Scobleizer - Latest Comments in First two months of ScobleShow

Re: First two months of ScobleShow

Neal Campbell — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 10:25:04 -0000

Robert, try Flip4Mac WMV Studio Pro ($99) for creating a WMV version of your show. It's a beautiful thing.

Re: First two months of ScobleShow

monkeyleader — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 04:00:05 -0000

Yer am loving your videoblogs - I just need to finally get myself a video mobile player so I can watch these on the move. Mostly been watching the photowalking ones but when I've time also dropping into the others.

Although (as you say) some tuning is required going forward I think you have come a long way since your first show.

I kinda like the raw feel to it - ie not much post processing going on. Isn't this what it's all about.

Keep it up !

Re: First two months of ScobleShow

grantlairdjr — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 21:35:54 -0000

Subtitle or transcript please...

Re: First two months of ScobleShow

Bess — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 05:40:03 -0000

Just mention Victoria's Secret in your blog and things just happen around the same time. Victoria's Secret just advertises their fashion show in full page on all the popular entertainment magazines this week.

Guess what they say - SEXIEST SHOW!
Guess what color they promote - PINK!

http://www.victoriassecret.... uses Flash Video.

Robert: Can you interview tech executive behind Victoria's Secret? Victoria's Secret site is one of the most successful e-commerce sites with best user interface design, shopping cart with user experience, and success in streaming video delivery. They are way ahead in streaming video before YouTube.

Ben: Just check your template selection. Is it time to add a "sexy" pink template? What about landing the wiki on Victoria's Secret? Think about those pink traffic.

Re: First two months of ScobleShow

Matthew — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 23:08:33 -0000

Hey Robert-

Why not get some interns? Put up ads at some of the local universities in their film department - see if you can find students who are willing to volunteer their time and expertise. It's basically documentary filmmaking. The worst that could happen is you've got an intern operating "B" camera who thinks they're making a music video. But chances are you'll find a budding documentary filmmaker who's really passionate about the art. (I'm a former grad-school film student)

The growing pains of podcasters/bloggers transitioning to video are something we've seen for a long time now - I don't see any reason why you can't raise the bar!

It's hard for any one person to do it alone...

Re: First two months of ScobleShow

Bob — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 18:50:19 -0000

Sorry, that doesn't work weird.......

Re: First two months of ScobleShow

Bob — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 18:48:55 -0000

I wish your site was stickier.... try putting target="_blank" in your link code. Like this.....

the ScobleShow wiki that I just started over on WetPaint.
A few things I hate about my own work so far:

Re: First two months of ScobleShow

daniel — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 15:44:17 -0000

Hi Robert
The Scoble Show is fine...it is now a library of raw interviews, and interesting in what it is. To do an edited show is a different task, and one that may not be what you are about...which is giving us the raw experience of being there.

You should be able to export to mp3s from your final cut...or in the very least take your quicktime files and export as MP3s from quicktime. Hey, I bet a bunch of people at podtech know how.

I find that for every hour of shooting you should count on at least three hours of editing...or more.

Video tagging the pieces with a timecode reference point should be interesting...isn't there a group that does that? Where is my techcrunch archive now.

Great to see you Robert...going Hollywood but not too much.

Re: First two months of ScobleShow

Jack — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 08:40:34 -0000

Proper video editing is *very* time-consuming and at its best a highly-specialised skill. But it wouldn't take much effort to chop out a five-minute chunk -- the "best bit" of each video -- and post it as a Scoble Interview Hotspot.

Also, what about getting an Edirol R-09 or similar*, recording interviews in MP3 and posting those separately, alongside the videos?

* I've not tried one: it's on my shortlist ;-)

Re: First two months of ScobleShow

taotakashi — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 07:42:19 -0000

Actually I like it the way it is. Apparently not every topic covered is of interest for me but many are.

Using just the cam and eventually without tripod (as e.g. for some screencast like episodes) is also ok for me and I got a little inspired by this and do it aswell on my http://comlounge.tv video blog. Instead of setting up everything in some corner and doing interviews it adds a little dynamic and if you are in a big room (like at a sprint) with some people if adds to the interactivity of it. It's sorta more vloggy like and for me it does not need to look that 100% perfect anyway.

Of course sound is always a challenge. And getting good sound is a bit expensive (e.g. for a wireless mic which is of very good use for talks at conferences as room sound is not that great). But then again if you give your interview partner a mic it means that other people cannot really jump into the conversation (see my point above).

