Amir, I think the feedback so far is that your initial assumption that
people will find value in watching people work, or broadcasting a
desktop while they work, is probably not going to be the great
application of this tool.

What you have to remember is that there are already tools for a lot of
what you've mentioned as possible applications. For instance, getting
help with a search is a matter of saying "I searched for these
keywords in Google, but didn't find anything." Typically, people will
respond with better keywords, boolean search technique tips, or direct
URLs to the information needed. That's a basic text exchange, and it
takes about 10 KB of bandwidth. I cannot imagine why someone would
want to download several megabytes of video to see someone else fail
at a search term, when it can be done with so much less.

But let's talk about other applications for a streaming screencast,
ones that may be more viable:
* What am I watching? Could be cool for videoblog viewers, but only if
the stream takes less bandwidth than a normal vlog.
* Usability studies, but here the people participating would need to
have some incentive for providing this data to the world (by which I
mean more than just 15 minutes of fame, because that only guarantees
participation for 15 minutes). I could see something like the
aggregated data crunching teams (like [EMAIL PROTECTED]), but for usability
studies for major software products. With prizes. (One of the things I
learned in my usability classes was that you should give the
participants a gift to thank them for their help.)
* How-tos, seminars, and online education (this is the #1 best
application I can think of-- nothing but a screencast can adequately
explain how to do certain things on a computer.)
* Similarly, online sales demos
* Social networking, for instance to post a video transcript of a
videoconference to a website.
* Install-fests, for instance for an online Linux User Group to
broadcast the installation process. since a kernel install is often
without web browser or even network card, though, I don't know if this
one is feasible.

--Stephanie

--
Stephanie Bryant
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Blogs, vlogs, and audioblogs at:
http://www.mortaine.com/blogs


 
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