Robert: What about splitting the difference and carrying around a still camera with good video capabilities? My Canon S3IS shoots optically stabilized 640x480 video with stereo audio, and given that it has a 12x optical zoom, is still pretty compact.
Robert Scoble
· 1 year ago
Here's another reason why I use the cell phone: because I can take questions LIVE from an audience. i can't do that with a camcorder. I also would need to carry it around everywhere, and, sorry, I already carry enough equipment everywhere I go.
James Cotton
· 1 year ago
Robert, i actually liked the video and the timing of it in response of what was going. Keep it up.
Out Wrong
· 1 year ago
I have only read this post about the entire meeting between Scoble and Twitter. That said, it certainly seems like Twitter is not "thinking outside the box" enough. This is not an impossible problem to solve.
As far as 37 minutes of downtime. Ha! I probably go to Twitter (an embarrassing) 10 times a day. Of those, in the last two weeks, a third of the time I get an error. Oh well, it is still cool and I wish them the best. I however am always looking for the latest and greatest. Is it friendfeed? Right now, yes.
Janeth
· 1 year ago
I loved the video and the interview.
No matter what you do you will never make everyone happy.
Leigh Ann
· 1 year ago
Cool! Thanks so much for this interesting post and boiling down the conversation. I thought the video looked interesting but haven't had time to watch it. This was very helpful.
Grant D Griffiths
· 1 year ago
So what about the quality of the video and audio. You can see it and hear it. Most of the time it is interviews like this that are the best and most relaxed. Keep them coming.
Evert Bopp
· 1 year ago
Robert,
I watched the video late last night and thought that it was fine. It was impromptu, spur of the moment and refreshing. Bringing in "professional" equipment might have stopped it from happening or curtail the discussion. Qik is just the right medium for this type of interview/chat It takes a minute to setup and the content is more important that the quality of the video and audio. The instant viewer feedback makes it "right there right now". Job well done.
And, no. You did not break Twitter, it was already broken (or only half built depending what way you look at it)....
Terry Storch
· 1 year ago
Great interview Robert, thanks. It was great to connect and see you and Steve in San Fran at the GaryVee book signing...hope to catch up more later.
Mujibur
· 1 year ago
You're such a douche dude. They didn't say anything that should have been construed as coming after you. It was very clear that they were taking responsibility and wanted to fix the problem.
Monty
· 1 year ago
I loved the interview and as long as I can hear what's being said I don't care. Why do you need HD quality video to watch an interview? Is it so that you can see every last bit of glorious action, no. When I watched the Qik video, I was also browsing and doing other things, I didn't have to see what was happening to know what you were saying. It's ridiculous to complain about the quality of video of an interview...
Paul D. Watson
· 1 year ago
Hey Robert,
Thought Qik worked just fine. I prefer impromptu interviews. They are more real and in the moment.
Keep up the great work.
-Paul.
Randy
· 1 year ago
I try and watch the bad video and audio (no just on this interview), but it's too much, can't watch it.
You can't carry a Canon HV20 that shoots HD? and fits in the palm of your hand?
I shoot my 10 month old with this camera ... maybe I expect a professional interviewer to be more professional than I am with my home movies.
Dawn Douglass
· 1 year ago
Robert, you should NEVER go so long without sleep. In 1995 a good friend of mine dropped dead from a heart attack at the age of 47. He had just been through a battery of physicals, including stress tests and EKGs, because he was returning to active duty. They said his heart was in tiptop shape, despite his beer belly.
So why did he have a heart attack? Because he went three days with very little sleep. He was trying to get lots of things done so his wife wouldn't have problems while he was deployed. Turns out his parting was forever.
Maryam is going to be totally pissed at you if you drop dead from working so hard, just like I'm angry at my husband for dying from skin cancer at age 46 when I used to BEG him to wear sunscreen. Me: "Fine!, but don't come crying to me when you get skin cancer." Him: "I'm not going to get skin cancer." Yeah, right. And you can't have a heart attack either, right Robert?
I know you love to work, that your work is also your play, but you're going to have to stop this manic pace you've been keeping before it permanently stops you. You're "on" all the time. You need to turn OFF, *at least* 8 hours EVERY day.
I'm only nagging you because I don't want to see Maryam and Patrick and Milan go through what me and my two kids have gone through. Please don't do that to them.
Robert Scoble
· 1 year ago
>You can’t carry a Canon HV20 that shoots HD? and fits in the palm of your hand?
