New Year's Eve - EarthCam?

Happy New Year's Eve!  I'm excited about the New Year's links that we have on lyvegyde, and I hope that they all pull through!  

This morning, the CNN Live website said that they will have coverage starting at 10:00 pm.  Now, it says that the coverage started at 9:00 am and it is just showing a webcam of Times Square.  I hope that their coverage tonight has actual commentary and is more than a webcam.

Speaking of webcams, I added the EarthCam link to lyvegyde for tonight.  I have not added their webcasts in the past since they tend to be just a webcam without additional coverage. Today though, they have webcams from celebrations around the world and their website says that their Times Square webcam coverage will have audio and video.  I'm hoping that the audio coverage is clear enough to actually hear performers and announcers.  The website says something about a "Times Square Broadcast Special," so we'll see!  

Finally, there is a company called New Year's Nation that is hosting parties in 10 cities in the US and they will be webcasting live from each one.  I could not find a starting time on their website, so hopefully it will actually work!  

On another note, I have found great concert webcasts before on a site called iClips.  I remember that they had a great "Election Eve" live concert with Joss Stone.  On Halloween night, they had a great Widespread Panic concert.  Unfortunately, they did not archive it, but that's ok, it was fun to watch anyways.  I was excited then to see that they would have another Widespread Panic concert tonight!  When I checked it out though, you have to pay $16.50 to watch it live and they also give you access to the video "well into 2009."  I hope that this is not a new trend for iClips! Please keep the live events free!  Since the webcast is not free, I did not add it to lyvegyde, but I thought that I would mention it here in case anyone wanted to watch it anyways!

Happy New Year's Eve!

Post-Holiday Pick Up

Well, it looks like now that Christmas is over, more places are offering webcasts again.  It really did slow down there for about a week, but it looks like people are back from their vacations and back to work again.  For example, today, lyvegyde has links to webcasts from American University about politics and lobbying, the Governor Blagojevich committee hearing about his possible impeachment, a UN briefing, and other events involving sports, music, and dance.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to find some great new year's eve events and that it won't slow down too much again!

Farewell Football

Well, this weekend was the last of the NFL's regular season game free, live webcasts. The webcasts were an experiment this year for the NFL/NBC, and I hope that they continue them again next year. I actually hope that they even webcast more games since they just webcast the Sunday night NBC games this season. The NFL has also said that the playoffs and the Super Bowl and playoffs will not be webcast live - that would have been very nice!

Generally, I thought that the webcasts were great. They offered multiple cameras that viewers could choose from (or viewers could watch all at once) and other features such as live chats and scores. While I am not a huge football fan myself, I can appreciate that the webcasts were very well produced. Unfortunately, the games were just streamed live (the NFL did not provide archives of the entire game) and could not be watched outside of the US, but maybe those both may change next year too.

NPR Music

I love the NPR Music webcasts, but they were driving me a little bit crazy yesterday.  About a week or so ago, I added a link to their live audio webcast of a Mary Chapin Carpenter holiday concert that was scheduled for yesterday.  Their description said that John Flynn would open the concert which I thought was a little suspicious since I know that these concerts are only about 30-40 minutes long.  Anyways, yesterday I went to the link and it was only a John Flynn concert and most (but not all) traces of the Mary Chapin Carpenter concert have vanished from their website!  The concert was held at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia, which brings me to my second point....

There were also rumors on Chain of Flowers (my favorite website about The Cure) that The Cure would be on World Cafe yesterday as well.  Fans on the site were very confused since The Cure is in California right now, not Philadelphia, and there was no information on the NPR Music website.  Yesterday, NPR Music posted the "session" that was recorded in Philadelphia in May.  It would have been very nice if it had broadcasted live back in May instead of waiting so long.  Anyways, it is just very nice that NPR Music recorded the session and has it on their website, even if it wasn't live at the time.  I still love the NPR Music webcasts!