As for the mp3 and ipod stuff I have the same problem. Producing an mp3 from a video is quite trivial though with a unix one-liner but then again it would be nice if the mp3 would have at least a little introduction of what we will see now. So it would be better to produce a slightly different version here (or maybe add this audio to the video aswell).

And I actually have ipod-Videos in there most of the time (although I don't know if they are actually plaing on an ipod as I don't own a video ipod) but there is no feed for them yet. This also means that I have to work a bit on the software side so that all this is more or less produced automatically.

So problems sound familiar ;-)

As for the show itself, keep doing it, it's great! :-)

Bess: Yes, flv is nice but not that many devices play it unfortunately. The key right now is probably just to provide many different media types.

Re: First two months of ScobleShow

Bess — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 03:34:42 -0000

Believe it or not tonight I am building the site that serve videos. I test both .wma and .mov and find browser issues especially serving .mov. After searching the best video format, .flv is the winner. Flash video has over 96% market share with almost no browser issues. http://www.adobe.com/produc...

You can convert .mov to .flv via http://www.zamzar.com/

I check out your scobleshow.wetpaint.com wiki. It is even better than your http://www.scobleshow.com because I can see the entire video list including comments. You should link your wiki to the side bar of your site and blog.

I can unlink the video and audio from my video. And export the audio into wav. I can easily convert wav into mp3. This is a very simple process. Every video I edited I can produce mp3 for audio podcasting.

Re: First two months of ScobleShow

Robert Scoble — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 02:51:14 -0000

Andrew: you might have missed my videos on SAP and Salesforce.com and SOASTA, they are in the sphere you're interested in. This was much more helpful criticism than your first post. Thanks!

forchilli: I have a MacPro and am getting a 17-inch MacBookPro too, but I also love my Tablet PC and I have a new Voodoo PC that AMD is loaning me and I have a Sony Vaio that Intel is loaning me. Both awesome machines.

Bess, I'm thinking of doing that.

Oh, regarding other areas to shoot, that's what I love about this job. Infinite things to get around to see.

Re: First two months of ScobleShow

Bess — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 21:47:39 -0000

Ideally, it would be nice to have a short summary video like movie trailer (30, or 15 or 10 sec) to introduce a longer video like 60 min video. Someone can decide in 30 sec or less to see if they want to spend more time to download or watch the entire video.

Or have a video script outline what the long video is about. Bullet points.

Product demos, long interviews, tutorials, tours are all good. There are many other tech areas are not being covered yet like database (SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle), enterprise application (CRM, ERP), BI, AI, IA, UI, Language (.Net, PHP, Perl, Ruby, Python), API, Web Services, SEO, SEM, latest research from MIT, Stanford, UCB etc.

Re: First two months of ScobleShow

zakkforchilli — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 21:32:00 -0000

One tip if it doesnt apply already, get a mac.

Re: First two months of ScobleShow

Chris Paton — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 19:04:32 -0000

I'm liking the tech videos, getting a look inside the Google offices was interesting.

I'd like to see more sit down and have a chat interviews though as I find people talk more and open up a bit more when they are sitting down and comfortable.

I like the fact that some of the videos are long and in depth but I would like an option of an edited down version too - a 'best bits' would be good. For subscribers it might be good to have a feed of best bits so they don't use up all their bandwidth downloading everything.

Keep up the good work.

Re: First two months of ScobleShow

Andrew Harvey — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 17:22:38 -0000

Hi Robert,

that is my real name and you have my real email address. You haven't pissed me off before. I'm not someone who blogs or interviews. I'm not particuarly interested in photography, video recording, editing, sound recording, or anything like that.

What I'm interested in is technology that's of use either directly commercially, or in helping me develop solutions for commercial situations - for corporates or government agencies. There is lots of useful technology out there that is of interest to me and is relevant in that context.

Yes, you've covered that sort of thing in the past. My criticism is that you aren't hitting my interest points so much recently, and it's because you're targetting, let's call it "alpha-stage" technology. We were forced to take notice of Microsoft, because it's Microsoft. I don't see Google much in the commercial world. I work in Java, web services, AJAX, billing systems, CRM, Accounts Payable, supply chain, logistics, testing tools, profit-and-loss, databases, app servers, BPEL, EAI, BI. That's what is interesting to me.

Robert, why ask for feedback if you aren't interested in it? You asked four questions. I provided you with my thoughts for your consideration - because you asked. I took 10 minutes to think about it - because you asked.

