Social Media & Business Technology » VoIP

ICYOU – Health Related Video Community

Nadine — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:33:39 +0000

HEALTHCARE VIDEO ON DEMAND
Welcome to icyou, the Web’s only destination focused solely on bringing you the whole world of healthcare video. From important medical breakthroughs to the latest diets, from recipes for diabetics to vlogs from cancer patients, icyou is healthcare video. We make it simple to

FIND any health-oriented video you seek from hundreds of certified medical and health professionals, as well as regular people dealing with the same issues you are;

UPLOAD your own video and contribute to icyou’s ever-growing healthcare video community;

WATCH every video anytime, anywhere, as often as you like for free on your computer; and

COMMENT on anything you see, adding helpful tips, pointing out similar videos, or just lending support to others like yourself.

Whatever you want to know or share about healthcare, it’s here, it’s searchable, and it will change the way you think about healthcare information on the web.

Lessons Learned From Flood 2008

Nadine — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 21:01:45 +0000

As many of you know I live in Iowa City, Iowa,

home of the University of Iowa Hawkeyes and most recently a devastated area of flooding in the Midwest. In the last week Iowa City and Cedar Rapids (sister city) both experienced some very severe weather and flooding with the major impact felt by Cedar Rapids. Thousands of people here were forced to evacuate their homes and businesses regardless of their state of readiness.
This is my second experience with flooding in this area (previously experienced the flood in 2003) as well as a few other weather related events and I feel that this experience validates to me the importance of a few very key things related to technology, communications, and the web. I would like to share this with you so that in the event you run into a similar situation, you can rest assured that you have planned in advance and will be able to communicate and use your technology to the extent possible, not the extent that happens without planning.

Have a Back-Up Plan

and/or alternate place for Web Servers in a remote physical location.
I am a firm believer in copying information on jump and external drives, but if they are in the same physical location as the native files, they may also be lost, damaged, or destroyed. Seriously consider online back-up storeage in a separate geographical location. My web server is in California, so if I go down in Iowa my websites are unphased. If California goes down I have external storeage and can transfer to a local server.

Communication is Key:

Have several lines of communication available because chances are some will go down.
Include the following in your communication arsenal – internet, satellite, landline, GIS, VoIP, SMS or text messaging, and anything else that is available. Keep detailed lists with you of all your important numbers and access information and make sure its up to date!

Use Web 2.0 Technology to Provide Easily Accessible Information

If you haven’t planned ahead and your website goes down – open a blog at blogger and keep everyone up to date on what is going on. As the University of Iowa lost power in some of their buildings they jumped on the Web 2.0 bandwagon and opened a flood blog to keep everyone informed. They also opened a Flikr Photostream to upload daily photos of the action on campus.

Use an Email Management System and/or Electronic Mail Lists for Group Communication

ADA contacted IDA our state association to provide assistance and support. To reach our members we sent out messages using our Google lists, our website and our Constant Contact program. Members were pleased to hear our offer of support. Let your people know that you are concerned and can help!

Use Video to Stream & Record the Action

At one of the University of Iowa Engineering buildings there was a live webcam recording the flood action which allowed everyone to see the increasing river levels over the week. Opps… it went down when the building lost power. Refer to ” Have a back-up plan ” above.

Keep Your Sense of Humor

No technology required!

Nadine

Tech Talk # 99 – Budget Video Conferencing | Cheap Video Conference using Skype Free Video Calling

Nadine — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 15:40:50 +0000

Posted in: News, Video Conferencing and Web TV Tips by Chris Tew

Video conferencing can often become an expensive process and there can be a lot to organize as I discussed in the introduction to videoconferencing services.

However, if you simply want to speak to someone over the internet using video then you shouldn’t have to fork out thousands of dollars on expensive video conferencing equipment and services.

Fortunately the VoIP revolution and P2P technology has crumbled away the costs and shone a bright light at the end of that tunnel for budget video calls. The only cost you’ll need to set up a basic video conference with a friend is the cost of a webcam. Now that’s cheap video conferencing!

All you need is Skype Video Calling

All you need to do is download the latest version of Skype and you can carry out video calls.

Using Skype video calling is very simple. You will need a webcam, speakers and microphone.

To set the web-cam up with Skype you just need to go the Skype Tools menu, select Options. There you will find the Video Settings under the General section.

