I mean WOW!

The response to the last Spacevidcast daily was phenomenal and we’re only part way through the day! It is pretty clear that the community prefers the more creative, humor filled space news. By far our two most talked about daily clips are these:

There are some interesting data points when it comes to these two videos:

1. We have had more subscriptions in the last week to our YouTube channel than the last 2 months combined.
2. Most of the new YouTube subscriptions have come in within the last 8 hours (from the writing of this post)
3. In addition to higher subscriptions we also have higher views. An average daily gets around 350 views a week whereas the Space Elevator has just under 1,000 views and the MRO video is on slate to get around 500 views by tomorrow.

Then there are some lessons learned as well as some lessons that are simply reenforced by looking at these stats:

1. Content always trumps quality. We have been working so hard to improve the quality of our dailies that I forgot that we have to script everything better. To this end I ripped everything off the set and am starting from scratch. You’ll note there was no HDTV in the MRO video and the quality was poor (by design of course).
2. People like humor. You can get space news in about a kabillion great places on the Internet. The same space news rehashed in video form is, well, boring and a waste of time. Adding our own unique spin to it is what makes it entertaining and engaging which is what we’re after.
3. It takes a long time to produce good content. These videos took twice as long to produce as their straight news counterparts did.

We have already pre-shot most of the rest of the dailies for this week, so we may not have as much fun with those, but going forward we sure will. I think somewhere in 2009 I lost my way and started making Spacevidcast too much like a serious news show. That’s not true to who we are, it is not what people want and it isn’t where we should go. I got rattled by the very vocal minority that told us how horrible we were and how terrible it was that we gave everyone a voice and should take space travel more seriously. We were not good enough to play with the big kids was the general impression. Well screw that. The big kids are old and decrepit and can go mumble to themselves in a corner. We’re the new blood in space, we’re having fun with this stuff and we’re not going away. OH, and just because we’re going to have some fun with this stuff doesn’t mean we won’t get awesome interviews with astronauts. I have a feeling some of them like to have some fun too!

At times I am still amazed at how few people understand UTC or Coordinated Universal Time, even those people who live in that exact time zone! Throw daylight savings time in there and I’m pretty sure heads explode. Back in the days when getting a message across the planet took weeks this may have made some sense. When the industrial revolution came around there really was no time standard, so when a train would leave one city and go to the next it was entirely possible that you would arrive before you left… Well according to the city time at least. Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) was adopted in 1847 by the Railway Clearing House to help eliminate this issue. If all of the train stations used the same general time, then you could no longer arrive before you left. This was a great invention 150 years ago, but times have changed and the world is a lot smaller now.

In 1972 GMT was abolished. Ok, not really abolished per say, but it was replaced in most regions by UTC or Coordinated Universal Time and should have been abolished. When someone says ‘GMT’ today they are actually referring to UTC and just don’t know it. Same with Z or Zulu time. Coordinated Universal Time is the most accurate clock the planet has which is based on atomic time. In fact you probably use it every day and don’t even know it! GPS uses UTC to keep the satellites in sync, so if you’re ever on a boat cruise, flying on an airplane, launching a missile at an enemy country, or driving your car with GPS nav you’re using UTC. In 1972 it was enough just to make the clocks of the world scary accurate, but there was no need to touch daylight savings time or time zones in general, so they didn’t. UTC follows the same offset as GMT did.

As we approach 2010 I think it is time to take UTC to the next level and create WUT or Worldwide Universal Time.  In my proposal we would continue to use the scary accurate atomic clocks that UTC is based off of, but the entire concept of daylight savings time would be gone. You would never, ever, ever change your clocks forward or backward an hour again. In addition (and just to make me sound super loony) the concept of time zones should be removed as well. We live in a world where real-time communications can happen at any hour of any day on any place on the planet or even in space! Why then do we cling to the idea that 12:00 noon must be when the sun is directly overhead? Who cares where the sun is at any moment in time anymore! That’s why lights were invented. Move to a 24 hour time and make it a universal time across the planet, right at the current offset of 0. In my proposed scenario the sun would be directly over my head at what I call noon today at 1800 hours WUT. What difference does it really make? The entire planet can work on whatever time is correct for that region and we would all have our watches set to the exact same time, accurate to the sub-sub-sub second. When you schedule that conference call between Japan and New York everyone would know exactly how the meeting time would affect them.