You don't have to agree; you don't have to do anything different, and I may well be the only one who thinks the way I do. But I do think you need to consider that you have a wide audience, and I guess if you ask for feedback, then you can't expect universal and unswerving acclamation for everything you do.

Don't listen to the critics - do what you think is right.

Best regards,
Andrew Harvey (not a pseudonym)

Re: First two months of ScobleShow

Robert Scoble — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 16:18:11 -0000

Andrew: you saying a tour of Google isn't relevant? Oh, it's just the hottest company in the world.

Maybe you'd rather watch Photowalking. We teach you all sorts of stuff that'll help you make better photos.

Or, if you hate Google, maybe you should check out the interviews with Microsoft that I did. Stale? Name another place you get to see inside Microsoft Research.

And why don't you use your real name and show us how it's done? Ahh, anonymous critics. Probably just someone I pissed off in a previous life.

Re: First two months of ScobleShow

Andrew — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 16:00:50 -0000

Robert,
it's interestting that everything you hate, and almost all of the comments, relate to technical matters. The CONTENT is the most important thing, and the reason i don't watch many of your episodes any more is that the content is getting stale. You seem to be reporting on variations of the same theme; i.e the newest, latest, greatest, coolest thing, which we don't hear of again in a couple of months.

My feeling - you need to look for content that is relevant to the real world now, and is likely to remain relevant.
Andrew

Re: First two months of ScobleShow

Jeremiah Owyang — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 12:41:41 -0000

Julio: Waaah? You don't' know everything in the whole world?

Re: First two months of ScobleShow

Robert Scoble — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 12:36:32 -0000

Mika: I did all my own camera work on Channel 9 too. And the technique I used was exactly the same as I'm using here, except here I have a bigger camera and don't swing it around so much.

Texas: nah, I bumped into walls with smaller equipment too. I love this bigger camera. Much better image quality and I can control everything which makes it much easier to get usable video. Oh, and it lets me mix two microphones too.

Re: First two months of ScobleShow

TexasRob — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 12:18:01 -0000

Robert,
As a non-insider watching from afar, I love the insight your show brings. Thank you for all of your effort. Maybe a smaller, lighter camera would make life easier for you. Often the moments of bumping into a door or having to pause to set that heavy camera down could be prevented by lighter, more compact equipment with minimal loss in quality. Otherwise keep up the good work.

Re: First two months of ScobleShow

macdavid — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 12:00:45 -0000

Robert...
... you're doing just fine, its easy to knock stuff down (ref vallywag vs techcrunch), for two months you've proved what your interviews, demo's and strolls can achieve. Most importantly you've opened up the nano world of US tech and start-ups to the world, for those of us working in humanitarian and development in typically third world countries, this gives unique view on new ideas in tech.
. focus on quality and value add.
. the demo's are great.
. keep 'em short and sweet
. how about HD, Desk top and I-pod qualities?
. above all... keep it true, sometimes ask awkward questions
oh... and how about more on their business models?

great vids.. keep em coming

Re: First two months of ScobleShow

Tom Quinn — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 09:30:00 -0000

Robert

I think the photowalks are great, and I think overall you are doing a sterling job. The annoyances I have:

1) Editing - there is too much stuff - you need to trim down
2) Related to the point above, digestibility. I want bite-size chunks of 10-20 mins max. I can't devote 45mins to an hour watching a video. So either break it up into smaller pieces, or add chapters so I can skip to the relevant parts. My option is for the smaller pieces. That's why Ze does so well - short, sweet and to the point.
3) File size. Related to both points above. Too much content means too big a file for downloading. Not all of us have the blazing bandwidth you guys in the US enjoy.

Re: First two months of ScobleShow

Mika — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 08:35:40 -0000

I watch a lot of your episodes, and I second the audio problems but you'll get that right eventually.

If people look at you while answering a question you're breaking out of your reporter-box. Once you're not in the scene and directing the camera you ARE the camera and we see the scene through your eyes. If people then speak to you, they could also be speaking with a wall, because we don't see who they're talking to. On Nine you always had a cameraman and an interviewer. That seemed much more natural than your interviews from behind the camera. I like the Google Reader interview!

On the other side it seems very natural to just follow your camera while you're walking around (e.g. Google Kirkland). It's like the viewer was actually in the room.

Steadycam would be awesome, too (but picture quality rocks anyway)!

Keep on the good work... I love the concept!

Re: First two months of ScobleShow

Peter — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 05:58:14 -0000

Robert,

what I hate most about the ScobleShow is how much it is dominating Sobleizer. This isn't the blog any more that I loved