Gurutube.net is a site that features experts like Guy Kawasaki, Jeremiah Owyang, Stefanie Michaels and MC Hammer sharing their knowledge about building business and brands online. It’s a no frills look a spectrum of topics related to social media. Here’s my talk on video blogging:

Thank you to Jeremy Vaught for the image used as the thumbnail for this post.

I’m back in San Francisco from a few weeks away in New York City. One of my favorite things to do when I get back from a long trip is to take my bike for a ride to the Golden Gate Bridge. I figured this would be a perfect time to test the Kodak Zx1 I got in New York to record some new video for my blog. It’s been interesting getting use to filming in HD and HD60 mode. The HD version makes the aspect ratio different from the standard Flip I’ve been using. That means I don’t always get my face in frame! It’s not a big deal, but it is something I will need to get use to if I’m going to keep using it! I really like the form factor of this camera and I love the color. It’s easy to keep in my bag and feels pretty sturdy. Plus I love that it’s pink! You can actually choose from a range of colors.

The Kodak Zx1 records in 3 modes VGA, HD and HD60. You can also take pictures. One thing I noticed, while using an HD camera is that HD video shows imperfections and is less forgiving than a standard Flip video which is what I’ve been using for most of the videos on my site. That means that when I have a bad camera movement, it’s more obvious. It also means that when I roll out of the house and go for a bike ride…. you get a clearer picture of me. That’s not always so pleasant! That being said, the picture quality is nice. I love the shots of the bay and the bridge. The colors are nice and the picture quality is good though the image stabilization could be better.

Video is stored on an SD card and it runs off rechargeable Kodak AA batteries. The camera comes with a charger (but no SD card so you have to buy one of those in addition to buying the camera). Uploading the video is done with a firewire cable that comes with the Zx1. I use Final Cut Express to edit my video and that is a bit of a challenge because the media is HDV and since Final Cut doesn’t recognize this format, I had to convert all the files to DV to introduce them to Final Cut. That was time consuming and a challenge to figure out. Now that I’ve done it once it will be less time consuming in the future, but in all honesty, I really, really, really, really wish that my files imported without having to convert them all.

My friend David used the Kodak Zx1 to record while riding his scooter around town. This is a great test of it in action. I thought the audio quality wasn’t half bad for being on the road and moving up to 45 mi/hr.

Last, here’s the episode of unboxing featuring the Kodak Zx1!

I had a great opportunity while in New York City for the 140 Character Conference to participate in a panel on video and twitter. This is the first panel I’ve been on about social media and it was a pleasure to be a part of the discussion. The use of video is on the rise but it can also still be an intimidating process for some folks or an element they haven’t even considered. The panel was a quick discussion about video blogging, there is much, much more still to discuss. It seemed like we’d only started talking when our time was over.  The funnies moment for me was after the panel seeing myself quoted in the twitter stream! Some of my quotes where “reality takes time”, ” I do tea time on my site” and “I’d like to pay my rent”. All true statements, but weird when you hear them coming back at you! All in all it was a great gathering. Thank you to Jeff Pulver for putting it together and making it possible for some good discussions to take root.

If you’re interested in seeing video from the rest of the conference you can find it on Justin Kahn’s Blip Page. I suggest watching the news gathering panel with Ann Curry of the Today show (for back story read Massucchi’s Take: and Curry steals the show), Twitter, Media and Chaos Theory and Twitter for Social Good. Those were my favorite discussions. I also want to add that my fellow panelists, Christian Payne and Steve Garfield are 2 video bloggers who have influenced the way I blog. If you have a chance, do check out some of their work.

Last, I want to thank Kodak for asking me to be on the video panel. By the way, Jeffrey Hayzlett, the moderator and  CMO of Kodak,  if forgiven for butchering my name. Misproununciation of it is something I live with everyday and don’t mind helping people say it right. (sook-jeet… sook-jeet). I know he practiced before the panel, so he tried! Some of my friends think it was probably a barrier from the audience pushing my twitter follow (cause they couldn’t figure out how to spell my name) but it is what it is, right? Hope you enjoy the video and if you have questions about the conference or about video blogging leave me a comment and I’ll do my best to answer!

This is the finale to my mini cooper tire saga! Thank you to everyone who helped me figure out what tires to get. Also big props to Tire Rack and to the shop I went to called Best Auto Repair on Turk Street in San Francisco. They were very professional and helpful… I saved money and I got the tires I wanted… with help from my friends. By the way, I ended up calling the 800 number on Tire Rack instead of following the site menues. I was just easier for me. Also the tires took several days to get to the shop but that was because I ordered right before a holiday weekend. So all in all it was a good experience. If you have questions about it, please ask!

I made these videos to help explain how to use the 3 modes of PeopleBrowsr. If you didn’t get a chance to meet the PeopleBrowsr team and get a real life demo at 140 The Twitter Conference, then I hope you’ll take a few minutes to look at the videos here!

*

PeopleBrowsr Lite

*

PB Advanced

*

PB Business

When I first started using social media, I kept hearing about something called a tweetup… and it sounded like the funnest thing ever. Let me tell you now that I have been to a few tweetups, they ARE the funnest things ever. What is a tweetup? Tweetups are a spontaneous gathering of people sparked and organized on Twitter. I decided to do a video to help explain this phenomenon while at a tweetup recently in Honolulu! I was lucky to have a moment to catch up with Tom Merrit whose podcast Buzz Out Loud is listened to by tech, gadget and social media junkies all around the world… (Tom and his lovely wife, Eileen are old friends of mine from TechTV) I also got some great tips on a ways to organize a tweetup from the man who organized my first ever tweetup, Ryan Ozawa. And since it’s all about logistics, there are some tweetup best practices from the organizer of this tweetup, Burt Lum. Ryan and Burt, by the way, have a great radio show in Honolulu called Bytemarkscafe.

