The Jing Project: Embed Screencasts Into Conversation

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I have less than 20 days before I get on a plane and fly halfway around the world.  That in and of itsef is a little mind blowing.  And, I have to prepare some instruction in a completely different context, get organized to visit Sharing Foundation projects, pack T-shirts,  AND finish the massives amount of work before I go.   

So, I starting worrying about the Internet connection in Cambodia.  The very calm Preetamrai, the Southeast Asian Editor for Global Voices who is also attending and leading a workshop at  the Cambodia Bloggers Summit told me about his very cool new app from Techsmith, JingProject.  Then I noticed that Andrew Parker had just tweeted it. (I mention Andrew because he is seeing if there any Twitter t-shirts that I can take to Cambodia.

TechSmith is the maker of my favorite apps, Camtasia and SnagIt..  (Did I also mention that they sent a box full of SnagIt t-shirts for Cambodia?)  The jing project is their first experiment in the Mac platform. Here's the description:

The concept of Jing is the always-ready program that instantly captures and shares images and video…from your computer to anywhere.  It’s something we want to give you, along with some online media hosting, to see how you use it. The project will eventually turn into something else. Tell us what you think so we can figure out what that is ...

It is very easy to use.  You can capture and narrate in snap.  You can upload to their host or you can download a .swf file.  It was very liberating for me to create a screencast like this -- no storyboard, script, no retakes ... the perfect app to share or explain something when email just won't  do it.

I'd love for it to have some javascript so you could embed it into a blog post.  That's the only thing missing.

Some possible uses:

• I put this out on the SalesForce Nonprofit Practitioners listserv.  I'm working on a screencast and it might be excellent way to do research or share implicit geek shoudlder-to-shoulder knowledge across the Internet.  I'm getting email descriptions and since my depth of knowledge of SF isn't as deep, it is hard for me understand some of what I read in text.  Also, I'm a visual learner. 

• I don't know if this possible - I have to find the right .swf to .avi converter and test it - but you could possibly edit and remix these clips into a screencast.

• I'm going to use it (if I can carve out the time before I leave) to create some screencasts of my workshops to have offline- just in case the Internet doesn't work.

• I pitched a session at podcamp Boston called "Screencasting for the Masses" -- this app is perfect for that workshop! (Yet to be created)

The content that I cover in the screencast, btw, is a quick peek at two Facebook apps.  Cogdogblog points to the DogPeeBook -- (laughing helps reduce stress.)   Alan also points to a blog devoted to Facebook apps.
While I was on Facebook, I checked out my Razoo votes for speed granting.  I am number 28!

SpeedGranting is a tool for the Facebook community to help spread the good by getting funding for worthy projects. It's pretty simple...we (Razoo) set the dollar amount, the theme (e.g. "Children's Health" or "Education"), and the duration for the grant. Any Facebook member involved in a project that needs funding can submit a proposal, outlining things like the problem they are addressing and where the money will go. Once enough people "validate" (vote for) the project, it becomes active and visible to anyone using the SpeedGranting application. At the end of the grant period, we tally the votes and distribute the money to the winner.

Update about embedding from Laura Whitehead:

Jing saves as an SWF, which is easily embedable using something called the SWF object.  Get the bit of code
you need here

What is SWF?
WFObject is a small Javascript file used for embedding Macromedia Flash content. The script can detect the Flash plug-in in all major web browsers (on Mac and PC) and is designed to make embedding Flash movies
as easy as possible. It is also very search engine friendly, degrades gracefully, can be used in valid HTML and XHTML 1.0 documents, and is forward compatible, so it should work for years to come.

With the  SWF Object, if the viewer hasn't got flash or doesn't want it, it degrades nicely and you can add alt text for those that can't see flash or don't want to whcih appears instead of an error image, so good
for accessibility.

I did a post about You Tube breaking my validation recently, and there are some good links later in the article about embedding flash easily (and accessibily too!): http://laura.popokatea.co.uk/2007/07/26/youtube-broke-my-validation/


Does Typepad have any neat little plug ins for this or not? Be
interested to know!

Shout if you need a hand with what to do, happy to help! It looks abit
scary but really isn't I promise, all you need to do is add the file
name and size and some alt text in between the technobabble of code! And
voila!

Comments

[Laura Whitehead]

Hi Beth - here's a link how to embed the saved file using SWF Object- http://blog.deconcept.com/swfobject/
I've also messaged you with more info!

[Robert Franklin]

Jing is way cool and you certainly can not beat the price. The lesson on embedding swf files was geeky but helpful as well.

Thanks!

[rebecca]

Hey Beth,

Thanks for submitting your proposal to Razoo's SpeedGranting application on Facebook. Your Cambodian blogger cause is great -- I was in both Phnom Penh & Siem Reap recently, and was really touched by the people there. I'll look forward to hearing your stories from your trip later this month.

FYI, looks like your proposal may not win our current SpeedGrant, so you may want to check out Razooo's $10,000 contest on our site: http://beta.razoo.com/win10k. It would be great to create a group about Cambodia on Razoo, and post your blogs/photos of your trip there.

Let me know if you have questions or thoughts...

Cheers,
Rebecca
Razoo.com
blog.razoo.com