[videoblogging] Broadcast your computer usage live on the net.
Amir Michail
I've started working on VNCCasts, a place where you can watch live
broadcasts of ordinary people working on their computers. You don't
see the people themselves, but rather, you see what they see on their
computer screens. I also plan to add a chat feature so that you can
talk to these computer users as well as their viewers.
What would you use VNCCasts for?
One possibility is to discover cool new stuff on the web or info on
some specific topic. You could broadcast your attempt at finding
something live and people may help you if they see that you are really
looking in all the wrong places.
Here are some more ideas for live feeds (including a way to find a job
by impressing potential employers by your daily work):
http://groups.google.com/group/VNCCasts
Do you think something like VNCCasts can provide compelling content,
sort of like a "VNC TV"? Would many people watch the broadcasts?
Would many people broadcast their computer usage? Would they do so daily?
Amir
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Stephanie Bryant
always belong to me, and broadcasting it would be a huge problem. Any
potential employers, I am sure, would be *horrified* to see me
broadcasting stuff live-- if I do it for a current employer or client,
who's to say I won't do it when working for them? [Caveat: I have
actually screencast a workday, including stuff i was working on, but
it's stuff for the book, and you couldn't read the text much anyway--
it was no more than a teaser.]
And even the stuff that isn't for a client is often private. I mean, I
don't really want the whole world reading my email, you know? Or
seeing my passwords, which I have been known to type into a clear-text
box without even realizing it.
Also, my computer usage, I have been told, is extremely annoying to
watch. When I surf the web, for instance, I am constantly highlighting
text while i read it, then de-highlighting, scrolling in ways that
people find nauseating, etc.
I can see it being useful for corporations wanting to spy on
employees, but not as a public broadcast option. It would be useful
for people studying usability. It would be useful for teenagers as a
novelty entertainment thing. It would be useful during a seminar or
class or other staged event. But daily nonstop broadcasting, like a
webcam? Eh.... not for me, I think.
--Stephanie
--
Stephanie Bryant
mort...@gmail.com
Blogs, vlogs, and audioblogs at:
http://www.mortaine.com/blogs
Amir Michail
> Well, I wouldn't, primarily because what I type on my computer doesn't
> always belong to me, and broadcasting it would be a huge problem. Any
> potential employers, I am sure, would be *horrified* to see me
> broadcasting stuff live-- if I do it for a current employer or client,
> who's to say I won't do it when working for them? [Caveat: I have
> actually screencast a workday, including stuff i was working on, but
> it's stuff for the book, and you couldn't read the text much anyway--
> it was no more than a teaser.]
>
> And even the stuff that isn't for a client is often private. I mean, I
> don't really want the whole world reading my email, you know? Or
> seeing my passwords, which I have been known to type into a clear-text
> box without even realizing it.
>
The broadcasts would be selective. You would not broadcast everything
you do, but rather, only those things that are not private and might
interest other people.
For example, if I want to learn about technologies behind internet
chat, I might initiate a broadcast with a title such as "My live
websurfing/googling for internet chat technologies (tips welcome)."
People interested in chat might then watch my live broadcast.
(Perhaps they get notifications automatically whenever a broadcast is
about to start on a topic that interests them.)
At this point, they will watch me trying to learn about internet chat
technologies. They might learn a few things from this and might even
give me tips on where to look. In fact, a discussion might start
among viewers about what I am doing. It would be interesting to see
what people have to say about my websurfing/googling.
Also, I think I would be more productive if people are watching me do
things and giving me constant feedback.
> Also, my computer usage, I have been told, is extremely annoying to
> watch. When I surf the web, for instance, I am constantly highlighting
> text while i read it, then de-highlighting, scrolling in ways that
> people find nauseating, etc.
>
Some people might find this interesting. Perhaps they do something
similar. Perhaps they might give you a few tips. It's interesting to
see how people use their computers.
In any case, see the sample feeds I have added to vnccasts.com for
some ideas on what people might broadcast.
One area with a lot of potential is to reveal how creative people
work. How exactly does a novelist spend his time? Is most of it
productive? Or does writer's block dominate? Perhaps much time is
spent on rewriting? How does a novelist keep track of things exactly?
I see this partly as an experiment in learning about human nature. I
want to know how other people think. I want to get into their heads.
Amir
> I can see it being useful for corporations wanting to spy on
> employees, but not as a public broadcast option. It would be useful
> for people studying usability. It would be useful for teenagers as a
> novelty entertainment thing. It would be useful during a seminar or
> class or other staged event. But daily nonstop broadcasting, like a
> webcam? Eh.... not for me, I think.