Watch this video and get tips on throwing a tweetup, best practices and useful tools. Thanks to Ryan and his jailbroken iphone we also have a great behind the scenes and bloopers video!

And here is a bonus video! Meet the tweeters and see the entire interview uncut with Tom!

Front page featured image courtesy: Burt Lum

This is for anyone interested in putting video mail or live video on their site. I did this video for my friend @bryanbuchan who asked me on twitter how my video mail is set up.

What do you get the girl that has everything?! Well, every year on April 29th, that is my problem because it’s my sister, Amerjit’s birthday. This year my brother-in-law, Larry gave her something I thought was pretty great, I’m not sure what it’s official name is… but I’m going to calling it the “Purse Hanger” and it comes from a store called Into in Downtown Honolulu. If you follow me on twitter you know I’m in Hawaii visiting family and because I think the “Purse Hanger” is such a fabulous find, I decided to share it with you as an episode of Unboxing. This particular innovation is really exceptional and around $20. I think anyone who has been stuck with a bag or purse at a bar or restaurant would agree this is a must have. I also want to say, if you’re looking for a place for great $6 Loatian plate lunch, Lemongrass Cafe is the place for you. No link, but I mention the address towards the end of the video.

If I get any more product details I will make sure to post them here. For now enjoy this episode of Unboxing.

My painting from artist Regis Scott arrived today. I met her in New Orleans while I was traveling this year. You can find out more about it here. For now, hope you enjoy this unboxing!!

I talk about Cooking Capsules quite often, but I realized somewhere along the line, there’s a chance that people who follow me on twitter or facebook have no idea what I’m talking about! So, I decided while having a coffee with the creator of Cooking Capsules to film a very simple video to serve as quick explanation. I shot this in a crowded cafe with my Flipcam so please be a little forgiving of the blur and audio, there is a more polished video in the works. For now… here you go! Also, there is a great story behind the creation of the Cooking Capsules Android application for the G1. If you’re an entrepreneur read more about it and the creator, my friend Mary Ann Cotter.

Click here for the Chana Dal recipe I mention in the video.

I was one of a lucky few to get last minute tickets to see Green Day this week at the Independent. It was a great show. Billie Joe and the boys are true rock stars and entertainers and the smiles on their faces the whole night just showed how much they love what they do. They played for about 3 hours, both new and old songs… even taking requests at the end.

If you’ve been to the Independent in San Francisco, you know it’s an intimate venue. I think there were only about 500 people at the show. The staff is super nice and organized, in fact after the show a staff guy was outside personally saying, “Thanks for coming to the show, get home safe..” as everyone exited the building. I give 2 thumbs up to them for a great night.

My only disappointment (and this is the case with other live music venues) is they don’t allow cameras in the house. Since I started video blogging, I shoot and post all the time and it’s disappointing not to be able to share pictures and short clips of a show I am really excited about. That being said, with iPhones and smart phones, it’s impossible for anyone to control all the crowd and the images and last night was a prime example of that… as soon as the Green Day boys got on stage, the phones came out. So much so that, Billie Joe stopped the show to address it by posing for a minute.

Last year I went to Outsidelands Festival where media sharing was encouraged. They worked with Crowdfire to create a great virtual experience powered by people like me. I shot little videos about the music, my friends, the things happening at the festival and I got to share them. It made my experience that much more fun. I can’t understand why sharing isn’t encouraged. If you want to build community isn’t encouraging your fans to spread the word the way to go???

Soooooo…. although it wasn’t “allowed”… I did shoot a couple of short clips with my little Samsung phone and here they are. Sorry, Billie Joe… you might not want me to shoot video of you while you’re playing, but I did it anyway.. and I’m glad. =)

Well, the cross country drive has come to an end. I am finally in DC after being on the road for 3 weeks. If you haven’t heard of my SXSW and Beyond cross country adventure, let me just quickly tell you: My dear friend Rachael Joy and I drove from San Francisco to Austin for SXSW and then on to DC where she is going to live now. Along with our laptops, Rachael’s little Prius (she calls him Pete) was packed and almost overflowing with her belongings and some must have souvenirs we collected along the way.

Road Trip Essential

One thing I brought with me from San Francisco was a Griffin iTrip so we could share music from Rachael’s iPhone and my iTouch. Needless to say, when I was finally done playing every single Bhangra song I had, we started listening to Rachel’s playlist which included some music from a friend of her’s named Chuck Carrier. (We had a chance to meet Chuck in Atlanta where he played at Eddie’s Attic. We missed the show but where glad to find such a great venue for local music.)

The roadtrip soundtrack was an important part of our travel and we used the iTrip daily. While we were on the road, I decided to do a little product review of the Griffin iTrip. Yes, Rachael did ALL the driving, so I had to keep myself entertained somehow and did this little review as we drove out of lovely North Carolina! Hope you enjoy this episode of Unboxing .. and the soundtrack by Mr. Chuck Carrier!

One more thing I forgot to mention in the featured video above: