Screencast.com Blog

Screencast.com January 2010 Update

2010-01-26T18:51:06Z

Screencast.com is continuing to grow and improve. We started our most recent development sprint back in November 2009, before there was snow on the ground. The Holiday season came and went, I gained a few pounds; and the Screencast.com team has continued to work on a variety of visible and not-so-visible enhancements which we just unveiled today with our most recent publish. 2010 will be all about iteration and improvement (and hopefully weight-loss), but with an ear to the ground and an eye to the future. We'll need your help to let us know what works and what doesn't work.

So what DO we have to show you? Well, you can now customize the colors of your embeddable Flash player (by virtue of embed code flashvars for now).

You can now "deep link" into MP4 video through the use of a time-coded URL, and we'll automatically hyperlink any reference to video time in comments.

We cleaned up the iTunes and podcast publishing process, and we put some things in place to better handle viewing mobile compatible content through mobile devices - though you will still need to know what kind of content is compatible with what devices...more on that later.

We did a lot of things we can't show you but you'll appreciate none-the-less. Those things have more to do with backend, architectural improvements to support the millions of viewers that visit the site and the even more millions of pieces of content that are constantly being uploaded, managed, and shared. We also did a few things we can't show you yet, but will one day. Think Silverlight, multiple account management, intra-video text searching, and ... dare I say subfolders? Someday...

Well, what's clear is that we're not running out of things to do, thanks to you. So thank you to all of you who've been so loyal to Screencast.com; all of TechSmith appreciates your business. I and the team will continue to read your feedback each and every day, and I will do my best to respond personally when I can. Happy New Year to everyone and as always - happy screencasting!

-Dirk

Understanding Folder Privacy Options

2010-01-08T14:33:36Z

Screencast.com is different from other online media repositories in that content owners have an exceptional amount of control over who sees their content. There are four types of privacy settings: Public, Hidden, Password, and Authenticated.

In this post, we break down the four levels of Privacy settings and, more importantly, provide context for why and when to use them. Privacy settings are available to all Screencast.com users, whether you have a free or Pro account, including Jing users.

To learn how to apply the various privacy settings, please refer to this video and tutorial.

Public

What Does it Mean?

With a name like Public, you might think anyone could stumble across your content. It turns out that's not exactly the case. Screencast.com does not allow search engines to index content, nor do we provide any means for a viewer to search Screencast.com content.

Public means that when you share a folder's content with someone, they can access all other content in the same folder.

Important: Your Library is always considered Public. The Library is basically the root of your Screencast.com account. If people know your Screencast.com display name, they can add it to the Screencast.com URL and see all of your Public folders.

For example: http://www.screencast.com/users/mcurtis. The "mcurtis" part is my display name and you can see what I have in there. (Not very exciting.)

When Should I Use It?
Make a folder Public when you want to allow anyone (theoretically) to view your content.

For example:

You want as many people as possible to be able to experience your video tutorials or music you've written and performed.
You're going to use the content on a website or blog and you hope people will not just view the featured content but sift through the other content in the folder.

Hidden

What Does it Mean?

Viewers cannot browse content in a Hidden folder. The content owner can share a link to an individual piece of content with a viewer. The viewer clicks the link and can only see that specific piece of content; the viewer has no ability to access anything else in the folder.

A Hidden folder is very convenient because you can have personal, private content right next to stuff you don't care if the world saw and be confident no one will stumble onto it.

When Should I Use It?
Make a folder Hidden to easily share one piece of content with a viewer, but not allow them to access the rest of the folder contents.

For example:

Random Jings (The Jing folder is set to Hidden by default).
You want to share a piece of individual content, but you have no idea who might view it. Blog comments would be a good example.
In your work with a client, you want to provide access to a single piece of content.

Fun fact: You may be familiar with URL shortening services like Bit.ly or Tiny URL. Screencast.com's URLs are longer than most--and for a reason. The odds of someone randomly entering the case-sensitive alpha numeric URL are about 1 in 10^28. That's 10 with 28 zeros after it! Here's a URL to a silly Captain Jing/Holiday Sweater photo from a little event at work. http://screencast.com/t/OTkwYzA3ZT There happens to be a lot of other content in that folder as well, but I'm confident you'll never see it.

Password-Protected

What Does it Mean?

This type of privacy control is very straight forward. If people know the password to the folder, they can see everything inside the folder.

Tip: To experience the folder as your viewers will, sign out of Screencast.com and access your folder and content as a viewer.

When Should I Use It?
Make a folder Password-Protected when you want to allow anyone with a password to view your content.

For example:

Family photos and videos you share with relatives
Internal company or department content
Working with colleague to collaborate on some videos

Authenticated Folder

What Does it Mean?

