Blogging, as well as almost all media, is become much more mobile. Not only are people reading and consuming news on the go, but they are also recording, writing and photographing it as well.
This move stems directly from the rise in both smartphones, which often include high-definition video/still cameras, as well as other portable recording and Internet-connected devices. From Flip cameras to laptops, you can run an entire multimedia empire without ever sitting in an office.
However, all of this mobility comes with it a series of new legal questions and issues that desktop-only bloggers don’t have to face. When you’re recording audio and video on the street, you have some additional concerns to worry about.
Fortunately, they are legal questions that you can easily address and deal with, so long as you’re aware of them and take steps to avoid them before you step out the door. read more
With more and more bloggers dipping their toes into creating video content for their sites, the climate they’re working in is changing when it comes to copyright.
Though copyright, by design, protects all forms of content equally, how it is enforced and who is doing the enforcing changes drastically with the medium. This means that bloggers who might take some of their habits, both good and bad, from text into video, might be in for a bit of culture shock.
So what are some of the copyright changes a blogger should expect when going from text to video? Here’s just a small sample of some of the ways the two media are very different from both a practical and a legal perspective. read more
Since Google has purchased YouTube, the search engine giant has focused on scaling the video sharing site. Shortly after releasing some amazing stats on hosted content — 35 hours of video are uploaded to the site every minute — Google has been eyeing video quality and how to improve it. To make YouTube videos look much better, Google has bought Green Parrot Pictures.
The buyout can only lead to positive things for all YouTube users as Green Parrot Pictures’ expertise is improving video quality on content such as streaming movies. Google aims to not only improve the quality of uploaded videos but also the speed at which they are streamed.
The Internet has changed massively over the last years and the days of a life without www seem to have become long forgotten for most people already. Many youngsters could not imagine a life without ‘technology’ or internet anymore. The biggest change online has been the emergence of video streaming though. What seems now to hit the living room for everyone, also not tech savvy people , with AppleTV and and GoogleTV, happened in actually less than 5 years. Online video has always been something for nerds, with QuickTime and RealPlayer in the first years but once Youtube was launched 2005 the complete internet landscape changed. And continues to change. Nowadays around 69% of all internet users also watch streaming or download videos.
Together with the popularity of online video screencasting has become popular and one of the best tools for this certainly is Techsmith’s Camtasia a long time favourite for Windows screencasters and since recently also on the market for Mac users.
We analysed the last 5 years of online video history and the result is this awesome infographic, requested by Techsmith.
Happy Monday, folks! This week, we’ve got some new Movable Type plugins in the Plugins Directory. First, though, for those of you that want to keep up with the MT community, check out the excellent Twitter list assembled by Ken Edwards. Follow that list for constant updates from the MT crowd.
Now, for this week’s new plugins:
ooVoo Web Video Chat Room — The ooVoo service lets you video chat with up to six people at a time. This plugin makes it easy to embed an ooVoo chat room into any page of your site. It includes some basic settings for controlling the size and look of the chat.
Gravatar for Movable Type — Most people are familiar with the universal avatar service Gravatar — we use it here, in fact. This plugin, from Makoto Kawasaki, adds Gravatars to the comments on your blog.
Movable Type Farsi — This one is for the Farsi-speaking bloggers. Created by Pouya Salimi, the plugin expands MT’s support for right-to-left writing. It also adds a Farsi Calendar, Farsi tags, and a Farsi version of the Professional Pack Template Set.
That’s it for this week. Got some MT news for us? Let us know in the comments.
If you’re looking to find love online, perhaps you could take a leaf out of Tim Goggin’s book.
32-year-old San Diego resident Tim is an online entrepreneur who, frustrated with not being able to find true love in more traditional ways, created his own infomercial and web site to help him find the perfect woman.
TimWow.com hopes to attract potential dates by showcasing his talents and interviewing his friends on the video, as well as offering a free meal date to successful applicants. read more
Livestreaming is rapidly becoming a powerful force in blogging. Not only is it a fast way to add interactive media to a site, but it’s also a powerful way to record static media, including videos and podcasts, for later.
However, with this new technology comes a new set of legal challenges, one of the biggest being copyright. Not only do rightsholders face the new challenge of content, including audio, TV shows and sporting events being streamed out live, but the companies behind these new technologies face an uncertain legal future, where laws designed for traditional hosts may or may not apply.
In many ways this legal climate is similar to the one YouTube faced during its early days (and continues to face with its billion-dollar lawsuit vs. Viacom) but it can have serious implications for users of livestreaming services. Many of the protections afforded users under the law of most hosts don’t easily apply to livestreaming services and that could create problems down the road. read more
The Automattic owned avatar service Gravatar.com got a much needed site refresh just recently, and an introductionary video for you to show off to your visitors, or anyone not really getting the global recognizable avatar concept. Since Gravatar.com is integrated in just about every WordPress theme these days, you might think that the video is a bit redundant, but the service supports a lot of other platforms as well. Check out the refreshed website and the blog post that talks about everything but just the new site.
Thanks for everyone that sent this in, from the Disqus 3 teaser site, embedded below for your viewing pleasure:
Disqus is obviously one of those comment hosts that can take care of your site’s comments. A lot of sites swear by it, and we are considering switching to it here on the Blog Herald as well.
WordCamp 2009 is officially in the books. With two and a half days of some of the best community, speakers and information, it was an incredible event. Over the course of the weekend, I saw some of the best blogging-related presentations, met many of the most wonderful people in the blogging world and observed some of the worst bowling ever witnessed by man (though most of that was my own).
The event was a smashing success with over 300 attendees. Organized by John Pozadzides and sponsored prominently by his company, Woopra, it was, according to those in attendance, the second-largest WordCamp in the world.
But while the best part of these WordCamps is always the community and getting to meet all of the people who share your passion, there were also a slew of great speakers, 16 in total, plus a panel discussion. Even for a veteran blogger, there was a great deal to learn.
So, as I try to digest and take in everything I saw and learned at WordCamp Dallas, a more complete recap is forthcoming on my site, here are five things I’m holding onto dearly as WordCamp Dallas closes up for the year (in no particular order). read more
Blogging, as well as almost all media, is become much more mobile. Not only are people reading and consuming news on the go, but they are also recording, writing and photographing it as well.
With more and more bloggers dipping their toes into creating video content for their sites, the climate they’re working in is changing when it comes to copyright. 