>
> --Stephanie
>
> --
> Stephanie Bryant
> mort...@gmail.com
> Blogs, vlogs, and audioblogs at:
> http://www.mortaine.com/blogs
>
>
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Stephanie Bryant
> Some people might find this interesting. Perhaps they do something
> similar. Perhaps they might give you a few tips. It's interesting to
> see how people use their computers.
I certainly agree there: studying usability would definitely be one of
the applications.
> One area with a lot of potential is to reveal how creative people
> work. How exactly does a novelist spend his time? Is most of it
> productive? Or does writer's block dominate? Perhaps much time is
> spent on rewriting? How does a novelist keep track of things exactly?
I have had similar requests (because that's my job-- not novels, which
i write in my downtime, but books, which is why I'm awake at nearly 1
AM right now). Writing doesn't make very good video, though. The
majority of my screen is either me flipping between email, IM, MS
Word, iMovie, and Mozilla, or hunkered down in MS Word, or doing
screen shots of iMovie or QuickTime. From an outside-the-screen
perspective, I haven't moved anything but my hands in the last 3
hours, except to pick up a cup of coffee, so video of me writing is
largely of a bleary-eyed woman with bad posture, staring at a computer
screen. Hollywood is beating down my door, really.
Most of my time is productive, but that's only if you acknowledge the
procrastination as being productive. For instance, today I cleaned out
a fish tank and set up another tank in my office. And vacuumed. These
activities have nothing to do with the book, but if I didn't do them,
I'd go crazy. I'm already crazy, but even moreso. They are also not
writer's block, per se-- I *can* write, I just don't want to at that
moment.
Rewriting is a phase I enter into AFTER the big heavy first draft work
is done. For me, it's easier than the first draft, but I tend to
produce fairly good initial drafts. Other writers are very different
in this regard. My first draft of fiction varies widely-- one novel
may be terrible, while another may be almost revisable.
I keep track of non-fiction using notes on my computer, scattered
around the computer, in my email inbox, and my printed outline. For
the fiction notes, I have a tracking database in the software I use to
write novels, which keeps a database of characters and places and
outlines for me and such-- very handy stuff. Every writer is different
in this, though. I participate in NaNoWriMo each year-- that at least
makes good video, since we tend to get together in groups and write in
cafes, where there's more human interaction.
And every novel is different, too-- each novel teaches you how to
write a novel. sadly, it only teaches you how to write *that* novel,
so when you go to write another one, you are back to square one.
Personally, I find other art media, like drawing/cartooning, crafts,
sculpture, etc., to be much more visualy interesting.
> I see this partly as an experiment in learning about human nature. I
> want to know how other people think. I want to get into their heads.
Yes, but what's the advantage to the person broadcasting?
--
Stephanie Bryant
mort...@gmail.com
Blogs, vlogs, and audioblogs at:
http://www.mortaine.com/blogs
Amir Michail
> sculpture, etc., to be much more visualy interesting.
>
A lot of visual art is done on computers nowadays, so you can
certainly watch those sorts of broadcasts if you want.
>
> > I see this partly as an experiment in learning about human nature. I
> > want to know how other people think. I want to get into their heads.
>
> Yes, but what's the advantage to the person broadcasting?
>
Some advantages for the person broadcasting:
* constant feedback/discussion on what he/she is doing, which might be helpful;
perhaps a task could be done an order of magnitude more quickly and
with better results
* motivation to be more productive -- after all, people are watching
* a way to demonstrate your skills to potential employers and land
that highly desirable job;
this is an ongoing sort of interview that may span weeks and involve multiple
potential employers that you don't know about; in fact, instead of
you applying for a job,
companies will watch you and contact you if they are interested
* a way to find a soul mate -- this is a more intellectual form of
computer dating
* you will feel good about contributing to a deeper understanding of
the human condition;
psychologists will love to study you
* you will feel better about yourself when people find you important
enough to have discussions about you while you work
Amir
>
> --
> Stephanie Bryant
> mort...@gmail.com
> Blogs, vlogs, and audioblogs at:
> http://www.mortaine.com/blogs
>
>
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Deirdre Straughan
However, in real life I can't think of anything more off-putting to intellectual/creative work than knowing people are watching. It's been a while since I wrote a book of any kind, but most of the process, as Stephanie says, isn't all that interesting to watch, and a lot of it doesn't take place on the screen. And, for many of us, our creative/intellectual work has value (to ourselves or those who hire us) which would be eroded by it's being broadcast to the world before completion.