This method of privacy is the most secure and provides the content creator with control over access on a per-individual basis.

There are two steps to obtain access to an Authenticated folder.

The content creator invites the individuals they wish to have access to their content. The invitation is sent to the individual's email address via the Screencast.com website.
The people that receive the email must sign into Screencast.com using an existing account or sign up for a free Screencast.com account.

The beauty and power of an Authenticated folder is that once you have people set up, you can restrict access on a per individual basis.

Here's an example scenario for using an Authenticated folder:

An instructor has an online class. Dozens of people are paying to take the class, and as the weeks progress more and more instructional content is added to the class' Authenticated folder. At some point in the term, perhaps some people drop the class or get a refund. The instructor can revoke their access on an individual basis. This allows the right people to still have uninterrupted access to the content.

When Should I Use It?
Make a folder Authenticated when you want to allow restrict access to only those you specifically invite, without the risk of viewers sharing passwords or links. You can also revoke access to a specific viewer at any time.

For example:

Instructors & students
Newsletter subscribers
Any time you have a specific list of people and you want control on a per-individual basis

Screencast.com Update

2009-09-29T13:30:45Z

We completed our rolling update this morning and I'm happy to report that everything went as planned. The improvements I spoke of in my last post are live and we're looking for feedback on what everyone thinks. Next week we will be starting the planning process for our next series of development sprints which will focus on online analytics packages and one of the most requested enhancements to date: Subfolders.

In the meantime, I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on public vs. private content. Screencast.com has always kept your content exactly where you wanted it - secured by a password or in an authenticated folder or playlist, or in your publicly-visible Library, folder or playlist. While it's possible for someone to "stumble" onto your public content, we don't do anything to promote your public content with search engines. In fact, we do everything we can to prevent search engines from crawling through the system and indexing content. This is partly by design since Pro account users pay for the bandwidth that's used when their content is consumed. It seemed disingenuous to us to openly promote content only to then ask you to pay for the cost of popularity. However, many of you are asking for help in getting your content "found", and it would be relatively easy for us to assist content owners in the process of exposing their public content to the myriad of search engines that are out there these days.

So, what do you think? A lot of you have indicated that you want your content to be found and consumed. Why else would you have created it in the first place? However, increased exposure of your content could have consequences depending on how popular it becomes. I'd like to hear from you all on the subject. Feel free to post comments or send me your feedback.

Happy Screencasting!

Dirk Frazier
Product Manager
Screencast.com

Screencast.com News- September 2009

2009-09-10T12:13:17Z

Lately I've been remiss updating this blog with news and my views. It's been a pretty cold summer up here in the Great Lakes, maybe that's affected my ability to type. It certainly hasn't been because of a lack of anything to write about. Back in June I mentioned that we were beginning to focus on improving the scalability of Screencast.com. I'm happy to report that our efforts have been successful and we're just about finished with some of the more significant aspects of that process. This means that we'll be turning our attention back to the fun stuff that you all have been asking for - features!

At the end of this month, we're releasing an updated version of the MediaRoll which will let everyone customize the look to match their own preferences. Here's an example of a MediaRoll in action on the Jing Blog. If you have an existing MediaRoll embedded on a Web page or blog, and you want to take advantage of the new capabilities, you'll need to re-embed the new object. Of course existing MediaRolls will continue to work just fine. At release time, we'll have tutorials available in the Screencast.com Help Center to walk you through the steps to customize your own. After our release at the end of this month, we will start work on allowing users to customize other aspects like the Library and Folder views.

We will also be releasing an updated Flash Player that will let viewers seek to a point in a video that has not yet been downloaded. This will enhance viewing experience by not having to wait until the entire video is downloaded before viewers can jump to a section that's later in the production. By itself, this is a pretty neat idea that gives the playback of MP4 content streaming media-like capabilities. However, TSC products will be able to take advantage of this feature in unique and valuable ways in the future. Imagine when lengthy Camtasia Relay (TechSmith's lecture capture software) and Camtasia Studio videos will contain tables of contents with headings that relate to points in the video that have yet to be downloaded. Jumping to those points will be faster, especially for those viewers with slow Internet connections.

We're still working on redesigning the playlist. I know that it's taking a lot of time - I wish I could just wave a wand and fix everything. What it has done is cause us to rethink how people today share their playlists, folders, and individual pieces of content. We want to make sure we're making the new playlist the best it can be while ensuring existing playlists and other shared content remain viewable. Our team has completed several brainstorming and work-flow design sessions and we are planning to test some ideas that we've developed, with help from recruited volunteers of course.

