video stream.

Two different audiences viewing the same video with and without the context of the blog post.

SUGGESTION

Perhaps Seesmic needs to somehow add a field so that when a video is posted (either in the main post or as a reply) via the WordPress plugin there is a link in the Seesmic stream of the user back to the blog post where the video appears. Not sure how feasible that is, but perhaps it might address this issue.

In the meantime, users of the WP plugin should bear this dual audience factor in mind when you are recording videos.

If you do want to check out the Seesmic video plugin in action, you can visit the blog post I made earlier today and… seriously… feel free to leave a video comment if you have a camera. I’d love to get some more testing done of the plugin.

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Is the “Puppy Toss” video for real? Or is it a setup? Is there a rush to judgement?

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37A02020-B9AD-43B6-8D45-5EF9B5CD04A0.jpgAs I would expect (hope?) the VAST majority of you all reading this would be, I was thoroughly appalled when I learned by way of the Bryant Park Project about the horrid “Puppy Toss” video. In this 17-second video, a solider appears to be throwing a puppy off a cliff. The soldier is referred to as “Motari” which has led to the subsequent potential identification of this soldier as a David Motari of Monroe, Washington.

This appalling video has of course spawned a feeding frenzy in the blogosphere and a strong stream of stories in the mainstream media. News reports indicate that Motari’s family has been threatened and has had to disconnect their phone while local authorities in Monroe, WA, attempt to deal with the attention. Motari’s page on social networking sites has apparently been filled with hateful messages (one assumes on “wall” types of message boards). The US Marine Corps has meanwhile condemned the behavior and indicated that they are investigating the issue.

But with the thousands of hate messages flying around the Internet, the techie in me who knows how easy it is to create this type of thing can’t help but wonder:

Is the video real? And is the perpetrator really David Motari of Monroe, WA?

Right now the conclusion of the blogosphere seems to be that it is real and that it is this particular guy. But I would suggest there are at least four potential possibilities:

1. IT IS REAL AND IT IS MOTARI – If it is, in fact, real, than Mr. Motari and his colleagues certainly deserve some form of punishment. Motari also needs to do some serious groveling and apologizing to his family for all the stress he’s putting them through!

2. IT IS REAL BUT IT IS *NOT* MOTARI – What if this is a setup? All that people are going on to identify the soldier as David Motari is a brief mention of “That was mean, Motari” by an off-screen voice (possibly the cameraman). What if it was someone else? What if it is a malicious setup? What if someone wanted to get back at this David Motari and set it up so that his name was mentioned? What if someone staged this to tarnish the reputation of the Marines?

3. IT IS A HOAX BUT STILL MOTARI – It could be fake. It could be not a real puppy. There are some analyzing the video saying that it’s not real or was exchanged before the throw. If it was, though, David Motari, he certainly has some explaining to do to the USMC and also his own family.

4. IT IS A HOAX BY SOMEONE ELSE – It obviously could be a hoax by someone else. But why the hoax? Is someone trying to hype something? Again, is someone trying to damage the military’s reputation?

My point again is this:

In an era of near instanteous access to some information, are we rushing to judgement?

The “cybervigilantism” of posting the guy’s address and phone number… of harrassing his parents and family… of barraging his social networking pages… are they deserved?

What if it turns out to NOT be him but rather some other Motari?

Can the phone calls, hateful emails and hateful posts be taken back?

What happened to “innocent until proven guilty”?

Should we not all just step away from the keybards for a little bit and wait to see if in fact the authorities determine it was him?

What if it were YOU who were mistakenly identified as being in a video like this?

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There’s still time to join the DataPortability.org video conversation/promotion effort!

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dataportability.jpgThere’s still time to join the DataPortability.org video promotion effort – the deadline has been extended now to March 31st!

Now you may be saying to yourself: “WHAT video promotion?” Well, if you haven’t been following the work of the DataPortability.org project, earlier this month they launched a video conversation/promotion effort where they are asking people to record a video answer 5 questions:

  • What does DataPortability mean to you?
  • How do you imagine DataPortability might change the way you use the web?
  • How would you explain the value of DataPortability to Vendors – those that store the data.
  • How would you explain the value of DataPortability to Users – those that create and own the data.
  • Ideally, what would you like to see from the DataPortability Project in the next 12 months? 24 months?

The original deadine was today, February 20th, but, as previously mentioned, it’s now been extended to March 31st. People are asked to upload a video to any of the video sharing sites with the tag “dataportabilityandme”. Some results on YouTube are visible with the tag “dataportabilityandme” and also “dataportablity“. Others are appearing on blip.tv, seesmic and also on private blogs. Here’s one that I particularly enjoyed:

What do you want in the way of data portability on the Internet? Why don’t you join the conversation?

P.S. And yes, I will be doing so soon…

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What’s the best handheld video camera for creating video podcasts?