It's true that some processes might be interesting and educational to watch, but not as live feeds - probably heavy editing would be needed.
--
best regards,
Deirdré Straughan
www.beginningwithi.com (personal)
www.tvblob.com (work)
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Amir Michail
>
> This reminds me of an old George Carlin line about how everybody should have an audience seated on the other side of their desk saying, "Hey, he's good!"
>
> However, in real life I can't think of anything more off-putting to intellectual/creative work than knowing people are watching. It's been a while since I wrote a book of any kind, but most of the process, as Stephanie says, isn't all that interesting to watch, and a lot of it doesn't take place on the screen. And, for many of us, our creative/intellectual work has value (to ourselves or those who hire us) which would be eroded by it's being broadcast to the world before completion.
>
> It's true that some processes might be interesting and educational to watch, but not as live feeds - probably heavy editing would be needed.
>
I think this is sort of like TV: you can use VNCCasts for all sorts of
things, but some make more compelling viewing than others.
Perhaps watching someone write a book is not as interesting as I
thought it would be. But at the very least, you would get some idea
of how much work is involved and what a daily routine might look like
for writing a book -- at least for that author. It's also a way for
the writer to promote the book before it is even finished.
BTW, if you are a university student trying to impress potential
employers over a long period of time before graduating, would you not
want to work live?
And wouldn't companies have an incentive to watch these broadcasts to
identify talented people? For example, software companies would
probably get a better picture of how a programmer will work on a daily
basis by watching them code on an open source project for long periods
of time.
Amir
>
> --
> best regards,
> Deirdré Straughan
>
> www.beginningwithi.com (personal)
> www.tvblob.com (work)
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Deirdre Straughan
Perhaps watching someone write a book is not as interesting as I
thought it would be. But at the very least, you would get some idea
of how much work is involved and what a daily routine might look like
for writing a book -- at least for that author. It's also a way for
the writer to promote the book before it is even finished.
...at considerable risk of spoiling the surprises.
BTW, if you are a university student trying to impress potential
employers over a long period of time before graduating, would you not
want to work live?
The way most students actually work, probably not!
And wouldn't companies have an incentive to watch these broadcasts to
identify talented people? For example, software companies would
probably get a better picture of how a programmer will work on a daily
basis by watching them code on an open source project for long periods
of time.
To see what they produce is certainly useful. To watch code actually being written is probably incredibly boring and not something anybody has time to watch live.
Amir Michail
> >
> > Perhaps watching someone write a book is not as interesting as I
> > thought it would be. But at the very least, you would get some idea
> > of how much work is involved and what a daily routine might look like
> > for writing a book -- at least for that author. It's also a way for
> > the writer to promote the book before it is even finished.
>
>
> ...at considerable risk of spoiling the surprises.
>
Perhaps for fiction, but it might be ok for technical books. The live
feedback you get while writing would probably be quite helpful.
People already post early versions of technical books on the web.
This takes it a step further.
> > BTW, if you are a university student trying to impress potential
> > employers over a long period of time before graduating, would you not
> > want to work live?
>
>
> The way most students actually work, probably not!
>
So this might provide a way for stronger students to stand out.
> > And wouldn't companies have an incentive to watch these broadcasts to
> > identify talented people? For example, software companies would
> > probably get a better picture of how a programmer will work on a daily
> > basis by watching them code on an open source project for long periods
> > of time.
>
>
> To see what they produce is certainly useful. To watch code actually being
> written is probably incredibly boring and not something anybody has time to
> watch live.
>
>
If you are a small startup with only enough VC funding to hire one or
two developers, then your choice of developers is absolutely critical
to the success of the startup. It will be worth your while to know
what you are getting -- even it means observing people code for weeks.
Amir
> --
>
> best regards,
> Deirdré Straughan
>
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> www.tvblob.com (work)
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wli...@weatherlight.com
BTW, if you are a university student trying to impress potential
employers over a long period of time before graduating, would you not
want to work live?
And wouldn't companies have an incentive to watch these broadcasts to
identify talented people? For example, software companies would
probably get a better picture of how a programmer will work on a daily
basis by watching them code on an open source project for long periods
of time.
>>>>>>>>>>>>
Let me speak as a software professional. I'm working on a Ph.D in
computer science, am employed by Motorola, and was a developer of Google
Talk.