No. I already carry enough equipment around, thanks. And that one can't post to the Web without additional equipment and connections. It also can't hold a live chat room so your audience can participate.
I have $6,000 HD cameras for my show on http://www.fastcompany.tv but they need a separate person to both carry them, set them up, make sure they are set right (they require things like white balancing, microphone tests, and other stuff) and when you use two cameras you've also gotta do a lot of post-processing work. The picture and audio look like CNN or Discovery Channel (they use the same equipment) but it takes days/weeks to get that stuff up.
I far prefer doing live interviews with people who are interactive. I also want to be able to get my videos up while people care, not five hours later. In fact, if I had used a camcorder yesterday I still wouldn't have been able to get the videos up (after the interviews yesterday I had to drive to pick up Patrick, then was dead tired, and only got up this morning and today's a weekend day so I don't do real work, just fun stuff like blogging and FriendFeeding).
Robert Scoble
· 1 year ago
Dawn: good point. I got lots of sleep last night. The night before was stupid.
Luis Sandoval
· 1 year ago
I wanted you to know that I thought the interview was timely and done well considering that it was a last minute decision. Rather then focus on you not having the equipment to set up a "professional" meeting, I think the main focus should be how quickly we can connect socially with even the smallest of equipment pieces, a cell phone. Was this as readily available with ease of use five years ago? Ten years ago?
Keep up the great work and keep keeping us informed!
Alex von Halem
· 1 year ago
I never cease to be awed by the depth of information and argument you get to in the shortest of time. Thanks for your reporting. Good to see someone who is so open to criticism and doles it out in a purely constructive manner.
What twitter is concerned: it's good to know that they are aware of their problems (duh) and are open to communication. I think the really important point, which might save twitter in the long run, is the deserved loyalty by the base.
Stick to a good thing.
nigeleccles
· 1 year ago
Cool - I thought they were going to ration your tweets!
Kapauldo
· 1 year ago
Scoble, you're awesome. I don't really care about your clearing the air (no offense to you) I just really like your reporting. I am just amazed at the excuses coming out of Twitter. They're snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Anyone who says "there will be problems for some time to come" should be fired. The right people with the right leadership with the right funding can fix anything. I suspect they have the right people and the right funding.
Alberto
· 1 year ago
Watched the "conversation" yesterday and it was quite useful to understand where Twitter is right now and love the summary, helpful to refer to those who don't understand Qik social live streaming value and just want the facts.
Looks like at the beginning, Twitter was really just a microblogging platform and the problems with integrating the whole potential a messaging protocol (XMPP) can provide to the infrastructure are the architectural problems they are facing. I was surprised that they mentioned they only have one copy of the data in the disk with multiple caching updates in memory, they really have pushed the limits with this architecture and the move to a messaging platform it's going to help the downtime, hope it doesn't take them too long.
There is a opportunity for the appearance of a WordPress in microblogging (maybe a FriendFeed or Grazr open source). And for messaging, the fact that FriendFeed looks email as their competition (i.e. rooms=RSS mailing lists) signals they have already thought beyond microblogging. If more applications are built related to the mobile web like Moblf.com, then Robert is right and Twitter loyal users can look FF as a viable option.
Christopher Coulter
· 1 year ago
how everyone told me “Twitter is lame” first time I told them about it
And the second, and the third...to eternal infinitude, no matter, it's still lame.
"On a lark", heh, which pretty much sums up most of what passes for "Web 2.0"...
You do know they have Sony Handheld HD's, something like the old HDR-HC1, you could get a basic Steadicam Merlin to go with, and dump to SD, and x264 it pretty quick, maybe even using some form of hardware rendering, keep time limit to 20 min or under, and with the Merlin, you might not need to edit it much, posting fairly raw. Quick and professional, with the HDR-HC1 you can shoulder-bag carry, being quite inconspicuous. Cell phone video are just headaches, no matter what the excuse.
Robert Scoble
· 1 year ago
Christopher: well, get some aspirin.
My camera can broadcast live, which is a MAJOR advantage over what you're talking about, especially if you want a two-way audience like I do. And I don't even need to find an Internet connection to upload, either.
albertoog
· 1 year ago
Hi Robert,
Why don't you use a Flip Ultra camera? (http://www.theflip.com/). I'm told the quality is quite high and it seems to be very portable.
BTW, I don't have anything to do with The Flip company or any other company related to the cameras world.
Greetings from Barcelona, Spain.
