We shoot our videos using miniDV tape, then "capture" them using Final Cut Studio. Capturing imports the video onto the hard drive. File sizes for uncompressed video are huge! Our 20-minute interviews are too large to fit onto a DVD. That makes it very difficult to transfer files between camera crews and editing crews.

We edit in Final Cut Studio, then "render" (compress) the video using Cleaner software. When I first saw the pulldown menu in Cleaner for video compression settings, I knew I could never edit film. There are dozens of format choices! We render in one: QuickTime MPEG-4, AAC.

Because we render in only one format, we get complaints from people, especially on older computers, that they can't access the video. Now my tech guru says, "Tough. If they want to watch video online, they need to update their gear. No matter what format we render in, those people will not be happy. No one on a 56K modem is going to like online video."

And he's right. Since we switched from offering video in 7 formats to offering it in 1 format, our connection complaints have stayed roughly the same. Either way, we have the same number of dissatisfied users. To maintain 7 choices, we'd have to stay up on the latest software in five different programs. Our customer service problems have remain unchanged, but our production costs have dropped significantly.

On the other hand, my Production Manager thinks we should offer at least one alternative format specifically optimized for Windows computer users on older systems. That would probably cure at least half of the format complaints we get.

And he's right, too. We really should be producing in two formats: one that works on most PCs and iPods as well, and one that works on older Windows PCs. It's a tough call.

Even tougher calls are ahead. We also produce DVDs from our videos, and there's a whole 'nother kettle of fish. There are two formats fighting it out for the future of DVD. I hope someone chimes into this dicussion who knows more about this than me; I'm trying to keep my head low until victory is declared.

Videos on cell phones, as I've learned, is the least organized of all these markets. There are several different format choices (none very good, I'm told), and numerous different delivery systems, the file sizes are huge, what do you when the connection drops??? Even though our videos easily go into iTunes, it will be a long time before we make a version for phones.

Anyone care to add to this discussion?

Tomorrow I'll talk a little more about the file size problem.

STEVE O'KEEFE
V.P. IAOC
President, AuthorViews, Inc.

An epic battle is being waged, in cyberspace and, more to the point, in my space -- my office -- over what formats to use for online video.

Until last fall, we made our videos available in the following formats:

QuickTime
MPEG-4
MPEG-1
RealMedia (hi res & lo res)
Windows Media (hi res & lo res)

Your consumer looks at that list and goes, "Huh?" How do you know which one to click? So we installed a nifty little applet that would ping a browser's config and -- presto! -- serve up the perfect video for that user. However, many people behind firewalls will not let the applet ping their systems, and so they can't access the video, even though they have the right gear.

This fall, Apple made life easier on us in many ways by introducing the video iPod and making it compatible with only two different file formats. The codec we use is called "QuickTime MPEG-4, AAC". A codec is an algorithm that contains instructions for compressing and decompressing video. The main ratio we look at when choosing a codec is the clarity compared with the file size. The codec we use results in incredibly small file sizes (2 megabytes/minute) with outstanding clarity on an iPod. Every new generation of codec results in a geometrical improvement in quality and reduction in file size. That's what's really powering the online video revolution: Moore's Law.

So last fall, we started rendering our videos in one format instead of seven. The only problem is, you can't see the videos unless you are running QuickTime 6 or higher. Lots of people cannot see our videos now. So should we render videos in Windows Media or RealMedia or some alternative to make it easier on people?

No.

That's what my tech guru says.

Yes.

That's what my video production manager says.

Me? I'm stuck in the middle. Tomorrow, I'll present some arguments pro and con in this debate.

But I'd like to hear what YOU have to say about it. Have you had experience producing online video? What formats do you prefer? Have you been frustrated trying to use video online? Any pet peeves?

Your's for Smaller Files & Greater Clarity,
STEVE O'KEEFE
V.P. IAOC
President, AuthorViews, Inc.

I'm going to try kickstarting our awesome program, "This Week on IAOCblog.com," with a program about online video. Every day, I release a new 2-minute video at the AuthorViews web site. It's a daunting pace and requires that my head be firmly fastened to developing issues in online video. The business press breaks major online video stories almost every day. Google, Amazon, Apple, Sony, Microsoft -- they are all making major video-related deals every week. It's an exciting, difficult time for this nascent industry. I'll try to talk about some of the most pressing issues this week.

