YouTube, blip.tv, Ustream… there are a bunch of services that cater to the video enthusiast. None of them, to my knowledge, have the functionality I’m looking for.
What do I want?
Most video recorders (from traditional units to digital cameras and smart phones) tag videos to the date and time they are recorded. This is a powerful piece of information. What if I’m recording a seminar at a convention while my wife is recording my daughter playing in the yard? What if there are multiple people recording the same event from different perspectives? It would be cool to be able to see those concurrent events or perspectives side-by-side. Timestamps would allow me to do this.
Most social media sites allow you to build a cloud of contacts (friends). Why not allow me to see which of my friends are streaming right now, and view each stream, sync’d in real time? Why not allow me to go back in history and see the same information?
Event tags can allow me to find video from multiple sources taken at the same event. I don’t know of any service that would allow me to view these videos in a meaningful timeline. What more, if I’m at an event and want to see which streams are live right now, I would like to be able to do so.
Geo-tracking would be similar to event tags, but allow me to see what is going on around me. Hey, look… someone is streaming from Market Street Brewery in Nashville – it looks fun, I better get down there!
I’m sure there are other things one could do with a service that allows robust tagging, time stamping, and filtering. What would you like to see?
Tags: social media, video