Yeah, radical idea that will probably never happen. As we reach more and more to the stars and as the world becomes smaller and smaller clinging on to this legacy time system will become harder and harder. Lets just make everyones life easier, come together as a planet and accept WUT as the new universal time that everyone will use.

kthxbai

1 – I’m thinking we will release Spacevidcast Pro as an attempt to monetize the show. Making money is very important here as I can’t fund the show out of pocket forever. We have some great donators but that’s not enough to keep the lights on. By adding a pro option that will allow us to have monthly subscribers and hopefully bring in enough income to allow us to do live coverage of additional events across the country. One of the reasons we could not cover the *awesome* 2009 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge was that we simply didn’t have enough money to travel to the many different sites. Dailies and live shows will remain free, Pro will be options on top of that. Basically, a freemium model. My big concern is that space is a niche industry with not a lot of money for new media shows like ours. Not sure how many people would be willing to pay for Pro. To do my full vision of what I want, I would need 2,500 subscribers at $10.00 a month. That is a lot. To break even with our current setup I just need 100 subscribers at $10.00/mo. Well, that’s a starting point at least.

2 – I’m not sure we will be able to do this for 3.00 but I want to create a mobile production truck. The NewTek StreamOrDie.com site is quite inspiring. For not a lot of money (relative of course) we can create a mobile HD satellite production truck that I can drive just about anywhere in North America to do live streams. The truck would use something like a ToDoCast.tv mobile satellite solution. I’m also thinking that mobile events like that would be pay-per-view for users that are not Spacevidcast Pro members. Why not free? Well, 24 hours of satellite time is $2,200 so we have to recover those costs somehow. If the event itself is willing to pay for the satellite time, then we would offer it for free with pop-up ads or without pop-up ads for Pro members. That’s the idea at least. I believe the initial cost would be around $150k for the car and all production equipment. Not too bad when compared to other HD satellite production trucks but still more than I have today. Anyone want to sponsor our 3.00 series?

3 – I would like to bring in a NewTek Tricaster XD300 combined with an LC11 and 3Play. Expensive solution although it would still be HD and it would allow us to record 3 HD cameras in slow motion for live playback. Imagine watching Xoie’s engine close up in slow motion after the successful landing. Would be epic! I’m not sure it would work, but if the Canon EOS 5D Mark II can output 720p clean via component HD that would be a pretty powerful solution. This would probably all still link to CamTwist since there is a lot of stuff in there that even a Tricaster simply can not do today.

4 – And finally, I’m looking in to moving the studio. I don’t have a lot of detail here but I want to bring in a live audience each and every week. Crow River Coffee Company is awesome but we can’t fit an audience in to the back room. Currently I’m looking at theatre space that would allow for a full production. Might be able to just drive the Spacevidcast truck up to the location and stream from there. See how that all comes together? To add to the awesomeness, I may know just the theatre to use…

What does the community think? Ambitious plans for and ambitious industry. Feedback?

The free service TripIt.com is an awesome web site that I don’t think gets enough attention. Sign up for free and you can organize your trips and vacations in their easy to use interface. You can share these trips with fellow travelers as well as with spouses who may not be coming with you (sorry Cariann). Get tips from other travelers who have already been to that city and suggest things you should do and places you should go. And finally, since it has a social media aspect, link up with others who may be traveling to that city at the same time. Pretty awesome stuff.