I'd also like to introduce everyone to one my associates, Morty Schiller, whom I've asked to assist with "This Week on IAOCblog.com." Morty is a copyrwriter extraordinaire, a blogger (his blog is called Wordrider), and has a wonderful sense of playfulness in his postings. Morty recently conducted a blog PR campaign for the book, The Case for Peace, by Alan Dershowitz, with me kibbitzing. Morty has a write-up about that campaign on his blog.

I'm hoping that Morty will assume the duties that PR Diva Gwendolynn Gawlick performed so admirably last fall: scheduling guest presenters for "This Week on IAOCblog.com," getting them passwords and usernames, and introducing the weekly topics and bloggers.

So, if you would like to take a week on the blog, please send topic ideas and dates to morty@mortyschiller.com, and we'll try to get this party started and keep it rolling to Valley Forge!

I am very excited to let members know that I will be bringing a camera crew to the Valley Forge IAOC Conference.

On Thursday, March 23, I will be videotaping interviews in the morning. In the afternoon, I'll be presenting a program following a video from where it goes into the camera lens until it comes out on an iPod! This should be a fascinating overview of issues in making and using online video, including: shooting, capturing, editing, titling, rendering, serving, uploading as a podcast to iTunes, and downloading to a handheld device. You need to come to Valley Forge a little early to get in on this. You won't want to miss it!

Please feel free to e-mail me with any questions about this program. More details will follow on this blog.

STEVE O'KEEFE
V.P. IAOC

In the introduction to his Q&A with ENIAC co-inventor J. Presper Eckert, Alexander Randall wrote, “There are two epochs in computer history: Before ENIAC and After ENIAC.” Dr. Da Hsuan Feng a technology visionary who is Vice President for Research and Economic Development at the University of Texas at Dallas, wrote about the “after ENIAC” nearly ten years ago.

While a physics professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Feng teamed with University of Pennsylvania Physics Professor Robert Hollebeek to launch HUBS, a proposed region-wide super-network connecting area hospitals, universities, businesses and schools.

Feng left Philadelphia before HUBS could take root, but he got a lot of people in the region talking and thinking about what networked computers mean to the region and the world. Following is an excerpt of an e-mail message he sent to HUBS list members that noted the 50th anniversary of ENIAC and the breaking of the “teraflop barrier.”

"The world of computing never ceases to amaze all of us. I guess this is why on the one hand we are all fascinated by it, and on the other truly frightened by how this technology is going to affect all of us, economically, intellectually and even culturally!

Well, here is something to consider.... The world just broke the one teraflops barrier. Yes, this means that [with] this machine, in one second, 12,000,000,000,000 pairs of numbers could be added up!

It is interesting to note that just 50 years ago, the first electronic computer called ENIAC was born in our town. ENIAC could add (hang on to your hat) 360 pairs of numbers every second. A very simple calculation will tell us that if ENIAC could run continuously for one millennium (yes, one thousand years) nonstop, it could do what this machine could do in one second! This is what mankind is able to achieve in 50 years. Do we dare to predict what our world is going to be like in the next 50?" - "Now that we are all comfortable with terabytes, what about teraflops?” HUBS memo, e-mail news list, December 18, 1996

Ten years ago, the World Wide Web was still new to most of us. In May of 1996, my company introduced its first website at the largest trade show serving the process industries. The website drew a crowd to our booth, including the publishers of every major trade magazine, none of whom were yet on the web. Now the web is K-Tron’s single most important communication medium, and I think for all companies the web’s importance has far exceeded anyone’s most optimistic projections.

Ten years ago we didn’t have blogs or podcasts. We didn’t have online communication, and we didn’t have an organization to serve online communicators. On March 23-24, you have an opportunity to join us in Philadelphia (Valley Forge) for IAOC’s first ever conference, “Where Content and Technology Meet.”  You still have time to register online and save $100, plus get a year’s membership--all for $199. Can’t make it to Valley Forge in March? We’re going to do it all again (with different topics and presenters) in Brussels June 15-16.

I have been tardy preparing the outline for the Online Crisis Communications panel at the IAOC Conference in Valley Forge on Friday, March 24. Below is the draft description I am currently circulating. I think the real payoff is going to be the Online Crisis Communications Checklist we are preparing as a handout.

