FlixMaster changes model; becomes Rapt — from bcbr.com by Joshua Lindenstein

Excerpts:

BOULDER – Highlighting a shift toward a new model for its interactive online video platform, Boulder-based FlixMaster Inc. this week announced that it is changing its name to Rapt Media Inc.

“When we founded FlixMaster, we set out to create the best toolset for video creators wanting to build interactive videos, and we succeeded in doing that that,” Rapt co-founder and chief executive Erika Trautman said in an email.  “But as we partnered with really sophisticated companies (like HBO and Maybelline), we realized that our platform and the opportunity it posed was bigger than just interactive video. It was about improving online communication and storytelling through interactivity of all kinds, with video as the central component. Our company had already transitioned to this bigger vision, and we wanted a name that could reflect that vision.

 

FlixMasterBecomingRapt-August2013

 

Additional thought from DSC:
This item relates to the convergence of the television, the computer, and the telephone that I’m pulse-checking. I’m hopeful that such a convergence will provide students in the future with 24×7, highly-engaging, interactive, customized/personalized content:

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More choice. More control.

 

 

From DSC:
I love multimedia because it enables me to craft a message using audio, video, text, graphics, and even animations.  The Internet extends the power of this communication by allowing that message to go forth 24 x 7 x 365 in multi-directional ways — even allowing others to join in the conversations and participate.

The following item made me reflect upon on how important this is becoming to business:

Excerpt:

How (and why) is Marketing Changing?
The first thing to understand about marketing today is that it’s all about shared experience. Consumer behavior is radically changing with respect to content consumption. No longer are people consuming most of their content on the TV, a newspaper, or even their computer. Rather, they are using a combination of channels:

 

 

From DSC:

  • Won’t this trend also impact students’ expectations/hopes/engagement?
  • What do we need to do to help youth build these skillsets?

 

 

Also related/see:

  • The rise, implications & benefits of the second screen — from newsworks.org.uk by Mark Challinor
    Telegraph Media Group’s director of mobile Mark Challinor says in this new era of second screens, news companies must create content that helps consumers to multi-task on multiple platforms with multiple devices.

Excerpt:
Watching television – or even reading a newspaper – with a smartphone and/or tablet device is becoming one of the most popular leisure activities of this “mobile age”. In turn, publishers such as ourselves are trying to find ways to capitalise on this somewhat new consumer behaviour of real-time interaction, which, more often than not, includes social media. This type of interaction, referred to as “the second screen” or “the companion device”, has become not just a latest hot topic of discussion all over social media blogs; it is a huge development for the mobile app industry and a target-rich environment for our advertisers.

  • Emerging markets’ second-screen boost with 1BN smart devices by 2014 — from rapidtvnews.com by Joseph O’Halloran
    Excerpt:
    New research by IDC has revealed that it won’t just be Western Europe and North America forming happy hunting grounds for second-screen services and applications. The analyst says it is clear that demand for smart connected devices is quickly shifting from developed to emerging markets and that by the end of 2014, global shipments of smart connected devices such as PCs, tablets, and smartphones will exceed surpass 1.7 billion units, with roughly one billion units delivered to emerging markets. The emerging markets are expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17% over the 2012-2017 forecast period, compared to the 7% CAGR expected in developed markets.
 

Digital-Trends-How-To-ConvertVHS-to-DVD-July2013

 

Excerpt:

Here’s our guide on how to convert VHS to DVD using a combo player, an analog-to-digital adapter, two separate boxes or a conversion service so you can save that 20-year-old footage of you faceplanting on your first bicycle. If not for you, do it for posterity’s sake.

 

From DSC:
First, take a look at this interactive video from the Wall Street Journal:

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WSJ-interactive-video-Obamacare-7-9-13

 

For further information on that video, you can also see:

  • ‘Obamacare’ Made Easy to Understand — from /live.wsj.com
    David Wessel discusses a new WSJ.com interactive video that helps viewers better understand the Affordable Health Care Act as well as its slate of rules and penalties.

 

WSJ-interactive-video-Obamacare2-7-9-13

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From DSC:

Excellent, creative use of technology!   Lifelong learners of the world, let me hear some noise!  Your learning futures just got much more interesting, dynamic, and interactive! 

