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...