But that doesn’t solve my initial problem of being too lazy to enter my details in to my iPhone. That’s where TripIt.com’s awesome e-mail planner comes in. Forward your travel confirmations e-mails to plans@tripit.com from the same e-mail you signed up to the service from. TripIt will scan the e-mail and auto-create a new trip for you. The hardcore awesomeness is that if you forward your plane confirmation, hotel and car all to TripIt, the system will scan the dates and automagically put them all within one trip! If you send a different plane confirmation with different dates it will create a new trip. Quite intelligent! So now all I need to do is forward on two or three e-mail messages and I’m all set to go!

Well, almost.

I still need this information on my iPhone so I can see where I’m supposed to go. Generally I have no idea what city I’m going to, where I’m staying or what I’m doing. I just go where I’m told when I’m told and do stuff. So I need all that data on my iPhone. Enter a nifty little app called TravelTracker Pro. This $13 application also has a $5 upgrade that allows me to sync my iPhone to TripIt.com. I can now have TripIt automatically create my trip which is then sent to my iPhone. I then tweak and modify things on my iPhone as the travel plans change in real-time in the city I am in which re-syncs back to TripIt.com. Flippin’ amazing stuff!

There is also a pro version of TripIt.com which I think is pretty cool. It will analyze my current trip and SMS me any alerts like flight delays, gate changes, etc. so I am on top of my travel plans in real time. It also allows me to create an ‘Inner Circle’ so someone like Cariann can look at, modify and tweak my flight schedule. This can be handy for any office road warrior who may need to have their travel plans changed by someone in a different state. Just have them log in to the TripIt.com site, they can see your entire trip schedule, make changes as needed, and those changes get downloaded to your iPhone.

In my opinion, TripIt.com with TravelTracker Pro is a hardcore awesome combo that can’t be beat!

While AT&T is fine when it comes to the iPhone, their broadband service is worst of class.  I don’t suggest using your iPhone as a WiFi or WAN gateway as the AT&T network will just strain under your attempted load. And by the way, if you’re in California like I am right now, AT&T will just simply give up and give you no bandwidth whatsoever. The cold hard reality of it is: AT&T can’t keep up with demand. Until they roll out their 850MHz spectrum across the US I suggest getting a Verizon MiFi.

Sprint sells the MiFi as well, and rumors are that AT&T will be bringing it on board soon too.  Ignore all of the other providers. When it comes to 3G access that is equal across the US, Verizon is the winner here. Sprint is a fairly close second, but unlike Verizon the network will vary quite a bit from city to city and frankly their support sucks.

The Verizon MiFi is an amazing device.  You can get up to 4 hours of WiFi access off this little box.  It is small, light and easy to carry with you.  Turn it on and BLAM, your computer connects via WiFi.  No stupid WAN card to plug in, no dumb Internet sharing settings, just turn it on and let trusted people join your WiFi network.

It comes with the SSID and WiFi password printed on the bottom of the device. The first thing I did was log in to the device and change the SSID and password to something that matches my own internal networks, so I can easily get family and friends on my WAN network.  You can tweak the device to your hearts content. So long as your hearts content consists of only tweaking the SSID and security settings.

There is one major downside: pricing.  With a 2 year contract the device is $99 after a $50 mail in rebate. That in itself is not too bad, but where they get you is the contract. You get up to 5GB of transfer for $60 a month. That is the largest package they have. Of course Sprint and AT&T are no better with the same pricing and same caps (note that at this time there is no MiFi for AT&T). It used to be that one could get unlimited bandwidth for $99 a month, but that option seems to be all but gone. Seems the cellular carriers are starting to see the strain of data access on their networks.

I’m not 100% sure but I think you might be able to use Verizon DayPass with this device which allows you to pay just $15.00 for 24 hours of access.  This way if you only travel once a month or so can just pay for the device as you need it. That is about the same cost as the access at an airport and you can still use it at your hotel. Not for me as I want, really, unlimited bandwidth but it may work for some.

All in all this is a great device and I highly suggest everyone check it out. Novatel did a fantastic job here and I’m thus far impressed with Verizon’s data network. Never been a huge Verizon fan, but I’m starting to swing that way more and more every day.

Now we have Waze which does much the same thing. Based on your driving conditions you can get re-routed to your destination. But Waze takes this several steps further and in a much better direction (pun intended).