Stratford Shakespeare Festival

I just received a mailing about the Stratford Shakespeare Festival that takes place in Stratford, Ontario throughout 2009.  I am excited because on Wednesdays from February 18th through August 26th, they will have live interactive video webcasts with actors and crew from the productions.  They have not posted a schedule of events yet, but based on last year's schedule (here), it should be a very good series.  I checked out a few from last year and it looks like they were done really well!  I can't wait until they post more information for 2009!

Holiday Slowdown?

I'm wondering if there is beginning to be a slowdown in the number of live webcasts because of the holiday season. First of all, I find a lot of webcasts from colleges and universities, but the semester is just about over.  Second, I wonder if other organizations have fewer events this time of year since people take vacation and it is tougher to schedule events.  I will just keep looking and try to find more events.  At least I have been finding some nice holiday concerts!

Golden Globes and Shameless Plug

This morning, the Golden Globe nominees were announced.  I had listed a webcast on lyvegyde that was supposed to start at 8:00 am ET from Premiere Entertainment.  CNN Live listed that their coverage would begin at 8:30 am ET. I listed the Premiere Entertainment link instead since I thought that they would have some additional coverage before the event. 

Well, the Premiere Entertainment webcast never happened, and the CNN Live one actually started around 8:15. Premiere Entertainment also does movie premiere coverage and tonight they are showing the Marley & Me premiere. I hope that they actually show it! About a month or so ago, I'm pretty sure that they listed another event that they did not end up showing. I think that they have great events, but it would be really nice if the schedule were updated more frequently if something live is not going to be shown.

I'm wondering if they will have a lab walking the red carpet at the Marley & Me premiere...

As for my shameless plug, check out The Tonight Show tonight - The Cure will be performing!

Oprah's Best Life

I am pretty excited because Oprah recently announced details for her Best Life webcast series for the week of January 12, 2009.  The webcasts will start at 9:00 pm and will follow the previous week's special shows featuring guest experts on topics such as health, money, and fitness.  

I am excited because the webcasts will hopefully be very well produced and executed.  Unfortunately, I have read that her previous webcast "class" for the book "A New Earth" had so many viewers that some people had problems watching the webcast.  I hope that they are able to resolve the technical issues this time.  

I am also excited because the webcasts are supposed to be interactive, with Oprah and the guests answering viewer questions.  I am not sure yet how this technology will work, but hopefully they will make it pretty clear how to submit a question.

Oprah's website has a link to "register" for the webcasts with your name and email address.  Even though I registered, I don't believe that I have received any special emails about the webcasts.  I was already on the Oprah mailing list though, so maybe it simply adds people to the mailing list.  I am hoping that if users go to the Oprah site on the day of a webcast that they will be able to watch the webcast without registering. 

Most of the webcasts we put on lyvegyde do not require any kind of registration.  One exception that I can think of is O'Reilly (computer/tech book publisher).  They host some interesting webcasts that I like to include, but they do require registration and they send you a special link to access the webcast.  It is a little bit of a pain and it may mean that not as many people watch the webcast.

Live Earth India

Well, this past weekend was my birthday weekend, so I have gotten a little bit behind!  Mostly though, there were just lots of home repairs/improvements to take care of.  Oh well!

I was really excited because Live Earth India was supposed to take place yesterday, but it was canceled because of the recent terror attacks in Mumbai.  Al Gore is one of the main organizers of the Live Earth concert series and yesterday's concert was supposed to feature Bon Jovi.  In 2007, Live Earth featured concerts on every continent and over 8 million people watched the live concert webcasts.  According to the Live Earth website, "MSN's broadcast of Live Earth attracted the largest-ever online audience for an online concert."  Hopefully next year they will schedule another great live webcast! 

Christmas Trees Somewhere!

Yeah!  The National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony will be webcast tonight on CNN Live.  I am kind of surprised that UStream does not seem to be featuring the tree lighting ceremonies.  They seem to be focusing a lot of their attention on puppy cams and now kitten cams.  I love puppies and kittens as much as anyone else, but it seems like there are already so many animals in shelters, that maybe they could consider doing something cute with those animals instead of focusing on puppies and kittens from breeders.  I understand that it is users who are uploading the videos, but I bet that UStream has enough pull that they could organize something to really help out some animals in need.  Just a thought!