Bess
· 1 year ago
Jesse Stay is the Book Author of O'Reilly "Facebook Essential" and Co-Author of "I'm on Facebook -- Now What?". Jesse also runs the Facebook Developer Garage - Salt Lake City Utah. He is the co-organizer of the Western Region of OpenSocial Hackathon Episode III along with Silicon Valley Web Builder (SVWB). Jesse is not just a developer!
I would have make sure this Scoble to take power snap during his 30 hr working around the clock schedule. Jesse has 4 kids including a new born. We wouldn't want to see 2 super dad to get into any silly auto accident.
I suggest we put an automatic warning if any blogger twitter nonstop for 24 hrs. We shut off the Twitter feature to put them to sleep. This would be a safety feature and family-protection plan. Many families will be supporting this feature.
@Dawn Douglass health warning is good one!
Brad Jasper
· 1 year ago
Robert,
Your interview was great. I thought you asked good questions and was glad to see both Biz and Evan there.
About the quality of video--Qik isn't meant to have the best video quality available (yet?). It's meant to capture video on-the-go while giving you a channel to interact with your audience.
That's exactly what you used it for here.
Anyone suggesting you used a "regular" video camera doesn't "get" Qik.
Don't listen to the nay-sayers--keep doing what you're doing Robert.
- Brad
Michael
· 1 year ago
So basically the end result is that you and your ego were overreacting to what Twitter posted.
altrenda
· 1 year ago
All the goofs worrying about the process instead of the content. Probably won't watch black and white films, either.
Good job getting the story and getting it out quickly.
Bruce
· 1 year ago
Maybe it would have helped if you had gone to journalism school, before they handed you a cell phone with a camera. Your no Dan Rather, that's for sure. Dump the stupid laugh, and buy a tripod. And maybe one day they'll buy you a real camera. Goof Ball.
wilson ng
· 1 year ago
I think twitter is cool, and so far I can stand an ocassional twiccup.
I think Twitters problems is partly caused by the many subscribers it has, but also on the dozens of great 3rd party applications that also puts a load in its db. I agree that twitters notwithstanding its problems, twitter should not cut them off.
I think so far friendfeed is not quite there, and it is lame. I also don't understand your enthusiasm there.
When Friendfeed succeeds, you can quote me on that (grin)....
Alex Hammer
· 1 year ago
The best part, in a terrific interview, is the shot of Scoble's Friendfeed T-Shirt while in the Twitter office!
All seems well for the moment in the Web 2.0 world (that is a good thing).
Now over to Gillmor Gang to listen to the just released show with Friendfeed founders Bret Taylor (genius ++) and Paul B. (he may be as well).
Jesse Stay
· 1 year ago
Beth, ROFL! I could tell Robert was getting a little tired towards the end there. I was pretty exhausted myself. :-)
Jesse Stay
· 1 year ago
Sorry, that was to Bess, not Beth.
Anthony Colicci
· 1 year ago
Robert,
What is your professional camera?
pbx
· 1 year ago
Twitter is a hard one to figure out in terms of its mainstream acceptability. Its big in geek land but most people outside "our" inner circle just don't get it.
Alex von Halem
· 1 year ago
Wilson ng:
I think so far friendfeed is not quite there, and it is lame. I also don’t understand your enthusiasm there.
Can you elaborate on why it is you think FF is lame? What is missing? What is flawed? Aren't they reacting quickly enough to recommendations from the base? Or what, exactly?
Christopher Coulter
· 1 year ago
In the era, of TIVO, Archos TV, Xvid and other misc. time-shifting, the "advantages" of being "live" are minimal, so maybe you get that audience feedback from people who just happened to be glued to their LCDs, at any given time, but once that fleeting moment is gone, the output is, well, junk.
Same thing with moblogging, people posting their lameo out of focus photos inrealtimegeeisntthiscool, but what happened? That "meme", died hard and quick, with the end result of people started posting good pictures, not live, but good pictures on pay presentational sites, of course, the mainstream had already been doing that since the birth of the net, but it took Flickr for the geeks to get all flubbered. Not live, but good. The way you are doing it, the value is lost the second it's over.
Fred2baro
· 1 year ago
Hi Robert, great opportunity that you had and well catched despite the laughs ;-). About the audio I use with my N95 a Plantronics P590. It has two advantage : 1/ on a "duo" i put the headset round the neck of the interwiewee and thru the bluetooth, i'll get a better than 8k builtin mic. and it's very efficient on a very noisy area like in a street..
On a group of discussion like the one that you had at twitter offices , I usually put the headset on a table and the mic seems to do a good job.