You will be given more choice and more control than you’ve ever had before. You will be able to interact with digital videos, drill down, take some rights turns and come back again, and more.

For example, during the WSJ video, you can click on the radio within the digital video in order to “drill down” and listen to more about a certain topic — while the main presentation “holds on”…

 

WSJ-interactive-video-Obamacare3-7-9-13

 

…you can jump ahead to the next marker…pause…rewind…click to get some further text-based information/details on a topic of interest:

 

WSJ-interactive-video-Obamacare4-7-9-13

 

…and more. In other words, you have more choice, more control in your learning experience. This, at minimum, is a piece of online learning’s — and digital video’s — future.

But I hear you saying, so what? Flash has been doing this for a while now.  And that, my friends, is the only downside I see in this implementation from the WSJ — it was done using Flash. 

As Flash won’t fly on iOS-based devices, an HTML5-based solution needs to come into the picture…and this is where Touchcast shines!

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Touchcast-July2013

 

As Paul Sawers explains, you can add interactive, browsable layers onto your video and deliver it in an HTML5-based format.

 

d11 730x547 TouchCast for iPad brings the future of the Web to video authoring with interactive browsable layers

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An excerpt from Paul’s article:

Things start to get really interesting with video apps (vApps). TouchCast lets you create videos that are layered with live Web pages, video clips, maps, Twitter streams and other facets of the digital world. “We’re actually claiming that this is the future of the Web,” says Segal, TouchCasts’s CEO.

Indeed, TouchCast’s vApp library is ‘open’, so developers can create and customize their own vApps.

 

Bottom line:
“Digital textbooks” will never be the same again (not to mention learning modules, transmedia, ads, presentations, digital storytelling, and more)!

 

 

Also see:

 

Using the iPad with a Projector — from palomar.edu by Terry Gray; note that this is from 8/24/12

For a wireless solution:

 

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AppleTV Diagram

 

 

or for a wired solution:

 

VGA Adapter

 

 

Also see:

AirServer

 

AirServer: iPad in the classroom

 

Education

There are times when you need to show content to your class to engage your audience, using an iPad. With AirServer you can wirelessly beam your iPad display to your Mac or PC and from there to your projector, smartboard or HDTV. This gives you the freedom to move around the class with your iPad in hand. AirServer also supports multiple simultaneous connections, so one or more students could mirror their iPads to share their ideas and their work with the rest of the class.

Educational environments vary, not just in size and lighting but in network security and access. To solve these issues we’ve added features such as picture enhancement settings and password protection.

Summary

  • Beam your iPad or iPhone screen to HDMI or VGA projector, smartboard or HDTV via a Mac or PC
  • True full screen display
  • Picture enhancement settings
  • Secure password protection
  • Collaborate with students using simultaneous connections

 

From DSC:
Wouldn’t it be great if students could “beam up” their content from any device, from anywhere?  i.e. Whether they be in a face-to-face classroom, at a remote location, or out traveling?

 

 

Introducing TouchCast: Video with the second screen built in — from forbes.com by  Jeff Bercovici

Excerpt:

Say you’re watching a news segment about Microsoft MSFT +0.74% with an embedded stock chart, and you’re wondering how its shares have been performing versus Apple AAPL -1.05%‘s. You can look it up while the segment plays on in the background.

The app enables users — including FORBES — to create their own interactive TouchCasts with the help of 16 different types of video apps, or vApps. In addition to the types mentioned above, these include apps for comments, photos, headlines and YouTube videos.

From the TouchCast iTunes Preview:

Video and the web are coming together. Experience both like never before with TouchCast: a new medium that looks like video, but feels more like the web.

Here are the early returns from media reviews:

“TouchCast lets people create and watch videos that are layered with live Web pages, YouTube clips, Twitter streams and other digital touchpoints that viewers can expand, manipulate and turn on and off with their fingers.”
—AllThingsD

“The idea is to offer a powerful video creation tool that doesn’t require all the work that video editing normally does”
—TechCrunch

“As a video creator, you can create pretty rich, professional-grade broadcasts directly from your tablet in seconds”
—The Next Web

“Compared to a typical webpage, with its dozens of clickable links and widgets, the average video might as well be trapped behind Plexiglass. That’s the problem that . . . TouchCast set out to solve”
—Forbes

“TouchCast only wants to completely reinvent the look and feel of the Internet.”
—AdWeek

TouchCasts are completely clickable. A TouchCast is a video that is fully browsable, responsive, and alive. Webpages, images, and an assembly of video Apps (vApps) can be tapped for a two-way video experience.