Christmas Trees....Anywhere?

I was able to watch some of last night's Bryant Park tree lighting ceremony, which was very nice.  I would LOVE to find a webcast of tonight's tree lighting ceremony at Rockefeller Center in NYC, but I cannot find one anywhere.  All I can find are webcasts with one fixed angle and no sound.  Why, oh why NBC, won't you offer a webcast?  

Speaking of the holidays, CNN Live also said that they would have a live webcast this morning of First Lady Laura Bush showing off the White House's holiday decorations.  The time for the webcast came and went, but no webcast.  Please, more live holiday webcasts, PLEASE!!  They are so much fun to watch!

Christmas Trees Everywhere!

I'm watching the live webcast of the lighting ceremony for the Capitol Christmas Tree in D.C. right now on CNN Live.  It really is putting me in a festive mood.  There are so many other Christmas tree lighting ceremonies coming up, but I just cannot tell if they are going to be webcast or not!  If they are, they certainly are not advertising the fact very widely.  

Tonight at 7:00 there is a ceremony for the tree in Bryant Park.  That one looks great because the Barenaked Ladies are going to be performing holiday songs.  It looks like possibly the local NY CBS station may show the ceremony online, but I have a feeling that I won't really know until 7:00.  

Tomorrow, the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree is being lit.  It seems like that would have to be webcast, but again, if it is, I am not coming across it easily.  Hmmmm...then of course on Wednesday, there is another ceremony that I have not found webcast information about.  That is the National Christmas Tree in D.C.  As usual, I am hoping that CNN Live will show these at the last minute!  Ho ho ho...

Search Engine Optimization

I just signed up on the Meetup website.  I have always been intrigued by the events on the site, and I signed up because I noticed that there is a Search Engine Optimization event this Wednesday in D.C.  I am thinking about going since I certainly do have a lot to learn about SEO. 

Creating a website is really just one small part of doing a start-up.  An even bigger part is getting people who would be interested in using your site to be able to find the site.  I have looked into SEO some and I know that there is a lot that I should do in that area.  It is just so hard to find enough time in the day to do everything that I want to do with the website on top of everything that I HAVE to do with the website to keep it running on a daily basis.  Anyways, baby steps as Dr. Leo Marvin would say... 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  Well, I still have not come across any live, online coverage of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade except for Earthcam.  I was really hoping that CNN Live would cover it at the last minute, since they do not always list what they are going to cover until the time that the event starts.  Actually, sometimes they just show the video and don't actually list what the event is.  

Last night CNN Live listed that they would show the balloons being inflated at 5:00 pm ET.  It said next to the caption "in progress," but there was never a video showing the event.  Then at 6:00, they took down the event listing.  Of course, I had found a couple of websites with people asking where online they could watch the balloons being inflated, and I had said CNN Live.  Oops!  It has happened to me quite a few times with CNN Live where events that they list as coming up never actually are shown.  Pretty frustrating, but oh well.  They always have a lot of great videos, so I still love their site.  

Hmmmm, update!  I just checked back at CNN Live and now a caption says Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, but it is next to a video of Space Shuttle Endeavor coverage.  I have also noticed that where the captions and the videos do not always match.  YEAH!!!!!!!  They just fixed it, so now they have parade coverage!!!!!!!!!!!  SUPER!!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is coming!

Well, I have been getting ready for Thanksgiving over the past couple of days.  It seems like there are fewer events this week because of the holiday.  I guess that everybody will be eating of shopping on Thursday and Friday!  Well, hopefully people will still go shopping despite the economy.  I have been trying to find information on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, but I haven't really found anything about a live webcast.  I did find this article from last year which notes that there are a lot of Americans living abroad who would probably be interested in watching the parade live. The Earthcam website will provide webcam coverage of parade. For lyvegyde though, we are not looking for webcam coverage - we are looking for actual event coverage.  Apparently last year, the camera lenses were blurred with raindrops.  Also, the webcam coverage would not provide the commentary provided by the parade announcers.  Anyways, hopefully next year there will be an actual webcast, or at least, maybe closer to Thanksgiving this year, CNN Live will provide a link...we'll see!