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Okay all you video podcasters out there, what in your opinion is the best handheld video camera out there for creating video podcasts?

Here’s the deal. I’m heading down to Orlando next week where we will be doing a number of presentations in front of customers. I want to record those presentations in video form and put them up on Voxeo’s blogs, YouTube, maybe blip.tv, etc. I’m also going to several conferences in March where my intent is to create some more video podcasts.

Right now the videos I’ve put online have come either from my trusty Canon SD1000 “point-and-shoot” camera or from the webcam in my MacBook Pro. Those have been fine for short videos. In fact, I’ve been quite impressed with the quality that you can get from such tools. But now I’m looking to record longer presentations. Some might be an hour or more. Sure, I can probably do that with my Canon SD1000, but I think I’m getting out of the range of what’s realistic to do with camera.

Unfortunately I haven’t really paid any attention to the video camera market lately and a simple glance at the Sunday newspaper flyers tells me that there are a zillion choices out there. Here’s what I think I want in terms of a camera:

  • SMALL – I travel to conferences and having been burned too many times I never check luggage and always travel with carry-ons. So the camera, power adapters, etc., need to be small for travel.
  • TRIPOD MOUNT – I’m recording hour-long presentations. It’s gotta work with a tripod.
  • LONG RECORDING TIME – I might be recording 8 hours of presentations and I really do not want to be having to stop and transfer files over to my laptop.
  • EASY TRANSFER TO COMPUTER (MAC) – I want to be easily able to transfer the video files over to my MacBook Pro. (Where I’ll probably simply edit them in iMovie and then post them.)
  • GOOD BATTERY LIFE – Next week in Orlando I’ll have power but in March at conferences I’ll be roaming around. I don’t want to have to be constantly swapping batteries – but I also do want the ability to swap batteries if I need to do so.
  • ERASABLE MEDIA – I don’t want to be needing to carry around blank tapes or anything like that. The new range of cameras that shoot to hard drives or SD cards seem intriguing because I can just copy over to the PC, erase it and start recording again.
  • INEXPENSIVE – Oh, and by the way, I don’t want to spend a fortune on such a camera.

Two desirable attributes of a camera would be:

  • SEPARATE AUDIO INPUT – When I’m recording a session where the audio is also being captured through microphones, I want to take an audio feed from the mixer and feed it directly into the camera.
  • ABILITY TO ACT AS A WEBCAM – Perhaps I’m stretching too far on this one (or getting away from “inexpensive”) but it would be very cool if the camera could also be configured to be a USB (or Firewire) webcam for my MacBook Pro. Say that I’m at a conference and want to do live video streaming from my MBP. Obviously I can use the MBP’s built-in webcam, but if I also have this new video camera, it would be great to use it as the video input for the MBP. (Bonus points if I could do both recording in the camera and simultaneously streaming to the MBP… but that may be too far of a stretch.)

Any advice, comments, opinions, recommendations would be greatly appreciated! Anything I left off my list that I should consider? (Thanks in advance)

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Don’t understand why we NEED “data portability”? Watch this video…

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If you don’t yet understand why the walls need to come down between social networks, here is this great video from Michael Pick of Smashcut Media (first seen on Particls.Blog):

DataPortability – Connect, Control, Share, Remix from Smashcut Media on Vimeo.

Indeed… this kind of portability is exactly what we need. We need to have control over our own information and network. Join the conversation over at DataPortability.org….

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Yes, indeed, you can now watch me recording my FIR report…

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This morning when I needed to record my weekly report into For Immediate Release, I figured I might as well try a little experiment with Seesmic since my MacBook was sitting there with its webcam. So here it is… you, too, can watch me record my FIR report:

Now many folks may find that about as exciting as watching paint dry or water boil. There’s a bit of an echo chamber strangeness to it…. watching me recording something. Actually, it kind of reminds me of the times when I’d flip through the TV stations and see a channel that was broadcasting video of Don Imus and friends recording their audio/radio show. I don’t know that it adds a whole lot but it was at least an entertaining and quick little experiment.

The astute observers will note that you can see the audio waveform moving across the screen in the background as I continue my usual practice of recording directly into Audacity. For those who are curious about such things, that’s a Studio Projects B1 mic that I bought 2+ years ago and the headphones are a Sennheiser “HD 280 pro”. The mic boom is from Heil since it is the only one that would clamp onto a desk.

The good news for me was that I did the report in one take without really flubbing up any words or phrases. The truth is that this was my second or third attempt and so I had my text down rather well. It would have been more entertaining, probably, for folks to see a recording where I keep messing up and restarting. Ah, well, perhaps another time… 😉

P.S. One final note – I can’t seem to find any way to get the embed code from the Seesmic video without logging into Seesmic and going to the page for the video. Am I missing something or can’t you get that embed code without being logged in?

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