Here Comes Interactive Video Streaming

Somebody, in analyzing how new technologies come to be used by the general public described the adoption process as a bell curve. The early adopters (5-10%) are on the left of the curve, the masses are in the middle, and there are some late adopters on the right. One of the reasons I like reading blogs, is because you can tap into the early adopters knowledge of new technologies without having to try everything yourself. I'd put myself at the end of the early adopters on the curve. This week I've heard about two new sites that support video-conferencing in different contexts. Will Richardson mentions UStream which is a site that allows you to stream your webcam and/or watch others doing this. Obviously not a new concept, but this site makes it easy enough that it is reaching a wide part of the bell curve. The implications for education and professional development have to do with the ease with which you could now stream yourself out there. Oovoo got mentioned at the School 2.0 ning site. It allows up to 6 simultaneos video streams to be shared for video conferencing and also includes a feature to send video emails. Pretty cool stuff.