I have a lot to be thankful for this year, as every year, and I have been so saddened by the stories about Abraham Briggs.  Please take time to read the New York Times article about him.  It is a tragic waste of a human life and the most horrendous use of live online video that I can imagine.  I have been thinking about what to say about this, but all that I can say is that my thoughts are with his family and I hope that this never happens again.

Back to Normal

Thank goodness, Freecaster.tv is back up.  Universal Sports is still working.  Also, as a nice treat, C-SPAN's streaming video has been working on my computer for the last 2 days.  I have a MacBook and I was never able to use it to watch their streaming videos - I always had to use our HP laptop.  My brother had the same issue with his MacBook.  Anyways, for some reason, C-SPAN has worked on both of our laptops for the past 2 days.  Very nice!!  

I'm looking forward to a webcast that is starting in about 45 minutes.  It is a concert for a band called Liquid Souls from a website called FabChannel.  The website is based out of the Netherlands and they show live concerts from a concert hall called the Paradiso in Amsterdam.  I have listed their live concerts by Living Colour and The Levellers on lyvegyde.  I have been so impressed with these concerts (high quality performance, interesting music, good camera footage, etc...) that I am going to add more of these concerts.  Today's concert is a Dutch hip-hop/soul band that is popular in Europe.  Should be interesting!

Yeah!

Universal Sports is back up now, yeah!  Freecaster.tv is still down though.  What is going on?  

Universal Sports...what is going on???

OK, I am really starting to worry now about Universal Sports.  Their website has not been working (all that appears is a white page) since at least yesterday morning.  Please don't take this website away, I love it!!!  

Another sports website with live video webcasts that I really enjoy is Freecaster.tv.  (It is kind of ironic because I just went to their website at it says "sorry, our website is not available for the moment due to a technical maintenance." I am assuming that it will come back to life in a few minutes....I hope!!!)  Anyways, their focus is "action sports," such as BMX and skateboarding, which can be a ton of fun to watch.  Unfortunately, they do not give as many specifics about their webcasts in advance of the events, so it can be a little bit unclear what time events start and exactly what they will be showing.  They have some BMX and skateboarding events coming up on Saturday, but I will wait until then to add them to lyvegyde, just to make sure that the events are starting when I think that they are.  I did post one of their events for this Saturday which is a concert by The Offspring.  I am looking forward to that - it really takes me back to the '90s!  :)  

OK, Freecaster.tv is not back up yet....Where is it?  Come back!

Social Matchbox and Universal Sports...again!

I know that I just said that I love Universal Sports, but then I get this today..."we are currently experiencing technical difficulties with this site."  NOOOOOOOOO!  The site has been down for several hours now.  I hope that it comes back up very soon - I had a hockey webcast on my website!  Oh well.  :)

Well, I am glad that I went to Social Matchbox last night.  I was able to meet a few people and the presentations were interesting - some companies that were well established and others that were just getting started and some in between.  Maybe I should have given a presentation.  Maybe next time!  Back to lyvegyde now!

Social Matchbox DC

I'm signed up now to go to Social Matchbox DC tomorrow night at American University.  I am going as a "socializer" - apparently different types of attendees receive different color name badges.  It sounds like there will be lots of product demos and presentations by internet and technology entrepreneurs.  I figured that it is definitely worth checking out at least once (they hold the event every quarter) to see what it is like.  

On another note, I added a link to the website today with the first post-election Senate session.  I was hoping that it would be pretty exciting, but there are such HUGE gaps in time between all of the "action," I just don't know that I will add any more Senate sessions...

Universal Sports

Well, I'm watching another live webcast of ice speed skating now.  I am really impressed with the live webcasts that Universal Sports offers...  