I realize talking this way about a product is likely considered as advertisement, if anyone have a clue to how talk about a product you like without beiing considered as a marketer or whatever devil ppl, please help me out .. :-)
Didn't know you have so much fun the next day - landing an exclusive Twitter interview that Tech Crunch has to write about it.
Scoble has been good about resting. At least after my post, he didn't stay on to monitor the blog post.
That Mike also likes to Twitter non-stop around the clock. He can afford it because he is single. His staff can continue his legacy.
I have another brilliant Architecture idea. We should advise Twitter to purposely turn down the service or fail the server whenever bloggers Twitter over 24 hrs :)
Robyn
· 1 year ago
Robert- Do you ever have moments when you sit back and laugh while thinking... "Wow. I actually AM kind of a big deal." If not... you really should.
Robert Scoble
· 1 year ago
Robyn: we're all a big deal.
JohnAtkinson
· 1 year ago
Good interview Robert. Qik works just fine for this type of impromptu format. Good to see that the Twitter guys are humbly addressing the problem.
All Comments
As far as 37 minutes of downtime. Ha! I probably go to Twitter (an embarrassing) 10 times a day. Of those, in the last two weeks, a third of the time I get an error. Oh well, it is still cool and I wish them the best. I however am always looking for the latest and greatest. Is it friendfeed? Right now, yes.
No matter what you do you will never make everyone happy.
I watched the video late last night and thought that it was fine.
It was impromptu, spur of the moment and refreshing.
Bringing in "professional" equipment might have stopped it from happening or curtail the discussion.
Qik is just the right medium for this type of interview/chat It takes a minute to setup and the content is more important that the quality of the video and audio. The instant viewer feedback makes it "right there right now".
Job well done.
And, no. You did not break Twitter, it was already broken (or only half built depending what way you look at it)....
Thought Qik worked just fine. I prefer impromptu interviews. They are more real and in the moment.
Keep up the great work.
-Paul.
You can't carry a Canon HV20 that shoots HD? and fits in the palm of your hand?
I shoot my 10 month old with this camera ... maybe I expect a professional interviewer to be more professional than I am with my home movies.
So why did he have a heart attack? Because he went three days with very little sleep. He was trying to get lots of things done so his wife wouldn't have problems while he was deployed. Turns out his parting was forever.
Maryam is going to be totally pissed at you if you drop dead from working so hard, just like I'm angry at my husband for dying from skin cancer at age 46 when I used to BEG him to wear sunscreen. Me: "Fine!, but don't come crying to me when you get skin cancer." Him: "I'm not going to get skin cancer." Yeah, right. And you can't have a heart attack either, right Robert?
I know you love to work, that your work is also your play, but you're going to have to stop this manic pace you've been keeping before it permanently stops you. You're "on" all the time. You need to turn OFF, *at least* 8 hours EVERY day.
I'm only nagging you because I don't want to see Maryam and Patrick and Milan go through what me and my two kids have gone through. Please don't do that to them.
No. I already carry enough equipment around, thanks. And that one can't post to the Web without additional equipment and connections. It also can't hold a live chat room so your audience can participate.
I have $6,000 HD cameras for my show on http://www.fastcompany.tv but they need a separate person to both carry them, set them up, make sure they are set right (they require things like white balancing, microphone tests, and other stuff) and when you use two cameras you've also gotta do a lot of post-processing work. The picture and audio look like CNN or Discovery Channel (they use the same equipment) but it takes days/weeks to get that stuff up.
I far prefer doing live interviews with people who are interactive. I also want to be able to get my videos up while people care, not five hours later. In fact, if I had used a camcorder yesterday I still wouldn't have been able to get the videos up (after the interviews yesterday I had to drive to pick up Patrick, then was dead tired, and only got up this morning and today's a weekend day so I don't do real work, just fun stuff like blogging and FriendFeeding).
Keep up the great work and keep keeping us informed!
What twitter is concerned: it's good to know that they are aware of their problems (duh) and are open to communication. I think the really important point, which might save twitter in the long run, is the deserved loyalty by the base.
Stick to a good thing.
Looks like at the beginning, Twitter was really just a microblogging platform and the problems with integrating the whole potential a messaging protocol (XMPP) can provide to the infrastructure are the architectural problems they are facing. I was surprised that they mentioned they only have one copy of the data in the disk with multiple caching updates in memory, they really have pushed the limits with this architecture and the move to a messaging platform it's going to help the downtime, hope it doesn't take them too long.