Like I said, we haven't been wasting time playing golf all summer...well...I shouldn't speak for everyone. I have a lot more to share, but I don't want to spill all the beans just yet. Besides, I need something to write about next month. Happy Screencasting!

Dirk Frazier
Screencast.com Product Manager
TechSmith Corporation

Summer "To Do" List - Custom Email Invitations

2009-08-17T13:42:46Z

There are only a couple things left to do this summer. For instance, I have a gnawing project at home that I just haven't finished. I've been busy painting the house (how's that for a fun 'staycation'?). It's all finished, except for one spot; the ceiling in the entry way. Started it, just haven't finished the edges. It really wouldn't be so bad, except when I turn on the light at night for the front door and welcoming someone in. Then I suddenly remember, "oh yeah, I need to finish the ceiling in here..."

Well, luckily TechSmith is a little better at getting stuff done than I am. This week we're pushing a handy little feature that we've been meaning to get to all summer; the ability to send custom email invitations.

Here's a little Jing video showing how this works:

What's nice is that we're still working on a lot of other features for Screencast.com. And, we really appreciate the feedback many of you gave us recently in our customer survey. We're looking at what you want closely. More than a few mentioned multiple user accounts (which we're working on) and viewer statistics and analytics. Those are the top features on our list too.

So, keep the feedback coming and let us know what you think of the new custom email invitations. Happy screencasting!

What's up with Screencast.com - 6/1/2009

2009-05-31T18:36:17Z

The Screencast.com team has been working hard to improve the service and speed up content access to a significant degree. I think you will be pleasantly surprised, but as always, if you have any problems please feel free to contact TechSmith's Technical Support team.

We decided to take the time recently to improve service performance because we've grown substantially over the past 12 months. We now have more than 600,000 users and a lot of customer requests and features that we want to implement. However, all the bells and whistles in the world would be meaningless if the service can't meet demand. So, that's what we've been focusing on. I hope you appreciate the results.

We were able to also address some of the feedback regarding our resizing feature. The content is now displayed with higher quality when scaled down, and you can dynamically resize the content without interrupting the playback. I think it works great now but yes, we'll be working in the near future on the option to turn it on or off as desired.

We are in constant improvement mode and are still planning on improving viewer stats and analysis (there's a great article that shows you what we offer today), implementing some kind of search option for content owners (and maybe even external viewers depending on feedback we receive), multiple account purchasing and other requested features; so be sure to keep checking back for updates on our future development efforts.

As always, send us some feedback to let us know what's on your mind. I do read all messages I receive and respond personally to as many as I can. But most importantly - Happy Screencasting!

Dirk Frazier
Product Manager
Screencast.com

U of M School of Information Design Jam

2009-03-12T12:45:26Z

Hi - I am Barb Hernandez, the User Experience Manager at TechSmith. I manage a team of designers and researcher who work with the product teams here at TechSmith.

Recently I had the opportunity to spend an evening with a group of graduate students at University of Michigan's School of Information (SI). These students are studying, among other things, Human Computer Interaction. Each month they get together for a Design Jam where they work on a design problem for a local company or organization. At our jam session, students looked at the concepts we have for sharing content on Screencast.com: Media Roll, Playlists and Folders, but focused on the idea of the "Playlist" as a mechanism for sharing content when that content is organized in more than one folder on Screencast.com. They also tackled the differences between sharing and viewing shared content.

During the session the group reviewed the design problem in detail then broke into smaller groups to brainstorm and mock up potential solutions. Each team had great ideas to improve the workflow, simplify the concepts and generally make it easier to create, share and view content.

Some pictures of the design ideas from each of the 5 groups can be found here: http://www.screencast.com/t/NspigGSSXC.

Please feel free to add your thoughts or feedback on these ideas or even add your own solution. More details about each solution is in the comments section for each group's design ideas.

Customization and Navigation

2009-03-03T13:11:14Z

If you've ever wanted to remove the TechSmith and/or Screencast.com branding from your content view page, or customize the page by changing the Header, Footer, or Background colors, or even applying your own logo, now you can. With our latest update, Screencast.com Pro users now have more control than ever over how their content is viewed. We have written tutorials and screencast videos over at the Help Center to help you through the process (but it's pretty intuitive anyway). And while we were at it, we added for everyone new navigation controls and thumbnails on the view page, and an auto-scale option that will help get large formatted content to better appear in the user's browser window - without actually re-encoding or modifying the original content resolution. We hope you enjoy the improvements. Let us know what you think and as always - Happy Screencasting!