Watching a coder's screen is really not an effective way of getting a feel
for a coder's talent. There are a few reasons. The first is that, if a
coder puts in an 8 hour day, it's going to take at least 2 hours to watch
it. This is massively wasted labor hours for the reviewer. The second is
that the minutae of the coding process is irrelevant; the final product
and total hours spent is. Thus, an employer could learn just as much
about the recruit simply by reading about the project on the recruit's
resume and reading the source code of the final project. The third is
that watching a coder's screen will tell you nothing about the skills in
short supply among coders- social talents. Those are so important, I have
been at interviews where my programming skill was never discussed...the
interviewers just wanted to make sure they liked me enough to talk to me
every day. Finally, employers have their own internal methodologies which
will be different from how a coder works, and that learning curve will
exist universally.
--
Rhett.
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Amir Michail
What I propose gives you an additional source of information that you
can use to select people. It's not a replacement for resumes,
interviews, etc.
Watching someone code live gives you some information that might be
hard to pick up otherwise:
* how quickly does this person think?
* how error-prone is this person?
* how does the software design emerge?
* how does this person debug?
Technical interviews do try to get into people's heads as they solve puzzles.
What I propose allows you to get into people's heads as they write
non-trivial code over long periods of time. It also gives you an
insight into what they would do on a daily basis.
Amir
Stephanie Bryant
people will find value in watching people work, or broadcasting a
desktop while they work, is probably not going to be the great
application of this tool.
What you have to remember is that there are already tools for a lot of
what you've mentioned as possible applications. For instance, getting
help with a search is a matter of saying "I searched for these
keywords in Google, but didn't find anything." Typically, people will
respond with better keywords, boolean search technique tips, or direct
URLs to the information needed. That's a basic text exchange, and it
takes about 10 KB of bandwidth. I cannot imagine why someone would
want to download several megabytes of video to see someone else fail
at a search term, when it can be done with so much less.
But let's talk about other applications for a streaming screencast,
ones that may be more viable:
* What am I watching? Could be cool for videoblog viewers, but only if
the stream takes less bandwidth than a normal vlog.
* Usability studies, but here the people participating would need to
have some incentive for providing this data to the world (by which I
mean more than just 15 minutes of fame, because that only guarantees
participation for 15 minutes). I could see something like the
aggregated data crunching teams (like SETI@home), but for usability
studies for major software products. With prizes. (One of the things I
learned in my usability classes was that you should give the
participants a gift to thank them for their help.)
* How-tos, seminars, and online education (this is the #1 best
application I can think of-- nothing but a screencast can adequately
explain how to do certain things on a computer.)
* Similarly, online sales demos
* Social networking, for instance to post a video transcript of a
videoconference to a website.
* Install-fests, for instance for an online Linux User Group to
broadcast the installation process. since a kernel install is often
without web browser or even network card, though, I don't know if this
one is feasible.
--Stephanie
--
Stephanie Bryant
mort...@gmail.com
Blogs, vlogs, and audioblogs at:
http://www.mortaine.com/blogs
Amir Michail
> Amir, I think the feedback so far is that your initial assumption that
> people will find value in watching people work, or broadcasting a
> desktop while they work, is probably not going to be the great
> application of this tool.
>
It's hard to anticipate applications, but I suppose I could just
continue building a generic service that could be used for many
purposes. It will be interesting to see what people do with it. The
applications you mention could certainly work in this generic system.
I think what's missing in this discussion is that many people do want
to be famous and this is one way to achieve that goal. Moreover, many
people would probably find it fascinating to see what others do all
day -- just out of curiosity.
Amir
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Amir Michail
I plan to have daily broadcasts of my computer usage.
The broadcast would probably be around an hour a day. Initially, I
will probably web surf though that may change later as I get more
confident with doing more challenging tasks in public.
There would be an associated chat room for discussion related to my
web surfing or whatever else I am doing. I will keep an eye on this
chat room and may participate in discussions from time to time. Your
discussions/comments may influence what I do during the broadcast.
If you are interested in watching me and participating in the chat,
please let me know of a good time for you.
Amir
mar...@bzstream.com
----- Original Message -----From: Amir MichailSent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 12:24 AMSubject: Re: [videoblogging] Broadcast your computer usage live on the net.Hi,
I plan to have daily broadcasts of my computer usage.
The broadcast would probably be around an hour a day. Initially, I
will probably web surf though that may change later as I get more
confident with doing more challenging tasks in public.
There would be an associated chat room for discussion related to my
web surfing or whatever else I am doing. I will keep an eye on this
chat room and may participate in discussions from time to time. Your
discussions/comments may influence what I do during the broadcast.
If you are interested in watching me and participating in the chat,
please let me know of a good time for you.
Amir
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