There is a opportunity for the appearance of a WordPress in microblogging (maybe a FriendFeed or Grazr open source). And for messaging, the fact that FriendFeed looks email as their competition (i.e. rooms=RSS mailing lists) signals they have already thought beyond microblogging. If more applications are built related to the mobile web like Moblf.com, then Robert is right and Twitter loyal users can look FF as a viable option.
And the second, and the third...to eternal infinitude, no matter, it's still lame.
"On a lark", heh, which pretty much sums up most of what passes for "Web 2.0"...
You do know they have Sony Handheld HD's, something like the old HDR-HC1, you could get a basic Steadicam Merlin to go with, and dump to SD, and x264 it pretty quick, maybe even using some form of hardware rendering, keep time limit to 20 min or under, and with the Merlin, you might not need to edit it much, posting fairly raw. Quick and professional, with the HDR-HC1 you can shoulder-bag carry, being quite inconspicuous. Cell phone video are just headaches, no matter what the excuse.
My camera can broadcast live, which is a MAJOR advantage over what you're talking about, especially if you want a two-way audience like I do. And I don't even need to find an Internet connection to upload, either.
Why don't you use a Flip Ultra camera? (http://www.theflip.com/). I'm told the quality is quite high and it seems to be very portable.
BTW, I don't have anything to do with The Flip company or any other company related to the cameras world.
Greetings from Barcelona, Spain.
I would have make sure this Scoble to take power snap during his 30 hr working around the clock schedule. Jesse has 4 kids including a new born. We wouldn't want to see 2 super dad to get into any silly auto accident.
I suggest we put an automatic warning if any blogger twitter nonstop for 24 hrs. We shut off the Twitter feature to put them to sleep. This would be a safety feature and family-protection plan. Many families will be supporting this feature.
@Dawn Douglass health warning is good one!
Your interview was great. I thought you asked good questions and was glad to see both Biz and Evan there.
About the quality of video--Qik isn't meant to have the best video quality available (yet?). It's meant to capture video on-the-go while giving you a channel to interact with your audience.
That's exactly what you used it for here.
Anyone suggesting you used a "regular" video camera doesn't "get" Qik.
Don't listen to the nay-sayers--keep doing what you're doing Robert.
- Brad
Good job getting the story and getting it out quickly.
Dump the stupid laugh, and buy a tripod. And maybe one day they'll buy you a real camera. Goof Ball.
I think Twitters problems is partly caused by the many subscribers it has, but also on the dozens of great 3rd party applications that also puts a load in its db. I agree that twitters notwithstanding its problems, twitter should not cut them off.
I think so far friendfeed is not quite there, and it is lame. I also don't understand your enthusiasm there.
When Friendfeed succeeds, you can quote me on that (grin)....
All seems well for the moment in the Web 2.0 world (that is a good thing).
Now over to Gillmor Gang to listen to the just released show with Friendfeed founders Bret Taylor (genius ++) and Paul B. (he may be as well).
What is your professional camera?
I think so far friendfeed is not quite there, and it is lame. I also don’t understand your enthusiasm there.
Can you elaborate on why it is you think FF is lame? What is missing? What is flawed? Aren't they reacting quickly enough to recommendations from the base? Or what, exactly?
Same thing with moblogging, people posting their lameo out of focus photos inrealtimegeeisntthiscool, but what happened? That "meme", died hard and quick, with the end result of people started posting good pictures, not live, but good pictures on pay presentational sites, of course, the mainstream had already been doing that since the birth of the net, but it took Flickr for the geeks to get all flubbered. Not live, but good. The way you are doing it, the value is lost the second it's over.
and it's very efficient on a very noisy area like in a street..
On a group of discussion like the one that you had at twitter offices , I usually put the headset on a table and the mic seems to do a good job.
you can see example of my (french) interveiws on http://blugture.blip.tv
I realize talking this way about a product is likely considered as advertisement, if anyone have a clue to how talk about a product you like without beiing considered as a marketer or whatever devil ppl, please help me out .. :-)
check it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93dGW_hDuQ0
Didn't know you have so much fun the next day - landing an exclusive Twitter interview that Tech Crunch has to write about it.
Scoble has been good about resting. At least after my post, he didn't stay on to monitor the blog post.
That Mike also likes to Twitter non-stop around the clock. He can afford it because he is single. His staff can continue his legacy.
I have another brilliant Architecture idea. We should advise Twitter to purposely turn down the service or fail the server whenever bloggers Twitter over 24 hrs :)