Dirk Frazier
Product Manager
Screencast.com

Video Introduction to RSS

2009-01-09T14:20:00Z

We've talked about RSS (Real Simple Syndication) a little bit before, but I wanted to added a little more information to help everyone know how to use it, since it can be so helpful.

Kelly Mullins posted early the Screencast.com and RSS article a few weeks ago. As a follow-up to that article, here is a video (2:58 minutes) that will walk you through the following:

* What RSS is

* How content owners can use RSS

* How viewers benefit from RSS

* How users can subscribe to content using RSS

You can watch a larger version here: http://www.screencast.com/t/OAems4p9W

I know RSS has been a great tool for me to stay up to date on the blogs and sites that I like to regularly follow, but don't want to have to visit to find out what's new.

If you've never used RSS before, it's super simple to use. If you decide that you no longer the subscription, you can always get rid of it.

You can even subscribe to this blog to make sure you keep up to date on lots of tips, tricks, and news about Screencast.com. Click on the RSS icon to get started.

Upload Your Content to the iTunes Store

2009-01-02T13:52:07Z

You can upload a folder or playlist to the iTunes store so others can subscribe to it from within iTunes. When you add your content to the iTunes store, it makes your content available to anyone who use the iTunes software application. Adding your folder or playlist to the iTunes store also makes your content searchable from within iTunes.

In order to upload to the iTunes store, you must have:

The iTunes application installed on your computer.
An iTunes account.
Your content approved. All content uploaded to the iTunes Store is evaluated by a moderator. This process takes 2-3 days. During this time, the content is not available for viewing.
iTunes compatible content in your folders or playlist. Any content in a folder or playlist not iTunes compatible is not sent to the iTunes feed.

There are two parts to uploading to the iTunes store:

1. Enabling the iTunes feed on your folder or playlist within Screencast.com.

2. Submitting the content to the iTunes store using the iTunes application.

We have given you an overview of the iTunes submission process below. For more in-depth instructions, read the iTunes Store Help Center article.

iTunes Store Submission Overview

Within your Screencast.com folder or playlist, click the iTunes icon . The RSS Subscription page appears.
Within the URL field at the top of the browser window, copy the entire URL (it should end in itunes).
Open the iTunes application.
In the left navigation pane, click on the iTunes Store link. The store appears on the right side.
In the iTunes Store group box, click Podcasts. The view of the store will change to reflect your selection.
Scroll to the very bottom of the page to the Learn More group box.
Click Submit a Podcast. The Submission page appears.
Paste the URL into the field provided.
Click Continue. Follow the prompts through the iTunes wizard. Once your podcast is accepted, it will become available in the iTunes Store.

What is the MediaRoll?

2008-12-31T12:35:31Z

A MediaRoll is an embedded widget that uses an RSS feed to display the contents of a folder or playlist on your webpage or blog. Anytime you add to the folder or playlist, the MediaRoll updates. It's easy to create a MediaRoll - just copy the Screencast.com generated code to and paste it into your blog or webpage.

The MediaRoll will look and behave differently depending on if you are using a folder or playlist. The following short overviews explain the differences.

Playlist MediaRoll Overview

Use a playlist to share a collection of content gathered from different folders of your library.
You can add a piece of content to multiple playlists.
When sharing a playlist, you share all the content in the playlist.
Embed public and hidden playlists on your own Web page or blog using the Screencast.com MediaRoll.

Folder MediaRoll Overview

Folders act just like folders on your desktop; you place content inside a folder to group files together in one place.

You can only add a piece of content to one folder at a time.
When sharing a folder, you share all the content in the folder.
Embed public folders on your own Web page or blog using the Screencast.com MediaRoll.

For more information, see these Help Center articles: What is the MediaRoll and Create and Share a Playlist

Screencast.com and RSS

2008-12-29T13:37:52Z

On Screencast.com, sharing content via an RSS Feed is a way to quickly distribute your content to a wide number of people. An RSS feed also allows people who subscribe to your feed to be automatically updated with changes to your content or additions to your folders or playlists.

Screencast.com can generate feeds for any of your public folders and public or hidden playlists. Just point your viewers to the RSS feed on a folder or playlist page, and they can generate the required feed URL by clicking the RSS Feed button.
Viewers can use Outlook 2007, Google Reader, or any RSS reader of their choice. They just paste the feed URL into their reader.

The iTunes Feed

iTunes is a digital media player application, from Apple Inc. for playing and organizing digital music and video files. On Screencast.com, sharing content via an iTunes feed is a way to quickly distribute your content to a wide number of people using the iTunes application as the delivery mechanism.