First off, Waze is free! That’s right, you can get a GPS routing system that has turn-by-turn directions for the low, low cost of zero. They are able to do this in part because Waze runs on your existing Smartphone such as an iPhone or Andoid phone. Which brings me to…

Second, Waze does not require special hardware. If you have your iPhone on you, then you have your GPS nav system with you too. This makes it far easier to make sure you always have available traffic data. Waze is available in the Apple App store right now and I believe you can get it for Android right now too. I think they are working on a Windows Mobile and Symbian version too, I guess we’ll see.

Third, Waze is more social. In addition to being able to mark points on maps, fix road issues and add traffic problems you can also add things such as hazards, police traps and pictures. Every time you add something be it driving the road or fixing part of the map you get points. These points then add up to… well I have no idea, but you get points. Makes it in to a bit of a competition and is a fun incentive to keep the app open when you’re just driving, even if you don’t need directions.

I should point out that this is an alpha stage project and as such has some issues.  In my testing the routing needed a lot of love, there are no voice prompts so you always have to look at the unit and the icons on the map are a bit confusing. What is the difference between the blue car, white ghost looking thing and green arrow?  I have no idea, but it would switch between these icons from time to time while I was driving. The awarded points don’t update in real time so you may have to wait a couple of days to see where you’re at. Small things like these.

Nevertheless, Waze is a very cool app that gets more and more powerful as additional users get on the Waze network. This was ultimately the main cause of the demise of Dash, they were never able to reach critical mass. When it comes to social road networks, the more cars on the network, the more valuable it will be. With the app being available on the iPhone for free, I think Waze can do what Dash was unable to: build an intelligent GPS navigation system that allows me to find the quickest and easiest path to my destination. I am excited to see where this service goes! Worth the download, even in the Alpha stage. Hopefully the bugs can be worked out and we’ll end up with what Dash originally promised, but bigger, badder, better and free-er.

YouTube already uses h.264 for much of their compression. In fact you can even download these higher quality h.264 copies with a little bookmarklet hack for your browser. There are currently 4 quality settings for YouTube:

• fmt=0 which is the default low quality video and uses the Sorenson Spark CODEC
• fmt=6 which is a higher quality but still the Sorenson Spark CODEC
• fmt=18 which is the HQ h.264 version
• fmt=22 which is the HD h.264 version

Where is the On2 VP6 CODEC in that list?  As far as I can tell, they just skipped over VP6 and moved straight to h.264.

So I ask again, why did Google buy On2?  The only available product that I see they have which Google would be interested in would be VP6, so there are only three other reasons I can think of that Google would do this:

1. Google does not want to pay the h.264 royalties.  While better  than the MPEG-4 royalties (or at least less complex) they are still there.
2. On2 has a patent of sorts that Google needs access to, probably in relation to automatic compression of video in some form, or a next gen CODEC.
3. Google wants to piss off Adobe and lock VP6 out of the hands of many users forcing Adobe to dump the CODEC and move to something else within Flash.

Heck to Google $106 million is nothing, but this does not make sense.  Will On2 get put in to the Google closet of doom along with Dodgeball, Jaiku and Google Video?  Will Google utilize On2’s products to make a new killer online video app or addition to the Tube? Thoughts?

I know, it is an hour long video with something like 15 minutes up front of nothingness (just skip forward, oh wait it’s @^!#*%& LiveStream and they make that as complex as possible) but check out all the action packed announcements.  While the YouTube Partner Channel has brought in a good chunk of cash for Spacevidcast, I have a feeling that this could do even better.

I’m excited at the possibility of getting Spacevidcast not only distributed to many, many video sharing sites but also TiVo set top boxes, Roku set top boxes, AppleTV devices, iPhones, iPods and of course many video sharing sites. We’ll see how this all goes but it looks good as a first step.

The more we can make in advertising, the more content we can offer for free and outside of the Spacevidcats Pro walled garden (which is good, we want to give it all away for free if we can).