Consider this: NOLA.com -- the web site of the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper (gotta love that name -- almost as descriptive as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer) -- was up and running within 24 hours of Hurricane Katrina's landfall. On the other hand, Tulane University's e-mail server was down for over a month! Do you want to be like NOLA.com or Tulane when some disaster strikes your hometown or place of business? We are going to help you be like NOLA.com. In fact, I'm still negotiating with a true tech hero at NOLA.com to come speak to us in Valley Forge.

One last comment before I share the panel description with you. One reason we need the IAOC is that technology is moving too fast to be scheduled a year in advance. Many major conferences schedule their programming that far ahead, and it takes all the life out of teaching technology. Let's see, one year ago: no Katrina, almost no one heard about Skype, Wikipedia in its infancy, blogging still mostly done by teenage girls, etc. Some conferences are always a year behind. The IAOC won't settle for that (I hope). Sometimes the programming will be assembled at the last minute, but it results in us teaching the hot topics where the learning curve is still steep -- even for the instructors. Can I get an amen? Can I get some conference registrations? Here's the working description of the panel:

Online Crisis Communications
IAOC Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
Panel Discussion, Friday, March 24, 2006, 2:00 - 3:15 p.m.

On August 29th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina took a bite out of the U.S. Gulf Coast, including the levees protecting New Orleans. In a matter of hours, virtually all electronic communications in the region came to a halt. Some companies, such as NOLA.com, never missed a beat, providing vital communications links between displaced residents and first responders back home. Other firms, such as Tulane University, were without e-mail for weeks or months. This crisis pointed up the weaknesses in many corporate communications plans -- and the genius in others. This panel will give an overview of what to expect in a communications crisis, using Katrina as an example, while providing participants with a solid plan for protecting their communications from disaster and/or restoring communications in the wake of disaster.

The World's first computer was unveiled in Philadelphia on February 14, 1946. To mark the 60th anniversary of the birth of the modern computer, Computer World's Alexander Randall 5th published a "lost interview" yesterday with ENIAC co-inventor J. Presper Eckert.

The interview was recorded in 1989, when Eckert was 70 years old. It's a great read and debunks a lot of myths (such as ENIAC dimming Philadelphia's lights). It also explains how Philadelphia came to be the birthplace of the computer.

Vacuum Tube Valley
ENIAC contained 18,000 vacuum tubes. All were off the shelf, and Philadelphia was the place to be if you needed tubes. "… in that era," Eckert told Randall, "Philadelphia was 'Vacuum Tube Valley.' Radios and Televisions were predominately made in Philadelphia."

Even for Vacuum Tube Valley, 18,000 tubes (and spares) was a big order. In the interview, Eckert said a radio had just five or six tubes, a TV up to 30. He said ENIAC could have been built with just four types of tubes, but to get enough (they bought them in lots of a thousand) the developers settled on 10 different tube types.

From Vacuum Tube Valley to Valley Forge
Some call Philadelphia--home to the Liberty Bell--the birthplace of  liberty. A few remember it as the birthplace of the computer. While it doesn’t come close to comparing to those momentous events, for those whose professional lives have been shaped by online communication, you can help make IAOC’s first conference  at Valley Forge a milestone event for online communicators. Register online and save $100, plus get a year’s membership, all for a bargain $199.

As of last Friday, 13 papers have been accepted for presentation at the IAOC conference in Valley Forge, March 23-24, 2006. Presenters are coming from California, Denver, New York, Washington, Baltimore and the Philadelphia area. We have a nice mix of academics and practitioners giving papers, covering topics ranging from the theoretical, to the experimental, to practical experience--including efforts to untangle issues of law and ethics.

Our seminar chair, Dr. Suzanne FitzGerald, says that based on recent submissions she estimates we’ll be able to make room for perhaps two more papers. February 22 is the deadline to reserve your place at the Valley Forge Conference and save $100. No need to pay now. Just go online and make your seminar reservation. We’ll bill you.

There are a limited number of hotel rooms available at the special IAOC rate of $109 per night, so reserve your room early. To make your hotel reservation, phone +1-610-337-2000. Be sure to mention IAOC to get the conference price.

