Life is but a dream, merrily down the stream

Social Media Bible, Chapter 15: Live From Anywhere–It’s Livecasting

In the 1998 Jim Carrey movie “The Truman Show,”  the main character’s life is broadcast 24/7 without his knowledge. The broadcast is a huge audience favorite, with people watching his every move, all day, every day. But, in our real world, you can’t imagine that would be of any interest to people, right? Well….

This chapter examines the world of livecasting…distributing a stream of content on the Internet, allowing people to, “for the first time in history…actually produce your own radio or television show and distribute it to everyone around the world–live–for free!” (p. 279) However, when the content is simply a camera following “an ordinary Joe” around all day, in my mind, this comes under the heading of “do we really care?” and the subheading of “how will this help my company?”

I should have known better. One of the examples in the book, “The DotComGuy Project,” which had a guy trying to live under the watchful eye of cameras without leaving his home, actually had some major sponsors! Major companies lining up to PAY for making this voyeuristic video available to the world…really? Couldn’t happen more than once, right? How about JenniCam, HereandNow.net, We Live in Public, Justin.TV, Justine.tv…OK, I was wrong. What can you expect from a guy who doesn’t like to watch “Big Brother?” How did we ever live in the “dark ages” without the advantages of a Wearable Wireless Webcam as mentioned on page 282?

All of that “watch me, watch me” stuff aside, this chapter does have a good, although short, historical section talking about the beginnings of Internet delivered commercial radio, followed by Internet-Only radio stations. A side note is that in the beginnings of Internet delivered commercial radio (and TV) there were concerns about whether a station’s regular music licensing agreements would allow them to broadcast music over the Internet. In many cases, the answer was no, and stations had to pull back on their plans for such delivery of their station until changes could be made in their music licenses.

So, as mentioned above, everybody can have their own radio or TV station. Using sites such as BlogTalkRadio or Ustream.tv, it’s a simple matter of deciding what you want to say, and then putting it out there for the world to hear/see.

As much as I may seem to be denigrating the idea of livecasting, one really useful tool that has come from all this new technology is web conferencing or webinars… the ability to have online meetings with people in varied distant locations. From business meetings to online college classes to bringing a group of people together online to learn a new piece of software, this technology has proven to be very valuable.