Once set up Skype has an option to test you webcam to make sure everything is working correctly.

Pros:

You can connect with a friend for an instant one-on-one video conference.
Very simple to set up.
It is so cheap that it is free! Definitely the best budget video calling solution.
Easy to start a video call with any of your Skype friends that have their webcam set up.
Very little hardware requirements.

Cons

Only one-on-one calls – no ability to have multi-party video conferencing calls.
You cannot show what is on your PC screen allowing you to present PowerPoint presentations, web pages etc.
Video quality is not good enough to show on a large screen to a room of people.
Lack of support for interactive features.
No support for recording video conferences for later archiving and publication.

Conclusion

Skype is definitely the best budget solution for one-on-one video conferences where people are sat at there PC screens and the video conference is a little bit informal. It is free and it works well.

However, it is not be suitable for the more professional video conference such as when:

for conferences containing multiple people.
the viewers are watching it on a large TV screen,
a lot of interaction with the viewers is required,
high quality visuals are important

Important Links for Skype Video Calling

Download Skype (free)
Check out the Skype for Business Tool (free)
Buy a WebCam

Alternatives for Multi-Party Video Conferencing

PalTalk

If you require a video conference solution that will have multiple participants then I recommend PalTalk as a budget video conferencing solution.

PalTalk allows group conferencing calls for up to 10 people.

Click here to get a free trial of PalTalk.

Online Video Interview Recording

If you want to record online video interviews then check out Sightspeed. Full review here.

15 Applications for Recording Skype Calls

Nadine — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 12:45:05 +0000

Adapted from VoIP-sol.com

There are lots of ways to record your Skype calls easily, allowing you to save them on your computer or external drive. You can listen to them later or you can record a call and create a podcast to post on your blog or distribute to your ipod or mp3 player.

Here is a collection of the best apps for recording Skype as reported in VoIP-sol.com . While some of the applications are free, most of them are moderately priced. The list is divided into separate sections for Windows and Mac.

Here are 10 recording applications (mostly shareware, some freeware) for Windows that can record Skype calls. Most also offer various other capabilities, such as recording streaming audio from the internet or connected devices.

Freecorder (Windows) – Easy to use recording app for Windows with pause / resume recording, automatic silence elimination. Saves your Skype conversations as an MP3.
Hot Recorder (Windows) – Easily share recorded conversations, voicemail and has a wide range of funny sounds to insert into a recording. Also has capability to convert files.
i-Sound (Windows) – Records your conversations and internet radio with real-time noise reduction.
KishKish SAM (Windows) – Records and saves conversations. Has a built-in stress detector that picks up stress levels from voice. Can be recorded in CD quality or saved as MP3.
MixCast Live (Windows) – Easily record Skype calls, then podcast them for all to listen to.
Pamela (Windows) – Skype-certified app for recording calls. Free, optional upgrades available.
PowerGramo (Windows) – Can record incoming and outgoing calls, easy to share recordings with friends and associates. Free, optional Pro version.
PrettyMay (Windows) – Record and replay calls easily, saves as MP3 and makes sharing simple. Also use Skypeout credit from regular phone.
SkyLook (Windows) – Records Skype calls as an MP3 and makes them quickly available within Outlook.
Total Recorder (Windows) – Record calls and save as MP3, WAV, WMA or Ogg.

And a few Mac apps for recording Skype calls. Most are standalone apps, Call Recorder is a Skype plugin. I’ve also found a workaround using GarageBand and 2 other apps to record your calls in OS X.

Audio Hijack (Mac – Universal) – Quickly and easily save audio from almost any application to an AIFF file. Slick integration with OS X. Free, optional upgrade offering ability to tweak sound.
Call Recorder (Mac) – Skype plugin to record conversations and save as AAC, or convert to MP3.
GarageBand – Workaround: uses 2 other apps, LineIn (Universal – free) and Soundflower (Universal – free). If you don’t want to spend extra on a dedicated app, try this.
Nicecast (Mac – Universal) – Podcasting app that can be setup to record from Skype.
WireTap Pro (Mac – Universal) – Powerful app to record and save Skype calls directly into your iTunes library or onto your iPod. Also can record streaming audio from internet. Variable file formats available for saving.