Plan to arrive Thursday in time for networking and a reception, hosted by Rowan University. Stay over Friday so you can join us for an informal after-conference dinner: no speeches, just time to meet and get to know your fellow online communicators. We’ll also have information available for those interested in touring historic Valley Forge or Philadelphia on Saturday. Details on the dinner will follow soon.

Following is a preliminary list of papers and their authors.

Internet Crisis Communication and Online Communities:  A Case Study
By Patricia Swann

Cyber Media ‘Cybergens’ in a Post Global Era of Cybercentrism
By Lansing Gordon

CyberGens and the Cybercentrism Model
By Lansing Gordon

Engaging Graduate-Level Online Students in Authentic Learning Using Web Quests
By Mark Van Dyke

Experiments in Online Channels for Internal Communication at Lockheed Martin
By Jeanine Zeitvogel, NJ

Rethinking Age Discrimination:  How a Mature Workforce Could Pay Greater Dividends in an Information Economy
By Joe Basso

Reducing the Risk of Uncertainty:  Safeguarding Against Electronic Documents and Other Written Reports Becoming Exhibit A in Court
By Joe Basso

Placing Diversity within “One Click” on Fortune 500 Company Web Sites:  It’s the Right Thing to Do
By Tia Tyree

The Credibility Exchange Effect:  How Linking Influences Web Credibility
By Michele Rosen

Communicating with the Media via Email – What Works and What Does Not
By Gary McNeil

“A Crisis of Respect” Why it is so hard for professional communicators to adopt new technology in their practice?
By Dee Rambeau

The new rules of PR:  How to create a press release strategy for reaching buyers directly By David Meerman Scott

Emerging Ethical Issues for Online Communicators – Or, Seven Problems We Just Figured Out We Had
By Carl Hausman

I'm speaking on Thursday about the new online communication tools at the National Investor Relations Institute's Philadelphia chapter. I've been doing a little research on the use of RSS and blogs in the IR arena. I started with a bloglines search (because that’s my main RSS reader) on "Investor Relations."

You wouldn't believe how few people (at least those using bloglines) subscribe to the IR feeds found in my search. Most IR blogs have 1 to 5 subscribers. Of the big companies, BMW and IBM were among the few that show up as with RSS feeds of their IR pages. But when you go to the website, BMW only offers email subscription (no RSS feed) on their IR pages. IBM does have an RSS feed on its IR Web page and it has a respectable 50 subscribers in bloglines.

My results with a Google Blog search were even more interesting:

 Today, when I did a Google blog search of "Investor Relations," the number one listing was Steve O’Keefe’s post on IAOC. (Thank-you, Steve). Steve’s blog was prompted by my email to him and Dee Rambeau asking for their take on online IR.

Goggle listed a story about its own earnings at the No. 4 spot: "Google Q4 2005 Earnings Conference Call Transcript (GOOG)." This story is posted on The Internet Stock Blog, and here’s the fun part: the lead story today on The Internet Stock Blog was "Yahoo’s a Better Deal than Google." This story didn’t show up in the first three pages of my Google Blog search (which is as far as time permitted for me to look). Not that Google would filter out news more favorable to its main competitor, but it does add to the fun that the majority of Google Blog listings in the first two pages are from… guess who… the Internet Stock Blog. Obviously these folks know how to get a high page rank on a Google Blog search. But not when they write about Yahoo. If someone does a search on Yahoo, let me know if the tables are turned!

Beyond Steve O’Keefe’s post, you have to get down to No. 18 in my Google search to find a blog post that actually discusses IR and blogging. On his blog "Portals and KM" ("Knowledge Management" for those who let their subscription to "Information Week" lapse) Bill Ives posted this article: "Investor Relations and Blogging – Ross Dawson." 

Ives gives kudos to IBM for its use of RSS and podcasts in its investor relations and points to his article IBM’s Social Software Initiatives: Blogs, Wikis, Tagging, and More as "another example of the creativity that IBM is applying to these new tools."

It’s worth following the link to the longer Dawson article, which appeared on his "Trends in the Living Networks by Ross Dawson." A "business futurist" and author, Dawson writes:

"Blogging is a fabulous tool for giving greater visibility to the governance process, and providing investors with a chance to provide their input and perspectives. Certainly the traditional annual meeting is completely ineffective as a system for getting investor participation and involvement. One of the initial objections you often get on implementing blogging on investor relations issues concerns regulations on corporate disclosure, such as Regulation FD (meaning Fair Disclosure. Regulation FD was established largely to stop large investors getting preferential access to information). Given that RSS feeds allow everyone to get immediate notification of anything released on a blog, blogging in fact provides far more egalitarian information flows than other forms of release."