First, they archive almost all of their events.  They usually have an archive of the entire event as well as archives of various highlights from the event.  (Ouch!  One of the skaters just crashed!  I hope that he is ok!).  They also usually post the archived events pretty soon after the event has ended.  

Second, the webcasts have a very high production quality.  They provide great commentary and graphics with scores, and different camera angles - it is clear that they put a lot of effort into the broadcast.  True, they do also have a tv channel where they show a lot of the broadcasts, but still, a lot of sports events on other tv channels are not shown live online. Also, on the Universal Sports website, they are able to show more than one live event at a time, even though they can only show one at a time on their television channel.  

Third, the website is very easy to navigate.  They make it clear exactly what events are coming up, when the event will take place, and where to click to watch the webcast.  It is surprising how difficult it can be to find detailed information like that on other sites.  Sometimes a website lists that they will have a live event coming up soon, but it is unclear how to navigate to the actual webcast or sometimes even what time the webcast will begin! 

Well, I guess that I should go now since the event just ended!

Today's Webcasts

Well, today I especially enjoyed watching some of the webcasts listed on lyvegyde.  The space shuttle Endeavor just launched and that was really cool to watch as it happened.  Earlier in the day, there was also some ice speed skating that was pretty enjoyable.  I also like following the political type events such as hearings and speeches.  There were a couple of those today that were pretty interesting.  I just don't think that I can add any more events tonight though.  There is always so much stuff going on, that it really is difficult to keep up with all of it!  I find most of the events for now while we are building up our user base.  We have had some user submitted events though that we have just loved!  I guess if instantly finding users were easy though, there wouldn't be a market for things like GirlInYourShirt.

Ok, on an unrelated note.  Why would Boston Market ever take stuffing off of their menu?  I went there recently and it had been removed from their menu, they had not just run out of it.  It had also been removed several years ago for a little bit of time.  Of course because Thanksgiving is coming, it is back now, but please....don't ever take it off again!  I am a huge side item sampler fan...stuffing, mashed potatoes, and another side with lots of carbohydrates!

CNN Live

I'm a pretty big fan of CNN Live webcasts, even though I don't think that everything they show is live.  It seems like quite a few things that they show are actually pre-recorded news tidbits.  They do stream a lot of live events (hearings, speeches, conferences, breaking news, etc...) though.  I just wish that they kept archives of everything that they show.  Anyways, they have a new contest where you can submit a picture of yourself watching CNN Live on your laptop in an unusual location.  

The website for the contest is www.wheredoyouwatchlive.com.  The grand prize is a Slingbox Pro which is a device that lets you watch your video sources such as DVR or DVDs on your laptop or cell phone.  If only I ever had the chance to watch live webcasts on a mountaintop and not on my couch!

Right now I'm on my couch watching a webcast that is listed on my site www.lyvegyde.com about how exercise affects the brain.  I'm trying not to feel too guilty about not exercising more!  My husband and I love to run, but we have not been as consistent about running lately as it is getting colder and we have some aches and pains.  We did go for a 2 mile jog last night, but I was pretty slow!  Oh well, I guess that it is better than nothing!  

Welcome to lyvegyde!

Hi everybody!  Welcome to lyvegyde - my blog about the world of live webcasts and life as a newbie entrepreneur.  I'm Mary Stevens and I'm the co-founder of a new website (www.lyvegyde.com), a guide to live online events. The other co-founder is my brother Will Byrd.   He did most of the programming for the site (I helped out as much as I could along the way...learning some Ruby on Rails, HTML, CSS, etc.).  My focus is more on finding links to interesting events.  We also LOVE to have users submit events that we haven't come across yet.  

Together, we created the site as a central place to find links to interesting live webcasts, web chats, and other events that are broadcast live on the internet.  We have listed links to all kinds of great events since we launched about a month ago, and we have links to some really cool events that are coming up in the future.  Will had the idea for the site after finding that there were some really interesting events happening live online, but also finding that it was sometimes difficult to find information about them.  

Anyways, I'll be writing more about the things I discover in the world of live webcasts as well as my day-to-day life running a website!