It’s a TV studio in your hands. Create broadcast-quality videos with a built-in teleprompter, green screen, visual filters, sound effects, and titles. Watch TouchCasts from the app or online at TouchCast.com.

Our Mission is to bring the wonder of the web to video and usher in a new age of expression. Anyone can easily create professional-quality videos that finally behave like the rest of the web.

Explore videos, express yourself and engage viewers in a whole new way.  We invite you to try TouchCast and help define this new medium.

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From DSC:
To all of the e-learning developers, journalists, instructional designers, teachers, professors, PR and communications folks, videographers, transmedia storytellers, and many other folks out there:  Check out TouchCast on either Chrome or Safari (you can toggle the main content of your window from a video discussing a particular article on the web and back again). Very sharp.  Innovative.

From Forbes.com:
To give you a better idea of how it works, we TouchCasted  this video of our editor in chief, Randall Lane, talking about the new edition of the FORBES Celebrity 100. View it on an iPad to get the full experience. (Use Chrome or Safari.)

 

 Addendum on 7/1/13:

 

Here’s why the TV apps economy will be a $14 billion business [Wolf]

Here’s why the TV apps economy will be a $14 billion business — from forbes.com by Michael Wolf

 

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Excerpt:

According to new research published this week, the TV apps economy is forecasted to reach $14 billion by 2017.

Take for example today’s news that Apple will begin selling video advertisements served by iAd through iTunes Radio loaded on Apple TVs. This is only the first move for Apple in this space, and others like Samsung and Google  are already investing heavily in connected TV app advertising.

 

From DSC:
Why post this? Because:

  • It lays out future directions/careers related to Programming, Computer Science, Data Mining, Analytics, Marketing, Telecommunications, User Experience Design, Digital and Transmedia Storytelling, and more
    .
  • It leads to “Learning from the Living [Class] Room”

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The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV

 

From DSC:
And if this does take off,
$14 billion won’t begin to capture the profits from this new industry.

It will be far larger than that.

 

Relevant addendum on 6/27/13:

  • The future of cinema is on demand — from bitrebels.com by Ben Warner (From DSC: Having just paid $32 for 4 people — 3 of whom were kids — to see Monsters U, I believe it!)
    .

future-of-cinema-on-demand

Via: [The Verge] Image Credits: [Venture Beat] [Home Theater]

 

 
 

From DSC:

  • What if you want to allow some remote students to come on into your face-to-face classroom?
    .
  • What if you want to allow those remote students to be seen and communicated with at eye level?
    .
  • What if you want Remote Student A to join Group 1, and Remote Student B to join Group 2?
    .

Well…how about using one of these devices  in order to do so!


 

New video collaboration robot: TelePresence gets moving — from cisco.com by Dave Evans

Excerpt:

That is why Cisco’s new joint effort with iRobot—demonstrated publicly this week for the first time—is so exciting: We’ve created a mobile Cisco TelePresence unit that brings collaboration to you—or, conversely, brings you to wherever you need to collaborate. Called iRobot Ava 500, this high-definition video collaboration robot combines Cisco TelePresence with iRobot’s mobility and self-navigation capabilities, enabling freedom of movement and spontaneous interactions with people thousands of miles away.

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irobot-june-10-2013
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iRobot Ava™ 500 Video Collaboration Robot — published on Jun 10, 2013
iRobot and Cisco have teamed to bring the Ava 500 video collaboration robot to market. The robot blends iRobot’s autonomous navigation with Cisco’s TelePresence to enable people working off-site to participate in meetings and presentations where movement and location spontaneity are important. The new robot is also designed to enable mobile visual access to manufacturing facilities, laboratories, customer experience centers and other remote facilities.

