Carmen Ferrara’s Weblog 2.0

We recently had a customer ask if it was possible to publish a Presio presentation using a widescreen video clip, and have the aspect ratio preserved.  You can, but there are a couple of steps you need to take to ensure that Presio publishes your video with the correct size.

Here’s a screencast tutorial that shows how to do it:

http://ipresent.net/support/tutorials/widscreen-tut/index.html

I put another screencast tutorial together.  This one shows a cool feature in Presio that allows you to take a PowerPoint presentation and embed a small video clip inside, effectively creating a picture-in-picture video effect.  This can be done with a video editing package, but it is typically an advanced feature that is tough to find in some of those tools.  Presio makes it quite easy.  See how in this screencast:  

http://ipresent.net/support/tutorials/pip/index.html

I’m very pleased to announce the release of Presio 1.4, which is now available for download.

We continue to improve version 1 as well as plan for version 2 - this release includes several bug fixes and improvements.   A couple notable improvements include:

1. Flash publishing performance has been improved by 50%
2. Added customizable publishing settings for Audio w/ Slides projects using the Slideshow template

Detailed release notes are available here.

I’m happy to announce the availability of Presio 1.0 Beta. This is the first official 1.0 release. However, I’m still tagging this release with the Beta moniker as I’m finalizing user documentation and a new website. Presio is now feature complete and stable enough to warrant a 1.0 release. A final release, along with the ability to purchase licenses is around the corner. You can download the latest version from the Beta page: http://www.ipresent.net/products/presio_beta.html

Release notes for Presio 1.0.110 (Released Feb 6, 2008):

• Many minor bug fixes and performance improvements
• New Image Editor Tool for annotating/drawing on slides
• New Copy Slide feature
• Drag/drop/reorder slides feature
• Windows Vista support
• Office/PowerPoint 2007 support
• Critical fix to allow MOV (MPEG-4) files to import properly
• New FLV import support for Synch with slides presentations

A few weeks ago there was a discussion over at Tony Karrer’s great eLearning Technology blog regarding a new “debate” surrounding “Rapid eLearning Tools”. A panel discussion on the topic, at the recently held eLearning Guild conference, seemed to spark some question as to whom these tools were intended for - subject matter experts, instructional designers, or other.

Additionally, much of the discussion seemed to focus on the definition of what a “rapid eLearning tool” was, let alone whom the intended user should be. My take was that ultimately, the content author needs to determine the best way to convey their message to their audience. It may require a a sophisticated simulation or simply a PPT w/ audio. It all comes down to using the right tool for the job. There are a variety of ways to create and distribute training and presentation materials over the web, but understanding your audience’s needs should help to decide on the right tool.

The term “Rapid eLearning” seems to have crystallized into a “category” that the likes of Forrester deems worthy of coverage. That’s good news for tools like iPresent Presio. However, I don’t think Presio would fit into this “category”. Presio is certainly about “rapid”, but it is much more of a “rapid communications” tool as opposed to an eLearning tool.

It’s nice to interact with others on these types of issues.  Doing so helps to better your understanding of your own product and where it fits (or doesn’t fit) into a given market.

I came across this very comprehensive blog/post today on all things screencasting: Screencasting Primer - For NTC Screencasting Panel. This is a great resource to bookmark the next time you’re looking for tips, tools, and best practices for creating a screencast. Beth does a great job at breaking down the concept and entire workflow of creating a screencast as well as providing many, many useful links. Great job!

I finally upgraded to Wordpress 2.  Migrating over was very painless.  I’m always impressed by this software.  So far I’m liking it very much.  I think the UI is quite a bit cleaner, and doesn’t get in your way as much.  I decided to upgrade mainly because I was looking for a new theme.  Most of the best themes are only compatible with WP2 so that pushed things a bit.  I was also having some pretty serious comment spam issues and WP2 comes with the Askimet spam plug-in ready to activate.  In the last few days, not one piece of spam has gotten through.  Very nice.  Here’s what I had been dealing with (1 month of spam):

I have been woefully allowing this blog to languish for quite some time now. I intend to change that. As I get closer to launching Presio I’m going to begin posting more about the product. Here’s a short list of topics I’ll be covering:

1. How it works
2. What it can be used for
3. What problems it solves
4. How it fits in with existing presentation and training tools
5. What markets and types of users I envision for the product
6. Design decisions that were made
7. Some history as well - Why I decided to build it

I’d like to mention one other item. I’ve recently made the decision to simultaneously roll out Presio along with its “companion” product: iPresent Online. My initial plan was to launch Presio, get feedback, improve things, repeat. Then when the time was right (ie. there was identifiable market demand) - I would launch product #2 - iPresent Online. iPresent Online is a hosted service for storing Presio generated web presentations. Well, things change, and I’ve come to the conclusion that it makes sense to offer both products at the same time.

One of the things that swayed me was a discussion with my very first beta tester. He owns a small medical device company and has a sales team distributed throughout the country. After creating his first Presio presentation for training his sales team he said, “This is great, I’m looking forward to having my team view this. Could you host if for me?”. I have had similar discussions with others since, and thus the decision to release iPresent Online along with Presio.

That’s the thing, lots of folks (particularly in my target market) don’t have a shared network server, or web servers, or ISP accounts, or “IT guys”. These leading edge users understand the value of creating web-based multimedia presentations to get their message across, but they just want it to work, period. Well, a big part of “making it work” is distribution. iPresent Online solves the distribution problem.

Stay tuned.

I received my copy of Streaming Media magazine today. This is a new print publication put out by Streamingmedia.com. The print version will be sent out quarterly and I imagine all the articles, reviews, news, etc. will be available online as well. I don’t think the content in this new publication will be all that different from the regular site content, but it’s nice to see a print publication for the streaming industry out there. I’ve followed Streamingmedia.com for several years, and attended the annual Streaming Media East tradeshow a couple of years ago. It is an excellent resource from a busines of streaming perspective, as well as from a technical perspective. If you’d like a free subscription, you can sign up here.

One interesting item from this month’s issue was a review of Macromedia/Adobe’s Captivate and TechSmith’s Camtasia Studio products. Basically, these two products are the gold standard of web presentation tools, and iPresent Producer’s nearest competitors. Generally speaking, the reviews were positive, noting that Captivate excelled in creating software simulations, whereas Camtasia Studio was more adept at creating “quick and dirty” web presentations. The reviewer glowingly decided you need both tools in your rich media software arsenal. That’s a pretty pricey proposition. Also, one glaring error I noticed was the incorrect pricing for Camtasia Studio, listing it at $29.99 (should have been $299).

As it has been stated before, there’s nothing wrong with entering a competitive market, as long as you can differentiate yourself - which I believe iPresent Producer will do. Also, it’s also a good thing to be entering a strong, healthy market like rich media communications.

I couldn’t let an entire month pass by without a post. So on this last day of March I just had to slip one in. Yes, it’s been very quiet on the blog front, but not so on the home front. On March 8th, we welcomed Claire Kathleen into the world, and we couldn’t be happier. We are all settling in quite nicely.

Sleep deprivation aside, I’m feeling rather invigorated and ready to make a final push towards getting iPresent Producer out the door.