PodCampDC: NPR, NBC News discuss Qik, Twitter, video for radio stations
http://www.wirelessmuse.com/photos/nokia_n82/
I attended PodCampDC (see above) this Saturday and the most interesting session for me was by Andy Carvin of National Public Radio (NPR) and Jim Long of NBC News. Carvin and Long discussed the value of Qik and Twitter for news gathering. Also, I had a brief but interesting conversation with Carvin after the presentation.
Carvin is the senior product manager for NPR’s “Community.” He’s a champion of blogging, social networks and camera phones. He’s a blogger, has a Twitter account, uses Utterz (that I need to explore) and he and Long have a Qik account.
I don’t know Long’s exact title, but he’s a cameraman for NBC News who travels around the world. He blogs and uses Qik (including interviewing singer/activist “Sir” Bob Geldorf).
Presentation on Qik
Carvin asked PodCampDC attendees in the room if they would use Qik to capture the presentation, and two people helped out by using his Nokia 95 to record a video. About half of the presentation is on Qik (see below) and if you’re interested in these subjects, it’s well worth viewing.
The Qik video was transmitted via WiFi AT&T Mobility's HSDPA network, and both the video and audio quality aren’t bad. However, the signal crashed during the presentation, which is the reason it isn't available in its entirety on Qik (see Carvin's clarifications in the comments section). (Near the beginning of the video you can hear Carvin say he was using Qik — “it is Qik and we’ll be talking about it later” — in answer to a question from me, whom you can’t see.)
Long notes that many people using Twitter learned about the recent earthquakes in the Midwest. Carvin was instrumental in getting NPR to use Twitter (by first posting just news headlines). He discusses how the NPR radio show “The Bryant Park Project,” now uses Twitter as a major source to obtain ideas for its New York City-based program.
Video for NPR
After the presentation, I asked Carvin whether he thought video would be a significant part of NPR, and he said yes. This is a fascinating concept: An audio medium posting videos. NPR already posts videos on its Web site, and more are on the way.
(In my mobile TV weblog I wrote about a newspaper using Qik for videos of pro-Tibet protesters during the Olympic torch bearers running in San Francisco. A print publication posting videos. This is game-changing as radio and print publications become more multimedia oriented, especially being able to post newsworthy events as they happen, thanks in large part to camera phones. As I’ve been writing for some time, live streaming cellular video is revolutionary.)
Carvin told me he is ordering more demonstrating Nokia N95 camera phones to NPR and hopes, but doesn't know, whether the network will order any (see his remarks in the comments section).
The N95 has become something of a standard for many bloggers and video bloggers because of its excellent (for a camera phone) video recording capability at 30 frames per second. I agree that the N95 is great for camera phone videos (and a great phone in general), but the new N82 (that isn’t available in the United States) might be a bit better.
I’ve posted several N82 videos and more are on the way (courtesy of Nokia’s blogger program allowing me to test the handset). I've also posted photos taken with the N82 and, as with the videos, more are on the way when I get a chance to upload them.
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