 

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Double Robotics Double

http://www.doublerobotics.com/img/use-office.jpg

 

 

MantaroBot™ TeleMe

 

 

 

From Attack of the Telepresence Robots! — from BYTE  by Rick Lehrbaum

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Kubi

http://twimgs.com/informationweek/byte/reviews/2013-Jan/robotic-telepresence/kubi.jpg

 

 

MantaroBot “TeleMe” VGo Communications “VGo” Anybots “QB” Suitable Technologies “Beam”

 

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RP-7i ROBOT

RP-7i Remote Presence Robot

 

Also see:

 

The New Storytelling Frontier — from huffingtonpost.ca by Katherine Brodsky

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

Long gone are the days of static content. Consumers are looking for more and transmedia storytelling offers an increasingly popular approach for creating property-based universes. Transmedia content itself is also evolving. It’s becoming more dynamic, more interactive, offering greater opportunities to engage audiences with creative user-generated content that adds to the storytelling experience. It is becoming more communal.

Although traditional models allow for greater control of content, strategies that can engage fans more actively and allow them to express themselves and even contribute to the development of a show, get them more involved and, ultimately, more willing to buy in.

 

From DSC:
As the use of storytelling is a powerful tool for learning, I can’t help but wonder…

  • What might be some creative possibilities arising from the developing world of transmedia that students and/or educational organizations could develop?
  • In what ways could we build more interactivity and social networking into our “digital textbooks” and mobile-based applications?
  • Would transmedia-based content help maintain interest, engagement, attention?
  • Would it help establish longer term memories/recall?
  • How might it help build students creativity and foster more experimentation/play/participation?
  • What roles might students play? (Writer, videographer, sound designer, actress, programmer, game designer, project manager, entrepreneur, etc.)
  • What tools and skills would students need to create their own transmedia-based experiences?
  • What new forms of storytelling might evolve from these efforts?
  • Could transmedia work its way into blended learning models?
  • Are new opportunities for immersing oneself in a particular subject matter becoming more available through transmedia-based experiences?
  • Could streams of content be wrapped in transmedia-based experiences?

 

 

 

 

AppleWWDC-June10-2013

 

Also see:

 

  • The Best Features Of iOS 7 — from techcrunch.com by Sarah Perez
    .
  • Everything You Need to Know about iOS 7 — from hongkiat.com
    Excerpts:
    iBooks is now available on the Mac, giving users access to 1.8 million books including interactive textbooks.
    .
    AirDrop Sharing Between iOS Devices <– potential uses in the Smart Classrooms…?
    AirDrop is now available for transfers between iOS devices via peer-to-peer WiFI connection. Turning on the Share Sheet on an app, you can find users who are nearby and tap items to share. A notification will appear on their device and when they open it, it will open to the relevent app and show the content that you shared.
    .
  • Apple’s WWDC 2013 Keynote: Highlights, Summary & History — from hongkiat.com by Singyin Lee
    Excerpt:
    Multiple Display <– potential uses in the Smart Classrooms…?
    Multiple Display support allow you to work on, multiple screens, even though only one device is physically connected, even if it means you are using Apple TV as one of your screens. Full screen spaces can be pulled from one display to the next and the dock and other menus will be displayed on each connected screen as well.
    .

 

.

 

 

 

Heads up Jony Ive! You need to see this brilliant concept for the Apple TV! Superb work by Sam Beckett!

BrilliantTVConceptBySamBeckett-May2013

 

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From DSC:
Now picture this from the educational standpoint — and what MOOCs could morph into.  The foundation for some serious learning power (from the living room) seems to be developing!

Streams of content/learning channels/cloud-based applications that each of us can create and make available.

Voice recognition, learning analytics, machine-to-machine communications, transmedia and more!  Wow!

 

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The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV

 

 

 

Below are some great resources re: creating your own e-books / streams of content — with thanks to Mr. Michael Haan, Technology Integration Specialist/Purchasing at Calvin College, for these resources
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From DSC:

You might also want to check out Lynda.com for the relevant training materials.
.
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Let’s create our own streams of content — always up-to-date — plus we could help our students save big $$!  And, as Michael pointed out, such tools could also be used internally for training-related and communications-related purposes.

Thanks Michael!!!

What's the best way to deal with ever-changing streams of content? When information has shrinking half-lives?

 

 

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