Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Testing TokBox - An Unvarnished View of Web 2.0 Experimentation

So often we think that we have to make something perfect before posting publicly.

Do you read and re-read posts before publishing? Do you fret over minor errors or timing issues on a podcast? Do you hesitate before posting a video because it's a bit shaky or lacks a level of professionalism seen on news sites?

I tend to be a perfectionist by nature, and that character flaw is only amplified by the pressure of putting something of "high quality" out on the Web for others to see. Well, I am attempting to overcome my obsessive-compulsive desire to get it "just right" by posting the video below. A friend of mine told me about TokBox this morning and immediately came home to test it out. Here are the results:



Why do I share this with you? Well, as I've said before, one of the keys to implementing and using Web 2.0/social media tools is to understand that it's all trial and error. We're all learning together. New apps and tools are released weekly, if not daily. So we try them out and see what works for us. Rather than trying to look like an expert or as if I have it all together, I'd like to show you some of my stumbling steps into this wild world of Web 2.0. I hope it encourages you to get started...even if you don't produce a perfect outcome the first time (or every time).

UPDATE: By the way, I'd love to chat with you on TokBox. You can find me at http://www.tokbox.com/AndrewKrzmarzick!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Andrew, Glad you enjoyed your first test of the system. We don't do anything to change the camera's viewpoint or zoom, so I suspect that the autozoom you saw was a result of the software that came with your webcam.

Andrew Krzmarzick said...

Hi Nick,

I recognize that it's the camera/software itself...just funny that it auto-focused on my mouth!

- Andy

Anonymous said...

Nice post, Andrew! I read about Tokbox in a newspaper, of all things, and then met them on Twitter, where the great @dbillian helps users. So next time we ddo a face-to-screen chat, we can skip the Skype and talk the tok!

Andrew Krzmarzick said...

Adriel - Awesome can't wait to Tok with you...I just had a three way Tok with members of my church this morning, scheming ways to create a Ning community to plant a new church in a neighbhorhood...finding out their needs and using Web 2.0 to organize and mobilize...using Twitter as a prayer list tool soon, too!