A Movie of Your Monitor
on WSJ.com
by Jeremy Wagstaff, June 2, 2006
I'd quite understand if you feel you've heard enough about new gizmos, programs and paradigm-shifting delivery mechanisms. A lot of it may sound great to geeks, but to ordinary Joes who just want to get through their business day without their computer crashing, a lot of it may seem a little, well, hyped. This week's offering may sound like another one of those, but I'm pretty sure it isn't -- although the name might give you a shudder. It's called screencasting.
Then,Screencasts are really simple to grasp. And in some ways they aren't new. But I think they represent a great way to use computers to train, educate, entertain, preach and otherwise engage other people in a simple way. Something the Internet, and computers in general, have so far largely failed to do.
Screencasts are little movies you create on your computer. In most cases, they are movies of your computer. You use special software to capture the keystrokes and mouse clicks you make on your screen, demonstrating, say, how to use Google (the screen bit of screencasting). once you've edited and added a voiceover, you upload it to your Web site and let everyone else watch it (the casting bit).
Why might someone want to do this? Well, if you've ever tried to explain to someone over the phone how to fix some problem on their computer, you'll appreciate the benefits of a little movie that they can watch themselves and follow. Instead of frustrating directions -- "OK, move the mouse to the bottom right-hand corner of your screen where you can see some little icons, right? Click on the yellow one that looks like a pregnant ant." "Hang on a minute. What's an icon?" -- you can just make a quick screencast, email it to them and let them watch on their computer what they should be doing. (Of course, this doesn't help if their problem is that their computer doesn't work.)
It needn't just be helping Mom open her email. Software manuals could be replaced by libraries of screencasts, from "Overview of why this product rocks" to "How to change the font size of the fourth tab from the left without messing everything else up." Web sites or online services could quickly introduce new users with screencasts that run through their main features.
Actually, this kind of thing is already happening. Dreamed up by programmer and technology writer Jon Udell in 2004, screencasts have quietly taken off. Now a search of Google Video throws up more than 200, while online video repository YouTube has nearly 70. For an example, check out one from Mr. Udell, of how a single Wikipedia page changes over time.
Big companies such as Microsoft Corp. are waking up to the idea, using screencasts to demonstrate new products to early adopters. One online poker Web site runs screencasts of notable games.
Mr. Udell himself acknowledges that the idea of making such miniscreen movies isn't that new: He has just helped define and develop the genre, by experimenting and showing how it can be used, to a point where people are waking up to what screencasts can do.
There are several screencasting programs of varying capabilities available, some free (Wink) and some not (Camtasia Studio, $300 ); for a fuller list, check out my blog. They let you define what part of your computer screen you're going to record, record it, and then add extra features to the recording, including a voiceover, a video of you using your Web cam, or little text boxes and arrows to help users see what you're doing.
Mr. Udell is exploring the idea of screencasts beyond the computer screen, making what he calls "mini-documentaries" of everyday experiences. Indeed, as screencasts move away from being just movies of your computer and toward capturing the real world, they find themselves overlapping with the abundance of homespun video offerings that can be found on Web sites such as YouTube. Screencasts, however, tend to focus more on demonstrating than entertaining; for example, they could cover sports events by weaving drawings of moves on a whiteboard into what is happening on the pitch. Screencasts would also be great for anyone trying to teach remotely, whether it's e-learning or training election monitors in Africa.
As Mr. Udell, the father of screencasting, put it in a recent article:
Or as he wrote on O'Reilly Digital Media, an online magazine:
by Jeremy Wagstaff, June 2, 2006
I'd quite understand if you feel you've heard enough about new gizmos, programs and paradigm-shifting delivery mechanisms. A lot of it may sound great to geeks, but to ordinary Joes who just want to get through their business day without their computer crashing, a lot of it may seem a little, well, hyped. This week's offering may sound like another one of those, but I'm pretty sure it isn't -- although the name might give you a shudder. It's called screencasting.Then,Screencasts are really simple to grasp. And in some ways they aren't new. But I think they represent a great way to use computers to train, educate, entertain, preach and otherwise engage other people in a simple way. Something the Internet, and computers in general, have so far largely failed to do.
Screencasts are little movies you create on your computer. In most cases, they are movies of your computer. You use special software to capture the keystrokes and mouse clicks you make on your screen, demonstrating, say, how to use Google (the screen bit of screencasting). once you've edited and added a voiceover, you upload it to your Web site and let everyone else watch it (the casting bit).
Why might someone want to do this? Well, if you've ever tried to explain to someone over the phone how to fix some problem on their computer, you'll appreciate the benefits of a little movie that they can watch themselves and follow. Instead of frustrating directions -- "OK, move the mouse to the bottom right-hand corner of your screen where you can see some little icons, right? Click on the yellow one that looks like a pregnant ant." "Hang on a minute. What's an icon?" -- you can just make a quick screencast, email it to them and let them watch on their computer what they should be doing. (Of course, this doesn't help if their problem is that their computer doesn't work.)
It needn't just be helping Mom open her email. Software manuals could be replaced by libraries of screencasts, from "Overview of why this product rocks" to "How to change the font size of the fourth tab from the left without messing everything else up." Web sites or online services could quickly introduce new users with screencasts that run through their main features.
Actually, this kind of thing is already happening. Dreamed up by programmer and technology writer Jon Udell in 2004, screencasts have quietly taken off. Now a search of Google Video throws up more than 200, while online video repository YouTube has nearly 70. For an example, check out one from Mr. Udell, of how a single Wikipedia page changes over time.
Big companies such as Microsoft Corp. are waking up to the idea, using screencasts to demonstrate new products to early adopters. One online poker Web site runs screencasts of notable games.
Mr. Udell himself acknowledges that the idea of making such miniscreen movies isn't that new: He has just helped define and develop the genre, by experimenting and showing how it can be used, to a point where people are waking up to what screencasts can do.
There are several screencasting programs of varying capabilities available, some free (Wink) and some not (Camtasia Studio, $300 ); for a fuller list, check out my blog. They let you define what part of your computer screen you're going to record, record it, and then add extra features to the recording, including a voiceover, a video of you using your Web cam, or little text boxes and arrows to help users see what you're doing.
Mr. Udell is exploring the idea of screencasts beyond the computer screen, making what he calls "mini-documentaries" of everyday experiences. Indeed, as screencasts move away from being just movies of your computer and toward capturing the real world, they find themselves overlapping with the abundance of homespun video offerings that can be found on Web sites such as YouTube. Screencasts, however, tend to focus more on demonstrating than entertaining; for example, they could cover sports events by weaving drawings of moves on a whiteboard into what is happening on the pitch. Screencasts would also be great for anyone trying to teach remotely, whether it's e-learning or training election monitors in Africa.
As Mr. Udell, the father of screencasting, put it in a recent article:
Blogging has shown us new ways to communicate via text and photos. Podcasting -- recording audio and sharing it as you would share your blog -- and its video equivalent, videoblogging, have shown us new ways to communicate by sound and video. Screencasts give us an opportunity to share what we know, and what we do with computers and the Internet.
Or as he wrote on O'Reilly Digital Media, an online magazine:
When the subjects of our videos are experiences that intersect with cyberspace, or occur primarily within it, we'll use screencasts to describe and explain them.
posted by Gripplly at
17:05
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