ooVoo to sponsor 20 Students for PodCamp Boston
The swell folks at ooVoo came up with a neat way to show love and support for students who want to go to PodCamp Boston 3, but who maybe don’t have the $50 to reserve a seat at the table. I think it’s a really cool community move on the side of ooVoo, and I think it’ll be great to infuse PodCamp Boston 3 with even more students.
There are a few stipulations and things to know about.
- You are a college student with an active .edu email address. You’re on the honor system, so we ask that professors and alumni sit this one out.
- You are an ooVoo user who can provide us with a valid ooVoo ID — it doesn’t matter if you subscribe to the fully loaded Super + Phone package or the free Standard package; in fact, it doesn’t matter if you just signed up today. But you will need to include your valid ooVoo User ID in the body of your email and send an ooVoo friend request to philiprobertson for verification. We promise not to bother you; we just need to make sure you are a subscriber.
- You have a first name, last name and a date of birth. We know you do, but we’ll need to know them to complete the PodCamp registration form — so if you are selected for a scholarship, we’ll need to ask that you share this information with us.
- You let us know you’re interested by emailing us at ooVoo@crayonville.com.
If you want to come to PodCamp Boston3 and you’ve got some EDU to show the ooV’s, read the details here.
See you at PodCamp.
OoVoo- Video Chatting for 2008
OoVoo is a desktop software application that allows people to chat with up to five others (six total) using video, text, and I believe audio (though I didn’t try an audio only connection). Yesterday, I took part in My OoVoo Day with a bunch of other bloggers and media makers. It was basically a bunch of scheduled chats with people using the technology.
My first thought was that it was like Stickam and/or maybe like PalTalk, only with a slightly different mindset. It’s shiny. There are lots of buttons to push. There’s a fairly simple (fairly) social communication tool.
It worked okay for a six way chat early on. The errors people experienced were mostly bandwidth related, it seemed. I think Mac users get a slightly less robust experience (grumble, grumble), but otherwise, it worked-ish. Jeff Glasson from PerkettPR (on a Mac) had a rough time, but I think that’s him. : )
What I Don’t Like
- Client-side app made it one more communications box open (like Skype, AIM, etc). But hey: video *ON* the net is tricky stuff. That’s why there’s a conference about it in May. (plug plug for Jeff).
- I didn’t like that PCs can record and Macs can’t. Parity, folks. Especially in the hungry blogger crowd. We’re all (okay, mostly) using Macs.
- I don’t know why I’ll use it. I mean, I get it, but I’m not sure how often I’ll use it. (But that’s me.)
What It Will/Can Do
Videobloggers can use it as a way to hold video interview panels easily. People can do ad hoc face-to-face moments. It’s much less expensive than pro conference services.
My vote? It’s okay. Not sure I’m an adopter, but that’s not saying it’s bad. I just need to find the right use case for when I need a group video platform.
What did you think?
(Oh, and props to Scott Monty of Crayon for really rocking the campaign and getting lots of people into the experience. THAT was a raging success).
Signup to Chat With Me on My OoVoo Day
Of course you could talk with me any day of the week, but with My OoVoo Day, you can talk with me on this video conference thingy, and it will be really neato.
The tricky things about OoVoo is that it’s an app that lets you do up to six video chats at a time, so you can get teams together and talk things over. It’s got the IM and voice and all that, too. I think it’s worth checking out as a potential collaborative communications platform. And besides, you and I can chat for a bit.
