I start with the absolute must-have – a Web camera.

A while back, there was a discussion about USB 1.1 vs USB 2.0 web cams. This discussion is mostly obsolete now as the majority of new web cameras are all USB 2.0. Keep in mind that being USB 2.0 doesn’t guarantee quality in any way. It simply means the camera can send more data to the computer (in theory).

Here’s what to look for in a Web camera:

• Speed: Since we’re choosing a webcam to record video online, the speed is the most important factor. You need a webcam that will do at least 30 frames-per-second (30FPS) when the lighting is adequate.
• Light sensitivity: The sensitivity to light is very important as most budget web cams give good results only in a VERY narrow window. It’s either too dark or too light for them.
• Control: In addition to getting a camera that is sensitive to light, you absolutely need to be able to control it. Look for cam that has a control panel where you can adjust the speed, the gain, and the white balance (the color of light).
• Pixels: As usual the more, the marrier but this is secondary to the points above. Anything over 640×480 is probably an overkill for web video at this time.

I have selected two different cameras that meet the requirements above. If you are not sure about a web cam you like, feel free to email me.

• Logitech Pro 9000: This is the latest cam in Logitech’s Pro series. It’s probably a bit of an overkill but it does have everything you need. It also has a lot of stuff you probably don’t – like adding a moustache effect.The list price is $99 but you can find it for less.
• Logitech Communicate STX: If you want a good budget web cam, the STX is an excellent choice. I own it myself and it does well even in low light.List price is $49 but you can find it for half that!

You can read it here although if French isn’t your first language, you can read a loose translation from Google.

Intel will demonstrate an experimental computer chip with 80 separate processing engines, or cores, that company executives say provides a model for commercial chips that will be used widely in standard desktop, laptop and server computers within five years.

If you’re into video and video production, this will come as great news indeed. With high definition content becoming the standard rather than the exception, processing power has to increase AT LEAST four times in order to match the processing time for SD video.

Tags: CPU, HD, intel, multicore, processor, render, SD, video

CPU, HD, intel, multicore, processor, render, SD, video

The guys at BusinessLogs have come up with something of a “theory” to explain the value the end-user gets by contributing to a site. The question that’s being asked is:

If you spend X units of time/creativity/effort do you get 3X units of pleasure/entertainment/utility in return, or do you only get 1.2X or .6X?

Here’s a snippet from the post.

…the most successful sites (based on user generated content) were the ones that gave the most bang for the buck, or, the most pleasure/utility back to the user. If I put in X units of effort and a site gives me back 2X units of entertainment, that’s good. If I put in X units of effort and get back 20X units of entertainment, that’s much better. On the flip side, if I put in X units of effort and get back 1/8th X units of entertainment, that means the X units of effort I initially put in were a complete waste of time, or, the site took my content and gave me squat in return.

I buy some of the utalitarian aspects of the theory. I’m not at all sure about the evaluations that they’ve made. Here’s the short list:

• Myspace: for each unit of effort, you get 50(!) of pleasure
• YouTube: a unit of effort gets you 20-40 units of pleasure
• Squidoo: 8-10 units of effort only get you 15 units of pleasure

I bet Seth Godin is furious about this assessment (he’s the guy behind Squidoo!). My Diablo lens at Squidoo is only behind Google in terms of the traffic it sends to my Diablo 3 blog.

Tags: myspace, social, UGC, user generated content, web2.0, youtube

myspace, social, UGC, user generated content, web2.0, youtube

A few more points from Accustream’s executive summary on streaming media growth:

• Increased broadband connections (both cable modem and DSL) at the residential level
• Ongoing innovation at the application level, particularly media players that queue up files for auto-play
• Video streams are forecast to grow by 32% in 2006 to over 23 billion served
  Video streams are currently forecast to grow by another 26% to over 29 billion served in 2007
• Broadband streams (100 Kbps and above) made up 84.9% of total streams served in 2005
• Narrowband video streams made up 15.1% of total streams served, compared to 20.7% in 2004
• Music videos once again commanded the largest share of streaming video usage online in 2005, capturing 45.6% of total views
• Aggregate tuning hours (ATH) for the top ten Internet music radio sites and networks rose by 43.8% in 2005 per month, to 257.3 million hours

I’ve steered clear of the 2010 projections because they are dependent on too many factors – like broadband penetration and network neutrality, to mention a few.

Tags: broadband, internet, network, streaming, trends, video

broadband, internet, network, streaming, trends, video

Case in point: I was reviewing Adobe’s live docs for Flash Media Server 2. There wasn’t a SINGLE comment on any of the docs I viewed. I’m not talking about a discussion, I’m talking about someone saying something.

Guy Kawasaki, an evangelist turned VC, lists 8 simple bullet-points for community building:

1. Create something worth building a community around
2. Identify and recruit your thunderlizards — immediately!
3. Assign one person the task of building a community.
4. Give people something concrete to chew on.
5. Create an open system.
6. Welcome criticism.
7. Foster discourse.
8. Publicize the existence of the community.

Being the marketing guy that I am, I immediately want to start from the back – there’s no such thing as bad publicity, right? It does make sense to start at 1. Building a community around something great will help you beat the one-percent rule of contribution.

A company that’s doing great in the community business (though it isn’t exactly a smooth ride) is Blizzard. Their community system has come a long way since the Diablo 2 days. Back then, if you wanted a community, you were better off at some of the Diablo fan sites. With World of Warcraft, however, it’s a lesson learned. There are professional community managers, webmasters, etc. and their forums are much, much livelier. (Rumor: Blizz will be unveiling Diablo 3 soon. Could even show up on Playstation 3!)