People who subscribe to your iTunes feed are automatically updated (within iTunes) with changes to your content or additions to your folders or playlists. If your content is uploaded to the iTunes Store, it automatically becomes searchable and available to anyone who has iTunes installed on their computer. There are two ways to use Screencast.com's iTunes feed: The basic option that generates the feed URL and the 1 Click option.

To learn more about Screencast.com's RSS and iTunes options, See these Help Center articles:

Subscribe Using RSS Feed

Turn on RSS and iTunes Feeds

Subscribe Using iTunes Feed

Upload Content to iTunes Store

1 Click: Best Way to Subscribe to iTune

Screencasting Best Practices

2008-12-26T23:35:14Z

Technical support, training and educational screen recording videos are commonly called screencasts. These can be a powerful tool to demonstrate technical tasks, or to illustrate technical concepts that are hard to explain in words. And, the video and audio components of the video can make a "dry" topic more engaging than written instructions or static images.

Great screencasts are concise, have good audio quality, and move at a pace that is comfortable for the viewer.

To help you create great Screencasts, we've put together an article called Screencasting Best Practices. In this article you'll find plenty of information on setting up your screen before you begin to record, creating and using a script, choosing a microphone, and much more.

Here are just a few:

If you are recording more than one video, decide on a standard set of options for your organization. For example, will your videos highlight the cursor? Should your videos all be the same size ? Will you record with a caption or system stamp?
Practice, practice, practice. Overall, how much and how often you practice will be the key to creating professional videos. It takes practice to learn how to correctly move the cursor or open applications so they appear in the recording area. You will need to practice to get the positioning of browser windows and other applications just right.
Perform several takes, replaying them after production to see ways of improving the video. By viewing glitches and correcting them in succeeding takes, you will eventually come up with a professional-looking video sequence that you can save.
Be patient. Even a one-minute video can take a while to set up and record. A beginner might need 30 minutes or longer to get it right. Leave plenty of time for extra takes.

See these other important Help Center articles: What is Transfer Bandwidth? and Share Overview

Do you have any great screencasting tips to share? If so, let us know!

Screencast.com Library Overview

2008-12-24T21:14:38Z

The first step to take when working with Screencast.com is setting up and organizing your library. This allows you to secure your content and will help facilitate the sharing process. Overall, when it comes to sharing your content with others, the more organized you are, the better.

When you sign in to Screencast.com you are in your library - this is your primary working view.

The library is where you create the folders and playlists that house your content. When you begin to add content, folders, and playlists, you will see several different icons in the library. It is important to become familiar with these icons so you can quickly see how your content is organized and what privacy levels have been applied.

When organizing your content, you have three options: individual files in the library, folders, and playlists.

Individual Content File

Individual content files located in the library are always available to view. Anyone who can find your library can view your content. You cannot secure individual files in the library.

Folder Overview

Folders act just like folders on your desktop; you place content inside a folder to group files together in one place.

Content placed into folders is easier to manage and secure than individual content files in the library.
A piece of content can only belong to one folder at a time.
When sharing a folder, you share all the content in the folder.
Embed public folders on your own Web page or blog using the Screencast.com MediaRoll.

Playlist Overview

Use a playlist to share a collection of content gathered from different folders of your library.

You can add a piece of content to multiple playlists.
When sharing a playlist, you share all the content in the playlist.
Embed public and hidden playlists on your own Web page or blog using the Screencast.com MediaRoll.

With a Folder or Playlist You Can:

Embed the content from a folder or playlist on your own webpage or blog using the Screencast.com MediaRoll, an embed widget. Then, any time you add content to your folder or playlist, the MediaRoll automatically updates.
Use RSS to notify your viewers when you update a folder or playlist; viewers do not need to check the site and you don't need to send email to inform them of content changes. They maintain control of their RSS feeds and can "unsubscribe" at any time.
Apply privacy: public, password protected, hidden authenticated (requires an invitation to view).

For more in-depth information on the library, read this Help Center article: Get Familiar with the Library.

Hide the Screencast.com Branding

2008-12-22T17:16:36Z

Did you know you can hide the Screencast.com branding on your view page? When the branding is hidden, your content is seen in a plain white wrapper and only a small Powered by Screencast.com logo is visible.

If the Commenting feature has been turned on for a piece of content, the comments will be still be available.

When the branding is turned off:

The ability for your viewers to download content and attachments is disabled.

The Details tab is hidden from view.

The breadcrumb links leading back to your library are removed.

Note: Branding is turned on or off on a folder basis - individual pieces of content in the library or in a folder cannot have the branding turned on or off.

To turn off branding for a folder:

Hover over a folder in the library.
Click the Edit icon.The Edit Folders Properties dialog box appears.
To hide the branding, click the Viewers see content only option.
Click Done.