jonnygoldstein.com

head over to operator11.com to chat

Are you ready to par-tay?

Internet connectivity permitting (and that is a bif if), I’ll host and produce a live talkshow from PodCamp Boston tomorrow (Sat, Oct 27) at 3:15 pm Eastern. You can watch it right here. If we don’t have good connectivity, I’m still going to facilitate a conversation about building your own talk show.

What do you like about talk shows? How could they be better? What kind of talk show would you like to see if it could be designed specifically for your interests? What kind of guests would be interviewed? How much participation would you as a viewer like to have?

The thing is, with the various free streaming video services out there today, you could make that show you want to see happen happen by producing it yourself. We’re going to talk about building a better talk show at Podcamp Boston, 3:15 PM, Sat, Oct 27. And, as I mentioned above, if we have good enough internet connectivity, we’ll do a live streaming video talk show right there.

Please leave comments, questions, and reactions in the comments below before, during, or after the session so we can figure out how to build a better talk show, or even better, a million better talkshows than the kind of homogenized mass market shows that are out there now.

Useful links:

Operator11.com. Operator11 is one of many services that lets you stream live video to the internet. It is what I use when I produce my show, Jonny’s Par-tay. It’s got several features I like. And no, I don’t work for them or anything. I just like Operator11. If something better comes along, I’ll use that. That said, I think they are doing great work and would love to stick with them if they keep refining their service. Here’s what I like about them:

1) It let’s me put other people onto the video stream, via their webcams, so I can have guests from anywhere in the world as long as they have broadband.
2) It lets me play video clips that I upload ahead of time. This is a useful feature, especially since I interview a lot of filmmakers and video creators. It makes a lot of sense to cut to their videos during the conversation.

3) Live chat: Operator11 comes with a live chat window that viewers who log into Operator11 can chat in. That’ s nice. I actually wish people didn’t have to get O11 accounts to chat, as that’s more of a barrier to participation than I want, but the way they have it set up is still useful.

4) Audio and video quality is decent, compared to other systems I’ve tried.

5) Can embed the live video from Operator11 into websites. That’s cool. I just wish the chatroom embedded with it.

There are many other services out there like blog.tv, Ustream, and others. All are worth a look,all have pluses and minuses. See what meets your needs and go for it.

“Meebo Rooms” This is a service which enables you to create your own chatroom which you can embed on your website. I like sending people over to my blog to watch the show I produce, but the Operator11 Chatroom does not get embedded along with the live streaming video. I get around this problem by embedding a meebo room chatroom right under the Operator11 video on my blog. It’s a bit of a hack, but it works.

If you would like to see a live Operator11 talk show in action, go to Operator11.com and see what is playing. It may not all be what you are looking for, but there are some gems there.

Another option: catch my show, “Jonny’s Par-tay” every Weds at 9PM Eastern at jonnygoldstein.com. The inspiration for the name is the kind of free flowing interaction you would get at a party (you can chime in with your own conversation), rather than the experience you get at a “show.” But it’s not any old party. It’s a particular party, thrown by a particular host, with it’s own flavor. Voila! Jonny’s Par-tay.

You will be able to text chat questions and comments during the show, and if you have a webcam, I can put you into the video mix as well.

My guests are people who are doing interesting stuff with online video and social media, like Chris Brogan, Irina Slutsky, and Mark Day.

Again, please feel free to leave helpful links to resources, questions,manifestos, etc.in the comments.