Tags: API, building, community, contribution, guy kawasaki, publicity

API, building, community, contribution, guy kawasaki, publicity

I just tuned in to the Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo

In the last two years, there has been a surge in online spending by some “unlikely” advertisers.

A study published a few days ago, reveals an impressive 78% increase in online spending – most of it coming from local businesses.

Here’s the details:

Local businesses spent $4.8 billion on Internet advertising last year, a 78% jump over the previous year, according to a study released today by Borrell Associates. The report projects local Web ad spending to continue to increase in 2006 to a projected $5.8 billion. 20 percent of the growth was driven by search engine ads places by local businesses.

It seems the Long Tail is kicking in again. Surprisingly, Maria’s guest analyst said most of the growth in 2006 will not be in search ads but rather rich-media ads where Yahoo! has a firm foothold.

Tags: advertising, cnbc, long tail, rich media ads, search ads

advertising, cnbc, long tail, rich media ads, search ads

Shopping for a webcam

Webcams are much simpler really. Their lenses are so small, it seems it ALL boils down to USB speed. At the same time, Logitech is known to play tricks on users, putting the USB 2.0 logo on USB 1.1 webcams. So I had to become an “expert” on the subject. Here’s what I found out:

Is USB faster? The truth is that USB 2.0 is not necesarily faster because USB 2.0 is simply a standard. It’s not a benchmark. Currently, there are three speeds for transfering data via an USB interface:

• USB High-Speed – transfer speed of 480 MBits/second
• USB Full-Speed – transfer speed of 12 MBits/second
• USB Low-Speed – transfer speed of 1.5 MBits/second

The USB 1.1 specifications cover the full-speed and the low-speed transfer rates. So if your webcam (or any other device) is USB 1.1, it is using low or full speed.

USB 2.0 added the specification for a high-speed data transfer (480 MBits/second). There are MANY webcams out there, however, which boldly sport the USB 2.0 logo but transfer at speeds of 12 MBits/second or even lower. The fact that they’re USB 2.0 compliant doesn’t automatically mean they are high-speed.

To put this into perspective, HDV transfers at 25 Mbps; Panasonic’s DVCPRO HD supports speeds up to 100 Mbps. The end-users’ experience will also depend on broadband penetration.

For the record, I bought a Logitech Communicate™ STX today – a USB 1.1 webcam for test purposes. User-generated content – here I come.

Update: I was wondering what will happen if you hook a Panasonic HVX200 to a capture card and compare the stream to the one coming from a High-Speed USB webcam.

Tags: bandwidth, camera, logitech, standards, usb, webcam

bandwidth, camera, logitech, standards, usb, webcam

Some may find my irony a bit ill-fitting but according to an Independent interview with Ashley Highfield, BBC Director for New Media, he feels his job is to “oversee the end of broadcast media as we know it.” So what were the results of the iMP trials? No irony this time. Says Highfield:

Niche programmes that would have struggled in a mainstream linear schedule performed consistently well throughout the period of the trial.

While the top five programmes accounted for a quarter of all the viewing, some niche programming performed disproportionately well. The Amazon ‘long-tail effect’ – seen in the publishing and music industries – indicates that there is significant value in a broadcaster’s archive.

Some key stats from the trials:

• iMP received an overwhelming positive response – 74% said that they would recommend it to a friend
• Key benefits were that it offered genuine flexibility (to watch and to listen to programmes when they wanted), greater control and genuine, added value
• 77% used it to watch a favourite programme that they had missed, while 64% used it to watch or listen to a programme at a more convenient time; and 32% used it to watch a programme they had never heard of
• Throughout the trial there was continuous interest in all programmes: more than 85% of titles available were downloaded, with comedy, drama and documentaries being the most popular genres

Key issues raised by the trials were: only half of the programmes downloaded were watched; 27% said that the download speed could be improved; 78% of panellists, however, said that they would not compromise on screen size or picture quality for quicker downloads; 76% said that it was important to be able to view iMP via the television screen.

Note: BBC has already put a news archive on the web.

Tags: BBC, content, iTV, tv, UGC, video, youtube

BBC, content, iTV, tv, UGC, video, youtube

Cases in point: Diablo’s Hellfire expansion and Counter Strike (based on Half-Life engine). CS became so big that eventually the company behind Half-Life bought the team that was working on it. (Blizzard are rumored to work on Diablo 3 for Playstation!)

The question about user-generated content is a closely watched one because it paves the way for an engaging experience at reduced costs to the game developer. In a way, this reflects the fascination with reality TV shows. When the cost for developing a game reaches tens of million, developers are looking for ways to cut costs.

BBC recently aired an interview with Will Wright, the creator of The Sims. He praised user-generated content but readily admitted the vast majority of it was junk. Based on the one-percent rule of contribution, I figure that 99% of the users never created anything anyway. According to Will, 95% of the creations were junk.

That’s some pretty dismal statistics. I believe it was Warren Buffet who said, however, that a cigarette butt found on the street doesn’t offer much but when you consider the price, it’s an amazing deal. Same thing with user-generated content: if it costs you nothing, how can you complain about the quality?

P.S. You can view the BBC interview with Will Wright here (requires Real player).

Tags: 80:20, anarchy, content, contribution, democracy, paretto, web2.0

80:20, anarchy, content, contribution, democracy, paretto, web2.0