WebCamMax and Blueline Academy

Found two things recently Justin.tv and WebCamMax.

Justin.tv is a broadcasting site that allows for broadcast streaming. Normally one would be restricted to streaming yourself staring into a webcam. However, with WebCamMax it is not only possible but pretty simple to stream chunks of your desktop.

Before I say more about streaming your desktop it would be only fair to confess that the program does much more, much much more. You can stream a dvd. You can stream multimedia files from your hard-drive. You can switch between any number of connected and active webcam type devices. And, for those that like the extra possibilities of Picture in Picture -- that is available too. Pretty sweet.

However, those are not the features that first attracted me to WebCamMax. For me it was the ease of streaming parts of my desktop. I use Camtasia to record tutorials for upload to YouTube. I like Camtasia for just that purpose. But what about those occasions when you'd like to run a classroom?

With Justin.tv and WebCamMax I am able to run International online classes of pretty much any size. I have seen channels on Justin.tv with many thousand views. I don't expect that a HowTo channel will very soon run out of elbow room.

So, I've been doing Blueline Academy workshops, tutorials, and classroom lessons using WebCamMax. I can work in the program, people can view what I'm doing live. Ask me to clarify a particular point, redo something, and in general interact. Can't beat that.

There seems to be a minor glitch in the system if you want to use voice over while running a video. Well, what do you want for $29.95? And, I'm not entirely convinced there might not be a workaround for that issue. The problem is, in order to broadcast you are juggling Flash Media Encoder, WebCamMax, and your audio card mix board. Lots of buttons to monkey with. So who knows what other potentials exist.

For me, I know that just doing the simple stuff I can manage to get my mic to transmit audio and the WebCamMax to transmit my desktop, and thus I can do online classes around the world. A major boon for a distant learning program. And the total cost is practically zero.