Dawson concludes with the hopeful prediction: "I believe that in just the next twelve months, blogging for investor relations purposes will become commonplace. The difference between those boards that really do believe in communicating with their investors, and those that prefer to avoid any interference by pesky shareholders, will swiftly become evident."

My guess is it will take longer than 12 months for IR to get comfortable with blogging—if a highly regulated (read "controlled") activity can ever fully embrace the uncontrolled blog environment. RSS and podcasting, however could be another story. I’ll be interested to learn what the folks at NIRI think on Thursday evening. IR presents some unique and interesting challenges to online communicators. Who wants to volunteer to host a blog week here at IAOC on the topic?

Don Dunnington

I have a pet peeve about fascinating discussions taking place in e-mail that belong on this blog. So let's kick it out, ladies and gentlemen, and see if we can get This Week on IAOCblog.com up and running again with a discussion of Online Communications in Investor Relations.

Don Dunnington broached the subject because he is giving a presentation at the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) meeting in Philadelphia on Thursday. The focus of the program is IR and blogging, v-blogging, and podcasting -- something like that.

Online IR was given a big boost by the Security & Exchange Commission's Regulation FD, requiring full disclosure of material financial information to all investors simultaneously. Webcasting earnings reports is one of the few ways to stay on the right side of Regulation FD.

My take on this was that IR folks are going to need to learn online video if they want their earnings reports to spread far and wide (of course, sometimes you don't want earnings reports spreading at all). I've been working with online video for four years now and I can tell you it is tough sledding. In some ways, Apple has made it easier for us because there are only two formats of digital video that play on iPods and cell phones. When you realize that there are hundreds of compression settings you can use with online video, narrowing the number down to 2 is a great relief. I'm thinking if you're broadcasting earnings reports, you'll want them to go onto handhelds.

Don found some interesting stats about subscribers to IR casts and then Dee Rambeau dished some info about how it's relatively easy to syndicate earnings reports through RSS. I hope those gentlement will post on this topic in the coming days and that you, dear reader, will chime in, too, and then This Week on IAOCblog.com will be back in business!

Late Friday, Gary McNeil, Vice President of Marketing at Vocus, informed me they have joined in sponsoring the IAOC conferences, "Where Content and Technology Meet," in Valley Forge and Brussels. 

Together with IBM and Rowan University, Vocus will be helping bring together academics, practitioners and technology leaders in online  communication. The conference will comprise roundtable paper presentations, keynote luncheon speakers and an afternoon panel discussion. Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz, co-hosts of For Immediate Release, will be the keynote speakers. Holtz will be the luncheon speaker in Valley Forge on March 24, while Hobson joins in from Europe via Skype. In Brussels, the roles are reversed with Hobson presenting in the flesh, and Holtz being the virtual presenter.

Thanks to the support from our sponsors, you can register early at a bargain US$199 (169€), which includes conference materials, a reception on Thursday evening, breakfast and lunch on Friday. Late registration fee is $US 299 (253€). The conference fee includes a one-year membership in IAOC.

E-Site Marketing president and IAOC member Felix Laboy tells me the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) for the first time is inviting bloggers to their press conference and networking cocktail reception, on Thursday, Feb. 9 at the Marriott Marquis in New York City.

Ministers and Directors of Tourism from the Caribbean will be addressing "What's New and Hot in the Caribbean."  Each representative will have a few moments to discuss the their plans for 2006, followed by a Q & A session.  Following the press conference, bloggers are invited to join a "Networking Cocktail Reception," which provides an opportunity for bloggers interested in travel writing to connect with a lot of Caribbean destinations in a single meeting.

The press conference starts at 4:00 PM in the Julliard Suite on the 5th Floor of the Marriott Marquis (45th Street and Broadway). 

If you're interested in attending, or have an associate who might like to attend, contact Anne Daloia at (516) 594-4100 or e-mail: Anne@Kahn-Travel.com. She'd like to hear from you by Thursday, Feb. 2, if you plan to attend.

Don Dunnington